Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/209

Extensions of Nursing Field 193 (1687) to give free treatment to the sick poor. As a distinct institution, however, the modern dis- pensary dates from the founding of the Royal Dispensary (1770) in connection with St. Bar- tholomew's hospital in London. Philadelphia had its first dispensary in 1786. From that time on, extension was rapid. Nurses are now frequently connected with such service, the Ethical Society of New York having given the first example of this kind (1879) by employing a nurse to visit the homes of patients coming for advice to the dispen- sary supported by the society. The dispensary has greatly stimulated the orderly development of those new lines of organized activity known as hospital social service, and our most eminent example of what such service should be was set in the framework of the Massachusetts General hos- pital dispensary (1905) by Dr. Richard Cabot and two nurses, Garnet Pelton, and Ida M. Cannon, who shared in the original conception and co-oper- ated with him in its development. Hospital social service marks the recognition given by hospital boards and directors to the newer ideas of health conservation. It means. Hospital briefly, offering not only medical treat- service ment to the patient, but extending aid, where needed, in the personal and family circumstances 13