209 W. Monument St. March 6th. 1890
Dear Mr. Gilman
I feel rather conscious-stricken that I have not reported progress to the Ex-Director. Everything works smoothly on the lines laid down by you but a few details will give you an idea of our present condition. We have now had nearly 1000 in-patients & over 11,000 out-patients! Today the word population is 130 and the income from private patients over $360.
The new Director is excellent in all respects & gets on well with every one. I do not know that he has quite our appreciation of the Training School tho he & Miss Hampton are the best of terms. Halsted is doing remarkable work in Surgery & I feel that his appointment to the University & the Hospital would now be quite safe. Kelly's department is now in full swing. We made a great hit in Sister Rachael who is a bond of peace, but I tell her that she has sadly degenerated, & has so far departed from the faith once delivered to Fox as to frequent playhouses. Miss Hampton has fulfilled Mrs. Gilman's prognosis, and she has been most successful in getting probationers of a high class; but unfortunately she selects them altogether for their good looks & the House staff is by this time in a sad state. The chief is, I fear, hopeless - you remember Keats - "They could not in the self same mansion dwell without some stir of heart &c", but it is not the "gentle Isabel". Miss Parsons as I dare say you have heard has gone to the Maryland General.
The bulletin you will have already seen & the first two numbers of the Reports. Both start with firm support but the latter may drag a little as it is so hard to get men to write.
I leave April 26th by Etruria & Shelby in London about May 6th. My address will be Brown Bros. Do let me know of your whereabouts as I am most anxious to talk over the Medical School & if possible arrange to go to Cambridge with you. I shall spend the greater part of May & all of June in a systematic inspection of six or eight of the leading German & French clinics & return to London about July 1st.
We follow your progress with great interest and all rejoice that you are having such a good holiday.
With kind regards to Mrs. Gilman.
Yours sincerely
Wm Osler