History of 
Medicine in New York 
Three Centuries of Medical Progress 
BY 
JAMES J. WALSH, M.D., Ph.D., Sc.D. 
Member of the French, German and Italian Societies for the History of 
Medicine; author of History of Medical Society of the State 
of New York; Makers of Modern Medicine; Old-Time 
Makers of Medicine; Medieval Medicine; Psycho- 
therapy; The Popes and Science; The Cen- 
tury of Columbus; The Thirteenth 
Greatest of Centuries, etc. 
Volume II 
NATIONAL AMERICANA SOCIETY, Inc. 
NEW YORK 
1919 Copyright, 1919, 
National Americana Society, Inc. 
Press of 
J. J. Little & Ives Co. 
New York CHAPTER XXI 
DISTINGUISHED PHYSICIAN SCIENTISTS 
NEW YORK has had a rather long series of distinguished 
scientists whose introduction to the study of science came 
through medicine. As a rule, they were men who discovered 
their own vocation for scientific work, original research and investi- 
gation, as the result of their studies in medicine. Some of them 
practised medicine for some years until they secured some sort of 
a teaching or official position which enabled them to pursue their 
scientific studies as they wished. Others devoted themselves at 
once to some of the sciences related to medicine, and found occupa- 
tion of mind and heart in pure scientific work. 
The first and most distinguished of these is undoubtedly Dr. 
Cadwalader Colden, usually known in history as Governor Colden, 
though he never attained higher rank than that of Lieutenant- 
Governor and Acting Governor of the Colony. Dr. Colden did 
work in botany that attracted attention not only here in America 
but also in Europe, and because of his high position, his success 
attracted the attention of the rising generation in America to the 
important field of original work in science that lay so invitingly 
open in this country. 
Because of his relations with prominent men of science in Europe 
as well as America, Dr. Colden's place in the history of science is 
assured. His interest in botany brought him into close touch with 
Linnaeus, the well-known Swedish botanist, and Linnaeus ac- 
knowledged his obligations to him for botanical work done in 
America. Dr. Colden's paper "On the Virtues of the Great Water 
Dock" (Rumex aquaticus) came under Linnaeus' eye and led to 
the opening of a correspondence. Professor Asa Gray in the last 
generation collected these letters that passed between the American 
and Swedish lovers of plants and published them with some other 
Colden letters. As the result of this intimate association, Linnaeus 
named a plant of the tetrandrous class, a specimen of which had 
been sent him by Colden's daughter, Coldenia, in honor of his 
326 326 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
friend's family name. The naming is usually considered to have 
been a special compliment to the young lady such as Linnaeus liked 
to pay. 
Golden kept up the correspondence with some of the most dis- 
tinguished scientists of the time, not only Linnaeus, as already 
mentioned, but Gronovius, Collinson, Bard, and Garden, Douglass, 
Bartram, Whytte and Alexander, and above all with Franklin, who 
confesses that the idea and plan of the American Philosophical 
Society really came to him from Governor Golden. His letters to 
Benjamin Franklin are particularly interesting, concerning most 
of the subjects in physics, but particularly electricity and gravita- 
tion. Stereotyping is said to have been an invention of Golden's, 
though subsequently taken up and developed without acknowledg- 
ment to the original inventor by an enterprising Frenchman. His 
scientific work was rather thoroughly appreciated in Europe. 
In spite of his intimate friendship with Franklin, Governor Col- 
den, probably from his official connections, continued to be in- 
tensely loyal to Great Britain when the troubles with the Mother 
Country began. He insisted that the stamped paper made com- 
pulsory by the famous Stamp Act must be used, but soon found 
that the people of the colony were against him. Colden was now a 
very old man, past eighty-seven, but he still had pluck, so he re- 
tired to Fort George with a garrison of marines. It is said that he 
ordered the marines to fire on the populace when they were sedi- 
tious, but the marines refused. In the disturbances which fol- 
lowed, Colden's official carriage as Lieutenant-Governor was seized 
and burned, along with an effigy of himself, and it is said also of 
the devil. Finding life too uncomfortable under the circumstances 
in New York, Colden retired at the beginning of the Revolution to 
a large estate which he owned near Newburgh, called Coldenham. 
Here he occupied himself entirely with his favorite sciences, espe- 
cially botany, electricity and mathematics. His home had been 
the meeting place for the learned men of the colonies, and his high- 
est pleasure in life had been to entertain them, but the disturbance 
due to the Revolutionary War interfered with this, and the follow- 
ing year, on September 28th, 1776, only a few months after the 
Declaration of Independence, the physician, scientist, governor, 
passed away. 
A distinguished physician scientist of the latter half of the 
eighteenth century whose long life, however, carried him over in PHYSICIAN SCIENTISTS 
327 
health of mind and body to be a prominent factor in the first two 
decades of the nineteenth century, was Dr. Hugh Williamson, orig- 
inally a Philadelphian, and curiously enough, in spite of that, re- 
ceiving his graduate education at the Dutch University of Utrecht 
instead of a British university. He practised but for a very short 
time in Philadelphia, and being threatened with consumption, took 
up his residence in North Carolina. Just what dictated his choice 
of a neighborhood that has since become well known for its suit- 
ableness for patients of this kind, is not known. His recovery was 
so complete, however, that he lived to the advanced age of eighty- 
three. After his recovery he took up his residence in New York 
and shared actively in many interesting movements for the benefit 
of the State and its inhabitants. He was one of the prime movers 
in the Erie Canal project, one of the really important members of 
the New York Historical Society, and a founder of the Literary 
and Philosophical Society of New York, which in the early days 
did yeoman work for the intellectual life of the city. Dr. Francis 
says of his varied activities: 
In 1769 he (Williamson) was appointed chairman of a committee con- 
sisting of Rittenhouse, Ewing, Smith, the provost, and Charles Thomp- 
son, afterwards Secretary to Congress, all mathematicians and astronomers, 
to observe the transit of Venus in 1769. He published an essay on 
Comets, afterwards enlarged and printed in the "Transactions of the 
Literary and Philosophical Society of New York." In this communication 
he adheres to his original opinion, that every planet and every comet in 
our system in inhabited. By appointment with Dr. Ewing he made a 
tour in Great Britain in 1773, for the benefit of a literary institution. 
He wrote on the Gymnotius electricus, and upon his return to North Caro- 
lina was an active agent in the promotion of inoculation, and finally re- 
ceived a commission as head of the medical staff of the American army of 
that State. In 1782 he took his seat as a representative of Edenton in the 
House of Commons of North Carolina. In 1786 he was one of the mem- 
bers who were sent to Annapolis for the amendment of the constitution, 
and in 1789 we find him in New York, and in the first Congress when the 
constitution was carried into effect. He wrote an octavo volume on the 
climate of America. He contends, from numerous facts, that the climate 
is ameliorated, and Jefferson admitted that his memoir was an ingenious, 
sound and satisfactory piece of philosophy. In the "Medical Repository" 
he offered some new and ingenious speculations on the fascinating powers 
of serpents. In 1812 appeared his "History of North Carolina." He was 
the author of several papers on medical and philosophical subjects, and 
on the canal policy of the State, printed in the "American Medical and 
Philosophical Register." He was among the first of our citizens who enter- 328 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
tained correct views on the practicability of the union of the waters of the 
Hudson and Lake Erie. After all this activity he died in 1819, at the 
advanced age of eighty-three years. 
A man of undoubted distinction in the sciences and whose in- 
fluence meant very much for the encouragement of the cultivation 
of science, was David Hosack. His foundation of the New York 
Botanical Garden did much for the science of botany, while his 
interest in mineralogy did almost as much for that science. He was 
a man of very broad interests, who occupied an enviable position in 
New York life and who constantly used that position to secure for 
his fellow-citizens all the benefits that the sciences could bring to 
them. Perhaps the best possible summary of his career comes from 
the pen of his pupil and colleague who, intimately associated with 
him, probably knew better than any one else the multifariousness 
of Hosack's interests. Dr. Samuel Francis in his "Old New 
York" says of him: 
Of my preceptor and friend David Hosack, let it be sufficient to re- 
mark that, distinguished beyond all his competitors in the healing art, 
for a long series of years, he was acknowledged, by every hearer, to have 
been the most eloquent and impressive teacher of scientific medicine and 
clinical practise this country has produced. He was, indeed, a great in- 
structor; his descriptive powers and his diagnosis were the admiration of 
all; his efficiency in rearing, to a state of high consideration, the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons, while he held the responsible office of pro- 
fessor, is known throughout the Republic; his early movements to estab- 
lish a medical library in the New York Hospital; his cooperation with the 
numerous charities which glorify the metropolis; his adventurous outlay 
of the establishment of a State Botanical Garden; his hygienic suggestions 
the better to improve the medical police of New York; his primary for- 
mation of a mineralogical cabinet; his copious writings on fevers, quaran- 
tines, and foreign pestilence, in which he was the strenuous and almost the 
sole advocate for years, of doctrines now verified by popular demon- 
stration; these, and a thousand other circumstances, secured to him a 
weight of character that was almost universally felt throughout the me- 
tropolis. It was not infrequently remarked by our citizens, that Clinton, 
Hosack, and Hobart, were the tripod on which our city stood. The lofty 
aspirations of Hosack were further evinced by his whole career as a 
citizen. Surrounded by his large and costly library, his house was the 
resort of the learned and enlightened from every part of the world. No 
traveler from abroad rested satisfied without a personal interview with 
him; and, at his evening soirees, the literati, the philosopher and the 
statesman, the skilful in natural science, and the explorer of new regions, 
the archaeologist and the theologue, met together, participators in the SAMUEL L. MITCHELL PHYSICIAN SCIENTISTS 
329 
recreation of familiar intercourse. Your printed volumes contain all, I 
believe, he ever prepared for you as your President. His strictly medical 
writing's are of some extent, and have excited a profitable emulation in the 
cause of science and humanity, and renewed inquiry into the causes of 
pestilence and the laws of contagion. His memoir of his friend De Witt 
Clinton, is a tribute to the talents and heroic virtues of that great states- 
man, and contains the most ample history we possess of the origin, prog- 
ress, and termination of the Erie Canal. His life was a triumph in services 
rendered and in honors received; his death was a loss to New York, the 
city of his birth; his remains were followed to the grave by the eminent 
of every profession, and by the humble in life whom his art had relieved. 
Hosack was a man of profuse expenditure; he regarded money only for 
what it might command. Had he possessed the wealth of John Jacob 
Astor, he might have died poor. 
A distinguished physician scientist of the early nineteenth cen- 
tury not well remembered in our time but whose memory deserves 
to be perpetuated was Archibald Bruce. He began the study of 
medicine with Hosack as his preceptor and then, like so many 
other of the New Yorkers of that time who were anxious for gradu- 
ate work, he went to Scotland. He was a fellow student of Francis 
in Hosack's office, though preceding him, and Francis has sum- 
marized his career and at the same time brought out his relations 
with some of the distinguished men in Europe at this time. Francis 
said: "Bruce, the physician and mineralogist, was born in New 
York in 1771, was graduated at Columbia College, studied medicine 
with Hosack, and in 1800, received the doctorate at the Edinburgh 
University. While in Scotland he acquired a knowledge of the 
Wernerian theory under Jameson, and subsequently became a cor- 
respondent of the Abbe Haiiy, the founder of crystallography. 
He collected a large cabinet of minerals while traveling about in 
Europe, projected the American Journal of Mineralogy in 1810, 
the first periodical of that science in the United States, and was 
created Mineralogical Professor by the Regents of the University 
at the organization of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. 
He had a cultivated taste for the Fine Arts, and contributed to 
our Library. He died in 1818. His reputation rests with his 
discovery at Hoboken of the hydrate of magnesia." In Silliman's 
Journal there is a biography of him. 
New York's most distinguished physician scientist of the nine- 
teenth century whose interests always centred on medicine was Dr. 
Samuel Latham Mitchill, who was born in North Hempstead (Plan- 330 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
dome), Queens county, Long Island, on the 20th of August, 1764. 
His father, Robert Mitchill, of English descent, belonged to the 
Society of Friends, for it must not be forgotten that there was 
quite a colony of Friends on this part of Long Island; and George 
Fox, the founder of Quakerism, lived for a time in this neighbor- 
hood. Even as late as Mitchill's time the spot was often pointed 
out where Fox used to walk under the famous oaks at Flushing. 
His mother's brother, Dr. Samuel Latham, encouraged young 
Mitchill to take up medicine, and at the age of sixteen secured him 
a place as a pupil with Dr. Samuel Bard, who was looked upon at 
the time as probably the most distinguished of New York's prac- 
titioners of medicine. After three years of study with Dr. Bard, 
young Mitchill went over to Edinburgh, where Cullen and Black 
and Duncan and Monro were doing work that made Edinburgh 
a centre of medical attention at the time, and where there was 
every incentive to the medical student interested in his profes- 
sion. While there, Dr. Mitchill made the acquaintance of Dr. 
Caspar Wistar, who subsequently taught anatomy at the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania and after whom the Anatomical Museum there 
is named. He also met Dr. Richard S. Kissam, who was after- 
wards to be a distinguished surgeon in New York City, and cur- 
iously enough also Thomas Addis Emmet, the lawyer who, after 
his return to his native Dublin, was to be banished from Ireland 
and was to come to America to be the leader of the New York Bar. 
When Mitchill returned to New York, it was not to take up the 
drudgery of medical practice, but to interest himself in many 
phases of knowledge, taking even a course in law, and to keep in 
touch with the progress of science abroad and help scientists and 
physicians all that he could here in America. He was appointed 
Professor of Chemistry in Columbia College, and introduced La- 
voisier's ideas. He was in regular correspondence with Sir 
Humphry Davy, and Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen. His 
mineralogical survey of New York attracted attention in Europe, 
while his analysis of the Saratoga waters made physicians realize 
what valuable therapeutic qualities there were in our own mineral 
springs. He became interested in botany, mainly in the practical 
side of it for the sake of materia medica, and he was in constant 
correspondence on the subject with Barton of Philadelphia, Cutler 
of Massachusetts, and Ramsay of South Carolina. He became very 
much interested in the American Indians, and made some serious PHYSICIAN SCIENTISTS 
331 
researches into their ethnology. When Fulton, the inventor of 
the steamboat, was discouraged by the failure of those around him 
to recognize the merit of his invention, Mitchill encouraged him and 
he accompanied Fulton on the first voyage of his steamboat in 
August, 1807. 
He was interested, however, in social problems as well as scien- 
tific work, and he was associated with Griscom, Eddy, Colden and 
Wood in the establishment of an institution for the deaf and dumb. 
With Eddy and Hosack he may be considered the first in the city 
to learn the sign language in order to communicate with the deaf. 
He cooperated with Jonathan Williams in the furtherance of the 
Military Academy at West Point. He was one of the commis- 
sioners appointed by the general government for the construction 
of a new naval force to be propelled by steam. He stood for 
election as a member of the United States Senate in order that 
his scientific and medical knowledge might be of service to the 
country, and to him in conjunction with Bayley we owe important 
improvement in our quarantine laws. He was a prominent member 
of the convention held at Philadelphia in 1819 for preparing a 
National Pharmacopeia. 
For many years he was Professor of Agriculture and Chemistry 
in Columbia College, and of Natural History, Botany and Materia 
Medica in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He wrote a 
number of important scientific papers, many of which were pub- 
lished in the London Philosophic Magazine, and he was one of 
the founders with Miller and Smith of the New York Medical 
Repository. Articles of his appeared also in the American Medi- 
cal and Philosophical Registry; the New York Medical and Phy- 
sical Journal; the American Mineralogical Journal; the Transac- 
tions of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia and, though 
this might seem enough of avenues of publicity for one man, Dr. 
John W. Francis, in writing his reminiscences of him in Valentine's 
"City Manual," an article from which most of these details are 
borrowed, says: "He supplied several other periodicals both 
abroad and at home with the results of his cogitation. ' ' 
In early life Mitchill, who was of rather slight build, though 
five feet ten inches in height, suffered from tuberculosis. Dr. 
Francis' biographer puts it gently that he had "a hemorrhagic 
tendency of his chest at the age of seventeen." It is rather in- 
teresting to see just how this nephew of a doctor who was at the 332 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
same time a medical student in the office of the most distinguished 
physician of New York at the time, was treated. He adopted exer- 
cise on horseback, Dr. Francis says, and was fortunate enough to 
avert the progress of pulmonary evils. He seems to have become of 
rugged health and strength later in life, for there is a tradition 
that he might be seen at any time without hat or overcoat, ex- 
posed to the vicissitudes of inclement weather. Dr. Francis says 
that "his robustness preserved his full features unto the last; not 
a wrinkle ever marked his face." Manifestly after a disturbing 
hemorrhage in his early years, Mitchill recovered completely 
through the prescription to take outdoor air after the fashion that 
Stokes in Ireland and a number of others were recommending the 
open air treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis at this time,- 
namely, by horseback riding. 
There was scarcely a public work of any importance undertaken 
in New York in his time with which Dr. Mitchill was not intimately 
associated. He had followed closely, using all his influence in its 
favor, the movement for the Erie Canal, and his biographer says 
that the proudest day of his life was that on which at the Canal 
celebration in October, 1825, he, with Clinton, Golden, Eddy and 
others, united in "indissoluble marriage the waters of our inland 
lakes with the ocean." 
He was highly honored by his contemporaries, though so little 
is remembered of him at the present time. A species of fish was 
named after him, the perca M it chilli; the highest point of the 
Navesink hills was called by topographers of the time Mount 
Mitchill; and after his circumnavigation of Long Island the light- 
house at Sand's Point was called "The Mitchill." His interests 
were too varied, however, for him to make a deep impression any- 
where, and while few men have been more useful to his own gen- 
eration, Mitchill's name has come almost to be entirely forgotten in 
ours, yet deserves to be recalled in the history of medicine in New 
York with more than a passing mention because of the prestige his 
breadth of knowledge lent to the medical profession of his time. 
Mitchill was the Admirable Crichton of his time here in New 
York, a man of encyclopedic mind to whom all sorts of people 
applied for information, and who liked to put his stores of knowl- 
edge at the service of any one who desired it. Dr. Francis says of 
him: "With all his official honors and scientific testimonials, 
foreign and native, he was ever accessible to everybody-the coun- PHYSICIAN SCIENTISTS 
333 
selor of the young, the dictionary of the learned. Even the captious 
John Randolph (the grumpy Randolph of Roanoke) called him 
the Congressional Library." He was frequently called upon for 
eulogies on his contemporaries, because better than any one else he 
knew the details of their careers, and there are in the collections 
of the New York Historical Society eulogia furnished by him on the 
great jurist, Thomas Addis Emmet, on Dr. Rush of Philadelphia, 
the distinguished Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and 
on Dr. Samuel Bard, the pioneer teacher of medicine in New York. 
Clubs and organizations of all kinds asked him for addresses, and 
were practically never disappointed, and he was literally a treasure 
house of'curious facts of historical and scientific interest. 
A little known physician scientist of New York, though his work 
meant much for one phase of scientific progress in the first half 
of the nineteenth century, was Dr. John Clarkson Jay, the grand- 
son of John Jay. Shortly after his marriage with Laura Prime, 
the daughter of Nathaniel Prime, the banker, he gave up practice 
and devoted himself to conehology. He became one of the world 
authorities on the subject. The Jay collection of shells made by 
him is now in the American Museum of Natural History. He was ac- 
tive in the foundation of the Lyceum of Natural History which 
preceded the New York Academy of Sciences. He was selected to 
write the government reports on the shells gathered during the ex- 
pedition to Japan under the command of Commodore Perry. In his 
monograph, "Description of New and Rare Shells," he enumerated 
over ten thousand well marked varieties and some seven thou- 
sand definitely recognized species. 
One of New York's distinguished scientists in the first half of 
the nineteenth century, who owed his early introduction to science 
to his medical education, was John Torrey (1798-1873). He was 
the son of Captain William Torrey, of the American Revolution, 
and graduated with his medical degree in 1818. He took up the 
study of plants as a specialty and became famous as a botanist, 
although during the early years after his graduation he had spe- 
cialized in chemistry and mineralogy. He became Professor of 
Chemistry, Geology and Mineralogy at the Military Academy at 
West Point in 1824, but resigned that position to accept the Pro- 
fessorship of Chemistry and Botany at the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons. From 1830 to 1854 he was Professor of Chemistry 
and Natural History at Princeton. His contributions to botany be- 334 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
gan to appear very early and continued during a long life. When 
he was twenty-one he published a "Catalogue of Plants within 
Thirty Miles of New York." Five years later he published "A 
Flora of the Northern and Middle States of North America; or a 
Systematic Arrangement and Description of all the Plants Hitherto 
Discovered in the United States of North America." Fifteen 
years later he edited jointly with Dr. Asa Gray, "A Flora of North 
America." 
Another distinguished scientist for whom medicine proved a firm 
support in a troublous time was Peter H. Vander Weyde (1813- 
1895), who in the midst of the Revolutionary troubles in Europe 
just before the middle of the nineteenth century found it advisable 
to abandon his native country, Holland, and come to America. He 
had been the editor of a daily paper of revolutionary tendencies 
which insisted on the necessity for governmental reforms. He was 
born at Nymegen, Holland, and graduated from the Royal Academy 
at Delft. He became Professor of Mathematics and Natural Phi- 
losophy at the Government School of Design. He founded a journal 
devoted to mathematics and physics, and came to be looked upon 
as one of the leading scientists not only of his own country but of 
Europe. His exile interrupted his work. On his arrival in America 
he studied medicine at New York University, and practised until 
he became Professor of Physics, Chemistry and Higher Mathe- 
matics, occupying the chair of Chemistry also in the New York 
Medical College. The chair in Industrial Science was created for 
him at Girard College, Philadelphia, in 1864, but after a few years 
he resigned it to devote himself to scientific journalism and edi- 
torial work, particularly with Appleton's "New American En- 
cyclopedia," and to the development of his patents, mostly elec- 
trical, of which he had a large number. 
The most distinguished of the botanists of this country, Dr. Asa 
Gray (1810-1888), entered into his scientific work through his 
medical education, receiving his degree of M.D. at the Medical 
College of the Western District of New York at Fairfield, in 1831. 
He became the Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Botany to Dr. 
John Torrey in the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons 
in 1833. After this his botanical work took him away from any 
close affiliation with the medical profession, and he devoted himself 
to purely scientific botany. He was probably one of the most dis- 
tinguished of our scientists in the nineteenth century, holding de- PHYSICIAN SCIENTISTS 
335 
grees from many foreign universities, and memberships, honorary 
and corresponding, in a great many scientific societies. 
Probably the most distinguished scientist among the physicians 
of New York in the second half of the nineteenth century was Dr. 
John William Draper, Professor of Chemistry and Physiology in 
the New York University Medical College, but known as a discov- 
erer in science, a writer on philosophic and historical subjects and 
a scholar of wide reading who was well known in Europe as well as 
America. Professor Draper was the first in this country to take a 
daguerreotype portrait. On the announcement in this country of 
Daguerre's discovery, Professor Draper made a camera out of a 
cigar box fitted with an ordinary spectacle lens, and began his ex- 
periments, first on still life and then by taking human portraits. 
He was also the first to make a picture of the moon by its own light, 
which had been hitherto considered impossible. His text book of 
human physiology, as also the text book on chemistry and a third 
on natural philosophy, passed through numerous editions. Indeed, 
"Draper's Physiology" continued to be the text book most used 
in the medical schools of this country for the generation following 
the middle of the nineteenth century. 
Among the physician scientists of New York, Dr. Henry Draper 
(1837-1882) well deserves a place. He was the son of Dr. John 
William Draper, and inherited his father's broad scientific inter- 
ests, and had the advantage of intimate association with him in 
early years. He received his degree of M.D. in 1858, and in 1862 
became the Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the University of 
the City of New York. After ten years of service the chair of 
Physiology was combined with this, and he continued his occupatidn 
of it until his death in 1882. His extra-medical scientific interests 
centered particularly in astronomy. He was the superintendent 
of the government commission for the observation of the transit 
of Venus in 1874, and he received a medal for the good work then 
done. He proved by photography that there was oxygen in the 
sun, and he photographed spectra and the stellar nebula of Orion. 
He made the best moon photograph, some fifty inches in diameter, 
ever made up to this time, and he did a great deal to arouse in- 
terest in astronomy and particularly in the construction of tele- 
scopes in this country. CHAPTER XXII 
PHYSICIAN WRITERS 
NrEW YORK physicians have provided much more than their 
share of the medical literature of the country. In propor- 
tion to the population and the number of physicians, much 
more has been written about patients here in New York than else- 
where, thus providing valuable data for the development of medi- 
cine and the comparative value of diagnosis and treatment. It 
would be easy to think that such a claim represented perhaps only 
enthusiasm for our special subject, and that while during the past 
generation or so New York has been a leader in this regard, this 
prominence is only a development of later years since the metrop- 
olis has become such an important focus of medical activity. We 
have, however, excellent New England authority, no less than the 
testimony of our oldest medical historian and biographer in this 
country, Thacher, for the assertion. 
Thacher ("American Medical Biography") has called attention 
to the cultivation of medical literature in New York as a special 
feature of the intense interest of members of the profession here 
in their practice. This served to secure proper publicity for ob- 
servations and fostered at the same time the habit of exact ob- 
servation so likely to follow the thought that the observed results 
are to furnish material for medical articles. He gives a list of 
the medical journals that were founded here during the first fifty 
years of American Independence, which is probably as complete 
as could be made in a brief space. 
The State of New York has furnished a full portion of learned and 
scientific professors, lecturers and teachers, by whose labors medical litera- 
ture and science have flourished and been extensively diffused. From this 
source, also, medical and philosophical works of sterling worth have 
emanated, which have received approbation and applause in various foreign 
countries. The periodical journals on medicine and the collateral branches 
of science, which have appeared in New York at different times, have 
been the following: 
"The Medical Repository," first projected in 1798, and the earliest 
336 PHYSICIAN WRITERS 
337 
journal which was issued in this country in this department of learning; 
its editors were Drs. Mitehill, Miller and Smith. It has been extended to 
twenty-three volumes by subsequent editors. 
"The New York Medical and Philosophical Journal," commenced in 
1809, and published anonymously,-three volumes. 
"The Medical Magazine," by Drs. Mott and Onderdonk; it terminated 
with the publication of one volume. 
"The American Medical and Philosophical Register," edited by Drs. 
Hosack and Francis; it began in 1810, and was terminated in 1814. The 
four volumes which it embraced are composed exclusively of original ma- 
terials; and these can safely be referred to for many papers of great 
value on medical and surgical subjects, as well as for biographical mem- 
oirs of American physicians, and detailed accounts of most of the public 
and literary associations for which New York is so much distinguished. 
The last periodical, which still exists, is the "New York Medical and 
Philosophical Journal"; it was begun in 1822 by Professor Francis and 
Drs. Dyckman and Beck; a volume appears annually. 
The "Transactions of the New York Literary and Philosophical So- 
ciety" contain various papers on medical subjects, and the collections of 
the New York Historical Society may be referred to for similar topics. 
American physicians not infrequently, besides being interested 
in their professional work, have followed some hobby or other of 
an intellectual character, and not a few of them have as an avoca- 
tion worshipped at the shrine of the muses. New York has 
probably more than her share of physician writers. Oliver Wendell 
Holmes once said that literature made a good cane for ornamental 
purposes or occasionally to lean on slightly at moments when life 
was tiresome, but that it made a very poor crutch if one had to 
depend on it for support. He added that so far as possible a 
literary man should always have some other occupation, and also, 
so far as possible, he should devote himself exclusively to that 
other occupation. Boston's medical sage did not follow his own 
advice, but then physicians are not noted always for following their 
own advice, and in Oliver Wendell Holmes' case we may rejoice 
that he did not. 
The same spirit of rejoicing may be permitted with regard to 
a number of physician writers in New York, for they have helped 
to make the history of humanity more complete. The physician 
has a viewpoint of his own that is likely to make his reflections on 
men and their ways interesting to the generality of men, and sure 
to make them attract the attention of physicians in his own and 
subsequent generations. Here in New York we have had no rival 338 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes in literature, and yet we have had 
a number of medical writers whose contributions to literature 
pleased not only themselves but many others besides their friends, 
and the absence of which would have left a noteworthy gap in our 
sources of information with regard to older times. Some of these 
physician writers will probably be recalled by future generations, 
more because of their non-scientific writings than for what they did 
for medicine, though probably none of them has any serious claim 
to literary immortality. 
The first extra-medical writing of any importance done by a 
physician writer in New York came from that distinguished phy- 
sician whose name bulks so large in the history of New York in 
the first half of the eighteenth century,-Dr. Cadwallader Colden, 
usually known as Governor Colden. He wrote the ' ' History of the 
Five Nations," the first story of the Iroquois written in English, 
which is still often referred to, and is even claimed to be the best 
history of these Indians extant. He was interested, however, not 
alone in history but in pure literature, for he translated the let- 
ters of Cicero, and according to tradition wrote a number of short 
articles on lighter themes. Almost more than his personal influ- 
ence as a writer for the literature and science of the time, was the 
fact that his home was a rendezvous for all the learned men of the 
time, and his greatest pleasure was to receive them. As I have said 
in the chapter, ' ' Physician Scientists, ' ' Franklin acknowledged that 
he owed the idea of the American Philosophical Society to Dr. Col- 
den, and this institution meant much for bringing together the men 
who were doing serious thinking in America in the eighteenth cen- 
tury. 
One of the early physician writers of New York State whose 
literary work attracted no little attention and whose sad fate gave 
him a place in American letters not unlike that of Keats, in Eng- 
land, was Dr. Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820), who, though 
born in poverty and whose boyhood was passed under circum- 
stances in which poetry might seem to have little appeal, began 
very early to show signs of poetic genius. His poem on, "The 
Mocking Bird," written at fourteen, attracted attention to him, 
and he was afforded the opportunity to study medicine a little 
later. His medical studies were made with Dr. Romayne and 
afterwards in Europe. He returned to begin practice in New York 
in 1816, but in spite of his deep interest in medicine which had PHYSICIAN WRITERS 
339 
been manifest during his studies, he did not confine his interests 
to his profession, but continued to cultivate the muses. His best 
known poem, the "Culprit Fay," was written in 1819. The idea 
for it is said to have originated in a discussion as to whether 
American rivers were not a suitable theme for romantic treatment. 
With Fitz Greene Halleck he published the "Croaker Papers" in 
the Evening Post, and their humor made the young authors the 
talk of the town. Unfortunately, Drake died of tuberculosis at 
the early age of twenty-five. It was as a threnody for him that 
Halleck wrote the verses with the well-known opening line, ' ' Green 
be the turf above thee." On his return from Europe, Dr. Drake 
became one of the elegants of the city, and was dubbed by some 
of his friends "the finest gentleman in New York" for his courtly 
manners, polished abroad, and for his refined taste in dress. 
Among New York's physician writers of the nineteenth century 
must be .counted Dr. Macneven, who in his younger years at the 
close of the eighteenth century, when Great Britain at least was 
very much interested in Ossian, though the fame of the old Gaelic 
poet had spread also to the Continent, translated Ossian's poems 
from the Gaelic; and who as a young man when exiled from Ire- 
land wrote an account of some wanderings on the Continent in a 
book with the title, "Rambles in Switzerland." In order to en- 
lighten Americans as to the conditions which obtained in Ireland 
under English rule, and which had caused the expatriation of 
himself and Thomas Addis Emmet and Sampson and others, he 
wrote a little book called ' ' Pieces of Irish History. ' ' He knew his 
German, French and Italian very well, and as he kept up his 
acquaintance with them constantly by wide reading, it is easy to 
understand that he became a valued and interesting member of 
the literary and philosophical societies of New York which served 
to bring together so many of the wits, if that word be used in its 
broadest significance, of men of intelligence of the day. He was 
looked up to almost as "a miracle of information," as one of his 
contemporaries said. 
"The Literary and Philosophical Society of New York" was an 
interesting institution of the early nineteenth century which served 
the very excellent purpose of bringing together men of many pro- 
fessions who had a community of interest in serious thoughtfulness 
with regard to the underlying problems of humanity, or similarity 
of taste with regard to literary and artistic subjects. Probably 340 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
there is no other way in which the experience of physicians which 
means so much on social questions can be made generally available 
for thinking folk outside of the profession, than by some such ex- 
pedient as this of a literary and philosophical society where all 
may meet on common ground. Unfortunately New York City has 
grown so large as to make such an institution almost impossible 
under present conditions. 
Fate was not always kind to physicians with literary abilities 
and aspirations and another of New York's early physicians who 
might have made a literary reputation of distinction for himself, 
Dr. Elihu Hubbard Smith, shared Dr. Drake's destiny of early 
death, being unfortunately carried off in one of our recurrent epi- 
demics of yellow-fever when he was only twenty-seven. He had 
been the intimate friend of Charles Brockden Brown, our first 
ambitious American novelist who wrote romances of the type of 
the mystery stories of "Monk" Lewis, then so popular in England. 
Under the circumstances it is not surprising to find the young 
doctor according his friend that sincerest of flattery,-imitation, 
and dabbling in literature. Dr. Smith's most ambitious literary 
production was the libretto of an opera called "Edwin and Ange- 
lina, or the Banditti. ' ' He is usually said to have been the author 
of "Andre," a tragedy in five acts, which was performed in New 
York the year after his death, and much praised. He was a scholar 
in his tastes, thoroughly interested in the Greek and Latin classics, 
a devoted student of history, and his example is said to have had 
no little influence in turning the interests of the physicians of the 
time from too exclusive occupation with their medical problems. 
One of the men whose name probably deserves a place among 
New York literary folk, though not exactly a writer himself, was 
Dr. John Churchill Osborn, a grandson of Dr. John Osborn, a Har- 
vard man of 1735. Dr. Osborn was Professor of the Institutes of 
Medicine and of Obstetrics in New York for some years in the 
schools of the day, and he was on intimate terms with the writers 
of the period. After the untimely death of Joel Barlow he re- 
vised his poems for publication, at a time when Barlow's name 
was looked upon as that of our most distinguished poet in America. 
A New York physician who though not a writer himself helped 
greatly in making books attractive and added not a little to the 
pleasure of life for a large number of people in the nineteenth cen- 
tury in America, was Alexander Anderson, the pioneer engraver PHYSICIAN WRITERS 
341 
on wood in this country, the selftaught founder of an important 
artistic development in America. He was born in New York City, 
April 21st, 1775, just two months after the battle of Golden Hill, 
in New York City, had made it almost definitely certain to the 
Colonies that revolution was inevitable. Dr. Anderson's father, a 
hardheaded Scotchman of strong views, was firmly convinced that 
the only remedy for the wrongs of the colonists was rebellion 
against England. He was the publisher of a newspaper, the 
Constitutional Gazette, which advocated a policy of separation. 
When in 1776 the British took possession of New York, there was, 
almost needless to say, no room for such a fiery patriot. The Scotch 
"rebel printer" had to fly, taking such of the materials of his 
trade with him as he could, and losing many of them before he 
settled in safety in Connecticut. His son, as a boy, amused himself 
with imitating the engravings in some medical books that came into 
his hands, and copied these so well as to attract his father's at- 
tention. He gave him the chance to study medicine at Columbia 
College, where he received his degree of M.D. in May, 1796, at 
the age of twenty-one. Dr. Anderson practised medicine for sev- 
eral years, but all his family being attacked with yellow fever 
and he alone surviving, he visited during his convalescence a 
paternal uncle, Alexander Anderson, who was the "King's Botan- 
ist" at St. Vincent's, and became deeply interested in the question 
of the illustration of books. On his return to New York he aban- 
doned medicine for engraving. Learning about engraving on wood 
by accident, he obtained some boxwood from a rule maker and 
successfully worked out the technique of wood engraving for him- 
self. For over sixty years Dr. Anderson continued to be the most 
popular illustrator of books in the country. He came to be the 
personal friend of many of the prominent literary and profes- 
sional men in New York in the first half of the nineteenth century, 
and Washington Irving and other writers of note thought of him 
as a dear friend as well as their collaborator in book-making. His 
wood engraving stamps him as one of the men who had most to 
do with that progressive development of arts and crafts in America 
which came to be looked upon as so characteristically American. 
Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill deserves a place among our phy- 
sician writers in New York, if for nothing else than for a series 
of published addresses on all manner of literary and scientific 
subjects delivered on various occasions in New York. One of these 342 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
that has been preserved for us and is of at least antiquarian in- 
terest for New Yorkers of the present day, was delivered before 
the Tammany Society, or Columbian Order of New York, in 1795.1 
Dr. John Watson made one of the early American contributions 
to the history of medicine by the publication of his anniversary dis- 
course delivered before the New York Academy of Medicine, No- 
vember 7th, 1855, on "The Medical Profession in Ancient Times." 
As a book of over two hundred pages, it gives an excellent review 
of the history of medicine from what was then known about Indian 
and Egyptian medicine down to the time of Justinian. It is 
something of a surprise to come upon this monograph of a busy 
New York surgeon of the middle of the nineteenth century, and 
the fact that he was asked to give the anniversary discourse 
on such a subject shows a breadth of interest much wider than 
might be expected. 
One of the serious physician writers of New York whose books 
were widely read throughout the world and translated into most 
of the modern languages was Professor John William Draper, 
known to physicians for his text book on ' ' Human Physiology, ' ' but 
to the philosophical and scientific world for his "History of the 
Intellectual Development in Europe," and his "Conflict between 
Science and Religion." His "History of the American Civil War" 
attracted wide attention in this country, and his ' ' Thoughts on the 
Future Civil Policy of America" was scarcely less well known. 
His "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe" had its 
first edition in 1852, being translated into French, German, Italian, 
Polish and Russian, in the next few years. The book passed 
through many editions in this country and also in England. His 
"Conflict between Science and Religion" was even more popular. 
It formed the mental attitude of most professors of science toward 
religious matters during the last generation of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. It was accorded the privilege of publication in the "Interna- 
tional Scientific Series" in company with the classics on science 
of that time, and was thought to present the last word on this 
subject. 
1 ' ' The Life, Exploits and Precepts of Tammany, the Famous Indian Chief, 
being the Anniversary Oration pronounced before the Tammany Society or 
Columbian Order by Samuel Latham Mitchill, Professor of Chemistry, Nat- 
ural History and Agriculture, in the College of New York" (New York, 
1795). The address is very rare, but a copy of it is in the New York Acad- 
emy of Medicine. It contains a number of interesting hints with regard 
to Indian archeology in America. PHYSICIAN WRITERS 
343 
Dr. Draper had the misfortune to live just before the great 
flood of knowledge with regard to the Middle Ages began to be 
poured into modern thought. Living at a time when our own 
architecture was at a very low ebb, when, as the historian of 
hospitals has said, our hospitals were like jails, and when our 
surgery was extremely limited, it was very hard for him to appre- 
ciate the magnificent accomplishments of what had been called ' ' the 
Dark Ages." We were in the midst of our own Dark Ages, and 
the significance of the older time was eclipsed by that fact. The 
development of the history of surgery, of hospitals, of architecture, 
and of education, has given a very different background for judg- 
ment as to the course of the intellectual development of Europe. 
There is a period of several centuries before our time when an 
unfortunate decadence in human intellectual achievement, very 
hard to explain, took place. Judged from the standpoint of the 
knowledge of his time, Draper made a magnificent synthesis as a 
background for the philosophy of history. Hence the enthusiastic 
welcome accorded his books both in this country and in Europe, so 
that as regards serious books, at least, he was one of the first Ameri- 
can writers to contradict Sydney Smith's famous question, "Who 
anywhere reads an American book?" 
