CHAPTER XXIV.

HOSPITALS AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS.

Pennsylvania Hospital-Insane Department-Stephen Girard-Sick Seamen -Lying-in Department - Dispensary - Hospital Property taxed - Penn's Bust-Kirkbride Hospital - Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania — Lunatic Hospital, Harrisburg-Insane Hospital, Danville-Insane Hospital, Warren-Insane Hospital, Dixmont-German Hospital - Lackawanna Hospital-Wilkesbarre Hospital-Anthracite Hospital-Reform School Pennsylvania Training School-Deaf-Mutes-Sheltering Arms - Western Penitentiary.

IT

T was near the close of the year 1750 that measures were set on foot for the establishment of a hospital in Philadelphia. Dr. Thomas Bond, the originator of the movement, was at that time one of the most distinguished physicians of the city. He began by soliciting subscriptions; and, in furthering this plan, he was much assisted by Franklin, who, through the newspapers, prepared the public mind, and thus they were successful in obtaining the number desired. But it was soon found that it must be placed upon a legislative basis to insure complete success; and a memorial was therefore presented to the Provincial Assembly, showing the need of such an establishment, and requesting that a charter should be granted to the contributors, and also for pecuniary assistance. This was presented Jan. 23, 1751; but it was not until the 7th of February, that the bill was passed, incorporating "the Contributors to the Pennsylvania Hospital," and appropriating two thousand pounds currency to establish a suitable building, which sum would be paid when an equal amount should be subscribed by individuals. The opposition to this memorial, at first felt, was principally from country members of the Assembly, who feared that the city would be exclusively benefited; but one of the

provisions of the charter was, that patients should be received from any part of the Province without partiality; and so well satisfied were the people with the charter, that, in a short time from its publication, considerably more than was required was raised, and their first Board of Managers chosen, which, according to one of the provisions of the charter, consisted of twelve men from among the contributors,―Joshua Crosby, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Bond, Samuel Hazard, Richard Peters, Israel Pemberton, jun., Samuel Rhodes, Hugh Roberts, Joseph Morris, John Smith, Evan Morgan, and Charles Norris. John Rynell was elected Treasurer.

Immediately upon their election, the managers sent to Thomas and Richard Penn, then proprietaries of the Province, a full account of what had been done, asking them for a grant of land on which to erect a hospital. They also wrote to Thomas Hyam and Sylvanus Bevan to bespeak their intercession with the proprietaries, and mentioned as a suitable spot for their purpose the unappropriated portion of the square on the south side of Mulberry, between Ninth and Tenth Streets. The proprietaries were favorable to their petition, and sent out a complete charter, and an order to their lieutenant-governor, James Hamilton, conveying to the corporation a lot of ground on the north side of Sassafras Street, between Sixth and Seventh, being a portion of the grounds now known as the Franklin Square, with this condition, that, if there should not be constant succession of contributors to meet and choose managers, the land thus conveyed should revert to them, or their heirs. In view of this provision, and, moreover, deeming the site offered too damp and low to be healthful, they declined the grant of the proprietaries, but addressed another letter to them, urging their plea.

In order to carry into effect the object of the subscribers, the private mansion of Judge John Kinsey, situated on the south side of Market, west of Fifth Street, which, with the grounds, occupied about one-third of the square, was hired by the managers for forty pounds a year, and immediately occupied as a temporary hospital, and continued to be thus used for four years.

In February, 1752, the first two patients were received. The physicians and surgeons appointed at this time were Lloyd Zachary, Thomas and Phineas Bond, Thomas Cadwallader, Samuel Preston Moore, and John Redmand.

Not receiving any donation from the Penns, the managers resolved upon purchasing a lot suitable for the permanent location of the hospital; and in December, 1754, they bought the whole square, except a depth of sixty feet on Spruce Street, for five hundred pounds, on which the old hospital now stands. Ten years later, the Penns gave the sixty feet, and also an annuity of forty pounds. This lot was then far out of town; and, to get to it, people had to travel through the fields for a considerable distance. The next thing was to erect a suitable building; and the east wing, facing Eighth Street, was first built. May 28, 1755, the corner-stone was laid, with an inscription prepared by Dr. Franklin. In 1872, in making repairs, and when digging in front of this wing, this corner-stone was uncovered, and the inscription found in a state of perfect preservation, which is as follows:

IN THE YEAR OF CHRIST
MDCCLV.,

GEORGE THE SECOND HAPPILY REIGNING

(FOR HE SOUGHT THE HAPPINESS OF HIS PEOPLE),

PHILADELPHIA FLOURISHING

(FOR ITS INHABITANTS WERE PUBLIC SPIRITED),
THIS BUILDING,

BY THE BOUNTY OF THE GOVERNMENT

AND OF MANY PRIVATE PERSONS,

WAS PIOUSLY FOUNDED,

FOR THE RELIEF OF THE SICK AND MISERABLE.

