History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 193

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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From the first the hospital proved a success, and subscriptions poured in for its support both from this country and Europe. Among its early benefactors were Chief Justice William Allen, Matthew Koplin, Dr. John Fothergill, Thomas Hyam, David Barclay. Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Edward Shippen, Samuel Coates, Dr. Lettsom, Samuel Cooper, William West, Charles Nichols, John Keble, Paul Siemen, Stephen Girard. Dr. George B. Wood mentions notable citi- zens,-Jones, Griffitts, Fox, Roberdeau, Greenleaf, Richardson, Mifflin, Lewis, Wharton, Morris, Logan, and others who acted as managers in the provincial times; Shippen, Evans, Morgan, and Moore, who served as physicians and surgeons ; Allen, Crosby, Denny, Emlen, Hamilton, Norris, Neat, Osborne, and Pemberton, who, during the first ten years, contrib- uted most largely to its funds.

Purchases were made at different times, on reason- able terms, of the square of ground lying east and of the half-square lying west of the proper hospital lot. In April, 1776, according to a statement entered on the minutes of the board of managers, the whole capi- tal stock, independently of the buildings and the lot upon which they stood, estimating the real estate at cost. was somewhat over £21,000, or about 856,000, and the annual income from the productive capital was £1318, or about $3500.

The number of patients admitted annually into the hospital increased gradually from 53, in the second year of its operations, to 153 in the year 1760-61, 382 in 1770-71, and 435 in the year preceding the declara- tion of independence, the average proportion of pay- patients throughout this period being only a little more than one-sixth. The average numbers in the hospital at the same time, in the years mentioned, were, respectively, 17, 45, 117, and 89, the last number indicating some falling off consequent upon the Revo- lutionary troubles.

So early as 1766, Dr. Thomas Bond proposed to deliver a course of clinical lectures to the students, and, the proposition being approved by the managers, commenced in November with an introductory lecture, which was so highly thought of by the board that it was copied into their minute-book. From that time clinical lectures have been given more or less regu- larly in the hospital, either in the form of remarks

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MEDICAL PROFESSION.

at the bedside as the students were conducted through the wards, or, when they have been too numerous to be thus conducted, by regular lectures in the amphi- theatre, to which the patients were conveyed.

Another interesting event in the early history of the hospital was the establishment of the medical library, at present one of its greatest boasts. This event followed directly from the system of clinical instruction. The managers having referred to the physicians and surgeons for the subject of fees from | medical students attending the hospital, the latter met in May, 1763, and agreed to propose that a certain sum should be demanded from every attending student not an apprentice of one of the medical officers of the hospital, to be applied to the establishment of a medi- ical library. This appropriation met the approval of the board, and thus began that splendid collection of medical books, unequaled probably on this conti- nent, and surpassed by few libraries exclusively med- ical in the world.

The internal business of the house was superintended by a steward and matron, and the direct care of the patients under the physicians was intrusted to stu- dents or apprentices living within the institution, who were supposed to derive from the experience acquired a full compensation for their services.

The British army upon entering Philadelphia dur- ing the Revolution took possession of its wards, ap- propriating the bedding, medicines, instruments, etc., to their own uses, and, though the building was re- stored by them to the managers, the mischief done was not repaired, and no compensation made for the losses inflicted.

The institution received from time to time pecuniary aid from the Legislature amounting in 1796 to over seventy thousand dollars, applicable to the erection of additional buildings. At a meeting in 1794 it was determined to provide accommodations as soon as possible for the insane, and the western wing, with the wards connecting it with the central portion, was first undertaken. This was so far completed as to be opened for the reception of patients in 1796. In con- sequence of the great rise in the price of materials and the slow incoming of portions of the legislative grant, the progress with the remainder of the house was less rapid than had been anticipated, and it was not till 1805 that the central portion was finished and the original plan carried into effect.

In January, 1803, a lying-in department for poor and deserving married women went into operation, and in December, 1807, a regular dispensary for out- door patients was established, and physicians were appointed to attend it at a small salary. Upon the establishment of the Philadelphia Dispensary the hospital dispensary was abandoned in January, 1817.

