[Patient record from the Copenhagen General Hospital in 1855]

Hospital monographs frequently describe the buildings and the leading staff but rarely the patients. However, the 1980s and 1990s called attention to the importance of the perspective of patients of the past. The chapter reports an examination of the quality and extent of information retrieved through a systematic search of patient records from the Copenhagen General Hospital, extending back to 1855. The charts illuminated the social conditions of the patients in addition to their illnesses and the treatments characteristic of the day. Analyzing the state of medical practice revealed in the records, the author tested whether hospitals in reality were no more than gateways to the afterlife. Comparisons among hospitals showed the extent to which treatments varied across institutions. Correlations between the evidence of the patient charts and the ideals of the professional literature at the time revealed the differences between theory and practice. The records yielded important insights into the daily lives of patients admitted 150 years ago. They generally were younger and of lower social class. For reasons of poor hygiene, poor housing, and poor nutrition, they fell victim to the classical diseases of the crowded urban environment, including lung, skin and venereal diseases. Of these, tuberculosis killed most patients admitted to hospital.