In setting up the society Macmillan " wanted to see homes for cancer patients throughout the land, where attention will be provided freely or at low cost, as circumstances dictate . . . [ and ] . . . panels of voluntary nurses who can be detailed off to attend to necessitous patients in their own homes . " Macmillan managed the charity, along with other volunteers, while working full time as a civil servant.
22.
By 1807, " the Boston Medical Dispensary, instituted in October, 1796, has afforded the means of relief to many necessitous persons, among others, whose feelings would have been hurt by an application for assistance from the alms house; as they are by this charity attended free of any expense by an able physician, either at their own houses, or at the Dispensary, as the case may require, and furnished with whatever medicine they may need, and with wine, if necessary.
