Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing - Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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Page 16 VmVWJWJWJV,WW»W . . . CHECKS InR etrospect A S we of the Class of 1939 watch the White Building rise magically beside the old Bulfinch Building, we are reminded that graduation is about to make us part of a great and continuous tradition of over a hundred years of service. The written history of this hospital since Dr. James Jackson and Dr. John C. Warren in 1810 issued their circular letter which appealed for funds to care for the worthy sick and insane and to educate medical students, fills several volumes; the history which is, and forever must be, unwritten would fill many more. Not with any thought of adding to the literature of M. G. H. but because our Yearbook does not seem complete without it, we in- clude the following paragraphs as a memorial. For it is just as true to-day as when Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote it that, This Hospital has always inspired the fervid attachment of those hold- ing any relation to it whatsoever, — whether as citizens, proud of its benevolent services; as pupils, grate- ful for its teachings; or as medical officers, who have put their own work into its comprehensive fields of usefulness. It has universally fos- tered a feeling of affection, such as is cherished for an Alma Mater.” If he were writing in 1939 I am sure Dr. Holmes would have mentioned the student nurse. Slow in getting started like most great undertakings, the cornerstone of the Bulfinch was laid in 1818 and the first patient was admitted in September 1821. Again the continuity of our history is illustrated by the fact that the great architect who designed our first building is an ancestor of a member of the firm which drew the plans for our new building. The mummy from Thebes now kept in the Ether Dome was presented to the hospital in 1823 and was sometimes ex- hibited to raise money for the hospital. In that same year we received our first large benefit from the estate of John McLean, for whom McLean Hospital was later named, and of whom the hospital possesses a Gilbert Stuart portrait. In those early years any outbreak of a communi- cable disease was a great problem because of inadequate means of control. Several times the hospital was closed and fumi- gated because of erysipelas in the wards and it was decided not to admit syphilitic patients, for whom no cure was then known. On October 16, 1846, which might be called the 1492 of M.G.H., ether was here first publicly used for a major sur- gical operation, the story of which has been re-enacted with faithful accuracy