Hospital and Community – a History of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, by K.S.Inglis

“The original wards were dark, dirty and foul-smelling; alcohol was so freely prescribed that some citizens regarded the out-patients’ department as a free grog shop; blood-letting was another favourite remedy. Yet from the beginning the hospital had an ideal of community service –  an ideal which was realized more and more completely as it developed into a great modern public hospital, and a teaching and research centre.”

Published in 1958 by Melbourne University Press, this is a fascinating account of the early history of the Royal Melbourne, Hardcover, 226 pages, fair condition, including dust jacket.