Excerpt from Address of the Trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital to the Subscribers and to the Public

Towards the end of the last century, a gentleman died in this town, leaving in a codicil to his will, dated April 18, 1797, a bequest in the following words: "I give to the town of Boston live thousand dollars towards the building of a Hospital, and direct my executors to pay the same to any person or persons, whom the town shall appoint to receive the same, as soon as they shall determine to begin the work." Separate from this circumstance, which was however, attended with the beneficial effect of immediately awakening the attention of the public to this important subject, there could have been no doubt in the minds of benevolent and enlightened men, of the utility, nay, absolute necessity, of a charitable establishment for the relief of the sick, in that part of these United States, of which Boston has always been justly considered the parent town, and which contained at the time to which we allude, 1, 471, 973 inhabitants - more especially as a Hospital had been founded in Pennsylvania as early as 1752, and another in New York in 1771. Both these establishments received great aid from government - The last named Hospital, to the amount of $120, 000. But owing to the nature of public institutions in this part of the country, it became necessary that individuals should here undertake that great work, which in some nations of the old world has been done by government, and in others by religion. As early as August, 1810, two Physicians living in this town, addressed a circular letter, in which the advantages of a Hospital were stated with force and justness, to several gentlemen of Boston, possessed of ample fortunes and disposed to contribute to institutions in which the public good was concerned.

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