“…At night time they help to shut off the patient from the other activities of the ward, and so induce sleep. They also make for economy in screens, which they could match. …”

“…Besides this, watching the general activities of the ward, which patients generally find on the whole interesting, and which makes a spell of sickness spent in a hospital ward much less boring than one in a single room, is, at the same time, apt to be fatiguing, so that a longer time of undisturbed quiet is necessary at night. …”