1093

15.785 lunatics in district asylums was £386,306. To meetthis expenditure a sum of oB2L1,902 10s. was paid out of thelocal rates (in pursuance of the 58th section of the LocalGovernment Act of 1898), £153,467 5s. was received by wayof Government capitation grant, and £7343 12s. was con-

tributed by the relatives of patients. The average cost perhead for all district asylums was E33 9s. 8d. per annum, or9s. 5d, per head per week.

LEICESTER NEW ISOLATION HOSPITAL.

THE formal opening of the Leicester New Isolation Hos-pital, the ultimate cost of which will be -nearly £60,000,took place on Sept. 28th. There is still a good deal of workto do before the buildings leave the contractors’ hands, butwhen finished it is believed that Leicester will possess thefinest equipped and most up-to-date institution of the kindin the United Kingdom.. The Sanitary Committee pro-moted a competition for the best design, and Messrs.Blackwell and Thomson, architects, of Leicester, gainedthe first award, and from these designs the hospital hasbeen built. The site comprises about 14 acres. The

hospital proper consists of four separate one-storeypavilions for the treatment of scarlet fever, giving accom-modation for 26 beds each; a similar pavilion for typhoidfever containing 28 beds ; two isolation pavilions-one a two-storey building-containing 28 beds, giving a total accom-modation for 160 adult patients. The buildings have beenso arranged that two additional scarlet fever pavilions can beeasily added and also one additional isolation pavilion. Itis suggested that the separate rooms in the isolation blockscan be conveniently used for typhoid fever patients shouldoccasion arise, hence an additional typhoid fever blockis not projected. The other buildings comprise theadministration block, discharging block, and mortuary.The total number of beds if the full extension were

carried out would be 240. The several buildings are

connected by macadam roads without covered ways,the ambulance vans thus being able to drive up to thedoor of each block. The site has an average elevation ofabout 280 feet above ordnance datum. The four scarletfever pavilions are all arranged alike and consist of two mainwards, 72 feet long and 26 feet wide, to contain 12 beds each.In the central portion is provided a separation or observationward of two beds. The nurses’ kitchen is centrally placedand can overlook the beds in the two main wards by meansof observation windows. At the end of each main wardis placed on one side the sanitary tower containing the water-closets, slop and scalding sinks, which are disconnected by aventilated lobby, and on the other side the bath-room, con-taining two baths and two lavatories. The baths are ofporcelain with the latest kind of fittings. In connexion withthe waste water from the bath-room an ingenious contrivancehas been adopted for cleansing the drains-viz., an automaticflushing-tank, situated at the upper end of each pavilion.The typhoid fever pavilion is very similar to the scarlet feverpavilions with the exception that there are two separatewards instead of one. The one-storey isolation hospital isbased on the lines of the Local Government Board’s sugges-tion and provides for a total of 12 beds.The administration block contains on the right of the front

main entrance: committee-room, resident medical officer’ssitting-room, lavatory, &c., dispensary, laboratory store,waiting-room, and telephone inclosure ; and on the left of theentrance matron’s sitting-room, office, nurses’ mess-room,

sitting-room, sewing-room, household linen-room, dry-goodsstore, lavatory, and servants’ hall. The main corridor isseven feet wide. At the west end of the administrationblock and at right angles to the main corridor is anothercorridor out of which lead the kitchen and stores. It isproposed to do most of the cooking by gas and by steam.The floors of the corridors, kitchens, &c., are of terazzio,an Italian process by which small pieces of marble are

mixed with concrete and a smooth surface is obtained.The first floor contains the nurses’ and matron’s bedrooms,with bath-rooms, water-closets, and linen store. Themedical officer’s bedroom and bath-room are also on

this floor and are approdched by a separate staircase. 20bedrooms for nurses are provided on this floor. The secondfloor contains 10 bedrooms for servants, a bath-room, &c.The front elevation of the administration block is a neat example of eighteenth century English work. There is 1