A physician whose writings apart from his professional work 
have probably been of greater help to general historians of New 
York than most others of his time, was Dr. John W. Francis, Pro- 
fessor of the Institutes of Medicine and of Forensic Medicine, as 
well as later of Obstetrics, of the College of Physicians. He occu- 
pied the same chairs at Rutgers Medical College, New York City, 
after the resignation of the faculty of the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons led to the organization of that institution. His ' ' Old 
New York, or Reminiscences of the Past Sixty Years," is well 
known and frequently referred to for details of the intellectual 
and artistic life of the New York of his time. This was an en- 
larged and revised edition of the "Anniversary Discourse" de- 
livered before the New York Historical Society, November 17th, 
1857. 
In the preface to this, Dr. Francis notes with regret that New 
York has been particularly unfortunate in not having writers who 
cared to devote themselves to preserving historical details of the 
city's life. He was among the first to call emphatic attention to 
the fact that owing to the interest of New England writers in their 344 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
own people and region, the part taken by these had been given a 
disproportionate share in the history of the country, and the his- 
tory of their activities in the Revolutionary times had been as- 
signed a significance out of all proportion to the reality. While 
the smallest New England town has full annals, New York State 
and City have only fragmentary and meagre chronicles to describe 
the scenes and characters of her history. Francis quotes Gouver- 
neur Morris as "eloquently asserting the claim of New York to 
original and instinctive aspirations for liberty, a fact which some 
of our Eastern brethren, those prolific votaries of the pen, have 
either ignored or traced to a Puritan origin." 
Dr. Emmet in our time has recalled the fact that the first blood 
shed in the Revolution was not that of the Boston Massacre, but 
that of the battle of Golden Hill, which took place nearly two 
months before the Boston incident, which, as Miss Mary L. Booth 
says in her "History of the City of New York," "has been glori- 
fied and perpetuated in history, though it was second both in date 
and in significance to the New York Battle of Golden Hill." The 
first "Tea Party" was organized in New York, and New York took 
at least as important a part in the preliminaries which led up to 
the Revolution as did New England. Dr. Francis began the vindi- 
cation of his townsmen in this regard and quotes Gouverneur Mor- 
ris' expression as to New Yorkers: "Children of commerce, we 
were rocked in the cradle of war, and sucked the principles of 
liberty with our mothers' milk." 
While so much occupied with his own education and interested 
in general as well as medical literature, he took his professional 
work very seriously and succeeded in creating an excellent prac- 
tice. It is on record that in 1820, nine years after his graduation, 
his receipts were $15,000. In days when fees were ever so much 
less than they are at present, and single large fees very excep- 
tional, the making of such a large sum in general practice indicates 
a close attention to the calls of duty. Besides his Professorship of 
the Institutes of Medicine, he occupied, as we have said, the chair 
of Medical Jurisprudence and later was the Professor of Obstet- 
rics. Manifestly his general practice included everything, and he 
was supposed to be well versed in all his medical work and doubt- 
less also minor surgery, though we hear nothing of major surgery. 
Francis was one of the group of men, all of them his close, inti- 
mate friends-Hosack, Mott, Mitchill and Macneven, who resigned PHYSICIAN WRITERS 
345 
from the College of Physicians and Surgeons when they could no 
longer brook interference from non-medical trustees and organized 
Rutgers Medical College in New York City. In this, Francis took 
over the chairs of Obstetrics and Forensic Medicine, which he had 
held in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. With the sup- 
pression of Rutgers by the New York Legislature, Francis' teach- 
ing career came to an end. After this he devoted himself to his 
practice. Francis lived to be past seventy, dying just at the be- 
ginning of the Civil War in 1861. He came to occupy a promi- 
nent place in New York life as a patron of art and literature, and 
was the physician by choice of a number of the prominent actors, 
so that his recollections include details of his personal relations 
with Edmund Kean, Charles Matthews, William C. Macready, Gar- 
cia the singer, Lorenzo Da Ponte the musician, as well as accounts 
of his connection with artists and clubs in the New York City of 
the mid-nineteenth century. 
A man who will probably be recalled oftener because of his writ- 
ings than many another physician of more distinction in his pro- 
fession in his generation, is Samuel Ward Francis, whose bio- 
graphical sketches of distinguished living New York surgeons and 
living New York physicians (New York, 1866-67) have preserved 
so much information for us with regard to his contemporaries that 
would otherwise have been lost. He was the son of John Wake- 
field Francis, and came by his writing tendencies very naturally. 
He took his literary degrees of A.B. and A.M. from Columbia Col- 
lege, but his M.D. in 1860 from New York University. For a time 
he practised in New York City, and was physician in attendance 
at the New York Dispensary. Later on he moved to Newport, and 
it was there that his death took place at the early age of fifty-one. 
One of the most distinguished of the physician writers of New 
York, though his name is comparatively little known outside the 
circle of historians and special students of history, for he accumu- 
lated historical matter rather than wrote actual history, was Ed- 
mund Bailey O'Callaghan, born at Mallow, Cork, Ireland, 1797, 
and died in New York, 1880. He was educated in Paris, and 
received his degree in medicine there when he was about twenty- 
seven. At the age of thirty-three he settled in Montreal and began 
the practice of medicine. He took an active part in the Canadian 
national patriotic movement, and in 1836 was elected to the Pro- 
vincial Parliament. He played a leading role with Papineau in the 346 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
unsuccessful insurrection of 1837, and, accused of treason, fled to 
the United States, where he took up the practice of medicine in 
Albany, but also edited The Northern Light, an industrial journal. 
His interest in rent and land problems led him to study the land 
rights of the Patroons. To do this more completely he made him- 
self master of the Dutch language and found that he had under 
his hands historical materials of great value in the State Archives. 
He published the first volume of his ' ' History of the New Nether- 
land" in 1846, and ten years later began the issue of the "Docu- 
mentary History of New York" in eleven volumes quarto (1855- 
61), which are his monument. In 1848 O'Callaghan was made 
Keeper of the Historical Manuscripts of New York State, a position 
that he filled for twenty-two years. 
In 1870 O'Callaghan came to New York City and undertook the 
task of editing the municipal documents. Unfortunately, political 
difficulties over the appropriations necessary for this left 0'Cal- 
laghan's work unpublished. In the meantime he had published his 
well-known "List of the Editions of The Holy Scriptures and 
Parts Thereof Printed in America Previous to 1860," which was 
dedicated to Mr. James Lenox, the book collector. 0 'Callaghan had 
been the source of many suggestions to Mr. Lenox, and above all 
it was because of his recognition of their value that Mr. Lenox's 
famous collection of the "Jesuit Relations" was made. In the 
latter part of his life O'Callaghan gave up medicine entirely for 
his historical work, but in Albany he had been the secretary of 
the Albany Medical Society and did some excellent work for the 
profession. His published works are some forty in number, and 
the last of them, "Records of New Amsterdam, 1653-74," trans- 
lated by O'Callaghan, were published by Berthold Fernon (New 
York, 1897). 
Probably the New York physician who attracted the most at- 
tention for his writing apart from medicine during the nineteenth 
century, was William A. Hammond, Surgeon General of the United 
States during the Civil War, and the subsequently well-known 
specialist in nervous and mental diseases. He wrote extensively 
on medical problems, as I have noted elsewhere, and also a num- 
ber of articles on the borderland of medicine, of social and psycho- 
logical interests; but besides these he wrote a series of novels and 
plays. During some fifteen years at the end of the century he 
wrote six novels, each of which in turn attracted wide attention PHYSICIAN WRITERS 
347 
and, indeed, the first one written in 1884 under the brief name 
''Lal'' met with a success so definite and emphatic "as to provoke 
in some quarters," as Dr. Lancaster suggested in his sketch of 
Hammond, "the resentful question as to what right so prosperous 
a practitioner of medicine had to stray from physic to fancy and 
from surgery to sentiment." Each one of his novels after this, 
"A Strong Minded Woman, or Two Years Later," which was called 
a sequel to "Lal," "Dr. Grattan," the only one of the series in 
whose title Dr. Hammond inserted a professional prefix, "Mr. 
Oldmixon, ' ' which some considered his best, down to ' ' The Son of 
Perdition," which has for its protagonist Judas Iscariot, were 
looked for eagerly when announced, and were among the best 
sellers in New York, at least in their day. They were not destined 
to live, but then there is some doubt whether any novel written 
since George Meredith laid down his pen is to endure, and a com- 
mittee of novelists selecting their favorite novels a short while ago 
the average date of them was 1820. The novel as a mode of litera- 
ture was already declining when Dr. Hammond took it up, and 
only a supreme literary genius could have broken the descent. 
Hammond's novels represent very nearly the same sort of literary 
work as those of Dr. S. Weir Mitchill, though perhaps having 
less of dilettantism about them, and probing a little bit deeper into 
human nature, yet lacking something of the literary finish of his 
Philadelphia contemporary's work. The experiences of both men 
as physicians necessarily entered into their novels, and yet not in 
such a way as to make them studies merely of morbidity or of 
pathological conditions. After all, "Hamlet" and "Don Quixote," 
the two greatest characters of fiction ever invented, are both of 
more than dubious mentality. Dr. Hammond had a good fund of 
humor which found its way into his pages, and a satirical sense 
that enabled him to hit hard many a social abuse that deserved 
to be satirized. 
Hammond's work in the borderland between medicine and psy- 
chology was probably of more lasting significance than his novels, 
though only too few know what magnificent reviews of important 
subjects in this borderland Hammond made. His study of "Fast- 
ing Girls" is full of information not easy to obtain elsewhere. His 
monographs on subjects related to spiritualism deserve to be read 
by any one who wants to understand that movement and its rela- 
tion to medicine and religion as well as psychology. Hammond had 348 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
seen the time when there were probably as many spiritualists in 
proportion to the population as there are Eddyites at the present 
moment. Their temples were in nearly every large town, espe- 
cially here in the East, and they "had spread from America to 
Europe as a definite religious cult. They have gone. Hammond's 
studies of them from the standpoint of a contemporary deserve to 
be recalled whenever a proper understanding of the significance of 
that movement is desired. 
Occasionally, when men did not think of themselves as writers 
and made no ambitious effort toward their publication, manuscript 
materials have been found that have been published after their 
death which proved that they possessed the ability, had they had the 
time and the inclination, probably to make a mark as writers. The 
"War Letters," for instance, of Dr. William Thompson Lusk, re- 
veal the writings of a young man between the ages of twenty-three 
and twenty-five years, with literary abilities of a high order. They 
hand down a story of heroism written from the heart of the activi- 
ties of the great drama of the War of the Rebellion, by one of those 
who took a most active part, that form a precious piece of docu- 
mentary history. It is not surprising that as a physician he should 
have written much, since manifestly his powers of expression were 
of high rank. The valedictory address delivered on his graduation 
from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1864 and published in 
connection with the "War Letters" (New York, privately printed, 
1911), is much more mature than such academic addresses usually 
are, and now after more than fifty years is well worth reading. 
At least one of the women physicians of New York, Dr. Mary 
Putnam Jacobi, deserves a place among our medical writers. At 
the memorial meeting held in honor of Dr. Putnam Jacobi, at the 
New York Academy of Medicine, January 14th, 1907, one of the 
speakers was Richard Watson Gilder, who had been for many years 
editor of The Century, and one of the leading literary critics of 
New York. He said with regard to one of her essays, "Some of 
the French Leaders: the Provisional Government of the Fourth of 
September," which was published in the old Scribner's (the prede- 
cessor of The Century) for August, 1871, therefore not long after 
the founding of the third French Republic, that it was ' ' one of the 
ablest ever printed in an American magazine." He added, "It is 
hard to see how any one can read it without being impressed by 
its intellectual grasp, its clarity, its grim and elucidating wit." PHYSICIAN WRITERS 
349 
He gives some examples particularly of this latter quality of hers 
which illustrate very well how keenly she had observed not only 
things medical but things political, that might be supposed quite 
distant from her interests while she was making her medical stud- 
ies in Paris. As I have said, long before this, when she was but 
sixteen, she wrote a story called "Found and Lost," which im- 
pressed her father as worth publishing, and it was accepted by 
the Atlantic Monthly and published in April, 1860. A subsequent 
story, "A Sermon at Notre Dame," published in Putnam's Monthly 
for 1869, also met with Mr. Gilder's commendation. He did not 
hesitate even to say that in her devotion to medicine and with it 
that real dread of which she once spoke, of becoming a literary 
physician, which she felt would ruin her medical usefulness, 
' ' perhaps we lost an essayist of rank, perhaps a writer of American 
romance, of the learning and high seriousness of George Eliot. 
This can never be known." He felt that Mary Putnam Jacobi was 
"one of the nobility, one of the ideals, of our later times, to be hap- 
pily grouped in memory and honor with Alice Freeman Palmer, with 
Josephine Shaw Lowell, and the like of them, living and dead." 
Another of the physicians whose writings on historical subjects 
will probably give him a place in the memory of American biblio- 
philes at least for generations, and whose collection of Americana 
will probably secure him lasting fame, was Thomas Addis Emmet, 
the gynaecologist. As I write, he is still with us, over ninety years 
of age, and his work can be estimated very clearly. His historical 
writings on "The Emmet Family," "Irish under English Rule," 
and his "Autobiography," are full of precious historical matter 
that will be of value to the future historian, and that have made 
available an immense amount of information with regard to the 
relations of England and Ireland, which in the world-democracy to 
come will surely serve the purpose of making clear how sadly Ire- 
land has lacked anything like the opportunity for her people to 
secure happiness. Undoubtedly in the reorganization impending, 
the immense amount of labor required for the collection of this ma- 
terial will not only prove not to have been wasted, but to have 
been time preciously spent. 
Dr. Emmet, however, will probably be known by future genera- 
tions for his collection of Americana, that is, of documents of 
all kinds relating to American history. Very early in life he be- 
came interested in the manuscript materials of history and began 
to accumulate documents of all kinds. Time, labor, money, were 350 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
spent unstintingly in bringing them together, arranging, and giv- 
ing expert attention to them. Eventually Dr. Emmet came to have 
one of the greatest collections of "Americana" in the country, and 
the greatest in private hands. Mr. Kennedy, who had succeeded 
Mr. Lenox as the patron of the Lenox Library, succeeded in tempt- 
ing Dr. Emmet to allow him to share in the expense of the collec- 
tion on condition that under the combined names of Kennedy and 
Emmet it should be placed in the Lenox Library. With the com- 
bination of the Lenox, Astor and Tilden Foundations this collec- 
tion finds its way into the New York Public Library, of which it is 
one of the special treasures. 
One of our best known American medical journalists in New 
York, who was also a distinguished surgeon, was George Frederick 
Shrady (1837-1907). He was a graduate of the College of Phy- 
sicians and Surgeons of New York, and was afterwards an interne 
of the New York Hospital. He was associate medical editor of the 
American Medical Times, and attracted no little attention through 
that medium during the Civil War. He was founder and editor- 
in-chief of the Medical Record, a position which he continued to 
occupy until his death nearly fifty years later. He made that 
journal a representative medium of clinical and professional work. 
He has left a series of articles on surgical subjects including par- 
ticularly his "Surgical and Pathological Reflections on President 
Garfield's Wound," published in 1881, and his account of "The 
Surgical and Pathological Aspects of General Grant's Case," pub- 
lished in 1895. He was for many years the medical editor of the 
New York Herald, and did not a little to revolutionize the aspects 
of American newspaper medicine by eliminating many of the ab- 
surdities of the newspaper comment on medical subjects, and mak- 
ing a beginning of an intelligent public opinion with regard to ad- 
vances in medicine. 
A medical historical writer of no inconsiderable significance in 
this country was Dr. John Shrady, the brother of Dr. George 
Shrady, a modest practitioner of medicine in New York City, who 
gave much time to the collection of old historical material. In this 
way he saved many important details of medical history from 
being lost. Dr. Shrady edited the "History of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons of New York," which contains much of 
New York City's medical history and the autobigraphies of the 
living faculty and alumni. CHAPTER XXIII 
MEDICAL EDUCATION OUTSIDE NEW YORK CITY 
WHILE, as Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill suggested in his ad- 
dress, "Reminiscences of Medical Education in New 
York," medical schools are almost inevitably bound to be 
situated in large cities because of the greater facilities and oppor- 
tunities for clinical teaching to be found there, several of New 
York's early medical schools which attained considerable success 
were founded in small towns, and some whose history is worth pre- 
serving existed outside the metropolis. One of these whose history 
is very interesting and of special significance was established in the 
early part of the nineteenth century at Fairfield, a small town of 
Herkimer county, not far from Utica. 
THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, WESTERN DISTRICT, 
FAIRFIELD 
The story of this Western New York Medical College is inter- 
esting not only because it serves to show how carefully New York 
State over one hundred years ago tried to provide medical educa- 
tion for those for whom the difficulties of travel, which were 
very great in those days, and the expense of living in very large 
centres of population, would have made the securing of proper 
medical training almost impossible. Dr. L. B. Wells contributed 
an interesting paper on the Fairfield Medical College to the 
Oneida Historical Society at a meeting held in Utica in 1890. 
This is probably the best available source of information with 
regard to the Fairfield school. This College of Physicians and 
Surgeons of the Western District of the State of New York, as 
it was formally called, was established by the trustees of the 
Fairfield Academy in 1809, and as the institution at Fairfield 
was known to be serious in its educational purposes, the medical 
school opened under the most favorable auspices. By repre- 
sentations of the necessity for encouraging medical teaching in the 
351 352 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
western part of the State and the need for fostering home educa- 
tional institutions, the Legislature was brought to make a grant 
of $5,000 to the new institution in the second year of its exist- 
ence. This served to equip the new school very well for those days. 
Three years after its foundation, on June 1, 1812, a charter 
was granted to the school as a medical college, and an additional 
grant of $10,000 was made to it by the State. The class of 1812- 
1813, as appeared by the records, contained eighteen medical 
students. At a meeting of the board of trustees held December 
1, 1812, the following officers were elected for the college: Dr. 
Lyman Spaulding, President and Professor of Anatomy and Sur- 
gery; Dr. Westel Willoughby, Jr., M.D., Professor of Obstetrics; 
James HAdley, A.M., Professor of Chemistry; John Stearns, M.D., 
Professor of Theory and Practice of Physics. Dr. Westel Willough- 
by was subsequently the third president of the college, and Dr. John 
Stearns, who had been very prominent in the foundation of the 
New York State Medical Society, was afterwards the founder of 
the New York Academy of Medicine. Early in 1815, Dr. T. 
Romeyn Beck was given the chair of Professor of the Institutes of 
Medicine. He gave his first course on medical jurisprudence in 
the following year, and began the work in this department which 
was to attract so much attention. 
Politics entered largely into the organization of medical schools, 
and before Fairfield obtained its charter there was question of a 
medical school being established though influence exercised on 
the Legislature on behalf of Oneida County, New York. J. Noyes, 
L. Spalding, G. C. Shattuck and W. Willoughby were, according 
to a letter of Dr. Shattuck, actually selected in 1812 to have places 
in the Oneida school. An attempt was made to organize this school 
at Clinton, to be called Hamilton College, and the location of it 
at Clinton seems to have won the favor of De Witt Clinton, then 
Lieutenant-Governor. This move would probably have put an 
end to the school at Fairfield, but eventually the attempt was not 
successful.1 
1 As illustrating the confused condition of medical education in this coun- 
try in the first half of the nineteenth century, the subsequent career of 
Dr. Westel Willoughby, who taught at Fairfield for a number of years and 
who had been very prominent in the New York Medical Society, serving 
as its treasurer and vice-president, is interesting. He had had a rather varied 
career, having been justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Newport, New 
York, serving also as a Member of Congress for a term. After the closing of MEDICAL EDUCATION OUTSIDE NEW YORK 
353 
"The Ordinances of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of 
the Western District of The State of New York" (pamphlet 
47,951 of the Library of The Academy of Medicine of New York), 
gives an excellent idea of the preliminary requirements and the 
studies in the medical school itself, with something of the condi- 
tions under which the Medical School was conducted. It gives 
a brief history of the college up to that time in a single paragraph. 
It states that the college has grown out of a medical school es- 
tablished by the trustees of Fairfield Academy in 1809. It then 
proceeds after the manner of educational institution prospectuses 
generally, to state the prestige which it has secured even in a few 
years. The advantages of the college are set forth by Jonathan 
Sherwood, Register, though there is a note that "For further in- 
formation a reference may be had to the President in the City of 
New York, the Register at Fairfield, or either of the Trustees." 
The board of trustees had twenty-four members, who met four 
times a year, and not merely the two that might seem to be im- 
plied by the use of the word either in the note. The announce- 
ment runs: 
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District has 
grown out of the Medical School, established by the Trustees of Fair- 
field Academy, in 1809. The reputation which this school acquired for 
the short time it was attached to the Academy is well known. It was even 
such, in the second year of its existence, as to induce the honourable the 
Legislature of the State to endow it with 5,000 dollars; and when it re- 
ceived the proud rank of a College, they generously added to its funds the 
further sum of 10,000 dollars. 
The Trustees of the College have purchased of the Academy, a stone 
edifice 63 feet by 38 and three stories high, in which they are now fitting 
up, in the highest style of convenience, a large and commodious Anatomical 
Theatre, with a Museum, Dissecting Rooms, &c., &c. The Museum is 
amply sufficient for demonstrating the healthy structure of every part of 
the body, and even many of its parts in a morbid state. Specimens of 
Morbid Anatomy will be thankfully received for the Museum. 
The Laboratory is undergoing a thorough repair, and will be fitted up 
in a style of great convenience. To the old furniture has been added an 
extensive collection of new Chemical Ware. Mineralogical specimens 
will be thankfully received for the Cabinet, and if gentlemen desire an 
Analysis, they can be gratified. 
the school at Fairfield he moved to the town of Lake Erie, and had the honor 
of having the town named after him. He established a medical school there, 
receiving a charter for it from the State of Ohio, the charter being subse- 
quently used for a school in Columbus. 354 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
The Professor of Obstetrics has been furnished with a good ma- 
chine, &c. 
During the session of the College, advice will be given and operations 
performed, gratuitously, in all Surgical cases at Fairfield or its imme- 
diate vicinity, provided the class can be present. 
With all these advantages, the Trustees and Professors humbly hope 
to continue to deserve well of medical students and of the public, which 
is the height of their ambition, and for which no exertions shall be want- 
ing. 
Jonathan Sherwood, Register. 
Fairfield, May, 1813. 
On January 30th, 1816, the degree of Doctor of Medicine was 
conferred on two individuals-Horatio Orvis and Sylvester Miller. 
This date for the conferring of degrees seems strangely out of 
place for us, but medical commencements have during the past 
century occurred in every month of the year from January until 
June, growing later constantly as time went on. The number of 
the students at the college increased steadily up to the year 1834, 
when there were 217 in all, of whom 55 received the degree of 
M.D. After this begins a decadence of the school. In 1835 the 
number of students fell below 200. The organization of the med- 
ical department of Geneva College and subsequently the incorpor- 
ation of the medical college in the city of Albany conspired with 
other reasons to diminish the attendance at Fairfield. The lack 
of clinical facilities in this small town, the difficulties of travel 
which led Western New York students to go nearer home at 
Geneva, the prestige of the capital at Albany,-these were all 
factors in the gradual decadence of Fairfield. The last course of 
lectures was given during the winter of 1839-40; the number of 
students was 105, of whom 26 received the degree of Doctor of 
Medicine. After the cessation of medical lectures, the college 
buildings were occupied by the Fairfield Academy. 
It might readily be imagined that standards of medical educa- 
tion would be very low in this little Western New York town 
at this time. They were undoubtedly lower than was good for 
medical practice and the profession of medicine, but the surprise 
is to find how high the fathers in medicine of over a century ago 
tried to set their standards; and, above all, how they insisted 
on a good preliminary education. This provision fell into very 
serious neglect in the medical schools of the middle of the nine- 
teenth century, though now we have come to appreciate that it is MEDICAL EDUCATION OUTSIDE NEW YORK 
355 
one of the most important considerations for a physician's future. 
For it is his preliminary education that enables the student of 
medicine to comprehend rather than learn by rote what is pre- 
sented to him during his studies; and it also determines, almost 
as a rule, whether he shall drop into a rut after his graduation, 
or set himself on the road of progress. 
We have an abstract from the Ordinances of the College of Phy- 
sicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York which 
supplies information as to standards of preliminary education and 
ideals of medical study, that illustrates better than anything that 
could be said the effort to maintain a high standard. This was 
the announcement of the College as sent to enquiring prospective 
students. 
The College sessions began on the first Tuesday in November, 
and continued for three months. The reason for selecting this 
time of the year was that the college was situated in the midst 
of a farming district, and the students had to be at their homes 
both for the harvest and the winter wheat planting, and as a rule 
for the spring planting. The preliminary collegiate education or 
satisfactory evidence of considerably more knowledge than is re- 
quired by the demand for a year, and perhaps even two of col- 
lege work, is of particular interest. The allowance for work done 
at other colleges and the arrangement for non-resident professors 
show clearly that the faculty was trying to facilitate high class 
medical education at this time. As witness: 
AN ABSTRACT 
From the Ordinances of The College of Physicians and Surgeons of the 
Western District. 
The session of the College shall commence, annually, on the first Tues- 
day of November, and continue three months. 
No person shall be admitted to an examination, for the degree of Doc- 
tor of Medicine, until he shall have produced satisfactory testimony to 
the President, Vice-President, and Professors, that he has regularly studied 
Physic and Surgery, with one or more reputable practitioner or prac- 
titioners, for the term of three years; and that he has attended all the 
medical professors, for two complete sessions of this College; or one ses- 
sion in this College, and one other session in some -other College or Uni- 
versity. 
Every person who shall not have received a collegiate education, shall 
previously to his examination give satisfactory evidence to the Presi- 
dent, Vice-President and Professors, that he has an acquaintance with the 356 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Latin language, that he possesses a correct knowledge of English gram- 
mar, natural and experimental philosophy; and that he sustains a fair 
moral character. 
The public examinations shall be held, annually, on the Monday next 
following the close of the session, before the President, Vice-President, 
Professors and Trustees, with any members of the medical faculty, and 
such other literary gentleman as may choose to attend. 
Each candidate shall be examined on Anatomy, Surgery, and Obstetrics, 
Chemistry, Materia Medica, Mineralogy, and the Institutes of Medicine; 
and he shall at the same time read and defend a Thesis on some medical 
subject. Every candidate shall have a right to select the subject of his 
Thesis, but the Thesis itself must have been examined and approbated by 
the Professors, before it is read. Every candidate must deliver a copy 
of his Thesis to the Register for the use of the Trustees, to be by them 
presented to the Regents of the University of The State of New York. 
If any non-resident Professor cannot be present at the public examina- 
tion, he may examine the candidate at the close of this particular 
course, on the branch he teaches. 
Each candidate shall enroll his name with the Register, and deposit 
with him the requisite evidence of a due conformity to the College ordi- 
nances, at least ten days previously to the public examination; and the 
Register shall deliver the same to the President, Vice-President, or Senior 
Professor. 
If the examination and Thesis be satisfactory to the President, Vice- 
President, Professors and Trustees, the candidate will be recommended, 
by the Trustees, to the Regents of the University of the State of New 
York for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine. 
The fee, for attending the lectures of all the Professors in one session 
of the College, shall be fifty dollars, that is twelve dollars and fifty cents 
to each Professor; but if any gentleman should not choose to attend 
all the Professors, he shall then pay fifteen dollars to each Professor whose 
course he may attend. 
Every gentleman, who pays the full fee to either of the Professors, 
for his lectures, for two sessions in this College shall be entitled to attend 
these lectures in future without any fee. 
Every candidate, for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine, shall pay the 
sum of twenty dollars as fee thereof. 
In 1827 Dr. Manley, in his annual address as the president of 
The New York State Medical Society, after reflecting rather 
seriously on the medical education situation in New York City 
itself for the preceding twenty-five years or more, has some words 
of high praise for the medical school at Herkimer. He said 
(Transactions State Soc. 1827, p. 394) : 
Although it had a small beginning, and has received from the Legis- 
lature little or no substantive patronage, it is in a very flourishing eon- MEDICAL EDUCATION OUTSIDE NEW YORK 
357 
dition, and gives promise of increasing usefulness. It appears to have 
been established by the Regents with a single eye to the improvement of 
the character of the profession in the interior and remote parts of the 
State; and it has answered their highest expectations. The teachers are 
men of reputation, who appear to have thought less of borrowing char- 
acter from their stations, than of making it for the institution; several 
works, which are alike honorable to the profession and their authors, 
bear testimony to the merits of the professors. 
There are three distinguished names that well deserve particu- 
lar notice on the list of the faculty of Fairfield. They are: Dr. 
Lyman Spalding, the president of the college for some time; Dr. 
Theodoric Romeyn Beck, and Dr. John Stearns. Dr. Stearns was 
the secretary and one of the founders of the Medical Society of 
New York State, if not its initiator. He was long afterwards the 
first president of the New York Academy of Medicine, so that an 
account of his work will be found elsewhere. Dr. Beck's name 
became famous in the world history of medical jurisprudence, and 
though he remained but two years at Fairfield, the work that he 
undertook there in connection with his lectureship on Medical 
Jurisprudence as a side issue to his Chair of the Institutes of Medi- 
cine, led him to give America one of its most important medical 
text books, his "Elements of Jurisprudence." 
The third of the group, Dr. Lyman Spalding, unfortunately 
met an early death from accident, and so his significance has been 
missed to a great extent in our general medical history. Fortu- 
nately, however, the story of his career, so significant for the medi- 
cal history of that day, has been restored to us by the work of 
his grandson, Dr. James Alfred Spalding.2 
It is easy to understand that with three such men on the faculty 
at Fairfield, the students were being brought in contact with some 
of the most progressive thinkers in the American medicine of 
that day. However little they might learn in the way of informa- 
tion because of limited time and facilities, they could scarcely help 
2 Dr. Lyman Spalding, the originator of the United States Pharmacopeia, 
colaborer with Dr. Nathan Smith in the founding of the Dartmouth Medical 
School and its first chemical lecturer, President, and Professor of Anatomy 
and Surgery of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western Dis- 
trict at Fairfield, New York, by his grandson, Dr. James Alfred Spalding 
(Boston, Leonard, 1916). Dr. Lyman Spalding after some brilliant work at 
Dartmouth and Philadelphia remained for six years on the Faculty at Fair- 
field, where he lectured each winter in anatomy, acting as President of the 
college part of the time. When he accepted the Professorship at Fairfield 
he transferred his practice to New York City, hence his place in our history. 358 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
but be stimulated to face medical problems and set about their 
solutions in the right way. It is still a question whether the educa- 
tion for power is not ever so much more important than the educa- 
tion for information. 
GENEVA MEDICAL COLLEGE 
The establishment of a school of medicine at Geneva, New York, 
in connection later with Hobart College, was doubtless suggested 
originally by the unsuccessful attempt to use the charter of the 
College of Geneva for the legal basis of the medical school in 
New York City after the experiment of using the name and char- 
ter of Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey, had failed. 
The courts of New York, however, decided that the organization 
of a medical school in New York City under the title and charter 
of Geneva was not permissible under the laws of New York 
State as then enacted. This was in 1827, but the school of medi- 
cine at Geneva itself was not chartered until 1834, and gave its 
first course of instruction in 1835. This foundation drew students 
at once from Fairfield, and as Fairfield declined, Geneva pro- 
gressed until finally it replaced its earlier rival. 
The first faculty of Geneva Medical School consisted of Edward 
Cutbush; Willard Parker, later to reach distinction in New York; 
Thomas Spencer, John George Morgan, Charles B. Coventry, and 
Anson Coleman. In later years Frank Hamilton, who was to be 
so successful as a surgeon in New York City, James Hadley, John 
Delamater, James Webster and Charles A. Lee were members of 
the faculty. The school continued in existence until 1872, when 
it was merged with the Medical Department of Syracuse Univer- 
sity. The following members of the Geneva faculty accepted pro- 
fessorships at Syracuse: Doctors Fowler, Hyde, Nivisan, Eastman 
and Reider. 
An official list of the graduates of the Geneva Medical College 
was published in the "Medical Register of New York, New Jer- 
sey and Connecticut," for 1881-1882. There were eight graduates 
in 1835, and the same number the two following years. Then the 
number of graduates began to increase, until in 1845 there were 
forty-six, and all during the decade from 1841 to 1851 there were 
some forty graduates. Then for some reason, within a few years 
after the graduation of Miss Blackwell, though the faculty had MEDICAL EDUCATION OUTSIDE NEW YORK 
359 
hoped that the publicity secured because of the interest in the 
presence of a woman student might prove a good advertisement, 
the numbers began to decline rather rapidly until in 1856 there 
were but four graduates. This number rose again in 1860 to eight, 
and in 1861 to ten, but during the war attendance declined, and 
with it the number of graduates, though this number rose to twenty 
after the war, and then gradually decreased again until the school 
was merged in Syracuse University in 1872. 
Perhaps the one striking event in its history for which the 
Geneva Medical College will always be remembered, is the fact 
that it was the first college in this country to grant permission 
to a woman to study medicine regularly, and then at the end of 
her successful course conferred on her the degree of Doctor of 
Medicine. That, as we have shown in the chapter on "Women 
in Medicine," was much more accidental than intentional, the 
faculty being quite sure that if the request were presented to 
the students they would refuse it, but the student body, struck 
very probably by the novelty of the proposition, granted it unani- 
mously. 
Some of the details of the medical school experiences of Miss 
Blackwell, this first woman student of medicine, are interesting as 
indicating generally the dispositions of the medical students of 
the middle of the nineteenth century, for in this regard Geneva 
was probably no worse and no better than most of the other 
schools. They fully exemplified the traditions of rough medical 
student days that have come down to us. At Geneva they were 
quite an unmanageable set-riotous, boisterous, over whose con- 
duct the medical faculty considered very probably that it had no 
special duty of control. The students were allowed to shift for 
themselves. At Geneva there had been rather serious complaints 
from the townspeople, and even the threat of having the medical 
school declared a nuisance. 
The presence of a woman student was testified by the faculty 
to have "exercised a beneficial influence upon her fellow students 
in all respects, and the average attainments and general conduct 
of the students during the period she had passed among them 
were of a higher character than those of any class which had been 
assembled in the college since the connection of the president with 
the institution." In spite of this fact, her sister was refused 
admittance to the school a few years later. 360 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
NIAGARA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL 
Another medical school outside of New York City that well de- 
serves a place in the history of medicine in New York is that of 
Niagara University, which though it has a story only fifteen 
years in length, stood for a number of ideals in medical education 
that have since come to be recognized as indispensable require- 
ments. Niagara was one of the first medical schools to suggest the 
need of four years of graded medical training, and of definite pre- 
liminary education before beginning the study of medicine. In 
1893, Niagara Medical School opened its doors to women on the 
same terms as men, and some women took advantage of the oppor- 
tunity thus afforded. The story of the Medical School has been 
written by Dr. Alvin A. Hubbell as a chapter in the "History of 
Niagara University," compiled for the occasion of its fiftieth an- 
niversary, in 1906. His historical sketch of the Medical Depart- 
ment of Niagara University, written as it was by a member of the 
faculty during the full fifteen years of its existence, is the most 
authentic account of its foundation and aims that we have: 
In the winter of 1882-'83, an agitation arose in regard to the feasi- 
bility and desirability of organizing a second school of regular medicine 
in the City of Buffalo. The large population of Buffalo, its central loca- 
tion in a large tributary territory and its available clinical advantages, 
seemed to warrant the idea that such a school would be acceptable and 
that it could be creditably maintained. Outside the medical faculty of 
the University of Buffalo, there was a number of men of the city, in 
the profession, who seemed to possess the fitness, either by natural apti- 
tude, education, or experience, requisite for medical teachers. Some of 
these men met together and decided that a school might be organized which 
should require a better preparation for the study of medicine and a 
graded and more extended college course of lectures. 
At that time, there prevailed throughout the State, and, indeed, through- 
out the United States, with very few exceptions, a system of medical teach- 
ing which almost entirely ignored an entrance requirement, and exacted 
but two repetition courses of lectures. That the standards should be ad- 
vanced had become apparent to most thoughtful and educated men. The 
revelations of physiological chemistry, the discoveries in bacteriology, the 
new views in regard to etiology and pathology had created a demand for 
more laboratory courses, and the needs for fuller equipment, more time, 
and more teachers on the part of medical colleges. To break away from 
the old methods and the old curricula required much courage and the 
older medical faculties hesitated. New "blood," or the inspiration of gen- 
erous endowments of money, seemed to be the only force which could MEDICAL EDUCATION OUTSIDE NEW YORK 
361 
undertake to bring about a higher order of teaching methods and of 
entrance and of graduation requirements. The University of Buffalo was 
already doing its best on the old lines. Its faculty, at that time, was 
controlled by the conservative spirit of its older members, and there was 
little disposition to change. There was no need of another school in Buffalo 
unless it could take a position higher than that of others in the State, 
and endeavor to answer more fully the demands which seemed to be press- 
ing upon medical teaching. 
It was therefore, with these higher ideals in view that a few Buffalo 
physicians, led by that learned and excellent man, the late Dr. John 
Cronyn, started out to organize another school. But how was it to be 
done? By the law of 1853, no medical college could be organized in this 
State without a fund of fifty thousand dollars. It was at first believed 
that one could be founded in connection with the Buffalo Hospital of 
the Sisters of Charity, but it was soon ascertained that there was no law 
to justify it. Through the suggestion of Dr. Cronyn, the matter was then 
presented to the President and Board of Trustees of an institution of 
learning at Suspension Bridge, below Niagara Falls, New York, which had 
been in existence since 1856, and which had acquired a creditable reputa- 
tion and a considerable amount of property. It had been chartered by a 
special act of the State Legislature, with the provision that at any time, 
when the value of its property had reached a certain sum, it might be 
erected into a university, by the Regents of the University of The State 
of New York. The financial status had been reached by which it could 
avail itself of the privileges of its charter. After due consideration 
by the late lamented Bishop Ryan of Buffalo, and the authorities of the 
college at Suspension Bridge, it was decided to erect that college into a 
university which should have power to appoint any faculty it might deem 
proper. There being some doubt, however, about it having the right, when 
created, to maintain a faculty in Buffalo, the Honorable Thomas V. Welch, 
of Niagara Falls, at that time a member of the State Legislature, ef- 
fected the enactment of an amendment to the original law, by which such 
university, when organized, should have power to maintain any of its 
colleges in any place in the County of Erie. According to the provisions 
of this and previous enactments, the Regents of the University of the 
State of New York erected the College and Seminary of Our Lady of 
Angels into Niagara University, granting the charter, August 7, 1883. 
Anticipating the action of the regents, all plans had at that time been 
completed for the medical school. The Sisters' Hospital was pledged to 
it for clinical purposes, such facilities as it had for lectures and labora- 
tories, and the prospective members of the proposed medical faculty were 
assigned to services in the hospital. 
