Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-30

4 Contagious Diseases the other day. We
drove out Erie avenue to Second street and
past lot of cemeteries to the gates Of what
looked like park, then past n gateman
that looked like very fat policeman taking
a rest into what turned out to be the hos
pital grounds '-
The buildings arc good looking brick
structures Of the type that is known as
pavilion architecture. They are handsome
ana SOLID and well designed for comfort and
Tor safety. For each ward can be isolated
from all the others and yet be in easy touch
with headquarters.
THE headquarters, that is the administra-
i tion building, is cheerful and dgnifed,
and the Nurses Home is Q. pleasant, well
ordered building by itself. The wards.
stretching along long line and connected
by a covered stone terrace, look like any
modern hospital wnrds-plenty of light,
plenty of air, polished, clean floors and
walls, adequate and up-to date plumbing,
good heating and no smells, crisp nurses
busy over very sick patients and the get
ting better patients chatting with one an:
other. The pest-house idea was all gone
Even the temporary shack, open air iso-
lation idea was all gone. Being taken to
Contiguous hospital in this town means no
more discomfort than being taken to any
other good hospital nowadays, and looking
PACK on the horrors and inadequacy and
danger of the past, you wonder why it was
endured no long.
One can see a Toulouse or utility shack
mere and there about the grounds that was
once used for as many sick persons as beds
could be crowded In, and there are tales
still lingering about the place Of nurses
Wading through snowdrifts in the dead Of
night TO their isolated patients in these
unwarmed, unlighted half shelters. The idea
IN those days was to build a temporary
shelter and burn 1t after the temporary cpl
demic was over. There are still some low
wooden pavliOns that are used for smallpox
cases, but these are steam heated, cement
uoored and entirely sanitary and comfortable
little structures, perfectly up to the require
ments of the situation both as regards bed
space and convalescing sun -porches.
TN1E whole regime of the nurse has been
L changed too, so that tho hardships in
being nurse out there arc no more seri-
Gus than being n nurse anywhere that nor
nal conditions prevail.
The nurse changes her clothes on enter
ing the ward for duty to the protecting uni
form OF fever nursc-head cover, shoes
and cnveloping dress. Before she goes of
duty she dsinfects and changes back to her
outside uniform and goes out to cat and TO
sleep in the nurses quarters away from the
contagious wards. The ward ordcrlies and
cleaners do the same.
Theoretically, this should protect all the
workers in the wards from contagion. I was
we're i'll and three of those cases had caught
the disease each was nursing One could
suppose that those three might possibly have
disrcGardcd some rule. But in any case II
did not seem large pcrCcntage-threc out
Of 10T
T WAS interested IN the way the, nurses
L were recruited. At one time it was diff
cult to get volunteers for that hospital. But
in the training school today there are under
graduate nurses from sixty five hospitals
who are taking their time at service as pait
of their required training before receiving
their diplomas from their own Institutions.
As the city has been suffering from
scarlet fever epidemic fol the last half year,
most Of the wards are at present given up
10 that particular contagious disease; out
OF the 500 patients more than 900 were
scarlet fever cases. There were some diph-
thcria, some measles and n very few. per-
haps six or seven, smallpox cases.
EINE hundred scarlet fever cases let loose
i in city even Of this size could turn
whole streets into plague spots and soon
close most Of the schools. And apart from
the danger Of so many cases cndangering
whole households. the care needed to pro-
tcct the convaCsCents from the dangerous
after effects of that particular disease would
hardly hc forthcoming in most of the homes
from which the patients came.
The city, therefore, not only protects itself.
but it protects the patients by every known
precaution of modern science and at Il maxi
mum Of comfort and minimum of expense.
I remembered, RS ] looked through the
glass door down one Of the bright. airy
scarlet fever wards and saw here and there
a child Topping about in n wrapper and
slippers amusing himself, household that
] knew where scarlet fever had begun its
dire work at Thanksgiving and only ceased
after the Easter vacation, and during the
long winter every member Of a large house
hold was acknowledgements surreptitous
colorcd cleaning woman who did the laun-
dry. 1t was in the early days Of the germ
theory before it was completely understood,
and after each case was pronounced well
city officials appeared and burned horrible
yellow candles for twenty -four hours in the
sealed sickroom and the whole house, and
everything in it rocked for days of sulphur
and carbolic acid, while at intervals of two
weeks apart a new child would come down
with the fever. No one dared to stop and
inquire. and yet. oddly enough the family
doctor went straight from the fever room,
frOCk Coa', beard and unwashed hands, to
his next patient and to his own children.
And when the peeling process began 1t was
the thing to see who could preserve the
largest sheet OF skin intact and press it in
book.
OUT at the Municipal Hospital there were
~ private fOOIuS III lllc sLlIul pun, DNt
l understand these are at present not used
ms such owing TO Il lack OF equipment and
also 10 the fact that the fun quota of nurses
is not yet available. Miss Miller, the head
nurse has stipulated for l35 nurses, and
has stilI twenty five less than that, due 10
the nurse shortage everywhere I thought
the arrangement for the nurses admirable,
but not for the force Of less skilled attend
ante And ] was struck both AT the Phila-
dclphia General and mt the Municipal by
the rnct that the attendants were not in
uniform
! understood that in neither case was
thcr" ,ufficient appropriation for this. but
in botu hospitals the result was little short
Of lumentabc You could not blame the
cleaning women and ordcrllcs for their slip
Shod appearance, especially in the Munic-
pal. where the clothes they wear to work in
really are contaminated. II interested me
because there both the doctors on the staff
and the superintendent DR.. Woody, were
in very smart uniforms. ] asked where they
thau, and the man who told mo Cni6