Calendar: 1857-1858 Page 142

142 MEDICAL DEPARTMENT manent increase which has been incurred in the expenditure of the Charity and which far exceeds the income which the Committee feel justified in anticipatinr from ordinary channels of contribution and also to the importance of replacing the fund which has been thus exhausted for it is essential to provident manage- ment that the prompt discharge of all claims upon the Charity should be guaranteed As respect Income -Notwithstanding the depressing influences to which Charities were subjected during the past year there is an increase upon the ordinary income of the preceding year as well as upon the ordinary income 1854 II As regards Expenditure -The increase over all preceding years is very considerable The addition of one-eighth to the number of patients will account for portion of the excess but the remaining portion is so large as to require special notice The principal heads of Expenditure in which the excess is remarkable are Surgery and Dispensary including Medicines Wine and Spirits an excess of £400 Domestic expenses which include Bedding Fur- niture &c 800 The increase in the number of in and out-patients and the gravity of many of the cases which have been treated in the Wards of the Hospital the scanty stock of bed and bedding arising from the necessity of practising very rigid economy in recent years thus casting on one year renewal of large portion of that stock the inadequate supply of furniture beds and linen provided in the course of the last year for the Wards of the New Buildings and the provision necessarily made for the Lady Sisters and Nurses have all contributed to swell in undue proportion the expenditure of the current year hut the Committee trust that by earnest and careful attention to the economy of the establishment the outlay for those objects will be materially diminished during the ensuing year With respect to the work which it is the purpose of this Charity to accomplish the Committee are convinced that the arrangements announced in their last Report for the nursing department through the agency of St John's House and which came into operation on the 31st March last have been attended with the happiest results The Committee cordially acknowledge the devotion and zeal with which the Lady Superintendent the Lady Sisters and the Nurses have all accomplished their work of mercy and labour of love and they have the satisfaction of knowing that the patients gratefully appreciate the benefits thus derived by them whilst those Mendl of the Charity who have visited the establishment bear willing testimony to the gentleness devotion and efficiency with which the nursing has been performed and the domestic arrangements conducted Amongst the visitors who have observed with interest the success of this important change the Committee have been gratified to learn that Miss Florence Nightingale of whose ability to judge none can question after spending some hours in the Hospital expressed herself much pleased with all the arrangements and especially with the cleanly cheerful and homelike appearance of the Wards