FORMAL OPENING OF THE NEW BUILDINGS; THE MASSACHUSETTS HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL, HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL DISPENSARY, AND BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL

OF MEDICINE, MARCH 16, 1892.

For something more than two years there has been unusual activity in these three institutions which has resulted in the erection of six new buildings-four large and two small ones.

The Dispensary, the oldest of the three, had worked along for thirty-five years, taking care of more than two hundred thousand patients, and occupying illy lighted and badly ventilated basement rooms, economizing in every way rather than appeal to the public for aid, lest it should divert contributions from the Hospital, which was needing help so much.

The friends of the Dispensary thought that their turn had come, and accordingly made a stirring public appeal, which resulted in securing a valuable building site from the city, and some sixty thousand dollars, with which they have erected a structure two stories high, to be completed at some future time by three additional stories.

The Hospital, with a fine record of twenty years of work, went to the State and asked aid to enlarge its buildings, and received $120,000.

The School of Medicine, with its largely extended curriculum, found itself so cramped for space that the Faculty applied to the Trustees for aid to erect an additional building, and were granted $40,000; the balance of cost, $30,000, to be provided by the Faculty.

With such assistance from different sources the various buildings were begun within the past two years, and were all so far completed that they were opened for inspection on March 16, 1892.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDINGS.

MASSACHUSETTS HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL. The buildings. thus far completed provide the largest general Homœopathic Hospital ever erected. It has two hundred beds for patients and seventy for officers, nurses and attendants. The land on

which it stands contains 45,000 square feet, of which 16,000 were given by the city, and the rest purchased. It is bounded on three sides by streets; East Concord, Albany, and Stoughton; and fronts upon an open square belonging to Boston University School of Medicine.

It consists of four large buildings: a central or administration building, and three wings, two on East Concord and one on Stoughton street; a boiler house and laundry, a kitchen, a cottage or isolating ward, and a mortuary. The entrances face the northwest, and the rear, as well as all the wings and other buildings, have a southern and sunny exposure, with a great amount of light and free circulation of air.

Under all the buildings there are well ventilated sub-basements six feet in the clear. The large buildings are all four stories high. The central or administration building is sixty by fifty feet, and contains the office and rooms of the resident physician, waiting rooms for visitors and applicants, pharmacy, chemical laboratory, store rooms, etc., and wards for twenty-four patients.

The first surgical wing on East Concord street is eighty-five by fifty, and contains the officers' dining room, serving rooms for patients on each story, room for internes, medical board rooms, solarium for convalescents, amphitheatre for operations, with seating capacity for two hundred, students' cloak and dressing rooms, wards for forty patients, and elevator.

The second surgical wing, fifty-four by fifty, contains serving rooms, dressing room, private operating room, wards for fiftynine patients, photographing room, and elevator.

The medical wing on Stoughton street, eighty-five by fifty feet, has serving rooms on each floor, nurses' dining room and cloak room, trustees' reception room, rooms for internes and housekeeper, solarium, store rooms, elevator, and wards for seventy-four patients.

The cottage is a well arranged isolated hospital for four patients. The mortuary has a post mortem repository with pathological department.

The boiler house and laundry is a building forty feet square, provided with three large steel boilers, an electric plant for lighting the hospital; and the laundry, in the upper part, is sup plied with necessary machines and apparatus. A large chimney, ten feet in diameter and sixty feet high, serves also as a ventilator to important parts of the hospital.

The kitchen is forty feet square, one story in height, well lighted and ventilated, and provided with two large ranges, eight steam jackets, and necessary apparatus for cooking. There are

also store rooms, meat room, refrigerators, and a general serving room from which food is dispensed for the whole hospital.

THE DISPENSARY. This building, at the corner of Harrison avenue and Stoughton street, is one hundred and twenty by fifty-two feet, with an L in the rear forty by twenty-eight, and a boiler house sixteen by twenty-eight. The main entrance from Harrison avenue opens into a central hall twenty feet wide, and extending the whole length of the building. From this open sixteen rooms devoted to the different departments; medical, surgical, women's, children's, eye and ear, chest, throat, skin, rectal, and dental; also dressing room and trustees' room. These are all furnished for their several uses.

In the L leading from this story is a clinical lecture room twenty-four by twenty-eight feet, and a dressing room. Stairways descend to the basement story, in which are the janitor's quarters, resident and maternity physician's, toilet, and store

rooms.

At a cost of $35,000 the building can be completed as designed, with additional stories providing more desirable rooms for the dispensary, and a complete maternity hospital with separate entrance from Stoughton street.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE. The original buildings, erected in 1868 and 1874, are one hundred and four by forty feet, with four floors, of which one is a basement and one is mansard roof. The new structure is sixty-two by fifty-six feet,with four full stories and a fine basement or cellar. It is built almost entirely of stone, iron, brick and cement, with the least practicable amount of wood work. The style is solid and substantial, rather than ornate. A tower sixty-five feet high forms the south In this is the main entrance, with Hippocrates and Hygeia in bas-relief on either side. In the entrance hall is a fine bronze bust of Hahnemann of heroic size, made by the sculptor David, of Paris, when Hahnemann was eighty years old.

corner.

