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Page 18
ADDRESS BY
DR. GEORGE D. STEWART
[Illustration: BLOOMINGDALE ASYLUM
As it appeared in 1894 when it was discontinued and replaced by
Bloomingdale Hospital at White Plains, New York.]
AFTERNOON SESSION
_The Chairman_: For the first seventy-five years of its existence the
New York Hospital was the nearest approach to an academy of medicine
that the city possessed. When the now famous New York Academy of
Medicine was established in 1847, a friendly and cordial co-operation
between the two institutions arose, and while the activity of this
co-operation is not as pronounced as it was, we still cherish in our
hearts a warm regard for that ancient ally in the cause of humanity. Its
President, Dr. George D. Stewart, the distinguished surgeon, has come to
extend the greetings of the medical profession of New York City.
DR. STEWART
The emotions that attend the birthday celebrations of an individual are
often a mixture of joy and sadness, of laughter and of tears. In warm
and imaginative youth there is no sadness and there are no tears,
because that cognizance of the common end which is woven into the very
warp and woof of existence is then buried deep in our subconscious
natures, or if it impresses itself at all, is too volatile and fleeting
to be remembered. But as the years fall away and there is one less
spring to flower and green, the serious man "tangled for the present in
some parcels of fibrin, albumin, and phosphates" looks forward and
backward and takes in both this world and the next. In the case of
institutions, however, the sadness and the tears do not obtain--for a
century of anniversaries may merely mean dignified maturity, as in the
case of Bloomingdale, with no hint of the senility and decay that must
come to the individual who has lived so long. This institution was
founded one hundred years ago to-day; the parent, the New York Hospital,
has a longer history. Bloomingdale, as a separate and independent
concern, had its birthday a century ago.
It is curious to let the mind travel back, and consider what was
happening about that time. Just two years before the news had flashed on
the philosophical and scientific world that Oersted, a Danish
philosopher, had caused a deflection of the magnetic needle by the
passage near it of an electric current. The relation between the two
forces was then and there confirmed by separate observations all over
the civilized world. This discovery probably created more interest at
that time than Professor Einstein's recent announcement which, if
accepted, may be so disturbing to the principia of Newton and to our
ideas of time and space. There can be no doubt that the practical
significance of Oersted's experiment was much more widely appreciated
than the theory of Einstein, for an understanding of the latter is
confined, we are told, to not many more men than was necessary to save
Sodom and Gomorrah. Its immense practical significance, however, could
have been foreseen by no man, no matter with what vision endowed. Just
two years prior to the founding of this institution the first steamboat
had crossed the Atlantic and in the same year that great conqueror, who
had so disturbed the peace of the world which was even then as now
slowly recovering from the ravages of war, breathed his last in Saint
Helena, yielding to death as utterly as the poorest hind.
In 1815, Bedlam Hospital in South London was converted into an asylum
for the insane who were at the time called "lunatics." The name Bedlam
is a corruption of the Hebrew "Bethlehem"--meaning the House of
Bread--and while the name popularly came to signify a noisy place it was
the beginning of really scientific treatment for the tragically
afflicted insane. While the treatment of the insane in Europe was being
steadily raised to a higher plane of efficiency, America has also reason
to be proud of her record in this respect. During all the years that
have followed, Bloomingdale has been an important factor in the medical
world of New York.
There are two phases of its existence which might be emphasized--first,
it was founded by physicians; even then and, of course, long before
doctors had proven that they were in the forefront in the promotion of
humanitarian activities. Medicine has always carried on its banners an
inscription to the Brotherhood of Man. It is worthy of note that when
Pinel and Tuke had begun to regard mental aberration as a disease and to
provide scientific hospital treatment therefor, American physicians,
prepared by study and experimentation, were ready to accept and apply
the new teachings.
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