Portrait of a Hospital, 1752-1948, to Commemorate the Bi-centenary of the Royal Infirmary, Manchester

The bi-centennial of the great Royal Infirmary at Manchester, and the centennial of the distinguished Mount Sinai Hospital of New York are fittingly and most appropriately commemorated in these books. Both give a remarkably vivid picture of the vicissitudes in the growth and development of a hospital of high standard and achievement, and both are well written, well organized, and attractively illustrated. Much interest attaches to the Royal Infirmary of Manchester because of its prominence in meeting the extraordinary social crisis involving health affairs in the Manchester area, as a result of the great industrial revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Manchester Infirmary is famed for the extraordinarily high quality of medical service rendered to indigent patients there during the critical turning point in medical development from ancient empirical methods to those dependent on modern scientific fundamentals. From this high standard of medical service came also the important formulation of ethical principles which have been widely influential since, both in the English-speaking Commonwealths and in the United States of America. Highly impressive is the story of extensive destruction suffered by the Royal Infirmary in Manchester during World War II, and the amazing restorations which have taken place more recently. Doctor William Brockbank is himself carrying forward an honorable tradition in continuing the studies initiated by his distinguished father, Doctor E. M. Brockbank, who has written so well on the early history of the Manchester Infirmary, and also of some of the other hospitals associated with it gratifying to the people of Manchester must be the realization that the Royal Infirmary has been well maintained throughout two centuries by the generosity of generations of their forebears. It is an outstanding example of what medical leadership can be in respect to hospital service on private initiative without governmental support or regulation. Appropriately, the seal of the hospital depicts the story of the Good Samaritan, and to the lesson of this story the people of Manchester have been true. The scope of the history of the Manchester Royal Infirmary is indicated from the chapter headings of Doctor Brockbank's book-The Lunatic Hos