Intern Service in the Old Days at Chambers Street Hospital, N

INTERN SERVICE IN THE OLD DAYS AT CHAMBERS STREET HOSPITAL, N. Y By J. B. CUTTER, M.D. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. ERVICE at “Chambers Street” To the student and to the young Hospital in the early nineties physician, his preceptor embodied was unique. I look baek upon those winning qualities so well de- the experience as an out-stand- scribed by that rare Scot, Robert ing epoch in a life that has been Louis Stevenson, of whom he said and Smarked by many unusual turns in of his kind, “He is the Hower of our the wheel of fortune. There was a civilization, and exhibits the virtues poetic touch in the pathos and humor of the race, embodying those qualities of many of the scenes enacted there, of generosity peculiar to those who and there was a wealth of medical and practice an art and never to those surgical experience of that sort pecu- who drive a trade, discretion, (tact, liar to an Emergency Hospital serving perhaps the fairest fruit of character) the densely populated region in the with cheerfulness and courage, bring- heart of the commercial shipping and ing cheer and air into the sick room, industrial districts of a great city, such and healing when he can.” a great city as is only represented by Is not that romance of the truest London, Paris, Chicago and New sort that is built on the cornerstone York. of love, greater than which is known It was romantic, as that may apply to no man more than to the physician, to the thrilling adventures in the and in the period of which I write early days of the study and practice the period of “the Family Doctor” of medicine, to that rare taste of he had mounted the highest peak in life which came to the medical student that interrelationship of friends, the of that heroic period when he was doctor and the patient, since which the apprentice as well as the com- he has often against his inclination, panion of his preceptor, and closely yet never the less moving forward wrapped in all the interests and with the tide of inevitable change in responsibilities which he assumed and the onward stream of civilization, which were thrust upon him in this begun the descent from that eminence unique relationship. into the valley of material rather It was. also an important period in than spiritual relationships. the character-forming years of the Old “Chambers Street,” as it was young physician, when the budding known throughout the world, through love of humanity and the love of pro- that amazing epoch of the history of fession slowly unfolded and bloomed American medicine was perhaps the together. And it was interesting be- most noteworthy school in this coun- cause the atmosphere of medicine in try for the education and training that gay period was charged with the of that type of physician to which 1 spirit of adventure, with the high have referred and during the decade purpose of achievement, with a sense of the nineties this was largely due of devotion and with the charm of to the dominating personality, the idealism. noble qualities, the shining example of that master surgeon, Lewis A. tion over this two-months’ period, Stimson. as a rule. “Chambers Street” Hospital was a Who then among the eager, hopeful law unto itself in the peculiar field medical fraternity of that time would of medicine which it served, occupying not receive a thrill of joyful satisfac- a strategic position in the lower end tion after the painful grinding years of Manhattan Island, between the of preparation in medical school, espe- shipping district of Christopher Street cially if arriving in New York from on the North River as far as Grand a small university in a far Western Street on the East, including between metropolis, to find himself in this them the commercial and industrial long coveted position as a member of sections centering around South the house staff in the most active Broadway, (two blocks west from acute surgical service in New York, which on Chambers Street it occupied numbered among the illustrious names an old brown-stone English basement which grace the list of the House dwelling, not too highly adapted to Surgeons of the House Of Relief its multifarious purposes), an area of the New York Hospital, headed extending as far as “The Battery” by Charles B. Kelsey and William T. on the south. It performed indeed Bull, dating back to the historic an important function in the daily period of 1875. life of the City of New York. Such was the experience of the “Chambers Street” Hospital or as writer, when after the two-months’ its official title was, “The House Of Dispensary service, followed by a Relief Of The New York Hospital,” voyage to Lisbon and The Azores took the place of the Emergency Islands as ship’s surgeon of the S. S. Hospital for the Municipality of New Vega of the Empressa Insulana de York, for all that territory south of Navegacon, he landed in New York Canal Street, and for years it held after a tempestuous voyage near the these front line trenches practically first of February (date of the assign- unsupported, save for Bellevue on ment) and after a trembling inter- the east at Twenty-sixth Street, and view with the august Chief, he was St. Vincent’s Hospital on the west. confirmed in this sixteen-months’ It was indeed a far-flung battleground. appointment. Appointment on the House Staff of The subsequent early adventurous “Chambers Street” Hospital in the years in medical experience, including early nineties was a coveted honor, army service during the Spanish which was dispensed through the American War; railway service in favor of its chief, usually after a the frontier state of New Mexico (we probationary service of two months have no frontier states now but in the Dispensary or Out-Patient we did have in those days), mining Department as it would be called practice in the wilds of Idaho; and today. This appointment was not on the Mexican frontier in the hotbed open to competitive examination as of banditry and outlawry of the in the case of the other hospitals famous copper mines of Cannanea, in New York. Doctor Stimson reserved did not compare in charm and interest judgment on its applicants, after with that Old “Chambers Street” careful scrutiny and personal examina- internship in 1895. Still in memory resounds the clang tion common to such scenes, making of the ambulance bell as the ambu- gangway at first sight of the ambulance swung around the corner, driven lance surgeon who with white coat by a Jehu in the cap and uniform and cap, bearing the insignia of the of the hospital. Making a dash for Hospital was a privileged personage the rear end with hand grasping at on all such occasions and felt the the brass side rail, foot catching he dignity and importance of his position low swung step behind, and with a where his slightest word or nod was dextrous and characteristic swing of law. the body, throwing both legs over Hurriedly unbuttoning the coat so the seat occupying the back of this as to open the vest and shirt for the unique vehicle, they were ofl. application of the stethoscope above The first ambulance call might be the heart, he found the patient as he to an outpost somewhere in the appeared to be, quite dead; but the “ Bowery” where case in hand the am- mingled feelings of the surgeon may bulance surgeon drops off at the be imagined as on placing his car arrival of the ambulance at the curb, against the chest to detect if possible to find his patient seated on the pave- the slightest motion of the heart, he ment in semi-reclining position, sup- is startled by the sudden appearance ported by the building against which of a tiny chameleon darting forth he leaned. Around were the congrega- from beneath the lapel of the vest, to which it was attached by a miniature to the “Chambers Street” service. gold chain and collar around the Of the 3600 ambulance cases brought throat. Would not this episode fix for in 1200 were transferred to other all time the memory of that first hospitals, so that this number must be ambulance call? added to the number of calls credited, Grappling with a delirium tremens making a grand total of over 5000 patient all the way to Bellevue would ambulance calls a year. provide athletic exercise as well as Among the cases brought in by professional interest. Such “pick-ups” ambulance were many of unusual were immediately transferred there. pathological interest, and Doctor The long drive back from Bellevue Stimson was ready to respond to the seemed often brief in the varied con- house surgeon’s call at any hour of templative interest that the drive af- the day or night to see fractures and forded. Passing down the lower end of luxations of such a character. One Fifth Avenue through what is known such case, a thyroid luxation of the as “Greenwich Village,” through the thigh (the second one ever seen by purlieus of Hester, Pell and Mott Doctor Stimson in a life long experi- Streets, the ambulance surgeon found ence as a world authority in fractures fruitful themes for study in the motley and luxations) proved to be a case maze of sociological medium where celebre. The house surgeon in charge, a mixture of Oriental color (and odor), who was the writer of this article, was varied hues of dress from the Mediter- directed to reduce the dislocation ranean, swarthy visages from the under the direction of Doctor Stimson.

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