Steelhouse Lane, nearly opposite the mansion first used. The Broad Street institution has accommodation for about fifty children in addition to a separate building containing thirty beds for the reception of fever cases, the erection of which cost £7,800; and there is a Convalescent Home at Alvechurch in connection with this Hospital to which children are sent direct from the wards of the Hospital (frequently after surgical operations) thus obtaining for them a more perfect convalescence than is possible when they are returned to their own homes, where in too many instances those important aids to recovery—pure air, cleanliness, and good food are sadly wanting. In addition to the share of the Saturday and Sunday yearly collections, a special effort was made in 1880 to assist the Children's Hospital by a simultaneous collection in the Sunday Schools of the town and neighbourhood, and, like the others, this has become a periodical institution. In 1880, the sum thus gathered from the juveniles for the benefit of their little suffering brethren, amounted to £307 9s. 11d.; in 1881, it was £193 10s. 5d.; in 1882, £218 5s. 2d.; in 1883, £234 3s. 1d. The number of patients during 1883 were: 743 in-patients 12,695 out-patients, 75 home patients, and 475 casualties—total 13,998. The expenditure of the year had been £4,399 0s. 3d., and the income but £4 087 14s. 2d.
Dental—This Hospital, 9. Broad Street, was instituted for gratuitous assistance to the poor in all cases of diseases of the teeth, including extracting, stopping, scaling, as well as the regulation of children's teeth. Any poor sufferer can have immediate attention without a recommendatory note, but applicants requiring special operations must be provided with a note of introduction from a governor. About 6,000 persons yearly take their achers to the establishment.
Ear and Throat Infirmary, founded in 1844, and formerly in Cherry Street, has been removed to Newhall Street, where persons suffering from diseases of the ear (deafness, &c.) and throat, are attended to daily at noon. During the year ending June, 1883, 6,517 patients had been under treatment, and 1,833 new cases had been admitted. Of the total, 1,389 had been cured, 348 relieved and 116 remained under treatment. The increase of admissions over those of the previous year was 181, and the average daily attendance of patients was 25. The number of patients coming from places outside Birmingham was 577. The income of this institution is hardly up to the mark, considering its great usefulness, the amount received from yearly subscribers being only £129 13s. 6d., representing 711 tickets, there being received for 875 supplementary tickets, £153 2s. 6d, and £15 11s, from the Hospital Saturday collections.
The Eye Hospital was originated in 1823, and the first patients were received in April, 1824, at the hospital in Cannon Street. Some thirty years afterwards the institution was moved to Steelhouse Lane, and in 1862 to Temple Row. Dee's Royal Hotel being taken and remoddled for the purpose at a cost of about £8,300. In 1881 the number of patients treated was 12,523; in 1882, 13,448 of whom 768 were in-patients, making a total of over a quarter of a million since the commencement of the charity. Admission by subscriber's ticket. Originally an hotel, the building is dilapidated and very unsuitable to the requirements of the hospital, the space for attendants and patients being most inadequate. This has been more and more evident for years past, and the erection of a new building became an absolute necessity. The governors, therefore, have taken a plot of land at the corner of Edmund Street and Church Street, upon a lease from the Colmore family for 99 years, and here-on is being built a commodious and handsome new hospital, from carefully arranged plans suitable to the peculiar