In September, 1800, the managers wrote to Benja- min West, the celebrated artist, soliciting a contribu- tion from his pencil. This request received a favor- able answer from West, who suggested as the subject

of the painting the text of Scripture " And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them." In August, 1810, it was announced that the picture was ready to ship to America, but it excited so much admiration in England that West could not resist the liberal offer made to him to allow the painting to remain. He, however, immediately engaged in the preparation of a copy, which he said should excel the original. This famous picture of "Christ Healing the Sick" reached this country in Oc- tober, 1817, and was immediately placed in a building which had been specially erected for its reception, upon the hospital lot on Spruce Street. Having been opened for exhibition, at the price of twenty- five cents for admission, it attracted for many years throngs of visitors, which yielded to the institution more than fifteen thousand dollars profit. About 1851 the painting was removed to the Academy of Fine Arts, where it still remains, and the building was leased to the College of Physicians. When the college removed to their new building, the picture- house, as it was called, was leased to the Historical Society.

A marble bust of William Penn, supposed to be the first executed in this country, was presented by James Traquair in June, 1802, and the leaden statue of the same great man, which has long stood in front of the hospital, was received as a gift from his grand- son, John Penn, in September, 1804.

The productive capital, which, at the lowest period of its depression, in 1783, was, in round numbers, twenty-seven thousand dollars, gradually increased in the several decades after that year to forty-five thousand in 1793, sixty-two thousand in 1803, one hundred and twenty-four thousand in 1813, one hun- dred and seventy-two thousand in 1823, and two hun- dred and sixty thousand in 1833. The income from capital, during about an equal period, rose by corre- sponding gradations from one thousand dollars, its lowest point, in 1796, to nearly fifteen thousand in 1835. The operations of the charity, of course, cor- responded with the means, and the number of annual admissions increased from 78 in 1790 to 176 in 1800, 368 in 1810, 749 in 1820, and to 1130 in 1830, after which the average for several years was somewhat over 1000.

In the first hundred years which elapsed after its foundation the hospital received and treated 51,116 patients, of whom 29,863 were upon the poor list.

For the first ten years after the separation of the two branches, 13,829 were admitted to the City Hos- pital, of whom 9800 were poor, and 1878 into the Hospital for the Insane, of whom 466 were poor.

In the year ending in May, 1851, the number re- ceived into the City Hospital was 1935, of whom 1416 were on the charity list, and the average population of the house was 158, with 120 poor. In the Hospi- tal for the Insane, 206 were admitted during the year, 53 of them poor, and the average population of the

1672

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

house was 216. From the foundation of the hospital in 1751 to the date of the report, Jan. 1, 1851, 6062 insane patients had been admitted and treated, of whom 1000 were on the charity list.

In the five years from 1551 to 1855, inclusive, the whole number of patients received into the wards was 8845, of which number 6117 were on the free list and 1728 were pay-patients, making a percentage of 72 free. From 1872 to 1876, inclusive, the whole number received was 9250, of which 7088 were free and 2163 pay, or 76 percentage of poor.

At their meeting in May, 1831, it was decided that a separate asylum for the insane was expedient, and in May, 1832, the managers gave authority to sell the vacant gronnds east, west, and southwest of the hospital, in order to raise money for the new build -. ings. These lots had been purchased originally for $8917.27, and were sold for three hundred and twenty- five thousand dollars, and the sum expended npon the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, which was erected on a farm extending from the Haverford to the West Chester road, west of Forty-third Street. The corner-stone of the building was laid June 22, 1830, and the house was opened for the reception of patients upon the first day of the year 1841. In 1851 the west wing of the hospital, which, before 1841, was devoted to the insane patients, was completely re- modeled, so as to make two wards,-the lower story devoted to the women's surgical, the upper to the women's medical wards. The centre building was also greatly modified. Among other changes, the new library had been built from what had been pre- viously the women's medical wards. The east wing was being remodeled. The long ward, connecting the centre with the wing fronting on Eighth Street, was taken down, and the two long wards erected as they now stand. These wards have no alcoves like those of the west wing. The east wing was not taken down, but considerable changes were made in it. This part of the house was devoted to the male pa- tients, the lower stories to surgical, and the upper to medical patients. The repairs to, and other changes made in the centre building and the east wing in 1851 and 1852 cost $59,949,59. The cost of repairing the west wing, in 1846-48, was $17,865.28, and that of fitting up the library was $3146.35. The latter expense was paid out of the medical fund.

