VIZAGAPATAM.
family figuring prominently) and Rs. 6,975 had been given by Government.
Up to 186 the poor ward in the dispensary seems to have been maintained at the cost of Government, but in that year the then Rája of Vizianagram gave the institution Rs. 20,000 in public securities, the interest on which together with contributions from local funds (Rs. 2,800) and the municipality (Rs. 2,600), is still utilized for its upkeep. It now blossomed into a civil hospital and was placed under the care of a local committee of which the Collector was ex-officio President and the District Surgeon ex-officio member. This body still controls its destinies. Subsequently several small detached cottages were constructed round the main building by private benefactors, a dispensary has been recently erected by M.R.Ry. A. V. Jagga Rao, and Government has added a septic room, an operation theatre and a maternity ward. A medical school is now connected with the institution and Maháráni Lady Gajapati Rao has promised to erect a building for this. The foundation stone was laid not long back by Lord Ampthill.
The next oldest dispensary is that at Bimlipatam, which was established in 1832 on the motion of the European residents in the town. The building for it cost about Rs. 5,300, of which half was subscribed and half granted by Government, and the cost of upkeep was similarly shared. A committee of residents managed the institution at first, but it was vested in the municipal council in 1876.
The Pálkonda hospital was opened in 1869 on the motion of the manager to the renters of that taluk, Messrs. Arbuthnot &Co.
Of the five institutions which have been mentioned as being kept up partly by private benevolence, one is the civil hospital at Vizagapatam already referred to. The Victoria Gosha Female Hospital at the same town is located in a building bought for it by the late Mahárája Sir Gajapati Rao, who also contributed largely to the maintenance of the institution during his lifetime.
The two hospitals at Vizianagram are kept up respectively by the Rája and his adoptive sister. The former seems to have been started as far back as 1860 as a dispensary for the Rája's own followers, and has gradually been raised to its present excellent condition. The latter, which is for gosha women and children, is one of the best buildings of its class in the mufassal, stands in a large,stone-walled compound with an imposing gateway on and over which is inscribed the name of the founder, consists of four wings and cost over Rs. 40,000.
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