The plans and purposes of the Johns Hopkins Hospital : an address delivered at the opening of the Hospital, May 7, 1889 / by John S. Billings.

  • Billings, John S. (John Shaw), 1838-1913.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The plans and purposes of the Johns Hopkins Hospital : an address delivered at the opening of the Hospital, May 7, 1889 / by John S. Billings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    THE\f%ANS AND Bt/fPOSES OF THE JOHNS \':^hopjHn/ hospital. An Address deliinrrrd at Ike opening of the Hospital, May 7, iSSc). By JOHN S BILLINGS. M.D., SURGEON U. S. ARMY The third paragraph of the letter of instructions com- municated by Johns Hopkins to the Trustees whom he had chosen to carry out his plans for a hospital in the city of Haltimore, states that it is my wish that the plan . . . shall provide for a hospital which shall, in structure and arrangement, compare favorably with any other institution of like char.acter in this country or in Europe.” What do you suppose the writer was thinking of when he penned that sentence.? Had he in view any definite ideal, any mental picture of the insti- tution which he proposed to establish, or was it merely an expression of a desire to give to his city the best thing that could be devised? 1 have read that letter many times, have heard much of the ideas, hopes, and wishes which were expressed in the numerous conversa- tions which preceded its preparation, and it seems to me that the writer had an ideal, and not a mere vague desire—an ideal which w'as no doubt somewhat misty, but which did not correspond to any existing hospital, and one which he did not attempt to define except in a few- prominent points to which I shall presently refer. In most respects Johns Hopkins took the same course with his hospital which he did with his University, and deliberately refused to trammel with specific directions those whom he had chosen to carry out his plans; but this letter of instructions indicates, nevertheless, a con-