beginning of the sixteenth century, cannot be expected to meet with all the requirements of a twentieth-century medical staff, but its bright and busy interior presents nevertheless a pleasing sight to the visitor who does not go too closely into details. The “Belen Ward,” in which I spent a pleasant afternoon chatting with nurses and patients, is a long, cheerful room with four big windows on either side and another large window at the end facing the door, from which there is a glorious view of the neighbouring hills and valleys. The buxom Sister in charge, in a spreading white cap, was preparing chocolate for the patients. When ready it was handed round to them in coffee-cups; some dipped bread into it, while others took it with a spoon, as it was too thick to drink straight off. Each bed had a neat curtain on a rail to screen it from the rest. The floors were of stone; by each bed there was a piece of plank for the invalid to stand on, and all who required them had hot-water bottles for their feet. There are twenty-six wards in all; the largest is the “Santiago Ward” at the top of the central portion of the building; it contains twenty-five beds, all far apart so that medical students can get near enough to watch the operations. The Sister told me that the upper wards being near the roof got very hot in summer, but that the lower ones were always deliciously cool and fresh.
The hospital kitchen is also a sight worthy of inspection. One hundred and eight litres of milk enter its doors daily, with some eighty kilos of beef, three hundred and eighty eggs, and three hundred and fifty-two kilos of bread, besides chickens. There is not a chair in this lofty kitchen, for no one there has time to think of sitting down even for a minute; a man-cook presides over a large stove in the centre, and four or five Sisters move briskly round it. One thousand eggs were brought to the outer kitchen while we were there; they had come from the neighbouring villages, neatly packed in layers with straw. The Sisters rise at four o’clock even in winter, and those who are not on night duty retire at nine. I was struck with their peaceful contented faces, and their gentle and refined manners. The Gallegan poor are indeed fortunate to have such women as these to care for them.
The hospital is in close connection with the Medical School of the University, and has some clever surgeons among its staff, whose successful operations have earned them a good deal of fame. Röntgen rays have been installed there since 1901, the electricity being supplied from a factory on the river Tambre, fourteen kilometres from Santiago. In 1903, in token of his appreciation of the work done by Dr. Miguel Gil Casares, King Alfonso XIII. made a handsome contribution towards the expenses of this department of the hospital, and the Gabinete de Radiologia has recently been fitted up with the latest improvements, including the apparatus of Dr. Albeis, and is now considered to be the best of its class in Spain.
A CORNER OF A CLOISTER | A DOORWAY LEADING TO A CLOISTER | A SCULPTURED ALTAR |
THE ROYAL HOSPITAL, SANTIAGO | ||
PHOTOS. BY VARELA | ||