History of the Psychopathic Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts / LLoyd Vernon Briggs.

  • Briggs, L. Vernon (Lloyd Vernon), 1863-1941.
Date:
1922
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: History of the Psychopathic Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts / LLoyd Vernon Briggs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A charter was obtained on February 25, 1811, under the name of the Massachusetts General Hospital. The War of 1812 delayed the plans for buying land and building the hospital. On February 23, 1813, the first meeting of the trus¬ tees was held at the house of Col. T. H. Perkins; the draft of an address to the public was read and adopted. At the next meeting, March q, 1813, the committee reported favorably on the site which had been con¬ templated, and suggested for consideration the Win- throp estate in Cambridge, or the made land at bottom of the Common, since known as the Public Garden. On January q, 1814, an address to the public having been approved by the overseers of the poor, it was adopted, and committees appointed to solicit sub¬ scriptions. This address was in pamphlet form, signed by the twelve trustees, and shows the urgent need of such an institution for the relief both of the “sick and the insane.’’ On May 18, 1814, a communication from Dr. George Parkman was received, stating that he proposed to erect a hospital for the insane “for accommodation of such patients as shall be able to pay their own ex¬ penses.’’ This was, so far as I know, the first private hospital for the insane in Massachusetts. On October 4, 1816, Dr. Parkman had a private in¬ stitution for the insane on the Magee place of 16 acres in Roxbury, which he said “can be bought for $16,000, and if the institution will pay $5,000 l will procure to be given to this institution the remaining $11,000.’’ The proposal was accepted and a committee appointed to complete the purchase. Dr. Parkman was ap¬ pointed superintending physician of this institution,