Inpatients at the St. John's General Hospital: Morbidity in Late 19th-Century Newfoundland and Labrador.

This research analyzes the role of the St. John's General Hospital in late nineteenth-century Newfoundland and Labrador using extant admission and discharge records from 17 May 1886 to 30 December 1899. Most individuals were discharged from the hospital as "cured" or "convalescent." Trauma, musculoskeletal issues, and respiratory diseases were the most common reasons for admission, with males significantly more likely to seek care for trauma, sexually transmitted infections, and kidney/bladder issues. Female inpatients were significantly more likely to be admitted for tumours/cancers, anemia, digestive issues, and issues concerning the female anatomy. Notable were the short hospital stays for tuberculosis, indicating the General played an important role before the founding of the St. John's Sanatorium. A snapshot of late nineteenth-century morbidity reveals the complex risks facing citizens of St. John's and beyond who sought care at the General, which played a key role in the rapidly modernizing medical ecosystem.

As good as it gets: an empirical study on mentally-ill patients and their stay at a general hospital in Sweden, 1896-1905.

General hospital care and treatment of mentally ill patients in a Swedish town was studied in records for 503 patients, 1896-1905. Restraint was extremely rare; 65% left the hospital as healthy or improved. Non-psychotic and alcoholic patients spent fewer days in hospital than patients with psychosis or dementia. There was no evidence of a social status bias. For 36% of the patients a certificate for mental hospital care was issued, with additional information. The cause of illness was stated as unknown for 42% of these patients; adverse circumstances were recorded for 18%. Heredity for mental illness was found in 50% of the patients, particularly in those with mania. Patients with a higher social status were underrepresented.

No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) in the Great War: service and sacrifice.

SUMMARY: During the Great War, McGill University fielded a full general hospital to care for the wounded and sick among the Allied forces fighting in France and Belgium. The unit was designated No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) and included some of the best medical minds in Canada. Because the unit had a relationship with Sir William Osler, who was a professor at McGill from 1874 to 1885, the unit received special attention throughout the war, and legendary Canadian medical figures, such as John McCrae, Edward Archibald and Francis Scrimger, VC, served on its staff. The unit cared for thousands of victims of the war, and its trauma care advanced through the clinical innovation and research demanded by the nature of its work. Although No. 3 Canadian General Hospital suffered tragedies as well, such as the deaths of John McCrae and Osler's only son Revere, by the war's end the McGill hospital was known as one of the best medical units within the armies in France.

Mental illness in Sweden (1896-1905) reflected through case records from a local general hospital.

Mental illness in a hospital in a medium-sized town in Sweden was studied. Consecutive case records from 1896 to 1905, and also from 2011, were selected. In the historical sample, neurasthenia was the most common diagnosis, followed by affective disorders and alcohol abuse. ICD-10 diagnoses corresponded well with the historical diagnoses. Melancholia resembled modern criteria for depression. Mania, insania simplex and paranoia indicated more severe illness. Abuse was more common among men and hysteria among women. Those with a medical certificate for mental hospital care were very ill and showed no gender difference. There were no diagnoses for abuse, but 17% had a high level of alcohol consumption. The pattern of signs and symptoms displayed by patients does not appear to change with time.

Between history, art and medicine: the Dresden-Friedrichstadt hospital, its Neptune fountain and connections to Vienna.

The Dresden-Friedrichstadt hospital originated from Marcolini's summer palace. It was founded in 1845 and opened in 1849. It is a place where history and art of European importance mixes with technical and medical innovations. We reflect on the meetings of Napoleon Bonaparte and Metternich in 1812, the creation of the famous Neptune fountain by Longuelune and Matielli and two outstanding physicians of the 19th century, the surgeon Eduard Zeis, who coined the medical term "plastic surgery", and Maximilian Nitze, inventor of the first "modern" cystoscope and the father of urology.

"Gentlemen! This Is No Humbug": Did John Collins Warren, M.D., Proclaim These Words on October 16, 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston?

The proclamation, "Gentlemen! this is no humbug," attributed to John Collins Warren, M.D., was not identified in any contemporaneous eyewitness report of William T. G. Morton's October 16, 1846, demonstration of ether at Massachusetts General Hospital. The earliest known documentation of the proclamation is in Nathan P. Rice's biography of Morton, first published in 1859. Only three eyewitnesses, Washington Ayer, M.D., Robert Thompson Davis, M.D., and Isaac Francis Galloupe, M.D., reported Warren's alleged proclamation. However, their accounts first appeared in 1896, 50 yr after Morton's demonstration of etherization. Although Warren's alleged proclamation appears plausible, the overall impression from eyewitness statements and publications relating to the October 16, 1846, demonstration of etherization is that it may not have been made.

