DISPENSARY

A place where medicines are made up and distributed; but used more generally for a charitable institution, where the poor are supplied with medicines and advice. Institutions of this nature are of comparatively recent origin; though they are now to be met with in every town of any importance both in this country and on the Continent. In London the;-e are one or more dispensaries in each district; and to every dispensary there are always attached one or more physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, whose duty it is respectively to prescribe and dispense medicines to the poor, and to visit them in their own houses in the event of their being too ill to attend personally at the institution. In most cases dispensaries are supported by voluntary contributions. [s. 364]