The body having charge of the finances of any city of the first class may by resolution, approved by the mayor, appropriate and set aside annually to the credit of the board having charge of the public health in the city a sum of money, not exceeding ten thousand dollars, to be used by such board for the establishment and maintenance of medical dispensaries for the free distribution of medicines among the poor of such city. The money so appropriated shall be annually levied and collected in the same manner as other taxes are levied and collected in the city.