Formerly, nothing more horrid could be conceived than the spectacle
presented in this asylum for the afflicted. It was rather a
charnel-house than an hospital; and the name of the Creator, over
the gate, which recalled to mind the principle of all existence,
served only to decorate the entrance of the tomb of the living.
The _Hôtel-Dieu_, which is situated in the _Parvis Notre-Dame_, _Ile
du Palais_, was founded as far back as the year 660 by St. Landry,
for the reception of the sick and maimed of both sexes, without any
exception of persons. Jews, Turks, infidels, pagans, protestants, and
catholics were alike admitted, without form or recommendation. Yet,
though it contained but 1200 beds, and the number of patients very
often exceeded 5000, and, on an average, was never less than 2500,
till the year 1786, no steps were taken for enlarging the hospital,
or providing elsewhere for those who could not be conveniently
accommodated in it. The dead were removed from the wards only on
visits made at a fixed time; so that it happened not unfrequently
that a poor helpless patient was compelled to remain for hours wedged
in between two corpses. The air or the neighbourhood was contaminated
by the noisome exhalations continually arising from this abode of
pestilence, and that which was breathed within the walls of the
hospital was so contagious, as to turn a trifling complaint into a
dangerous disorder, and a simple wound into a mortification.
In 1785, the attention of the government being called to this serious
evil by various memoirs, the _Academy of Sciences_ was directed to
investigate the truth of the bold assertions made in these
publications. A commission was appointed; but as the revenues of the
_Hôtel-Dieu_ were immense, for a long time it was impossible to
obtain from the Governors any account of their application. However,
the Commissioners, directing their attention to the principal object,
reported as follows: "We first compared the _Hôtel-Dieu_ and the
_Hôpital de la Charité_ relative to their mortality. In 52 years, the
_Hôtel-Dieu_, out of 1,108,741 patients lost 244,720, which is one
out of four and a half. _La Charité_, where but one dies out of seven
and a half, would have lost only 168,700, whence results the
frightful picture that the _Hôtel-Dieu_, in 52 years, has snatched
from France 99,044 persons, whose lives would have been saved, had
the _Hôtel-Dieu_ been as spacious, in proportion, as _La Charité_.
The loss in these 52 years answers to 1906 deaths per year, and that
is nearly the tenth part of the total and annual loss of Paris. The
preservation of this hospital in the site it now occupies, and on its
present plan, therefore produces the same effect as a sort of plague
which constantly desolates the capital."
In consequence of this report, the hospital was enlarged so as to
contain about 2000 beds. Since the revolution, the improvements
introduced into the interior government of the _Hotel-Dieu_ have been
great and rapid. Each patient now has a bed to himself. Those
attacked by contagious disorders are transferred to the _Hospice St.
Louis_. Insane persons are no longer admitted; men, thus afflicted,
are sent to a special hospital established at _Charenton_; and women,
to the _Salpétrière_. Nor are any females longer received into the
_Hôtel-Dieu_ to lie-in; an hospital having been established for the
reception of pregnant women. At the _Hôtel-Dieu_, every method has
been put in practice to promote the circulation of air, and expel the
insalubrious miasmata. One of these, I think, well deserves to be
adopted in England.
In the French hospitals, one ward at least is now always kept empty.
The moment it becomes so by the removal of the patients into another,
the walls are whitewashed, and the air is purified by the fumigation
with muriatic acid, according to the plan first proposed by
GUYTON-MORVEAU. This operation is alternately performed in each
ward in succession; that which has been the longest occupied being
purified the first, and left empty till it is again wanted.
The number of hospitals in Paris has been considerably augmented.
They are all supported by the government, and not, like those in
England, by private benefactions. Sick children of both sexes, from
the time of suckling to the age of sixteen, are no longer admitted
into the different hospitals; but are received into a special
hospital, extremely well arranged, and in a fine, airy situation,
beyond the _Barrière de Sèvres_. Two institutions have been formed
for the aged, infirm and indigent, who pay, on entrance, a moderate
sum. One of these charities is without the _Barrière d'Enfer_; the
other, in the _Faubourg St. Martin_. In the same _faubourg_, a
_Maison de Santé_ is established, where the sick are treated on
paying thirty _sous_ a day.
An hospital for gratuitous vaccination, founded by the Prefect of the
department of La Seine, is now open for the continual treatment of
the cow-pox, and the distribution of the matter to all parts of
France.
In general, the charitable institutions in Paris have also undergone
very considerable improvements since the revolution; for instance,
the male orphans, admitted, to the number of two thousand, into the
asylum formerly called _La Pitié_, in the _Faubourg St. Victor_, used
to remain idle. They were employed only to follow funeral
processions. At present, they are kept at work, and instructed in
some useful trade.
A new institution for female orphans has been established in the
_Faubourg St. Antoine_; for, here, the two sexes are not at present
received into the same house, whether hospital or other charitable
institution. In consequence of which, Paris now contains two
receptacles for _Incurables_, in lieu of the one which formerly
existed.
The place of the _Hôpital des Enfans-Trouvés_ is also supplied by an
establishment, on a large scale, called the