As soon as Niagara University was chartered, the following gentlemen, 
all living in Buffalo, were appointed to its medical faculty: John Cronyn, 
M.D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine and Clinical 
Medicine; Thomas Lothrop, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics; Alvin A. Hub- 
bell, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology, Otology, and Laryngology; Henry 
D. Ingraham, M.D., Professor of Gynaecology and Diseases of Children, 362 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
William S. Tremaine, M.D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of 
Surgery and Clinical Surgery; Charles C. F. Gay, M.D., Professor of 
Operative and Clinical Surgery; Charles G. Stockton, M.D., Professor of 
Materia Mediea and Therapeutics; Augustus R. Davidson, M.D., Pro- 
fessor of Medical Chemistry, Pharmacy and Toxicology; George E. Fell, 
M.D., Professor of Physiology and Microscopy; William H. Heath, M.D., 
Professor of Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy; Clayton M. Daniels, 
M.D., Professor of Clinical Surgery and Adjunct Professor of Surgery; 
the Honorable Joseph M. Congdon, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence; 
John L. C. Cronyn, M.D., Demonstrator of Anatomy. 
The standards were gradually raised till at last a full four years' graded 
course was established. The clinical teaching was always a feature. "Be- 
ginning April 12, 1886, and ending May 11, 1898, thirteen classes were 
graduated, with a total number of one hundred and thirty-seven, or an 
average of nearly eleven each year. The smallest graduating class was 
that of 1887, which numbered four, and the largest that of 1895, which 
numbered nineteen. In 1893-94 the school opened its doors to women on 
the same terms as men. Several young women availed themselves of this 
privilege and two had been graduated, viz.: Miss Anna E. Hutchinson 
(1895), and Miss Mary O'Malley (1897). 
With the death of the president, Dr. John Cronyn, in 1898, it 
became apparent that the efficiency of medical teaching and the 
interests of the medical profession in Buffalo could be best sub- 
served by a merger of the medical faculty of Niagara University 
with that of the University of Buffalo. This amalgamation was 
consummated June 21, 1898. 
Its historian's closing words are its best epitaph: "It will ever 
live in the medical history of the State as one of the advance 
guards in the struggle for the elevation of professional attain- 
ments. ' ' CHAPTER XXIV 
MEDICAL EDUCATION: DISTURBING FACTORS: THE 
NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE 
IT might well have been expected that as New York had made 
such a good beginning of medical education before the Revolu- 
tion, and then had had the advantage of contact with the sur- 
geons of the British army during the long years of English occu- 
pation, immediately after the establishment of an independent gov- 
ernment with the freedom which it assured, New York would de- 
velop a system of medical education that would be an example to 
the rest of the country. While a number of distinguished men 
taught in her various medical schools during the half century after 
the Revolution, as a matter of fact New York's organization of med- 
ical education was not satisfactory. New York City fell behind 
Philadelphia in power to attract students, and while it must not be 
forgotten that New York City was then not the metropolis of the 
country and that the preponderance of population in the neighbor- 
hood of the city only came much later in our history, the reasons for 
this backwardness in medical teaching were internal dissensions and 
not external conditions. 
There were a number of reasons for the failure to secure a good 
strong medical school and then support it properly in New York 
City. The population had a large loyalist element in it. A great 
many of the old families had continued to be loyal in feeling to 
Great Britain all during the Revolution. It was a town of old 
families, and yet, as the principal port of the country and a very 
rapidly growing city, it received large additions from abroad and 
attracted some of the geniuses from the surrounding population. 
There were very strong political feelings in New York which made 
rather embittered divisions between men, and as a consequence 
there were a series of rivalries that had a lamentable reaction on 
medical education. The first fifty years of our history is filled with 
medical bickerings and divisions between rival professors and insti- 
tutions and interfering political authorities that exercised a very 
363 364 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
sad effect on the proper organization of medical education in the 
city. The history of this unfortunate state of affairs includes the 
details of no less than three organized attempts to circumvent the 
authority of the Regents of the State, who were being swayed 
politically, as it seemed to prominent New York physicians, for 
the personal benefit of certain interests. The weakness of the legal 
regulation of the practice of medicine had much to do with this, 
but there were other elements. 
In estimating the place that New York actually achieved for itself 
in medicine and surgery early in our history, it must not be for- 
gotten that the city had nothing like the population in proportion 
to the rest of the country that it has at the present time. New 
York City now constitutes about eight per cent, of the population 
of the United States, and with those in the metropolitan area (that 
is, less than a half-hour's ride from the centre of population) well 
above seven per cent. This preponderance of population is the 
development of the later nineteenth century, however. Just after 
the Revolution, New York State was only fifth in population, and 
Virginia had more than double its number of inhabitants, Pennsyl- 
vania had nearly one-fourth more, even North Carolina exceeded it 
by the total census of New York City and Long Island, while Massa- 
chusetts was nearly as far ahead of it, Maryland was its equal, and 
Connecticut, and, surprising though it must be to think it, Tenn- 
essee followed not far behind. If from the very beginning, then, 
the city, which was smaller in size than Boston or Philadelphia, 
occupied a prominent place in medical teaching and surgical prac- 
tice, it was only because of the enterprise of its professional men 
which was a little later to make them leaders in every way and 
lift their city into its subsequent position of precedence. The 
State did not rise to be the equal of Virginia in population until 
nearly 1820, and it was only about the same time that the city 
came to be the largest city in America. 
The promise that there was in New York medicine at this time 
is very well illustrated by some sentences in a letter of Dr. Jacob 
Bigelow to Dr. Lyman Spalding (Boston, February 13th, 1814), 
in which he said, "You seem to be destined to become the rivals 
of Philadelphia, provided your forces should ever be permanently 
united." Manifestly it was clearly recognized that the divisions 
in the profession in New York were seriously hampering the ad- 
vance of medical education. DISTURBING FACTORS 
365 
Dr. James R. Manley, in his presidential address before the New 
York State Medical Society in 1827, pointed out very clearly, as 
he saw them, the elements in our medical education in this country 
and particularly in New York State, which were preventing the 
proper development of medical education. It was largely a ques- 
tion of money. ' ' The teaching, examining and the licensing powers 
where they existed were all claimed and exercised by the same men, 
and the emoluments accruing to the professors were made in a 
great measure to arise from this unnatural and impolitic union." 
He ventures to say that such a course might have been tolerable 
when well educated physicians were comparatively few. "But 
prudence should have dictated the propriety of separating the 
temptations of interest from the nobler incentives of medical dis- 
tinction. " He dwells somewhat emphatically on still another im- 
portant factor, and it may be said that all of these combined 
continued to pull down medical education to a lower and lower level 
and, perhaps, none more than this fact that, "Besides, the consti- 
tuted authorities of this State have never efficiently patronized their 
own schools, as they might and ought to have done; but, on the 
contrary, through a mistaken courtesy have accorded the same priv- 
ileges to the diplomas of license issued by foreign colleges as to 
their own; on which account medical schools, many of them offer- 
ing limited courses of instruction, have been multiplied to the 
manifest detriment of our own institutions, and the positive in- 
jury of the cause of medical education." 
Dr. Manley, in the same presidential address, sums up a series 
of incidents in medical education in New York City which show 
how disturbed were the conditions. On three different occasions, 
at intervals of about fifteen years, attempts were made to found a 
medical school in New York City that would not be under the 
authority of the Board of Regents of the University of New York 
State. The reasons for these incidents are many and various, and 
led to a very serious division of opinion not only in the medical 
profession itself but also among the educated classes, at least, of 
the citizens. It is rather difficult to unravel the historical knot 
now after a century, and there are still decided differences of 
opinion as to the meaning of it all, but at least some of the facts 
may be given without bias for the advantage of those who have 
often heard hints of the incidents in question and have wondered 
as to their meaning. Dr. Manley said: 366 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Queens (now Rutgers) College in New Jersey has three times made at- 
tempts to institute a medical school in the city of New York. The first 
about the year 1793; the second in 1810; and the last in 1826. The first 
effort had the effect of so distracting the exertion necessary to form a 
successful institution, that the one organized about the same time, under 
the authority of the trustees of Columbia College, lost the only opportunity 
that ever presented of rivaling the medical school of Philadelphia. The 
second took advantage of the dissensions of the professors of the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons and those of the medical faculty of Columbia 
College about the time of their proposed union, and so far succeeded as 
to withdraw a considerable portion of patronage from them and transfer 
it to themselves; and the third is now in a course of dubious experiment, 
under the immediate control of a majority of the quondam professors of 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons who found it necessary or con- 
venient to resign their chairs in April last. 
The story of the first of these Rutgers incidents,-Dr. Romayne's 
Medical School-and of the attempt to secure such State recognition 
for it either from New York or New Jersey as would enable it 
to confer authoritative degrees-is outlined by Dr. James R. Man- 
ley, president of the New York State Medical Society, in a note 
to his presidential address. This would seem to show that there 
were political influences at work which prevented Dr. Romayne 
from obtaining recognition in New York State. Dr. Manley said: 
In the year 1787, Dr. Nicholas Romayne, a physician of eminence in 
the City of New York, who had been educated at Edinburgh, established 
a respectable private medical school and continued it as such till 1791, 
when he associated with Drs. Sir James Jay, Nicholl, Moore, the two Kis- 
sams (brothers), and Mitchell, in an application to the Regents of the 
University to take them under their protection and grant them corporate 
powers. The Board of Regents listened with interest to their memorial, 
and were disposed to accord to them the object of their prayer; but de- 
layed the execution of it for want of the powers necessary. They ap- 
plied to the Legislature, and, with the aid of Dr. Romayne and his friends, 
procured it without difficulty, and without doubt would have exercised 
it in creating a College of Physicians and Surgeons in the same year; but, 
in the meantime, Dr. Samuel Bard and his medical friends whose interest 
with the board of trustees of Columbia College, of which he was a mem- 
ber as well as Dr. Romayne, was such as to induce that body to send a 
representative to the Regents, that they as trustees were then organizing 
a faculty of medicine under their own authority, which they trusted would 
supersede the necessity of a College of Physicians and Surgeons till the 
issue of their measures was manifested; whereupon the request of the 
trustees was granted, and all further proceedings suspended. The trus- 
tees appointed a faculty as above named. Dr. Romayne was left out, al- 
though two or three of his associates were included. The consequences of DISTURBING FACTORS 
367 
this measure, which even at this distance of time appears a little extraor- 
dinary, were soon manifested. Dr. Romayne, knowing his own strength of 
character, his acquirements, and the power of his friends, declared an open 
opposition. His private school had acquired celebrity, and his talents were 
of the first order, and without much difficulty he procured the recogni- 
tion of Queens College [of New Brunswick, New Jersey, afterwards Rut- 
gers] and delivered lectures on the various branches of medicine under its 
authority. 
This attempt to teach medicine in New York under New Jersey 
authorization did not succeed, though it seriously disturbed the 
medical education situation in New York for some years. 
Dr. Romayne had been treated unjustly and was soon to be 
heard from_again. In 1807 he was prominent in the recently or- 
ganized Medical Society of The State of New York and presented 
a memorial through the Medical Society of the County of New York 
praying for the incorporation by the Regents of a College of Phy- 
sicians and Surgeons. The Regents assented on March 12th, 1807, 
and granted the chapter of incorporation to the College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, "of which all the members of said society and 
all the physicians authorized to practise in said city are declared 
to be trustees or members of the said college." April 3rd the 
Regents appointed the professors for the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, and the trustees were announced as consisting of one 
hundred and one practitioners of medicine. The first session, the 
college had fifty-three students, the second session it had seventy- 
two, and the third opened under still more favorable circum- 
stances, but misunderstandings took place between the president, 
Dr. Romayne, and the professors, some of whom resigned, and the 
number of students were reduced to one-third their former number. 
This led to a reorganization with some success, and in May, 
1911, the first Medical Commencement was held in the College, 
and eight doctorates conferred, the largest number ever graduated 
in New York up to this time. In 1813 the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons and the Faculty of Physic of Columbia College con- 
solidated, and the outlook was most promising. There were a num- 
ber of men with teaching ambitions who had been left out in this 
consolidation, and they organized a rival medical school, and, 
being unable to obtain the privilege of conferring degrees from the 
Regents of the State of New York, turned once more to Queens or 
Rutgers. Dr. Manley says, "that it is very certain that it (this 
renewed division) had its origin in disappointments created by the 368 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
acts of the Regents which reorganized the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, and excluded certain individuals from any partici- 
pation in its honors or emoluments, who had heretofore been much 
interested in both." Lectures on all the various branches were 
given in this school for some five years, and its pupils were gradu- 
ated under New Jersey authority. 
A third Rutgers College incident was to occur just ten years 
later, in 1826. There grew to be serious difficulties between the 
faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the trustees 
of that College appointed by the State Board of Regents, as well 
as with the Regents themselves. In the inaugural discourse de- 
livered at the opening of Rutgers Medical College Dr. Hosack gave 
the details of the difficulties between the medical faculties and the 
trustees, and the reasons for establishing the new school of medi- 
cine. As this represents an authentic contemporary document, I 
prefer to quote directly from it, suggesting only that this of course 
represents the faculty's position. The original announcement of 
the withdrawal of the faculty of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons and their determination to organize an independent medi- 
cal school was made in the following circular (printed on folded 
sheets of letter paper size, only the first page printed and three 
pages blank): 
MEDICAL COLLEGE OF NEW YORK 
City of New York, 1st August, 1826. 
The late Professors of the College of Physicians and Surgeons having 
seen fit to withdraw from the Institution, without thereby intending to re- 
linquish their accustomed functions, have organized another Medical Col- 
lege, in which all but twio of the former faculty take part, and the re- 
maining vacancies are filled by gentlemen of distinguished fame and ac- 
knowledged ability. 
All the means of instruction to be derived from an extensive cabinet of 
Anatomical and Surgical Preparations, and a full supply of subjects for 
dissection; from valuable collections of Natural History, Botany, Miner- 
alogy, and Chemical Apparatus, will be amply afforded in this College to 
the votaries of Medicine and Surgery. 
OFFICERS OF THE COLLEGE 
David Hosack, M.D., F.R.S., President 
Samuel L. Mitchell, M.D., LL.D., Vice-President 
Peter S. Townsend, M.D., Registrar DISTURBING FACTORS 
369 
PROFESSORS 
David Hosack, M.D., Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Physic 
and Clinical Medicine 
William James Macneven, M.D., Professor of Therapeutics and Materia 
Medica 
Valentine Mott, M.D., Professor of Surgery 
John W. Francis, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Forensic Medicine 
John D. Godman, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology 
Professor of Chemistry 
The several Courses of Instruction will commence on the first Monday in 
November ensuing. Arrangements are made for conferring the degree of 
Doctor of Medicine in the usual manner. The reciprocity of an ad eundem 
standing is also established between this College and the University of 
Pennsylvania. The former pupils of the Professors will be admitted as 
heretofore and the Medical officers of the United States Army and Navy 
are invited on the same footing as graduates. 
Published by Order 
David Hosack, M.D., President 
Peter S. Townsend, M.D., Registrar 
David L. Rogers, M.D., will give Lectures and Demonstrations in Op- 
erative Surgery under the Professor. 
Some of the circulars issued by the College are interesting for 
the comparative study of medical education. We reproduce a 
verbatim copy of one of them because this will best enable the 
modern student of the history of medical education to understand 
the conditions: 
RUTGERS MEDICAL COLLEGE 
Duane Street, New York 
LECTURES 
The lectures of this Institution commence on the 1st Monday in Novem- 
ber, and continue until the last day of March ensuing. 
David Hosack, M.D., Institutes and Practice of Physic, and Clinical Medi- 
cine Daily 
William James Macneven, M.D. Therapeutics and Materia Medica 
Daily 
Valentine Mott, M.D. Surgery Daily 
John W. Francis, M.D. Obstetrics and Forensic Medicine-4 times a week 
John D. Godman, M.D., Anatomy and Physiology Daily 
John Griscom, LL.D. Chemistry 4 times a week 370 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
The Professor of The Practice of Medicine delivers to his class at a 
separate hour, but without additional charge, a course of lectures on bot- 
any, exhibiting by means of living plants and diagrams, an outline of 
the Linnaean System. 
The Professor of Anatomy teaches with the Knife. The dissections 
necessary to his demonstrations are made in the presence of the class, at 
the time the parts are described: hence, this has been called the analytic 
method of teaching anatomy, because the student becomes acquainted with 
the structure, during the separation of the parts. In the ordinary mode, 
the structure is analyzed In Private, and exhibited to the learner in a 
state of separation. 
The College edifice is situated in the vicinity of the New York Hospital, 
where clinical instruction is given daily at twelve o'clock. In regard to 
the convenience and comfort of the class, this edifice is excelled by no other 
in the country. The saloon of practical anatiomy, admitted to be unrivalled 
for its extent and the completeness of its arrangements, is immediately 
superintended by the Professor of Anatomy. 
GRADUATION 
Candidates for Graduation are required to present certificates of having 
arrived at the age of 21 years, and of having studied three years under 
the direction of a regular practitioner or practitioners; during which time 
Two Full courses must have been attended in this college, or one full 
course in another, and one full course in this. The examination of can- 
didates takes place immediately after the close of the Lectures. 
In conformity to measures recently adopted, the Graduates of Rutgers 
Medical College, will be legally entitled to practice Physic and Surgery 
in the State of New York, as in other parts of the Union. 
THE GOLD MEDAL 
Instituted by the liberality of Col. Henry Rutgers, is annually awarded 
to the author of the best inaugural dissertation, submitted to the Fac- 
ulty. 
A SILVER MEDAL 
Instituted by a Citizen of New York, will be annually awarded by 
the Faculty to the author of the best inaugural dissertation on diseases 
and medical Topography of the United States. 
TERMS OF THE COURSE 
Matriculation $3. Tickets $15 each. Practical Anatomy $10. Grad- 
uation $25. 
By order 
David Hosack, M.D., President of the Faculty. 
P. S. Townsend, M.D., Registrar. DISTURBING FACTORS 
371 
The question as to the legality of the erection of a medical col- 
lege in New York City in connection with a New Jersey institution 
of learning was of course at once raised by the educational authori- 
ties of New York State. Apparently the feeling was that the legal 
position was untenable, and so the following year Rutgers Medical 
Faculty became connected with Geneva College, New York State. 
For the session 1827-28 the catalogue bears the legend, "Rutgers 
Medical Faculty, Geneva College, Duane Street, City of New York." 
There was even question as to whether this arrangement for the 
granting of degrees could be continued legally, so flying sheets 
containing the legal opinion of Thomas Addis Emmet and Josiah 
Ogden Hoffman, the most distinguished New York attorneys of 
the time, were published by the Faculty. Some of these may be 
seen in the Academy of Medicine Library, and run as follows: 
TO THE PUBLIC. 
As attempts have been made to throw doubt upon the validity of the 
degrees of the Rutgers Medical Faculty of Geneva College, it is deemed 
sufficient to submit to the public the following opinion of eminent coun- 
scl *- 
DAVID HOSACK, M.D., 
President of the Faculty 
New-York, Nov. 3d, 1827 
We have deliberately examined the charter of Geneva College and the 
act relating to the different Colleges in this State, and have no hesitation 
in saying that diplomas granted by Geneva College to those who shall study 
Medicine with Rutgers Medical Faculty of that College are good, effectual, 
and valid to every purpose for which a Medical degree is legally requisite, 
and equally so as that of any Medical College in this State. 
THOMAS ADDIS EMMET, 
JOSIAH OGDEN HOFFMAN. 
In spite of this high legal opinion the question of the legal right 
of Geneva College to grant degrees through a medical faculty in 
New York City having been brought before the courts was de- 
cided unfavorably in 1830. At this time three of the professors- 
David Hosack, president; Valentine Mott and John W. Francis,- 
issued a formal declaration with regard to the status of the College, 
and detailing the history of their efforts, gave up the attempt to 
continue medical teaching. That document is of historical interest 
and importance: 372 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Circular Address of the Medical Faculty of Geneva College, New 
York. 
The undersigned, late Professors in the Rutgers Medical Faculty of 
Geneva College, New York, in answer to numerous inquiries, both episto- 
lary and verbal, announce that they have resolved to suspend, for the 
present, the exercise of their collegiate duties as professors in the different 
departments of medical science. Unwilling to contravene the laws of the 
State, or the decisions of its courts, which have recently declared that 
Geneva College does not possess the power of establishing a Medical 
Faculty in the City of New York, they address themselves to the unbiased 
and uninfluenced opinions of their countrymen. Most of their board have, 
for more than twenty years, others for a longer period, devoted their time 
and talents to the improvement of youth in the noble and important science 
of medicine; they trust with uniform and unequivocal approbation; with 
necessary and consequent improvement of the profession, and benefit to the 
cause of humanity. A medical institution had been reared by their hands 
from the humblest beginning into successful rivalship with the oldest and 
most prosperous university in the country; but when by years of vig- 
orous diligence, and well directed exertions, their situation excited the 
cupidity of those to whom unfortunately its government was confided, 
they relinquished their situations after the highest authorities in the State 
had not only acquitted them of all censure, but had passed a distinct vote 
of approbation in their favor. 
On abandoning their seats, they founded and erected on their own in- 
dividual responsibility, a New College; desirous of continuing their efforts 
in a cause in which they had been so' successful; and from this institu- 
tion they have for several years past sent forth numerous well-educated 
youth, who had repaired hither from different and remote sections of the 
Union. Let it suffice, that more than two thousand pupils have been 
educated under their care and direction during their entire collegiate labors. 
But the authorities of the State, which, whether right or wrong, they are 
bound to obey, having seen proper to deny their protection, in order to 
sustain a monopoly, and to prevent by legislative enactment, that compe- 
tition so necessary to the free development of talent, they now withdraw 
from the task of official and public instruction; wishing to those who 
come after them all the success they may merit,, unimpeded by those envi- 
ous arts which may interfere with their usefulness. To all who have 
honored their exertions with their patronage or approbation, they make 
their most grateful acknowledgments for the generous countenance they 
have received. To those ingenuous youth, wherever situated, who have 
done them the honor to attend to their instruction (many of them now 
among the most distinguished in the profession), they wish every suc- 
cess, and they hope that ere long an opportunity may present by which 
they may be enabled, under legal sanction, to exhibit to the public renewed 
claims to their confidence and approbation. 
David Hosack, M.D., 
President of the Medical Faculty, and Professor of the Institutes 
and Practice of Physic and Clinical Medicine. DISTURBING FACTORS 
373 
Valentine Mott, M.D., 
Professor of Surgery. 
John W. Francis, M.D., 
Professor of Obstetrics and Forsenie Medicine. 
Thus closed the third and last attempt at medical teaching in 
New York City independent of state educational authority. Even 
twenty-five years after this third Rutgers incident in the history 
of medicine in New York there had been little improvement in 
medical education. Amelioration of conditions was not to come 
until the American Medical Association was able to introduce some- 
thing like uniformity into the problem of preliminary requirements 
and the definite regulation of medical studies. Dr. Manley, in his 
annual discourse before the New York Academy of Medicine in 
1849, said, "I shall speak of the abuses of medicine in connection 
with the education of physicians, with a view to their correction. 
Perhaps there never was a time when medical abuses were more 
rife, medical impostures more successful, or medical delusions more 
fatuous or more fatal; and it is as much our interest as it is our 
duty, to inquire into their causes, that we may take all reason- 
able measures which the nature of the subject may suggest, to 
limit their influence." 
Dr. J. B. St. John Roosa, in his "Medical New York, Old and 
New, ' ' an address delivered at the inauguration of the Post-Gradu- 
ate Medical School, said of the condition of medical education in 
New York at the beginning of the decade in which Dr. Manley's 
address was delivered, "At one time a little before 1841 the one 
medical college of New York was so little known, or was so ob- 
scurely situated that an aspiring medical student, now a distin- 
guished Professor, could not be directed to it by the gentleman to 
whose office he went to begin his medical studies. Yet this was 
the day of Mott, of Kearney Rodgers, of Griscom, the elder, and of 
Alexander H. Stevens, of Hosack and of Francis. ' ' 
Few men were more thoroughly familiar with the state of medical 
education and with medical problems generally in New York than 
Dr. St. John Roosa, at the time of the delivery of this address, 
and yet he did not hesitate to say some rather bitter truths with 
regard to medical education in New York even in the eighties. 
Perhaps some of his deprecation may be discounted because of the 
event that called forth his address, the foundation of the first Post- 
Graduate Medical School in this country, but his expressions are 374 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
worthy of a place in history as representing the opinion of a 
thoughtful practical contemporary: 
New York has not kept pace with the small towns in the number of 
her undergraduate students, or in the reputation of her colleges, but her 
professional schools have been for fifty years growing in magnitude and 
importance. New York has now more than two thousand medical students. 
Her hospitals and dispensaries have increased until they can scarcely be 
named offhand. Yet the medical colleges continue to be private and pro- 
prietary institutions. Their teachers are, I believe, among the best of our 
country, and worthy of any country. But while Boston and Philadelphia 
are making vast strides in improving the methods of instruction, New York 
is obliged, from lack of endowments, to hold on to the old plan. Those 
who have studied one, two, three years, sit upon the benches, hear the 
same lectures, and crowd the same wards and amphitheatres. There is 
no matriculation examination, and, unless in exceptional cases, but one 
final one at the end of three years, of what is in some cases merely nominal 
study. 
The reform in medical education came when the proprietary 
medical schools ceased to exist, and when medical schools became, 
as they should be, graduate departments of universities with facul- 
ties much more interested in teaching and in the progress of medi- 
cine than in the accretion of a lucrative medical practice. That 
reform has come practically during the last twenty-five years and 
has already lifted New York's medical schools to a high plane of 
efficiency and promises even more for the immediate future. Above 
all it has raised the standard of general medical attainment. The 
advance of professional medicine is measured more by the average 
knowledge of the mass of the profession than by the progress made 
by a few distinguished teachers and practitioners of medicine and 
surgery. Not the few chosen spirits are now stimulated to breadth 
and depth of medical knowledge, but large classes receive adequate 
training that fits them for excellent practical work immediately 
after graduation. 
THE NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE 
One very well planned attempt to get away from the unfortu- 
nate degradation of medical education which had come over the 
country was made in New York. This was the New York Medical 
College, and its founders proved to be a full generation ahead of 
their time, but had their effect upon their own generation even 
though the coming of the Civil War compelled them to close DISTURBING FACTORS 
375 
their doors. The story of it represents a veritable oasis in the 
desert of low grade medical education in America at this time. The 
Faculty had a high aim, and their efforts were well directed and 
with abundant energy behind them. It would be too bad if the 
plan of the New York Medical College were not to be properly ap- 
preciated. It has been told very well by Dr. Jacobi, who shared 
the fortunes of the school, and lives on as the last remaining mem- 
ber of the Faculty, and so I quote from his article on the subject 
as prepared for the Historical Section of the New York Academy 
of Medicine, and kindly lent to me in manuscript before its pub- 
lication : 
County and State Medical Societies,-that means the profession at large, 
-urged the schools to change their methods as to the quality and quantity 
of their teaching, but in vain. Then it was the Medical Society of the 
State of New York, founded in 1806, which called a convention of the 
prominent medical men of the whole country to consider these defects and to 
urge improvements on the schools. The second call proved successful. One 
hundred delegates from thirteen States assembled in New York in 1846. 
Many schools were bitterly opposed to the movement, unfortunately, not 
for the last time; for even when thirty or more years afterward the fight 
was up for increased medical requirements of matriculation in medical 
schools and of State requirements before the license to practice should be 
granted, it was the schools that opposed it openly; and when public 
opinion became too strong to be openly thwarted, two of the three great 
schools of medicine in New York City sent their strongest influential men 
to Albany for clandestine wire-pulling. They were A. L. Loomis and 
Austin Flint. They did not succeed, however. It is now conceded that the 
wisdom of the New York State Medical Society displayed in 1882 in its 
modification of the Code of Ethics of the American Medical Association, 
and in cooperating with all classes of legal practitioners, secured for us 
and for most of the States of the Union which followed our example, laws 
which raised the standard of medical education, gave our students greater 
facilities, and protected the public by restricting ignorance or quackery. 
In the Convention of 1846, committees were appointed to report in 1847. 
In that year the Convention met in Philadelphia, and it was there that 
the American Medical Association was founded. For years after, it urged 
the schools to adopt, among others, the following changes: 1st, to in- 
crease the length of the lecture term; 2nd, to increase the number of pro- 
fessorships; 3d, to separate the granting of degrees from the board of 
official teachers. 
As not a single one of the existing schools saw fit to adopt a single 
one of these recommendations, the reform element in the profession es- 
tablished a few schools. Dr. Davis reports: "Thus the New York 
Medical College was called into existence." It was chartered April 8th, 
1850; its cornerstone was laid July, 1850; and the building was in- 376 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
augurated on the 16th of October. The first commencement of the new 
school was held in March, 1851. 
It was the first to wholly conform to the changes advised by the Ameri- 
can Medical Association. Its building, 112 East 13th street, the most 
convenient for the comfort of the teachers and the public of any in the 
country, contained three large lecture rooms, so that the classes were 
never compelled to occupy the same hall during two consecutive hours. 
The entire front of the building was devoted to the chemical laboratory 
and museums. Here it was that in 1850 was established the first chem- 
ical laboratory in the United States in connection with a medical col- 
lege, established for the instruction of students in medicine in analytical 
researches important in medical practice. Each candidate for graduation 
was examined before a board of censors. 
The lecture term was lengthened and a summer course was established. 
The number of professors was gradually increased to ten, in place of 
the familiar seven or less. The charter strictly separated the power 
of granting degrees from the board of trustees, as Section V. "pro- 
vides for the appointment of a Board of Censors which was taken 
from the profession not connected with the College, without whose 
consent no degree could be conferred." 
To remove all pecuniary temptation to increase the number of grad- 
uates, the same section provided that no fee should be charged for 
granting a degree. Finally, the Faculty, realizing the vast importance 
of combining more clinical with didactic instruction, procured a charter 
for a hospital to be located alongside of the College. While await- 
ing the raising of funds to build, they opened and organized a charity 
ward in the College itself. In that ward I taught in 1860 and after, 
until both the ward and the college were discontinued, for discontinued 
they were. That is the brief history of the first attempt at raising a reg- 
ular daily bedside clinic for all branches of instruction in the indispen- 
sable parts of medical teaching. The twenty-seven beds were ours, and 
in daily, almost hourly, use. This should be recognized as a new and 
systematic teaching, the first one in America, and should be remembered 
as one of the progressive steps in American teaching. When it was dis- 
continued in 1864 it had no successor until in 1898, when bedside instruc- 
tion was established for the students of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons. 
In the first faculty of 1850, there sat Horace Green, Professor of The- 
ory and Practice; Abraham L. Cox, of Surgery; Edwin Hamilton Davis, 
of Materia Medica and Therapeutics; B. Fordyce Barker, of Midwifery 
and the Diseases of Women and Children; and K. Ogden Doremus, of 
Chemistry and Toxicology. In 1851, John Murray Carnochan took the 
place of Dr. Cox, and Edward R. Peaslee took the chair of Physiology, 
Pathology and Microscopy. In 1852 two additional chairs were created- 
that of Medical Jurisprudence, occupied by Judge Joel Parker of Bos- 
ton; and that of Dental Pathology and Surgery, for Dr. C. C. Allen. 
Very few changes took place after that, but H. G. Cox was elected Profes- 
sor of Theory and Practice in 1885; Timothy Childs, Professor of Anat- DISTURBING FACTORS 
377 
omy in 1856; Austin Flint, Jr., Professor of Physiology and Pathology in 
1859. I have mentioned only such men as before and since their appoint- 
ment made a name for themselves and have played a prominent role in 
American medicine. 
In 1861 Southern students began their exodus from New York. The 
school was not persona grata with the South, nor with all the other New 
York schools, which had not mended their ways during the whole decade 
of the existence of the New York Medical College, and the majority of 
the faculty of the latter college became discouraged. 
A new faculty was appointed April 21st, 1860. In it were Doremus 
and Carnochan, of the former faculty; L. Meredith Reese, A. K. Gardner, 
B. I. Raphael, John 0. Bronson, Charles A. Budd, Bern L. Budd, R. K. 
Brown, and A. Jacobi. Two thoroughly new departments were created. 
Toxicology was taught independently of chemistry, by Bern L. Budd, and 
the diseases of children were made a full professorship. It has taken 
Harvard thirty years and Columbia forty years to follow the example of 
the struggling little school in East 13th street. In Columbia even the 
great names of Otis and Agnew were permitted to add to, or in part to 
make, the renown of the school as mere "clinicals" until their death. The 
"seven," that sacred close corporation, willed it so. Both in Harvard and 
Columbia the diseases of children are now taught by full professors. Rotch 
must not be forgotten by either Harvard or America, and Holt's acknowl- 
edged rank in his profession and specialty will always be remembered. 
During the years 1861 and 1863 a few names were added, some of which 
were those of then or afterwards famous men. These were Noeggerath, 
S. R. Percy, Frederic Holcombe, and David S. Conant. In 1864 the school 
was compelled to close because the ideals of the faculty were too high for 
the time, though strictly in accord with the demands of the American Med- 
ical Association for the raising of the standards of medical education in 
this country. Reform in medical education had to wait for another gen- 
eration until the closer union between medical schools and universities 
served to lift standards of matriculation and of graduation. CHAPTER XXV 
THE DOCTORS' RIOT AND THE QUEST OF ANATOMICAL 
MATERIAL 
ONE of the rather disturbing chapters in the history of medi- 
cine in New York is what is known as "the Doctors' Riot," 
or, as it is sometimes spoken of, "the Doctors' Mob." It 
was not, as the name might seem to imply, a riot incited by physi- 
cians or a mob led by them; but, on the contrary, a riotous demon- 
stration against the medical school of the day, and particularly 
against its anatomical department. As this took place in 1788, some 
five years after the close of the Revolution, when we were supposed 
to be enjoying the freedom of American laws and government and 
our people are presumed to have been far beyond what are usually 
spoken of as medieval superstitions, the incident is all the more 
surprising. The event, however, is really a key to the significance 
of certain phases of modern history that deserves to be understood. 
Far from being a unique event, this "Doctors' Riot" in New York 
was only one of a series of occurrences of similar nature through- 
out the country, and so far from being the last of its kind, these 
incidents continued to occur for more than half a century after- 
wards, the last that I know of them being that of St. Louis as late 
as 1844, when Scharf in his "History of St. Louis" (vol. 2, page 
1835) says, that "The rioters broke down the doors, made their 
way into all the rooms of the college building, tore down and 
destroyed all the furniture, demolished all the valuable material 
that had been prepared with much care and at great expense for 
the Museum, and in fact left nothing of the equipment of the 
institution save only the bare walls and roof." 
As a matter of fact, New York's "Doctors' Riot" was one of 
the first if not the very first incident of that kind in the country, 
and its occurrence here was due to the fact that the Anatomical 
Department of the Medical School was conducted in such a way 
as to provide a thorough practical course in dissection, requiring 
the provision of a number of bodies, so that the feelings of the 
378 THE DOCTORS' RIOT 
379 
populace were deeply aroused. The New York experience, how- 
ever, led to a beginning of legislative reform which gradually 
brought about a better state of feeling all over the country, though 
the improvement was very slow to come. The series of events il- 
lustrate very clearly one serious handicap under which medicine 
labored in the early part of our history, and that New York was 
the first to obviate it. 
This difficulty in the path of the progress of anatomical science 
as well as of scientific medicine and, above all, of pathology and 
practical surgery, which existed here in America, was a heritage 
from England and the Puritanic times that was very unfortunate. 
Popular feeling made it impossible to provide anatomical material 
from any legitimate source. It was an extremely difficult thing at 
the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
turies for medical schools, to say nothing of physicians, to pro- 
cure bodies for dissecting purposes. This wras not due, as is some- 
times said, to any old-fashioned idea of the sanctity of the body, a 
heritage from the long preceding time when superstitions were 
rife, but on the contrary came, as I have said, from quite a modern 
development of narrowness of mind which during the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries put a number of prohibitions and inhibi- 
tions into life, altogether beyond what there had been of such 
shackles on progress in the Middle Ages. 
Dissection had been practised freely and constantly in the 
Italian medical schools from the thirteenth century onwards. In 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many Italian anatomists 
boasted of making hundreds of dissections. Not only were these 
made in the medical schools, but practically every artist of the 
Renaissance made many dissections. Many hundreds of sketches 
of these dissections made by Italian artists have been recovered, 
and have served better than any written account could possibly 
have done to demonstrate the absolute lack of prejudice in this 
matter among Italians. 
The Englishmen who had studied in Italy in the early sixteenth 
century, especially Linacre and Caius, brought back with them 
Italian traditions in this matter, and were beginning to secure 
their adoption in England when the religious troubles of the Ref- 
ormation period came to disturb medical advance in England by 
rude separation from the Continent. Gradually the number of 
dissections dwindled, and though during the sixteenth and early 380 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
seventeenth centuries such discoveries as those of the tubercle of 
Lower, the foramen of Winslow, Glisson's capsule, and other ana- 
tomical details, show careful attention to anatomical studies, these 
were made ever more and more difficult by the lack of bodies for 
dissection.1 
This dearth of dissecting material continued to be felt very 
keenly until well on in the nineteenth century, and there is even a 
speech of Lord Macaulay made in the English Parliament as late 
as the early thirties of the nineteenth century, in which he pleads 
for the passage of a law granting the bodies of the unclaimed dead 
to medical schools. Up to that time, arguments very analogous to 
those which have prevented or, at least, seriously hampered animal 
experimentation in English-speaking countries, were advanced 
against the granting of permission to secure anatomical material in 
the only way in which it can be readily and satisfactorily ob- 
tained to the extent that it is needed,-that is, by granting all 
unclaimed bodies to the medical schools for anatomical purposes. 
It is not surprising then that the early details of anatomical 
study in New York and indeed everywhere throughout the country 
are scanty. 
The first post-mortem, examination legally made in America is 
referred to in an order of the Council of Lord Baltimore dated St. 
Mary's in Maryland, July 20, 1670. This consisted, however, only 
of an order to review the medico-legal appearances of the head of 
one Benjamin Price, supposed to have been killed by the Indians. 
New York probably deserves the credit for the first formal legal 
post-mortem examination in the strict sense of the term-that on 
the body of Governor Sloughter of New York, which is usually 
declared to have been the first recorded autopsy in America. This 
it is, though, as was pointed out by Dr. Hartwell in his lecture on 
"The Hindrances to Anatomical Study in the United States, In- 
cluding a Special Record of The Struggles of Our Early Anatomi- 
1 The evidence that the Latin countries generally were not obsessed by 
this prejudice against dissection which continued to hamper the development 
of anatomy until well on in the nineteenth century, is furnished by Moliere's 
well-known complaint that the attendance at the theatre in his time at the 
end of the seventeenth century was seriously interfered with because of the 
fashionable fad for attendance at dissections. Paris society crowded to see 
"anatomies" done, and it came to be quite the thing for dissection parties 
to be organized by invitation, with a dinner before or a supper afterwards, 
just as for the theatre. THE DOCTORS' RIOT 
381 
cal Teachers," which appeared in the Annals of Anatomy and 
Surgery (Brooklyn, 1881), there is a reference in the records of 
the Salem Witchcraft Trials to a preceding legal post-mortem 
examination with autopsy some fifteen years before this in Massa- 
chusetts. According to these records, a jury had been empanelled 
upon the body of a man who had died suddenly in the house of 
Giles Corey. This formal jury, among whom was Dr. Zerubabel 
Endicott, found the man bruised to death and "having dodders 
of blood about the heart." This expression leaves no doubt that 
a rather thorough dissection was made. Governor Sloughter's 
case remains, however, the first formal medico-legal autopsy with 
complete records. The Governor died suddenly under circum- 
stances which excited suspicions of poisoning. Dr. Johannes Kerf- 
byle, assisted by five physicians, examined the body thoroughly. 
