Medical Department Inadequate, Cannot Take Proper Care of Students, Investigation Reveals

Believing that the conditions of medical science to students in the University are of so serious a nature as to merit careful attention, the Crimson is presenting a series of articles; of which this is the first, comprising Harvard's medical equipment and personnel with that of other colleges.

Since the day when the University first took upon itself responsibility for the health of students, the history of its medical service has been one of continued expansion and progress; despite this advance the Department of Physical Education and the Department of Hygiene find themselves confronted with a startling inadequacy of equipment and a paucity of personnel which render proper care for undergraduate health an impossibility. Neither the Stillman Infirmary nor Wadsworth House is adequate, and the staff of physicians under Dr. Alfred Worcester '78 is not large enough or well enough paid to enable them to give sufficient attention to the needs of the students.

The Past 30 Years

Before 1901 the University took no official interest in the physical or mental welfare of the undergraduate body. At that time it first provided a physician who could be summoned to students' rooms, much to the dismay of the medical profession in Cambridge. In 1901 James Alexander Stillman '96 gave the present infirmary, stipulating only that "it should be made as perfect as was possible." In the succeeding years the medical staff was increased, an operating room was installed in Stillman, six years ago the services of a surgeon were acquired; eye, skin, and dental clinics have been instituted; corrective exercise work has been taken up; and this year the University has undertaken to care for the health of its employees and persons injured in the Yard.

But in the past 30 years the University has doubled in size, the infirmary has become "less and less adequate", and appeals for a new building have been made. When the infirmary was constructed, it was not foreseen that within the next 30 years 431 operations for appendicitis with only one fatality would have to be performed there, and the present operating room is accordingly unsatisfactory.

Can't Get Through the Door

The infirmary was designed only for students, but a demand soon came for the accommodation of Faculty members, taxing its resources. The change in the kind of care hospitals are now expected to afford has rendered it still more inadequate. Whereas it is now common hospital practice that bed patients should be rolled out into the open air and sunshine, or down into the operating or X-ray rooms, this is not possible. at Stillman Infirmary. Neither the room doors nor the elevator allow a bed to pass through. And there are no balconies.

Nurses and Maids

One of the most marked features in the inadequacy of the Infirmary is the lack of accommodations for the nurses and maids, many of whom are obliged to find rooms as best they can outside. This makes it impossible to maintain a proper supervision and protection.

In order to bring the infirmary up to date, the medical officials have proposed (1) to enlarge and remodel the present buildings, or (2) to build entirely anew, or (3) to add to the present plant another building of modern hospital construction, for which plans were submitted by the University architects. Those most interested have agreed that a new building is the only satisfactory solution.

Proposed New Plant

The new plant would consist of three buildings connected by covered corridors. Of these the building now used for contagious cases, and on the lower floor, for out-patient clinics, would remain practically unchanged; the new building would have, besides the operating rooms, wards and private rooms for twice as many patients as can now be accommodated; the main building, it is thought, would with minor changes suffice for the administration offices and for the nurses' and maids' quarters. To move the present contagious wing, a step that the lack of available land would necessitate, would cost $100,000. The cost of a new building is estimated at $500,000.

Several years ago an anonymous friend offered to finance the construction of a building on the corner of Mt. Auburn and Holyoke Streets, on a recently acquired plot of ground adjoining the present Spee Club-house, designed to combine under one roof the offices now in Wadsworth House and the H.A.A. quarters in the basement of the Union. Business conditions have prevented the carrying out of this plan.

No Full-Time Physician

In the matter of medical personnel the University is limited. The Business School boasts a full-time physician, but of the staff assisting Dr. Worcester: Dr. P. H. Means '17, medical adviser; Dr. F. McR. Findlay, assistant medical adviser; Dr. Edward Harding '11; and Dr. Paul Shaw none is devoting his whole attention to medical work for the College. Each must supplement from private practice the salary which the University gives. An increase in his private practice necessitated the resignation of Dr. T. K. Richards '13, last summer. What is needed for the support of Wadsworth House work, in addition to the funds coming from the Henry K. Oliver bequest and from the $10 fee charged each student, is annually voted by the Corporation.

Crowded Quarters

A competent trained nurse is on duty in Wadsworth House throughout the day, but the medical adviser holds consultation hours only from 8.30 to 9.30 o'clock in the morning and from 4.30 to 5.30 o'clock in the afternoon. Efforts to find other quarters for the Department of Military Science and Tactics, which shares the building, have failed, and space is at a premium. The work of the medical staff is further complicated by the fact that many of its records must be shared with the H.A.A., located several blocks away