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CONVALESCENT INSTITUTIONS.

SOME months ago we ventured in the pages of the Monthly Packet to bring forward the subject of Convalescent Homes for the Sick Poor, and for those just recovering from sickness.

These Convalescent Homes may be divided into two classes: first, those which are for the really convalescent; patients who having recovered from illness need only rest and change of air to enable them to regain their usual strength, and who are quite able to take care of themselves in the Convalescent Home; and secondly, for those who, sufficiently recovered from illness to be discharged from the wards of a Hospital, are yet in need of careful nursing and medical attendance, and to whom to be without such care would probably be to fall back again into the stage of illness from which they were beginning to recover.

It was to advocate these latter, which we believe to be of the greatest possible service, that those pages were written; more especially to bring forward the working of the St. Andrew's Convalescent Hospital at Clewer near Windsor, which from its short distance from London is likely to be a great blessing to the poor discharged from the London Hospitals, while with its staff of Sisters to nurse and watch over the patients, it provides for them all the tender care which the most weak and suffering of convalescents could wish to enjoy.

The St. Andrew's Home, commenced on a small scale so successfully as to warrant its promoters in erecting a building especially adapted for its patients, may, it is hoped, be opened on St. Andrew's Day next; but funds are much needed to meet the cost involved in the undertaking, and an earnest appeal is now made to the public to assist this good work by contributions of any amount, in order that the Home may be opened unencumbered with debt.

We might have divided Convalescent Hospitals once again into two classes: those which require payments from or on behalf of the patients, and those which admit them free of all charge. We believe these latter to be very few indeed. Generally speaking, all these Homes require a certain weekly payment from each patient; and if the patient himself is too poor to pay the required amount, it is either contributed or collected and paid on his behalf by the clergyman or district visitor, or friends by whom he was recommended to the Institution.

Having briefly mentioned the Convalescent Institution at Walton-onThames, the Royal Sea Bathing Infirmary at Margate, for a particular class of patients, with one or two others, we have since been reminded by more than one correspondent that there are others equally worthy of notice, and quite as much in need of support. Of neither of these facts have we any doubt. As, however, we were writing to advocate those Institutions which are intended especially to benefit the poor of London,

we much regret to have passed over one, which, from its nearness to London, and from the apparent excellence of its arrangements, is calculated to be of great service. We mean the Sea-side Convalescent Hospital at Seaford near Newhaven.

This Hospital was commenced six years ago, and thus far its experience has been altogether satisfactory; so much so, that while at present it only accommodates thirty-two patients, its promoters feel justified in at once enlarging its sphere of work by either building or taking another house, so that henceforth they may be able to receive sixty patients at once. The following testimonial in favour of the Sea-side Convalescent Hospital is inserted in the Annual Report.

'We, the undersigned, being thoroughly acquainted with the actual state and requirements of the London poor, bear testimony to the urgent necessity which exists for a Sea-side Convalescent Hospital accessible to the Metropolis, and affording to the poor those facilities for the recovery of health now only available for the wealthier classes.

'The public Hospitals effect all that can be done for the cure of disease, but they are unable to retain patients until their strength is fully reestablished. Neither could they do so even were the wards suitable for the residence of Convalescents, to many of whom the bracing effects of sea-air are absolutely necessary for the complete restoration to health.

This period of debility is, to the labouring classes, the most trying of all. The inability to work entails scanty sustenance when plentiful food is urgently required, or produces absolute want and unwilling resort to parochial relief. Exertion beyond the strength always retards recovery, often leads to relapse, and especially tends to develope diseases which may be prevented but cannot be cured.

The actual extent of the consequent evils can only be thoroughly learnt by practical experience among the poor. The duties of clergymen and medical men afford them peculiar opportunities of judging how great is the necessity for rendering help to the poor at a time when they are least able, however willing, to help themselves.

The plans proposed by the Sea-side Convalescent Hospital, and carried out at the small Institution already established, seemed to us well calculated to meet a want so deeply felt; and we recommend this charity as one especially deserving of public support.'

The above testimonial is signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London and Winchester, a large number of London clergymen, and the physicians to all the great London Hospitals.

As to the arrangements of the Hospital, the rules and regulations are such as to give every facility to the poor patients.

Every patient must be recommended by a Subscriber,. and will be required to pay five shillings a week during their residence in the Hospital. Patients will be allowed to remain one month; but if a longer residence is necessary, the letter of recommendation must be renewed. The arrangements for the admission of patients has been evidently

planned with so much forethought and kindness, that we cannot forbear quoting it.

'Patients may present their letters of recommendation to the Honorary Physician in London any morning between the hours of ten and eleven The form, endorsed by the Physician to certify the case as eligible, may then be sent by post or delivered personally to the Secretary, who at once supplies the order for admission, with all requisite information as to trains, &c. The patients are thus saved all the hours of weary waiting, which is one of the usually unavoidable but trying ordeals which the numerous applicants at Hospitals generally have to bear; and also they are saved the necessity of making application on a certain day only, which may happen to be one most unfavourable for a person recovering from sickness to venture out-of-doors.

'Patients are conveyed to Seaford by the Brighton Railway either from the Victoria or the London Bridge Stations, and the Hospital is only five minutes walk from the station at Seaford.'

Last year the great London Hospitals nominated amongst them sixtytwo patients; and the great success which has resulted from their residence at the Convalescent Hospital 'brings patients faster than patrons,' as we are informed by the Secretary, who asks us earnestly to help the Institution by giving a few lines to aid them in an appeal they are now making to the public on behalf of a Building Fund.

We can only state their need, and bear a humble testimony to the usefulness of their excellent Institution, nothing doubting that there are many kind hearts which delight in doing kind actions, and to whom it will be a real pleasure to know that they have it in their power, by a little timely aid, to increase the provision which is being made for the relief of the London Sick Poor.

