Dispensaries

Dispensaries are institutions for supplying the poor with medical advice and medicines. They are of two kinds, provident and free. The first are excellent institutions for encouraging habits of thrift, and training the poor not to depend on medical charity. The members of provident dispensaries pay a few pence weekly, which entitles them and their families to advice and medicine when necessary. The medical officer attends at the dispensary every morning to prescribe for those who call; after a certain hour he goes the round of the district, and visits those who are too ill to attend at the dispensary. It is often necessary in starting these institutions that there should be certain honorary members paying a subscription that will cover the expense of the building and drugs; the pence of the ordinary members should cover the officer's fee. Free dispensaries much resemble the out-patient department of hospitals, without the advantage of having wards to which the worst cases can be relegated. In Ireland, since 1851, when the Irish Dispensaries Act was passed, every district has a dispensary, where the poor are entitled to advice and medicine on presenting tickets, which are distributed by relieving officers, guardians, &c. The first dispensary founded in Britain was the Royal General Dispensary, Bartholomew Close, London, opened in 1770. There are now over a hundred dispensaries in London, of which the greater number are provident; and such institutions are numerous in many cities in England, America, and the colonies. See HOSPITAL.