The hospitals of Puerto Principe, Cuba / by S.T. Armstrong.
- Samuel Treat Armstrong
- Date:
- 1900
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The hospitals of Puerto Principe, Cuba / by S.T. Armstrong. 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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![[Reprinted from the Special Number fif %he Philadelphia Medical Journal on Medicine in the Tropics, April 7,1900.] THE HOSPITALS OP PP^|Q; PRINCIPE, CUBA. By S. T. AEMSTROS^ M.D., Major and Surgeon U. S. V. Formerly Chief Surgeon, Department Puerto Principe. The hospitals of the city of Puerto Principe, a place of some 20,000 inhabitants and of almost 400 years settlement, are probably typical of those of other Cuban cities, as it has long been the most important inland city of the island. So the following facts are presented in regard to these institutions : Hospital de Caridad de San Juan de Dios de Puerto Principe. This institution was founded in the year 1728 by Gaspar Alonzo de Betencourt for the purpose of furn- ishing an asylum for sick males. When it was opened for the care of patients the administration was placed in charge of the religious order of San Juan de Dios, a nursing fraternity, under whose care it remained until by a royal order in 1839 the exclaustration of that community was decreed. The exclaustration en- abled the Spanish Government to confiscate the prop- erty of the order, but an allotment of $1,710 from the revenue was allowed to the institution annually in lieu of the deprivation of its sources of income. Subse- quent to that year the hospital was administered by the Council of Charities until, by a royal decree in 1875, the charity service of the Island of Cuba was organized and declared. In October, 1888, a council of patrons, or board of governors, was organized, which body has remained in charge. Since its foundation the hospital has had legacies left it amounting to more than $34,000 ; this has been in- vested in mortgages which pay only $700 at present. So the institution is compelled to seek relief from the general government, and it is but fair that this](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22406621_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
