MORE HOSPITALS THAN MONEY FOR THE SICK.

The last fifty years have been characterized, especially in Great Britain and this country, by a rapid increase in the establishment of voluntary hospitals for the sick and injured, particularly in the leading centres of population. It has been a period of great activity and advancement in all departments of medical science and practice, giving birth to and rapidly multiplying so-called specialties; and each specialty in turn has demanded hospital, infirmary, or dispensary accommodations for its own class of patients. These demands have generally found a sufficient response from the religious and charitably-disposed citizens to cause the building and furnishing of hospital after hospital, and free dispensaries of every grade, but nearly all left for support to the annually recurring demand for increased contributions. The result reached at present is, for the large cities of Great Britain and the United States, an average of about one hospital bed for every