The appreciation of their services in the matter will be recog- 
nized from the fact that the Council ordered eight guineas (£8, 8s.) 
to be paid the surgeons for their examination. This would repre- 
sent at least $200 in value in the money of our time. 
The first dissection for purely anatomical purposes and scien- 
tific demonstration to medical students that we have on record in 
what is now the United States, was performed by Drs. John Bard 
and Peter Middleton before a small class of medical students in 
the city of New York in 1750. The subject was the body of 
Hermanus Carroll, an executed criminal. The record shows that 
this dissection was made "for the instruction of the young men 
then engaged in the study of medicine." This is proof that at 
least informal medical instruction was being conducted in New 
York at this time, some fifteen years before the organization of 
the medical school in Philadelphia. Dr. Cadwalader made dis- 
sections for the benefit of the physicians of Philadelphia in 1751, 
and Dr. William Shippen gave a systematic course of lectures in 
anatomy in 1752. The record here in New York would seem to 
show that the authorities recognized the place of dissection in 
medicine, and therefore turned over the body of this executed 
criminal to Drs. Bard and Middleton for anatomical purposes. 
According to tradition, this body was carefully preserved and 
preparations were made of various parts of it so that they might 
be kept for demonstration purposes. 
Here in New York the difficulty of obtaining bodies for dis- 
secting purposes continued even after the colonies had been freed 382 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
from English rule, and as a consequence resurrectionism (that 
is, the obtaining of bodies surreptitiously from graves where they 
had been recently buried) was practised. This led to a great deal 
of ill-feeling and no little prejudice against the medical teachers, 
and the feeling grew until in 1788, as I have said, there was an 
outburst of popular prejudice which led to the destruction of 
some valuable property and even endangered the lives of some 
physicians. This was the so-called "Doctors' Mob," or "Doctors' 
Riot," the details of which are thus described in the New York 
Packet for April 15, 1788. It is interesting to note that the 
journal took the side of the physicians in the matter: 
Information has been given to some persons in the city; that several 
subjects for dissection had been dragged out of their graves and carried 
to the hospital for the purpose-a long practise, which, it is said, some 
of the young doctors are charged with, which has been the cause of loud 
complaints against them for some months past. Last Sabbath afternoon, 
a number assembled and broke into the hospital, where 'tis said some 
mangled bodies of the dead were found-in consequence of which a con- 
siderable dust was kicked up, and sundry doctors and others were con- 
siderably mauled.-His honor the Mayor and Sheriff, with the help of some 
other gentlemen, got the populace dispersed; but in this laudable attempt, 
several of them received blows, much abuse and insult.-Yesterday the 
fray revived-a number of persons forced their way into a number of 
suspected doctors' houses, and we hear did much mischief and damage. 
Several got much bruised and wounded in the fray, who were attempting 
to dissuade and prevent unnecessary depredation and waste of private 
property. It is sincerely wished that our fellow citizens would manifest 
their zeal against vice and wickedness (as it abounds in the city) which 
kill men's souls and be less zealous for the preservation of the duller 
part. However we would not wish to be understood by this hint, to 
apologize for those whp wantonly, and perhaps unnecessarily disturb the 
ashes of the dead; at any rate, numbers are in danger of being called in 
question for this day's uproar. 
The story of "the Doctors' Mob," as told in its details ten days 
later in the New York Packet, shows how the feelings of the 
community had been aroused and how serious was the danger to 
which physicians were subjected: 
On Sunday, the 13th inst., a number of boys, we are informed, who 
were playing in the rear of the Hospital, perceived a limb which was im- 
prudently hung out of a window to dry; they immediately informed some 
persons-a multitude soon collected-entered the Hospital, and in their 
fury destroyed a number of anatomical preparations; some of which we 
are told were imported from foreign countries-one or two fresh sub- THE DOCTORS' RIOT 
383 
jects were also found-all of which were interred the same evening. Sev- 
eral young doctors narrowly escaped the fury of the people; and would 
inevitably have suffered very seriously, had not his Honor, the Mayor, 
the Sheriff and some other persons interfered and rescued them, by lodg- 
ing them in gaol. The friends to good order hoped that the affair would 
end here; but they were unhappily mistaken. 
On Monday morning a number of people collected, and were deter- 
mined to search the houses of the suspected physicians. His excellency 
the Governor, His Honor the Chancellor, and His Worship The Mayor, 
finding that the passions of the people were irritated, went among them 
and endeavored to dissuade them from committing unnecessary depreda- 
tions.-They addressed the people pathetically, and promised them every 
satisfaction, which the laws of the country can give. This had consider- 
able effect upon many; who, after examining the bouses of the suspected 
doctors, retired to their homes.-But in the afternoon the affair assumed 
a different aspect. A mob, more fond of riot and confusion than a re- 
liance upon the promises of the Magistrates and obedience to the laws; 
went to the gaol, and demanded the doctors who were there imprisoned. 
The Magistrates finding that the mild language of persuasion was of 
no avail were obliged to order out the militia, to suppress the riot, to 
maintain the dignity of government, and protect the gaol. A small party 
of about eighteen armed men assembled at 3 o'clock, and marched thither 
-the mob permitted them to pass through with no other insult than a few 
volleys of stones, dirt, &c. Another party of about 12 men, about an 
hour afterwards, made a similar attempt but having no orders to resist, 
the mob surrounded them, seized and destroyed their arms. This gave 
the mobility fresh courage-they then endeavored to force the gaol, but 
were repulsed by a handful of men, who bravely sustained an attack of 
several hours. They then destroyed the windows of that building with 
stones, and tore down part of the fence.-At dusk another party of armed 
citizens marched to the relief of the gaol; and as they approached it, the 
mob huzzaing, began a heavy fire with stones, brick bats, &c. Several 
of this party were much hurt, and in their own defence were obliged to 
fire; upon which three or four persons were killed, and a number wounded. 
The mob shortly after dispersed. 
On Tuesday morning the militia of General Malcolm's Brigade and Col. 
Bauman's regiment of artillery were ordered out; and a detachment from 
each were under arms during that day, and the subsequent night. But 
happily the mob did not again collect, and the peace of the city is once 
more restored. 
The riot was, to sum up, a rather serious matter, though one might 
he inclined to think of it as amusing, to look back at it now. It 
was an angry unmanageable crowd that gathered, determined 
to put an end to all dissection and the temptation that the dis- 
section course afforded of securing bodies surreptitiously. For- 
tunately the jail was not far away, and the students and doctors 384 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
took refuge there, but with a mob close at their heels. Nor was 
the mob easy to deal with when the authorities had been sum- 
moned and made their appearance to prevent further destruction. 
Mayor James Duane read the riot act, backed by a handful of 
militia; and a number of prominent citizens attempted to exert 
the weight of their dignity to prevent further disorder. John Jay 
and peppery old Baron Steuben, of Revolutionary fame, came on 
the scene, but without pacifying effect. The mob hustled the dig- 
nitaries quite undignifiedly, and poor Baron Steuben was knocked 
down. He quite lost his temper, and, his military training get- 
ting the better of him, it was he who called out to the mayor, 
"Fire! Duane, Fire," and the militia fired, killing seven rioters 
and wounding many more. This salutary lesson had its effect, and 
the mob dispersed. 
The suspicions of the mob as to any wholesale resurrecting of 
bodies seem to have been quite without foundation. Dr. Richard 
Bayley made an affidavit which appeared in the New York Jour- 
nal and Patriotic Daily Register for Tuesday, April 15th, deny- 
ing absolutely that there was any ground for the suspicions of 
the mob that any bodies in his dissecting room were obtained sur- 
reptitiously from any place of burial where respectable people 
were interred. To a reader of his affidavit one hundred and twen- 
ty-five years afterwards, it seems as though he deliberately em- 
phasized churchyards and cemeteries connected with public places 
of worship, without making any similar affirmation as regards the 
Potter's Field or perhaps other secular public burial places. The 
affidavit is worded so that he denies any agency or concern "in 
removing the bodies of any person or persons interred in any 
churchyard or cemetery, belonging to any place of public wor- 
ship, and that he hath not offered any sum of money to procure 
any human bodies so interred for the purposes of dissection and 
further that no person or persons under his tuition have had any 
agency or concern in digging up or removing any dead body in- 
terred in any of the Churchyards or cemeteries to his knowledge 
or belief." A similar affidavit was made by Dr. Charles Mc- 
Knight and his pupils Ebenezer Graham, John Parker, and George 
Gillaspy, and also by John Hicks, Senior. 
The "Doctors' Riot" naturally attracted a great deal of atten- 
tion throughout the country, and indeed it has been said that the 
best accounts of the whole incident are to be found in the New THE DOCTORS' RIOT 
385 
York letters of the Boston and Philadelphia papers. By this is 
meant, that these writers waited until they could get a reason- 
ably detailed account of the whole set of incidents, and then wrote 
them out more briefly but more connectedly than they can be 
gleaned from the New York papers of the immediately succeeding 
days, when the real significance of details was obscured by the 
proximity of the events.2 
It has sometimes been said, as for instance by Dr. Toner in 
his "Annals of Medical Progress" and by those who follow his 
usually rather exact statements, that this "Doctors' Mob" in 
New York marked the last serious resistance from the populace to 
the teaching of practical anatomy in America. Dr. Hartwell 
pointed out, however, that the very next year there was mob 
violence in Baltimore, and the body of a recently executed crim- 
inal was discovered by the populace and taken from the gentle- 
men who were then studying anatomy and surgery. Dr. Hart- 
well also cites Dr. Potter's pamphlet published in 1838, entitled 
"Some Account of The Rise and Progress of the University of 
Maryland," in which is told the story of the destruction nearly 
fifty-years after the New York "Doctors' Riot," of the anatomical 
theatre of Dr. John B. Davidge, a private teacher of anatomy and 
surgery. This small anatomical theatre had been erected by Dr. 
Davidge at his own expense on ground of his own. It was acci- 
dentally discovered by the populace that he had provided a series 
of subjects for dissection. Some boys gathered before the door 
having called attention to this fact, a large mob accumulated and 
demolished the house, putting a period to all further proceedings 
for that season. Dr. Potter adds that "such were the vulgar 
prejudices against dissections that little sympathy was felt for the 
doctor's loss." There is even an account of a riot for similar 
reasons in New Haven over thirty years after our New York ex- 
perience, that is, about the year 1820, and the last of these anti- 
dissection troubles of a serious nature did not come, as I have 
pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, until the riot in St. 
3 Indeed, on Tuesday, April 15th, 1788, the New York Journal and 
Patriotic Daily Register apologized for not being able to obtain "a con- 
cise statement of the sad confusion of the City since last Sunday for this 
day's paper," and so it was thought proper to postpone it until such and 
such a one could be had. Dr. Hartwell in quoting the passage suggests, 
"imagine the New York Herald apologizing for its inability to give a 
concise statement concerning a riot two days old." 386 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Louis as late as the middle of the fifth decade of the nineteenth 
century. 
The first hint of any legal provision of anatomical material in 
this country came some five years before our New York "Doctors' 
Riot." It was the Massachusetts Law of 1784, by the terms of 
which the bodies of those killed in duels and of those executed for 
killing another in a duel, might be given up to the surgeons "to 
be dissected and anatomized." It is curiously interesting to note 
that this was almost exactly a reversion to the old ecclesiastical 
laws of the Middle Ages according to which the bodies of those 
killed in tournaments might be given for dissection. In Massa- 
chusetts the body was to be delivered ' ' to any surgeon or surgeons 
to be dissected and anatomized that shall request the same and 
engage to apply the body to that use." The alternative left to 
the coroner in the disposition of the remains was ' ' that the body of 
a person so killed should be buried without a coffin at or near the 
usual place of the execution of criminals, with a stake drove 
through the body." In this law, however, there was no hint 
conveyed that the legislators had any intention of recognizing the 
value of dissection for medical purposes, nor of the rightful 
claims of anatomy in the matter, nor that the State had any 
duties in the matter of providing bodies for the sake of the scien- 
tific teaching of medicine for the good of the community. 
It was not until five years later that any formal expression of 
these ideas was embodied in legal regulation, and then it was 
New York that was the first of our states by Section 2 of its Act 
of 1789, which dared to establish by legal enactment the manifest 
obligation of government that "science might not be injured by 
preventing the dissecting of proper subjects." This section pro- 
vided : 
That when any offender shall be convicted of murder, arson or bur- 
glary, for which he shall be sentenced to suffer.death, the court may at 
their discretion add to the judgment that the body of such offender shall 
be delivered to the surgeons for dissection." This act was passed Janu- 
ary 6th, 1789, the legislation having manifestly for its immediate occa- 
sion the Doctors' Riot of the preceding year, for the first section of the 
act makes the removal of any dead body from its place of sepulchre for 
the purpose of dissection a criminal offence, and adds further that any 
person convicted of this offence, "shall be adjudged to stand in the pillory 
or to suffer other corporal punishment not extended to life or limb, and THE DOCTORS' RIOT 
387 
shall also pay such fine and suffer such imprisonment as the court shall 
in their discretion think proper to direct. 
Just a year after the enactment by the New York State Legis- 
lature of this rather liberal law as regards dissection, considering 
the popular feeling of the time in the matter, the first Congress 
of the United States by an Act passed April 30th, 1790, gave 
federal judges the discretion of adding dissection to the sentence 
of convicted murder. Six years later, in 1796, a similar act was 
passed by New Jersey. This legislation seems to have been in- 
fluenced by the New York enactment. 
It seems clear that all this legislation was designed rather to add 
to the deterrent effect of the punishment for murder and particu- 
larly for duelling rather than to any desire to make provision of 
dissecting material. The legislation was doubtless suggested by 
the act of Parliament of England in 1752, which decreed that 
"some further terror and peculiar mark of infamy might be added 
to the punishment of death by the delivery of the body of executed 
murderers to the surgeons for dissection." New York's law was 
the only legislation which stepped beyond this punitive purpose 
to recognize, however imperfectly, the necessity for governments 
to provide material for the proper teaching of anatomy. 
This law, however, permitted a provision of bodies utterly in- 
adequate for teaching purposes, and so it is not surprising that 
resurrectionism continued and was encouraged by the prominent 
leaders in medicine and surgery. Dr. Samuel Francis has told 
the story of the difficulty of procuring anatomical material in 
New York, and of how students and preceptors used to go out 
on Long Island and bring home the bodies of the recently buried 
to serve as dissection material. On a number of occasions in 
the early part of the nineteenth century, rumors got abroad that 
this resurrection work was carried on, and then for a time grave- 
yards would be guarded by angry relatives with shot guns, and 
sometimes it was extremely dangerous to attempt such an expedi- 
tion. Occasionally when suspicion had been aroused, wagons 
would be carefully watched crossing the ferry to New York, and 
Dr. Francis tells, on a cold day after a successful "resurrection," 
of propping the corpse up beside the driver in the wagon, in 
order that it might escape the vigilance of watchers at the Long 
Island side of the river. On one occasion when a child's body 
had been resurrected, the student who carried it wore a large 388 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
cloak in which there was a huge pocket. The body was placed 
in this, and, the suspicions of the police having been aroused, a 
band of students hand in hand went dancing down the street with 
the carrier of the body in their midst, thus averting suspicion. 
In later life practically every one of the first half-dozen pres- 
idents of the New York Academy of Medicine confessed to having 
taken part in body snatching in their student days, or when as 
young physician teachers they had to secure anatomical material 
for their students. J. V. Huntington, who before being a clergy- 
man was a medical student, in his story, "Rosemary," tells of the 
rifling of a grave and the bringing into the dissecting room of the 
body of a young female who had been buried that afternoon, 
but proved not to be dead and was afterwards resuscitated. The 
story of "Rosemary" is of course fiction, but it contains many 
reminiscences of actual details of the efforts to obtain dissecting 
material in the early days. While as a rule the graves of the 
better-class folk were spared, this was not always true; and while 
Long Island graveyards were more visited than city cemeteries, 
these latter were not always respected, especially when the vigi- 
lance of the inhabitants of Long Island had been aroused, and the 
danger of capture was at least as great as in the city, with even 
more risk of meeting with serious injury, either by shooting or 
at the hands of angry relatives whose deepest feelings had been 
aroused by what they rightly considered unjustifiable outrages 
upon their dead. 
Dr. Valentine Mott, the distinguished American surgeon, looked 
upon very probably in his time as one of the most distinguished 
of American surgeons, told the story in his later life of his ex- 
periences in obtaining bodies for dissection when he was a demon- 
strator in anatomy. On his return from Europe, where he had 
been particularly influenced by Sir Astley Cooper, whose greatest 
interest was in dissection, Mott very naturally took up practical 
anatomical work in spite of the difficulties of obtaining dissecting 
material. In the spring of 1809 he succeeded in getting permis- 
sion from the trustees of Columbia College to lecture and demon- 
strate on operative surgery. For this purpose he had to provide 
anatomical material as best he could. In an address delivered at 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, over forty 
years later (November 7, 1850), he told very frankly of one of his 
resurrection experiences. It was perhaps in order to soften the THE DOCTORS' RIOT 
389 
account for his audience that in relating one incident he said 
that the body of a man who had been hanged was given to the col- 
lege for dissection, and yet he describes his having to go and 
exhume it from the Potter's Field under circumstances which 
would seem to show very clearly that the whole expedition was 
surreptitious: 
Material for dissection was scarce, and could only be obtained by in- 
dividual enterprise, and in many such, now happily by the existing state 
of things rendered unnecessary to your advancement in knowledge, have I 
been engaged. I well remember on one occasion driving, in disguise, a 
cart containing eleven subjects, from old Potter's Field burying ground, 
sitting on the subjects, and proud enough of my trophies; but we were 
not always so fortunate, being on many occasions discovered and pur- 
sued, and obliged to leave our spoils behind us, with only our hard labor 
for our pains. One little incident of the times, also, occurs to me. A 
German, who had been hung, was given to the college for dissection, and, 
with the colored porter, I went in a carriage in the evening to get the 
body. My other associate was a Dr. Buchanan, a Scotchman, and pro- 
fessor of obstetrics in the college, residing in the city. 
On calling at his rooms to take him up, I found him arranging his 
pistols, and complaining of feeling very agueish, and with difficulty 
persuaded him to proceed. The night was cold, and on arriving on the 
ground, the doctor's ague increased so rapidly and his valor oozed, like 
Bob Acres', in "The Rivals," so freely from the tips of his fingers, that 
he decided to return home, begging strongly for the use of the carriage, 
which I peremptorily refused him. With great difficulty we exhumed the 
body, but then my colored associate also deserted me, declaring he could 
not touch the subject, on account of his having been hung. I had, there- 
fore, to lug the body, attired in its white robes, by my own strength, to 
the carriage-for I had great strength in those days-and partly by force 
and partly by menaces, compelled the man to assist me in getting the 
body into the carriage-and what was still more difficult to get in along 
with it, so thoroughly was he terrified. On arriving at the college, I 
found my valorous associate slowly recovering from his ague fit, by the 
aid of a strong glass of brandy toddy, and deeply lamenting his inability 
to assist me on the occasion. 
This difficulty of obtaining bodies did not prevent teachers of 
anatomy and others from doing dissection work either in this 
country or in England. Sir Astley Cooper dissected every day 
of his life even when travelling, paying large fees and liberal douc- 
eurs to the body snatchers. When the English Anatomical Bill was 
up before Parliament he stated to a committee of the House of 
Commons that there was no person whatever might be his worldly 390 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
place in life whose body he could not dissect if he would. John 
Hunter's success in obtaining desired specimens for his museum 
is well known. O'Brien, the Irish giant, eight feet two in height, 
interested Hunter very much, and he offered to pay a liberal fee 
for his skeleton-of course after the original owner would be 
through with it. O'Brien was very much disturbed by this offer. 
Hunter was persistent, and at last O'Brien almost feared him. 
When he came to die young, as giants usually do, O'Brien made 
arrangements to have his body taken out some miles to sea and 
dropped overboard. In spite of that arrangement, which was, I 
believe, actually carried out, O'Brien's skeleton nevertheless re- 
poses peacefully in the Hunterian Museum in London, and dis- 
closes to this generation the enlarged sella, turcica which gave 
room for the hypertrophy of the hypothesis, the enlargement of 
which giants in Hunter's generation knew nothing. According to the 
story, Hunter had the funeral boat of O'Brien's obsequies at sea 
followed, and the body was grappled for immediately after being 
committed to the water, and brought to shore. The moral is that 
Hunter was more liberal in his fees for the procurement of the 
body than O'Brien had been in his will for his burial. 
These underhand practices for the obtaining of bodies for dis- 
section and demonstration purposes continued to obtain all during 
the first quarter of the nineteenth century, in both England and 
the United States. The very grave abuses to which such a law- 
less system of securing anatomical material quite inevitably gave 
rise, continued to grow worse and worse as medical education ad- 
vanced, and finally culminated in Edinburgh in 1827. There it 
was found that a series of bodies which had been sold for dis- 
secting purposes to Robert Knox, the well known Scotch Profes- 
sor of Anatomy, had been obtained by putting their original living 
possessors to death in cheap lodging houses. The scheme is said 
to have originated in the mind of one Burke, whence came a new 
word for the English language, "Burking," which now means to 
smother a human being (or a political measure), for this was the 
way adopted to secure the bodies so that they would not have any 
marks of violence in them. Burke was associated with a landlord 
named Hare, and it was his lodgers who were summarily disposed 
of. As a rule they were poor vagrants found wandering round the 
city by nights, who were very glad, especially after having been 
supplied with whiskey generously, to accept a night's lodging. THE DOCTORS' RIOT 
391 
Some of the victims were street walkers, and the body of one of 
these, a notorious handsome woman of the town, was discovered in 
Knox's anatomical rooms when she was missed from her usual 
haunts, and this brought about the revelation of the whole foul 
procedure. The victims had usually been smothered between two 
mattresses, or, when they were very drunk, by holding the hands 
tightly over the nose and mouth. 
Professor Knox himself was completely vindicated so far as 
any connection with the methods of procuring bodies by the gang 
was concerned, though of course under the circumstances he had 
made no particular inquiries as to how the bodies were secured. 
He simply paid for them rather liberally when brought to him 
for his anatomy teaching. Almost needless to say, the discoveries 
made him very unpopular, however. As Garrison says, "all Edin- 
burgh went wild on the instant, and Knox was mobbed by the 
horrified populace, vituperated by press and pulpit, and threat- 
ened with hanging. Knox defended himself bravely, but without 
much success except as regards his pupils." 3 
This British scandal in the matter of obtaining bodies for dis- 
secting purposes very naturally received wide diffusion, aroused 
the dormant common sense of legislators, and brought about ra- 
tional legislation for the provision of bodies for dissection pur- 
poses. The enabling laws for this purpose were enacted here in 
America, however, before they came in England. Massachusetts 
was the pioneer in the early thirties in passing a law giving the 
bodies of paupers dying in State institutions and unclaimed by 
their friends, to the legally instituted medical schools of the State. 
New York and Pennsylvania followed at once in the passage of 
similar laws, but some of the States did not imitate these good 
examples for many decades afterwards. 
8 Knox is the author of a series of contributions to artistic anatomy 
which show that he had used whatever dissection opportunities he had to good 
purpose, and his contribution to anthropology, "The Races of Man," is a 
classic on the subject. APPENDIX 
PHYSICIANS AND SPIRITISM AND PSYCHISM 
AVERY interesting story, not strictly medical and yet so 
intimately associated with physicians and medical practice 
in many ways that to omit it in the history of medicine in 
New York State would be to leave a serious gap in the collection of 
material necessary for a proper understanding of certain phases of 
therapeutics and especially psychotherapy in the past century, is 
the account of the rise and spread of the movement known as spirit- 
ualism. This had its modern origin in New York State about the 
middle of the nineteenth century. It very soon invaded the field 
of medicine, because this was a lucrative side issue for mediums, 
providing an opportunity for the definite collection of fees. Since, 
according to their own claims, they could get directly in touch 
with the living spirits of the distinguished physicians of the past 
and were thus enabled to treat the clients who came to them in 
their seances with the genius of Hippocrates or Galen or Syden- 
ham, that genius presumably having been refined and amplified 
by experience of the spirit world, why should they not charge 
at least regular medical fees? A great many religious healers 
have argued in something of this same way, and have made quite 
as good a thing out of it as the spiritualistic mediums did. 
There is another intimate association between spiritualism and 
medicine, however, for it was mainly physicians who took up seri- 
ously the work of exposing these frauds and indicating the means 
by which they produced their effects. The "rappings" which 
represented the first of the so-called spiritistic phenomena that 
were to attract so much attention during more than a score of 
years after the middle of the nineteenth century, were demon- 
strated by a committee of physicians, members of the faculty of 
the University of Buffalo Medical School, among whom at the 
time was our own distinguished Dr. Austin Flint, to be due to 
partial subluxations of joints, with sudden repositions. These 
internal joint movements brought about the production of dull 
393 394 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
sounds very closely resembling muffled raps that could be heard for 
a considerable distance. 
Besides, this chapter in the history of typical superstition oc- 
curring in the midst of the nineteenth century is of very special 
interest to physicians because it demonstrates very clearly that 
the people of the modern time, in spite of the diffusion of popu- 
lar education, are just as ready and willing to be deceived by 
impossible claims of marvelous ultramundane power and absurd 
statements as to therapeutic results, as they ever were at any 
time in history. The feeling that popular education has made 
mankind more sensible or more reasonable is evidently founded 
on a fallacy. The ability to read and write has only made it 
possible to diffuse such superstitious notions very widely and 
more rapidly than ever before. Indeed, this phase of supersti- 
tion, spiritualism, beginning in a manifest fraud in a small town 
in Northern New York and spreading so rapidly throughout the 
world within a decade or two of years, illustrates the fact that 
the power of the printing press far from being always beneficial 
may be productive of serious harm. There is probably no paral- 
lel chapter in the history of superstitions related to medicine in 
which the diffusion and popularization of doctrines have been 
so rapid and have affected so many people in so short a time. 
For those who are interested in the rise and rapid spread of 
Dowieism and of Eddyism in the modern time, and who are 
prone to wonder what will become of so-called Christian science, 
and who are perhaps inclined to think that there has never before 
been a movement so widespread, a chapter on spiritualism and 
its relations to medicine and to physicians only a generation ago 
will be a striking lesson from American history of the almost 
ludicrously simple origin, yet the rapid progress and then the 
inevitable but gradual disintegration of a movement of this kind 
in our own country. In proportion to the whole population of 
the United States there were, according to their own claims at 
least, many more spiritualists in this country about 1870 than 
there are of Christian Scientists at the present time. Spiritual- 
ism has, however, vanished almost entirely as a cult, though there 
still remain a certain number of mediums who give seances regu- 
larly to a handful of devotees here and there in the large cities 
throughout the country. The analogies between spiritualism and 
Eddyism multiply the more one knows about both cults, and, their SPIRITISM AND PSYCHISM 
395 
rise and spread having many elements in common, it would not 
be surprising to have their ultimate disposition resemble each 
other. 
Modern spiritualism may be said to have had its rise at Hydes- 
ville, a small village in the township of Arcadia, in Wayne 
county, New York. This portion of New York State has been 
particularly prolific in special revelations of various kinds. Be- 
sides spiritualism, Mormonism had its rise here, for though its 
founder, Joe Smith, was born in Vermont, he dug up the gold 
plates of Mormonism, so he said, in this region. The Shakers 
and various other curious communities have tried out their experi- 
ments in communistic life under special religious guidance not 
far from here, and in recent years the "Holy Rollers" have had 
their home in the same quarter. The first half of the nineteenth 
century had an abundance of special religious manifestations here, 
but the second part of the century was not entirely without 
them, and it is generally understood that the neighborhood of 
Rochester is a good field for spiritistic manifestations of many 
kinds. 
The famous Fox sisters (their names were Voss) were the 
authors or discoverers of modern ' ' spirit rapping, ' ' the first mani- 
festations of which occurred in 1848. The Fox family were very 
much disturbed by reason of raps and other noises made in the 
house. Finally, one of the daughters challenged the raps, and 
they answered, sound for sound, the noises which she made by 
snapping her fingers. This proved an intelligent cause for the 
raps, and the neighbors were summoned, a code was arranged, 
and when questions were asked, raps indicative of "yes" and 
' ' no, ' ' or silence, when the question asked was not true, came to be 
understood. People gathered from all over to hear the strange 
phenomena, and their ages were told and various other questions 
of special interest answered. At first it was said that the raps 
came from the disturbed spirit of a peddler who had disappeared 
not far from the house into which the Foxes had moved shortly 
before, and some remains were said to have been found in the 
cellar, but this story was disproved, and the idea of an old fash- 
ioned ghostly visitant entirely given up as the possibilities for the 
exploitation of the public by having a series of spirits answer their 
calls came to be recognized. 
The origin of the mysterious rappings continued to be shrouded 396 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
in obscurity, though the subject of much active discussion, until 
the end of 1850, when the Fox girls went to Buffalo, New York, 
and stayed there for some weeks giving public exhibitions of their 
supposed marvelous powers. Professor Austin Flint, with Pro- 
fessors Lee and Coventry, who were his colleagues in the medi- 
cal school of the University of Buffalo, made a special investiga- 
tion, and at the beginning of the following year wrote a joint let- 
ter to the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser pointing out that the 
rappings could be explained by movements of the joints, and 
stating further that a lady of their acquaintance had actually 
produced similar sounds by that means. They were at once chal- 
lenged to prove the truth of this theory by a personal investi- 
gation and interview, and they accepted the challenge. Their 
report is an interesting document in the history of New York 
medicine: 
The invitation thus proposed was accepted by those to whom it was 
addressed, and on the following evening, by appointment, the examination 
took place. After a short delay, the two Rochester females [the Fox 
sisters] being seated on a sofa, the knockings commenced, and were con- 
tinued for some time in loud tones and rapid succession. The "spirits" 
were then asked whether they would manifest themselves during the sitting 
and respond to interrogatories. A series of raps followed, which were in- 
terpreted into a reply in the affirmative. The two females were then 
seated upon two chairs placed near together, their heels resting on cushions, 
their lower limbs extended, with the toes elevated, and the feet separated 
from each other. The object in this experiment was to secure a position 
in which the ligaments of the knee joint should be made tense, and no 
opportunity offered to make pressure with the foot. We were pretty 
well satisfied that the displacement of the bones requisite for the sounds 
could not be effected unless a fulcrum were obtained by resting one foot 
upon the other, or on some resisting body. The company seated in a semi- 
circle, quietly waited for the "manifestations" for more than half an hour, 
but the "spirits," generally so noisy, were now dumb. On resuming the 
usual position on the sofa, the feet resting on the floor, knockings soon 
began to be heard. It was then suggested that some other experiment be 
made. This was assented to, notwithstanding the first was, in our minds, 
amply conclusive. The experiment selected was, that the knees of the 
two females should be firmly grasped, with the hands so applied that any 
lateral movement of the bones would be perceptible to the touch. The 
pressure was made through the dress. It was not expected to prevent 
the sound, but to ascertain if they proceeded from the knee-joint. It is 
obvious that this experiment was necessarily far less demonstrative to an 
observer than the first, because if the bones were distinctly felt to move 
the only evidence of this fact would be the testimony of those whose hands SPIRITISM AND PSYCHISM 
397 
were in contact with them. The hands were kept in apposition for several 
minutes at a time, and the experiment repeated frequently for the course 
of an hour or more with negative results; that is to say, there were plenty 
of raps when the knees were not held and none when the hands were ap- 
plied save once. As the pressure was intentionally somewhat relaxed 
(Dr. Lee being the holder), two or three faint, single raps were heard, and 
Dr. Lee immediately averred that the motion of the bone was plainly per- 
ceptible to him. The experiment of seizing the knees as quickly as pos- 
sible when the knockings first commenced was tried several times, but 
always with the effect of putting an immediate quietus upon the manifes- 
tations. The conclusion seemed clear that the Rochester knockings ema- 
nate from the knee joint. Since the exposition was published we heard of 
several cases in which movements of the bones entering into other articu- 
lations are produced by muscular effort, giving rise to sounds. We have 
heard of a person who can develop knockings from the ankle, of several 
who can produce noises with the joints of the toes and fingers, of one who 
can render loudly audible the shoulder, and another the hip-joint. We 
have also heard of two additional cases in which sounds are produced by 
the knee-joint. 
After a time the Fox sisters and some of their relatives con- 
fessed that the rappings had been produced by partial subluxa- 
tions of toes and other joints, but particularly produced within 
the foot. Occasionally striking manifestations, especially louder 
noises, were produced by the agency of confederates. The foot 
noises were difficult of production if the feet were cold, but could 
be made rather readily after practice when the feet were warm. 
Warm foot baths were usually taken shortly before a seance, 
and then the noises would be particularly clear. The sound re- 
sembled that made by a gloved hand striking beneath the table.1 
'In the course of some lectures on "Borderland Phenomena," given for 
a charity at one of the hotels in New York, I induced Professor Merrigan, 
then Professor of Anatomy at the Fordham University School of Medicine, 
to volunteer to produce such noises in order to illustrate this phase of the 
old spirit rapping. By partially dislocating through muscular action the 
phalangeal joints of his third toe, he was able without removing his shoe 
and without any visible movement of his leg or foot to emphasize it, to 
produce a sound very much like a rap beneath the stage which was heard 
throughout a ballroom capable of seating 600 or 700 persons, and which 
was actually heard by all of the audience of 500 or so who were present. 
By careful inspection a slight movement of his shoe above the third toe 
could be noticed, but nothing more. It was very easy to understand how 
noises of that kind simulating a rap beneath the table when heard in the 
dark and after a period of anxious expectancy might very well be taken for 
attempts of the spirits to get into communication with a group .of human 
beings. 398 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Subsequently the Fox sisters withdrew their confession and 
went back to their mediumistic practices. As they said to a cler- 
ical friend afterwards, "it was such a comfortable easy way of 
making a living, and it was such good fun to pit one's wits suc- 
cessfully against those of the investigators who came so confident 
of their ability not to be fooled," that it was hard to give it up 
entirely. They seem to have been, though the originators of a 
movement that carried away with it many sincere minds, rather 
conscious frauds. There is no doubt at all but that a good many 
others who took up the movement thus initiated, fooled themselves 
to some degree at least as well as others, being carried off by 
certain subconscious tendencies and a sort of secondary person- 
ality independent of their normal being which manifested itself 
under the special circumstance. It is always when the apostles 
of new doctrines, medical or spiritual, believe in themselves that 
they succeed in making the most converts and bringing adherents 
to their mode of thinking. 
It would be almost impossible to believe, only for the actual 
facts in the case, that a movement beginning so simply as this, 
among a country population, in a family absolutely without edu- 
cation, could deeply influence the intellectual world of the time, 
but, as a matter of fact, in the course of ten years spiritualism 
became the subject of more discussion and occupation of mind 
than any other serious phase of thought. Spirit rapping devel- 
oped into spirit writing, and then into spirit messages of all kinds 
and finally came materializations when the spirits showed them- 
selves in bodily form and communicated directly with humanity. 
In the introduction to his book, "The Newer Spiritualism," Frank 
Podmore, whose contributions to the history and significance of 
this subject have made him an authority in the matter, has re- 
viewed the whole movement with regard to spiritistic phenomena 
in a paragraph that emphasizes at once the wide spread of the 
cult and the present state of opinion with regard to the manifes- 
tations of that period: 
The movement spread to Europe in the early fifties; and by 1870 there 
was scarcely a town of any importance in the civilised world which did 
not boast its regular circle of "inquirers," whilst upward of a hundred 
periodicals devoted themselves to chronicling the doings of the spiritual 
world, as revealed in the seance-room and in "inspirational" lectures. 
The movement remained at its zenith for a few years, and then rapidly SPIRITISM AND PSYCHISM 
399 
declined. Those, indeed, who had once been convinced remained for the 
most part convinced believers still. But the faith of such as were still 
in their novitiate was seriously checked by the constant exposure of fraud 
at materialisation seances, in spirit photography, and other marvels of the 
kind. And the decline of the belief was hastened by the increased atten- 
tion given by medical men and others to the obscure mental states from 
which the belief in the first instance had its rise. Men saw that the out- 
pourings of the entranced subject and the revelations of the crystal and of 
planchette could reasonably be classed with other manifestations of au- 
tomatism and unconscious cerebration; and that to invoke spiritual agency 
would, in most cases, be as rational as to ascribe the ravings of delirium 
to demoniac possession, or the journeyings of the sleepwalker to angelic 
guidance. 
At the beginning of the spiritualistic movement, mediums, even 
though poor themselves, did not accept money for their services, 
though, after a time, their friends subscribed for their support. 
Later revelations came from the spirits, insisting that the laborer 
was worthy of his hire, and those who were instruments of the 
spiritual world and conferred so much benefit on mankind it 
was urged ought to be kept free from the distractions of the 
active life or any absorbing business necessary for their main- 
tenance. Even before these special revelations were accorded, 
however, it came to be understood that prescriptions obtained 
from the spirit world for the cure of various ills should be paid 
for just as those obtained from mundane physicians, though, of 
course, at a proportionately higher rate, according to their value, 
for they came from the supreme masters of medicine in the Great 
Beyond. The Spiritual Telegraph, the journal which was one of 
the earliest modes of communication between the adherents of the 
cult, carried only a few advertisements of mediums and these 
were exclusively of medical clairvoyants who charged a fee for 
diagnosing and prescribing. This is always the readily lucrative 
side of all these curiously interesting psychological and spiritistic 
movements. They find their easiest way of imposing on mankind 
for their own benefit by "curing their ills." 
Nor must it be thought that spiritualism spread exclusively 
among unscientific people incapable of weighing evidence on scien- 
tific principles for the cult was not without its thoroughly scientific 
supporters. The most prominent among these doubtless was Pro- 
fessor Hare, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Penn- 
sylvania. Hare experienced a wonderful series of spiritistic mani- 400 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
festations while he was on his way to attend a meeting of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science held that 
year in Montreal. He was accompanied by a boy medium, and 
keys disappeared and were found in places indicated by the 
medium; other articles could not be found when looked for, and 
later made their appearance, dropping from above him, sometimes 
being taken out of locked receptacles, and a number of similar 
phenomena, afterwards very familiar mediumistic experiences and 
all at one time or another exposed as fraudulent in origin, were 
reported. 
Professor Hare made a series of experiments over a period of 
two years and became a complete convert to spiritualism. He 
constructed certain apparatus for demonstrating levitation and 
other such phenomena which furnished the model for the more 
elaborate experiments of a similar nature conducted by Sir Wil- 
liam Crookes. Dr. Hare's book, "Experimental Investigation and 
the Spirit Manifestations," was published in New York, 1855. 
The "spirits," as a rule, seemed loath to have anything to do with 
apparatus, but some of them tried and failed, and a few succeeded 
in producing results which Dr. Hare declared must be ultramun- 
dane. He explained many of the spiritualistic ideas in scientific 
terms, and these came to be the general lingo of the adepts. 
In the early fifties, various incomplete materializations of hands 
and faces and the like became part of the manifestations, and 
it is interesting to read the explanations on scientific grounds of 
these phenomena. They illustrate how easy it is to clothe the 
most absurd ideas in scientific language and thus to give a very 
taking air of science to them, which of itself satisfies many people 
of their thoroughly scientific character. Professor Mapes, of New 
York, for instance, discoursed learnedly on the means by which 
the semblance of temporary physical organizations might be cre- 
ated by the spirits to enable them to deal with material objects. 
