Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-06-22
NEW WORKS. FREE Pt,Yslc.
All Sorts Of People Supplied with Drugs
for All Manner of Complaints.

for All Manner of Complaints.
There are many medical dispensaries
scattered over the different wards Of New
York and Brooklyn, and they vary in
character mainly In the class Of people
who patronize 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 dispensary is place to which peo-
pie resort when they are sick to get free
medical treatment.
The oldest and largest of these free
dispensaries is the New York dispensary
in Center street, which has been in oper-
alton over ninety years, and has treated
over 1000, 900 patients The old North
ern dispensary in Christopher street.
founded in 1917. treats about 10000 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 Dernilt dispensary is 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
I'D 10
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
great many more women than men
are treated. and that women seem to be
more frequently i'll, 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, if hot rugged. though now and then
cough or other sign will betoken the
fact that they are suffering. AS the peo-
pie enter the building they 90 to the first
of the small rooms, where the house
physician sits, and tell him what the
matter is.
II want tooth pulled" says one
II have rheumatism" says another.
Others will have headache, q backache
or a sprain, AID 30 on. Very frequently
an inebriated individual will enter.
I've been ON a spree and want to
sober up, young man will say.
A dose of bromide of potassium and
chloral is given. and he is told to go home
.. and go to bed and come back in few
hours. One woman calls and says she
has a sister with the ammonia" and
another has friend with the thrown
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
1.-THE lead that poisons them Is taken
into the system through the mouth, VI
they fall to eating their luncheon without
WdSllllS tueu ~ l<thc III, ut-
tie by little, enough lead to do the mis-
chief. They breathe in the lead also il
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
Z cles is the most satisfactory and vii
a soonest restore the nerves to their norma
). condition"
r There have been recent additions
which make the work far more efficien
today than it was in the dispensary of {
quarter of century ago. For instance
+ the doctors interest themselves in secur
: ing employment for painters disabled a
Il their trade so as to make them unable t,
= continue at it.; then again, there ar
!, trained nurses in constant attendance a
the dispensaries, who instruct friends o
= patients how to care for them at home
q and If cases require it to go TO the house
to nurse the sick themselves Bed sheets
4 pillow cases. Undertaking, skirts
It dresses, etc., are also kep In stock a
d some of the dispensaries for free distribu
ton among the worthy poor.
It Medical experts in an department
It serve without pay for the experience an
the honor. and 80 excellent Is the reputa
le ton Of some of the dispensaries tha
8 many members Of their medical staff
a have been called to the larger Hospital
70 and made faculty members of thei
1t boards.
h In the annual report of the Demilt di,
y pensary for last year it appears that 81
a a 500 people were treated by that institr
v, ton for every conceivable variety {
If disease and many more visited at the
as homes by its doctors A doctor will
es sent to visit any sick person Of whol
they are notified. Ten cents Is charge
for each prescription made up only frol
those who acknowledge they are willin
- and able TO pay it. By far the gre'
~ ~ majority pay nothing at an 1t is an il
" teresting commentary On the gener
40 retail drug store prices that ten cents
re found to be fair compensation for all pr
OF scriptions. For every expensive con
nd pound ON which there Is q loss OF ten
IF | fiffaap caDts thera ara two Or thraa chae