An account of Bellevue hospital : with a catalogue of the medical and surgical staff from 1736 to 1894 / edited by Robert J. Carlisle.

Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of Bellevue hospital : with a catalogue of the medical and surgical staff from 1736 to 1894 / edited by Robert J. Carlisle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    55/444 (page 29)
    Notwithstanding the very large service of these institutions, yet in September, 1819, when yellow fever again appeared in New-York in an epidemic form, a new fever hospital was placed under the charge of the Bellevue physicians; and although it was located at a remote distance,— namely, at old Fort Stevens on the Long Island shore, near Hell Gate, at Hallett’s Point,—when the Common Council asked the com- missioners to provide medical care for this hospital and the lat- ter called upon the Bellevue doctors, it is matter for pride to record that they responded promptly. Dr. Drake says that he endeavored to visit Fort Stevens at least once in two days, and Dr. Brown claims that he himself was there still oftener. Certainly, considering the distance and the urgency of their other duties, nothing more could be asked of them. Patients could not have had sufficient attention ; but blame could not be laid upon the doctors. The work was more than four men or twice that number were capable of performing. Three years later, and we have still another addition to the establishment. It was proposed by some one — it is said by one to have been his honor the mayor, and by another to have been Dr. Hosack—to erect a fever hospital at Bellevue, The suggestion was soon acted upon by the council; in Octo- ner, 1823, the necessary land was bought. This was another piece of the old Rose Hill estate that lay at the foot of Twenty- third street, and now belonged to a Mrs. Ann Rodgers. The price paid was $2584.32. The edifice was finished in 1825 by the aid of a liberal grant from the Legislature. It was situated on an elevation on the river-front; was of stone and four stories in height; its length 180 feet, and its width 50 feet, and it had a “projection of 8 feet in the center.” The first and second stories contained twenty-four rooms, including cells where the pauper insane were kept. On the third story the keeper and assistants lived, and there were six other rooms here ; while the fourth was divided into large and airy wards for fever and smallpox cases and lodging-rooms. There had been a slight change in the housing of the main or almshouse hospital. The two brick pavilions had been