nothing in the shape of ornamentation, but in the face ofthe wall over the portico the name and date of the erectionof the hospital are set out in stucco. The porter’s lodge issituated on the right-hand side of the main entrance andstands 15 feet back. At the rear of the porter’s lodge isthe discharging block, arranged in duplicate for male andfemale patients. The discharged patients will enter the

building at one end in hospital garments, will undress andbathe, and will leave by an opposite door, a waiting-roombeing provided for their frienas who come to meet them.The mortuary consists of a post-mortem room, mortuary, andviewing chamber.The hospital is heated by low-pressure steam, with

auxiliary stoves and grates. Ventilating radiators are

placed in the wards under some of the windows and extrac-tion flues are built in the outside walls for carrying away thevitiated air of the wards. The foul drains from the scarletfever pavilions, the typhoid fever pavilion, the isolationblock, and the administration block are kept quite distinctand are properly disconnected at a manhole before enteringthe ejector house. The sewage is then pumped up into oneof the main carriers on the sewage farm by means of aShone ejector apparatus. There is telephonic communicationbetween all the buildings and the hospital is lighted byelectricity throughout. The laundry is fitted with the mostmodern requisites, the drying chambers being heated withhot air. The laundry is also provided with a large steamdisinfector.

VITAL STATISTICS.

HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.

. IN 33 of the largest English towns 6087 births and 3964

deaths were registered during the week ending Oct. 6th.The annual rate of mortality in these towns, whichhad been 18’1 and 18.5 per 1000 in the two precedingweeks, declined again to 17’8 last week. In Londonthe death-rate was 15’8 per 1000, while it averaged19-1 in the 32 provincial towns. The lowest death-ratesin these towns were 8’7 in Croydon, 13’8 in Nottingham,14-2 in Cardiff, and 14-3 in Brighton ; the highest rateswere 24-1 in Norwich, 24-8 in Salford, 25-1 in Sunderland,and 26-0 in Manchester. The 3964 deaths in thesetowns included 673 which were referred to the prin-cipal zymotic diseases, against 771 and 776 in the twopreceding weeks; of these 406 resulted from diarrhoea,92 from diphtheria, 66 from "fever" (principally enteric),49 from whooping-cough, 32 from scarlet fever, and28 from measles. The lowest death-rates last weekfrom these diseases occurred in Croydon, Plymouth,Cardiff, Halifax, and Bradford; and the highest rates inNorwich, Leicester, Burnley, Sheffield,’ Sunderland, andGateshead. The greatest mortality from measles occurred inSwansea, Huddersfield, and Newcastle; from whooping-cough in Preston and Gateshead; from "fever" in Ports-mouth, Swansea, Sheffield, and Sunderland; and fromdiarrhoea in Norwich, Burnley, Sunderland, and Gateshead.The mortality from scarlet fever showed no marked excessin any of the large towns. The 92 deaths from diphtheriaincluded 29 in London, 11 in Leicester, nine in Leeds,seven in Liverpool, and seven in Sheffield. No fatal case ofsmall-pox was registered last week in any of the 33towns ; and only one small-pox patient remained undertreatment in the Metropolitan Asylums Hospitals on Saturdaylast, Oct. 6th. The number of scarlet fever patients inthese hospitals and in the London Fever Hospital at theend of the week was 2071, against numbers increasing from1703 to 1938 on the five preceding Saturdays ; 313 new caseswere admitted during the week, against 243, 269, and 318in the three preceding weeks. The deaths referred todiseases of the respiratory organs in London, which had been203 and 187 in the two preceding weeks, further declinedlast week to 164 and were 53 below the corrected average.The causes of 45, or 1’1 per cent., of the deaths in the 33towns were not certified either by a registered medical

practitioner or by a coroner. All the causes of deathwere duly certified in Bristol, Nottingham, Salford,Bradford, and in 11 other smaller towns; the largest pro-portions of uncertified deaths were registered in Portsmouth,Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield.

HEALTH OF SCOTCH TOWNS.

The annual rate of mortality in the eight Scotch towns,