der Oeffentlichen
Medicin und der Seuchenlehre von Rudolf Virchow, Berlin, 1879. August
Hirschwald.]

The quotation from Virchow gives a good and quite comprehensive idea
of the scope of these institutions. The ailing of all kinds were
received beneath their hospitable roof. In many cases the regulations
for the reception of pregnant women and for the care of the foundlings
are still extant, besides the hospital rules for the care of the
various kinds of patients. The department set aside for the foundlings
was in most places rather an allied institution than an integral part
of the hospital itself. While these were called findel or foundling
houses in Germany, in Italy this harsh name was not used, but the
institutions were termed hospitals for the innocents, thus emphasizing
the most pitiable feature of the cases of the little patients, and not
branding them for life with a name that suggested their having been
abandoned by those who should have cared for them.

The regulations for the admission and care of patients are interesting
as showing how much these medieval institutions tried to fulfill the
ideal of hospital work. The people of the Middle Ages had not as yet
suffered all {259} the disillusionments that come from the abuse of
charity at the hands of those who least deserve help, and besides, the
attendants at the hospitals were expected to do their work for its own
sake and from the highest motives of Christian benevolence rather than
for any lesser reward. At the beginning, at least, there seems to be
no doubt that this lofty purpose was accomplished very satisfactorily;
but men and women are only human, and after a time there was
deterioration. Even Virchow, however, was so struck by the ideal
conditions that existed in these early hospitals that he discussed the
necessity for having in modern times hospital attendants with as
unselfish motives as those of the medieval period. It seems worth
while then to give some of the details of this supremely Christian
management of hospital work.

In an article on the medieval hospitals in the Dublin Review for
October, 1903, Elizabeth Speakman quotes from the statutes of various
hospitals sufficient to show how the internal government of these
charitable institutions was regulated. There was always a porter at
the main door, usually one of the Brothers or Sisters, who had the
power to receive patients applying for admission. At certain places,
however, it seems t