USA > New York > New York and its institutions, 1609-1871. A library of information, pertaining to the great metropolis, past and present > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
. Ar -
NEW YORK EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY.
(Corner of Second avenue and Thirteenth street.)
The disorders of the eye and its appendages are more numerous and diversified than those of any other member of the human body, and some of the operations for its relief re- quire the nicest combinations of delicacy and skill. What- ever knowledge the ancients may have possessed of this sub- ject, certain it is that the medical fraternity, during the mid- dle ages, walked in profound darkness. It was not until the latter part of the seventeenth century that the anatomy of the eye was well understood. The German surgeons have the honor of rescuing from deep obscurity the science of ophthalmic surgery. In 1773 Barthe first founded the Vienna School, which has since become so celebrated. The impulse given to the subject in Germany was soon communi- cated to England, and in 1804 Mr. Sanders founded the London Eye Infirmary, whence have sprung similar charities in various parts of Great Britain and the Continent.
395
NEW YORK EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY.
In 1816 Edward Delafield and John K. Rodgers, gradu- ates of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City, sailed for Europe to improve themselves in the knowl- edge of their profession. They had attended the usual course of lectures, each had practised a year in the New York Hos- pital, but as the institutions of our country were yet in their infancy they hoped by foreign study to render themselves better fitted for the responsible duties of the medical profes- sion. While pursuing their studies in London they were in- duced to become pupils in the recently established Eye In- firmary. They had given the usual attention to the study of the treatment of the eye, but soon discovered that they and their American instructors were profoundly ignorant of the whole subject. They instantly saw that here was an open field of great usefulness wholly untrodden in their own coun- try, and they devoted themselves with untiring assiduity to this new branch of knowledge. Returning in 1818, they nobly resolved to establish an Infirmary. They were both young, possessed little means, had no reputation as physi- cians, yet in August, 1820, they hired two rooms on the second floor at No. 45 Chatham street, and publicly an- nounced that on certain days and hours of each week indi- gent persons afflicted with diseases of the eyes would be gra- tuitously treated, and furnished with all necessary medical appliances. What was undertaken as an experiment soon proved a success, for in less than seven months four hundred and thirty-six patients had applied and received treatment, and many astonishing recoveries had occurred. Having thus demonstrated the feasibility and utility of the undertaking, they now resolved to bring the matter before the public, and ask for the means to really found an Infirmary. A public meeting convened at the City Hotel on the 9th of March, 1821, to consider this subject, was eminently successful. permanent organization was effected, and a committee raised to solicit subscriptions and temporarily conduct the Institu- tion.
The members of the society were denominated governors, and they resolved that the payment of forty dollars or up- wards should constitute one a governor for life, or the pay- ment of five dollars per annum a yearly governor, with the privilege of sending two patients to the Infirmary for treat- ment at all times.
The operations of the society were continued in the same
:
396
NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
rooms until 1824, when a part of the old Marine Hospital was rented for the sum of $500 per annum. The act of incorporation passed the Legislature March 29th, 1822, and the sum of $1,000 was granted in each of the two following years. In 1845 the accommodations at the Hospital being totally inadequate, a three-story house at No. 97 Mercer street was purchased and fitted up for the Infirmary. But after a few years the number of patients became so great that it became manifest that a larger building must be obtained. In 1854 the Legislature, in answer to repeated memorials, granted the sum of $10,000, on condition that $20,000 more should be raised by the directors and expended in building. Over $30,000 were soon subscribed by the friends of the enterprise, and in 1857 the present building was erected. It stands on the north-east corner of Second avenue and Thirteenth street, is a handsome four-story brown stone, with appropriate apartments and space for sev- enty-five beds for patients. It was a source of deep mortifi- cation to the prime movers in this undertaking, who had in- troduced this system into the country, and had planted them- selves in its largest and wealthiest city, to see two kindred institutions securely founded and richly endowed, one in Boston and the other in Philadelphia, while they were left to toil on in comparative poverty and obscurity for six and thirty years. On their entrance into the new building the society entered upon a new era. Its enlarged accommoda- tions for patients from abroad greatly swelled the numbers of those who sought its remedies. Previous to 1855, there had been treated 48,528 patients, but during the last sixteen years no less than 98,875 have sought relief at the Infirmary. An army, in all, of 147,403. The Infirmary is open daily, Sunday excepted, from twelve o'clock to one and a half, for the gra- tuitous treatment of eye patients ; and diseases of the ear are treated every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, from two o'clock to four. The poor from all parts of the State are entitled to its privileges. The cost of the building, with the site on which it stands, has amounted to $65,000, and is now valued at nearly twice that amount. At its opening there
remained a debt upon it of $10,000. This has since been removed, and commendable exertions have since been made by the directors and surgeons to secure an adequate endowment, to establish free beds, and to furnish the patients gratuitously with glasses, artificial eyes when needed, etc.
