The Veterans' Hospital at Oteen, six miles from Asheville, N. C., during the last three years has had an average patient population of about 700. About 99 per cent of the patients are tuberculous, a large percentage of whom are confined to their beds. At the time this paper was written, a census showed the hospital to have 563 patients: twenty-two have temperatures above 100 F; ten are classified as critically ill, and eighteen are listed as seriously ill, but as a matter of fact any patient with pulmonary tuberculosis has a serious illness. Of the 563 patients, all but 96 receive their food on trays, and 200 of them have to be bathed in bed.
In addition to these, a varying number of outpatients come to the hospital, many of whom are nontuberculous, but it is a conservative estimate to say that 95 per cent of the work is