New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-04-05
ASSEMBLY BILL 1.191.

ITS PURPOSE CRITICISED BY DIR. y. T. ST. JOHN
ROOsA.
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: one of your editorials OF this morning
prompts mo 10 call the attention Of managers and
directors of dlspcnsarics and oudoor-poor depart
ments in this city to what think you would unite
with me in calling freak BILL which Is no"
before the Legislature and has passed 10 the thlrd
reading IT is Assembly bill No 49, and was in
PRODUCED Ivy j. ]. Sullivan March L. 1t Is an
act relating to dspensaries in the city of NewYork
defining the same and providing for the regulations
and management thereof.
1t is probably known to the readers Of The
Tribune who are interested in such matters that
the subject Of the abuse Of the privileges cf dis
pensares IA now under serious discussion. II -
perhaps. not known that the Medical Society of the
County Of Ncw-York has a special committee on
this subject which has not yet reported. Mean
while the bill which bring to your notice. and
which is extraordinary in my Judgment and ut
terly unfit to pass the Legislature, has been intro
duced. This Is not at the instigation of the Med
zeal Society Of the County of New-York or of the
Academy Of Medicine, but | informed, by
the members o. the so-called Medical Society for
Advancing the Practice of Medicine" What this
society may be exactly do rot know for 1t Is OF
verS origin. and its officers seem to be gen
tlemen practising medicine exclusively in the lower
and eastern part of the city. Certainly 1t is not
society well enough known. nor of "A sufficiently
large constituency, Immediately to command the
entire confidence of the medical profession in such
an important matter as is involved In this BILL
which is the recasting of the management OF all
the dispensaries In the city of New~York. The pro-
posed bill, which has also been introduced In the
Senate, refers only the dlspensaries OF the city
of New-York. Why the city of New-York requires
special legislation in this matter am not able
TO say. There numerous dispensaries in Brook
lyn, in Buffalo. in Albany and in the other cities
of the State.
This bill seems to me to have many objections,
even granting, which do not admit, that the re-
ports about dispenSary abuse are not greatly eX-
aggerated but the point 10 which wish especially
TO call the attention Of your readers Is this: Ihat
the seventh section of this bill puts the dis
pensarles Of the city of New York such as those
Poor Department. the Vanderbilt Clinic the Post
GRADUATE Hospital psPgmsSry the 9o pem ph
the hands Of the representative OF the New YORK
G 1Shc county MHEy Msca society the NeWYorK Ec
lectic County Medical Society, the New,i ork
cal Society Tor Advancing the Practice OF Medi-
cine the Harlem Medical Society, the Eastern
Medica , s os Voc and the ned CHARITIES
of the city of New-York Should ths BIZ become
a law If / understand it correctly. this Board
would take away an essential part of the vested
rights granted by charter TO these various hos
pas and dispensares ana undcftake bd sheir man h
agement, in an important respect. Shoulu II pc
come a law certainly would give rise to serious
litigation for no board of directors would give up
the privileges granted them 10y the State into the
hands Of a board constituted without their con-
sent, and Of such eNtraold lnary materlhI as INC
nrcsent bill contcmpates without a resort 10 the
rourts to determine whether or not II would be
constitutional thus 10 abrogate vested rights. /
ask The hospitality Of The Tribune 10 inform man:
ayers of dispensarics and members OF the medical
profession az to the kind of legislation that II pro-
nosed in Albany. without any general discussion
among these managers, or even in societies. which
this bill proposes to represent. As a matter OF
lac, IL nrobaby represents the "Ncw-lork Med-
cal Society for Advancing ne Practice of Med-
,ain renutablo medical practitioners have Endorsed
tbat newly created society. without, / think n
full knowledge Of its aims ,,r IONA, nooc,
New-York April g. 1891.