A careful consideration of the above figures will impress one with the fact that an institution which supplies free advice and treatment to such numbers of poor people must of necessity be doing a good work.
THE MONTREAL MATERNITY HOSPITAL
The Montreal Maternity Hospital was established in 1843, with forty-three patients, the first physician being Dr. Michael McCulloch and its first directress Mrs. W. Lunn. It was incorporated in 1853. In 1913 its patients numbered 1,293. The hospital provides a training school in obstetrics for McGill University medical course and for nurses for the English hospitals. Among the directresses succeeding have been: 1844-55, Mrs. W. Lunn; 1855-66, Mrs. D. Ross; 1866-75, Mrs. J. Molson; 1875-82, Mrs. R. MacDonnell; 1882-85, Mrs. McCulloch; 1885-87, Mrs. W. Gardner; 1887-88, Mrs. MacDonnell; 1888-89-91-93, Mrs. W. Gardner; 1893-95, Mrs. W.R. Miller; 1895-96, Mrs. Labatt; 1896-97, Mrs. R. MacDonnell; 1897-98, Mrs. W.R. Miller; 1908-1913, Mrs. R.W. Reford; 1914, Mrs. J.L. Cains.
INCURABLES
There is also a Home for Incurables at Notre Dame de Gràce. In 1898 several young ladies of the city inaugurated the work. Their efforts elicited universal admiration, receiving especially the assistance of Archbishop Bruchesi. In 1904 the former Monastery of the Precious Blood was fitted up in the Hospital by its new possessors, the Sisters of Providence. From the date of establishment over two thousand persons have been cared for.
ST. MARGARET’S HOME
Another subsidiary hospital adjunct is the St. Margaret’s Home for Incurables, under an Anglican sisterhood, which was incorporated in 1890, although its foundation occurred several years previous to that date. The head home is at Grinstead, England, and its American headquarters are at Boston, Massachusetts. The work of the home was originally of a charitable nature and it has continued such in part to the present time, caring for about twelve free patients continuously. However, it has taken on more of the nature of an hospital for chronic incurables, and as such deserves mention in this department.
The pressing need for a convalescent home for Montrealers has been met to some extent for about forty years by the Convalescent Home at Murray Bay, situated at the Lower St. Lawrence. It may, however, be ranked as a city charity for it is directed and supported by Montrealers, its present president being Mr. Sergeant P. Stearns, and the admission of patients being regulated by the Charity Organization Society of Montreal. Last year, 1913, the home received 121 cases, 13 from Quebec, 2 from Murray Bay and the remainder from Montreal.
CONVALESCENT HOMES
The latest addition to the hospital service of the city is the care of convalescents overflowing from the busy hospital wards. This has been found an important need and has only been met spasmodically till the present year, when the Loyola Convalescent Home to receive patients of all denominations was formally opened on April 25th, at 26 Overdale Avenue, under the auspices of the “Ladies of Loyola Club.”