THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



147 



tutions for the care of no less than 35,000 

 persons as follows : Sick in hospitals, 

 10,000; insane, 6,500; prisoners, 3,500; 

 treated at dispensaries, 15,000. The insti- 

 tutions in which this work is performed, 

 as enumerated in White's Medical 

 Register are as follows : Asylums, 6; 

 hospitals 19 ; dispensaries 2 ; prisons and 

 jails not enumerated, perhaps 5. In view 

 of the 35,000 persons cared for in these 

 32 institutions, the total number under 

 treatment in all such institutions can be 

 understood in a general way by consider- 

 ing that in addition to the above, and 

 not connected with the City Govern- 

 ment, we have enumerated in the same 

 work, in New York City and Brooklyn, 

 150 benevolent institutions, 56 hospitals 

 and 36 dispensaries. To this number 

 must still be added the various govern- 

 ment institutions connected with the 

 great department of immigration and 

 with the army and navy posts, as well as 

 a large number of asylums, hospitals, dis- 

 pensaries and other similar institutions, 

 public and private, pertaining to the 

 cities of Newark, Jersey City, Orange, 

 Paterson, Yonkers, Long Island City and 

 numerous smaller towns of the vicinity. 

 The total number of institutions calling 

 f )r medical purveying within an hour of 

 the City Hall must therefore run well 

 above 300, and the total number of phar- 

 macists employed must be very great, in 

 view of the fact that many of them re- 

 quire the services of a more or less ex- 

 tensive pharmaceutical staff. It is true 

 that a large number of those enumerated 

 are small and comparatively unim- 

 portant, but yet the opportunities for 

 those preparing themselves to serve in, 

 or to supply, such institutions are of 

 great extent and variety. In a similar 

 light may be regarded the 106 steamship 

 lines touching at this port, nearly all of 

 whose vessels, as well as the innumerable 

 sailing vessels with which the harbor is 



crowded, are obliged to maintain a phar- 

 maceutical equipment of some kind. Free 

 opportunities are afforded to students 

 and visitors for inspecting nearly all of 

 the establishments above enumerated. 



Turning from such intensely practical 

 considerations we observe that New York 

 students are no less favorably situated as 

 regards opportunities for scientific in- 

 struction on a more liberal basis. 



From time to time, the criticism makes 

 its appearance that this community is so 

 intensily absorbed in money getting that 

 it neglects or fails to support such in- 

 stitutions of literature, science and art as 

 might be expected to flourish in so 

 populous and wealthy a city. While it 

 is very true that the results of efforts in 

 this direction are often disappointing, 

 and that there is a very large element in 

 our population, abundantly able but un- 

 willing to become interested in work of 

 this character, still the criticism referred 

 to is not justified by the facts. Upon the 

 contrary, when we take sufficient pains 

 to investigate the work being done, we 

 must conclude that this city is the most 

 important scientific centre of the country 

 and that nowhere else is there an equal 

 amount of time and money expended in 

 developing a taste for pure study and in 

 providing the means for its gratification ; 

 and this is true not only absolutely but 

 relatively to the population and wealth 

 represented. 



The Scientific Alliance of the City of 

 New York includes the Academy of 

 Sciences, with separate sections of Astro- 

 nomy and Physics, Geology, Mineralogy 

 and Biology, and a renowned annual 

 course of public lectures, the Torrey 

 Botanical Club, the Microscopical Society, 

 the L,innaean Society, the Mineralogical 

 Club, the Mathematical Society, the New 

 York Section of the American Chemical 

 Society and the Entomological Society. 



