In general, a sick person had a one-in-four chance of gaining entry onto a ward of a city hospital. In 1845, King’s College Hospital treated all but 1,160 of the 17,093 people who came through its doors as outpatients. Most hospitals had a “taking-in day” designated for admitting new patients onto the wards. This might happen only once a week. In 1835, The Times reported an incident in which a young woman suffering from a fistula, inflammation of the brain, and consumption was turned away from Guy’s Hospital in London on a Monday because taking-in day was Friday. Returning on the appropriate
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