{56} 7. Nor do the salicylates materially alter the time spent in hospital by rheumatic patients; some evidence indicates that they actually prolong that period. The following are the average residences in hospital under the salicylates, according to several recent authors, and they are remarkably uniform with two exceptions: Coupland, 36 days; Warner, 34.9; Hall, 34; Southey, 32.5; Broadbent, 31.2; Powell, 31; Finlay and Lucas, 29.7;[159] Owen, 23; Brown, 21.9;[160] or a general average of 30.4 days for the salicyl remedies. Under full alkaline treatment: Owen, 26 days; Dickinson, 25;[161] Fuller, 22.2;[162] Blakes, 24;[163] or a general average of 24.3 days for full alkaline treatment. And if to these we add Finlay and Lucas's results, 27.7 days, under but two to three drachms of alkaline salts in the twenty-four hours--a quantity only the fourth of that given under the full alkaline method--the general average residence in hospital under alkaline treatment was but 25.4 days; that is, five less than under the salicylate. [Footnote 159: _Lancet_, ii., 1879, 420.] [Footnote 160: _Boston Med. and Surg. Journ._, Feb., 1877. The four cases excluded by the reports are included in this calculation, that it may more fairly be compared with other reports.] [Footnote 161: _Lancet_, i., 1869.] [Footnote 162: _The Practitioner_, i., 1869, p. 137.] [Footnote 163: _Boston City Hospital Reports_, 1st Series.] These several estimates of the time spent in hospital under the salicylates, with the exception of Owen's and Brown's, correspond closely with that of the time spent by Gull's and Sutton's patients under mint-water--32.8 days--although the general average of them falls short of the latter by 2.4 days. The following table (iii.) of Hood's[164] shows that under the salicylate method 45.7 per cent. remained in hospital beyond forty days, and 39 per cent. under other methods, and that about 50 per cent. more were discharged within twenty days under the other methods than under the salicylate: 350 cases treated with salicylates: Days. Under 10. Under 20. Under 30. Under 40. Ill longer. 3 = 0.84%. 31 = 8.88%. 76 = 21.7%. 84 = 24%. 160 = 45.7%. 850 without salicylates: Days. Under 10. Under 20. Under 30. Under 40. Ill longer. 12 = 1.4%. 105 = 12.35%. 175 = 20.1%. 182 = 21.4%. 331 = 39%. [Footnote 164: _The Lancet_, ii., 1881, 1120.] These statistics favor Greenhow's opinion that patients treated with salicylate of sodium regain their strength slowly, and are long in becoming able to resume their ordinary occupations. Some allowance, however, must be made for the precautions against relapse under salicylates observed in hospitals since the great tendency thereto has been recognized.