USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume II > Part 14
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Hygiene; and George B. Wallace, Professor of Pharmacology. After the grant of the charter, Professor E. McClung, head of the Department of Zoology at the University of Pennsylvania, addressed the members. After the ceremonies a formal dinner was held at the Faculty Club. Dr. Holmes C. Jackson, head of the Department of Physiology and Dean of the College of Dentistry, presided. The speakers were Clarence E. Davies, Acting Secretary of Sigma Xi; Chancellor Elmer Ellsworth Brown; Dean Archibald L. Bouton of the College of Arts and Pure Science; Dean Charles Henry Snow of the College of Engineering, and Professor Arthur F. Hill.
Libraries in The Bronx-The libraries in The Bronx include some of considerable importance. "While the residents of the trans-Harlem section of the Metropolis are at least equal in point of intelligence and education, to the inhabitants of any other city in the United States, the library facilities of the Borough of The Bronx are entirely inadequate to the needs of the community," wrote W. H. Clarke in the "North Side News" in 1900. "The Huntington Free Library in Westchester Village, the library of the Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip on Ogden Avenue, the Kingsbridge Library, the Riverdale Library, and the branch library connected with the Mott Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church are the only libraries in the city north of the Harlem River. These institutions are well patronized in their respective localities, and serve a useful purpose within certain circumscribed limits, but their influence for good is necessarily restricted, and they are of little benefit to the great mass of the people. Bronx residents desirous of consulting en- cyclopedias and other books of reference are still obliged to visit Manhattan with that object in view; and Bronx boys and girls who wish to procure for reading purposes books of various descriptions must, under existing conditions, either purchase the volumes outright or borrow them from the Manhattan libraries. Such a state af affairs is peculiar to the Borough of The Bronx, and would not be tolerated in cities like Detroit, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, each of which has a population approximating to that of The Bronx.
"At least half a dozen circulating and reference libraries are urgently needed in our borough. There should be one on Willis Avenue or St. Ann's Avenue, in the vicinity of One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street ; another near the Eagle Avenue public school, a third on Tremont Avenue, a fourth in Fordham, a fifth at West Farms, and a sixth at Wakefield. Our boys and girls must have books to read after school hours and during vacation, not school books, but suitable and reputable works of fiction, together with books of adventure, as well as works devoted to history, poetry, and general literature. Such works, judiciously selected, cannot be placed within easy reach of our young people, except by means of free circulating libraries like those down-
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town, and the establishment of such libraries in our borough will become an accomplished fact at no distant date, provided the citizens of The Bronx make up their minds to give active support to the project.
"The writer respectfully suggests that the clergymen, lawyers, school teachers, physicians, real estate men and well-known residents of The Bronx get together and form an association having for its object the establishment of free libraries and reading rooms in the borough. The undertaking seems formidable but it is in reality quite feasible. Once set the ball rolling, and there is public spirit enough among the people of the borough to bring the good work to an early and satisfactory conclusion. An interchange of views on the subject, through the columns of the 'North Side News,' would lead to highly desirable results. Editorial approval and indorsement in a matter of such interest and importance to the general community, may safely be assured, and it is to be hoped that, concerning the library question, the opinions and suggestions of leading and influential citizens of The Bronx may soon be laid before the public through the medium of the press. Free and intelligent discussion is sure to be followed by appropriate action, and the excellent work of our public and private institutions of learning, will, as a result, be aided and supplemented by a free library system worthy of our borough and its inhabitants."
Since these words were written a number of valuable libraries have grown up in The Bronx. The following lists includes both recent libraries and some that existed in the district in the last century : Bronx (Borough) Municipal Library, Tremont and Third avenues, founded 1911; Bronx Society of Arts, Science, and History, Mansion, Bronx Park, founded 1905; Fordham University Library, Fordham, founded 1841; Fordham University College of Pharmacy, Fordham, New York; Fordham University Law School Library; Fordham University School of Medicine, founded 1910; Montefiore Hospital Medical Library, East 210th Street, near Jerome Avenue, founded 1913; New York University Library, University Heights, West 181st Street.
