an endeavour to give readers the feel of how NJI looked like hundred years ago, we are reproducing editorial of June 1910 issue. Such excerpts would be published each month. THE BOMANJEE DINSHAW PETIT PARSEE GENERAL HOSPITAL, BOMBAY. By J. M. N. WADIA The Parsee community, although one of the most advanced in all other matters, was for a long time averse to hospital life. The average Parsee is rigidly exclusive when either religious precepts or domestic usage turns up. Much of the aversion of the community has been due to this spirit of exclusiveness and many of the orthodox among them would prefer death to a sick-bed amid conditions which are likely to fall foul of their religious scruples, with the result that it was impossible to carry through successfully any scheme for a Parsee General Hospital. Many years ago, Dr KN Bahadurji, an eminent Parsee Physician and a Doctor of Medicine of London, put forward a scheme but for several reasons, into which it is unnecessary at present to go, it failed. But time and education seem to have overcome the susceptibilities and in May 1905 it was possible to put forward a scheme and to carry it to realisation. Mr Jehangir Bomanjee Petit, a young Parsee gentleman, who had from early years distinguished himself in public life, put forward the scheme by issuing a prospectus wherein he expatiated on the advantages of treating the sick in an up-to-date hospital and submitted two alternative schemes... Numerous miscellaneous donations were received and the fund amounted to about four hundred thousand rupees when the success of the scheme was permanently assured through Mr Bomanjee Dinshaw Petit, a leading Parsee citizen and a philanthropist of catholic tendencies, coming forward with his magnificent offer to donate to the hospital his splendid property on Cumballa Hill, valued at about five lacs of rupees and of an area of about fifty thousand square yards. The offer was, ofcourse, accepted with heartfelt thanks and gratitude and the Hospital became an accomplished fact, and bears the name of its philanthropic donor. The work of building was shortly afterwards commenced and on the 11th of December 1907, H.E. Sir George Clarke, the popular Governor of Bombay, laid its foundation stone. The hospital will consist, for the present, of five buildings specially built on the most modern scientific principles. One of the these will hold a Male and Female Ward for Surgical and Medical Cases, another will be an Operation Theatre elaborately fitted, the third will be a block for Opthalmic cases, while the fourth and fifth will be respectively Gynecological and Lying-in Hospitals. They will provide accommodation for about 200 patients in all. The Hospital will be managed by a Committee formed from the subscribers and all appointments will, without impairing efficiency, be made from the best available material in the community. There will be a staff of the efficient and well trained assistants and nurses and with the exception of the House Surgeons and the Nurses the superior staff will be entirely honorary. There will probably be about 20 nurses, a Lady Superintendent and a Matron, but no appointments have yet been made. It is expected to open the Hospital to the community about the commencement of next year. Nursing Journal of India, June 1910, page 106-07