For more than forty years Burdett's Hospitals and Charities was
a valuable work of reference. Now it is superseded by work of far wider range. The first issue of The Hospitals Year- Book (Nursing Mirror Ltd., 15s.) is an admirable compilation, indispensable to the shelves of most who have to do in any capacity with public affairs. Not without justification is it called by the publishers " the Whitaker of the hospital world." One of the first things we looked up was the extent to which London hospitals have " outrun the constable." We found that out of 150 as many as 90 have credit balances. In the provinces the proportion is much larger (505 out of 662). But with sixty institutions in London not strictly solvent, the question of their support by public funds remains a dangerous one. Among the interesting side-lines of the year book is an enquiry into the hour at which hospital patients are roused. In one establishment work in the wards starts at 4 a.m., in two at 4.30, in twenty-nine at 5, and so on until we come to two which begin at 7. A tendency is growing to regard 7 as the best.
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