.
:
397
NEW YORK EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY.
The State long since withdrew all pecuniary support, though patients are freely received from all parts of it, and the Com- mon Council grants it but $1,000 per annum. Of the 9.290 treated during 1870, 7,387 were for diseases of the eye, and 1,903 for diseases of the ear. Of the 415 patients kept in the Infirmary, 203 were at the expense of the Institution.
The endowment fund, contributed by Mr. Grosvenor, Mr. Burrall, Dr. Harsen, Chauncey and Henry Rose, Madame De Pou, Mr. Alstyne, and others, has been carefully invested and now yields an income of $11,000.
Though several new institutions of this kind have recently been established in this city and Brooklyn, the surging tide of sufferers has not been diverted from this old and well- known Bethesda.
This society has certainly accomplished an excellent work, and is justly entitled to the lasting gratitude of the public. Its whole history has been an example of the most rigid economy and self-sacrifice, but the fruit of its benevolent exertion has been rich and abundant. Frequently has the un- willing occupant of the almshouse recovered through its exer- tions. His family, long scattered or consigned to a home of wretchedness, has been collected and raised by industry to comfort and independence. Here the infant, born blind, has first opened its eyes upon its mother's face, and the few re- maining days of the old man have been cheered by the returning light of day. From these rooms the broken-down student has returned to his books, and the lone female to her employment, happy in the recovery of sight, the loss of which made poverty a double calamity. Here many an anxious mother has shed tears of joy over the recovery of a long- afflicted child. If it is praiseworthy to educate and support the blind, is it less so to prevent blindness ? Surely it is much cheaper to prevent pauperism than to support it, all other con- siderations ignored. The benefits accruing to the whole . country, through the better education of the medical frater- nity, is not the least advantage to be considered from the founding of this Institution. The knowledge acquired has been freely offered to humanity at large. Clinical teaching and courses of lectures have been regularly given at the In- firmary for years, and every facility afforded to all medical students to perfect themselves in this branch of surgery; thus affording the public a better protection against the mistakes
ء
398
NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
and unskillfulness of their medical advisers. Dr. Edward Delafield, its chief founder, whose name and toils have been conspicuous in nearly every part of its history, still survives. to mark with peculiar satisfaction the increasing success of this cherished Institution.
.
THE WOMAN'S HOSPITAL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
(Fourth avenue and Fiftieth street.)
The advances made in almost every branch of medicine and surgery during the present century have far exceeded those of any similar period in the history of the world, yet woman, borne down by peculiar and loathsome sufferings, has sighed in vain for relief until within the last few years. In 1832, Dr. J. Marion Sims, originally from Alabama, made known to the profession the result of his long and patient investiga- tions of some of those hitherto incurable ills that affliet woman. He had discovered the surgical remedy whereby with one or more operations a disease of the most. distressing character, that had for ages baffled the skill of Europe, was radically cured. The announcement was hailed with high satisfaction by the medical fraternity. The successful treat- ment of these cases, it was found, required the careful man- agement in minute detail of such trained nurses as are rarely found in private houses. Secondly, the operator, in addition to the knowledge and skill of a. good surgeon, must possess peculiar adroitness of manipulation, the gift of very few, re- quiring large and constant experience not often attained in a
L
400
NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS ..
