New York
Hospital
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New York Hospital was
the oldest hospital in New York City and the second
oldest hospital in the United States, second only to
Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, which was founded
in 1751. The history of New York Hospital is intimately
related to the history of New York City. At the first
graduation exercises of the medical school of King's
College, held in Trinity Church in 1769, Dr. Samuel
Bard, Professor of the Practice of Medicine, established
the need for a "Public Hospital for the Reception of the
Poor Sick of this Government and City." He stressed the
triple missions of patient care, research, and teaching
which such an institution should fulfill. Within a day,
the Governor of the Province, Sir Henry Moore, started a
fund; and in 1771, King George III of England granted a
royal charter to establish "The Society of the New York
Hospital in the City of New York in America" and a Board
of Governors. The initiative for forming a hospital came
from a growing medical community that included Dr. Bard,
as well as Drs. Peter Middleton and John Jones. The
financial and moral support came from the outstanding
citizens of the community who were largely merchants.
The small hospital was erected on a plot of land along
the west side of Broadway between what is presently
Worth Street and Duane Streets. It was set back about 90
feet from Broadway, allowing considerable space on all
sides for lawn and future buildings.
A serious fire and
the Revolutionary War delayed the opening of the
Hospital until 1791, just in time to administer to
patients during the yellow fever epidemic. In the
interim, the building was used as barracks for Hessian
and British soldiers, as a laboratory for teaching
anatomy to medical students, and as a military hospital.
The state legislature met there on two occasions. The
area was so secluded that it became a favorite place for
duels. Even in those days, there was almost constant
need to renovate, expand, and modernize. The small
two-storied, H-shaped building soon expanded to three
stories; later, new buildings were built on the north
and south sides. Gas illumination came in 1838 and steam
heat in 1844.
Medical care was
the best available for the time. It included surgery,
medications, bloodletting, and purging. The physicians
were trained in Europe or at one of the medical schools
in New York City. The most distinguished of the early
surgeons was Dr. Valentine Mott, a pioneer in vascular
surgery. Among the physicians, Dr. David Hosack was
outstanding. Both Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were
his patients. Attending Surgeon Dr. Valentine Seaman
brought a vaccination against smallpox to New York
Hospital in 1799, only one year after Jenner published
his first successful experiments. New York Hospital's
pharmacopoeia was published in 1816, four years before
the publication of the United States Pharmacopoeia. This
caused considerable concern among the attending
physicians about the potential abridgement of the
physician's right to prescribe.
Staff
Throughout the years, New York Hospital
and Cornell University Medical College
were fortunate to have dedicated and
distinguished doctors on staff. In
addition to those already named, other
surgeons were Drs. Willard Parker,
Thaddeus M. Halsted, Robert F. Weir,
Lewis Atterbury Stimson, George J. Heuer,
and Frank Glenn. Noted physicians
included Drs. Lewis A. Conner, Russell
Cecil, Henricus J. Stander, Walter
Niles, Oscar Schloss, Eugene DuBois,
Connie M. Guion, and David P. Barr. Dr.
William S. Halsted, of Johns Hopkins
fame, served a brief period as junior
physician.
Above
history was revised and adapted from
"History of the New York
Hospital-Cornell Medical Center," an
article by Ralph Engle, Jr., M.D., that
first appeared in the medical center's
Directory of Alumni and Staff, 1980.
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