Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1888-02-08
A CITY DISPENSARY.
MEDICINES AT TEN CENTS, OR MOTH
ING, AS YOU PLEASE.

tend $4,000 Patients in Year-Gath-
ering of the Sick POOr-The Question
of Eligibility.
The Oldest and largest of New York's
tree DOCTORS offices is the dispensary in
Center street, which is now ninetv-two
years old, and has treated 1000 600 ma
tients. The old Northern dispensary in
Christopher street, founded in 1917 treats
something like 10000 persons in a year;
Ine eastern, in Essex street, founded in
1852, is equally busy, and then there are
the Demilt, founded in 1851; the North
western, the German, the Northeastern
and host of outdoor departments of hos
pitfalls, and asylums, charitable societies
and the like.
A reporter spent a day in the DemiIt
dtspensary at Twenty-third street and
second avenue. 1t is a three story brick
building but the basement is used as a
dwelling, the upper part is leased to the
Dental college and only the first floor is
used for dispensary purposes This floor
was found to consist of a large omen room
filled with wooden benches, divided length
wise by partition of wood and ground
glass separating eight or nine rooms from
the large hall. These and two or three
ordinary rooms that also open into the
main hall are the offices of the CORPS of
physicians, and are called class rooms.
being devoted to the treatment of different
classes of ailments. The patients know
that certain ailments are treated at certain
hours, between o'clock in the morning
and O'Clock in the afternoon, so that all
the cases of toOthache and other woes
hn Of - 4
the morning, all the sick children come in
the afternoon, along with those who need
electrical treatment, and so on. There is
an evening class, presided over by two
female physicians, DR.. Sara E. Post and
Dr. Ellen q. Crum, for the treatment of
women and girls who work in shops and
factories. Every sort of treatment for
every sort of ailment except smallpox is
freely given here.
Whatever misery there is in this perpet-
ual gathering of the sick poor is not
visible in the main room. There are a
great many more women than men, and
Dr. Charles g. Currier, the house
physician, accounts for this by the state
ment that women are more frequently ill |
than men, and are more prone to regard |
themselves as i'll, when they are not so,
than men, who are more practical in this |
as in all things, and come for help only |
when there is something the matter with |
them. These women who are seen forever
on the benches waiting their turns to 60 |
to the smaller rooms, seem, as a rule, to
be neatly dressed, and ara often stout and
rugged looking. Now md then a bad
cough, or the vince of the features be-
tOkenlng twitch of pain betray the fact
that they are suffering. The room is well
lighted, as clean as wax, foored with
scrubbed boards and plainly furnished. It
might be mistaken for the classroom Of a
Methodist church but for the searching
and comprehensive OdOr of drugs that fills |
the air. AS the people come in they go
10 the first Of the little rooms, where the
mousse physician sits, and tell him, through
an open window, what they want
Il want tooth pulled, sir, saws one.
Il have the rheumatism, " says another.
Even crick in the back or a headache
or sprain are complained of by others.
Now and then a drunkard tOtters in.
I've been on spree, sir and | want
to brace up" said n young and decent
looking man.
well, you'll have to come in the after.
noon" says the house physician.
''Then give me a dose of blowlnide for
my nerves" he says. A prescription Of
bromide of potassium is made out for him
with little choral in it, and the friend
who is with him is told to see that he goes
to bed and to sleep and is Weakened
and brought around in four or five
hours. One woman who has a rela-
tive with the pneumonia calls it the am
mOnia, and another one says she has the
brown keeters." In the course of the
day no such case occurs as that which DIR
Simpson tells the Seventh regiment bows
that he once had, wherein a negro com
planned that he chad brown taste in his
mouth" but all things are possible to
him who waits and listens in this dis
pensary.
At O'Clock the dispensary was at its
busiest. The main room was crowded.
and the work was under wayin nearly ali
the smaller ones. Just beyond the nerv
GUS room two physicians seemed to be
holding reception for mothers with
babes, nearly all so rosy and bright look
ing as to lead to the suspicion that some
one had advertised for exhibits for a baby
show. Next door the room for general
medicine, usually the busiest of ali, where
ailments not belonging under any general
head are treated, was closed and deserted,
but in the room beyond DIR. knight was
treating throat ailments. And here was
something peculiar and interesting. for he
wore, attached to leather strap around
his forehead, a circular looking glass with
a hole in the center He held a very small
looking glass on the end of a long handle.
The patient opposite him sat with his
mouth open, and the mirror on the DOCTORS
forehead caught the rays Of a powerful
light and threw them into the mans
mouth. In the mans mouth the doctor
held the little glass in such a position that
the depths Of the throat were reflected
in it. In another room was one of
the best microscopes in the country. n
German one, that cost $3.50, and that is in
use on at least half the days of the year in
the dispensary. Further OH were the
rooms Of the experts in dentistry and
wOmen's diseases.
1t has been found to be impossible to de-
eide as to the eligibility of indoor patients
for charity treatment. No one can de-
termine, either, whether a man or woman
is or is not able to pay for the medicines
used in their behalf. Their manner IF
dressing indicates nothing, as many. par
tieularly among the women, have had very
line clothing given to them by well to do
folks. On the other hand, one man who
looked as shabby as a man well could.
proved to be the owner of several tene-
ment houses, and woman of humble
mien was discovered to be the mother Of
judge now sitting ia the courts. Once.
when a well dressed man was told that he
looked as if he could afford ten cents for
half dollars worth OF medicine, he re-
Piled; II have not dollar in the world.
put on my best clothes to come here. If
they arouse your suspicious will put on
my worst ones next time Gomez
But the question is next to never raised.
All realize that it is impossible to de-
termine the worldly condition Of patients
by their looks, and so no other question is
asked than whether they can afford to paw
ten cents for their drugs. With the out
door patients, visited IN the tenements, the
case is somewhat different. York
Sun.