1
general hospital. Third, the successful treatment of many patients could be conducted nowhere but in a hospital. From these considerations it was deemed expedient to estab- lish an institution where this treatment could be made a spe- cialty. The subject being laid before a number of wealthy benevolent ladies of New York, they entered upon the task of founding an Institution with a very commendable zeal.
In February, 1855, the Woman's Hospital association was formed, with a board of managers consisting of thirty-four ladies, a work of woman for the benefit of her own sex. On the 4th of May, 1855, the association opened a hospital in a hired building, with forty beds, and conducted its operations for over twelve years on this limited scale. During that period, however, over twelve hundred patients were discharged, either cured or greatly relieved, besides the hundreds of out- door patients treated. The city generously contributed a block of ground lying on Fourth avenue and Fiftieth street. and in May, 1866, the corner-stone of the Woman's Hospital was laid. On the 10th of October, 1867, the new building was thrown open for inspection and for appropriate services, and on the 15th for the reception of patients. While the build- ing was being crected, the property occupied on Madison avenue was sold, and the patients removed to Thirteenth street, where they continued eleven months. The new Hos- pital is one of the prettiest buildings on the island. Its base- ment is of polished stone, the four additional stories of brick. with angles and pilasters ornamented with finely wrought ver- miculated blocks. The windows are beautifully arched, the ceilings higher than in any other hospital in the city, and an elevator ascends from basement to fourth floor, to the great convenience of patients, nurses, and visitors. The building contains 75 beds, and cost, with its furniture, $200,000. The upper floor is devoted to charity patients from New York State only, who are required to render some service in the labor of the house, if able.
The price of board on the third floor is six dollars per week, on the second floor eight dollars, the first floor being divided into private rooms which rent for fifteen or twenty dollars per week. During the year closing November, 1869. 236 patients received treatment in the Institution ; of these. 151 were cured, 13 improved, 6 discharged as incurable or unsuitable for this treatment, 6 died, leaving 60 still in the Hospital. The expenses of the Institution during the year
L
THE WOMAN'S HOSPITAL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 401
amounted to $22,000, of which sum $14,000 were received from the pay patients, and the remainder raised by subscrip- tions and donations. The surgical department, under the direction of the skillful Dr. Emmet, has been so organized that out-door patients are gratuitously treated three days in the week, and during the year 1,369 of this class had been admitted. The report of the year closing November, 1870, showed that 262 patients had been under treatment in the wards, of whom 167 were discharged cured, 17 improved, 12 received no benefit, and 9 died, leaving in the Hospital 57. Over eighteen hundred out-door patients had also received medical treatment. The annual expenses had slightly de- creased, as had also the receipts from the patients and from donations. Ovarian tumors of astonishing magnitude have been successfully removed at this Hospital.
The business of the association is conducted by a board of males styled governors, and an associate board of females termed supervisors .. A hundred ladies have pledged to sup- ply the annual deficiency in the finances, the liability of each not to exceed one hundred dollars. They deem this course preferable to fairs, lotteries, etc. The State, city, and com- munity have honored themselves in contributing toward the establishment of this much-needed Institution.
Thousands of physicians from all parts of our country have attended on clinical days, and returned to their own fields to put in practice the knowledge acquired.
The founder of the Institution has introduced the discovery into England and France, receiving distinguished honors from those nations, but, what is more desirable still, the satis- faction of knowing that his system for the amelioration of human suffering is being reduced to practice in all parts of Europe. -
During 1869 a modest gentleman, Mr. Baldwin, whose name was withheld until after his death, contributed the princely sum of $84,000 toward the erection of another pavilion, similar to the one in use. The association was still somewhat in debt on the present building, but this muniti- cent donation has imposed the duty of raising an additional $50,000 to complete the project, which will probably be ac- complished at no distant day. In 1868 Mr. Henry Young contributed $3,000 for the endowment of a bed which he is allowed to assign to such patients as he shall choose at all times. During the last year Mrs. Robert Ray and Mrs. H.
