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Laboratory.—Details of the Laboratory work carried out
in connection with the Hospital will be found on page 23.
Miscellaneous.—(I) The. oldest patient treated in the Hospital
during the year was a male aged 76 years suffering from scarlet
fever and severe emphysema; the youngest was a baby aged 7 days
admitted with its mother, who was suffering from puerperal fever.
(2) One of the main features of the year's work was the large
number of complicated and uncomplicated cases of measles (88)
admitted during the year. This is more than four times the
number admitted during 1935, and was due to the prevalence of
the widespread epidemic during the winter and spring of last year.
As already indicated, quite a number of these patients were
desperately ill, and their continued nursing placed an additional
strain upon the members of the nursing staff. During the height
of the epidemic, wards 2 and 2a had to be reserved specially for
the reception of measles cases.
A second feature of the year's work was the influx into the
hospital of 7 cases of typhoid and paratyphoid fever within a few
weeks, each of the cases having contracted the disease in or
around Bournemouth. Although several of the patients were
extremely ill on admission, all made a satisfactory recovery.
(3) In an attempt to gain the latest information regarding the
construction and equipment of modern Isolation Hospitals, the
Chairman of the Public Health and Joint Hospital Committees,
Mr. Brown, Architectural Assistant, and the Medical Officer of
Health, visited Coventry, Barking and Wakefield and inspected
the Municipal Hospitals for infectious disease situated in those
areas. These visits proved of immense value. A full report was
submitted to the Public Health Committee and to the Joint Hospital
Committee early in 1937.
(4) 1 should like to take this opportunity of thanking Miss
West, Matron, and every member of the nursing, domestic and
out-door staff for the help which they afforded me during the year.
The administration of an Isolation Hospital depends almost
entirely upon team work, and it gives me great pleasure to think
that 1 have had the cordial co-operation of the staff throughout the
entire year. The results which they achieved are evidenced in the
bare statistics set out in the preceding pages. No statistics, however,
can pay tribute to their unfailing devotion to duty, to their
willingness to serve their patients at any hour of the day or night,
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