He suggested that such "temporary organisms could be pro- 
duced in accordance with the kinetic theory of gases with a mini- 
mum employment of material particles provided a sufficiently in- 
tense energy of motion were imparted to them." 
The electric telegraph was just attracting wide attention at 
this time and creating a childlike state of wonder in many minds 
which predisposed them to the acceptance of electrical explana- 
tions for any marvelous phenomena, and so one is not surprised SPIRITISM AND PSYCHISM 
401 
to find wonderful suggestions as to the electrical origin of the 
spiritistic manifestations. The movements of tables and chairs 
were said to be due to "a redundancy of electricity congregated 
upon the involuntary nerves." The raps were caused by "an 
electro-magnetic discharge from the fingers and toes of the me- 
dium." Tables may be moved "by electro-magnetically charg- 
ing the table from a living battery of many human hands and 
thus attracting or repelling it without contact." The process 
is declared "to be really quite as simple as the raising of a balloon. " 
"The millions of pores in the table are filled with electro-magnet- 
ism from human nervous systems which is inconceivably lighter 
than the gas that inflates the balloon." There is no doubt that 
the emanations from a great many brains at this time were of an 
extreme tenuity and almost incredible lightness and that it rep- 
resented hot air raised to the nth degree which ought to be power- 
ful as a lifting agent for almost anything. 
Spiritualism continued to attract followers from all over the 
country, many of them being thoroughly respectable and suppos- 
edly well educated individuals. A justice of the Supreme Court, 
many lawyers and physicians, a great many school teachers of 
both sexes, not a few college professors and any number of people 
who prefer heterodox independence to conventional orthodoxy 
became very much interested in this new cult which promised to 
put them in direct connection with a higher world. This served 
to make life larger and less tiresome even for a great many who 
were not directly cured of supposedly physical ills by the pre- 
scriptions obtained from the great physicians of the other world. 
After a time the attraction of the novelty of the new cult ceased 
to have its usual effect, the exposure of mediums disillusioned 
people and spiritualism gradually crumbled. Frank Podmore, 
in his book on "Modern Spiritualism," in his chapter "The Pedi- 
gree of Spiritualism," has traced the connection between this 
curious set of incidents and the Mesmerism and animal magnetism 
which had attracted so much attention in England and France 
at the end of the eighteenth and during the first half of the 
nineteenth centuries. Mankind likes to be humbugged, prefers 
exciting belief in some humbuggery or other to the rational but 
monotonous plodding of everyday existence and so one can al- 
ways be prepared to find new popular delusions. 402 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
A good many of the mediums secured wide publicity and cre- 
dence because, having been investigated by scientific men, the 
marvels produced by them were declared to be quite beyond the 
power of material forces and to present definite indications that 
supra-natural factors must be at their command. These investi- 
gations by scientific men have always been sources of harm rather 
than good. It takes a rogue to catch a rogue, and a conjurer to 
catch a conjurer. Scientists taking the subject seriously and not 
looking for insincerity and indeliberate trickery, were often rather 
readily deceived. They always had the feeling, apparently, that 
when they could not explain something by scientific principles it 
must be inexplicable in any but in some marvelous and extra-mate- 
rial fashion. Above all, a great many of them went into the in- 
vestigations with the idea apparently that such simple looking, 
rather ignorant people, as mediums often were, could scarcely be 
expected to fool them. As a consequence they were rather readily 
fooled. 
The extent to which the spiritualistic movement became dif- 
fused within a very few years and the number of adherents 
which it gathered may be judged from an article in the North 
American Review, April, 1855, only seven years after its initia- 
tion at Hydesville. The writer in the Review is not only not a fol- 
lower of the cult himself, but he begins by explaining that he had 
deferred writing his article in the hope that the spiritualistic 
movement would die of itself. So far from dying out, however, 
it was growing in numbers, and now beginning to attract men 
of education and even of high culture and a number of persons 
of high repute and supposedly sound common sense. With this 
preamble it is clear that he is not likely to exaggerate the num- 
ber of spiritualistic adherents, so that his acceptance of their 
claims in the matter of their membership is probably not wide 
of the mark. He said: "We do not think the following para- 
graph from the address of the New England Spiritualists Asso- 
ciation an overstatement-'It is computed that nearly two mil- 
lions of people in our nation, with hundreds of thousands of peo- 
ple in other lands, are already believers in Spiritualism. No less 
than twelve or fourteen periodicals are devoted to the publica- 
tion of its phenomena and the dissemination of its principles. . . . 
Every day, and more than daily, lectures are given in the pres- 
ence of audiences quite respectable as to both number and char- SPIRITISM AND PSYCHISM 
403 
acter; circles are held by day and by night in nearly every city, 
town and village throughout our country.' " 
In the meantime a number of the prominent spiritualists from 
this country and especially from New York went over to England 
and introduced all the so-called spiritistic manifestations over 
there. The famous Daniel Dunglas Home, whose name had origi- 
nally been Hume, was born in Edinburgh, but came to this coun- 
try as a child, and his spirit mediumship developed over here. 
He probably had more to do than any one else with the constant 
occupation by learned, thoroughly intelligent Englishmen with 
spiritualism between 1850 and 1880. He was himself a man of 
pleasing manners and attractive personality, indeed, from the 
testimony of all who knew him, of great personal charm. Even 
so late as twenty-five years ago, at a meeting of the Society for 
Psychical Research, in 1894, Sir William Crookes said: "To those 
who knew him, Home was one of the most lovable of men, and his 
perfect genuineness and uprightness were beyond suspicion." 
Home had learned spirit rappings from the mediums of the 
time, for he had known the Fox girls and Gordon and Fowler and 
others, and he gave private seances to friends. While it is said 
that he never took any money directly for his spiritistic manifesta- 
tions, he succeeded without any definite occupation in making a 
good living out of mediumship. His personal qualities of gaiety 
and frankness and childlike spontaneity secured for him many 
friends, and the patronage of persons of wealth and social distinc- 
tion. He lived in their houses and enjoyed their hospitality. Oc- 
casionally, as an elocutionist, he gave public recitations for which 
his friends took tickets, and these supplied him with money as 
needed. A circle of American friends subscribed money to send him 
to Europe in order to spread the light of the new cult in that land. 
The highest degree of mediumship was the missionary spirit, and 
;many mediums soon began to look across the Atlantic to the un- 
tilled field over there. 
Home went to England then, was not there very long before 
he was adopted by a wealthy widow as her son, though this was 
subsequently revoked by the court, had a salaried position as 
secretary to a spiritualistic society created for him, married suc- 
cessively two ladies with private fortunes, and came in many 
ways to occupy a very enviable position. Many of the nobility of 
England came to him and such men as Sir William Crookes, the 404 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
great English scientist; Lord Adair, subsequently the Earl of Dun- 
raven, famous for his connection with the competition for the 
America's Cup, all declared belief in his manifestations as supra- 
natural. Lord Brougham, Sir David Brewster, Robert Dale Owen, 
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Anthony Trollope and many other 
distinguished Englishmen, were present at his seances. He visited 
the continent, gave seances before the Emperor and Empress at 
the Tuileries in Paris, as well as before the Czar of Russia and 
many other royal and noble personages. 
Under favoring conditions such as these it was no wonder that 
spiritualism spread and attracted ever more and more attention. 
The apparently trivial and absurd set of popular delusions which 
took their rise in the insignificant village of Hydesville almost 
by accident at first in the pranks of some children and had been 
fostered by the unsettled conditions of religious feeling and the 
mental unrest which had made it possible for Mormonism to make 
its successful start in the same part of New York, soon grew to be 
a disturbing worldwide movement which even yet occupies the 
attention of the curious. After a time spiritualism was to give 
birth to theosophy with its supposed connection with the Orient 
and to the societies of Madame Blavatsky, in London, and of 
other ambitious seeresses in England and America. We are not 
through with the movement entirely even yet, though we can 
now readily understand that it was not at all what it was set up 
to be at first, a question of communication with the spirit world, 
but to some extent merely more or less pathological manifesta- 
tions of curiously constituted minds and the rest fraud, practised 
sometimes consciously but undoubtedly at times also unconsciously 
by interested mediums. 
In the seventies there came a series of exposures of mediums 
everywhere. Craft in his "Epidemic Delusions"2 tells the story 
of these exposures of mediums in one of his chapters. Practically 
every important medium was exposed at least once and many of 
them over and over again. The curious thing was that even after 
one or more exposures mediums still found dupes quite ready to 
accept their pretentious claims. 
2 "Epidemic Delusions, containing an expose of the Superstitions and 
Frauds which underlie some Ancients and Modern Delusions, including Espe- 
cial Reference to Modern Spiritualism," by Rev. Amos N. Craft, A.M. (Phil- 
ips & Hunt, New York, 1881). SPIRITISM AND PSYCHISM 
405 
These were the days of the tied-up mediums, shackled with iron 
rings and fastened in various ways in closets and chests and cabi- 
nets, so that to the committee of six or more "reliable citizens" 
it seemed quite impossible that the medium could do anything, 
and yet all sorts of occurrences happened, and then the medium 
was found tied as securely as before. The Davenport brothers 
excelled in the production of these phenomena of spiritism, but 
after a while they turned from the practices and showed how their 
tricks were performed and then offered to duplicate in the light 
any similar "phenomena" that might be produced by mediums 
in the dark. 
In the middle seventies it became the custom of the newspapers 
of the country to send reporters in order to secure exposures of 
well known mediums. The Boston Herald, the New York Sun, 
the New York Times and, above all, the Rochester Evening Ex- 
press and the Rochester Democrat-Chronicle, resenting doubtless 
the fact that the delusion had originated in that part of the State, 
but also realizing the interest of the people of that neighborhood 
in the subject, secured a number of exposures. No wonder that 
spiritualism as a cult dwindled in numbers and gradually lost its 
hold on the general public, though a great many ailing people still 
continued to consult mediums with regard to their ailments, and 
it is surprising how many of them declared themselves cured of 
ills for which physicians had been unable to do anything. Indeed, 
it was particularly the chronic ills, pains and aches, with dis- 
abilities of various kinds which had existed for long periods and 
for which a number of physicians had been consulted without 
success, that were cured by mediumistic prescriptions from "the 
Great Beyond." This is, of course, the old, old story of "cures" 
constantly repeated in the history of medicine, and these chronic 
ills represent the material out of which medical pretenders of all 
kinds have always succeeded in making triumphs for themselves. 
Just before and after the middle of the nineteenth century 
New York State was the scene of the origin and rather wide spread 
of a whole series of movements more or less related to spiritual- 
ism, some of which allied themselves directly with that cult, while 
some were more formally psychic in character. The early part 
of the nineteenth century had seen a great interest in what was 
known as Mesmerism, or animal magnetism which, about the mid- 
dle of the nineteenth century, began to be called hypnotism, when 406 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
that word was invented by Braid in England. Most of these 
spiritistic and psychic movements were originated by ignorant 
pretenders, yet the surprise is how many of them succeeded in 
finding not a few but a great number of followers. Their votaries 
came, moreover, not alone from the ignorant classes and the poor, 
who sometimes feel so strong a need for a mental avenue of escape 
from their sordid surroundings that they are ready to accept 
anything that promises them diversion, but not infrequently from 
the presumably intelligent and the supposedly educated members 
of the community. Not a few professional men of various kinds 
fell for these impostors, who were often so thoroughly earnest in 
their pretensions that one cannot but think that they were sin- 
cere and the victims of their own delusions. Some time, perhaps, 
we shall know how many leaders of popular movements have been 
quite definitely insane and have led others into the acceptance of 
their delusions. Such psychic contagion is not nearly so uncommon 
in the world as we might be inclined to think. 
Any one who is surprised at the success of spiritualism in 
America should study this set of movements connected with a 
whole crop of wonderfully inspired writers and evangelists as 
they thought themselves to be, which are to be found in our his- 
tory at this time. Many of them came to be looked upon as rep- 
resenting great new movements in science and philosophy and, 
above all, in "psychology," for that was the word they conjured 
with. At that time science was called natural philosophy, and 
"philosophizing" was supposed to represent deep thinking of 
all kinds. Now the word "science" is the one to conjure with, 
and so we have Christian Science, and New Thought Science, 
and Metaphysical Science-all because large numbers of people 
cannot think for themselves, they must get their thoughts from 
some one else, but having once obtained them, they cling to them 
with a tenacity that of course is not surprising, for there would 
be nothing left if they surrendered them, and nature abhors a 
vacuum. 
All of these movements, like spiritualism, attained their great- 
est success because of the "cures" that were worked through them. 
It is when people are cured of something or other that they know 
that the system of thought connected with their cure must be 
true and must be wonderful. All sorts of systems of thinking and 
doing have cured people. "Cures" are the worst possible elements SPIRITISM AND PSYCHISM 
407 
for the significance of a new system. All sorts of absurdities, from 
Mesmer's absolutely electricityless battery to the gas pipe Oxy- 
donor and from Greatrakes' stroking and Perkins' tractors to 
Dowie's prophetic healing touch, have cured people of diseases 
which they said the doctors had been unable to cure. Doctors can 
never cure a disease that does not exist except in the patient's 
mind, but there are evidently a very large number of these cases 
going around waiting for somebody or other to tell them that 
now they are cured and then they get better. Any one who wants 
to understand the mechanism of modern healers should study 
what happened in New York about the middle of the nineteenth 
century. 
One of the great leaders of thought at this time, at least in the 
sense of the amount of attention that he attracted about the middle 
of the nineteenth century, was the famous Andrew Jackson Davis, 
the so-called "Seer of Poughkeepsie." Davis' work began before 
that of the Fox sisters, but after some years came to take on a 
character resembling the spiritualistic seances that became com- 
mon in the early fifties. Davis was born in a rural township not 
far from Poughkeepsie, and moved when he was twelve years of 
age (in 1838) to that city with his parents. His father was a 
sort of jack-of-all-trades, probably good at none, eking out a liv- 
ing as weaver and shoemaker during the winter, and hiring him- 
self out in the summer as a farm laborer. His son subsequently 
describes him as shiftless, and for many years given to drink. 
Andrew Jackson Davis was an undersized delicate boy, with 
little education, and when he was young showing no conspicuous 
ability. When he was about eighteen Professor Grimes, a wander- 
ing "magnetizer," as the mesmerists or hypnotists who gave pub- 
lic exhibitions were called at that time, gave a series of lectures 
on "animal magnetism" in Poughkeepsie. As the result of the 
instruction thus afforded a tailor succeeded in throwing young 
Davis into a trance. The pair of them then proceeded to make a 
living by exhibitions of this kind, Davis acting as a professional 
clairvoyant for the finding of lost articles and the explanation of 
various problems, giving public tests of his power and especially 
prescribing for diseases. It was, above all, the prescribing for 
diseases that was profitable, and Davis used to explain that as 
a boy of eighteen he had fallen into a spontaneous trance in a 
churchyard during which Galen and Swedenborg appeared to him 408 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
and gave him instructions concerning his healing mission to man- 
kind. 
Under the guidance of Dr. Lyon, a physician then practising 
at Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Reverend William Fishbough, the 
physician acting as the magnetizer and the clergyman as his 
scribe, Davis dictated a series of lectures on philosophy during his 
clairvoyant trances. A whole set of volumes were eventually thus 
issued. They represented a system of thought which came to be 
known as the "Harmonial Philosophy." Davis once solemnly de- 
clared that he himself had read no books but one, and that a cheap 
romance, but there is evidence that he dipped into a number of 
books, among others Chambers' "Vestiges of Creation," which, 
containing the first formal statement of a theory of evolution 
before Darwin, was just attracting wide attention at that time. 
Besides, there is evidence that he read some books on sociology, 
for this was the time of the Brook Farm and other socialistic 
experiments, and a good deal of Davis' philosophy is reminiscent 
of Fourierism and other such popular expositions of socialism 
and communism. 
Some idea of the popularity of Davis' book, in spite of its 
esoteric character and the difficulty of understanding it, may be 
appreciated from the fact that thirty-four editions of it were 
bought by the public in less than thirty years. As an author he 
was as much of a success as Mrs. Eddy. Some passages from it give 
the best possible idea of the style and the matter of it and make 
it very clear that this "Harmonial Philosophy," like Eddyism in 
the modern time, used "words, words, words," yet caught many 
presumably intelligent people. Positive assertions without any 
effort of proof or any necessity for logic constituted the body of 
the book, yet people swallowed it quite as if they understood it 
all. Indeed, very probably most of the converted readers of the 
new system felt when other people, and particularly educated folk, 
declared that they could not understand the volumes, that a spe- 
cial disposition of intellect and high ability was needed for its 
comprehension. Here is the opening paragraph of the book which 
a professor of Hebrew in a New York university at the time de- 
clared to be "one of the most finished specimens of philosophical 
argument in the English language": 
In the beginning the Univercoelum was one boundless, undefinable, and 
unimaginable ocean of Liquid Fire! The most vigorous and ambitious SPIRITISM AND PSYCHISM 
409 
imagination is not capable of forming an adequate conception of the 
height and depth and length and breadth thereof. There was one vast 
expense of liquid substance. It was without bounds-inconceivable-and 
with qualities and essences incomprehensible. This was the original con- 
dition of Matter. It was without forms, for it was but one Form. It had 
not motions, but it was an eternity of Motion. It was without parts, for 
it was a Whole. Particles did not exist, but the Whole was as one 
Particle. There were not suns, but it was one Eternal Sun. It had no 
beginning and it was without end. It had not length, for it was a Vor- 
text of one Eternity. It had not circles for it was one Infinite Circle. 
It had not disconnected power, but it was the very essence of all Power. 
Its inconceivable magnitude and constitution were such as not to develop 
forces, but Omnipotent Power. 
Matter and power were existing as a Whole, inseparable. The Matter 
contained the substance to produce all suns, all worlds, and systems of 
worlds, throughout the immensity of Space. It contained the qualities to 
produce all things that are existing upon each of those worlds. The 
Power contained Wisdom and Goodness, Justice, Mercy and Truth. It 
contained the original and essential Principle that is displayed throughout 
immensity of Space controlling worlds and systems of worlds, and produc- 
ing Motion, Life, Sensation, and Intelligence, to be impartially dis- 
seminated upon their surfaces as ultimates. 
A good idea of how much attention Andrew Jackson Davis 
was able to attract to himself may be gathered from the fact that 
a political friend secured for him at one time a hearing before the 
United States Senate, and the Senators, it is said, were deeply im- 
pressed not only by his address but, above all, by the reports 
that were brought to them of the cures that were effected by 
him. "Cures" have always been supposed to have wonderful evi- 
dential value in bringing credit to healers of various kinds and 
acceptance of their teachings. As a rule, these cures have been 
affected by all sorts of means which afterwards proved to have no 
physical effect and only served to impress the minds of certain 
people who were laboring under ailments that were due to dreads 
and to the fact that a great many people, once they have begun 
to suffer from a disease, must be "cured" in some impressive way 
or they will not get better. They refuse to take up their activi- 
ties as before and nurse their symptoms until some one promises 
them a cure and then does something that makes them feel now 
they ought to be better. There was question, I believe, of mak- 
ing Andrew Jackson Davis a sort of protege of the national gov- 
ernment in order to enable him to work his marvels of healing 410 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
on all the world and thus lower the invalidism of the United 
States. Fortunately, we were saved that. 
Of course, there were a number of such curious phenomenons 
about this time, and New York was not alone in the fostering of 
them. One J. T. Mahan, a youth employed upon an Ohio river 
steamboat, became a magnetic clairvoyant "and developed a wide 
sweep and wonderful clearness of mental vision, and brought forth 
a system of physical and intellectual science" which was pro- 
claimed the product of inspiration from another world. Accord- 
ing to the story, Mahan was employed for a time in medical diag- 
nosis by one Dr. Curtis, president of a medical college in Cincin- 
nati. A young man named Charles Linton entered the field as a 
rival of Davis. He developed as a writing medium and published 
in 1855 "The Healing of the Nation." These inspired works 
always emphasized the putting oneself in tune with the infinite, 
in touch with the eternal world force. New Thought and Meta- 
physical Healing had their anticipations at this time. A certain 
Mr. Speer proclaimed that a band of spirits called "The Associa- 
tion of Beneficence" had chosen him as their mouthpiece for cer- 
tain revelations to mankind. He, too, wrote a lot of what is now 
seen to be twaddle, with regard to the electrizers or elementizers 
or healthfulizers of the spirit world. All were willing to be medi- 
ums, between man and the spirit world-for a consideration. 
It would be too bad to lose sight in a medical history, and es- 
pecially the history of medicine in New York, of these psychic 
healers. They are, of course, the legitimate progenitors of a large 
group of such healers in our own time, but it becomes much easier 
to understand the rise and fate of present-day healers of various 
kinds in the light of what happened two generations ago. If 
history is to be not a mere recital of curiously interesting facts 
but a teaching by example, then this chapter deserves to be given 
special significance. Almost needless to say, there is an immense 
amount of material with regard to this subject, and only the most 
compressed treatment of it is possible here, though as the move- 
ments initiated by the Fox sisters from Hydesville and the Seer 
Davis of Poughkeepsie had countrywide influence at this time, and 
even deeply affected supposedly thoughtful folks in Europe at a 
period when very few phases of the intellectual life that originated 
in America were being felt over there, their history deserves to be 
recalled. MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
NEW YORK CHAPTER I 
COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF NEW 
YORK (COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY) 
ALTHOUGH in 1789 there were,according to the city direc- 
tory, only twenty-seven physicians practicing in the city of 
New York, Brissot de Warville that year noted that the 
healthfulness of the city afforded little encouragement to medical 
practitioners, the prevalent ailments being bilious fever and severe 
colds, yet the number of city physicians kept continually increas- 
ing, and with the new century had also passed the century mark. 
Earnest students among them, physicians who noted the calami- 
tous consequences wrought by practitioners who lacked knowledge 
of medicine, sought to increase the facilities available to the stu- 
dent, and render it increasingly difficult for the incompetent 
student to gain admittance to practice. Furthermore, the rapid 
advancement in medical science demanded close and constant study 
by conscientious physicians. Sanitation had come to receive atten- 
tion, the causes of epidemics were better understood, blood-letting 
and blistering had become less frequently resorted to, and gener- 
ally there had come a desire to the more intelligent practitioners to 
have better facilities at hand whereby they might benefit, in critical 
definition and clinical exemplification, by the knowledge, research, 
and experiences in practice, of their more gifted confreres. 
Consequently, on July 1, 1806, was held, as appears from the 
printed proceedings, "a meeting of the physicians and surgeons 
of the city and county of New York," and in the following year 
the Medical Society of the County of New York, with a member- 
ship of 139, formulated plans, and at a meeting on February 19, 
1807, was read a memorial addressed to the Legislature of the 
State of New York and to the Regents of the University of the 
State of New York, praying for incorporation "as a College of 
Physicians and Surgeons . . . for the public good and the promo- 
tion and improvement of the medical profession and sciences," 
Note.-Various of the following narratives are contributed. In all cases, 
the matter has been committed to a prominent official of the institution, for 
revision. 
413 414 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
further stating that they "would be more successful in their pur- 
pose if the regents would afford them approval and patronage." 
The Regents looked favorably upon the project, and on March 12, 
1807, a charter was granted to the ' ' College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons in the City of New York," and by the terms of the instru- 
ment, the members of the Medical Society of the County of New 
York became members of the college. Thus was made possible the 
founding of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, 
which in this day is the medical department of Columbia Uni- 
versity, and its establishment and organization "represented the 
best endeavors of the profession for the diffusion of medical knowl- 
edge and a better medical education." 
On May 5th, 1807, the incorporators met to complete the col- 
lege organization, sixty-three of the one hundred and thirty-nine 
members of the County Medical Society being present, and they 
duly enacted a code of by-laws, elected officers, and performed 
what other fundamental formalities were required of them to bring 
the college into immediate operation. 
By election, the following became the executive officers for the 
first year: Nicholas Romayne, M. D., President and Lecturer on 
Anatomy; Samuel Latham Mitchell, M. D., Vice-President, and 
Professor of Chemistry; Edward Miller, M. D., Professor of the 
Practice of Physic and Clinical Medicine; David Hosack, M. D., 
Professor of Materia Medica and Botany, and Lecturer on Sur- 
gery and Midwifery; Archibald Bruce, M. D., Registrar and Pro- 
fessor of Mineralogy; Benjamin De Witt, M. D., Professor of the 
Institutes of Medicine, and Lecturer on Chemistry; John Augus- 
tine Smith, Adjunct Lecturer on Anatomy. 
All were residents of New York, and members of the Medical 
Society of New York County, excepting Dr. Smith, who came from 
Virginia to accept the appointment ; and all were honest, earnest, 
able workers for the advancement of medical science, giving their 
services to the college without heed of remuneration. The total 
expenses of conducting the college for the first year were only 
$2,650, of which $800 was for rent, $730 was for furnishing the 
building, and the balance of $1,120 was absorbed mainly by the 
purchase of anatomical material,.chemical apparatus, and the like. 
Dr. Romayne, in his introductory address, after stating that the 
patrons ' ' will be unremitting in their endeavors to make the college 
equal in usefulness to the most distinguished universities of 
Europe," averred that the professor and lecturers "will give sucK COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
415 
directions as may be most interesting to students to aid them in 
the prosecution of their various studies." He further declared 
that "the trustees have not thought proper to make any laws for 
the government of its students; they hope none will ever be neces- 
sary ; but that every gentleman attached to the college will always 
be directed in his conduct and behavior by the principles of honor 
and good manners." 
In June, of the first year, the college membership constituted 
the president, professors and lecturers, and a Senatus Academicus, 
charged with the duty of promoting the usefulness of the college 
by ascertainment of "what branches of medical science usually 
taught in the most respectable universities were as yet unprovided, 
of nominating capable instructors to such vacancies as might exist, 
to make regulations for the proper conduct of the instructional 
departments, and to correspond with the various medical societies 
throughout the state." The last-named purpose was elucidated in 
a circular shortly afterwards addressed to the various county med- 
ical societies throughout the State, which communication declared 
that "under the direction and patronage of the Regents" the in- 
corporators "have instituted a School of Physic, which it will be 
their unremitting endeavor to render equal in extent, comprehen- 
siveness, and accuracy of education, to the most distinguished uni- 
versities of Europe," and stated its principal object to be "to 
assist in the progress of medical science in every part of the State 
of New York," its managers considering "the cultivation of corre- 
spondence and intimate connection with the Medical Society of the 
State, and the Medical Societies of the several counties, as one of 
the most important duties." 
The first course of lectures began on Tuesday, November 10, 
1807, the announcement stating that "a commodious building has 
been provided wherein apartments would be fitted up for the use 
of teachers and students." After conferences with the governors 
of the New York Hospital, "relative to the promotion of medical 
education," it was announced, shortly before the opening of the 
college, that its students would be afforded the opportunity of at- 
tending the clinics of Dr. Miller, at the New York Hospital. 
Meanwhile, the important question of obtaining the means where- 
with the embryo college might obtain a home and equipment, occa- 
sioned much perplexity, and the first efforts resulted in only $230 
being raised. Dr. Romayne, however, munificently staked his per- 
sonal resources to the extent of $5,000, by reason of which security 416 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
the institution was enabled to negotiate a loan from the Manhattan 
Bank. Dr. Miller and Dr. Bruce also financially supported Dr. 
Romayne, so that by 1810 the college had incurred an aggregate 
liability of more than $8,000, secured mainly by the personal 
estates of the three executives named. It was three years later 
before the institution was able to redeem the obligations through 
an act of the State Legislature in making the college a beneficiary 
in the "literature fund lotteries" to the extent of $20,000, to be 
paid in installments of $5,000 each. 
The first building occupied for college purposes was the dwelling 
known as No. 18, on the south side of Robinson street, a short street 
extending west from Broadway and forming a portion of what is 
now Park Place. 
The first course of lectures was attended by fifty-three students, 
an encouraging beginning; and the conduct of the college met 
with the approbation of the Regents of the University of the 
State, who readily acquiesced with certain changes of the charter 
which the college managers considered important. Consequently 
an amended charter was passed on March 3, 1808, which swept 
away the necessity to annually elect executive officers of the col- 
lege, and effected other improvements in the constitution. 
Certain changes were made in the faculty for the second year, 
the changes for the most part resolving themselves into the assump- 
tion by the professors of added duties and responsibilities. Dr. 
Hosack, however, seceded temporarily from the faculty. As rear- 
ranged, the faculty of 1808 was: Nicholas Romayne, M. D., Presi- 
dent and Professor of the Institutes of Medicine; Samuel L. 
Mitchell, M. D., Vice-President, and Professor of Natural History 
and Botany; Edward Miller, M. D., Professor of the Practice of 
Physic and Clinical Medicine; Archibald Bruce, M. D., Professor 
of Mineralogy and Materia Medica; Benjamin De Witt, M. D., 
Professor of Chemistry; John Augustine Smith, M. D., Professor 
of Anatomy and Surgery; William James Macneven, M. D., Pro- 
fessor of Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women and Children. 
Seventy-six students attended the session of 1808. Five lectures 
were given each day during a term of four months, some of the 
professors lecturing every day, and others four times each week. 
The faculty labored indefatigably, all having comprehensive duties; 
especially extensive were the duties of Dr. Romayne, as the depart- 
ment of Institutes of Medicine committed to him comprised physiol- COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
417 
ogy and hygiene, the general doctrine of causes and symptoms of 
disease, and general therapeutics. From twelve to one o'clock 
the students attended the hospital for clinical instruction, and also 
attended Dr. Macneven at the Almshouse, which was then on Cham- 
bers street. 
In 1809, the third year, eighty-two students were enrolled, and 
more commodious quarters were afforded them in the new home 
on Magazine street, to which the college was removed in November 
of that year, the property having been purchased by Dr. Romayne, 
who held it in trust until the college was able to arrange for its 
purchase. The building was a dwelling house of two or two and 
a half stories, and at the outset its appurtenances were a few 
benches, and a table for the professors, and dissection work was 
performed in the attic. 
The first history of the college was printed in 1813, a pamphlet 
entitled ' ' An Historical Sketch of the Origin, Progress and Present 
State of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University 
of the State of New York," and was from the press of C. S. Van 
Winkle, at No. 122 Water street, New York, but it is accredited to 
no author, though it is presumed that it was written by Dr. David 
Hosack. The volume records that: 
The success of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, during the 
three years of its establishment, exceeded the most sanguine expectations, 
and gave the fullest evidence of the numerous advantages which the City 
of New York possesses for a great medical school. Certain misunder- 
standings, however, having taken place between the president and the 
professors, the rapid progress of the College in its importance and use- 
fulness received a temporary check, and its brilliant prospects were for 
a season overcast. From a want of unanimity among the professors, 
lectures on only some of the branches of medicine were delivered, and the 
pupils were consequently reduced to almost one-third the former number. 
In consequence thereof, the Regents of the State University 
immediately sought to remedy the fault, and "with the same lauda- 
ble zeal for the promotion of medical science with which they had 
originally organized the establishment, adopted measures to ascer- 
tain the cause of the mischief, and for the removal of every impedi- 
ment to its prosperity." They appointed a committee consisting 
of Chief Justice Kent, Judge Spencer, and Judge Smith, to inquire 
into the nature of the controversy. On April 1, 1811, the com- 
mittee presented its report, which adverted to the unfortunate mis- 418 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
understandings between several of the professors, 11 which have 
already impeded its operations," and asserted that "unless some- 
thing effectual be done by the Regents, it will become degraded in 
the estimation of the public, and its usefulness will be inevitably 
destroyed." The committee made certain recommendations, pro- 
posing the introduction into the faculty of several professors of 
the medical school of Columbia College, "and other eminent and 
distinguished men," with a view to the eventual amalgamation 
of the two medical schools, which they pronounced to be of the 
first importance, as assuring the assembling in one institution 
of "a splendid collection of medical and surgical talents." In 
conclusion, the committee emphasized the important advantage to 
the State which a well organized medical school in the city of New 
York must afford. As a consequence, a supplementary charter was 
formulated, the new instrument mainly revising the previous char- 
ter by vesting the government of the college in a board of twenty- 
five trustees, including the president, vice-president, treasurer and 
professors, who were to have place on the board by virtue of 
their respective offices. 
On the same day upon which the supplementary charter was 
granted (April 1, 1811), the Regents elected the following faculty 
by unanimous vote: Samuel Bard, M. D., President; Benjamin 
De Witt, M. D., Vice-President; John Augustine Smith, M. D., 
Professor of Anatomy, Surgery, and Physiology; David Hosack, 
M. D., Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Clin- 
ical Medicine; William James Macneven, M. D., Professor of Chem- 
istry; Samuel L. Mitchell, M. D., Professor of Natural History; 
John D. Jaques, Treasurer; John W. Francis, Registrar.1 
In that year also was brought about the union of the medical 
teachers in Columbia College with the faculty of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, the medical school of the former having 
practically lapsed, seeing that from 1807 to 1810 it had graduated 
no students. Subsequently, by mutual consent, the medical lectures 
in Columbia College were discontinued, and the Regents of the 
University formally approved of the merger of faculties. 
On May 15, 1811, was held the first public commencement, when 
*It will be noted that the second period of the history of the college, which 
is memorable for the graduation of its first class, began under the presidency 
of Dr. Samuel Bard, who succeeded Dr. Romayne; also that Dr. David Hosack 
was again of the faculty. DIPLOMA OF DR. THEO. ROMEYN BECK COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
419 
the first class of the College of Physicians and Surgeons was grad- 
uated. The candidates had previously been examined in the pres- 
ence of the faculty, who, on being satisfied as to their proficiency, 
duly vouched for them by certificate to the Regents of the Univer- 
sity, the sole authority for the legality of the delivered diploma. 
Each candidate also submitted to the faculty his graduating thesis, 
which he was privileged to write in English, French, or Latin, 
and which it was presumably obligatory upon him to defend at a 
public examination in proof of authorship. The graduates of the 
first class were: John Wakefield Francis, Theodore Romeyn Beck, 
Geraldus A. Cooper, Casper Wistar Eddy, Samuel Armstrong 
Walsh, Thomas Edward Steele, William E. Burrell, and Henry 
Ra venal, Jr. 
The Regents of the State University, in their annual report to 
the Legislature, May 27, 1812, observed that "the organization of 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons has been improved, and 
it now presents a fair prospect of speedily rising to a state of 
usefulness and celebrity, such as may be justly expected from the 
importance of the community in which it is situated, and the 
government under whose auspices it has been erected." 
Following the receipt of formal approval of the Regents of the 
State University to the plan of union of faculties of Columbia 
College Medical School and the College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons, the faculty of the latter for the year 1814 was announced: 
Samuel Bard, M. D., President; Benjamin DeWitt, M. D., Vice- 
President and Professor of Natural Philosophy; William J. Mac- 
neven, M. D., Professor of Chemistry; Samuel L. Mitchell, M. D., 
Professor of Natural History and Botany; John Augustine Smith, 
M. D., and Wright Post, M. D., joint Professors of Anatomy, Phys- 
iology and Surgery; David Hosack, M. D., Professor of the Theory 
and Practice of Physic; William Hammersley, M. D., Professor of 
Clinical Medicine; John C. Osborn, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics, 
and the Diseases of Women and Children; James S. Stringham, 
M. D., Professor of Legal Medicine; Valentine Mott, M. D., Pro- 
fessor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery; John W. Francis, 
M. D., Registrar, and Professor of Materia Medica. 
In this reorganization the College of Physicians and Surgeons 
was represented by five members-Drs. DeWitt, Maeneven, 
Mitchell, Smith, and Francis, the last-named a graduate of the 
first class. Also might be added another, Dr. Hosack, who had 420 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
been a member of the 1807 faculty, but had subsequently become 
identified with the Columbia College Medical School, which merged 
institution had six representatives among the faculty of the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons in 1814-Drs. Bard, Post, Ham- 
mersley, Osborn, Stringham, and Mott. 
A year prior to this, the building on Pearl (formerly Magazine) 
street belonging to the college had been sold, and the lot and build- 
ing, a warehouse, at No. 3 Barclay street, had been purchased, the 
building was suitably refitted, and the college entered into occu- 
pation at the beginning of the seventh collegiate year, on the 
first Monday in November, 1813. In 1817 increased accommoda- 
tion became necessary, and the building was doubled in size by 
the erection of a western extension. 
The students of 1814 numbered only seventy, and Dr. John C. 
Peters deplored the fact that, although it was the only medical 
school in New York, and that Philadelphia had four medical col- 
leges, the Pennsylvanian city possessed more than ten times as 
many medical matriculants. 
The College was considerably embarrassed by the guardianship 
of a piece of public property of little utility but involving con- 
siderable expense. Dr. Hosack had purchased from the city a 
twenty acre tract, about three miles distant, bounded now by Fifth 
and Sixth avenues and by Forty-seventh and Forty-first streets, 
and now the vastly valuable leasehold property of Columbia Col- 
lege. This tract Dr. Hosack, who was an enthusiastic botanist, 
planted as a great botanical garden, but the property later 
becoming too burdensome, he sought to dispose of it to the State 
of New York to be used for purposes of public instruction in botany 
and materia medica. Ultimately the Legislature passed an acf 
providing for purchase, and appropriating the sum of $74,000 for 
the purpose. The tract came into the custody of the Regents of the 
University, who placed it in the guardianship of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, imposing an obligation that it "be by 
them kept in a condition fit for all the medical purposes, free of 
expense, under the immediate inspection of the Regents resident 
in the City of New York, and that the garden be at all times open 
to the admission of such medical students as may resort thereto 
for the purpose of acquiring botanical science." The College 
authorities made the acquisition a feature of their circular in 
1811, explaining that "the students of botany will have an oppor- BOTANIC GARDEN COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
421 
tunity of visiting it whenever they think proper, and of examin- 
ing the many rare and valuable plants which it contains." But 
subsequently the cost of maintenance severely taxed the resources 
of the College, and in 1816 it was removed from the College 
guardianship by an Act of Legislature, providing for the reversion 
of the property to Columbia College. 
Beginning with the occupation of the renovated college building 
on Barclay street, the number of students began to show a steady 
increase. The class attending the eighth session (1814-15) was 
121; in 1815-16, it was 148, and in 1816-17 it was 192. In 182CF 
the Regents reported the college "in a state of rapid improve- 
ment, ' ' with a roll of students exceeding two hundred, and in 1822 
the Regents announced that it had "an increased number of stu- 
dents from the most distant parts of the United States." Much 
of this substantial progress was due to the professional eminence 
and executive ability of the college president, Dr. Samuel Bard, 
who commanded respect throughout the country. 
