The Contradictions Of Specialization: Rheumatism And The Decline Of The Spa In Inter-War Britain

Abstract

Some twenty years ago I held an appointment at a large Poor Law Infirmary in London. I asked if I might be given charge of the rheumatic patients. The request was readily granted. I shall never forget the impression created by my first round of a long row of beds each occupied by a man crippled with arthritis. Some of them had been there for years unable to do so much as convey a drink or a bite to their mouths for themselves, to change their position in bed without being bodily lifted, or to perform any of the natural functions of the body without the attendance of the nursing staff on each and every occasion. © 1990, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.