Until recently, the hospitals of New York have been largely patronized and controlled by citizens of foreign nationalities. Hospitals are much more common in Europe than in this country. London alone contains over fifty, many of them of a general character, averaging about three hundred beds each. Americans, for the most part, prefer to be treated at home, even in extreme cases; but Europeans resort to the hospital when overtaken with slight illness. The hospitals of Europe often treat both the in-door and out-door patients, hence the thoughts of an invalid are naturally turned toward the hospital. It is this early education that has prompted so many foreigners to plan for a hospital soon after taking up their residence in an American city. "The German Hospital of the City of New York" was incorporated by the Legislature April 13th, 1861, and its first board of directors was organized February 15th, 1862. A subscription, opened in 1861, slumbered through several years. The treasurer's report shows that up to 1865 less than $14,000 had been received.

The subscriptions of 1866 exceeded $53,000; of 1867, $36,000; and of 1868, $28,000. A plot of ground situated on Fourth avenue and Seventy-seventh street was leased to them by the city authorities for fifty years, at a nominal rent, and the directors purchased six additional lots on Seventy-sixth street. The plan at that time was to erect two fine pavilions, extending along Seventy-seventh street, from Fourth to Lexington avenues, with an administration building between them. The corner-stone of the western pavilion was laid September 3, 1866, and the edifice so far completed that the building committee transferred it to the board of directors October 28, 1868. The expenditures of the enterprise at that time having far outrun its income, the edifice could not be used until the heavy indebtedness could be removed. In the beginning of 1869 the directors, still burdened with debt, and seeing no prospect of receiving large donations, despaired of ever carrying through the original plan, and accordingly sold the six lots formerly purchased on Seventy-sixth street. The $25,800 thus received enabled them to cancel their most pressing obligations, still leaving a debt of $20,000, and the. Hospital unfurnished. At this critical moment, Mr. H. E. Moring volunteered to undertake another collection, and with much perseverance succeeded in raising over $11,000, with which sum eighty complete beds and the other furniture were obtained. On the 13th of September, 1869, the Hospital was finally opened for the uses for which it had been erected, since which a large number of patients have been treated. The edifice is a beautiful, three-story brick, with French roof. The stories are high, well ventilated, heated throughout with steam, and contain one hundred beds. The whole is divided into six wards and five private rooms. The directors were last year very agreeably surprised by receiving the princely gift of $50,000 in United States bonds, from Baron Van Diergardt, a noble German philanthropist. This sum has enabled them to cancel all their indebtedness, leaving $40,000 in the treasury. They now propose to repurchase the lots so recently sold, or obtain others, and proceed with the erection of the other buildings so greatly needed, as the inconveniencies of the present building originate in the fact that all parts of the administration are crowded into what is but a part of a well-considered plan. The incompleteness of the Hospital appears from the fact that the present building contains no kitchen of sufficient size, no separate room for a pharmacy, no room for surgical instruments, no suitably arranged operating theatre, no rooms sufficiently separated from the main building for patients giving symptoms of contagious disease. All these prerequisites are provided for in the general plan. Patients are admitted regardless of color, creed, or nationality. From the time of opening the Hospital until October 1, 1870, 739 patients were admitted, of whom 82 died, 600 were dismissed, and 57 remained. Of those admitted, 300 were treated free, 19 paid in part, and 420 paid in full.

In 1866 the German Dispensary previously established was by an amended charter united in interest and management with the Hospital. This continues at its old location, No. 8 Third street. During 1870 it dispensed medical aid to 15,000 patients, and to about the same number the year previous. About one-third of these were of American birth, and nearly eight-ninths of the remainder were from Germany. The college of physicians connected with this dispensary have collected the best library of medical periodicals in the United States.

The German Hospital and Dispensary are conducted by learned and skillful physicians, and with the completion of their new buildings are certain to take rank among our best institutions.