26
402
NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
D. Wyman have each contributed a similar sum. The managers desire to have these excellent examples followed until half of the beds in the Institution are free, and if a suf- ficient endowment could be secured it would be their pleasure to make the Woman's Hospital entirely free to every suffering female who may need its treatment.
The fame of the Woman's Hospital has spread through all the land. In the spring of 1870 the wife of an army officer, suffering under a malady pronounced incurable, came from Airzona. With the courage of a brave and true woman, stimulated by the love of life that she might still minister to husband and children, she travelled incessantly fourteen days and nights, through the three thousand miles that separated her from the goal of her hopes. When presented to the surgeon-in-chief, he informed her with marked kindness that the chances were sadly against her. She calmly scanned his face for a moment, and then replied, " Before I saw your face, sir, I feared I should die; but now I know I shall live." Faith and skill wrought together, she recovered, and carried to her distant home grateful memories of the Woman's Hospital.
-
EF
INSTITUTION FOR THE RELIEF OF THE RUPTURED AND CRIPPLED.
(Corner of Lexington avenue and Forty-second street.)
The generations of the last two centuries have been re- nowned above all others for those discoveries and inventions which minister to the wants of suffering humanity. The physical sciences have always been slow in their development, vet with these the art of healing is most intimately connected. It is sometimes said that little progress has been made in literature during the last two thousand years.
Modern authors do not surpass the ancient classics, modern orators have not equalled Demosthenes and Cicero, and the volumes of modern poets are laid aside for those of Homer and Virgil. Euclid, who flourished three centuries before Christ, has not been excelled by geometricians ; astronomers have improved little on La Place, and law has improved but slowly since the days of Blackstone and Mansfield.
Medical science, however, has advanced with rapid strides in our day, diminishing suffering and greatly lengthening the period of human life. > Statistics show that longevity has in- creased in Paris, since 1805, seventy-one .per cent., and that
404
NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
while the annual deaths of London in 1780 were one in twenty of the population, in our day they are reduced to one in forty. The great increase of hospitals, infirmaries, and dispensaries, during the last quarter of a century, has evinced decided progress in the right direction, exhibiting on the one hand a thoughtful generosity among the wealthy, and timely relief from the woes that afflict the indigent on the other. But while much was accomplished for the blind, the deaf- mute, for eye and ear patients, there still existed a very numerous class of ruptured and crippled for whose relief no institution had been founded. In 1804 a society was formed in London for the relief of the ruptured, which gave advice and trusses to poor persons properly recommended. Several others have since sprung up from this example, but it is believed that the citizens of New York have the honor of founding the first institution for the gratuitous and thorough treatment of hernia and all classes of orthopedic surgery. The prime mover in this laudable enterprise was Dr. James Knight. In 1842, when public clinics were first introduced in our medical colleges, Dr. Valentine Mott, Professor of Surgery in the University Medical College of New York, ap- pointed Dr. Knight, who had devoted much attention to the construction of surgical apparatus and the treatment of deformity, to take charge of the orthopedic branch of the Institution. Vast numbers of poor cripples and ruptured persons applied for treatment, and Dr. Knight supplied not a few of them with surgical apparatus at his own expense, which drew heavily on his slender means, but which never- theless greatly enlarged his practice, and became in the end a source of wealth. At a later period Dr. Knight became one of the visitors of the New York Association for Improv- ing the Condition of the Poor, and on these visits he often found helpless cripples whom he believed might have been made useful and self-supporting if they had received proper treatment in early years. Dr. Knight had long felt the necessity of a society to undertake the improvement of this class of sufferers. Ile at different times issued circulars to the benevolent of the city, setting forth the subject, urging the importance of an organization, but received no response. . He next prepared a paper which he presented to the principal sur- geons, the mayor, and to several other distinguished gentle- men, who gave it their signatures. With this encouragement he next sought the co-operation of Mr. R. M. Hartley, the cor-
INSTITUTION FOR RELIEF OF RUPTURED AND CRIPPLED. 405