In addition to the libraries mentioned above of course there are in The Bronx numerous branches of the New York Public Library. Need- less to say the population of the borough makes good use of all of them. The multiplication of libraries is having a manifest effect on the general education of the people, for the news and the ablest thought of the world are thus made available to them, so that they are in a position to do their own thinking and are able to measure also their own ability with the minds of those who have given the world its classics. The literary associations of The Bronx are neither few nor unimportant. and the presence of numerous schools and numerous libraries, and two great universities make people in the North Side exceedingly san- guine about the borough's intellectual future.
CHAPTER XV THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
Health service, hospital service, the medical profession, the care of the sick-these things have, of course, seen a great development in The Bronx as in the other parts of the city of New York. The Bronx has a number of large hospitals; and a great proportion of the medical profession practices on the northern side of the Harlem River. But of course the development in hospital and philanthropic service in The Bronx has been only a recent development. In earlier days, in West- chester County, and in New York things were more primitive, and less scientific. The last couple of generations have seen improvements in these respects greatly exceeding the development in all the generations before.
In 1890 the Borough of The Bronx contained about forty practicing physicians within its area. In 1905 the directory published by the New York State Medical Association contains the names and addresses of two hundred and seventeen by actual count, and adding those that came later it was in 1906 estimated that there were nearly three hundred physicians to a population estimated by the Board of Health to July 1, 1905, of 294,939. In 1890 there was not a single bed nor a hospital in the borough for accident or emergency cases, all such having to be sent to, or called for, from the Harlem Reception Hospital, located in East 120th Street. Fifteen years later there were three hospitals for such cases, with 630 beds, and two more nearing completion, increasing the capacity to 1,100 beds when finished. In addition there were three hospitals for chronic invalids and one for contagious diseases, which had been established for some years, bringing the entire number of beds for all cases in 1905 to 2,330 for the entire borough.
The Yonkers Medical Society in the last century held monthly meet- ings in the houses of the various members, giving the local physician occasion to drive to Yonkers, through dark and muddy roads, to return home in the "wee sma" hours of the morning. Later The Bronx had a representative Medical Society which held monthly meetings and was within reach of everybody. The number of drug stores in The Bronx Borough in 1890 could be counted upon the fingers of both hands, but later there was one to about every four physicians. The Health Depart- ment, previous to 1896, was represented by two physicians to investigate and report upon every case of contagious disease reported to the depart- ment within the borough. For this purpose it was divided into two
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districts, the eastern extending from the Harlem River on the south to the city line at Woodlawn on the north, and east from Jerome Avenue to Long Island Sound. The last representative for this district before the Health Department staff was increased was Dr. William J. O'Byrne, who also acted as special diagnostician for this territory, but including on the south down to 90th Street. On the west side extending west of Jerome Avenue to the city limits, Dr. Parsons, of Kingsbridge, per- formed similar services. For their arduous labors these gentlemen were paid $1,500 per annum. Ten years later the Health Department of The Bronx consisted of one Assistant Sanitary Superintendent at a salary of $3,500 per annum, one Assistant Registrar of Vital Statistics at $3,000 per annum, four Sanitary, seven Medical and two Food Inspectors, one Veterinarian, one Laboratory Assistant, six Disinfec- tants, and seven School Inspectors, besides clerks and other help, mak- ing the entire number of employees about forty, at a yearly salary list aggregating about $47,000, exclusive of free diphtheria antitoxin, free vaccinations for the poor and during smallpox epidemics, the summer corps of physicians to visit the tenements during hot weather and treat the poor gratis; about twenty board of health stations for the distribu- tion of antitoxin and the collection of diphtheria, typhoid and malariual cultures, or the sputum of tubercular patients, for diagnostic purposes, rent or any other running expenses. So that the salary list did not at that time cover all the city spent in looking after the health of its in- habitants. The local branch of the department was located at No. 1237 Franklin Avenue, and was opened early in the year 1898.
