This testimony to the truth of Simpson's opinion was more pronounced than even he himself had anticipated. "Shall this pitiless and deliberate sacrifice of human life to conditions which are more or less preventable be continued, or arrested? Do not these terrible figures plead eloquently and clamantly for a revision and reform of our existing hospital system?" This was his cry until at length breath failed him. The opposition was not strong, but the support was weak. Although there was much criticism, his conclusions were scarcely called in question at all; trifling holes were picked in his statistics, but his contentions were universally acknowledged to be correct; a few reformers only, persuaded as he was of the evils of hospitalism and working at the subject, lent him their advocacy. But he alone stood unperturbed at the extent of the evils and the magnitude of the change which he proposed in order to uproot them; death laid him low as he stood, but not before he had modified his proposals by suggesting that existing hospitals might be reconstructed, and new hospitals built on the now almost universally adopted pavilion system on which the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary was one of the first to be built. Column Headings-- C: Cases. D: Deaths. _______________________________________________________________________ | | | | HOSPITAL. | FOR INJURY. | |_______________________|_______________________________________________| | | | | | | | | Thigh. | Leg. | Arm. | Forearm. | | |___________|___________|___________|___________| | | | | | | | | | | | | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] | |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____| | | | | | | | | | | | Edinburgh Infirmary | 134 | 48 | 28 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 19 | 7 | | Glasgow " | 100 | 60 | 93 | 50 | 101 | 38 | 66 | 9 | | Nine London Hospitals | 320 | 123 | 173 | 53 | 48 | 13 | 37 | 7 | |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____| | | | | | | | | | | | Total | 631 | 239 | 283 | 89 | 78 | 22 | 75 | 15 | |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____| | | | | | | | Mortality per cent. | 64.4 | 54.8 | 40.1 | 14.8 | |_______________________|___________|___________|___________|___________|