responding secretary of the Association for Improving the Con- dition of the Poor. This thoughtful philanthropist had long felt the necessity of such an institution, but had been deterred from any movement in that direction from want of profes- sional aid. He instantly recognized in Dr. Knight the aid he had so long needed, and on the 10th of April, 1862, he brought the subject before the managers of the Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, and intro- duced the Doctor to that body. After due consideration, the Society was, on the 27th of March, 1863, incorporated under the art of 1848. The private residence of Dr. Knight, No. 97 Second avenue, was rented at a moderate price, the managers pledged to defray the expenses of the enter- prise for three years, and on the first day of May the Institution was opened with Dr. Knight as resident physician and surgeon. During the first month 66 patients were treated, 10 of whom were taken into the Institution, and at the close of the year the number amounted to 828. With each succeeding year the number has increased, amounting in the year just closed to 2,507, or 11,764 during the first seven years; and even this number would have been quadrupled but for the lack of accommodations. It has been ascertained that at least one in fifteen of the population is ruptured ; persons of all ages, from the youngest infant to the octogenarian, being thus afflicted. - These cases are largely among the poor and laboring classes, unable to purchase trusses and other surgical appliances. The children in the Institution present many sad examples of deformity. . There are cases under treatment for lateral curratures, spinal and hip diseases, deformed limbs, paralytic affections, club-feet, weak ankles, weak knees, bow legs, and white swelling. Scores of astonishing recoveries occur annually of those who a few years since would have been pronounced incurable, and left to limp or crawl to an early grave. Another class of patients are those suffering from varicose veins, which are relieved by the laced stocking. which, like suitable trusses, spring supporters for hip diseases, and utero-abdominal supporters, have always heretofore been far beyond the reach of the poor on account of their costli- ness. The society manufactures its own instruments at less than one-fourth the price hitherto paid All indigent persons applying receive counsel, and any of these instruments needed, gratuitously. The building in Second avenue was purchased in 1866, but was never able to accommodate over thirty, and
406
NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
as most of those admitted are compelled to remain from six to eighteen months, and a few even longer, hundreds were annually turned away, who, with careful in-door treatment, could have been saved from a life of deformity and suffering. The manifest necessity for the movement, and its auspicious beginnings, led the managers to appeal to the public for the means to found, on a firm basis, a suitable institution. This has been responded to by a number of benevolent gentlemen, among whom may be mentioned Chauncey Rose, Esq., who has contributed the handsome sum of ninety thousand dollars. The Legislature, in 1867, enlarged their charter, granting power to hold real estate to the amount of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and personal to the amount of one hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars. It also granted, through the Supervisors of New York county, twenty-five thousand dollars toward building. The new edifice was entered by the sur- geon and patients in the spring of 1870, and formally opened with appropriate exercises on the eleventh of the following November.
When the edifice was finished, an indebtedness of $50,000 remained on the property. John C. Green, Esq., the president of the society, nobly proposed to donate the sum of $50,000, if the board of managers would within thirty days collect a similar sum, which was soon accomplished, sweeping away all encumbrances with a stroke, and leaving $50,000 as the foundation of a permanent endowment fund.
The building occupies five lots of ground on the north-west corner of Lexington avenue and Forty-second street. The ground plan consists of a central portion one hundred and fifteen by forty-five feet, to which are attached semi-circular wings of twenty-two feet radius at three angles, two facing the south on Forty-second street, and one at the north-east angle on Lexington avenue. A wing, rectangular in form, thirty-two by twenty-two feet, is also attached to the north- west angle. The heavy walls, which are seventy-nine feet high, are of brick, trimmed with Ohio free and Connecticut brown stone, their blended colors forming a grateful relief to the eye. The basement, which is ten feet high, contains a reception hall, with seats for one hundred out-patients, consulta- tion-rooms, kitchen, dining-room, store-rooms, laundry, and the manufacturing department for the construction and repairs of surgico-mechanical appliances. The first floor, reached by a broad flight of steps, is bisected by a spacious hallway,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.