But there was a certain element of dissent, and the opposition 
culminated in some important changes being effected by the Re- 
gents of the State. The complaints to the Regents were from the 
Medical Society of the County of New York, which charged the 
faculty with conducting the affairs of the College after an auto- 
cratic manner, in entire disregard of the body whence it had 
sprung, and of the interests of the profession at large; it had 
"become a source of exclusive privileges and immunities, the fac- 
ulty being the chief beneficiaries, the professors benefiting from 
the exaction of increased fees for tuition. The prosecutors of these 
pleas rendered the charge more serious by alleging culpable laxity 
in examinations, whereby students had been granted diplomas 
after having attended lectures for two years, and in some instances 
where the subject had never attended lectures, this departure from 
the original intention of the college resulting in the admittance to 
practice of men who were professionally "in a state of wretched 
unpreparedness." As a consequence, the County Medical Society 
and the State Medical Society jointly petitioned the Regents to 
effect a reorganization of the college, with the provision that the 
professors no longer be permitted to act as trustees, recommending 
a new board of trustees to be composed of resident physicians, with 
the president of the College, the president of the County Medical 
Society, and the president of the State Medical Society, and that 422 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
vacancies thereafter occurring should be filled by the County Med- 
ical Society. This was presented to the Regents, who saw fit to 
rule that thereafter no professors could be elected to the board of 
trustees, "so that trustees might no longer be liable, merely from 
their situation as professors, to the suspicion of personal interest 
in the adoption of regulations." The professors who were then 
members of the board of trustees were, however, retained in their 
office, it being provided that upon the death, resignation or re- 
moval from office of any professor, in no case should his successor 
in teaching be eligible to the office of trustee. It was also pro- 
vided that the president and vice-president of the College should 
be trustees, ex officiis, and the Regents further appointed to va- 
cancies on the board a number of resident physicians, most of 
whom were members of the County Medical Society. The Regents 
also ruled that a candidate for the medical degree should have 
studied for three years under a respectable practitioner, and have 
attended a full course of lectures for not less than two winter ses- 
sions. 
The difficulties were not even then finally disposed of, and in 
1825 the Regents, again appealed to, appointed a committee of 
investigation. The committee consisted of Lieutenant-Governor 
Tallmadge, Mr. Van Renssalaer and Mr. Marcy, and in their report, 
dated January 12, 1826, the committee found the professors inno- 
cent of any serious fault; there was no evidence of partiality 
or oppression in the examinations of candidates for graduation, 
and no suspicion of misapplication of college funds. They ascribed 
the differences to the existence of professional rivalries, and recom- 
mended that the board of trustees should be so constituted as to 
no longer wholly consist of medical practitioners. The Regents 
concurred, and provisions were made to constitute a board of trus- 
tees of twenty-five members, of which board thirteen would be of 
the laity, and twelve of the profession. These salutary provisions 
were resented by the faculty, who sought to have the rulings of the 
Regents overruled by the Legislature, and failing in the attempt, 
they resigned in a body, April 11, 1826, their communication to 
the Regents stating that "We . . . are fully persuaded that we 
best consult our self-respect by withdrawing altogether from the 
institution. ' ' The signatories to the document were David Hosack, 
Wm. J. Macneven, Sml. L. Mitchell, Valentine Mott, John W. 
Francis, these five educators having constituted the whole of the COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
423 
faculty which by death, resignation, or removal had become seri- 
ously depleted. 
Immediately thereafter, the resigning professors, with the excep- 
tion of Dr. Mitchell, made overtures to Rutgers College, at New 
Brunswick, New Jersey, with the result that they organized what 
was known as Rutgers Medical College, which they established in 
a building on Duane street, New York City. In the faculty of 
this rival institution were Dr. Valentine Mott, who was president, 
and Drs. David Hosack, Macneven and Francis, and they exerted 
strenuous efforts to place the school upon a sound foundation. 
The enterprise promised well, as the first session was attended by 
one hundred and fifty-three students, and in the circular of the 
institution the class of practical anatomy was particularly empha- 
sized, the students being supplied with the material necessary "at 
an expense scarcely worthy of remark," being two dollars from 
each person for every subject consumed by his class. The fees 
were: Matriculation, $3; tickets, $15 each; practical anatomy, 
$10; and graduation, $20. However, the school was subsequently 
forced to cease operations, owing to the manifest illegality of its 
charter granted by the State of New Jersey, while its faculty sat 
in New York. Otherwise, the operation of the Rutgers Medical 
School might have seriously affected the future of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons of the City of New York. 
"The Description of the City of New York," by James Hardie, 
A. M., published in 1827, enters into much detail regarding the 
early history of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. It traced 
the "evils under which the college groaned" to the "anomaly of 
government, in vesting the trusteeship in the custody of the fac- 
ulty," the resignation of the members of which in 1825 he refers 
to as follows: "The professors, consequently, rather than be in- 
volved in the disgrace of connexion with a school which imposed 
on students restrictions wholly unknown, and that by a body who 
exercised powers exclusively belonging to another body, determined 
to resign their several offices and professorships, and the public 
papers of April last set forth the circumstance." 
However, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, by the resig- 
nation of its faculty, was not left entirely in articulo mortis, and 
in July, 1826, the Regents of the University met in special session, 
and appointed the following faculty: John Watts, M. D., Presi- 
dent; John Augustine Smith, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and 424 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Physiology; James F. Dana, M. D., Professor of Chemistry; John 
B. Beck, M. D., Professor of Botany and Materia Medica; Alex- 
ander H. Stevens, M. D., Professor of the Principles and Practice 
of Surgery; Edward Delafield, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and 
the Diseases of Women and Children; Joseph M. Smith, M. D., 
Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic and Clinical Medi- 
cine. 
The president, Dr. John Watts, was an able practitioner and 
executive. He was only forty years of age, and it was thought 
that under his aggressive direction, the college would show sub- 
stantial progress. He died five years later, but during his brief 
administration succeeded in placing the college upon a firm founda- 
tion. He was, of course, materially aided by his faculty, which was 
noteworthy in that three of its number later became presidents of 
the college. The period (1826-31) during which the college was 
under the presidency of Dr. Watts was nevertheless one of anxious 
effort. In 1826, owing to the opening of Rutgers Medical College, 
the students under President Watts numbered only ninety, as 
against more than two hundred in the year preceding, and it was 
several years before the former standard was again attained. The 
college also became involved in financial difficulties, in 1826 being 
practically without means. Its ground and building on Barclay 
street were its principal possessions, but these were moijtgaged for 
practically their realizable worth; a committee reported the prop- 
erty to be in a deplorable state of dilapidation, its furnishings and 
fittings so scattered and damaged that "the college generally pre- 
sented the appearance of a city sacked and deserted by a ruthless 
enemy. ' ' 
However, through the efforts and personal sacrifices of the trus- 
tees and the faculty, the debts were placed in course of extinguish- 
ment and were finally settled in 1830, a year prior to the death of 
Dr. Watts. 
Dr. John Augustine Smith succeeded Dr. Watts in the presi- 
dency, and remained chief executive until 1843, during which period 
the college advanced considerably. By 1834 attendance had so 
increased and the movement of the population to the upper part of 
the city had become so pronounced, that removal to a more favor- 
able location became imperative. In the following year the board 
of trustees appointed a committee to report as to a favorable college 
site. In May 1835, a purchase was made from the New York COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
425 
High School Society of certain property on the east side of Crosby 
street, No. 67. The lots had a frontage of seventy-two feet, and 
a depth of one hundred feet, upon them a brick three-story build- 
ing. This after renovation was pronounced to be "imposing in 
appearance, ample in dimensions, and commodious in arrange- 
ments." It was further confidently declared to be "unsurpassed 
by any similar establishment in the Union." The college entered 
into possession at the beginning of the thirty-first session, Novem- 
ber 6, 1837. Ten years later increased accommodation was pro- 
vided by raising the rear to the height of the front portion of the 
building. 
In 1831, the year in which Dr. Smith advanced to the presidency, 
Dr. Valentine Mott joined the faculty; in 1834, the departments 
of anatomy and physiology were divided, Dr. Smith retaining the 
latter, and Dr. John R. Rhinelander being appointed to the former. 
Dr. Rhinelander resigned in 1839, and was succeeded by Dr. Rob- 
ert Watts. The chair of surgery, which for eleven years had been 
occupied by Dr. Stevens, became vacant by his resignation in 1837, 
and for the two ensuing sessions was filled by Dr. Alban G. Smith, 
late of the Medical College of Ohio. In 1840 Dr. Willard Parker 
became Professor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery and 
his connection with the College of Physicians and Surgeons was 
only severed by his death, forty-five years later. In 1841 Dr. Dela- 
field was succeeded in the chair of obstetrics by Dr. Chandler R. 
Gilman, a lecturer in the department. 
The presidency of Dr. Smith continued until 1843, and under 
him the curriculum was materially broadened, and he introduced 
many features which have been continued to the present time. 
Chief among these changes was one having reference to the election 
of the teaching staff. In earlier years, the trustees had at various 
times assigned to such departments as were without a professor, 
a lecturer to serve until the chair was filled by the Regents. In 
1837 this plan was amplified into a provision that a faculty vacancy 
should be temporarily filled by the appointment of a lecturer who 
should serve for one session to the satisfaction of his colleagues 
before he could be confirmed to the chair, which system made cer- 
tain the election of a competent staff. 
Reviving a practice in the early years, Dr. Smith in 1841 in- 
augurated a spring course of clinical lectures. The instructors in 
the spring course of 1841 were Dr. Willard Parker on operative 426 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
surgery; Dr. Robert Watts in surgical anatomy; Dr. Chandler R. 
Gilman in pathology of the uterus; Dr. James Quackenbos on the 
nervous system; Dr. George R. Wilkes on diseases of the eye; Dr. 
Alonzo Clark on pathology of the thorax; Dr. William Detmold on 
club feet and kindred deformities; and Dr. William C. Roberts 
on pathology of the kidneys. A preliminary course of lectures was 
given during the month of October, and until the beginning of the 
regular term in November. The instructors were: Dr. John Torrey 
on medical botany; Dr. Robert Watts on comparative osteology; 
Dr. Willard Parker on pathology of the ear, and Dr. Chandler R. 
Gilman on monstrosities. The results attending these supple- 
mentary courses were so satisfactory that the faculty was encour- 
aged to make them a permanent feature. 
In 1840 opportunity was extended to private pupils to witness 
the methods of treatment prevailing in the Northern Dispensary, 
and on coming to the chair of surgery, in 1841, Dr. Willard Parker 
established the college clinic, and outdoor patients were brought 
from the Dispensary and various hospitals to the college for exami- 
nation and treatment under the observation of the students. 
Dr. John Augustine Smith having resigned the presidency in 
1843, he was succeeded by Dr. Alexander Hodgdon Stevens, who 
remained chief executive until November, 1855. The collegiate 
year of 1843, the first under President Stevens, opened with the 
following faculty: Joseph Mather Smith, M. D., Professor of the 
Theory and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine; John 
Brodhead Beck, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Medical 
Jurisprudence; John Torrey, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and 
Botany; Robert Watts, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Phys- 
iology; Willard Parker, M. D., Professor of the Principles and 
Practice of Surgery; Chandler Robbins Gilman, M. D., Professor of 
Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women and Children. During the 
latter portion of President Stevens's administration, the chair of 
Materia Medica and Medical Jurisprudence was occupied by Dr. 
Elisha Bartlett, who succeeded Dr. Beck. Dr. Torrey resigned 
the chair of Chemistry in 1854, and his duties were for two years 
undertaken by Dr. John le Conte, and subsequently by Dr. Samuel 
St. John. 
President Stevens considerably amplified clinical instruction, and 
made more definite the duties of the instructors in the various 
departments of pathology. These salutary innovations were the COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
427 
outcome primarily of the indefatigable efforts of Drs. Willard 
Parker, Robert Watts, and C. R. Gilman, and, heartily supported 
by the faculty trustees, the concert of action resulted in increased 
efficiency and a material advance in the standard of professional 
education. 
In the college announcement of 1844, the faculty declared the 
instructional period of four months, as required by law, too brief 
for even the regular course; consequently the spring course of lec- 
tures was made more comprehensive by the assignment of all pro- 
fessors to lecture duties, thus virtually affording a collegiate term 
of five months' duration. In 1847 the regular course was extended 
to a period of four and a half months, beginning mid-October, 
while the preliminary lectures began in September. These supple- 
mentary spring and autumn lectures were much appreciated by 
many alumni in busy practice, and were considered by many to 
constitute a useful post-graduate course. 
During President Stevens's administration also, the clinics, 
which previously had been held only weekly and during the scho- 
lastic term, were made almost continuous through the academic 
year, and the college announcement of 1843-44 particularly em- 
phasizes the advantages of the "Medical and Surgical Clinique.'r 
In 1850 it was proclaimed that the clinic "had assumed a degree 
of importance that could hardly have been anticipated at its 
origin," and shortly afterwards there were held in the college 
three clinics each week. 
Generally, instruction had become more exact and comprehensive, 
and physiology and pathology, which had been inadequately 
treated during the first forty years, received more definite atten- 
tion and specialization. In 1847, in response to a memorial from 
the trustees of the college, the Regents of the University of the 
State created the chair of Physiology and Pathology, and elected 
Dr. Alonzo Clark as lecturer upon these subjects. During the term 
of 1853-54, Dr. Clark, in consequence of the illness of Dr. Bartlett, 
delivered a portion of the lectures on Theory and Practice, and 
in 1855 ■ became Professor of Pathology and Practical Medicine, 
serving in that capacity until called to the presidency in 1875. 
In 1854 clinical instruction was materially aided by "An Act to 
Promote Medical Science" passed by the Legislature on April 1st 
of that year. Prior to that time it was unlawful to obtain for 
purposes of dissection any material save the few bodies of deceased 428 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
convicts in the penitentiaries at Auburn and Sing Sing which were 
unclaimed by friends, and teachers of anatomy were compelled 
to resort to illegal methods to obtain subjects for clinical demon- 
stration. Various attempts had previously been made to remove 
this hindrance, but until 1854 instructors of anatomy labored un- 
der difficulties, and oftentimes were placed in situations of great 
personal danger in seeking the material with which to continue 
their work. The advantages derived from the enactment of the 
so named "Anatomical Bill" were soon apparent. The college 
catalogue of 1855 announced that the preceding session had been 
''distinguished by a new element of success; that, thanks to the 
enlightened liberality of the Legislature, the supply of subjects has 
not only been ample, but it has been obtained without the difficul- 
ties and dangers of former years. ' ' 
Important additional facilities for clinical observation were 
about that time available, the Bellevue Hospital, which in its early 
days had been known as the City Almshouse Hospital, having 
agreed to permit students of the college to observe the treatment 
of cases therein, an important facility.2 In these hospital clinical 
lectures, the operations performed before the students were of the 
gravest nature, whereas in college clinics the instructors generally 
treated only the minor stages of injury or disease. 
Reviewing President Stevens's administration generally, it may 
be stated to have exceeded its predecessors in events and procedure, 
the college under his guidance attaining a position ' ' of command- 
ing influence." He resigned in November, 1855, and shortly after- 
wards Dr. Thomas Cock became president, and held office until 
1858, when he resigned because of ill-health. 
In 1856 the college was removed from Crosby street to the corner 
of Twenty-third street and Fourth avenue, where it was destined 
to remain for thirty-one years. The removal, as in the previous 
instance, was decided upon mainly because of the uptown trend of 
the population, and the encroachment of manufacturing and com- 
mercial establishments "which were disturbing to the quietude 
necessary in an educational establishment. ' ' And the removal was 
not consummated without difficulty, financial conditions having 
been such as to necessitate earnest discussion by the trustees. In 
2 The report of the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital for 1849 shows that 
the total number of patients under treatment at the hospital was 3,711-"Ac- 
count of Bellevue Hospital,'' Carlisle. COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
429 
the emergency, Dr. Willard Parker and his associates proffered 
their private resources, which enabled the project to be carried 
through. Dr. Willard Parker advanced over $60,000, and his pro- 
fessorial associates a further $21,000 in the form of a non-interest 
bearing loan. The new building, which with its furnishings cost 
$55,930, plus $35,000 for the realty, was opened January 22, 1856, 
and in the improved surroundings, and with a more ample equip- 
ment, the classes increased apace. The clinics developed even 
greater importance; to the three each week was added a fourth, a 
surgical clinic, conducted by Dr. William Detmold, a German army 
surgeon. 
Dr. Delafield, who became president in 1858, had many difficult 
questions to determine, and perhaps the most important happening 
in the college history under his administration was the escape from 
the vague assumptions of authority by the Regents of the Uni- 
versity of the State of New York, and the consequent reconstruc- 
tion of the Columbia University Medical Department. The College 
of Physicians and Surgeons and other medical institutions which 
had been developed under the over-rule of the Regents had so far 
advanced as to have outgrown the capacity of the Regents for 
reconciling conflicting interests, and in many other respects it 
had been proved that the colleges would progress more rapidly 
if not subject to the governmental rulings of the Regents. The 
case in favor of self-government for the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons was made more justifiable by the fact that other educa- 
tional institutions of the State enjoyed the condition sought by it, 
the Regents' power to oversee and direct having, in particular 
cases, been curtailed by successive legislative enactments, which 
created other medical colleges in entire independency of the Re- 
gents. Accordingly, the faculty of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in 1859 appointed a committee to formulate a remedial 
plan. The findings were embodied in a memorial addressed to the 
Regents in 1860, in which the entire subject was cogently presented, 
and relief was asked by such amendment of the college charter as 
would grant its board of trustees the power of final decision in all 
appointments of officers and faculty, and the granting of diplomas 
to graduates. Ultimately, by legislative enactment, on March 24, 
1860, the charter was so amended as to vest in the trustees the 
rights asked for in the petition to the Regents. 
These salutary reforms were effected in the same year in which 430 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
was accomplished the union of the College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons with Columbia College, which amalgamation practically re- 
newed the affiliations of their earlier years, as hereinbefore re- 
counted. The plan of union, or reunion, was considered by the 
administrations of the two colleges in 1859, the College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons considering that the two bodies should remain 
practically independent of each other, but might unite in con- 
ferring the degree of Doctor of Medicine. A conference committee 
of both bodies reported favorably, and stated that "a School of 
Jurisprudence has already been established, and is in active and 
successful operation, and that, by the establishment of a School of 
Medicine, facilities will be afforded by the eminent abilities of 
several of the Faculty of the Medical College for forwarding the 
establishment of a practical School of Science." 
The Legislature having on June 4, 1860, so amended the charter 
of the College of Physicians and Surgeons as to make legal its 
union with Columbia College, the union was given full effect that 
day, the trustees of Columbia College formally adopting the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons as the Medical Department of Columbia 
College. Two days later the trustees of the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons by resolution provided that diplomas of medical 
graduates should be signed by the presidents of the respective col- 
leges, and by the faculty of the College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons, and should be publicly conferred by the two presidents in 
joint session. On June 18, the alliance was officially promulgated. 
President Delafield's administration covered the Civil War 
period, and in the college catalogue of 1862-63 reference was made 
to the importance of the study of military surgery, and to the 
appointment of Dr. William Detmold as Professor of Military 
Surgery and Hygiene. The catalogue of 1862-63 contained the 
names of only 245 students, but when peace had been restored the 
attendance again assumed normal proportions, 465 students attend- 
ing the fall collegiate session of 1866. Many had seen service as 
1 ' contract surgeons, ' ' and came to the college to complete a regular 
course in medicine and surgery. 
The organization of the Association of the Alumni was effected 
during Dr. Delafield's presidency, and the college faculty for 
seven years under his administration was: Joseph Mather Smith, 
M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Clinical Medicine; Robert 
Watts, M. D., Professor of Anatomy; Willard Parker, M. D., Pro- COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
431 
fessor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery; Chandler Rob- 
bins Gilman, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and the Diseases of 
Women and Children; Alonzo Clark, M. D., Professor of Pathology 
and Practical Medicine; John Call Dalton, M. D., Professor of 
Physiology and Microscopic Anatomy; Samuel St. John, M. D., 
Professor of Chemistry. Dr. Gilman died of obstructive cardiac 
disease, on September 26, 1865, and was succeeded by Dr. Theodore 
Gaillard Thomas. The death of Dr. J. M. Smith created another 
vacancy in the faculty, his demise occurring on April 22, 1866. 
In 1867 Dr. Freeman Josiah Bumstead was appointed Clinical 
Lecturer on Venereal Diseases, and by request temporarily added 
to his duties by accepting the responsibility of continuing the lec- 
tures. In 1867-68, Dr. James W. McLane followed Dr. Bumstead 
as Lecturer on Materia Medica, and was named for the chair in 
1868. In 1872 he transferred his attention to obstetrics, and Dr. 
Edward Curtis became Lecturer on Materia Medica, advancing in 
due course to the professorship. Dr. Watts, Professor of Anatomy, 
was in delicate health at the close of the collegiate session of 
1866-67, and sought recuperation in a sea voyage, later seeking the 
same in the more clement climate of the continent. However, com- 
plications developed, and on September 8, 1867, he died, in Paris, 
France. He was succeeded in the chair of anatomy by Dr. Henry 
B. Sands. Yet another change occurred in the faculty principals 
during Dr. Delafield's presidency. Dr. Willard Parker, who had 
been of such material assistance to the college for so many years, 
resigned in 1870, and Dr. Thomas M. Markoe advanced to the 
chair from an adjunct professorship. Dr. Edward Delafield died 
on February 18, 1875. As a member of the board of trustees and 
of the faculty he had served the institution ably for over forty 
years. 
Dr. Alonzo Clark became president, also dean of the college, in 
1875, and conducted its affairs for nine years, when failing health 
necessitated his resignation. The faculty for 1876, the first under 
President Clark, was: Alonzo Clark, M. D., President, and Pro- 
fessor of Pathology and Practical Medicine; Willard Parker, M. D., 
Professor of Clinical Surgery; John C. Dalton, M. D., Professor 
of Physiology and Hygiene; Samuel St. John, M. D., Professor 
of Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence; Thomas M. Markoe, 
M. D., Professor of Surgery; T. Gaillard Thomas, M. D., Professor 
of Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women and Children; John T. 432 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Metcalfe, M. D., Emeritus Professor of Clinical Medicine; Henry 
B. Sands, M. D., Professor of Anatomy; James W. Lane, M. D., 
Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Chil- 
dren; Thomas T. Sabine, M. D., Adjunct Professor of Anatomy; 
Charles F. Chandler, Ph. D., Adjunct Professor of Chemistry and' 
Medical Jurisprudence; Edward Curtis, M. D., Professor of Ma- 
teria Medica and Therapeutics; Francis Delafield, M. D., Adjuncf 
Lecturer on Pathology and Practical Medicine; John G. Curtis, 
M. D., Adjunct Lecturer on Physiology and Hygiene; William Det- 
mold, M. D., Emeritus Professor of Clinical and Military Surgery; 
William H. Draper, M. D., Clinical Professor of Diseases of the 
Skin; Cornelius R. Agnew, M. D., Clinical Professor of Diseases 
of the Eye and Ear; Abraham Jacobi, M. D., Clinical Professor of 
Diseases of Children; Fessenden N. Otis, M. D., Clinical Professor 
of Venereal Diseases; Edward C. Seguin, M. D., Clinical Professor 
of Diseases of the Mind and Nervous System; George M. Lefferts, 
M. D., Clinical Lecturer on Laryngoscopy and Diseases of the 
Throat; Charles McBurney, M. D., Demonstrator of Anatomy; 
Charles Kelsey, M. D., Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy. These 
were aided by a corps of twenty-three clinical assistants, all medical 
graduates. The number of medical students attending the lectures 
that year was 413. Clinical instruction had become much ampli- 
fied; ten separate clinics were held each week in the college build- 
ing, and two rooms on the third floor which had been intended for 
hospital wards for the care of patients immediately prior to and 
after a surgical operation, had to be given to college purposes 
proper, and later it was necessary to remove the laboratory to a 
room on the ground floor which had been used as a store. 
Dr. St. John, Professor of Chemistry, died on September 9, 
1876, and was succeeded by Dr. Chandler, his adjunct. In 1879, 
Dr. Francis Delafield was added to the faculty as Director of the 
Pathological Laboratory. In 1880 Drs. W. T. Bull and W. S. 
Halsted became first and second Demonstrators of Anatomy, re- 
spectively, and Dr. Geo. H. Fox, Clinical Lecturer on Diseases of 
the Skin. Dr. Theophile M. Prudden was appointed Director of 
the Physiological and Pathological Laboratory of the Alumni Asso- 
ciation. In 1882, Dr. Bull became chief in anatomy, Dr. Francis 
H. Markoe being made second Assistant Demonstrator. In 1883, 
Dr. George M. Tuttle became assistant to the chair of obstetrics. 
The 1878 college catalogue contained minute information as to JOHN C. DALTON COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
433 
the didactic instruction, and also announced that the diploma of 
the college would be recognized in the British Isles as evidence of 
three years' medical study, by all bodies which confer the degrees 
of Bachelor in Medicine (M. B.), Master in Surgery (S. M.), and 
Doctor in Medicine (M. D.). 
In 1880 it was announced that the collegiate year would be a 
single session of somewhat over seven months, to commence Octo- 
ber 1st and end during the first part of May. The change was 
planned so that the students might attend fewer didactic lectures 
daily, thus gaining time for clinical study, laboratory work, and 
recitations. 
In 1882 the College was authorized to nominate for appointment 
its proportion of members of the house staff of Bellevue Hospital, 
and accordingly the college catalogue of that year announced that 
the college would twice each year nominate one medical and one 
surgical junior assistant for appointment to Bellevue Hospital, 
after competitive examination. Arrangements were also made to 
fill appointments on the resident staffs of other city hospitals from 
the graduates of the college. 
Dr. Alonzo Clark resigned in 1884, living in retirement for 
three years thereafter, when he died. The official records of the 
college contain gratifying tribute to his memory and work. He 
made substantial bequests to the College, one of which founded the 
Alonzo Clark Scholarship and Prize. One bequest, representing 
a value of $10,500, the trustees of the college were unable to accept, 
because of limitations of charter. 
In 1880 was commenced, by a committee of the Alumni Associa- 
tion of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the compilation of 
a catalogue of graduates, a labor of much magnitude undertaken 
by Drs. Ellsworth Eliot, John Shrady, and A. E. M. Purdy. 
Eventually the work was completed and published, the volume con- 
taining one hundred and seventy-seven pages. 
Dr. John Call Dalton was the tenth president, serving from 1884 
until his death in 1889. In the first year of his presidency the num- 
ber of students was 505, and the graduating class numbered 105. In 
his last year's service, the number of students had increased to 809, 
a gain of over sixty per cent. During his administration the col- 
lege benefited considerably by the princely benefactions of William 
H. Vanderbilt and his children. Mr. Vanderbilt expended up- 
wards of a half million dollars, presenting the trustees with a tract 434 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
of land, for which he had paid $200,000, and his personal check 
for $300,000, to be expended in the erection of suitable college 
buildings upon said land, which comprised twenty-nine lots sit- 
uated between Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth streets and Ninth and 
Tenth avenues. This gift was made by him to the college on Octo- 
ber 17, 1884, but the college was unable to enter into possession 
for six months thereafter, because its charter inhibited the college 
from holding property exceeding $150,000 in value, a limitation 
subsequently removed by act of the Legislature. 
The tract which was so soon to bear a stately pile was then prac- 
tically vacant; to the north and west the region was yet in its 
native wildness and almost uninhabited, but almost simultaneous 
with the beginning of work on the college land, the work of im- 
provement began all through the neighborhood. The work of 
excavation was prosecuted with great difficulty, more than 9,000 
cubic yards of stone having to be removed. However, on April 
24, 1886, the cornerstone was laid, and the buildings rapidly rose, 
the inauguration of the college building taking place on Septem- 
ber 29, 1887, in the presence of a large and distinguished assem- 
blage. Upon this occasion several gifts of great historic value 
were made to the college, including a bronze portrait bust of the 
then recently deceased Mr. William H. Vanderbilt, a portrait bust 
of Dr. David Hosack, another of Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, and a 
portrait of Dr. John C. Dalton. The total cost of the buildings was 
$310,924.41, all covered by the gift of Mr. William H. Vanderbilt, 
the original gift of $300,000 having meanwhile been added to by 
interest upon unexpended balances. Further sums to cover the 
expenses of furnishing the rooms were from time to time prior to 
the inauguration contributed by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Mr. 
George W. Vanderbilt, and ultimately the institution came into 
the use of "a building complete in every part and admirably 
adapted for the purposes for which it was intended." Soon after- 
ward, the children of Mr. Vanderbilt supplemented the gift made 
by their father by two beneficent creations-the Sloane Maternity 
Hospital and the Vanderbilt Clinic-both to be forever associated 
with and be parts of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Mr. 
Sloane defrayed the cost of the building, known as the Sloane 
Maternity Hospital, on the college grounds, at an outlay of $526,- 
300, and Mrs. Sloane, daughter of Mr. William H. Vanderbilt, 
provided an endowment fund of $377,300. Soon afterwards the WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT 
From Bust in College of Physicians and Surgeons 
Modeled from Life by J. Q. A. Ward COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
435 
sons of Mr. William H. Vanderbilt donated the sum necessary for 
the establishing of the Vanderbilt Clinic; excavations for both 
buildings were made in 1886, and both were ready for occupancy 
in the following year. The formal inauguration took place on 
December 29, 1887. A further gift was made by the Vanderbilt 
family in 1889, when owners of a small lot bounding the eastern 
limit of the college property on Fifty-ninth street exacted the 
sum of $20,000 for the realty, which Mr. Vanderbilt ultimately 
paid to prevent the erection thereon of a lofty apartment house. 
The faculty of medicine in 1884, the first year of the adminis- 
tration of Dr. Dalton, included Drs. Alonzo Clark, Thomas Mas- 
ters Markoe, William Detmold, Theodore Gaillard Thomas, John 
Thomas Metcalfe, Henry Berton Sands, James Woods McLane, 
Thomas Taunton Sabine, Charles Frederic Chandler, Edward 
Curtis, Francis Delafield, John Green Curtis, William Henry 
Draper, Cornelius Rea Agnew, Abraham Jacobi, Fessenden Nott 
Otis, Edward Constant Seguin, George Morewood Lefferts, George 
Henry Fox, Theophile Mitchell Prudden, Robert Fulton Weir, 
William Stewart Halsted, Francis Hartman Markoe, George Mont- 
gomery Tuttle, Richard John Hall, George Livingston Peabody, 
and Alonzo Brayton Ball. All the names noted as of the faculty 
of 1884 were contained in the college records of the faculty of 
1887, excepting Charles Frederick Chandler and William Stewart 
Halsted, and in addition the faculty of 1887 included Drs. William 
Tillinghast Bull, Frank Hartley, George Sumner Huntington, 
James West Roosevelt, Arthur Henry Elliott, Albert Henry Buck, 
Charles Ernest Pellew, and Bern Budd Gallaudet, with a clinical 
staff, the chiefs of which were Drs. L. B. Bangs, W. R. Birdsall, 
D. B. Delavan, F. Huber, G. S. Huntington, F. W. Jackson, G. T. 
Jackson, H. Richards, C. Ware, and David Webster. 
The standard of instruction was high, and it is of particular 
interest, as indicating the lofty conscientiousness of the college 
authorities, to note two details of the records of those years. In 
September, 1887, eighteen candidates for the degree of Doctor of 
Medicine were examined, and nine, or fifty per cent, were rejected. 
In April and May, 1888, 139 presented themselves for the degree, 
but thirty-three failed to satisfy the examiners. 
In November, 1888, Dr. Dalton completed the writing of a his- 
tory of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and it met the 
warm approval of the trustees, who ordered an edition of fifteen 436 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
hundred copies, at the expense of the college. The work "was of 
a verity a labor of love on the part of its distinguished author, who 
died within six months of its publication. 
Dr. Dalton was succeeded to the presidency by Dr. James "Woods 
McLane, in 1889. The college at that time had become of great 
magnitude, the report for the fiscal year ending September 1, 
1889, recording the attendance of 701 students, of whom 298 were 
from States other than New York, and twenty-five were from 
foreign countries. The income of the college had increased to the 
sum of $91,011.62, and the expenses of instruction had increased 
to $58,307.62. The value of the college property, the Sloane Mater- 
nity Hospital included, had increased to $1,147,202.71. 
In May, 1889, Drs. Thomas Markoe, William T. Bull, and Charles 
McBurney were appointed Professors of Surgery. There were 
some other changes, and a chair of mental and nervous diseases 
was created, and the office of demonstrator of chemistry and 
physics was also created. In 1890 the total number of degrees 
conferred from the beginning of the college was given at 4,846, 
and the financial condition of the college was stated to be "most 
gratifying," the total value of its property being estimated at 
$1,352,818.13, with no existing indebtedness. In the same year 
the average expenses of the students were given as: Annual 
tuition fees, $200; table board, thirty-five weeks, $125 to $140; 
lodgings for same period, $105; text books, society fees, etc., $15; 
total, excluding purely personal expenses, $455 to $460. 
About that time, Columbia College, of which the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons had been considered its medical depart- 
ment since 1860, assumed the dignity of a University, and, as 
President Low in his first annual address remarked, "at one stroke 
Columbia ceased to be divided into fragments, and took upon 
herself the aspect of a university, wherein each department was 
related to every other, and every one strengthened all. ' ' The rela- 
tionship hitherto existing between the Columbia College and the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons, though harmonious, was so 
anomalous as to be little more than nominal. The Medical College 
entered cordially into the university idea, and, with a view to the 
establishment of a more intimate relationship between the two 
institutions, it was arranged that their commencement exercises 
should be held jointly, and was accordingly held on June 11, 
1890, the Hon. Seth Low, president of Columbia College, on that COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
437 
occasion presenting the diplomas to the graduates in medicine of 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons. The way was thus pre- 
pared for a closer union, the consummation of which occupied the 
attention of the authorities of the two institutions for some time 
thereafter, and on February 4, 1891, the representatives of the 
colleges prepared an instrument, by the terms of which the Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons agreed to convey to Columbia 
College all its property, real and personal, provided same be main- 
tained by Columbia College for the uses and purposes connected 
with medical education. On March 24, 1891, the Legislature 
enacted a law authorizing the union. The provisional agreement 
was ratified by the parties thereto, with an additional stipulation 
that the medical faculty "shall be the managing board of the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons, and as such shall have power 
to elect from their number a president, who shall be the president 
of the managing board of the College of Physicians and Surgeons." 
The instrument was executed on June 5, 1891, and attested by 
George G. Wheelock, M. D., registrar of the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, and by John B. Pine, clerk of the trustees of Colum- 
bia College. The property thus transferred to Columbia College 
was estimated to have a value at that time of $1,652,850. On the 
other hand, the Medical College gained in importance through its 
association with the University body, and by the larger instruc- 
tional advantages afforded by various schools under the University 
management in sciences allied to that of medicine. 
By special enactment, in 1892, the faculty of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons was made to consist of the president, and 
of the occupants of eight chairs, anatomy, physiology, chemistry, 
pathology, materia medica and therapeutics, practice of medicine, 
surgery, and obstetrics; and three officers of instruction were to 
be appointed by the trustees of the University after nomination 
by the faculty. The faculty was to elect from its own members 
a dean, who should hold office for a term of five years. Under the 
plan of college union, the office of president of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons was abrogated, consequently Dr. James 
W. McLane, who was then serving, was at once elected dean. 
The medical faculty for the year 1891-92 was as follows: James 
W. McLane, Dean; T. M. Markoe, Wm. Detmold, T. G. Thomas, 
J. T. Metcalfe, C. F. Chandler, E. Curtis, F. Delafield, J. G. Curtis, 
G. M. Tuttle, G. L. Peabody, W. T. Bull, C. McBurney, E. L. Par- 438 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
tridge, M. A. Starr, G. S. Huntington, with an extensive clinical 
staff. In 1893 the faculty numbered eleven professors and forty- 
two other instructors of various grades, and even this large force 
was inadequate. 
In 1894 there were 764 students, a gain of 112 as compared with 
the previous year, Dr. J. W. McLane stating in his annual report 
"our numbers increase, as our advantages, through the generous 
support of Columbia, multiply, taxing the accommodations in some 
of our departments to the utmost." In that year was established 
a department of orthopedics, in connection with the chair of sur- 
gery. The year 1895 saw the completion of important enlarge- 
ments to the Vanderbilt Clinic and the Sloane Maternity Hos- 
pital. The register recorded 803 students, and Dr. McLane pro- 
nounced the results of the first year of the newly adopted four 
years' course as most gratifying. The following year there was a 
decreased attendance, 709 students having been enrolled; the de- 
crease was attributed to the installation of the four-year curriculum 
in place of the three-year course. Numerous faculty changes oc- 
curred, but the instructional work continued on the same high 
standard, and "was most admirably conducted." During the aca- 
demic year ending June 30, 1897, the number of students enrolled 
was 639, a further decrease of seventy. There were many deaths 
and resignations among the teaching staff, and the year was marked 
by the publication of many important papers written by the teach- 
ing staff. The academic year beginning June 30, 1898, augured 
well for the future of the institution, as the decrease in number 
of students had been arrested, the register for that year showing 
an increase of 127. The graduating class of that year, the first 
under the four-year curriculum, numbered 136, as against twenty- 
nine in the preceding year. 
In March, 1898, Dr. McLane tendered his resignation of the 
chair of obstetrics. His resignation was regretfully accepted, with 
the provision that he continue as dean and as trustee of Vander- 
bilt Clinic, Sloane Maternity Hospital, and Roosevelt Hospital, 
and add to his honors that of Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics. 
During the war with Spain, four lst-year students, six 2nd-year 
students, three 3rd-year, six 4th-year, and two students of the 
old curriculum, entered the military service, their names being 
honored by special mention in the records of the college. 
Due mainly to strenuous competition and to the added rigor COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
439 
which attended the entrance examinations, the number of stu- 
dents attending the 1898-1899 course was slightly less than in the 
previous year, 738 only being enrolled. In the previous year 
Cornell University had founded in New York City a medical 
school, to which probably were attracted some students who would 
otherwise have attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons. 
Some important additions to the resources of the college were made 
in that year, including the transfer to it of the Sloane Maternity 
Hospital, the founding of the Abraham Jacobi Ward for Children 
in Roosevelt Hospital, and the creation of the O'Dwyer Scholarship. 
The year 1899-1900 stands well in the records, 801 students 
attending the lectures, and there were 165 graduates at the Com- 
mencement. In the following year there was a further increase 
of ten in the number of students, and during the academic year 
ending June 30, 1902, were enrolled 809, and the commencement 
recorded a graduating class of 145. 
There were some important changes in the teaching staff, and it 
is of interest to record here the faculty of the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons as constituted for the session 1902-03. The dean 
was Dr. James W. McLane, Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics; he 
also was ex-officio delegate to the University Council; T. Gaillard 
Thomas, Emeritus Professor of the Practice of Medicine; Edward 
Curtis, Emeritus Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics; 
Francis Delafield, Emeritus Professor of Practice of Medicine; 
John G. Curtis, Professor of Physiology, and delegate to Univer- 
sity Council. The other chairs in the faculty of 1902-03 were 
occupied by: George M. Tuttle, gynecology; Geo. M. Peabody, 
materia medica and therapeutics; Wm. T. Bull, surgery; M. Allen 
Starr, diseases of mind and nervous system; Geo. S. Huntington, 
anatomy; Robert F. Weir, honorary of surgery; T. Mitchell Prud- 
den, professor of pathology, director of the laboratories of pathol- 
ogy, clinical pathology, bacteriology and hygiene, and histology; 
Edwin B. Cragin, obstetrics; Walter B. James, professor of prac- 
tice of medicine. The clinical professors and lecturers were: Pro- 
fessors Abraham Jacobi (emeritus), G. M. Lefferts, C. McBurney, 
Geo. H. Fox, Albert H. Buck, H. Knapp, Rob. W. Taylor, F. P. 
