Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-04-26


lied and maintained.
The proposition is, that the Lessees
the Faculty of the Medical Depart
ment of the University of Nashville
by and with the sanction and authority
of the Board of Trust of the Univer-
sity, will convey, by lease, to the City
Council of Nashville for the period of
eighteen years, the square bound
ed by College, Market, Frank
lin and Priestly streets with the large
and commodious buildings thereon
the present Medical College free of
charge; that the city authorities shall,
under architectural plans, remodel in
teriorly, this fine structure and adapt
it as well-hghted, wellventilated, and
well furnished General City Hospitalto
be under the control and management
Of the city, by a Board of Hospital
Commissioners or visitors. The medi-
cal faculty tender their medical and
surgical services free of charge, to the
charity patients who may become in
mates of the institution; and, for the
privilege under the lease of
reserving a Lecture Room and
Museum Apartment in the build
ings, engage to pay into the City
Treasury, or Hospital Appropriation
Fund the sum of ten dollars for every
student who may receive instruction
therein. The bill is well guarded mall
its details, and comprises a judicious
and economical scheme for the object
in view, and strongly commends itself
for adoption.
The pressing necessity for a City
Hospital is a question beyond argu-
ment. No city with immediate envi-
rons including a population of forty or
forty-fve thousand, is without one.
Upon every consideration of policy
and propriety, it is required. Upon the
higher consideration Of humanity,
1t is demanded. In a properly
regulated Hospital, with a Dis
pensary attached, the destitute sick
claiming charitable medical care and
nursing, can be more economically pro-
vided for than by the present system
of affording this charity. In fact, with
out hospital, as at present, there can
be no system established in the use OF
public monies required for this needful
charity; and without system, money is
not infrequently expended with free
dom and lack of discrimination which |
the City Treasury should not
be made to bear. 1t is within |
the knowledge of every practi-
cling physician in the city, and of |
every member of the city government,
that not day passes that this urgent |
necessity does not claim their attention.
Such an institution as this bill provides
for would prove an attraction to the
city. Persons sojourning, or those
without families coming to reside, with
an established Hospital, would feel, that
when the misfortune of sickness over
takes them-they could find home,
andphysicians and nurses. To rehearse
the advantages, or to recount the ne
cessities for a Hospital would, indeed,
be an insult to intelligence. and to the
civilization ofwhich every community
boasts.
The proffer of the Lessees is liberal
in the highest degree. They are of the
profession whose attention is most fire.
quently called to the Hospital need.
Their special pursuit-the teaching of
medicine-has demonstrated that this
great educational department can be
more successfully advanced by union
Of the Medical College, which, for
twenty-five years, has been a prolific
source of profit and an object of pride
to the city, with Hospital. Afterfull
they have submitted this
and it behooves the City
Council to give it favorable considera-
ton, and at once, before the breath of
the pestilence is again blown toward
us, to equip a hospital worthy of the
caDita1 of Tennessee