A history of English philanthropy : from the dissolution of the monasteries to the taking of the first census / by B. Kirkman Gray.

  • Gray, B. Kirkman (Benjamin Kirkman), 1862-1907.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English philanthropy : from the dissolution of the monasteries to the taking of the first census / by B. Kirkman Gray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    154/328 (page 134)
    If all this be approximately correct, it adds weight to the argument, strong also on other grounds, that these early dispensaries had no obvious or direct influence on the later movement. An indirect influence of the deepest character we have already seen that they did exert. Even if the College of Physicians started their first dispensary with mingled motives, yet while the first experiment passed away the philanthropic implication became more and more clear in progress of time. The great period of the founding of dispensaries was from 1777, in which year the Royal Dispensary was founded, to 1790, no less than ten being started during those years. But an attempt had been made as much earlier as 1740, and the proposals then put forward indicate precisely the occasion for this first development out of the hospital charities. It was premised that humane England had outdone other countries in the way of hospitals, but that the sick were still unrelieved, and several “worthy gentlemen” proposed a remedy. This was to hire a house, having raised a sum of £210, where 1,000 paupers could be treated with every- thing except nourishment and lodging, which could not be afforded. They base their appeal for funds on the assertion that “ the wealthy and superior part of the community owe their happiness, ease, and affluence to the indigent, but industrious, part of it.”1 The spread of dispensaries was rapid; the need is seen to have been pressing from the numbers who thronged to them. Within a few years the large annual total of 50,000 was reached. A writer of the period is not more impressed with the amount than with the economy of the dispensaries, for he tells us that the cost was as low as 2s. a head. He does not inquire, though we may have some misgivings on the point, what was the precise health-value of an average 2s. a head.’ ' “ Proposals for raising an Infirmary . . . for the more immediate relieving the sick and diseased poor ” (1740). 3 Highmore, “ Pietas Loud.,” i., 334.