In 1834 the Eastern Dispensary was organized. This furnishes medicine, medical and surgical services gratuitously, to the sick poor of that section of the city bounded by Pike street and Allen, First avenue, and Fourteenth street, to the East river. This Dispensary during the first thirty-five and one-half years of its existence has administered to 768,828 patients, an annual average of over twenty-one thousand. Of this number 352,267 were native Americans, the remaining 416,561 were born in foreign lands. The average cost of each patient to the society has been 14 ½ cents. The Dispensary is situated over the Essex Market. The trustees own no building, but now contemplate the erection of one.

The Demilt Dispensary was organized in 1851. In 1852-53 the trustees erected a fine three-story building on the corner of Second avenue and Twenty-third street, at a cost of $30,000 including the site. This property has with the growth of the city doubled in value, and is free from debt. The territory assigned to this Dispensary is comprised in the Eighteenth and Twenty-first Wards, or that portion lying east of Sixth avenue between Fourteenth and Fortieth streets. The population of this district in 1850 was 31,557, in 1860 it amounted to 106,489, and in 1870 to 111,638. During these twenty years it has treated 464,596 patients, over eighty-five thousand of whom have been treated by the physicians at their homes, and 899,075 prescriptions have been dispensed, an average of 125 per day.

The North-eastern Dispensary was incorporated in 1862. It ministers to the sick poor residing between Fortieth and Sixtieth streets, and between Sixth avenue and the East river. During 1870, 13,309 persons received gratuitous treatment at the Dispensary, and 3,101 patients were treated at their dwellings. Eighteen physicians constitute the medical staff.

The North-eastern Homoeopathic Dispensary was founded in 1868. It is situated at 307 East Fifty-fifth street, in hired buildings, and has treated since its opening over forty thousand patients, and made over eighty-five thousand prescriptions, and two thousand visits.

The North-western was incorporated in 1852, and began in hired rooms at No. 511 Eighth avenue. It is designed to bless the sick and suffering poor in that large district lying west of Fifth avenue, between Twenty-third and Eighty-sixth streets. No funds for the permanent establishment of the Institution were raised until 1866, when a subscription was started which secured during the next two years about nineteen thousand dollars, to which the Corporation added the sum of $15,000. A piece of land purchased on Broadway was again sold at a profit of $10,000. The trustees have now completed one of the finest Dispensary buildings on the island, at a cost of $83,000, an indebtedness of over thirty thousand dollars still remaining on the property. Besides affording very ample and commodious apartments for the use of the Institution itself, it contains a large store, and a beautiful hall rented for divine service. When this indebtedness is removed it is believed the income from the building will render the Dispensary nearly self-sustaining. The number of patients treated varies from 10,000 to 15,000 per annum.

Besides these there are also various other Dispensaries established for the treatment of special diseases, as the New York Dispensary for the Treatment of Cancer, the New York Dispensary for Diseases of Throat and Chest, the New York Dispensary for Diseases of Skin, and others.

Most of these Institutions receive $1,000 per annum from the Corporation, to which the State sometimes adds an additional thousand or more as they may need. Aside from this they are supported by private donations. The amount of good resulting to the city and country from the kindly treatment administered to these 200,000 patients, who annually apply to these well-arranged Institutions of mercy, is incalculable. The results from the system of free vaccination alone, are ample for all the expenses of the entire undertaking. This charity of all others is least liable to abuse, and is annually attended with great and manifest advantages to our whole population.