830 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

February 10th, one hundred and nineteen patients had been treated, and the number of applicants were increasing in a ratio which proved the great need of such a public charity. The management of the institution is under the immediate control of Drs. H. G. Merick, J. C. Monroe, A. H. Brockway, G. H. Race and M. E. Elmendorf, the clinical board of the Brooklyn Dental Society. This society is the first in the United States, at least, to offer to the poor of a great city, the advantages of gratuitous care and treatment of dental diseases.

DISPENSARIES.

The Brooklyn City Dispensary (incorporated, March 5, 1850), commenced operations August 10th, 1846, at first in the old Jackson house, in Hudson street, near Lafayette street; and a few years after obtained the use of one of the basement rooms of the City Hall, where they remained until the city officials, having a wholesome dread of contracting some contagious disease, agreed to pay the rent of the institution if removed to some other place. The back compounding room of Bailey's drug store, No. 269 Washington street, was its next refuge; then the first floor of No. 107 Pineapple street, the whole of which was finally absolved by its increasing demands; and finally by the exertions of the president, Thomas Clarke, and the trustees, sufficient money was raised to purchase and furnish the premises at present occupied by, the dispensary at No. 7 Tillary street. This building, of brick, twenty-five by forty-five feet in size, most admirably arranged and equipped for its specific uses; and attended daily by an energetic and faithful corps of experienced physicians and surgeons; with a resident apothecary, full sets of instruments, apparatus, etc., presents a most striking contrast with the condition of the institution, when living here and there, in basements and hired houses; when the attending physicians were obliged to use their own private cases of instruments, and often pay for medicines themselves; when the patients were all sent to some convenient drug store, where the druggist was allowed five cents for each prescription made up for them; when Mr. Arthur W. Benson, B. W. Delamater, and others of the trustees carried on the dispensary, for months at a time, out of their own private means. The city dispensary has proved the nucleus for Brooklyn’s two hospitals, and has trained many of our prominent physicians for the useful positions which they now occupy in the public estimation. To none is it more indebted for devoted attention than to Dr. J. B. Jones, one of the present coroners of this city, as well as to Mr. W. W. Henshaw, the secretary, and Mr. B. W. Delamater. Its property is valued at $14,000, and its permanency is assured.