26 ADOBE, BRICK & STEEL
City and County Hospitals
Medical care entered politics when Drs. Morse and Stillman tried to contract with the City Council for indigent patients at $10 per day. Their application was unsuccessful and the patients were sent to the hospital at Sutter's Fort for $16 per day. In passing, Dr. Morse commented that it was evident that attorneys’ fees were higher than those of physi cians, but the physicians were the ones who worked night and day. 27 A hospital committee, appointed by the City Council in 1850, recommended establishing a public hospital in order to reduce the expense of distributing the sick among the private hospitals in the community. Drs. Johnson Price and William G. Proctor had received a contract to care for the indigent in their hospital of 75-80 beds. However, after several years, the cityjudged the charges too high and tried to cancel the contract. A lawsuit resulted, but eventually the city did build its hospital. 28 In the meantime, the city purchased the Odd Fellows and Masons Hospital at Sutter’s Fort for care of charity patients. One month later, a grand jury that included Drs. Morse and White was summoned to investigate the allegedly inadequate care and unclean facilities. They found cots in two tiers only 12 to 20 inches apart in the one-story building. Vermin infested the beds and the patients. Some of the sick had no sheets and some had sheets that had not been changed for as long as eight weeks. There was one bathtub - and it was
