PEDIATRICS Vol. 19 No. 4 April 1957, pp. 629-638
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A HISTORY OF THE BOSTON FLOATING HOSPITAL

The Boston Floating Hospital had its origin in 1894 as a rented excursion boat towed around Boston Harbor to give indigent mothers and their sick babies relief from the summer heat. Since that year it has devoted its attention exclusively to pediatric care, and has made a substantial contribution to our basic knowledge of infant feeding and disease, particularly of infectious summer diarrheas and dysentery.

Today the Boston Floating Hospital, now in permanent landlocked buildings, serves the community as a pediatric teaching institution, an infant and child care hospital and a pediatric research center. By examining the logs and records of the old boat, and by reminiscing with physicians who worked on the boat, it has been possible to recreate its history. All quotations in this article, except the letter eulogizing Dr. H. I. Bowditch, are extracted from annual logs published by the hospital. This article is published to chronicle an important era in the development of American pediatrics.

THE Boston Floating Hospital began in the 1890's when organized philanthropy first became fashionable. Edward Everett Hale, the forceful New England writer, wrote two books, Ten Times One Is Ten and In His Name, which instigated the formation of dozens of philanthropic societies (Lend-A-Hand Clubs, King' Daughters Circles and Ten Times One Societies). These groups were dedicated to helping the destitute, the sick, the aged and the malnourished.

On a hot summer night in 1893, a close friend of Edward Everett Hale, the Reverend Rufus Tobey, returned home to Quincy, Massachusetts after a tiring day in Boston.