It released a power the beneficence and helpfulness of which increase year by year as science adds to its ability, and a growing sense of responsibility widens its use.
The Christian era ushered in the day of hope for the sick-poor—a day that has progressed steadily, to an ever-enlarging vision of what was in the heart of Christ for the healing of the nations.
Ancient writers tell us of some efforts in pre-Christian days toward the institutional care of the sick. The earliest records mention the treatment of the sick in the Greek temples of Aesculapius in 1134 B.C.; these were probably not for the poor. Seneca very much later refers to the infirmaries established by the Romans for the well-to-do classes.
In 226 B.C., the Buddhists in India are credited with some small efforts to provide for the sick poor, as are also later the fire worshipers of Persia.
"When the example and teachings of Christ began to bear fruit, and when Jerusalem and the roads approaching it began to be crowded with pilgrims, special accommodations for the use of the sick were established. When monasteries and convents followed, they too, provided for the sick."
From the Roman word "hospitalia" (apartment set apart for guests), our word hospital is derived.
In the writings of St. Jerome, who established several, the word "hospital" is first used for a curative institution.
It is of interest to know that the oldest hospital now in use in
Europe, the Hotel Dieu, was founded in Paris, in 600 A. D. by the
Bishop of Paris.
All the early hospitals were church institutions, and the wards were clustered about the chapel, as may be seen to-day in the arrangement of beautiful St. Luke's hospital in New York City. Thus we find that religion, not medicine, gave birth to hospitals.
An accelerating influence in their growth came through the necessities of war, which threw large numbers of the injured and suffering upon communities quite unprepared to receive and minister to them.