Sterilizing Room Important Part Of New Hospital
This is a partial view of the large and modern central sterilizing r oom of the Hospital. In the center is the steel door to the autoclave,
where the temperature is raised to 250 degrees. On the left is th e water still, where all sterile water is processed. A federal permit
is required for operating the still. Note the tile floors of the room. ( Mountaineer Photo>.
Medical Center At Babylon Preceded
Birth 01 Christ By Many Centuries
by JAMES C. LIAVIE
Much medical history antedates [
the first mention of hospitals as j
such. Space prohibits anything i
more than a thumbnail sketch of
a world drama which would re-'
auire volumes for a worthy des
cription. This drama is the care
of the sick in all of its ramifica
tions.
Thousands of years before the
Advent of Christ we find a men
tion of what served as hospitals in J
the ancient Babylonian days. Hero
qotus mentions them in his writ-i
ings thusly:
"They bring their sick to the I
market place for they have no phy
sicians. there those that pask by
the sick person, confer with him |
about his disease, to discover1
whether they have themselves been
afflicted with the same disease as
the sick person or have seen others
so afflicted; thus the passers-by
confer with him and advise him
to have recourse to the same treat
ment as that by which they es
caped a similar disease, or as they I
have known to cure others. And j
they are not allowed to pass by a
sick person in silence, without in-;
quiring into the nature of his dis
temper."
This practice continued to the
days of Christ because we read in
the New Testament about the sick
who were in front of their houses
and in the market places, and of
the Master healing them.
Six centuries before Christ, how
ever. in far away India the Hindus
established crude hospitals. Hin
dus literature relates that Buddha
appointed a physician for every teq,
villages, and built hospitals for the
crippled and the poor. Remains
of old hospitals have been found
in Ceylon from as early as 437 B. C.
Eighteen hospitals were built by
King Asoka about 226 B. C. in
"east India. These hospitals were
somewhat similar to modern hos
pitals because they were system iz
ed and certain specific procedures
were followed in treatment of pa
tients. #
In Egypt we find records of great
advances in medicine. The Papyrus
Ebersj. the Papyrus Harris, and the
Papyrus Berlin tell us of the cus
toms and practices of those days.
Greece and Rome, too. had theii
I
hospitals. In Greece, the temples
of the gods served as refugees for
the sick. One of these temples
I dedicated to Aesculapius, the Greek
god of medicine existed 1100 years
before Christ at a place called
Titanus.
Salt, Honey Medicine
In one of the Greek temples serv
ing also as a hospital the medicines
were salt, honey, and water from
the sacred spring. Physical therapy
s4ee^opedaii(#t the -time. too.
The illustrious priest-physician
Hippocrates, the father of modern
medicine, born in 460 B. C. at the
temple in Kox (on an island in
Greece) conducted a health center
there. Hippocrates employed the
principles of percussion and aus
culation, wrote on fractures, per
formed many surgical operations,
and described such diseases and
disorders as epilepsy, tuberculosis
ulcers, and malarial fever. He kept,
; it is said, excellent clinical records.
: Garrison spoke of Hippocrates as
' follows:
I
"All that a man of genius could
do for internal medicine with no
? other instrument of precision than
his own open mind and keen sens
es, he accomplished, and with these
reservations, his best descriptions
arp models of their' kind today."
A table dated at the time of
Trajan, discobered near Piacenza.
tells of endowed hospitals in the
Roman Empire. The Greek sys
tem spread to these Roman cen
ters of the healing art.
Dr. Fielding H. Garrison, in his
History of Medicine, points out
that the next advance in the care
of the sick came through the doc
trines of Jesus and the spread of
Christianity which produced a new
spirit of comparison toward the
sick.
Christian Product
For as Dr. Garrison well says'
"While the germ of the hospital
idea .may have existed in the an
eient "Babylonian'custom of bring
ing the sick into the market place
for consulation and while the aes
culapiae and latreia of the Greeks
and Romans may have served this
purpose to some extent, the spirit
of antiquity toward sickness and
misfortune was not one of com
passion. and the credit for minister
ing to human suffering on an ex
tended scale belongs to Christian
ity."
It was the edict of Constantino
in 335 A. D. which closed the an
cient aesculapiae. and gave impe
tus to the founding of hospitals in
the Christian tradition. In the
year 369 A. D. St. Basil founded
a hospital which served as a model
for others throughout the Empire
at Caesaria in Cappadocia. about
500 miles east of Antioch, Asia
Minor. Tollener observed.
"It rose to view like a second
city, the abode of chairity, the
treasury into which the rich pour
ed their wealth and the poor of
their poverty."
St. Basil infused his own. spirit
into his hospital and taught that
real Christianity means thought
fulness and kindness to others, es
pecially the sick and helpless.
The Emperor Constantine him
self founded a "hospitium" at
Byzantium. Then followed others,
in 550 A. D. Justinian founded the
Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem.
Hospitals in the Christian tradi
tion spread all over Western Europe
?Christianity in action was mani
fest.