Another change, made in 1×51, was the closing of the lying-in ward, at first for the purpose of making room for the other patients during the repairs to the main buildings. The ward was finally closed by a vote of the board in 1853. It had cost twenty thou- and dollars more than its whole fund, principal and nterest.

In 1864, at the annual meeting of the contributors n the month of May, the managers applied for, and received authority to "appeal to our fellow-citizens on the endeavor to raise an amount sufficient to cover The encroachment on our capital of previous years

(which necessity compelled, of some forty thousand dollars, as well as the probable deficiency of the pres- ent year, of at least an equal sum, it being supposed there would be an increased expenditure necessary in the cost of living, and the result has shown the cor- rectness of this opinion."

The appeal was made, and, though the applications for money at this time, in consequence of the war, were innumerable, the managers obtained the sum of $65,055 by contributions. Soon after this a strong appeal was made by the medical and surgical staff, several thousand copies of which were distributed. Aided by this renewed invitation to the charitable. the committee raised $34,948.27 additional. Ont of this total, $100,003.27, the indebtedness to the capital of $40,000 was refunded, and, after paying the year's (1865) deficiency of $42,000, the surplus of $18.000 was merged in the capital.

In 1866 the managers were still struggling for the support of the hospital, and, in concert with a com- mittee of the contributors, issued a strong appeal to the publie, stating that "the present current expenses of the institution require about fifteen thousand dol- lars per annum more than its income from investments and pay-patients." The number of patients in the hospital at this time was one hundred and seventy- one, and of these, one hundred and thirty-three were on the free list. The cost of the hospital for the fiscal year (1865) was 857,481.32, while the income from investments and from pay-patients had been 842,122.77.

In the following year, ending May, 1867, under the appeal just referred to, there was received $20,400, to be added to the capital fund, and $136,536. to be paid by instalments running through periods of three, four. and five years, as contributions to the annual expenses.

To afford every facility for instruction to the stu- dents of medicine and surgery, a new room for clinical and operating purposes was erected to the north of the centre building, to accommodate about five hundred seats. This room cost $27,072.10, of which $12,742.80 were raised by subscription. It was formally opened on the 9th of January, 1869.

In the autumn of 1869 the dean of the faculty of the Female Medical College applied to the board of managers for the admission of their students to the regular clinical courses. The managers gave their permission on the ground that, by the rules of the hospital then in use, all students of institutions recog- nized by the State laws were to be admitted to the common benefits of the hospital clinical instruction. The women came to one of the lectures very soon after this, taking their seats in the amphitheatre in the midst of the regular men's class. There was a scene of considerable disorder, both during and after the lecture. The event caused a good deal of agita- tion in the medical schools of the city and among the medical students, which extended in a slight degree to the general public.

1673

MEDICAL PROFESSION.

In the following clinical session, 1870-71, the whole number of students in attendance was two hundred and six, and of these thirty-two were women, while in the previous year the number had been five hun- dred, of which number forty-two were women.

The matter was arranged at the meeting of the con- tributors in May, 1871, on the plan of having separate clinics for the two sexes, and, accordingly, the staff agreed to give, in addition to their regular semi-weekly lectures to the male students, one lecture a week to the women students. The consequence of this step was that the classes increased at the next session to the number of five hundred and eighty, the men counting five hundred and twenty, and the women sixty.

In 1861 the Pathological Mnsenm was located in the building on Spruce Street, afterward occupied by the Historical Society. In 1869, when the new lecture-room was opened for use, the museum was transferred to the basement room of that building. Under the care of several gentlemen it has became very valuable. In 1875 a course of lectures on patho- logicol anatomy, the only one in the city, was given by the pathologist and curator of the hospital. This course was illustrated by specimens in the museum.

