COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL
Located in Chicago and under control of the Commissioners of Cook County.
It was originally erected by the City of Chicago, at a cost of $80,000 and was intended to be used as a hospital for patients suffering from infectious diseases. For several years the building was unoccupied but in 1858 it was leased by an association of physicians who opened a hospital with the further purpose of affording facilities for clinical instruction to the students of Rush Medical College.
In 1863 the building was taken by the General Government for military purposes being used as an eye and ear hospital for returning soldiers. In 1865 it reverted to the City of Chicago and in 1866 was purchased by Cook County.
In 1874 the County Commissioners purchased a new and more spacious site at a cost of $145,000 and began the erection of buildings thereon. The two principal pavilions were completed and occupied before the close of 1875 the clinical amphitheater and connecting corridors were built in 1876-1977 and an administrative building and two additional pavilions were added in 1882-1884.
Up to that date the total cost of the buildings had been $719,574 and later additions and improvements have swelled the outlay to more than $1,000,000. It accommodates about 800 patients and constitutes a part of the county machinery for the care of the poor. A certain number of beds are placed under the care of homeopathic physicians.
The present (1896) allopathic medical staff consists of fifteen physicians, fifteen surgeons, one oculist and aorist and one pathologist. The homeopathic staff comprises five physicians and five surgeons. In addition there is a large corps of interns or house physicians and surgeons, composed of recent graduates from the several medical colleges who gain their positions through competitive examination and hold them for eighteen months.