Kinnicutt, V. P. Gibney, A. J. McCosh, Frank Hartley, F. H. Mar- 
koe, A. Brayton Ball, L. E. Holt, William Hallock, Chas. T. Poore, 
R. Abbe, W. B. Coley, R. H. Chittenden, E. Eliot, Jr., and F. Peter- 
son; Adjunct-Professors F. S. Lee, Chas. E. Pellew, and W. J. 440 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Gies. In addition, the teaching staff embraced twelve demon- 
strators, seven tutors, and eleven assistants. At the Vanderbilt 
Clinic, the chief clinical instructors were: A. E. Summer, depart- 
ment of medicine; Ed. M. Foote, surgery; Frederick Peterson, 
neurology; Royal Whitman, orthopedic surgery; Geo. W. Jarman, 
gynecology; Chas. H. May, ophthalmology; William K. Simpson, 
laryngology; Wm. Cowen, otology; Geo. T. Jackson, dermatology; 
F. Huber, diseases of children; James R. Hayden, genito-urinary 
diseases. The importance attached to clinical instruction by the 
governing staff may be inferred by appreciation of the fact that the 
additional staff at the Vanderbilt Clinic consisted of eight in- 
structors and seventy-three clinical assistants. As to the scope 
of clinical observation, it was extensive; during 1901 more than 
47,000 patients were treated at the Clinic. 
During that session Dr. James W. McLane, dean of the faculty 
and Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics, tendered his resignation 
and Dr. John G. Curtis became acting dean, his report for that 
session making prominent reference to the long and useful service 
rendered the college by the retiring dean, who had held profes- 
sorial connection with it for more than thirty-five years. Dr. Cur- 
tis's reference continues: "Dr. McLane's extraordinary services 
to this college, and to the university, can never be forgotten, least 
of all by those who have enjoyed the privilege of being his col- 
leagues. ' ' 
The entering class of students for the session of 1902-03 num- 
bered 201, as compared with 269 in 1901-02. The entrants, how- 
ever, were of a higher standard, as of the total number nearly 
eight per cent more had received college degrees than was the case 
in respect to the entrants of 1901-02. 
An important extension of the college work during that session 
was the establishment of summer courses, a proceeding long held 
under advisement, and by which students had at their disposal 
during the long vacation the splendid equipment of the college, 
the Vanderbilt Clinic, and the Sloane Maternity Hospital. 
During the session of 1903-04 Dr. Emmett Holt became Profes- 
sor of Diseases of Children; and Dr. Christian A. Herter was 
appointed to the chairs of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Dr. 
Herman Knapp accepted the emeritus clinical professorship of 
ophthalmology, Dr. Arnold Knapp thereafter taking the depart- 
ment as Lecturer in Ophthalmology. Dr. R. F. Wier relinquished COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
441 
the professorship of Surgery, but consented to act as Professor of 
Clinical Surgery. Dr. John S. Thatcher, Demonstrator in Patho- 
logical Anatomy, was advanced to the office of Clinical Lecturer 
in the Department of Medicine. James D. Voorhees, secretary to 
the faculty, was appointed Lecturer in Obstetrics, George E. 
Brewer became Clinical Lecturer in Surgery, Joseph A. Blake 
being appointed lecturer of same department, and Rolfe Floyd, 
Lecturer in Anatomy. 
The advent of Dr. Herter to the faculty in place of Dr. George 
L. Peabody, who had resigned after long and valued service, was 
important in that under his instruction practical work in pharma- 
cology was first introduced into the curriculum of the college. 
Dr. George M. Tuttle, head of the department of gynecology, 
retired on July 1, 1903, after nineteen years of service, the didactic 
and clinical instruction in gynecology during the session of 1903-04 
being taken by Prof. E. B. Cragin, Drs. F. S. Matthews, Frank R. 
Castler, and H. C. Taylor being appointed instructors in gynecol- 
ogy, and Dr. W. S. Stone becoming chief of clinic. Drs. Forbes 
Hawkes and Clarence A. McWilliams also received appointments, 
and Dr. L. E. LaFetra became instructor and chief of clinic, vice 
Dr. Francis Huber, resigned. 
The session of 1903-04 opened with a further considerably dimin- 
ished number of matriculants, only 121 enrolling for first year, 
as against 201 of the preceding session, and 269 of 1901-02. How- 
ever, Dr. John G. Curtis, acting dean, said in his annual report: 
"This great decline in numbers is a source of gratification, inas- 
much as it is the immediate result of a greatly heightened standard 
of admission, the excellent effect of which upon the quality of the 
entering class has been made apparent at once." The graduating 
class of 1904 numbered 174, and an interesting development of 
the year was the installation of portions of the Museum of Human 
and Comparative Anatomy, stated to be "an anatomical teaching 
collection which is unrivalled as a study collection in the dissect- 
ing room." 
Professor W. T. Bull resigned the professorship of surgery during 
that session, but continued to take part of the clinical lectures at 
the Vanderbilt Clinic, and Dr. J. A. Blake became administrative 
head of the department of surgery. Dr. George E. Brewer was 
appointed Professor of Clinical Surgery, with seat in faculty, and 
Dr. Henry Me. M. Painter had a like privilege when appointed Pro- 442 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
fessor of Clinical Obstetrics. Prof. George M. Lefferts, after a 
service of thirty years as teacher of laryngology, resigned, and 
Dr. William K. Simpson became his successor. Prof. Albert H. 
Buck resigned the department of otology, Prof. Gorham Bacon 
taking his duties. Dr. Arnold Knapp was confirmed to the chair 
of ophthalmology, and Dr. R. W. Taylor, who resigned from the 
department of genito-urinary diseases, was succeeded by Prof. 
James R. Hayden, the report stating that "by friendly agreement 
between Prof. Blake and Prof. Hayden ' ' the department of genito- 
urinary diseases was on July 1, 1904, merged in that of surgery, 
under the general direction of Prof. Blake. Dr. Samuel Waldron 
Lambert became Professor of Applied Therapeutics, Dr. Hiss, 
Adjunct Professor of Bacteriology; Dr. Wood, Adjunct Professor 
of Clinical Pathology, and Dr. Bailey, Adjunct Professor of 
Normal Histology. In the department of physiology, Dr. F. S. 
Lee became professor, Dr. R. Burton-Opitz adjunct, and Dr. 
Haven Emerson demonstrator. During the year, the department 
of chemistry was merged in that of physiological chemistry, under 
Prof. Gies. 
The entering class for the academic year ending June, 1905, was 
the first under the control of the present dean, Dr. Samuel Waldron 
Lambert. The entering class numbered only 98, though the total 
number of students was 550, and the graduating class almost 
doubled that of the first year. Some instructional innovations were 
instituted in that year, it being the first time in the history of the 
college that there had been a tutor appointed to aid instruction in 
the diseases of children. Dr. Frank S. Meara held weekly recita- 
tions throughout the year in that branch, giving thirteen recita- 
tions to each student. A practical course in embryology was 
established, and in gynecology the plan of instruction for third 
and fourth year students was reorganized. In the clinical depart- 
ments 2,311 cases, including 1,181 pathological cases, were exam- 
ined by the students while under instruction; and more than one 
thousand special cases, illustrating some questions of general diag- 
nosis, differential or bacteriological diagnosis, surgical or medical 
indications for treatment, et cetera, were personally demonstrated 
to the students of the eight sections. 
In the following year, further improvements in instruction were 
effected; a course of experimental surgery was established, on the 
plan adopted with success at Johns Hopkins Medical College, Bal- COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
443 
timore. The course was an elective one for third year students, 
and those wishing to take up surgery. The plan provided for the 
substitution of dogs (who have many surgical ailments) for human 
beings, and in effect constituted a true hospital course. The depart- 
ment of anatomy had hitherto been somewhat handicapped by the 
lack of ready reference to the records and catalogues appertaining 
thereto, but in that season the trustees saw fit to appoint to that 
department a secretary and curator. And the faculty of the col- 
lege for the year 1905-06 was increased, the professors of bacteriol- 
ogy and clinical pathology being invited to join. There were 428 
students in attendance during that session, 83 being of first year, 
and 152 graduating at the commencement. 
The following year saw an even further decrease in enrollments, 
the register recording only 396 students; the graduating class 
numbered 93. The standard of instruction was, however, con- 
tinually becoming higher and the scope continually expanding. 
In that year post-graduate courses in operative surgery, in surgical 
technique, and in diseases of children, were inaugurated; a new 
department of hydrotherapy was established at Vanderbilt Clinic, 
under the direction of Prof. Baruch, and in many other ways the 
standard of instruction was made worthy of the historic significance 
to it of that year, which was the one hundredth of its operation. 
At the commencement, made memorable by the attendance of a 
large number of the alumni, many of whom came from far distant 
parts, Dr. John G. Curtis interestingly addressed the gathering 
on the history of the college, he being followed by Prof. William 
H. Welsh, who went exhaustively into the century's development 
in medicine. Later a very successful dinner was given under the 
auspices of the Alumni Association. 
During that year of historical associations, the college was made 
the recipient of two portraits which are now treasured possessions. 
The paintings perpetuate the association with the college of two 
worthy New York physicians-Dr. George M. Lefferts, for many 
years Professor and Emeritus Professor of Laryngology; and Dr. 
John G. Curtis, Professor of Physiology, and ex-acting-dean. The 
portraits were the gifts of anonymous friends and late pupils of 
these two eminent educators. 
The year of 1908-09 began upon a higher plan of requirement for 
entrance than ever before; the subjects of physics and elementary 
inorganic chemistry were placed among those demanded of appli- 444 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
cants for admission, and as a consequence the entrance class was 
even less than before, the total number of students taking the lec- 
tures during that session being only 325, of whom 81 graduated. 
Dr. George T. Jackson was appointed Professor of Dermatology; 
Dr. Robert Lewis became Professor of Clinical Otology; and Drs. 
Andrew J. McCosh and Alexander B. Johnson were appointed 
Professors of Clinical Surgery. 
Following the plan adopted by many of the London hospitals, 
several New York hospitals about that time admitted to practice 
therein, under the designation of clinical clerks, medical students 
who were in their final year, and in order to encourage the prac- 
tice the College of Physicians and Surgeons so modified its cur- 
riculum that the fourth year student might be allowed to follow 
such hospital services for two months at a time. 
Some important faculty changes were made necessary during 
the session of 1908-09, many through death. Dr. Andrew J. Mc- 
Cosh, Professor of Clinical Surgery; Dr. William T. Bull, Emeritus 
Professor of Surgery, and Dr. Carleton P. Flint, Instructor in 
Surgery, were among the deceased of that year. The losses to the 
college were deplored, and regarding Dr. Bull the faculty by reso- 
lution unanimously desired to pass into permanent college record 
their opinion that "as a great teacher and surgeon of world wide 
reputation, he was an honor to the faculty . . . and did much to 
elevate American surgery. ' ' Dr. J. G. Curtis, Professor of Physiol- 
ogy, and Dr. Mitchell Prudden, Professor of Pathology, both 
applied for retirement under the Carnegie Foundation, because of 
length of service, and Dr. Walter B. James, Professor of the 
Practice of Medicine, desired to be relieved from the duties of 
routine administration, so that he might devote himself to clinical 
research in the Presbyterian Hospital, and therefore requested to 
be transferred to a chair of clinical medicine. 
These changes resulted in a partial readjustment of departmental 
classification, and of the curriculum of instruction, during the 
following session; several new departments were organized, and the 
general curriculum was changed so as to bring the students during 
the latter part of the course into closer touch with clinical and 
practical work. The old department of pathology formerly in- 
cluded the scientific branches of normal histology, embryology, bac- 
teriology, and clinical pathology. These several sciences under 
the reorganization were divided into departments, with distinct COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
445 
administrative organizations. Normal histology and embryology 
were transferred as a subdivision to the department of anatomy, 
and placed under the charge of Dr. H. Von W. Schulte, Adjunct 
Professor of Anatomy. Clinical Pathology passed under Prof. 
Wood, with Dr. Karl M. Vogel as adjunct, Dr. Augustus B. Wads- 
worth became Adjunct Professor of Bacteriology, under Prof. 
Hiss; and Dr. William G. MacCullum, from Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, received appointment to the chair of pathology. Dr. R. 
Burton-Opitz took charge of the department of physiology tem- 
porarily, and the office made vacant by the resignation of Dr. James 
was given to Dr. Theodore C. Janeway. During the session a 
very successful series of university lectures on sanitary science and 
public health was delivered at the college, the lecturers including 
many noted specialists on the subjects. 
There were 345 students in the session 1908-09, of whom 96 were 
first-year students. The year was also made the occasion of inter- 
esting ceremonies arranged by the Alumni Association to mark the 
fiftieth anniversary of its organization. By organizing a series of 
clinical meetings to be held in the college building, an effort was 
made to bring the Alumni Association into closer relation with 
the College. In that year Mr. E. T. Boag, who for forty-one years 
had held the office of registrar of the Alumni Association was 
retired under the rules of the Carnegie Foundation. Mr. Boag took 
with him into retirement the good wishes of more than five thou- 
sand graduates whom he had graduated during his long years of 
service. 
The session of 1909-10 brought a further extension of hospitals 
admitting final year students to practice therein as clinical clerks, 
and considerable medical research was stimulated by a special 
fund available in that and the previous year for cancer research, 
the late Mr. George Crocker having bequeathed more than one 
million dollars to Columbia University for that purpose. 
Considerable thought had of late years been given by the board* 
of trustees, as well as by the members of the faculty, to the ques- 
tion of effecting the removal of the college to a location more con- 
venient to the other departments of Columbia University, and in 
1910 the trustees signified their intention of removing the college 
to a site which had been selected at 116th street and Amsterdam 
avenue, adjacent to the University buildings. The college had 
never been in one location for more than thirty years, and it was 446 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
thought to have outgrown the facilities possible at Fifty-ninth 
street and Tenth avenue. However, nothing further was promoted 
in that year regarding the removal, neither has the matter further 
advanced up to this writing. 
In 1910 was consummated an arrangement to establish which 
Dr. Samuel Waldron Lambert had been strenuously endeavoring 
for many years. It gave to the college what was to all intents and 
purposes a university hospital, in which the students could get, 
without hindrance, closely into touch with actual practice, the 
Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University, acting in behalf 
of its School of Medicine, forming a close alliance for the purpose. 
Dr. Lambert referred to the arrangement as "a mark of modern 
progress in hospital management and in medical education . . . 
a large independent hospital had appreciated the advantages to 
it of fostering medical education in its wards, and of delegating 
its scientific work to the university." He further stated it to be 
"the first important step to give to New York State the position 
in medical education at all commensurate with those clinical 
advantages which are inherent in its size and in its cosmopolitan 
life. ' ' The agreement placed one half of the medical service of the 
Presbyterian Hospital in the hands of the Professor of Medicine of 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and proposed to erect an 
entire new hospital, the alliance securing to the school "a new 
hospital built for the express purposes of providing for the educa- 
tional needs of the college in medicine, in surgery, and in pathol- 
ogy." 
There were seventy-nine first-year students during 1910-11, the 
full enrollment of that academic year being 346, including a grad- 
uation class of 70, twenty of whom were students who had been ad- 
mitted to "advanced standing" by reason of study of medicine for 
one or two years in some other recognized college of medicine, and 
had come to the College of Physicians and Surgeons for their final 
years. The record of that year, in one respect, is a deplorable one; 
four important members of the faculty died during the session. 
Dr. C. A. Herter, Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 
who died on December 5, 1910, had held the appointment since 
1903; Dr. Herman Knapp, who by long and worthy service had 
earned the Emeritus Professorship of Ophthalmology, died on 
April 30, 1911; Dr. Charles C. Ransom passed away on September 
13, 1910. He had only recently joined the teaching staff, as Asso- COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
447 
ciate in Clinical Medicine; and Dr. Charles T. Poore, Associate in 
Clinical Surgery, died on April 4, 1911. Several new appointments 
to the faculty were consequently made. The chief professorship 
of physiology was given the title of the Dalton Professorship, in 
memory of Dr. John C. Dalton, the first experimental physiologist 
in America, and for thirty-five years Professor of Physiology at 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, also president of the col- 
lege during the years 1884-1889. 
The addition to the Sloane Hospital for Women was opened in 
1910-11 session, and the gynecological department thus obtained 
added facilities for its work. The department of ophthalmology 
received the income of a scholarship fund for the support of an 
advanced work in this specialty. The fund was established by the 
children of the late Dr. Abram Du Bois, a graduate of the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons, and is known as the Abram Du Bois 
Fellowship in Ophthalmology. 
The Alumni Association again gave evidence of its virility, pro- 
posing from its invested funds to establish a "health station," 
under the direction of the professor of physiology, the station to 
be equipped with modern apparatus for electrocardiographic and' 
other mechanical studies of the circulation. 
The session of 1912-13 saw much reorganization of departments. 
It was decided to merge the department of clinical pathology in 
that of medicine, the change resulting in a still more intimate con- 
nection between the laboratory study of disease and the theoretical 
and clinical teaching of medical subjects. The change was to some 
extent influenced by the advancement of Prof. Wood from the chair 
of clinical pathology to that of director of cancer research. The 
new addition to the Sloane Hospital much facilitated the study of 
gynecology; in neurology the instruction was extended to include 
the demonstration of many of the recent developments in diagnosis 
and therapeutics, which are included in the study and treatment 
of functional nervous diseases, and has included the use of psychic 
therapy and hypnotism. The department of physiology offered for 
the first time a post-graduate course in clinical pathology, and 
about twenty graduates in medicine took the course. The electro- 
cardiagraph work, under Dr. Williams, was very successful; the 
apparatus was connected with the Vanderbilt Clinic by wire, thus 
making it possible to study cases in the laboratory which were 
seated in the Clinic four hundred feet distant. The departments 448 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
of medicine and surgery derived special benefit from the arrange- 
ment effected the previous year with the Presbyterian Hospital and 
organized hospital service units. A small hospital for the treat- 
ment of diseases of animals was also opened, and equipped in the 
manner of modern surgery. 
The registration during that year numbered 379 students, 81 
of first year, 91 of the fourth. A noteworthy gift to the institution 
during that year was that of Mrs. Russell Sage, who donated 
$25,000 to endow the library of the department of medicine. Other 
departmental libraries also received much assistance. 
An important step was taken by the faculty during that winter 
to place the chairs of medicine and surgery upon a university basis; 
a resolution was passed by the faculty recommending that the 
Bard professor and assistant professor of the practice of medicine 
and the professor of surgery be not permitted to engage in the 
general practice of medicine and surgery during the academic 
year, reasoning that the education of university students in clin- 
ical medicine and surgery demanded the exclusive thought and 
energy of men with scientific training, working in adequate hos- 
pitals and laboratories. The trustees of the University endorsed 
the action of the faculty, which was "in general principle" adopted 
by Columbia University. 
During the year 1912-13, 354 students attended the lectures, 
including 78 of first year and a graduating class of 100. The 
dean's report refers to student migration, and emphasizes the 
advantage of the College of Physicians and Surgeons as a finishing 
school for medical students who pass their preliminary years of 
medical study in other schools. Certain changes were made in the 
curriculum for that session, and it was proposed to add a fifth 
year which would be spent in hospital work, the student not to 
be, as previously, '1 relegated to the drudgery of the lowest member 
of an ordinary hospital house staff," but the work should be done 
under supervision and the student placed "under school as well 
as hospital control." 
The faculty lost some of its most eminent members during that 
year. Dr. James W. McLane, ex-dean and Emeritus Professor of 
Obstetrics, passed away, the faculty in referring to the sad event 
admitting that Dr. McLane "was the most prominent personality 
in leading this college from the ranks of the proprietary schools 
to a university standing." Dr. Edward Curtis, Emeritus Profes- COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
449 
sor of Materia Medica, died, and Prof. Philip Hanson Hiss, Jr., 
Professor of Bacteriology, on February 27, 1913. Of the latter was 
recorded a resolution adopted by the faculty following his demise 
"appreciated for his extreme ability in his own field." 
During that year the erection of a three-storied building, at 116th 
street and Amsterdam avenue, to be used as a laboratory to house 
workers under the George Crocker Cancer Research Fund, was 
commenced. 
On September 20, 1913, Dr. John G. Curtis died. He had retired 
from active participation in college work four years previously, 
but his death prompted the unanimous adoption of a minute by 
the faculty to "commemorate Prof. Curtis's long and manifold 
services to the College, to which he had devoted his entire life." 
Dr. Curtis joined the teaching staff of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in 1870, and thirty-nine years later (in 1909) retired 
to an emeritus professorship. Another death during that year 
was that of Prof. William Kelly Simpson, Professor of Laryngol- 
ogy, who after a six months' absence from the college because of 
illness died on February 6, 1914. 
The plans of Columbia University to improve medical education 
underwent considerable development during the year ending June 
30, 1916. An increase in the pre-medical requirement for admis- 
sion to the College of Physicians and Surgeons was determined 
upon, to take effect after September, 1918. The new preliminary 
requirement demands of each entering student an amount of work 
equivalent to seventy-two points, as rated by Columbia, thus 
placing every student on the basis of work demanded of those 
students who are candidates for the combined Bachelor of Science 
and Doctor of Medicine degrees, based upon the combined course 
of six years' collegiate training. 
It was also decided to admit women to the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons "as soon as facilities for their comfort and educa- 
tion can be secured," the proviso being prompted by the thought 
that the opportunity to develop a new site for the College would 
soon materialize, although the dean's report for the year stated 
that the development of the plan for rebuilding the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons in connection with a new Presbyterian 
Hospital "has been delayed for lack of funds." 
The faculty changes in 1915-16 were not many, though a number 
of the teaching staff obtained temporary leave of absence, so that 450 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
they might serve in the medical corps of European armies. The 
base hospitals at Jouilly and at Sens have been manned in part 
by officers of the college, and one instructor, Dr. Fraser, an English 
subject, resigned his appointment at the college so that he might 
enter the English army. Prof. Gorham Bacon resigned as Profes- 
sor of Otology after twelve years' service, during which, in spite 
of serious handicaps, he brought instruction in his department 
"to a high plane of efficiency." Dr. J. Raynor Hayden, Professor 
of Urology, also resigned, much to the regret of the faculty, as 
for the twelve years he had participated in professorial labors at 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons he had been ' ' a most popu- 
lar and thorough teacher." 
The enrollments for the year 1915-16 numbered 554, which was 
gratifying, although it included twenty-six special students who 
were not candidates for a degree, and 97 students of the Graduate 
School who were candidates for the A. M. or Ph. D. degrees. Dur- 
ing the session, the department of bacteriology made a prominent 
innovation in adding to the elective courses lectures by prominent 
specialists, including Drs. Noguchi, Amos, and Docher of the 
Rockefeller Institute. After the resignation of Dr. Bacon, the 
departments of laryngology and otology were combined under the 
direction of Prof. Coakley. 
During the one hundred and ten years of its operation, the Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons has maintained a praiseworthy 
standard of usefulness, and to-day has the distinction of being one 
of the most comprehensive schools of medicine in the country, and 
its degree assures possessors a reputable professional standing in 
almost all countries. For the year 1916-17, its curriculum includes: 
For first-year students:-Anatomy, including histology and embryology, 
and organic chemistry during the first half of the year. During the second 
half anatomy is continued, and physiology and physiological chemistry 
are studied by lectures, recitations, demonstrations, and in the laboratory. 
For second-year students:-First half devoted to completion of anatomy 
and physiology, and introduction of pharmacology and bacteriology. The 
latter half is given mainly to the study of general, gross, and clinical 
pathology, and study of medicine by elementary clinic, and by instruction 
in methods of physical diagnosis. Preliminary recitations in obstetrics 
and surgery are also held. 
For third-year students:-Recitations in medicine and surgery contin- 
ued, and recitations in gynecology, diseases of children, and therapeutics COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
451 
begun. Also theoretical or clinical lectures in medicine, surgery, urology, 
pharmacology and therapeutics, obstetrics, gynecology, neurology, dis- 
eases of children, ophthalmology, dermatology and syphilology, laryngol- 
ogy, otology, and orthopedic surgery. Also much dispensary observation. 
For fourth-year students:-Spent chiefly in hospitals. Divided into 
small groups, the students continue to come into personal contact with 
patients under the supervision of the instructor. Courses are taken in 
diseases of children, gynecology, hygiene, neurology, obstetrics, practice of 
medicine, and surgery. 
The college has many important fellowships, scholarships and 
prizes, within its bestowal, including the Proudfit Fellowship in 
Medicine, the Doctor Abram Du Bois Fellowship (with an income 
of $900 per annum), the Alonzo Clark Scholarship, the Alumni 
Association Prize (of $500) ; the Cartwright Prize of $500, the 
Thomas F. Cock Prize, the Joseph Mather Smith Prize, of $100, 
the Stevens Triennial Prize of $200, the Harsen Scholarships 
(five), the Faculty Scholarships (twenty), the William H. Van- 
derbilt scholarships, the George Blumenthal, Jr., Scholarships, the 
Richard Butler Scholarship, of $200, the David M. Devendorf, 
M. D., Scholarship, of $250, the Francis E. Doughty scholarship of 
about $400, and the Frank Hartley scholarship, of $250, so that 
every inducement is given the student to attain a high degree of 
efficiency. 
The faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons for its 
first year (1807) consisted of seven men, who practically con- 
ducted the whole of the duties of the institution. The teaching 
staff of the college one hundred and ten years later, for the session 
of 1916-1917, consisted of 267 persons, made up of 54 professors, 
four associate professors, 29 assistant professors, 30 associate as- 
sistant professors, 113 instructors, 29 assistant instructors. By 
this comparison may be gauged the development of the institution 
during the period. CHAPTER II 
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
DURING the winter of 1829-30 was initiated a movement for 
the establishment of a university in the city "on a liberal 
and extensive foundation." A meeting of citizens was held 
January 4, 1830, at the rooms of the Historical Society, the call 
being signed by Drs. J. M. Matthews, J. M. Wainwright, J. Augus- 
tine Smith, Valentine Mott, Joseph Delafield, Myndert Vanse- 
haick, Hugh Maxwell, Isaac S. Hone, and John Delafield. On 
the 6th a pamphlet was issued under the title of "Considerations 
upon the Expediency and the Means of Establishing A University 
in the City of New York," in which it was stated that it was 
"highly desirable and expedient to establish in the City of New 
York a university, on a liberal foundation, which shall correspond 
with the spirit and wants of our country, which shall be commen- 
surate with our great and growing population, and which shall 
enlarge the opportunities of education for such of our youth as 
shall be qualified and inclined to improve." 
On October 15th the projectors appointed a committee consisting 
of Drs. Matthews and Wainwright, Albert Gallitin and John Dela- 
field, "to invite men of eminence in higher education" to attend 
a convention of educational purport on October 20, 1830, such a 
convocation probably having never before been proposed within the 
fifty-six years of national life. John Delafield's "Journal of the 
Proceedings of the Convention of Literary and Scientific Gentle- 
men, held in the Common Council Chamber, New York, October, 
1830," records this unique convention, at which he acted as secre- 
tary. Many eminent academicians and scholars were present, most 
of the principal universities and colleges sending representatives. 
At that convention it was clearly indicated that a school of medi- 
cine was an important part of the plans of the University pro- 
moters. Dr. George Bancroft, probably the first American who 
had earned the degree of Ph. D. in Germany, drew the ideal of 
an American university, and stated that "in New York the study 
452 MEDICAL COLLEGE, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
453 
of medicine and surgery was favored." Another paper was de- 
livered by Dr. Francis Lieber, of Boston. On January 31, 1831, 
officers of the new University were elected, James M. Matthews, 
D. D., being appointed chancellor, and April 21st the University 
was formally incorporated at Albany. 
No instruction was given during 1831. "Williams' Annual 
Register" for 1831 refers to the shareholders of the New York 
University as "gentlemen who have subscribed $115,000 toward 
the object. The capital is divided into shares of $25 each, and 
subscriptions are now making (1830-1831), so as to increase the 
capital very considerably." In the fall of 1832, instruction began. 
In its initial stages, it had been intended to establish a school of 
medicine as one of the departments of the University, but no 
definite plan was prepared until 1837. At several sessions of the 
University Council the question was discussed, and a number of 
names of medical men whom it would be advisable to appoint as 
professors were presented. Among them those of Drs. Alfred C. 
Post, of New York, Johnson, of Philadelphia, Eberle, of Cincin- 
nati, N. R. Smith, of Baltimore, and Gunning S. Bedford. Other 
names suggested were: Drs. Warren, of Boston, surgery; and 
Martyn Paine, theory and practice of medicine. 
In December, 1837, a committee, in a report to the University 
Council, made reference to the medical course in the French School 
of Medicine, Paris, where the requirements for graduation com- 
prised four years as a student, with two series of lectures of five 
months each; and the committee stated their conviction that ' ' to 
qualify young men for the successful pursuit of their profession, 
they should pursue their studies for a much longer period than is 
now required by the law of this, or any other of the States of which 
this committee have any knowledge; ' ' but they feared that ' ' in the 
present state of the law regulating the practice of Physic and 
Surgery ' ' to insist upon the full term of four years ' ' would prove 
fatal to the hopes and prospects of the Faculty." They therefore 
recommended that "for the present, the term be limited to two 
years and two series of lectures." 
On December 6, 1838, a faculty was elected. It was provided that 
the professors should hold their lectures at the University build- 
ing, $1,500 to be paid as rental for the first year, and $2,000 for 
the second year, provided the students numbered not more than 454 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
one hundred and fifty. In a short while the project was tempo- 
rarily abandoned for lack of means. 
Some time later, efforts were made by members of the proposed 
faculty to negotiate an alliance with Columbia College, the medical 
school of which had been discontinued, owing to the secession of 
many of its faculty of medicine to accept chairs in the reconstructed 
College of Physicians and Surgeons. But Columbia College de- 
clined, and the projectors endeavored to obtain a direct charter 
from the State. The effort was futile, and the promoters again 
sought the aid of New York University. In 1841 the establishment 
was consummated, mainly through the efforts of Dr. John W. 
Draper. The medical faculty was elected by the University Coun- 
cil, and consisted of: Valentine Mott, Professor of Surgery; Gran- 
ville Sharp Pattison, Professor of Anatomy; John Revere, Pro- 
fessor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine; Martyn Paine, 
Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and Materia Medica; Gun- 
ning S. Bedford, Professor of Midwifery; John W. Draper, Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry, and the Diseases of Women and Children; 
Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, chancellor of the University, was 
made president of the medical faculty; Professor John W. Draper, 
secretary, and John M. Carnochan, as prosector to the Professor 
of Surgery, and John H. Whittaker, as demonstrator to the Pro- 
fessor of Anatomy. The new medical school was to be self-support- 
ing, yet the University Council bound it by rigid regulations; one 
clause of the agreement with the medical faculty read: ' ' And the 
Council also hereby expressly reserve the power of repealing and 
amending the plan of organization." 
The first circular of the Medical School emphasized an important 
advantage to be derived by students seeking graduation at its 
courses-the school was in one respect free from a hindrance 
under which other medical colleges of the State labored, as by 
special legislative enactment the New York University Medical 
College was released from the governing restrictions of the Regents 
of the University of the State of New York, to the extent that 
graduates of the New York University Medical School could prac- 
tice medicine and surgery in the State of New York "without 
receiving a license from the State or County Medical Societies." 
This possibly was a contributing factor to encourage a large 
enrollment of students for the first course of lectures. The "First 
Circular" incorporated a list of "respectable boarding houses" NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
455 
wherein students could find comfort at not less than $2.50 or more 
than $3.50 per week, and attracted two hundred and thirty-nine 
students to its first session, which was held in the Stuyvesant Insti- 
tute, at 659 Broadway, where now the Broadway Central Hotel 
stands, which may explain why the New York Lancet in that year 
referred to the New York University Medical College as the "Stuy- 
vesant Institute Medical College, ' ' although it has been stated that 
professional jealousy instigated this less dignified designation of 
the new school. 
The curriculum was equal to that of most medical schools of 
those early and lax days of professional instruction; the main 
essential to graduation was attendance at two courses of lectures 
from the end of October to the month of February. The aggregate 
fees were $105 yearly. The lectures were designed to be of a dis- 
tinctly popular character; Professor J. W. Draper in particular 
appears to have distinguished himself in this respect, as a com- 
mittee of the student body, in February, 1842, tendered their 
thanks "for the able and interesting lectures" delivered by him 
during the session. At the opening session, Prof. Draper voiced 
the opinion of the faculty thus: "A class that rivals in size those 
of the oldest and largest institutions has sprung into existence, and 
been carried with success through all its evolutions." 
Before the close of the first session, the faculty had determined 
to purchase the Stuyvesant Institute building in which their 
classes were held, and the "Second Annual Announcement and 
Circular" announced that the Stuyvesant Institute building had 
become the property of the college; that the cost of its erection 
bad been $120,000; and that it "was purchased by the Faculty 
at their own cost, without, as yet, any aid from the State or the 
public." 
The registers of the Medical College record the attendances dur- 
ing the first nine years: Second year, 268; third, 323; fourth, 378 ; 
fifth, 407; sixth, 410; seventh, 421; eighth, 411; ninth, 404; figures 
which assumed much importance and encouragement, by compari- 
son with the enrollments over the same period by its older neighbor, 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In point of attendances, 
the opening decade augured well for the school. But financial diffi- 
culties pressed heavily; in 1850 there seemed a possibility, nay a 
probability, that the University would be compelled to suspend. 
The University Council, on June 14, resolved that all members of 456 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
the Council would unite their efforts "to prevent a suspension of 
the institution." Again, the Medical College was handicapped by 
the difficulties of the University, and in danger of becoming sub- 
merged in its own troublous sea of debt. In 1851 the debt on 
the Stuyvesant Institute building still stood at $47,000, and the 
College had for three years been without the annual grant from 
the State, which previous to 1848 had been of material assistance. 
Notwithstanding, the medical faculty had been sufficiently en- 
couraged to deem it advisable to acquire further facilities. The 
demands of the college had grown far beyond those available at 
the Stuyvesant Institute, therefore, having purchased a lot having 
a frontage of 116 feet and a depth of 122^ feet, on Fourteenth 
street, the faculty resolved to dispose of the Stuyvesant Institute, 
and erect a more suitable college building on their Fourteenth 
street realty. The work of building began in April, 1851, and 
the students gathered in it in October. The ground and building 
represented a liability of about $70,000, but the sale of the Stuy- 
vesant Institute reduced the liability to $40,000. The college 
now possessed a building conveniently located, containing two 
museums, and three lecture halls, each capable of seating six hun- 
dred persons. Competent authorities said the new college was "the 
most complete medical college building in the country." 
Changes in the faculty were few in the early years. When a 
vacancy arose it was necessary, in order to comply with the require- 
ment of the University Council, to "widely advertise the vacancy 
both in the daily newspapers, and in the medical periodicals," 
and in due course the medical faculty would nominate an applicant 
for appointment to the vacant chair by the University Council. 
In 1850, Dr. Derkson, of Charleston, resigning, Dr. Detmold was 
nominated, and eventually confirmed to the chair. In September, 
1850, when Dr. Valentine Mott resigned, Samuel Gross became 
his successor, and Elihu Bartlett was named for the chair of Dr. 
Detmold. On September 30, 1851, by action of the Council, the 
teaching force was considerably augmented, but without increasing 
the number of "governing" professorships; Dr. Charles A. Lee 
was appointed Professor of Medical Jurisprudence; Dr. B. W. 
Macready, Professor of Hygiene and Toxicology; Dr. T. M. Mar- 
koe, Professor of Pathology and Microscopic Anatomy; Dr. W. H. 
Van Buren, Professor of Genito-Urinary Diseases; and Dr. T. J. 
Metcalf, Professor of Physical Diagnosis-all of which appoint- NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
457 
merits were for one year. On March 31, 1852, Dr. Valentine Mott, 
then sixty-seven years of age, was made Emeritus Professor of 
Surgery and Surgical Anatomy, and Prof. William H. Van Buren 
was chosen for the chair of General Descriptive and Surgical 
Anatomy. In 1853, Dr. John A. Swett, of New York City, suc- 
ceeded Dr. Clymer as Professor of the Institutes and Practice of 
Medicine. In that year the subject of the graduation fee, payable 
by the Medical College to the University, was again broached by 
the medical faculty, who a year previously had proposed discon- 
tinuing the payment of the fee to the University, the financial 
necessities of the Medical College having become "particularly 
embarrassing." A compromise was effected, but the general pros- 
pects were far from satisfactory. Maybe the withdrawal of Dr. 
Valentine Mott, then the foremost surgeon of the country, from 
the teaching staff, detrimentally affected the enrollments, which 
from 404 students in 1849-50, had dwindled to 290 in 1852-53. 
A most important distinction was earned for the institution by 
the college faculty in 1854; to them belongs the honor of procuring 
the abrogation of the law which for so many years had rendered 
the research of the anatomical student difficult, embarrassing, and 
in some respects illegal. This matter has been sufficiently treated 
on other pages. In 1853, Dr. J. W. Draper strengthened the "Pe- 
tition of the Medical Faculty of the University of the City of New 
York, to the Honorable the Senate and Assembly of the State of 
New York, for the State of New York, for the Legalization of 
Anatomy," by an admirable introductory lecture. Eventually, 
mainly as the result of the efforts of Dr. Martyn Paine, who re- 
mained in Albany prosecuting the endeavor for three months, the 
law, commonly designated "The Bone Bill," was passed. 
With the opening of the Civil War, the college entered upon a 
period of extreme leanness; in the spring of 1862 there were but 
186 students, less than half the enrollment for 1859-60, when 411 
students attended lectures. The session of 1863-64 was attended by 
192, the next by 211, and the year 1865-66 by only 292. This 
period of depression threatened serious consequences to the college, 
the income of which was lessened by many thousands of dollars. 
The faculty, always optimistic, looked upon the increase of eighty- 
one students in 1865-66 as a true indication of future prosperity, 
and stated that the school's ' ' prospects were at no time brighter. ' ' 
It was claimed for the college that "in professional position it 458 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
ranked among the first American colleges; " its diploma was recog- 
nized in England; in fact, many of its graduates were at that time 
"practising in that country," and many of its professors were 
"widely known in Europe, and were regarded as authorities by 
foreign countries." 
On the night of Monday, May 21st, 1866, fire destroyed the 
Academy of Music on Fourteenth street, and also the New York 
University Medical College building, immediately eastward. The 
whole of the apparatus of the college was destroyed, including the 
' ' anatomical, surgical, and obstetrical museum; the chemical appa- 
ratus, and the recently established chemical laboratory; the collec- 
tion of drugs and other objects of materia medica, surgery, the 
practice of medicine, etc. The loss in the chemical museum alone 
was rated at $15,000, and although at that time the only debt of 
the college was a mortgage of $15,000, and the property was cov- 
ered by insurance to the extent of $25,000, the fire entailed a very 
considerable loss. No time was lost in making temporary disposi- 
tions so as to prevent a suspension. Prof. Gouley's clinics were 
held in Bellevue Hospital. For many reasons it was resolved not 
to build on the Fourteenth street site, an important consideration 
being the cost of living to the student. Fourteenth street had 
become more fashionable, and the rates for board and lodging in 
the vicinity had in some cases reached $11 per week, whereas Belle- 
vue Hospital Medical College was in a position to announce in its 
annual circular that good board and lodging in the vicinity of 
Bellevue Hospital, First avenue and Twenty-sixth street, was 
obtainable at $3.00 to $5.00 weekly. Again, students were com- 
pelled to attend the Bellevue Hospital for all clinical instruction; 
therefore, the medical faculty recommended that the new college 
building be erected ' ' as close as possible to Bellevue Hospital, ' ' and 
suggested that the University Council appeal to the public for 
necessary funds. These, however, were not immediately forthcom- 
ing, and for three years the college was destined to be located even 
farther southward of Bellevue Hospital. As a temporary expe- 
dient, college sessions were held in a building of the old New York 
Hospital, Broadway and Church street. To an extent, the college 
benefited, its close proximity to a large hospital being a distinct 
advantage to the students, who thereby obtained clinical observa- 
tion of more than fifteen hundred surgical cases. The New York 
Hospital building was occupied until 1869. From 1869 onward, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
459 
the college was located on East Twenty-sixth street, near East 
River, opposite the gate of Bellevue Hospital, the course being 
partly given in the college building, and partly in the amphithe- 
atres and wards of Bellevue, Charity, and Manhattan Eye and 
Ear hospitals. 
