A NEW INFIRMARY

Since 1902 Stillman Infirmary has faithfully served Harvard University, but today, obsolete and overcrowded, it is no longer adequate. Winter respiratory ills have been taking its facilities, and there is now a well-based dissatisfaction with the Hygiene Department's work-horse.

Stillman is known to be a poorly planned infirmary. There is not one door in the entire building wide enough to permit the passage of a bed through it; furthermore the elevator is too small to accommodate even a cot. This simply means that the really sick patients are trapped in their beds in times of emergencies, and everyone is at all times generally inconvenienced. There is a crying need for more modern equipment. Although a large sum of money was spent last summer in various improvements, this appears to be only a stop-gap measure, and Stillman's facilities remain inadequate.

Undoubtedly the worst feature of the present infirmary, however, is the startling fact that it does not contain observation wards. If no private rooms are available, students with undiagnosed ailments are put into a ward until their illness is diagnosed, and thus it is possible, though there are no traceable cases to date, to contract a complicating disease while trying to cure the original illness. On some occasions it is conceivable that a variety of contagious diseases might be found in one "observation" ward. On the basis of these and other facts, it seems that stillman needs such a thorough overhauling that the best and certainly the most practical plan would be to build a new infirmary.

Stillman's successor should be built in a place as close to the Hygiene Building as possible. There are three prominent possibilities. The first is the territory from the Hasty Pudding Club to the corner, across the street from the Hygiene Building. Another spot would be on Holyoke Place in front of Lowell House, The third and most likely possibility would be the University parking-lot on Mount Auburn Street. While the first would occasion the demolition of buildings and the second the defacement of the Lowell House entrance, the third would only require the utilization of a convenient outdoor parking-lot. Thus on the surface at least, this parking-space appears to be the most practical and most convenient site for the new infirmary. The lot is University property and fully large enough. If the infirmary was erected here, all the health facilities of the University would be unified; no longer would sick patients have a discouraging trek from 15 Holyoke Street to Stillman. The new infirmary would be infinitely superior to the present one and would obviously contain an isolation ward and the latest medical equipment.

Yet as with most plans of this type there are no funds available for enactment. Perhaps some intelligent alumnus, seeing the dire need for a new infirmary, will donate a successor to Stillman. Otherwise Dr. Bock together with the officers of the University will have to devise some plan for canvassing the alumni and friends of the University. Harvard needs a new, bigger, and more complete infirmary, and she needs it now.