From the north of England some interesting particulars have been forwarded to us, respecting the 'Homes of the Good Samaritan;' but these of course are only intended for the benefit of the poor in their own immediate locality. The working of the Homes is carried on by Sisters, who undertake the nursing of the patients in the Hospitals and at their own homes; and a very serious amount of nursing it is, when we remember the constant accidents to which the population of a mining district are exposed. There are also Associate Sisters, whose duty it is to help forward the work of the Homes in other ways, to diffuse information, to procure subscriptions, and if circumstances permit, give personal service in the Homes when necessary.

The first great work in which the Sisters of the Homes of the Good Samaritan are engaged is the Convalescent Home at Coatham, Redcar, on the coast of Yorkshire. This Home is open all the year round, for patients requiring change of air and sea-bathing. The patients are provided with medical attendance, board, lodging, washing, baths, and everything necessary to health and comfort, free of charge. Another work conducted by them, is a Cottage Hospital for twenty patients, at

North Ormesby, Middlesborough; a third work is a branch Hospital, also at Middlesborough, for the reception of out-door patients, and for nursing the sick poor in the town; and a fourth is a Cottage Hospital at Walsall in Staffordshire. All these undertakings, as they are chiefly available for the poor in that part of England, will necessarily derive their chief support from the residents in and visitors to the North of England. We have inserted these particulars here, because we believe many are interested in knowing of these works; and whatever awakens our interest in and causes us to open our hearts and our hands to our poorer brethren, may be directly or indirectly a means of good.

Perhaps these pages will be read by some who are at the present moment, or have recently been, enjoying their customary visit to the seaside. Sure we are that it will enhance the enjoyment, and give pleasure to the retrospection of their holiday, if those who are blessed with the means of procuring this annual excursion for themselves, will provide some one poor patient with the means of procuring what may be to them so essential as well as pleasurable a change.

The timely gift which shall enable the Sea-side Convalescent Hospital, or the Nursing Home at Clewer, to receive one more patient, may be the means of restoring some sick father to his family who would otherwise have been deprived of his support, or of bringing back the glow of health and strength to some young life which was fading away.

We have returned to the subject of Convalescent Homes just now, because the summer which is passing away has been one which has taxed to the utmost the resources of many of the London Hospitals.

Few things are more touching than to witness a great calamity nobly met; and surely the present visitation of cholera in London is one which has been thus met. In the East of London alone, where the deaths from cholera have numbered about one thousand a week, all that human aid could do to alleviate the sufferers has been done. Clergymen and doctors, nurses and visitors, have all been equally indefatigable in their exertions; never has a similar visitation probably been so well met, or such arrangements made for the relief of the suffering and the destitute.

Day after day, under the presidency of the Bishop of London, the committee of the Metropolitan District Visiting and Relief Society met to make grants to the districts which were suffering from the visitation; while the doors of the excellent House of Charity in Soho Square were immediately opened to receive temporarily the orphans who had suddenly been bereaved of one or both parents. * It would be almost impossible to enumerate all the efforts which were made, all the plans which were devised, for the relief of the sick, and the succour of the convalescent, for whom temporary homes were opened in the fresh country air as well as in London, in order that they might have an opportunity of * At Fulham a Home for twenty Orphans was established, while another at Brighton accommodated twenty more.

regaining health and strength before they returned to their own poor dwellings and to their ordinary occupations.

Now that the visitation is we may hope passing away, the special efforts needed to meet the emergency are no longer required. Yet let us not suffer the season to pass by without studying some of the lessons which events of this kind cannot fail to set before us. In the midst of the thankfulness we cannot but feel for the fearless courage which has characterized all who have been at work in this trying time, and the admiration which the generous help and kindly sympathy of all classes towards the sufferers, cannot fail to call forth; will not the many who have enjoyed an entire immunity from the pestilence, and whose homes have been shielded from danger and sorrow, be ready to offer some thank-offering to the Giver of all good for the blessings which they have enjoyed?

What we wish to see is, not the multiplication of Homes and Institutions all having nearly the same object in view, but that each one of its kind should be more liberally supported, and able to carry on its work more vigorously. It is to promote this end that we think the thank-offering of many a one who has a thank-offering to make on the present occasion, might be well applied.

It is perhaps well for all that so much diversity of feeling on the subject of charitable Institutions exists, for in consequence there is scarcely any form of human sorrow or suffering, or any plan that can be devised for its mitigation, which fails to secure a certain amount of public sympathy and assistance.

We would not have it thought that in advocating any particular Institution in these pages, we have selected those only which were most especially worthy of help. Our object is rather to give particulars of one as an example of many, and to enlist the interest of our readers, if we can, in behalf of the general work; while, at the same time, if it is in our power to do so, to turn that interest to account in aid of some which we know to be especially in need of assistance.

There are many of us on whom the late visitation of cholera has brought no extra work, nor entailed any additional anxiety; yet to some it was a period of ceaseless care; and we cannot read of the unwearied devotion of the Sisters of Mercy who laboured amongst the sick, of the visit of the Bishop of London and Mrs. Tait to cheer the poor sufferers in the East of London, and of the exertions of other ladies who visited the Hospitals and made prompt arrangements for the relief of the distressed, without feeling that the efforts of doctors and clergymen were most ably seconded by earnest-hearted volunteers, and that our warmest sympathies are due to those whose lives are passed in doing good to the poor and suffering. How much such kindness must have cheered and encouraged those who were suffering under sickness or bereavement, or both! And shall not we, who can look back upon the past with thankfulness for the mercy which has spared and watched over us, be willing to show our sympathy with those who have done so much, by giving

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PART 11