B'ijall ttje Boston jfloattng hospital 
<0o ©ut of Commission? 
HE good people of our city and of 
New England must answer this 
question. Without any special 
effort,- rather, in spite of it,- the 
work of the hospital, which is now 
in its second decade, has grown to 
such proportions that the present 
boat is unable to meet the demands 
made upon it. Last year, though 
the summer was exceptionally cool, we had a 
waiting list of permanent patients the larger part 
of the season, and were compelled to keep the 
work open till the middle of September. The 
plans for the new boat have been drawn, and the 
keel should be laid by August i, 1903. 
This work has a broad field for its operation. 
While most of the patients come from Boston and vicinity, some are brought from cities and 
towns at a distance. Other hospitals are readily 
availing themselves of the peculiar benefits the 
Floating Hospital offers for the treatment of 
children in the summer season. 
Our records show that 231 different physicians 
sent patients to us during the season of 1902. 
This fact indicates how our work is valued by 
the medical profession. 
While a large part of our annual expense has 
been of benefit to medical science, and therefore 
of value to sick babies outside of Massachusetts, 
moneyed people away from New England insist 
that it is a local charity which Boston ought to 
support. Armed with letters from some of our 
leading public men, several of the philanthropists 
away from New England have been approached 
and urged to contribute, but they are giving in 
other directions. The value of the serum which 
Dr. Flexner claims to have discovered can be 
determined largely by investigations made at our 
hospital this summer. The doctor designs send- ing out thirty students to test his discovery in 
children's summer hospitals. The managers 
make this appeal with somewhat of anxiety lest 
givers for the current expense divide their con- 
tributions. It should be explicitly stated that the 
more imperative of the two demands just now 
is for the expense of the summer's work. If we 
could have but one series of contributions it 
should be limited to this call for the work of the 
coming season; but the needs of a new boat are 
so imperative that specific gifts for this object 
are urgently solicited. 
For the managers, 
RUFUS B. TOBEY, 
Chairman. 'Boston floating hospital. 
Incorporated Sept. 23, I go I 
Organise d July /, /Sgy.. 
Incorporated Sept. 23, /go/ 
jfftanafftra: 
RUFUS B. TOBEY, Chairman 
CHAS. G. FARWELL, Trias. and Business Mgr. 
178 Devonshire St. 
S. H. DURGIN, M.D., Chairman Board of Health, Boston. 
SAMUEL BRECK, M.D., 362 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. 
ROBERT W. HASTINGS, M.D., Brookline. 
Prof. S. H. WOODBRIDGE, Institute of Technology. 
FREDERIC H. CURTISS, Cashier Mass. Nat. Bank, Boston. 
CHAS. W. JAYNES, Jaynes & Co., Druggists, Boston. 
JOHN R. ANDERSON, Asst. Manager, 
178 Devonshire St. There would be an unrivalled opportunity 
in The Boston Floating Hospital with a 
new and larger boat: - 
1 st. To determine the exact cause of the summer diarrhoea 
of infancy, working along the same line as The Rocke- 
feller Institute for Medical Research. 
2d. To prove the value of fresh air to babies and children, 
especially when sick. 
3d. To determine the best form of food in various forms of 
infantile diseases, especially summer diarrhoea. 
4th. To determine the most rapid and successful method 
of treatment for these diseases. 
5 th. To determine whether pure fresh milk free from germs 
can be given to babies, and how this is possible. 
6th. To study all pathological conditions of blood and vis- 
cera as disclosed by ante-mortem and post-mortem 
study. 
7th. To train young physicians and graduate nurses in the 
care and treatment of sick babies. 
8th. To instruct mothers of sick children how to care for 
their babies, what to feed them, etc. 
ROBERT W. HASTINGS, M.D., 
Resident Physician. 
Boston, March, 1903.