i Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/annualreportofdi1877moun ANNUAL EEPOET OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE : i : INCORPORATED FEBRUARY. 5612. JANUARY, 5637-38-1878. NEW YORK: INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL OF THE HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM, 7(5th Street, bet. Third and Lexington Aves. 1878. FOR 1878. ADOLPH HALLGARTEN, President. HARRIS ARONSON, Vice-President. SAMUEL M. SCHAFER, Treasurer. HARMON H. NATHAN, Hon. Secretary. HENRY GITTERMAN, HYMAN BLUM, SOLOMON SOMMERICH, ISAAC BLUMENTHAL, LEWIS FATMAN, LOUIS STIX, FERDINAND KURZMAN, SOLOMON SULZBERGER, V. H. ROTHSCHILD, ISAAC WALLACH, NATHAN LITTAUER, A. B. ANSBACHER, EDWIN EINSTEIN, NATHANIEL BARNETT, MAYER LEHMAN. JOSEPH L. SCHERER, Assistant Secretary. EXECUTIVE : HARRIS ARONSON, EDWIN EINSTEIN, HENRY GITTERMAN, HYMAN BLUM, SOLOMON SOMMERICH, LOUIS STIX, LEWIS FATMAN, A. B. ANSBACHER, NATHAN LITTAUER, SOLOMON SULZBERGER. FINANCE ISAAC BLUMENTHAL, V. H. ROTHSCHILD, H. NATHAN, FERDINAND KURZMAN, | HARMON ISAAC WALLACH. BEQUESTS : EDWIN EINSTEIN, NATHANIEL BARNETT, I MAYER LEHMAN LEOPOLD B. SIMON, Superintendent. ATTACHED TO THE HOSPITAL. ATTENDING PHYSICIANS: A. JACOBI, M.D. ALFRED L. LOOMIS, M.D. MAX HERZOG, M.D. GUSTAV LANGMAN, M.D. ATTENDING SURGEONS: HERMAN GULEKE, M.D. JOHN I. DARBY, M.D. DANIEL M. STIMSON, M.D. ISAAC ADLER, M.D. GYNMCOL OGIST : EMIL NOEGGERATH, M.D. CONSULTING SURGEONS : WILLARD PARKER, M.D. THOS. M. MARKOE, M.D. ADMITTING PHYSICIAN: DAVID FROEHLICH, M.D. D. H. DAVISON, M.D., Senior Resident Physician. ALFRED MEYER, M.D., Junior HERMAN HARDRICH, M.D., Senior Resident Surgeon. BENSON M. FELDMAN, M.D., Junior " INTERNAL DISEASES: E. J. MESSEMER, M.D. M. J. MESSEMER, M.D. CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT: MARY PUTNAM JACOBI, M.D. G. H. BUTLER, M.D. SURGICAL DEPARTMENT: EDWARD C. SPITSKA, M.D. C. H. WILLIAMS, M.D. WOMEN'S DEPARTMENT: PAUL F. MUNDE, M.D. RUDOLPH TAUSZKY , M.D . fetors' %ori Jjoij 1877. The Board of Directors of the Mount Sinai Hospital herewith present to their Patrons and Members a report of its workings for the year ending November 30th, 1877. The details of the same will be found in the accompanying reports, viz. : A. Report of the Executive Committee, which gives a full and precise statement of the working of the Hospital. B. Report of the Finance Committee, which gives a detailed statement of the receipts and expenses for the year, together with the resources and financial position of the Hospital. C. Report of the House Staff and of the Dispensary Department. It is with great satisfaction that your Board is able to inform its Patrons and Members that, notwithstanding the fact that the extreme financial depression of the last few years still continues, yet during the past year our roll of Patrons and Members has slightly increased. This, taking into consideration the numerous losses of subscribers that always occur on account of deaths, removals, and disabilities, is a cause for congratulation, and in this connection we must heartily thank the committee appointed at your last annual meeting who have co-operated cordially with your Board and secured us many new names. In accordance with a resolution of our Board, passed April 8th, 1877, it was Resolved, " That there should be published in each Annual Re- port a list of the bequests made to our Hospital, from its commence- ment up to the date of the closing of each Report." This will be found included in the Finance Committee's Report. From causes beyond the control of this Board, the list may be found imperfect, and in case any omissions should be discovered, your Board will be thankful if their attention is called to the same, and such error will be corrected i 8 REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. It gives great pleasure to your committee to record, under the increased usefulness of the Hospital, the enlargement of its medical staff to the number of eight, by the addition of Drs. D. M. Stimson, I. Adler, and John T. Darby, as attending surgeons ; and Dr. Gustave Langman as attending physician ; furthermore the organization of a new department (gynaecological) for the treatment of female diseases under the direction of Dr. Emil Noeggerath. We had to deplore during the past year the loss from our medical stair of Dr. Isidore Stachelberg, who will ever be remembered with gratitude, as well as Dr. Ben. I. Raphael, who, while in health, gave us able and faithful service, felt himself compelled on account of his impaired strength to retire from the staff. We are enabled to state that an alteration has been made during the past year in the arrangement of the resident staff at the Hospital. The wards have been divided into Medical and Surgical Departments, over each of which a senior and a junior physician or surgeon takes charge, who acts