Learning To Use Their Senses: Visitors to Voluntary Hospitals in Eighteenth‐Century England

Abstract

This article examines the way in which the senses were articulated in eighteenth-century hospital records. Touring these charities weekly, hospital governors assessed buildings using all of their senses in a way that was novel in this period. Examination of the minute books of the General Hospital in Birmingham tells us much about the way members of the eighteenth-century public experienced their world, established sensory hierarchies and refused to touch elements in their environment, among a number of other under-explored issues. Finally, it considers how historians might read for evidence of the senses in such contexts.

The material culture of caring and curing

“…14 One of their substantial drawbacks was their odour. Bad hospital smells not only determined visitors' negative view of the institution -which at the time was exclusively dedicated to the care of the poor 15 -but these scents were also seen as an active threat to patients' health. The medical community identified foul odours, or miasma, as a cause of infection; putrid odours were associated with the dangers of contagious disease and epidemics.…”

Creative forms: booklets by the hospital senses collective

“…Sensory engagement is particularly important for those researching, working in, designing and experiencing healthcare environments which are emotionally and sensorially sensitive ( McCurdy 2018 ). There are some works on senses in hospital spaces, in relation to historical sites ( Bates 2019 ; Bates 2021 ; Reinarz 2012 ; Theodore 2018 ) and contemporary ones ( Duque et al 2019 ; Pink et al 2022 ; Stenslund 2015 ; Sumartojo et al 2020 ). There are also some evocative descriptions of the sensory experience of hospitals in some patients’ memoirs (e.g.…”