THE LANCASTER GENERAL HOSPITAL: FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS PREFATORY NOTE A complete history of the Lancaster General Hospital has not been written, due in part to the unfortunate fact that many of the early records are not extant. What is here presented is not even to be considered as a full and

of the Poor and Employment to be classified as a hospital from its inception. This classification allows it to lay claim to being the second oldest hospital in the United States in continuous service, being antedated only by the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, which was established fifty years