Men crowded together in a big institution naturally have to
live under artificial conditions, and these conditions are made much more exacting when to the ordinary difficulties of controlling human beings are added the extra difficulties of controlling sick mon—men who through their physical condition are wayward and inclined to feel aggrieved, and who also have an enormous amount of idle time on their hands. These troubles are of course greatly exaggerated in the case of hospitals with, say, five hundred to a thousand beds. And here comes in the advantage of the small unit in hospital administration. It may be, and no doubt is, a good deal more expensive than the big unit, but it is far easier to manage on elastic, equitable, and humane lines. Happily the patient is a wonderfully good fellow on the whole and very reasonable. If you explain to him that your object is to cure him and make a man of him again as quickly as possible, and net to give him a good time or to let him enjoy himself, he soon catches hold of the idea and acquiesces in strict treatment.
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