The other advantage of records from such a large, long-lived institution as the Alms House is that the researcher may perceive some of the setting in which income is earned. The most obvious element of this background is the population served by the Alms House physician. We know that, before the advent of Medicare, part of this appeal was the wide range of disease and injuries available for study, but we do not know whether other factors, such as a prestigious medical staff played a part. The records providing data about patients are so abundant and detailed that even a brief description would be beyond the scope of this article. However, we do wish to mention some pertinent records series which reflect medical practice at the Alms House Hospital.
Treatment often implies the prescription of medicines.
Hospital Reports. . . We would be the first to admit that the medical profession, in many ways, is an extraordinary example. We realize that a public hospital is a self-contained world which reflects a profession in the main stream of the work force and that it may be impossible to find an analogy in some other kinds of institution, such as a prison. At the same time we also are aware that the monetary rewards of hospital work represent but a portion of the total income of the staff physician with an established private practice, that such figures often are more representative of the income of the physician on a beginning or apprentice level and that data from such an institution very often must be amplified by information from other sources in order to obtain a true picture of the range of income of the medical profession. We recognize these limitations.