under the direction and care of our medical staff of experienced practitioners, to whom the daily visits and practice at the Hospital are allotted. Your committee bear cheerful testimony to the diligence and faithfulness wherewith Drs. D. H. Davison and Herman Hardrich, as seniors; and Drs. Alfred Meyer and Benson Feldman, as juniors, have worked to make the new system a success. Experience has taught your committee that the disturbance occasioned by the frequent calls of the senior physician from their practice for the purpose of ex- amining applicants for admission to the Hospital has worked injury to the patients and has been trying to the applicants, who often had to wait long until they were examined. For this reason, under the advice of the medical staff, it was thought best to appoint an Admit- ting Physician, experienced in his profession, and who attends daily two hours, 11 o'clock a.m. to 1 o'clock p.m. (at the Hospital), Sun- days from 10 to 12 a.m. ; besides two hours at his private office, 8 to 9 a.m. and 6.30 to 7.30 p.m., for the examination of applicants. Dr. J. Rudisch has until lately satisfactorily filled this position, and upon his resignation Dr. David Froehlich, 225 East 48th street, has been REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 9 appointed, attends to that duty. salary for this service ] who now The I has been fixed at rive hundred dollars per annum. For the successful work accomplished at the Hospital we are under great obligations to staff. ability, diligence, | our medical The and untiring energy, } wherewith the eminent physicians connected with | our Institution have performed their labors are praiseworthy in the I highest degree, and no hospital has reason to be prouder of a more | respected or more capable corps of physicians and surgeons upon its f staff than the Mount Sinai Hospital. The great and beneficent work of our Dispensary Department is j of so vast and important a character that the Mount Sinai Hospital j has every reason to be gratified with its workings. For the num- i ber of patients treated in this department alone the prescriptions given free of any charge were 21,187. To the two rooms here- tofore used, two more have been added, and supplied with the i necessary conveniences, thus providing separate accommodations for the four departments (Internal, Surgical, Female, and Children), j As an instance to exemplify the service rendered to the poor by | our Dispensary, we would mention that 165 prescriptions were dealt { out one single afternoon. The reputation earned by the staff of this department is very { commendable ; the good name and fame of our institution has won j blessed rewards from the arduous, able, and faithful duties per- } formed by its staff of physicians. Whilst we have reason to be thankful to every one of them for their labor gratuitously done, we j desire to bear our especial testimony to the efficient and capable { manner wherewith, in the Children's Department, Dr. Mary Putnam I Jacobi has been practising. The diligence and love which she to | brings her work are in the highest degree commendable, and we trust for | earnestly that she may be spared many a year to come, to j bless our sick by her presence and help. We have on a former occasion dwelt on the difficulties the Hospi | tal has to encounter from the frequent appeals for admission of 1 incurable cases. We have taken such as we thought that we could I improve at all for a time, but our capacity is not adequate to receive li 10 REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. any large proportion of the many constantly applying for admission. The need of a separate institution for incurables will be keenly felt until its place is supplied. We beg to suggest to wealthy philanthro- pists that here is an opportunity to immortalize themselves, by the establishment of an institution which would accomplish great good among our people, and would relieve the hospital from providing for cases which do not at all belong to its sphere. A hospital, being an institution for the cure of the sick, fails of its object when its wards are filled by those who can be lodged just as well elsewhere, inasmuch as medical aid would relieve their distress, but when at the hospital, they occupy the room and exhaust the resources which should be devoted to patients whose maladies medical reme- dies can remove, and who remain a comparatively short time, whilst incurable cases often linger for years. Complaints will continually be heard from those who are not aware of our proper duty in such cases, or who believe that, because there is no other institution to receive their friends or themselves' that this hospital, erected for other purposes, must supply their wants. We can but patiently bear their reproach, and hope that the enlightened judgment of our members will appreciate the diffi- culty.