Hospital

Use in the book

Burton’s proposed commonwealth provides hospitals of all kinds for children, orphans, older people, sick and mad people, and soldiers, with plague houses also named. The breadth of the residents explains the institutional sense. His continuation is essential: the establishments are to receive continuing support from the public treasury for everyone in need, rather than depend on limited charitable collections or a benefactor’s belated atonement. This is a proposal, not a description of provision already in place.

The later scheme distinguishes residence from other forms of relief. Those described as unable to work, lame or blind, and unmarried are to be maintained in purpose-built hospitals; married and infirm people, or those impoverished by unavoidable misfortune, receive other material support. Those able to work are to be compelled to do so. The passage combines provision with coercive distinctions, which should not disappear behind a general statement that Burton advocates charity.

An earlier foundation story makes a hospital an image of the author’s purpose. As a woman suffering from leprosy devoted her property to an institution for others with the disease, Burton proposes to spend his time and knowledge for the common good. Elsewhere institutional experience supports a medical authority’s testimony: Salvinianus appears to have managed a hospital for mad people. Burton immediately gives Plater’s contrary experiential judgment about bloodletting and leaves the question to physicians. The institution does not guarantee agreement about treatment.

A hospital and a spittle join orphans and a prison in an appeal that the rich man ignores. The repeated refusal condemns the withholding of aid. Burton then contrasts this indifference with gifts elicited by fame, promised spiritual reward or lack of an heir, but expressly acknowledges sincere benefactors. His indictment of motives is not a denial that genuine charity exists.

Related entries

Physician

Patient

Charity

Experimental

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 11–13The leprosy-hospital story as an analogy for Burton’s public purpose.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 5–8Institutions for varied residents, sustained from public funds according to need.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 39–41Residential care, other relief and compulsory work distinguished.
4. Subsection 6. The Sensitive Soul · paragraphs 13–15Spittle as saliva: the bodily-fluid homonym.
5. Subsection 4 Retention and Evacuation as Causes, and How They Act · paragraphs 23–25Hospital experience within a dispute between physicians.
6. Member 3 Charity Combining All Three Kinds of Love Pleasant Profitable And… · paragraphs 14–21Ignored institutional appeals, suspected charitable motives and the explicit concession of sincere generosity.

In this edition

“hospitals of all kinds” becomes “institutions of every kind”, allowing the following list of residents to establish its breadth. “an Hospital, a Spittle” becomes “a hospital, a shelter for the sick”. The rendering keeps the two adjoining designations and explains the shortened word without imposing the same narrow medical sense on every hospital elsewhere.

The contrast is lexical, not merely typographical: “a thin spittle, or watery juice” becomes “thin saliva or a watery fluid” in the description of taste. Here spittle is bodily fluid, with no reference to an institution.

Hospital

Printed “hospitals” (English; family).

Institutions offering shelter, maintenance or care, including but not limited to medical treatment.

Here: The proposed provision embraces children, orphans, older people, sick people, mad people and soldiers.

Context: Burton describes his imagined commonwealth, not an existing national system; the continuation requires continuing public funding according to need.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: hospitals of all kinds

Modern rendering: institutions of every kind

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “hospitals” (English; family).

Here: Purpose-built institutions maintain people unable to support themselves under the stated conditions.

Context: The scheme distinguishes unmarried residents from married or otherwise distressed people receiving other relief, and compels those judged able to work.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: several hospitals

Modern rendering: institutions

Alignment scope: Corresponding institutional noun phrases; hospitals supplies institutions. The original several has no separately expressed counterpart in the modern phrase. Built for that purpose corresponds to the same words later in the original sentence.

Word and construction: Hospitals supplies institutions; the fuller original specifies separate establishments.

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Further local use

Printed “Hospital” (English; family).

Here: A charitable institution for a particular group supplies an analogy for Burton’s writing.

Context: Burton cites a lady’s foundation story to explain fellow-feeling and public benefit; the supplied Camden reference identifies the literary story without independently proving it.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: an Hospital for Lepers

Modern rendering: a hospital for people with leprosy

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Hospital” (English; family).

Here: Institutional responsibility is presented as a source of practical experience.

Context: Burton infers the responsibility from Salvinianus’s words; the following Plater passage gives conflicting experience and Burton leaves the bloodletting dispute to physicians.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Master of an Hospital of mad men

Modern rendering: in charge of a hospital for the insane

Word and construction: Hospital names the institution; Master of supplies the relation in charge of, and of mad men specifies the people cared for.

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Hospitall” (English; family).

Here: Founding an institution can serve the satirical benefactor’s desire to dispose of wealth.

Context: Burton alleges self-interested motives but soon explicitly acknowledges many sincere charitable benefactors.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: some School or Hospitall

Modern rendering: a school or hospital

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Spittle

Printed “Spittle” (English; lemma).

A shortened form of hospital, especially a charitable institution for sick or poor people.

Here: Hospital and spittle appear together among petitioners ignored by the uncharitable rich man.

Context: The refusal and indifference belong to the condemned figure; Burton’s larger passage allows genuine generosity.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: an Hospital, a Spittle

Modern rendering: a hospital, a shelter for the sick

Word and construction: Hospital supplies hospital; Spittle supplies shelter for the sick. The paired phrase preserves two adjoining institutional designations rather than making Spittle mean the entire pair.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Spittle: saliva

Printed “spittle” (English; lemma).

Saliva or spit; a different word from the shortened institution name.

Here: The watery bodily fluid is the medium through which taste operates in the described physiology.

Context: Burton describes a bodily sense; this occurrence has no institutional meaning.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a thin spittle, or watery juice

Modern rendering: thin saliva or a watery fluid

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.