WEST END HOSPITAL FOR NERVOUS DISEASES. [To THE EDITOR OF
THE " SPECTATOR."] Sie,—Having regard to the interest and courtesy which the Spectator has always shown to the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases, I venture Again to enlist the sympathy of your readers in this hospital's work and needs. The hospital is heavily in debt to its tradesmen and a serious deficit on this account is estimated for the close of the year. The authorities are anxious to preserve the hospital's tradition not to allow such 'annual deficits to accumulate, and every effort is being made to remove this financial difficulty. Among other efforts which will be made, the first festival dinner in aid of the hospital's funds will be held on Wednesday, November 23rd, at the Trocadero Restaurant, at which the Chairman, Lord Laseelles, will preside. Prince Henry, the American Ambassador and Mrs. Harvey are among others who have accepted.
It may be of interest to recount briefly the hospital's history and the expansion of its work and scope of utility. Founded in 1898, the hospital had ten cots and an out-patient attendance of 523 patients. To-day, the hospital has seventy-two beds, thirty of which are for children, and outpatient attendances last year numbered over 42,000. The building in Regent's Park, which provides so peculiarly suitable an in-patient department, has many interesting associations. Originally the residence of the Master of St. Katherine's Charity, it ultimately passed to the hands of Mr. Salomon, who converted it during the war into a well-appointed hospital for officers under the control of the American Red Cross. On the cessation of the war the hospital authorities were able, very largely on account of Mr. Salomon's benevolence and generosity, to acquire the lease on most favourable terms. A more ideal situation for a London hospital dealing with cases of nervous diseases will nowhere be found, but this fact is too little known even among Londoners
73 Welbeek Street, W. 1. ( Vice-Chairman).
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