The conveyance of patients to and from hospital, 1720--1850.

The long-established system of both financing hospitals and affording treatment for sponsored patients through donations and subscriptions made in earlier years by numerous charitable persons needs no treatment here, but the fact remains that their actions did much to speed the acceptance of the people they recommended, for delays often meant death. These benefactors, known variously as Governors, Recommenders, Subscribers, and Trustees, were not on all occasions involved in the conveyance of their nominees, but their assistance certainly ensured earlier treatment, and chance of recovery was thereby improved. No attempt has been made to enter into the realm of hospital history, the work being purely a review of the means of transport available during the period concerned.