At that time Dr. G. H. E. Starke wrote: "The health of The Bronx compares as favorably as any other borough composing the city of New York. The statistics of the Board of Health, though, show a larger mortality rate for the Borough of The Bronx than others, which is easily accounted for by the number of institutions for chronic invalids, which alone comprise 880 beds, where they are gathered from all over the city and come here to die. It has been calculated that 27 per cent of the deaths taking place in The Bronx should be distributed over the city at large to place the local death rate of its residents at its true level.
"It is worthy of remark that the year 1903 had an exceptionally low mortality rate for The Bronx in spite of its handicap and in spite of the fact that la grippe, pneumonia and other epidemic diseases raged just as much as in other years. It may probably be partly accounted for by a cool summer, which greatly decreased infant mortality, systematic school inspection for the prevention of contagious diseases among school children, and a generally improved sanitary condition as regards street cleaning, the disposal of refuse, tenement house inspection and the more scattered areas of new buildings giving each its share of fresh air and sunshine and the absence of overcrowding, such as exists on the
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lower East Side, which is as yet a stranger to this district. The large increase in the death rate for the year 1904 is caused by the Slocum disaster, which happened in the borough, and as the deaths occurred here they were charged against this borough, though the majority lived in Manhattan."
The First Hospitals-The first hospital to be established by the city and opened to the general public for accident and emergency cases in The Bronx was the Fordham Hospital, in 1892, then on Valentine Avenue, near Kingsbridge Road, as a branch of Bellevue Hospital and containing twenty-five beds. In 1898 an increased population made such demands upon its capacity that removal to more commodious quarters at Aqueduct Avenue and St. James Place became necessary, where twenty more beds were added. The latter place outgrew its usefulness and by 1906 new quarters were erected by the city on Southern Boule- vard and Crotona Avenue, at a cost of more than half a million dollars, with room for one hundred and fifty beds, suitable quarters for doctors, nurses, etc., in auxiliary buildings, giving The Bronx a thoroughly up- to-date and modern establishment for all requirements. The territory covered by their ambulance was made to extend from 170th Street east to City Island and the city limits on the north and west.
Though the Lincoln Hospital and Home of the City of New York, formerly the Colored Home and Hospital, located at East 141st Street and Concord Avenue, west of the Southern Boulevard, was incorporated in 1845, it was restricted for colored people until 1901, when it was opened to the general public and an ambulance service added in 1902, to cover the territory south of 149th Street to the Harlem River, east and west. It was altered to maintain a general hospital for the medical and surgical treatment of pay and free patients, without distinction of race, creed or color, having separate buildings for consumptive and maternity patients, and a detached pavilion for infectious diseases. It was made to provide a home for the support and comfort of aged, infirm and destitute colored persons of both sexes; a home for in- curables, and a training school for colored nurses was established in 1898. The buildings have a capacity of four hundred beds. It is sup- ported by voluntary subscriptions, donations, bequests, endowed beds and municipal grants.
Lebanon Hospital, at Westchester and Cauldwell avenues, previously the Ursuline Convent, was opened to the public on Washington's Birth- day in 1893, with twenty-four beds, for acute cases for all creeds, color or nationality. An ambulance service was added in 1901 to cover the territory from 149th to 170th streets. In 1904, owing to the larger de- mands made upon it, its capacity was gradually increased to two hun- dred beds. From the beginning it stood forth as a good example of
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the fine philanthropy of the Jewish population in looking after the sick and helpless, being supported principally by voluntary subscriptions and donations. It was intended to be open to free and pay patients alike, with a free dispensary connected with it.
Riverside Hospital at North Brother Island was opened in 1885 in charge of the Board of Health exclusively for contagious diseases, which could not be safely isolated at home, or which were received from the Quarantine Department of the State of New York. It was arranged on the pavilion plan, of which there were ten, with accommodations for 350 patients. Afterwards it came to be used for scarlet fever, diph- theria, measles, and tuberculosis, but during the smallpox epidemic of 1900 to 1902 it was used for the isolation of patients suffering from that disease only.
