The Works Of Messrs. Schneider And Co.

THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF CREUSOT. 11 1. To the personnel of Messrs. Schneider and Co. 2. To the inhabitants of the town and canton of Creusot. 3. To the troops in garrison at Creusot. 4. To etrangers living temporarily at Creusot. Tlie service of the hospital is in the hånds o£ tlie Sisters of Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs, the mother-house of which is the Hospital of St. Jacques, at Besançon. Figs. 19 and 20, Plate III., are engravings of the north and south façades respectively, of the Creusot hospital, and some more detailecl particulars may be added here to the general facts given above. The hospital was com- mencée! in 1889, and opened to patients in the autumn of 1894. The buildings and gardens, enclosed within a wall, cover an area of hectares, but the surrounding property which belongs to it has a total estent of 57 hectares. Within the enclosed space, the plan of which is illustrated by Fig. 21, besides the main building, A, are two large pavillons on the road front, E, F ; an isolated building— for contagions diseases ; a bathing, laundry, and disinfect- ing building ; and a mortuary. The main building' is 86 m. (282 ft.) in length, besides the wings, which are 27.75 m. (91 ft.) long; it is built with a grouncl and first floor, and one storey in the roof. The grouncl floor is raised 2.50 m. (8 ft. 2 in.) above the normal level, access to it being gained by a broad central staircase, beneath a porch. Within is a vestibule, from which a central gallery passes right and left, dividing tlie building into two parts, one facing north and the other south. The galleries terminale at the wings, and lead to two broad end staircases. In the northern side of the building, on the ground floor are, the chapel in the centre ; on the east side, the kitchen and offices ; on the west, the operating and dispensing rooms. On the south side are sick wards, and some small rooms for separately-treated cases. The wings are occupied with more sick wards, and in the east wing is a space set apart especially for military patients. Bath rooms, elevators, linen hoists, &c., are placed at each end of the main central passage. The plan of the ground floor, Fig. 22, clearly illustrâtes the arrangement just described. The first floor is arrangée! in a very similar manner, except, of course, that the kitchen space is otherwise utilised. The chapel rises above the first floor, and the area over the vestibule is occupied by a council chamber. The vast space on the top floor, within the roof, is utilised for stores, water-supply tanks, &c. ; but, in the event of épidémies, many beds could be made up there. There is a base- ment, which contains the heating apparatus, the kitchen cellar, some rooms for mad patients, a gas-lighting plant, and a staff refectory. The wards are ail spacious and airy, and of varying dimensions, to contain two, six, eight, or twenty-four beds. Nursing Sisters.—Since April Ist, 1897, Messrs. Schneider and Co. have made arrangements with the Community of Franciscan Sistei's from Montfaucon-du- Velay to organise a house service of nursing sick or injured persons. This service comprises : 1. Visiting and nursing sick and injured persons by day and by niglit. 2. Absolute execution of doctors’ Orders and tlie propei’ administration of medicine. 3. Taking necessary steps to insure medical attenclance and distributing the medicine prescribed. 4. Taking care of the children and the houses of sick or injured persons, whether the latter are tendecl in their own homes or nursed in the hospital. This service is for the gratuitous benefit of Messrs. Schneider and Co.’s employés, workmen, and their families ; of the inhabitants of the town and canton of Creusot ; and of foreigners in temporary résidence. There is little room for wonder why workmen remain from generation to generation in a service which does so much for their comfort and benefit. The establishment is, incleecl, almost patriarchal in its habits and customs, and workmen who from love of change seek employment elsewhere, usually return to Creusot under the influence of irresistible nostalgia. It does not matter that the hours of work are long, and the wages paid are liglit ; the workman is contented, and seeks no better than to pass an active life and a eomfortable old age in honourable service. Needless to say that Creusot is wholly free from the curse of trades unionism, and from all the evils that follow in its train.