Medical history of the Meath Hospital and County Dublin Infirmary, from its foundation in 1753 down to the present time : including biographical sketches of the surgeons and physicians who served on its staff / [Lambert Hepenstal Ormsby].

  • Ormsby, Lambert Hepenstal.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical history of the Meath Hospital and County Dublin Infirmary, from its foundation in 1753 down to the present time : including biographical sketches of the surgeons and physicians who served on its staff / [Lambert Hepenstal Ormsby]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The new Hospital now began to acquire celebrity as a Clinical School of Medicine and Surgery. Pupils attended for the instruction given at the Hospital, and as far as records show it was the first Hospital in Dublin to commence systematic clinical instruction. The Hospital had many vicissitudes before it settled down in its present position in Heytesbury-street. First on the 2nd of March, 1753, it was opened on the Coombe, where it was intended to afford medical assistance to the working population in the Liberties. It was next removed to Skinner’s Alley in 1757 ; then to Meath Street in 1760; and to Earl Street in 1766. In 1770 the erection of a new building on the Coombe was commenced, and when it was completed the Hospital was removed to it. In 1816 the site of the present Hospital in the Long Lane, Heytesbury Street, was acquired at a cost of £1,126, and with the aid of a County Presentment of £4,788 the building was completed in 1822. On the 24th of December of the same year, the new Hospital was opened for the reception of patients. The reason the Hospital was moved from the Coombe to its present site, was because the Governors found that the building was limited in accommodation, and incapable of extension in any direction. Encouraged by a timely gift of £6,000 from Thomas Pleasants, obtained through Mr. Eichards and Mr. Peile, they set about building the present Hospital on a piece of ground containing nearly two acres, which the Governors have since recently added to, and which was called “ The Dean’s Vineyard.” This site was purchased from the Dean and Chapter of St. Patrick’s for a sum of £1,126, free of all rent. Of Mr. Pleasants’ money, £4,000 was available, and this sum was expended on the erec- tion of the central building. The remaining £2,000 was funded by his direction to procure an equivalent of medicine, and wine and other necessaries for cases requiring them. To complete the building £4,788 was granted by the County Dublin in 1820, and the rest was made up by donations and subscriptions from the general public. There was considerable delay in