Sue Hawkins Extending the Boundaries of Care the emergence of children’s hospitals in 19 th century Britain Sue Hawkins Kingston University

Childhood and Disease in 18 th & Early 19 th Century Children’s hospital in Paris, L’Hopital des Enfants Malades, opened during the French Revolution and based on Foundling Hospital Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, St Petersburg etc followed But no children’s hospitals in Britain

Treatises on Diseases of Childhood 1689: Acute Diseases of Infancy (Walter Harris) 1765: Diseases of Children and their Remedies (Nils van Rosenstein) 1769: ‘A Plain Account of Diseases Incident to Children’ (John Cook MD) 1784: Diseases of Children (Michael Underwood) 1848: Lectures on Diseases of Infancy & Childhood (Dr Charles West)

London Burials by Age 15 Dec Dec 1762 Source: London General Bill of Christenings and Burials 15 Dec Dec 1762, published in The Gentleman’s Magazine Dec 1762 (supplement)

Early 19 th Century Objections to Children’s Hospitals "But a very little Reflection will clearly convince any thinking Person that such a scheme as this [a children’s hospital] can never be executed. If you take away a sick Child from its Parent or Nurse you break its Heart immediately... and it very seldom happens that a Mother can conveniently leave the Rest of her Family to go into an Hospital to attend her sick Infant.” [i][i] [i] George Armstrong quoted in GF Still ‘The History of Paediatrics’

Site of the Universal Dispensary for Children now Schiller University on the South Bank © Copyright Oxyman and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons LicenceOxymanCreative Commons Licence

50 Years Later Of 2363 patients in London hospitals, only 26 were children under 10. Of 50,000 persons dying annually in London, 21,000 are children of that age. London Hospital: no children under 7 (except for amputation or cutting for stone) Guys: an exception for a while, with 15 beds for children. But building closed in 1850 and not replaced

Charles West Trained London, Paris, Bonn and Berlin 1839: Universal Dispensary for Women & Children, Waterloo Road 1849: Campaign for hospital for sick children

The Main Ward at Great Ormond Street c1858

19 th Century Growth in Children’s Hospitals London GOSH 1852 Victorian Hospital for Children Chelsea 1866 Alexandra Hospital for Hip Disease 1867 Evelina 1869 Paddington Green 1883 Provinces Norwich (Jenny Lind) 1853 Manchester 1856 Edinburgh 1859 Liverpool 1859 Birmingham 1861 Newcastle 1861 Nottingham 1869 Sheffield 1876 Aberdeen 1877 Glasgow1883 Statistics No. Hospitals No. Beds No. In Patientsc21,000 No. Out Patientsc250,000 Source: Small and Special: the development of hospitals for children in Victorian Britain by Elizabeth Lomax