Page:Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, volume 1.djvu/87

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A VISIT TO THE TROPICAL SCHOOL AT HEMBURG.
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by a large mosquito net to minimise infection. A small operating-room was on this floor also.

On the first floor there was another ward of fourteen beds, a smaller ward and several rooms for one or two patients, with large terraces overlooking the harbour and garden. The second floor is devoted to the sisters' quarters.

The kitchen of the hospital is in the large seamen's house in the same compound, which is a sort of club for sailors. The patients' fees are as follows: those in the first class pay 7s. a day if they come from Hamburg, or are employes of the Colonial Office, while ordinary patients pay 10s. In the second class they pay respectively 4s. or 6s., and in the third class 2s. 6d. or 3s. 6d. per day.

The total number of patients admitted to this hospital from 1901 to July, 1907, is 3820, which gives an average of about 588 per annum. The stables consist of two wings, somewhat small and ill-ventilated. The dogs had had their inferior laryngeal nerves cut to prevent their barking. Near the stables is a mosquito house, with a cemented tank, for breeding different kinds of mosquitoes.

Course for Students.

This is both practical and theoretical; there is a short course held twice a year, lasting only three weeks, for the medical officers of ships. During this time they are taught the hygiene of vessels, including food and water examination, care of the sick on board, the duties of a ship doctor, such as the prevention and stamping out of infectious diseases, quarantine and disinfection, and practical information about malaria, sleeping sickness, kala-azar, yellow fever, scurvy, beri-beri, Malta fever, plague, cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and helminthology.

The tropical course lasts ten weeks, and is also held