A hospital that began to be constructed in 1904 was the St. Francis, taking in the entire block from 142nd to 143rd streets and Brook and St. Ann's avenues, with its main and auxiliary buildings. The cost in- volved was considerable for a charitable hospital, most of it being de- frayed by voluntary subscriptions. It was designed to take the place of the old Fifth Street Hospital and was placed in the charge of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Poor, by whom the St. Joseph's Hospital, adjoining, was also run. The accommodation provided in the beginning was for 350 patients. More concerning this hospital and the others anon.
St. Joseph's Hospital for Consumptives in East 143rd to 144th streets from Brook to St. Ann's avenues, was established in 1882 and is in charge of the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis. It was exclusively for those afflicted with tuberculosis and was supported by voluntary subscriptions and donations entirely. It filled a long-felt want in so far that very few hospitals cared to receive that class of patients, and there they were taken in and cared for from all over the city. It was from the beginning made open to all creeds and nationalities, and had a ward devoted to the care of babies and children.
Seton Hospital at Spuyten Duyvil was incorporated in 1892 and opened in 1895 for consumptives only, by Sister Mary Irene of the Sisters of Charity, who took over the management. It had an annex for women and children. The location was most beautiful, overlooking the Hudson and Harlem rivers amid invigorating surroundings.
The Home for Incurables of Third Avenue, between 181st and 184th streets, occupying some ten acres of ground, was opened, as its name indicates, for patients of both sexes, suffering from incurable diseases other than contagious or infectious and not insane. It was incorporated in 1866 and opened the same year. The free and endowed beds were arranged to number one third of all the beds. It was supplied with its own chapel, sunlight parlors, library, smoking and billiard room for
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men, a separate building for its medical superintendent, and large open grounds for outdoor recreation. These sketches give an idea of medical institutions and medical conditions in The Bronx during the immediate years following the beginning of the twentieth century.
Eight Great Hospitals-Things in the second decade of the twentieth century had taken on notable development. There were then eight great. hospitals within the borough. Fordham Hospital, under the Depart- ment of Charities, established in 1882, after May 1, 1907, occupied the new building at Crotona Avenue and Southern Boulevard, not far from The Bronx "Zoo," a location extremely favorable for it will always be surrounded by open public park spaces, and will never have its light cut off, nor fail to receive a supply of clear, pure air. There was the city hospital of Riverside, situated on North Brother Island, where contagious and infectious diseases were taken care of, with accommoda- tions for five hundred patients. There was an enlarged Lincoln Hos- pital. While no colored line was drawn in the hospital service, the training school for nurses attached to the institution was restricted to colored women.
Writing in 1912 S. Jenkins describes the principal remaining hos- pitals in The Bronx thus :
Lebanon Hospital, located at Cauldwell and Westchester avenues, upon the site formerly occupied by the Ursuline Convent, was incorporated by a number of Jewish citizens in 1890. The present building was occupied in 1892; and there are two hundred and fifty beds, four ambulances, and a full complement of surgeons and nurses. From its central location in a thickly settled neighborhood, it is probably the busiest of The Bronx hospitals, as it makes no distinction as to religion in its services. Its name is almost invariably mispronounced, and it is called Le-ban-on by the people of the vicinity. It is supported by subscription and donations, and also by help from the city.
St. Francis's Hospital is in charge of the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis, and is situated between Brook and St. Ann's avenues and 142d and 143d streets. It has been located here since 1906, and is a splendid up-to-date institution with over four hundred beds. It treats patients of every and all creeds, colors, and nationalities; and for its treatment of non-paying poor, it receives aid from the city.
St. Joseph's Hospital, under Sisters of the same order, is situated on the block above St. Francis's; but its doors, while open to all creeds and nationalities, are closed to all cases except those of consumption, all stages of which are taken care of. There are five hundred beds, over four hundred of which are free to the poor, of whom there were 2,111 treated from October 1, 1910, to September 30, 1911. The hospital was opened here on January 1, 1889; and it is maintained by private subscriptions and donations, though the city helps for the care of poor patients.
