ABSTRACT
Dramatic changes in American institutions of higher medicine—the hospitals—have increased the quality and sophistication of health care substantially since the turn of the twentieth century. Through the 1800s, hospitals typically provided only food, shelter, and nursing care to dislocated indigents. Very little in the way of clinically sound treatments were available there and rarely would a member of the middle or upper classes be found among the patients of one of these institutions. Throughout the period, hospitals were primarily religious and charitable places for tending the sick and the poor on a long-term basis. Hospitals were dangerous places before the turn of the twentieth century. Before the 1900s, most operations took place at home or in the doctor's office. Development of the X ray led to a whole new classification of health-care workers: medical technicians.
