HOSPITALS

The monastic orders that arose with the spread of Christianity were among the first to care for the sick by systematized institutions, though hospitals of a sort had been founded long before in pagan times. The elaborate hospital system of modern days had its origin in those remote monastic retreats. The Crusades produced the Hospitallers, who were knights devoted to serving the sick, and also the orders of Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of Charity and kindred bodies. The more notable hospitals of the distant past were at Alexandria, Ephesus, Constantinople and Caesarea, where St. Basil founded a great establishment with special provision for lepers. Among the earliest hospitals also was the Hotel Dieu in Paris, the first hospital in France and the oldest in existence today, dating from the sixth century. Three centuries later the Archbishop of Canterbury founded one in England. famous London hospital of St. Bartholomew’s had its beginnings in 1123, and that of St. Thomas in 1215. Other renowned English institutions did not appear till the eighteenth century— West minister in 1719, Guy's in 1725 and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh - in 1730. The growth of universities developed the study of medicine, and many hospitals became identified as_ departments with schools of learning. The great hospitals in Italy, France, England and Scotland thus became noted medical schools. American hospitals were naturally founded upon European methods, especially English, and began with the Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, established in 1730, of which Benjamin Franklin was clerk. The next American hospital of note was the New York Hospital, chartered in 1771. ‘These led the way to the erection of hospitals in every American community, urban and rural, built and conducted on lines so far im advance of the European models that Oid World hospitals now look frequently to American methods and practice te guide them in improving their efficiency. Hospitais are either charitable institutions wholly, or semi-charitable, receiving both free and pay patients,cr receive pay Patients only. They may be supported wholly or in part by federal, state or municipal funds, or main-e tained by religious or other organizations, or by private endowment. Among those under municipal control and reserved solely for the city poor are the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, the Philadelphia' Hospital, Bellevue and allied institutions in New York City, Ma achusetts. General and Boston City Hospitals in Boston, and Cook County Hospital in Chicago. There are also many notable institutions founded by private gifts and sectarian societies throughout the country. In large part the country’s hospitals that general cases, but there are many both charitable and private, devoted to the treatment of special disorders, such as ailments of the eye, ear, nose and throat, cancer and tuberculosis, and contagious skin diseases, while there are also hospitals for children and women, the incurable and the insane. Other hospitals are those maintained by the army at Hot Springs, Arkansas (where there is also a naval hospital), and at Denver Colo.; Presidio, San Francisco; Manila, Philippines; Honolulu, Hawaii; Takoma Park, State of Washington; and at El Paso, Texas, Kindred institutions are the dispensaries and clinics, where patients who do not require hospital attention are treated, and sanatoria, public and private, fop invalids and convalescents, Slavonic term meaning ‘lord,’ ‘master’, is the titie which is specially applied to the head of a family or the master of a house. It was a title of the rulers of Wall a chia and Moldavia from the 15th century to 1866, when Rumania became independent. ‘The title was also used by the grand-dukes of Lithuania and the kings of Poland down to John Sobieski.