Union Hospital was started in the spring of 1911 for the treatment of all ail- ments, and for general hospital work. It occupies the Eden mansion, the former home of Fordham Hospital. It is backed by the Episcopal Church and by a number of the leading physicians of the Borough.
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Early Care of the Sick-The extent to which the early Dutch Colony provided for the care of the sick was largely a matter of conjecture. We know there were "comforters of the sick," but their function was ministerial. It is presumed there were pest houses; certainly in 1658, a "hospital of sorts" was set up for the accommodation of sick soldiers who had previously been billeted on private families, and for the West India Company's negroes. Surgeon Hendrickson Varrevanger, who had made the request for the hospital, was the superintendent, and Hiletje Wilburch was appointed matron. Little is known of this first house of healing on Manhattan, and, though it is recorded that in 1680 the Governor sold the old Hospital of the "Five Houses" for two hundred pounds for the purpose of erecting more serviceable buildings, we hear no more of any other hospitals in New York for about a century. During English colony days a division of the public alms- house cared for the indigent sick and in 1758 it is recorded the city purchased Kennedy's Island, now called Bedloe's Island, as a site for the location of a pest house.
The New York Hospital, built just before and occupied directly after the Revolution, ranks as the oldest separate hospital of the city. As it was chartered by King George in 1771, and erected in 1776, its beginnings are wholly of the Revolutionary period and its first use was as a barracks for British soldiers. Except for a few wounded soldiers, patients were not admitted until 1791. In this period between the com- pletion of the building and its opening, it was the scene of the historic event known as the "Doctor's Mob." Dr. Richard Bailey, a physician of King's College, had been using some of the rooms for anatomical lectures. Rumors of the robbing of graveyards had been rife for some time; and, when a small boy looking through the window of the lios- pital, beheld the doctor busy at a post mortem, he lost no time in reporting the awful sight to his father, a stone mason. Then the trouble started; a mob was soon storming the hospital and the doctors were obliged to take refuge in jail.
Intimate glimpses of hospital conditions at the beginning of the nine- teenth century are afforded in a fascinating and quaintly characteristic book of the period entitled "The Journal of the Stated Preacher to the Hospital and Almhouse in the City of New York, for the Year of Our Lord, 1811." The author was the Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely, Presbyterian, who in 1810 began visiting and preaching to institution inmates. Be- fore that, as the introduction recites, the Almshouse and Hospital had no "Gospel Privileges." Mr. Ely began his missionary labors on his own initiative and sympathy; but before the end of the year a sub- scription was taken up among the members of the Presbyterian and Dutch churches for hospital preaching, and Mr. Ely was formerly retained as their "stated preacher." The funds soon ran out, but the
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stated preacher seems to have gone on just the same, exhorting, pray- ing, and no doubt comforting. His daily experiences are recorded in detail, as for instance: "I went by request to pray with two females ... One is an aged widow who is pious, and who, I believe, will recover, to limp along thru life, on two crutches, to everlasting glory." Through his pages we learn that the Hospital in this period was ad- mitting no fewer than a thousand patients during the year, and that an institution "more benevolent, or better regulated, for the relief of the sick and insane, cannot be found in America."
About the same period the city had a number of other institutions in the hospital line. The City Directory of 1802 records, besides the New York Hospital, the City Dispensary, supported by voluntary subscrip- tions, and whose patrons "have the right of recommending a certain number of patients, according to the amount of their donations" and the "New York Institution for the Inoculation of the Kine Pock." By 1805, the latter had been united to the Dispensary. In 1806, the New York Lying-In Hospital appears in the list. The Society had been incorporated as early as 1799; and it still maintains a hospital at Second Avenue, 17th and 18th streets, for the free care of women who cannot afford the necessary medical attention.
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