DISPENSARY is literally a place where medicine or food is weighed out for distribu tion; in our own day the term is applied to a charitable institution where medical and surgi cal aid are given without charge to those who desire or need them. Such dispensaries are found in most large towns of the United States and Europe. In the Old World they originated in the monasteries. The modern dispensary system in England was inaugurated in London in 1687. The oldest institution of that kind in the United States was opened in New York in 1795.
Figures compiled by the American Hospital Association show that the number of dispen saries has grown from 200 in 1904 to over 2,300 in the fall of 1916. Of these about 1,000 were dispensaries for the sick poor, treating general diseases, while the remaining 1,300 were pub lic health dispensaries established for the re lief and particularly the prevention of such communicable diseases as tuberculosis.
The dispensaries, founded and maintained for the relief of the sick poor, have been greatly abused in Europe as well as in the Uni ted States and to a large extent have become the propagators of pauperism. In 1897 it was estimated that in Albany 21 per cent, in Brook lyn 31 per cent and in New York 71 per cent of the population (inclusive of suburban pa tients) applied for free treatment in the dis pensaries. In 1899, with the view of remedying matters, it was enacted in New York State that dispensaries were only permitted to be operated under license, and among other reforms, appli cants for relief were compelled to sign a dec laration of their inability to pay; but it is esti mated that, in spite of that and other measures taken, only 50 per cent of those aided are in need of what is practically gratuitous medical relief. In Boston in 1909 it was estimated that
those who attended free dispensaries equalled over 25 per cent of the entire population of the city. The weakness of the position is that pub lic clinics are attended by fee-paying students and doctors eager for dispensary experience and that for their sakes patients must be ob tained, who, as an equivalent for free treatment, are expected to appear before a medical class, submit to public examination and be the text for a medical or surgical lecture.
Consult Goldwater, 'Dispensary Ideals: a Plea for Dispensary Reform' (Philadelphia 1909) ; Report of the Boston Dispensary for 1911, and those of New York State Board of Charities for 1878, 1897 and 1905; and articles in the Maryland Medic& Journal for March 1907, °Suggestions for Reorganization of Hos pital Out-patient Departments"; and Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery for January 1912, °The Out-patient Clinic.°