Western University (No. 10 Canadian Stationary Hospital and No. 14 Canadian General Hospital): a study of medical volunteerism in the First World War.

SUMMARY: The Canadian government depended on chaotic civilian volunteerism to staff a huge medical commitment during the First World War. Offers from Canadian universities to raise, staff and equip hospitals for deployment, initially rejected, were incrementally accepted as casualties mounted. When its offer was accepted in 1916, Western University Hospital quickly adopted military decorum and equipped itself using Canadian Red Cross Commission guidelines. Staff of the No. 10 Canadian Stationary Hospital and the No. 14 Canadian General Hospital retained excellent morale throughout the war despite heavy medical demand, poor conditions, aerial bombardment and external medical politics. The overwhelming majority of volunteers were Canadian-born and educated. The story of the hospital's commanding officer, Edwin Seaborn, is examined to understand the background upon which the urge to volunteer in the First World War was based. Although many Western volunteers came from British stock, they promoted Canadian independence. A classical education and a broad range of interests outside of medicine, including biology, history and native Canadian culture, were features that Seaborn shared with other leaders in Canadian medicine, such as William Osler, who also volunteered quickly in the First World War.

The Madrid School of Neurology (1885-1939).

The emergence of neurology in Madrid between 1885 and 1939 had well-defined characteristics. On foundations laid by Cajal and Río-Hortega, pioneers combined clinical practice with cutting-edge neurohistology and neuropathology research. Luis Simarro, trained in Paris, taught many talented students including Gayarre, Achúcarro and Lafora. The untimely death of Nicolás Achúcarro curtailed his promising career, but he still completed the clinicopathological study of the first American case of Alzheimer's disease. On returning to Spain, he studied glial cells, including rod cells. Rodríguez Lafora described progressive myoclonus epilepsy and completed experimental studies of corpus callosum lesions and clinical and neuropathology studies of senile dementia. He fled to Mexico at the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Sanchís Banús, a sterling clinical neurologist, described the first cluster of Huntington's disease in Spain, and he and Río-Hortega joined efforts to determine that pallidal degeneration underlies rigidity in advanced stages of the disease. Just after the war, Alberca Llorente eruditely described inflammatory diseases of the neuraxis. Manuel Peraita studied "the neurology of hunger" with data collected during the siege of Madrid. Dionisio Nieto, like many exiled intellectuals, settled in Mexico DF, where he taught neurohistological methods and neuropsychiatry in the tradition of the Madrid School of Neurology.

The founding of Walter Reed General Hospital and the beginning of modern institutional army medical care in the United States.

When Walter Reed United States Army General Hospital opened its doors in 1909, the Spanish-American War had been over for a decade, World War I was in the unforeseeable future, and army hospital admission rates were steadily decreasing. The story of the founding of Walter Reed, which remained one of the flagship military health institutions in the United States until its 2011 closure, is a story about the complexities of the turn of the twentieth century. Broad historical factors-heightened imperial ambitions, a drive to modernize the army and its medical services, and a growing acceptance of hospitals as ideal places for treatment-explain why the institution was so urgently fought for and ultimately won funding at the particular moment it did. The justifications put forth for the establishment of Walter Reed indicate that the provision of publicly funded medical care for soldiers has been predicated not only on a sense of humanitarian commitment to those who serve, but on principles of military efficiency, thrift, pragmatism, and international competition. On a more general level, the story of Walter Reed's founding demonstrates a Progressive Era shift in health services for U.S. soldiers-from temporary, makeshift hospitals to permanent institutions with expansive goals.

[Past and present issues of the pulmonary circulation in the General University Hospital in Prague]. / Minulost a soucasnost problematiky plicní cirkulace ve Vseobecné fakultní nemocnici v Praze.

The development of right heart catheterization is closely connected not only with its pioneer Werner Forssmann but also with the University Hospital in Prague. Shortly after Forssmann´s pioneering performance of catheterization, Dr. Otto Klein measured cardiac output using the Fick´s principle in 11 patients in University Hospital. In the 60s and 70s of last century, there was established an research group represented by Severin Daum, Frantisek Boudik, Vlastimil Jezek, Alois Ourednik and Zdenek Suso at 2nd Internal Clinic of General Cardiopulmonary Hospital. After 1999, the issue of pulmonary hypertension has been re-emerged by Professor Michal Aschermann and this had significant clinical implications. The highly specialized centre for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) was found at the clinic and in Cardio Centre of General University Hospital it has been initiated a successful program of pulmonary endarterectomy in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) since 2004. Surgical treatment is also provided to patients from Slovakia. The number of patients, wide range of therapy and its results, including the excellent results of surgical treatment situates the centre among the most important centres in Europe dealing with pulmonary hypertension.

