Not more than four.
Or single-bed wards might be arranged in groups of four.
Also, it must always be borne in mind that four beds mean eight patients. There are two patients to each bed (unless it is meant to kill the infants) to use up the air, which is besides used up by a necessarily far larger number of attendants than in any general hospital. For, during the time the mother is incapable of attending to the infant, the infant is incapable of attending to itself. Also, an exhausted mother, and feeble, almost lifeless infant, cannot ring a bell or make themselves heard. Indeed, an infant which cannot cry is in the greatest danger.
Table XVI.—Proposed Registry of Midwifery Cases.
Note.—Should any death take place in a woman discharged from the institution within a month from the time of her delivery, a record of this death, its date, and cause, to be entered in the column of Remarks. In the same column should be entered remarks on abnormal configuration, or on abnormal conditions of health which might influence the result of the delivery.
For all this provision must be made. There are scarcely two points in common between a lying-in institution and a general hospital.
2. How many Wards to a Floor?
Only one four-bed ward, or four one-bed wards in a group.