MAY THE GOD OF MERCIES

BLESS THE UNDERTAKING.

Patients were first admitted to this building December, 1756. At that time Philadelphia contained less than thirty thousand inhabitants. The measure was exceedingly popular, and subscriptions came in readily. William Allen, Chief Justice of the Province, gave two hundred and fifty pounds.

Franklin, "our great statesman, philosopher, and economist,'

suggested that twelve tin boxes should be made, and marked "Charity for Hospital," and that one of these be kept in each manager's house. Legacies were soon bequeathed to the hospital. Matthew Koplin, a German, gave a lot of ground, lying north of the city, to the institution. Donations were also sent from the West Indies, and from many of the Society of Friends in England.

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Among the important results of the interest felt in England was the receipt of a large sum of money, consequent upon the settlement of the concerns of a joint-stock partnership, denominated the "Pennsylvania Land Company in London." In the year 1760 an act of Parliament was passed, vesting in trustees the estates of that company in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, in order that they might be sold, and the proceeds distributed. But as it appeared probable, that, for a considerable portion of these proceeds, no just claimant would be found, the insertion of a clause in the act was procured by the friends of the hospital, granting to that institution all the money which might remain unclaimed in the hands of the trustees upon the 24th of June, 1770. Thomas Hyam appears to have been chiefly instrumental in bringing about this important event for the hospital; and the counsel and aid of Dr. Fothergill and David Barclay, in connection with Dr. Franklin, then in England, were very usefully resorted to in the ultimate settlement of the business. Nearly thirteen thousand pounds, or about thirty-four thousand dollars, accrued ultimately to the institution from this source, though the last portions of the sum were not received until after the close of the Revolutionary War."1

The insane, as well as the sick, were admitted into the hospital. The second year after it was opened, there were fiftythree patients; and, in the year preceding the Revolution, the number had increased to four hundred and thirty-five. Considerable sums were received from the friends of the insane patients; and it was in a prosperous condition at the time Independence was declared.

"Such were the regulations, and such the condition of the

1 Wood's Historical and Biographical Memoirs, &c., p. 127.

hospital, at the breaking-out of the Revolutionary War. It had been established on a firm foundation; had matured its arrangements by an experience of many years; and was in a condition to expand with the growing means of the Province, and the accumulation of material for its beneficent operation. It had passed its period of development, had escaped the dangers of infancy, and was in a vigorous youth, with every promise of a noble maturity.

"But it was now to stand a severe trial of its stability. A storm had long been gathering in the political atmosphere of the Provinces, which broke out at length into the fury of civil and revolutionary war. It swept over the whole land. Social habits and relations, with their beautiful verdure and bloom, were crushed to earth beneath the blast, or torn and scattered by its violence; the arts and business of life, the noble erections of skill and industry, tottered upon their foundation, and stood roofless in the storm; the deepest rooted institutions of science and benevolence were uptorn or broken, and the fragments of their tempest-tossed limbs strewn over the country. When the rage of contest had ceased, and peace again shone out upon the land, the people, recovering from their stupefaction, began to look around them, to examine what had escaped destruction, to gather up the scattered fragments of their institutions, and to restore the beauty and beneficence of order to society once more.

"What at this time was the state of our institution? It had not come unscathed out of the tempest. In the excess of party bitterness, four of its most efficient managers were banished to the wilds of Western Virginia.'"1

In January, 1792, another application was made to the Legislature for aid. A joint memorial, signed by the managers, treasurer, and physicians, giving an historical sketch of the institution, and stating how much it had been favored by the Assembly in former times, was sent to that body, praying for aid to complete the building. The Assembly granted the hospital the sum of ten thousand pounds, and, in addition, the unclaimed dividends of bankrupts' estates, amounting in all to nineteen thousand dollars.

1 See Wood, p. 134.