About the year 1870 it was thought that many of the slighter surgical cases, which had been hitherto kept in the hospital at a great expense, might be treated as well on the dispensary plan, the patient coming as often as necessary to the hospital for the proper dressing. The rapid growth of this plan in- duced the managers, in 1873, to make it a separate department, and one physician and one surgeon were assigned to be on duty each day, except Sunday, at a certain hour, to prescribe for all who might apply. Two rooms, those to the north of the gateway in Eighth Street, were assigned to this purpose. During the year the number of applicants had risen to fifteen hundred and fifty-five, of which twelve hundred and thirty were surgical, and three hundred and twenty- five medical.

In 1876 the managers inaugurated for the depart- ment of the sick and wounded a plan which had al- ready been introduced into the insane department. This was the institution of a system of free beds for the poor. Any one, by a gift to the hospital of the sum of five thousand dollars, secured a bed in the hospital always to be occupied by a poor patient.

To provide accommodations for the insane, a new building was begun on the 7th of July, 1856, and opened for the reception of patients on the 27th of October, 1859.

" It is situated," says the report of that year, " in full view and on the western side of the buildings previously in use, ut a distance in a right line of six hundred and forty-eight yards, and in the midst of fifty acres of pleasure-grounds and gardens, the whole of which are surrounded by A substantial stone wall, covered with flagging, and of an average height of ten and a half feet. The gate of entrance is on Forty-ninth Street (ao avenue intended to be one hundred feet wide), between Market and Haverford Streets, and by each of which, by means of horse railroads, easy access lo Forty-nioth Street can be had at all seasons.

"This new hospital faces the west, and consists of a centre building, with wings running north and south, making a front ef five hundred and twelve feet; of ether wings, connected with each of those just re- ferred to, running each a distance of one hundred and sixty-seven feet, all three stories high, and these last having at their extreme ends com- munications with extensive ooe-storied buildings. All the exterior walls arc of stone, stuccoed, aod the interior are of brick.

" The centre building is one hundred and fifteen by seventy-three feet. It has a handsome Doric portico of granite in front, and is sor- mounted by a dome of good proportioos, in which are placed the iren tanks from which the whole building is supplied with water. The lao- tero on the dome is one hundred and nineteen feet from the pavement, and from it is a beautiful panoramic view of the fertile and highly-im- proved surrounding country, the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, and the city of Philadelphia, with its many prominent objects of interest."

The new building had cost, with its various fixtures and arrangements, up to 1859, $322,542.86, and $30,000 additional were required to meet other liabilities that had been incurred.

The next step taken by the managers was the re- pair and improvement of the original building, which had now become the department of females. It was put in thorough repair, and cost about twenty-five thousand dollars. In 1867 a new building was com- menced, and finished in 1868, for a new ward to the women's department. It was opened for use in De- cember, 1868, and was called the "Fisher Ward," in honor of Joseph Fisher, who died in 1862, leaving to the hospital 857,511.57, to be devoted to this purpose. Some years later, in 1873, when a second building of the same kind was erected from the funds of the same estate, the former was called the "South Fisher Ward," and the latter the "North Fisher Ward." The South Fisher Ward cost $24,850; the North Fisher Ward building $31,250.01.

In 1864 there was erected, by the generous liber- ality of some friends, for the special benefit and amnsement of the patients, a new building, called the Gymnastic Hall, near the north return wing of the department for females.

On the 6th of May, 1882, the Mary Shields Ward in the female department of the insane was opened. It cost $29,058.58, and was named after Mary Shields, a liberal benefactor of the hospital. During 1882 the wards on the second and third floors of the north house, which was rebuilt in 1881, designed for the treatment of offensive surgical cases, was brought into nse.

The work of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the year ending April 28, 1883, is shown in the fol- · lowing exhibits taken from the records of the insti- tution :

Io the Pine Street Hospital the new cases admitted during the year were.

