Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/787

 1869.] Descriptions. 639 times, upon our interests and our sym- pathies. The style of architecture is plain ; and all useless ornament has been studiously dispensed with ; but, wher- ever the comfort and welfare of the patients were concerned, everything has been done in a thorough manner. The amount of money paid, on account of the building, and its varied fixtures and arrangements, up to the time when it was opened for use, was $352,542.86. Of this total sum, $30,276.28 have been for the boundary wall and gate-house, $2,241.46 for the carriage-house and stabling, $800 for the carpenter-shop, $4,456.03 for machinery of different kinds, $23,612.37 for heating and ven- tilating apparatus, $15,201.47 for grad- ing for building, planting, and improving the grounds, and $10,441.73 for furni- ture. Separation of the Sexes. — Before closing this notice of the Department for Males of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, it may not be uninterest- ing to state, that the completion of this building allows the institution to carry out, under very favorable circumstances, what has, for man} 7 years past, been grad- ually gaining favor with some of the most experienced medical officers of American hospitals for the insane — a provision for the treatment of male and female patients in entirely separate buildings, and also to add that the re- sults of this experiment have been emi- nently satisfactor}'. The Fisher Ward. — In addition to this detailed description of the Depart- ment for Males, we wish to give an ac- count of the latest addition made to the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, at its Department for Females, and which from the completeness of its general ar- rangements, and especially those for heating and ventilation, are well worthy of careful examination by all who are interested in these subjects. This structure has received the name of " Fisher Ward," in honor of that lib- eral benefactor of the insane, — the late Joseph Fisher, of Philadelphia, who be- queathed ample funds to build and fur- nish this ward in a most thorough man- ner. The entire building is one hundred and twelve feet long, by twenty-seven and a half feet wide, and of two stories each, twelve feet in height. It is built of brick, is stuccoed, and has a slate roof. On the first floor, are a dining- room — with steam tables, and other con- veniences, for keepiug food warm, and cooking articles for the sick — a bath- room, water-closet, clothes-closets, and nine rooms for patients, each being about ten by fourteen and a half feet, whilst, in a few instances, two are thrown together. The rooms are on one side of a corridor, partly eight and a half and partly ten and a half feet wide, with two bay win- dows, projecting more than four feet, in each story. The second story has the same arrangement, with the exception that a room for two attendants takes the place of the dining-room. All the patients' rooms have a cheerful south- ern exposure, with large windows, the upper sashes of which are of iron, im- movable, while the lower are of wood, and may be raised to their full height, having ornamental wrought-iron guards on the outside. All are glazed on the inside. There are Venetian shuttei's to all these windows. Warming and Ventilation. — Espe- cial pains have been taken to secure a thoroughly efficient system of warming and ventilation, which the proximity of this new structure to the main heat- ing apparatus gave particular facilities for doing. The heating is by steam ; and the ventilation is forced by a steam-engine and fan. The fresh air supplied to the Fisher Ward, is taken nearly thirty feet from the ground, and passes down a brick duct, about three feet square, to a small room, whence it enters the fan, and is then driven, through an underground duct, to the main air reservoir, which occupies nearly the whole of that part of the north side