Historical review: First facial pain patient admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital, February 1823 and first case series.

Founded in 1811, the Massachusetts General Hospital recently celebrated its bicentennial. The War of 1812 delayed construction of the building so the first patient actually was admitted to the hospital 10 years later, on September 3, 1821. By 1823, the 60 hospital beds were full. Patient 66 was admitted on February 28, 1823, and his hospital course, as described in the admissions book, was transcribed for the Massachusetts General Hospital bicentennial celebration. That case history is reproduced and a case series of 6 similar patients published in 1828 by Dr John Warren, surgeon-in-chief and a founder of the hospital, is presented. In this report, the authors comment on the diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of these patients in the context of the contemporaneous health care environment and in light of the current knowledge of facial pain disorders. This article was adapted from the authors' commentary for the bicentennial celebration.

"Separate, but almost equal": the Army's Negro medical field units in World War II.

Before World War II, the Army had no African American medical units and no plans on how to utilize African American personnel. A first plan to sideline blacks into menial support positions was implemented but then overruled in the middle of the war. Separate units were formed, which performed some support functions, but also focused on preventive medicine work--mainly, insect control. Other duties included cross-loading litter patients in the evacuation chain, a laborious but morale-boosting job for which some units received commendations. Several ambulance companies were organized, performing solidly. In the face of official disapprobation and disinterest in African Americans serving, the men of these units sought to contribute to the war effort and took pride in doing their best.

From cottage to community hospitals: Watlington Cottage Hospital and its regional context, 1874-2000.

The appearance in England from the 1850s of 'cottage hospitals' in considerable numbers constituted a new and distinctive form of hospital provision. The historiography of hospital care has emphasised the role of the large teaching hospitals, to the neglect of the smaller and general practitioner hospitals. This article inverts that attention, by examining their history and shift in function to 'community hospitals'within their regional setting in the period up to 2000. As the planning of hospitals on a regional basis began from the 1920s, the impact of NHS organisational and planning mechanisms on smaller hospitals is explored through case studies at two levels. The strategy for community hospitals of the Oxford NHS Region--one of the first Regions to formulate such a strategy--and the impact of that strategy on one hospital, Watlington Cottage Hospital, is critically examined through its existence from 1874 to 2000.

The Warrens and other pioneering clinician pathologists of the Massachusetts General Hospital during its early years: an appreciation on the 200th anniversary of the hospital founding.

To celebrate the bicentennial of the 1811 charter to establish the Massachusetts General Hospital, we tell the stories of the physicians and surgeons of the hospital who practiced pathology until the discipline was more firmly established with the recruitment of James Homer Wright who became the first full-time pathologist at the hospital in 1896. One of the two co-founders of the hospital, John Collins Warren (famed primarily for being the surgeon at the first public demonstration of ether anesthesia) had a major interest in pathology; he published a book focused on gross pathology (1837) and began the important specimen collection subsequently known as the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard Medical School (HMS). An early physician, John Barnard Swett Jackson, became the first professor of pathology in the United States (1847) and was a noted collector whose specimens were added to the Warren Museum. Dr Jackson showed no interest in microscopy when it became available, but microscopy was promoted from circa the late 1840s at Harvard and likely at the hospital by Oliver Wendell Holmes, the famed essayist who was on the staff of the hospital and faculty at the medical school. Microscopy was probably first used at the Hospital with any frequency on examination of fluids by the first officially designated 'Microscopist,' John Bacon Jr, in 1851, and after the mid-1850s by Calvin Ellis on anatomic specimens; Ellis went on to pioneering reform of the HMS curriculum. Reginald Heber Fitz succeeded Ellis in 1871 and was the first to be officially designated as 'Pathologist' at the hospital. Fitz is remembered for two major contributions: his paper showing the nature of, and potential surgical cure for, the disease that he termed 'appendicitis'; and his description of acute pancreatitis. With the microscope now firmly entrenched and with the increase in surgery after Fitz's work on appendicitis, surgical pathology grew quickly. J Collins Warren, the grandson of the co-founder, had a major interest in pathology and in 1895 published an impressive volume entitled 'Surgical Pathology and Therapeutics.' Dr Warren had a major interest in breast disease and was a pioneer of needle biopsy in the evaluation of breast masses. In 1888, William Fiske Whitney joined the staff of the hospital and spent his nearly 30-year career practicing primarily as a surgical pathologist, making particular innovations in intraoperative consultation. The contributions of these individuals brought the field from a gross pathology-oriented discipline mostly oriented around teaching to a microscopy-dependent practice integral to patient care, and hence set the stage for the formal founding of the Pathology department in 1896.