1,967

The number of beds occupied 2,136

The number of recent accidents (or surgical cases brought to the hospital within twenty-four hours after their uc- currence) 718

The out-patient department makes the following report of visita, viz .:

Surgical

20,716

Medicul ..

2,735

. Eye and Ear.

3,846

. Gynecological .. 88

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

In the department for the Insane the number of patients treated during the farty-second year of utg mization in its present locality, distinct only ns a branch of the in-11. tution of the contributors to the Pennsylvanin Bosjutal, W'ILR.

The expenditure of the department for the lusthe as re- ported for their last fiscal year ending Jan. 1, 1883, were, for both males and females.

Thelr receipts were.

$182. 1:24 1-1,521.40

The numberof free patients maintained was forty -four, at a cost of 18,859.70 The Pine Street hospital expenses for aurgical, medical, and out-patient wurde were .... G1,732.37

It appears that the large sum of $58,975.21 was ex- pended in gratuitous relief to the sick and wounded, while the whole work of all departments has been performed at a cost of $244,045.63.

Since the foundation of the hospital, in 1751, there have been admitted 108,118 patients, of whom 72,823 were poor persons, supported at the expense of the institution. Of these 108,118 patients there have been

Cured ..

69,469

Relieved and improved.

15,203

Left the hospital without niaterial improvement. 8,114

Discharged for misconduct or eloped, 2.301

Pregnant women safely delivered ... 1.338

Infants born and discharged in health. 1,258

Died

16,116

Total.

107,949

Remaining ....

169

Grand Total

10%,118

William Biddle, the president of the board of managers of Pennsylvania Hospital, was born in Phil- adelphia, May 17, 1806. He is the son of John and Elizabeth Canby Biddle, and is fifth in descent from William Biddle, of Bishopgate Street, London, who emigrated to West Jersey, and settled at Burlington about the year 1680.

William Biddle took a deep interest in the af- fairs of the new colony, was a member of the Gov- ernor's Council, of the Assembly, and of the Council of Proprietors of West Jersey, of which latter body he was for a long time president. From him is de- seended the large family of the name of Biddle so well and favorably known in Philadelphia.

In the war of the Revolution, Owen Biddle, grand- father of the subject of this sketch, took an active part, holding among other colonial offices that of a commissary in the army. Owen Biddle was by birth a Friend, and when the war came to a successful elose he returned to the faith of his fathers.

William Biddle was educated in the Friends' schools, and from his early manhood has been iden- tified with the educational and benevolent institu- tions of this eity. In 1834 he was elected director, " and later eontroller of the publie schools, serving in this capacity for many years. In 1840 he became a manager of the Magdalene Asylum, serving for more than forty years. In 1840 he was elected a director of Girard College, and was among the fore- most in the organization of this institution, which was first opened for scholars Jan. 1, 1847. He held this position for fourteen years, and was also a mem- ber of the Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Prisons.

In 1849, Mr. Biddle was elected a manager of the l'ennsylvania Hospital, a post he has since continued to hold, embracing a period of thirty-five years, the last twelve of which he has been president of the board. In 1855 he was chosen secretary of the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven Railroad Company, and in the year 1883 was appointed its president. In 1858, Josiah Dawson, a wealthy eitizen of Phila- delphia, named as executors of his estate Thomas Williamson, Mordecai L. Dawson, and William Biddle. After devising nearly two hundred thousand dollars in private legacies, the remainder, amounting to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, was to be dis- tributed at the discretion of the executors among the hospitals and other charitable institutions and the deserving poor of Philadelphia. This distribution was made in the most judicious and eatholic manner by Mr. Biddle and his associates. In the religious Society of Friends, of which he is a consistent mem- ber, Mr. Biddle holds a prominent place, and has for many years taken an active part in matters connected with the education of its younger members.

The mere enumeration of the various associations with which Mr. Biddle has been and is connected gives but a very imperfect estimate of the public services rendered by him. In each of these he was always very energetie. This was seen in the zeal he displayed in the establishment of the Northwest Public School, in his services upon the committee of instruction and household on which so much devolved in the opening of Girard College, and in the active interest he has so long taken in all departments of the Pennsylvania Hospital.

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 193

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992