In the first story is the physiological laboratory fifty-six by twenty-eight feet, a private laboratory eighteen by twenty-six, and a study and lecture room twenty-six by twenty-six. In the second story is the histological or microscopical laboratory with private laboratory and lecture room of similar size of those on first story, and a toilet room for women. In the third story is a library sixty by twenty-eight feet, with a capacity of 30,000 volumes, a reading room and librarian's laboratory. In the fourth story is a special dissecting and demonstration room twenty by twenty-eight, a museum forty by twenty-eight, with a gallery on

the four sides and capacity of 100,000 specimens, a pathological laboratory and lecture room.

In the tower are two stories devoted to the osteological department. In the basement is a fine depository, in which fortyeight subjects can be preserved indefinitely at a temperature of twenty-six degrees, a room twenty by twenty-six for preparing anatomical material, store room, electrical room, and toilet room for men. It is arranged for an elevator at some future time. The rooms are finished in ash, and the furnishings are of the same material; the fire-places are of Tennessee marble, as are the various trimmings of sinks and radiators. The building is heated by indirect steam radiation supplemented by direct.

THE OPENING.

So important are these buildings to the community, and so many persons are interested in them that invitations to visit the buildings on Wednesday, March 16, 1892, between 10 A. M. and IO P. M., were widely sent. The day proved a remarkable one for March, and upwards of five thousand people were in attendance. An orchestra was provided and special exercises were arranged at the Hospital at II A. M., the Dispensary at 3 P. M., and at the School of Medicine at 8 P. M.

THE HOSPITAL. The Executive Committee, Mr. J. A. Higginson, Dr. D. G. Woodvine, Mrs. A. S. Foster, Miss F. E. Horton, and Mrs. Edward Whitney, with others, had special charge of decorations, and the various parts of the building were tastefully ornamented with evergreen and choice flowers. The hall in which the exercises were held was beautifully ornamented with Jacqueminot, Mermet, and Marechal Niel roses In the Trustees' reception room, furnished by the estate of the late Mrs. Anna L. Möring, and decorated with daffodils surrounded by green, the reception committee, consisting of Mr. S. T. Hooper, Miss M. J. Rogers, Mrs. A. D. Whitney, and Mrs. Conrad Wesselhoeft, received many of the specially invited guests. In the hall where the exercises were held, upon the platform were Col. Chas. R. Codman, the President of the Hospital; Bishop Phillips Brooks, Gov. W. E. Russell; Hon. James H. Eaton, Chairman of the Building Committee; Mrs. S. T. Hooper, President of the Ladies' Aid Association; President W. F. Warren, of Boston University, and others. Among those present were many State officers, members of the Senate and House of Representatives, and distinguished citizens from various parts of the State.

The hall in which the exercises were held could comfortably

seat only 250, but its standing room was fully occupied, and it could thus accommodate a small part of the persons in attend

ance.

Col. Chas. R. Codman presided, and Bishop Phillips Brooks offered the invocation, which was replete with devotional thought and feeling. He asked that the Divine Blessing might rest upon this large gathering of the friends of this noble institution, upon the State which has contributed towards its prosperity and importance, upon its officers that they might with wisdom direct its affairs, upon its physicians that success might attend their labors, upon the nurses in their watchful care and efforts, upon the patients that they may here be restored to health and strength, and upon the community that it may be benefited spiritually as well as physically through the example, influence, and results of this charity.

It would be a boon to this institution if the words of Bishop Brooks' prayer could have been placed in permanent form. Colonel Codman introduced Hon. James H. Eaton, of Lawrence, who spoke as follows:

Mr. President,-It becomes my pleasant duty as chairman of the building committee to turn over to you, the representative of this corporation, the keys of the new hospital buildings which are now completed and ready for use. On the 3rd of June, 1890, our good Commonwealth in its generosity and spirit of fair dealing towards all schools of medical practice, appropriated $120,000 to be used in enlarging the then existing hospital or in the erection of new and distinct buildings. This money has been expended in strict accordance with the provisions of the legislative act, and as a result we have these two large additional buildings, the surgical extension and the medical wing, —a mortuary, and a commodious kitchen with all modern appliances. There have been added to the apartments 23,755 square feet of floor space, and accommodations for 120 patients. As soon as the plans and specifications were fully agreed upon, and adopted, many contractors were solicited to furnish bids for labor and material, and in every case the contract was awarded to the lowest bidder. Your committee can speak in most approving terms of all parties who have had to do with the construction of these buildings. Every dollar of the appropriation has gone directly into the property. Your committee has received no remuneration for services rendered or expenses incurred. Having acted according to our best judgment, we cheerfully turn this large and valuable property into your hands, knowing that your board in accordance with its agreement with the Commonwealth will ever maintain at least twenty free beds, which will doubtless be among the softest