Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-08-17
NEW WORKS. FREE PHYslc.
All Sorts OF People Supplied with Drugs
for All Manner OF ~Campis.rts.

scattered over the uluefent WArus OF new
York and Brooklyn, and they vary in
character mainly in the class Of people
who p~atronize them-the very poor, who
for obvious reasons are driven to resort
to them, and the rich or moderately cir.
cumstanced who know little more than
that a dispensary Is a place to which peo-
pie resort when they are sick TO get free
medical treatment
The oldest and largest of these free
dis~pensaries is the New York dispensary
in Center street, which has been in oper-
alton over ninety years, and has treated
over Q, 900, 900 patients. The old North
ern dispensary in Christopher street.
founded in 1917, treats about $1,000 pa
tents annually; the Eastern. in Essex
street, founded in 1882, does equally good
work, while the Demilt, founded in 1851,
the Northwestern, the German, the
Northeastern, and a host of outdoor de-
partments of hospitals, asylums, charita-
BILE societies and so on.
The Denilt ~dispensary is a three story
brick building. The main reception
room is filled with wooden benches and
divided into seven or eight compartments
at one side. These and two or three or
binary rooms that also open into the main
ROOM, are the offices of the staff of ply
sicians, each having his special depart
ment of ailments to attend to. The Wis
iting hours are different for different
classes of ailments; children are treated
at one hour, men at another, women at
another. and so on Two female doctors
preside evenings to attend TO female
patients who have TO work during the
daytime. Every sort Of ailment except
contagious diseases is freely treated here.
Whatever Of misery there is in this
perpetual stream of the sick poor is not
visible in the main room. DIR. Charles
G. Currier, the house physician, says a
great many more women than men
are treated, and that women seem TO be
more frequently III, or are more prone to
believe themselves i'll. when they are not
so, than men, who are more practical
and come for help only when absolutely
necessary.
The women are for the most part neatly
dressed and the majority Of them look
well, II not rugged, though now and then
a cough or other sign will betoken the
fact that they are suffering. AS the peo-
pie enter the building they 60 to the fist
Of the small rooms, where the house
physician sits, and tell him what the
matter is.
Il van q tooth pulled, says one.
81 have rheumatism. " says another.
Others will have a headache, a backache
or a sprain. and so o n Very frequently
an inebriated individual will enter.
1--WE been on a spree and want to
sober up, a young man will say.
A dose Of bromide Of potassium and
choral is given, and he is told TO 60 home
and 90 TO bed and come back in a few
hours. One wonan calls and says she
has a sister with the ammonia. and
another has a friend with the ''brown
keeters," and in the course Of a day
much similar ~perversion Of medical
Nomenclature may be heard. The utmost
civility and greatest kindness are always
~practiced toward patients at this dispen-
sary. A great many painters are treated
for lead palsy at dispensaries.
THE lead that poisons them Is taken
into the system through the mouth"
said DIR. Starr. "NNhen they quit work
they fall to eating their luncheon without
washing their hands, and so take in, lit
tie by little, enough lead to do the mis-
chief. They breathe in the lead also in
warm. close rooms; but it is the stomach,
and not, as might be supposed, the lungs,
that become at first affected. The
electrical treatment applied to the mus
cles is the most satisfactory, and will
soonest restore the nerves to their normal
condition"
There have been recent additions
which make the work far more efficient
today than it was in the dispensary Of a
quarter of a century ago. For instance,
the doctors interest themselves in secur-
ing employment for painters disabled at
their trade so as 10 make them unable TO
continue at il; then again, there are
trained nurses In constant attendance at
the dispensaries, who instruct friends of
patients how to care for them at home,
and If cases require it to 80 TO the houses
to nurse the sick themselves. Bed sheets,
pillow cases, undertaking, skirts,
dresses, ETC., are also kept in stock at
some Of the dispensaries for free distribu-
ton among the worthy poor.
Medical experts in all departments
serve without pay for the experience and
the honor, and 50 excellent is the reputa-
ton of some Of the dispensaries that
many members Of their medical stats
have been called TO the larger hospitals
and made faculty members Of their
boards.
In the annual report Of the Demilt dis.
pensary for last year it appears that 81.
500 people we're treated by that institu.
ton for every conceivable variety Of
disease, and many more visited at their
homes by its doctors. A doctor will be
sent to visit any sick person Of whom
they are notified. Ten cents Is charged
for each prescription made up only from
those who acknowledge they are willing
and able TO pay il. BY far the grear
majority pay nothing at all. 1t is an in
teresting commentary on the genera
retail drug store prices that ten cents d
found 10 be fair compensation for all pre-
scriptions. For every expensive com
pound on which there is a loss Of ten o.
fifteen cents there are two or three cheaI
ones costing only two Of three cents,
Il has been found impossible TO dis