I shall probably be criticised by
my physician friends for omitting
many details such as the contribu
tion of the Mohammedans and
other peoples to the science of
medicine, and if I am I shall plead
as a defense that I was forced to
write a volume on a thumbnail. It
is interesting to note that the Mo
hammedans gained their knowledge
of medicine from the work of the
Nestorians, a Christian sect, which
had been driven into the desert in
the Fifth Century It was in Persia
that they developed the school at
Gandisapor which is believed to
be the starting point of Moham
medan medical theories. At this
time anaesthesia was experiment-1
ed with <as against the former
practice of putting a patient to
sleep by strking him on the head
with a wooden mallet to put him
to sleep before surgery*, and laws
against the adulteration of drugs
were promulgated.
And now to modern times: Short
ly after the discovery of America
by Columbus. Cortez founded a
hospital in Mexico City in the year
1524' Strange to say it still exists!
The first American hospital. Fol
lowed in Canada by the Hotel Dieu
iQuebec 1639), Hotel Dieu < Mon
treal 1644), General Hospital of
Pennsylvania (1751-56), Philadel
phia Dispensary (1786), New York
Dispensary (1791-95), New York
Hospital 11773), Bellevue Hospital,
New York <1736), and the Massa
chusetts General Hospital.
From these beginnings came the
more than 6,000 hospitals operating
in the United States alone, today.
The tremendous growth of hos
pitals not only in the United States
but in the entire world, is due to
the work of four persons: Morton
who developed anaesthesia, Flor
ence Nightengale who developed
modern nuning and nursing tech
niques, Pasteur and Lister for anti
sepsis, asepsis, and modern sani
tation.
Without these developments the
hospitals of today would not have
developed because many of the
hospitals?most of them, let us say
?before these people had come
upon the scene, were places where
although those interested did their
best, infections and cross-infections
were the rule rather than the ex
ception.
Today in the United States we
see the life expectancy increasing
uecause of preventive medicine and
excellent hospital care. Increases
in hospitals and the number of hos
pital beds do not mean that the
Nation is getting sicker?on the
contrary beeatise of these facilities
the people of the country are get
ting healthier and live much longer
that they did even twenty years
ago.
One out of every eight persons
enter a hospital somewhere in the
United States every hour. One pa
tient enters a hospital somewhere
in the United States every two
seconds! And modern medicine
has kept pace with progress in
hospitals. Where 50 or 60 years
ago the average length of hospital
stay was 26 days, now it is about
eighfc Hospitals today not only
restore health, but present the loss
of earning power which existed
many years ago. when patients
lingered on for many weeks! and
then remained at home many more
weeks for recuperation from their
illnesses.
Infant Care Second oJ
To Bible In Book Salt* I
By JANE EADS
WASHINGTON?Back in 1934 I
was working in Paris as a fashion
writer. A somewhat scared moth
er-to-be in a Strang land. I wrote
to the U. S. Children's Bureau in
Washington for a copy of its pub
lication "Infant Care." I awaited
its arrival more anxiously than any
letter from home.
My expensive French society
obstetrician, who had delivered one
of the Aga Kahn's earlier wives,
took a dim vievf of the methods
recommended in the booklet. So
did my German nurse, bit. I held
fast and brought a healthy young
American citizen home with me.
Next to the Bible, "Infant Care"
is the best selling book ever pub
lished in the United States. More
than 31 million copies have been
distributed. Its general philosophy
remains the same as when it first
came out in 1914 although it has
undergone eight major revisions.
An 82-year-old Maryland grand
mother recently wrote the Chil
dren's Bureau and recalled that
"when my baby was born, a little
booklet was recommended to me
called 'Infant Care,' gotten out by
-?M ?
the ?, , J
grow: ?
tor ?
rat-ed I). .1 No* (|. ?
Of II;. . - J
a coi>> foi her too I
lated into eight lingjj
Brazilian ne*spap, 1
nccrpu m fonugut- 1
in N M
Health department! J
munition nail n to -Jj
birth certificate! of *7l
Public health nurses i^J
them on calls Doctors J
pitals pa - it out \|J
Congress send it to thesrM
ents. K\en (others uriteB
The Government PtimJ
has become accustomed *1
for it from people *ho J
for "the hook J
Double Meaning 1
STAMPS. Ark <AP J
Mail Catrier -l?hn 1. wfl
Stamps says he doesat J
literally to take mt'-jjaH
mail boxes along hi- rood
He sa>- this is hpud
Mr. White, please take ttfl
ter anil leave Stan ; 1
A RISING VOTE OF THANKS
TO THE
HAYWOOD COUNTY
HOSPITAL
T For a Great Institution and
\ 25 Years of Untiring Service
CHAMPION DRUG STORE
_ YOU SAVE SAFELY ?
Phone 2892 Night & Sunday 2966 Canton
mmm?m?m ??
E-j&t' ,'?v: I. . .. . /< ? - ? '
k *? ? <
1
FIRE HAZARD ... Don't
leave lighted cigarette*
kolenced precarleody on
upkoWtered (urnttoro.
Congratulations Haywood County
, On Your Bigger A nd Better Hospital
%
Blue Cross Hospital Care
Protects You and Your Hospital
If You Do Not Have Blue Cross Protection With
Hospital Care Association, Of Durham, We
Invite You To Apply For Membership.
Visit Our Booth At The Open House Program on May 12
?
t
Hospital Care Associate
DURHAM. NORTH CAROLINA
1
Call or Write our WNC District Office
212 Miles Building, Asheville, Telephone 3-5521
. ' 1 ,