Shortly before the fire, Dr. John T. Metcalfe, Professor of the 
Institutes and Practice of Medicine, resigned and joined the fac- 
ulty of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College; and Dr. Van Buren, 
Professor of Anatomy, went over to the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons. Alfred L. Loomis and William Darling, respectively, 
were appointed to the vacated chairs. 
In 1872, an attempt was made by the New York University to 
bring the Medical College into closer relation with the parent 
body, and in November Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa was elected to the 
University Council. He, with the Chancellor and the University 
Secretary, constituted a committee on the medical department, but 
the attempt does not appear to have been productive of important 
results. Whether the endeavor to bring about a closer union had 
reference in any way to the financial condition of the professional 
school is not clear, but certainly at that time the medical college 
was seriously involved financially. In December, 1872, the Alumni 
Association of the Medical College adopted resolutions, seeking 
the collection of the sum of $200,000, "to be used by the Council 
for the general endowment of the Medical Department of the 
University." The project failed, and within a year the medical 
faculty were embarrassed by the pressing liabilities incurred in 
the renting of their premises at East Twenty-sixth street, which 
building they had leased at an annual rental of $5,000. 
At that time of serious moment to the institution, it suffered 
possibly the most serious faculty loss of its history. The name of 
Draper had been synonymous with the highest standard of medical 
and scientific instruction, and from the inception of the college, 
the name had always been identified with it; Professor J. W. 
Draper, as Professor of Chemistry and Physiology, and later as 
Emeritus Professor of the department and president of the col- 
lege, had added dignity and prestige to the institution; his son, 
Dr. Henry Draper, who succeeded him to the chair of physiology, 
had proved to be even more brilliant than his father, scientifically. 
And when they simultaneously resigned their appointments and 
offices, and at a moment when the college was passing through a 460 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
period of much perplexity, the institution's loss was accentuated. 
However, the school had established too substantial a reputation 
to be in danger of permanent disablement by financial or other 
misfortunes, and although the financial need remained pressing 
for some years, temporary expedients carried the institution for- 
ward to better times. 
In 1875, at the recommendation of the medical faculty, the 
University Council substituted the title of "dean" for the desig- 
nation "president," under which the chief executive officer of the 
medical school formerly was known, and the then registrar, Dr. 
Charles Inslee Pardee, became the first incumbent of the office. 
Under his administration the institution developed; the spring of 
1876 saw the completion of the new Medical College building, which 
stood on a lot 70 feet by 98 feet, on East Twenty-sixth street. In 
that year the graduates numbered 116, and altogether 480 students 
had attended the lectures of that session, the figures being the 
highest reached since the beginning of the Civil War. 
The erection of the college building was made possible by the 
financial co-operation of the faculty of the medical department. 
In a proposition placed by them before the Council of the Uni- 
versity, it was stated that they had subscribed $12,500 cash, which 
they were prepared to donate to the University, provided the addi- 
tional $75,000 be raised by subscription, so as to free the Medical 
College of debt; or that, as an alternative, $40,000 be raised by 
subscription and the remaining $35,000 be assumed by the Uni- 
versity on mortgage. A determined effort was instituted by the 
University Council to meet the requirements, but not more than 
$20,000 could be secured. Consequently, the opportunity presented 
to the University of acquiring supreme jurisdiction over the Med- 
ical College could not be grasped, and the medical faculty, who in 
fact constituted in themselves the "corporation of owners," con- 
tinued in control. To meet the financial situation, a corporation 
had been formed in 1870, under the designation of the "Loomis 
Medical Laboratory," and those of the faculty who had subscribed 
amounts to the institution received scrip of the corporation to 
the value of their payments. The $20,000 fund raised was used to 
liquidate that amount of the Medical College debt, and the deficit 
was raised among the faculty, and loaned the institution, for which 
loans they received stock certificates. In this manner, the faculty 
became more definitely the "governing" body, and many years NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
461 
later the Chancellor of the University, reviewing the circumstances 
contributory to a serious dissension that had arisen between the 
college and the University, stated the peculiar relationship of the 
two bodies thus: "The chief duties of the executive officer (the 
university chancellor), in his relation to the Medical School, were 
the signing of diplomas, the presiding at Commencements, the par- 
ticipation, by invitation, in serious cases of discipline, and the 
supervision of the annual announcements." 
The members of the faculty of the Medical College in that year 
were: Chas. A. Budd, Obstetrics; J. C. Draper, Chemistry; A. L. 
Loomis, Pathology and Practice of Medicine; William Darling, 
Anatomy; Wm. H. Thomson, Materia Medica and Therapeutics; 
T. W. S. Arnold, Physiology and Histology; John T. Darby, Sur- 
gery; C. I. Pardee, Diseases of the Ear; Erskine Mason, Clinical 
Surgery. 
In 1877 further endeavors were made by the medical faculty to 
secure a reduction and a remittance of graduation fees payable 
by the graduating students of the Medical School to the University. 
Chancellor Crosby, of the University, made reference to it on 
April 5, 1877, when he and the University Council were engrossed 
in the consideration of another matter of vital import to the 
University. Financial difficulties so heavily weighted the Univer- 
sity, that the Council seriously thought of suspending the academic 
department, and accumulate the income from its existing endow- 
ments, keeping in full operation the schools of medicine and law; 
the plan to hold until the institution had accumulated from its 
unused endowment income, or by the raising of a public fund, 
sufficient to enable the academic department to be reopened. Chan- 
cellor Crosby favored the plan, and desired the resources of the 
University to be used to foster and strengthen the two most vigor- 
ous departments-the schools of medicine and law. The faculty 
of the academic department, however, strenuously opposed the sug- 
gested suspension, and themselves undertook to risk personal finan- 
cial loss by its continuance; they promised to accept as salary any 
surplus remaining out of the year's revenue of their department 
after the cost of maintaining the building had been met. In that 
way, the affairs of the University continued to drift for some years. 
In the general University financial interregnum, the medical 
faculty had also been compelled to face urgent and serious financial 
liabilities, and in their involved state, their long-standing "gradua- 462 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
tion fee" grievance against the University assumed magnitude, and. 
so they had felt in regard to the ' ' tax, ' ' when they had addressed to 
Chancellor Crosby a request for its absolute remittance. Owing to 
the other matters, already referred to, of more serious consequence 
then before them, the University Council did not then reach a de- 
cision in respect to the "graduation fee" liability of the Medical 
College to the parent institution, but in the following February a 
resolution was passed "that the Medical Department be hereafter 
placed on the same footing with the other departments of the 
University, in respect to the payment of diploma fees." 
Regarding the proposition of the medical faculty that the Uni- 
versity assume the whole financial liability of the college, in respect 
to the new college building, the University financial survey of 
October, 1877, makes note of the matter, the record stating that 
the medical faculty asserted that the apparatus, museums, etc., 
destroyed in 1866, had been replaced; that the new medical build- 
ing had involved an expenditure of $134,200.38, to meet which the 
faculty had had funds amounting in all to $39,500, of which $20,000 
was obtained by the sale of the old building, and $19,500 by sub- 
scription; that $94,720.38 had to be carried by mortgage, or by 
floating debt; that by incurring the debt, the faculty had been 
enabled "to sustain the honor of the University, and to give to 
its medical department this year (1877) the largest class ever 
graduated by the University, and the largest but one graduated 
in the United States." 
During the financial troubles of the University, an attempt was 
made to divert the assets of the Undergraduate College to the 
Post-Graduate School of Medicine, which had been organized a few 
years previously. The ' ' History of the Medical Department of the 
University of the City of New York," published in October, 1890, 
by the Alumni Association, makes the following reference to the 
Post-Graduate School: 
After seven years of existence, this Post-Graduate Course was abolished. 
Tre "Supplementary Faculty," as th» professors giving instruction in this 
course were styled to distinguish them from the Governing Faculty of the 
College, desired to be allowed to grant degrees, instead of certificates, and 
they also desired to have a system of separate fees, separate lecture halls, 
etc., and to be allowed a share in the general government of the College. 
Upon due consideration by the Governing Faculty, it was decided that 
these proposals would not accord with the policy of the College, and it was 
therefore deemed for the best interest of the institution to accept the resig- NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
463 
nations which were tendered by a majority of the Post-Graduate profes- 
sors, who seceded in April, 1882. 
Meanwhile, the Medical College continued to progress; its at- 
tendances increased each year; in the session 1878-79, the enroll- 
ments of medical students were 556; in 1879-80, 609; in 1880-81, 
623. At the end of the winter term of 1882, 213 medical graduates 
received diplomas, a record of which the college was proud, al- 
though at that time the course for graduation extended only over 
two sessions of lectures, each less than six months. 
In 1883, the Medical College Laboratory, a corporation, received 
a charter from the State. Its organizers were eight professors of 
the University Medical College, and its organization was an attempt 
by the governing faculty of the medical school to straighten the 
financial affairs of the institution, of which the eight professors 
of medicine were the principal creditors, they having loaned con- 
siderable sums of money to the College. The Chancellor of the 
University, in a report (1885-1891) states that the eight professors 
held the grounds and the building used for instruction as private 
shareholders, "but with public spirit," and that the individual 
proprietorship of the Medical College continued until 1891. 
Probably, the professor with most power over the affairs of the 
Medical College during the seventies and eighties was Dr. Alfred 
L. Loomis; the institution was heavily indebted to him; and his 
prestige became even greater when, at a meeting of the Loomis 
Medical Laboratory on March 23, 1887, he announced that: "About 
one year ago a gentleman gave me power of attorney to spend 
$100,000 for him, in the erection and equipment of a laboratory 
building, for the exclusive use of the Faculty and students of the 
Medical Department of New York University." This gift placed 
in the hands of the governing faculty of the Medical School even 
greater power, and made them even less amenable to approaches 
by the University having as motive the strengthening of the union 
between the two bodies. The University was gaining strength and, 
jealously guarding its reputation as an institution of learning in 
which was no semblance of commercialism, it desired to exert a 
stronger supervision over the affairs of the Medical College which 
bore its name. Certain gifts had from time to time been made to 
the Medical Faculty for the exclusive purposes of the Medical 
College, and further sums had been solicited by the University 464 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Council, and received by them on behalf of the Medical Depart- 
ment, and funds had also been raised by public subscription in the 
name of the University, and allotted to the needs of the Medical 
College, so that the relationship though certain, fundamentally 
became indefinite, and the medical faculty remained virtually in 
complete control. The situation was in this respect not clarified 
by a happening in 1892, which in itself had an important bearing 
on the future prosperity of the College. At that time, the institu- 
tion was very heavily indebted to Dr. Loomis, the senior professor, 
and Mr. 0. H. Payne, a patient of his, resolved to free the institu- 
tion from debt. He did so, and thus the shareholding by professors 
was automatically extinguished; but instead of placing the prop- 
erty under University ownership, Mr. Payne arranged that it should 
still be under the direction of the "Loomis Medical Laboratory," 
a corporation established in 1870, as hereinbefore described. This 
introduced an outside element having no connection with New 
York University, and the administration of the Medical College 
became even more hampered. The Chancellor's report commented 
upon the condition thus: "The Medical College nevertheless still 
remained under cumbrous management. It was related to no less 
than four corporations-the New York University, the Loomis 
Medical Laboratory, the Medical College Laboratory, and the Med- 
ical College Dispensary." The result was detrimental to the col- 
lege, and its effect became evident during the next few years, though 
the decreased enrollment cannot be wholly or even chiefly attributed 
to this involved condition of government, although the college 
did not progress in the ratio of other professional schools, notably 
Harvard and Pennsylvania Medical Schools, which had been 
placed unreservedly under the University system. As a matter of 
fact, New York University declined both in enrollments, and in 
educational standard. The decreased enrollment may be attributed 
to the adoption in that year of a three-year course, and the exten- 
sion of the regular session to seven months; but the deterioration in 
the standard of instruction may be presumed to have been caused 
by the lack of untrammelled authoritative government. This low- 
ering of educational standard became publicly evident in the re- 
ports of the Regents of the University of the State of New York, 
in which were recorded their examinations of medical graduates 
applying for license to practise in the State of New York. Of the 
twelve medical schools of the State, the reports during the years NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
465 
1891-95 placed the University Medical College eleventh, and in 
1896, last. The extent to which the enrollment was affected by 
the adoption of the three-year course is clear from the following 
statistics: Matriculants of 1890-91, 696; 1892-93, 460; 1893-94, 
362; and the two succeeding years each enrolled 376 students. 
In 1895, a gloom was cast over the Medical College by the death 
of Dr. Alfred L. Loomis. From point of excellence as an educator, 
and by reason of his incessant labors to effect the freeing of the 
institution from debt, he had merited his place at the head of the 
College. At the memorial service held on May 2, 1895, the Chan- 
cellor of the University paid just tribute to the deceased profes- 
sor's endeavors and achievements in respect to the College, saying 
' ' He had led the Medical School out into a large place; virtually 
a second foundation of our College of Medicine was accomplished 
in five years, 1887-1892." 
Following the death of Dr. Loomis, serious dissension arose 
among the medical faculty in respect to the deanship, and the 
friction continued long after the appointment of Prof. Le Fevre, 
as acting dean. It resulted in the University Council assuming 
direct control of the Medical College, March 1, 1897, when the 
University accepted the formal transfer of the property of the 
Loomis Medical Laboratory to it. 
In the winter of 1896-97 the college had adopted even more 
stringent requirements for graduation, necessitating attendance at 
lectures for four years. The length of each session was also ex- 
tended, and consequently the enrollment of the opening session 
was disappointing, so that it was an opportune moment in which 
to inaugurate a change of administration. Immediately after the 
University became possessed of full authority over the Medical 
College, the University Council organized a medical college com- 
mittee, empowered with jurisdiction over the general affairs of the 
department. The committee almost immediately ran counter to 
the eight governing professors. At that time occurred the partial 
destruction by fire of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, almost 
immediately opposite the University Medical College. The occur- 
rence suggested the merger of the two colleges, and at the instiga- 
tion of the Chancellor of New York University, one of the members 
of the Medical College committee, Dr. J. P. Mann, an alumnus of 
Bellevue, was deputed to broach the subject to the faculty of Belle- 
vue Hospital Medical College. Exchanges of opinions eventually 466 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
led the University Council, on March 18, 1897, to formally invite 
the Bellevue College to join the New York University, by merging 
its professional school in that of the University. The invitation 
was unanimously accepted, and the faculties of both schools of 
medicine placed their resignations in the hands of the Chancellor 
of the University, so as to facilitate the consolidation. Thereupon, 
the Medical College committee, on behalf of the University, selected 
a faculty for the joint college from the old faculties of the two 
schools. The selections brought strong remonstrance from the 
Bellevue authorities, and a request to the University Council for a 
revision of the assignments, which, of seven chairs, provided only 
one chair for Bellevue, four to professors of the University College, 
dividing the remaining two. Dissatisfaction was also present 
among the professors of the University College, who by the appoint- 
ment of the Medical College committee had been shorn of much of 
their authority, and for some time it appeared that the improba- 
bility of permanent reconciliation of the dissentients would neces- 
sitate the abrogation of the union of the two schools, and that both 
would revert to their previous state. However, the Chancellor 
and members of the University Council were particularly desirous 
of effecting the amalgamation, and recognized that fairness, impar- 
tiality, and faithfulness to the highest ideals of the important 
trust reposed in them, were the essential factors to consummate 
the union in harmonious permanence and effectiveness. Their rul- 
ings, however, failed to satisfy certain members of the teaching 
staff of the University Medical College, who thereupon entered into 
negotiation with Cornell University, seeking to establish in New 
York City a medical department of that University, with them- 
selves as members of the faculty. In their designs they were suc- 
cessful, and the announcement of their displacement and subse- 
quent endeavors was made by the Chancellor of New York Uni- 
versity at the Commencement, held at the Metropolitan Opera 
House on May 19, 1898. The Chancellor regretted that "by reason 
of the failure of some of our professors of medicine, since May 
26, 1897, to observe the duties belonging to their relation to us 
under the University system . . . we were constrained to condition 
their continuance as permanent professors upon their acceptance 
of existing University rules and requirements. ' ' The six professors 
were consequently displaced, and as a result, concluded negotia- 
tions with Cornell. The Chancellor further announced that "the NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
467 
trustees of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College have to-day 
ruled to complete the consolidation of that College with New 
York University, under the title of 'The University and Bellevue 
Hospital Medical College.' . . . The alumni of the two schools, 
representing nearly ten thousand graduates, will be placed on the 
rolls of the University." 
This auspicious announcement of the amalgamation of the two 
schools was such as to have merited the occasion being made one 
of enthusiastic gratulations; the occasion was, however, marred by 
the preceding announcement, recounting the actions of the dissen- 
tient University College professors. Under the agreement of 
amalgamation, the two college properties, rated at $500,000, were 
to become the property of the University, and be used by the united 
school. It was announced that Dr. Edward G. Janeway, dean, and 
seven professors of the former University Medical College faculty, 
and twenty-one professors and adjunct professors of the former 
Bellevue Hospital Medical College, "together with such additional 
professors as may hereafter be appointed," would constitute the 
faculty of the combined school. 
The opening of the combined College, October 1, 1898, was fol- 
lowed by litigation, the former trustees of the University Medical 
College demanding the return of its property, as having been trans- 
ferred to the University by them under promises to which the 
University had failed to adhere. The University Council resisted 
the suit, and litigation somewhat discounted the otherwise encour- 
aging opening years of the consolidated school. 
The "Announcement of the University and Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College" for its first session, 1898-1899, stated the union 
to have been "the result of a conviction of the members of the 
Council of the New York University and the Faculty and Trustees 
of Bellevue Hospital . . . that the standards of higher medical 
education would be thus best maintained and advanced." The 
plan of instruction provided for a four-year course, and a curricu- 
lum similar to that which had obtained in the previous year, al- 
though some minor changes consequent upon the methods of indi- 
vidual professors were effected. The fees for the combined four- 
year course were to total $700. Four hundred and forty-two stu- 
dents gathered in the new college building of Bellevue Hospital 
for the session which opened on October 1, 1898. The main lec- 
tures of the session were held in that building, which had been 468 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
erected in 1897 by Bellevue. The five-story Carnegie Laboratory, 
belonging to Bellevue and adjoining the college building, also added 
further excellent facilities for instruction and research. The fac- 
ulty of the combined school for the first joint session, 1898-99, con- 
sisted of: 
Lewis A. Sayre, Emeritus Professor of Orthopedia and Clinical Surgery; 
Ed. G. Janeway, LL.D., Professor of Medicine, and Dean, with A. H. 
McAlpin, Jr., Chief of Clinic; A. Alex. Smith, Professor of the Principles 
and Practice of Medicine, and Clinical Medicine, with R. J. Carlisle, Chief 
of Clinic; Hermann M. Biggs, Professor of Principles and Practice of 
Surgery, and Adjunct Professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine; 
also Secretary of Faculty, with J. H. Huddleston, Chief of Clinic; Joseph 
D. Bryant, Professor of Principles and Practice of Surgery, Operative 
and Clinical Surgery, with Wm. C. Lusk, Chief of Clinics; Austin Flint, 
Jr., Professor of Obstetrics, and Clinical Professor of Gynecology; George 
D. Stewart, Professor of Anatomy; Egbert Le Fevre, Corresponding Sec- 
retary, and Professor of Clinical Medicine, and Associate Professor of 
Therapeutics, with Samuel A. Brown, Chief of Clinic, Graham Lusk, 
Professor of General Pathology, Bacteriology, and Hygiene; Henry C. 
Coe, Professor of Gynecology, with Wm. E. Studdiford, Chief of Clinics; 
L. Bolton Bangs, Professor of Genito-Urinary Surgery; B. Farquhar 
Curtis, Adjunct Professor of the Principles of Surgery, and Professor of 
Clinical Surgery; Henry D. Noyes, Professor of Ophthalmology; Henry G. 
Piffard, Professor of Dermatology; Prince A. Morrow, Professor Genito- 
Urinary Diseases; Ed. D. Fisher, Professor of Diseases of the Nervous 
System, with F. A. Scratchley, Chief of Clinics; Francke H. Bosworth, 
Professor of Diseases of the Throat; Beverley Robinson, Clinical Professor 
of Medicine; Wm. P. Northup, Professor of Pediatrics, with R. G. Free- 
man, Chief of Clinics; Alexander E. Macdonald, Professor of Mental 
Diseases and Medical Jurisprudence; Christian A. Herter, Professor of 
Pathological Chemistry; John A. Fordyce, Professor of Dermatology; 
Henry H. Rusby, Professor of Materia Medica, and Pharmacology; D. H. 
McAlpin, Jr., Professor of Gross Pathology, and Clinical Registrar; J. A. 
Mandel, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Physiology, and Adjunct 
Professor of Physiological Chemistry; Ed. B. Dench, Professor of Otol- 
ogy ; Willis E. Ford, Professor of Electro-Therapeutics; Chas. E. Quimby, 
Clinical Professor of Medicine; Wm. H. Park, Adjunct Professor of Bac- 
teriology and Hygiene; John F. Erdmann, Professor of Practical Anatomy, 
and Clinical Professor of Surgery; Cornelius G. Coakley, Clinical Pro- 
fessor of Laryngology; Reg. H. Sayre, Clinical Professor of Orthopedic 
Surgery; Jasper J. Garmany, Clinical Professor of Surgery and Demon- 
strator of Operative Surgery; Henry M. Silver, Clinical Professor of 
Surgery; Parker Syms, Clinical Professor of Surgery. 
Lecturers: J. E. Weeks, G. P. Biggs, A. H. Doty, J. A. McCreery, J. E. 
Stubbert, Chas. H. Lewis, Ramon Guiteras. Instructors: J. Van Der Poel, 
R. C. James, H. S. Stearns, T. C. Janeway, H. H. Brooks, S. A. Brown, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
469 
J. S. Billings, T. Dunham, W. L. Stowell. Assistants: W. Ayers, P. S. 
Boynton, A. H. Anderson, H. F. Quackenbos, W. N. Berkeley, J. H. 
Huber, A. W. Ferris, A. R. Guerard, W. J. Pulley, C. B. Slade, 0. D. F. 
Robertson, A. Me. L. Jeffrey, M. F. L. Crowley, H. L. Winter, W.S. Adams, 
L. T. Lewaid, C. Phillips, Eben. Fosket, E. M. Evans, Geo. L. Brodhead, 
H. A. Purdy, D. Bovaird, 0. H. Holder, D. W. Hunter, J. F. McKiernon, 
W. J. Furness, E. H. Griffin, S. Oppenheimer, W. B. Trimble, C. M. Ford, 
J. Wohlforth, F. A. Scratehley, F. W. Shipman, M. B. Parounagian, J. A. 
Bodine, N. A. Haubold and J. V. Standish. 
The operation of the consolidated school proceeded to the satis- 
faction of the University and the faculty. Many improvements 
were initiated, and the announcement for the year 1900-01 stated: 
"During the two years that the combined colleges have existed 
as an integral part of the University, the expectations of the Uni- 
versity have been more than realized." The increasing severity 
of the medical course, however, exercised considerable effect on the 
enrollments, although the decreased attendances at classes did not 
exercise the depressing effect such a condition would otherwise 
cause, because it was well known that all other medical schools of 
the State suffered a similar shrinkage. Nevertheless, the decrease 
was so considerable as to give the administration periods of per- 
plexity, as to the ultimate outcome. The combined matriculants 
of the two colleges for the session 1897-98 numbered 738; the 
matriculants of the session 1903-04 totaled only 311. In 1899, the 
faculty were urged by a portion of the class of 1901 to grant them 
their degree in the year 1900, but declined to thus lower their 
advertised standard. They held firmly to the four-year course, by 
which strict adherence the institution lost a number of students 
and several thousands of dollars in fees. 
Notwithstanding this additional facility, however, it was found 
that the space at the disposal of the college was less than the re- 
quirements ; in fact, in the following year, when the entering class 
was 160, many students who sought admission to the first-year class 
had to be refused. 
However, the administration looked forward to a normal growth, 
and in 1904 began the erection of a six-story edifice, adjoining the 
main University College building. It was completed in 1905, and 
was open for the winter session, thus rendering possible a further 
extension and elaboration of the laboratory work. In that year 
the faculty, seeing that the trend of medical instruction indicated 470 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
the early further expansion in the course required for graduation, 
announced that ' ' the curriculum of the present four-year course in 
this state is becoming each year more and more crowded, and a 
further extension of the time required for graduation in medicine 
must certainly soon come." The faculty therefore offered an 
elective fifth-year course, same to be in substitution of interne 
services; and it was expected that the fifth-year class would become 
popular, having, as it was pointed out, distinct advantages over the 
interne system, which always meant a period of heavy labor to the 
young practitioner, but did not always furnish a proportionate 
increase in medical knowledge whereas, by taking the fifth year 
course of the college, all the advantages of the practical work as 
interne would be present without the excessive labor, and with the 
added advantage of school supervision and instruction with which 
the student pursued his practical work. 
In the opening years of the combined school, there were few 
faculty changes of importance. Prof. D. Hunter McAlpin, Jr., 
resigned the chair of gross pathology; and in the winter of 1906-07 
Dr. Ed. K. Dunham resigned the head professorship of pathology, 
but consented to remain a member of the faculty, taking a research 
professorship, and in due course he was succeeded in the depart- 
ment of pathology by Dr. Richard Mills Pearce. In 1906, also, 
the dean of the college, Dr. Ed. G. Janeway, requested the Uni- 
versity Council to accept his resignation as Professor of Medicine, 
as increasing responsibilities in his private practice made it impos- 
sible for him to also adequately perform the duties of the depart- 
ment. In 1907 the tuition fee was increased to $200 yearly, an 
advance rendered imperative by the continual expansion of the 
curriculum, and consequent increase in the corps of instructors. 
One phase of the College work had for many years been unsatis- 
factory-the Medical College Clinic had been hampered for many 
years, and a report for 1907-08 session stated that it "continued 
to be a very serious problem, over one hundred thousand cases 
having been treated by it in the last year, but owing to the inade- 
quate space at the disposal of the College, it was not possible to 
furnish a waiting room for patients. Two years later, however, 
the defect was to some extent remedied, an extension being theft 
made to the Dispensary, at the same time as the Carnegie Labora- 
tory extension was made. 
Dr. Egbert Le Fevre had become dean, vice Dr. Janeway, and NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
471 
the session of 1910-11 was an auspicious one, the college enrolling 
511 students, and on January 10, 1911, the Carnegie Laboratory 
Extension, a building six stories high, fronting on First avenue, 
and adjoining the existing clinic buildings on the south, was opened, 
Mr. Carnegie personally attending on that occasion. The exten- 
sion was admirably equipped, containing research rooms and labo- 
ratories for chemistry, bacteriology, hygiene, pathology, pharma- 
cology, and surgical research. 
In that and the previous year, many changes occurred in the 
faculty; two of the vacancies were occasioned by death-Henry G. 
Piffard, Emeritus Professor of Dermatology, and F. T. Brown, 
Professor of Genito-Urinary Surgery, passing away during that 
session. Dr. Brown was succeeded by Dr. E. L. Keyes, Jr., and 
Dr. Douglas Symmers was appointed to the chair of pathology, 
vice Professor Pearce, resigned. Dr. W. E. Studdiford was ad- 
vanced to Adjunct Professor of Gynecology, and Dr. R. J. Carlisle 
became Assistant Professor of Medicine. Dr. E. L. Keyes, Jr., 
however, resigned his appointment during the session 1910-11. 
In the following session, 1911-12, the standard of requirement 
for admission to the college courses was made even more stringent; 
in that year and thereafter, no student would be admitted to the 
course who had not previously received at least one year of col- 
lege training. The new requirement was put into operation, stated 
the Chancellor, "at considerable cost," but he nevertheless recom- 
mended that in the near future the requirement "should be ad- 
vanced to two college years." In that year the registers showed 
a gratifying enrollment of 587 students; the faculty changes were 
few, the important changes being the advancement of Dr. Alfred 
T. Osgood from lecturer to the professorship of Genito-Urinary 
Surgery, and Dr. S. A. Brown from corresponding secretary, to 
secretary. In the following year, William B. Trimble, lecturer of 
dermatology, was appointed to the chair of that department and of 
syphilology, vice J. A. Fordyce, resigned. 
On March 30, 1914, Dr. Egbert Le Fevre, dean of the faculty, 
died; "No one can estimate the loss sustained ... by the whole 
university," commented Chancellor Brown, in his annual report. 
Dr. William H. Park, Professor of Bacteriology and Hygiene, was 
appointed to the deanship, Dr. S. A. Brown becoming vice-dean 
and secretary. In that year also, Dr. Joseph D. Bryant, who had 472 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
been Professor of Surgery, and one of the foremost members of 
the faculty for so many years, died. 
To make even more permanent in recollection the long associa- 
tion of her deceased husband with the college, Mrs. Egbert Le 
Fevre, shortly after the death of Dr. Le Fevre, presented to the 
University the sum of $10,000 to establish the "Dr. Egbert Le 
Fevre Deanship Fund," the income to apply in perpetuity to 
supplement the salary of future deans of the Medical College, 
while in office. This endowment brought into general knowledge 
a condition existent for many years in almost all the departments 
of the University, but until then appreciated by very few. The 
deans of almost all the departments, who in almost all instances 
were also performing professorial duties at the recognized emolu- 
ment for that office, undertook the arduous labors of the deanship 
without additional remuneration; in some cases, the deans under- 
took the dual service at a lower stipend than that received by 
some of the professors of the department. The question of creat- 
ing endowments for the deanships had previously been mooted, 
but until Mrs. Le Fevre acted, no such funds had been established. 
During the session 1913-14, William Mabon, Professor of Mental 
Diseases, became emeritus professor of the department, and the 
professorship was taken by Geo. H. Kirby, formerly associate pro- 
fessor. Other changes were: George D. Stewart, from an asso- 
ciate professorship of surgery, to the professorship of surgery, in 
place of Dr. Bryant, deceased; Cornelius G. Coakley, who resigned 
the chair of laryngology. 
Dr. Park, dean of the Medical College, who had only after great 
pressure been persuaded to accept the office, on account of the 
many other professional duties that demanded his time, resigned 
the deanship in 1914, and Dr. Samuel A. Brown, vice-dean and 
secretary, became acting dean. Later he was confirmed to the 
office, and Dr. John Henry Wyckoff became secretary. 
Dr. A. Alexander Smith died on December 13, 1914, generally 
deplored. He had been connected with Bellevue Hospital Medical 
College in professorial capacity for thirty-eight years, and univer- 
sally esteemed for his ability as an instructor. 
During the session 1914-15, 587 students attended the lectures, 
and the graduating class numbered 93. The enrollments had not, 
however, even yet reached a satisfactory level; in fact, the Chan- 
cellor's report of December, 1915, made it evident that the Medical NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
473 
College was retrogressing, instead of progressing, i. e., in point of 
financial resources. The report refers to the Medical College as 
being, with the two schools at the Heights, mainly responsible for 
the University's annual deficit, stating that "for two years the 
Medical College deficit was over $21,000." In the season 1914-15 
its deficit was $18,000. Dr. Elmer Ellsworth Brown, the Chancel- 
lor, further stated that "an increase of at least a million dollars 
in the endowment of the Medical College is needed at once." That 
the College will ultimately become endowed to that extent is not 
an impossibility; that it will pass out of existence may be confi- 
dently asserted to be an impossibility, when one bears in mind the 
princely generosity in public benefactions of this period of Amer- 
ican history, and the meritorious service rendered to the nation by 
an institution of the high standard of learning such as is the ' ' Uni- 
versity and Bellevue Hospital Medical College." CHAPTER III 
BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE 
BELLEVUE HOSPITAL of New York City, with which 
since 1860 has been identified one of the nation's leading 
medical colleges, may lay claim to being the oldest hospital 
now existing in the United States, and originally as the Almshouse 
Hospital may be considered to have begun in 1658, when the poor- 
house of New Amsterdam, with a population of about one thou- 
sand, was provided with a hospital, the first hospital built upon 
United States soil. Master Jacob Hendrickszen Varrevanger, sur- 
geon to the Dutch West India Company, suggested its establish- 
ment, of which when opened he was appointed in charge. The 
early efforts were under church auspices, and depended upon vol- 
untary subscription. In 1731 the city suffered its third epidemic 
of small-pox, attributed mainly to unsanitary conditions. As a 
remedial measure, a poorhouse was suggested, and on November 
15, 1734, the Common Council of the city appointed a committee 
to consider the matter, but it was not until 1736 that a "Publick 
Workhouse and House of Correction of the City of New York," 
was opened. One room, 25 feet by 23 feet, was set apart as an 
infirmary, equipped with requisites, including six beds, and Dr. 
John Van Buren was appointed medical officer. As the city grew, 
so the Almshouse developed, and the medical department of the 
Almshouse grew in proportion. In 1811-16 the city built a new 
almshouse and two hospital pavilions, in a district known as ' ' Belle- 
vue. " The hospital was of brick, 75 feet in length by 25 in width. 
The cost was $421,109.56, and the buildings were adequate for 
many years. 
The earliest reference to public instruction in Bellevue Hospital 
appears to have been in the ' ' Medical Repository ' ' of 1804, stating 
that a lying-in ward had been established in the almshouse, and that 
"as a sufficient number of cases occurred there," Dr. Valentine 
Seaman had begun a course of lectures on the ' ' obstetric art, includ- 
ing anatomy, physiology, and practical parts." Three years later 
474 BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE 
475 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons was established, and one 
of its early announcements made reference to the extensive clinical 
observations possible at the adjacent Almshouse Hospital. 
Although for forty years certain clinical instruction was given 
by the resident staff of the Hospital, the fees private perquisites of 
the instructor, medical instruction was not systematically organ- 
ized, and it was not until 1847 that certain medical men, aware that 
at the Bellevue Hospital and Almshouse were then about one thou- 
sand patients, deplored the fact that "such a wide field for clinical 
instruction should be lost to the city, to science, and to the world, ' ' 
which idea possibly influenced the Almshouse department, for in 
that year what may be termed the regime of the resident physicians 
was ended, and a medical board organized. 
Prior to 1847, the Hospital staff consisted of a resident physician 
and six assistants, without salary, and appointed for one year. 
They were appallingly overworked, and unable to cope with the 
epidemics present each year. Over 14,000 cases were treated in 
1846. Typhus fever was very frequent, and in 1847, distinguished 
in the Hospital history as that of the "great epidemic," carried 
off many of the young assistant physicians. There were 1,995 
cases of typhus and ship fever from January 1 to August 3 that 
year, and tents were pitched on the adjacent green. 
Certain doctors volunteered to supplement the resident staff, 
while others undertook to pay visits. Eventually the Board of 
Aidermen were constrained ' ' to give the poor creatures at Bellevue 
some of their distinguished consideration." The Common Council 
appointed a committee of prominent medical men to present a plan 
for reorganization, which committee recommended the creation 
of a board of visiting physicians and surgeons, with authority 
over the resident staff. On November 17, 1847, a medical board 
was organized: Drs. James R. Manley and John W. Francis, con- 
sulting physicians; Valentine Mott and Alexander H. Stevens, 
consulting surgeons; Alonzo Clark, John T. Metcalfe, C. R. Gilman, 
S. R. Harris, A. G. Elliot, and William H. Van Buren, visiting 
physicians; James R. Wood, Willard Parker, F. Campbell Stew- 
art, J. 0. Stone, S. R. Childs, and Alexander Vachi, visiting sur- 
geons. The officers were: Dr. James R. Manley, president; Dr. 
Valentine Mott, vice-president; Dr. John T. Metcalfe, secretary. 
At their first annual meeting in December, 1848, the board looked 
forward "with confident expectation to a continuation of this lib- 476 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
eral system" by which the sick poor were cared for, the public 
interests safeguarded, and the cause of true science and sound 
medical learning steadily promoted." The minutes of February 
28, 1849, had reference to the construction of an amphitheatre at 
the hospital for clinical instruction. This opened March 2, 1850, 
and it was announced that clinical lectures would be delivered by 
members of the Hospital staff every Friday. Thus was laid the 
first seed of that clinical teaching with which the name of Bellevue 
has since been synonymous. 
During the fifties, Bellevue Hospital became the centre of clin- 
ical teaching in New York City. In 1855 a fourth story was added 
to the main building, and therein were established an amphithea- 
tre, to accommodate six hundred persons, and an operating theatre 
"without equal in the United States" at that time. This was 
piueh appreciated by practitioners and medical students, and the 
faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons was soon able 
fb announce that students of the college would be permitted to 
observe the treatment of cases in the new amphitheatre, where 
the^ operations performed before the students would be "of the 
gravest nature." These and other facilities for medical instruc- 
tion at Bellevue Hospital were encouraged by if not directly attrib- 
utable to, the enactment of the "Bone Bill" in 1854, which legal- 
ized dissection of human material, thus removing the necessity of 
dangerous procedures to secure requisite material for anatom- 
ical research. 
About that time, the authorities of the Almshouse decided to 
replace the noxious dead house with a larger building, but it was 
not until 1857 that it was completed. It was of brick, two stories 
in height, the upper story designed as a pathological museum, con- 
taining a lecture-room. This museum became the Wood Patholog- 
ical Museum of Bellevue Hospital, so named in honor of Dr. James 
R. Wood, to whose energy its establishment was attributed. The 
building was inaugurated October 25, 1857, and addresses were 
delivered by Drs. John W. Francis, and James R. Wood, and by 
Profs. Valentine Mott, Stevens, and Parker, Dr. Mott's address 
being supplemented by a demonstration of the anatomy of hernia. 
Although clinical instruction at Bellevue Hospital had consid- 
erably improved since the establishment of the medical board in 
1847, instruction continued to be given under no well-developed 
scheme. The students varied in number from fifty to two hun- BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE 
477 
dred. At the inauguration of the museum, October 19, 1857, Dr. 
Wood announced that a definite course of lectures would be avail- 
able to students and practitioners, upon payment of a fee; that 
attendance at such lectures would be substantiated by the award- 
ing of certificates to students who took the course; and "that the 
lectures instituted would be the first systematized series of clin- 
ical lectures ever delivered in this country." The lecturers in- 
cluded Drs. Clark, Parker, Metcalfe, and Wood, and the clinical 
courses developed so substantially that in 1860 upward of three 
hundred tickets had been taken out. 
In that year, in consequence of the supersedence of the old 
board of ten governors by a new board of control called the Board 
of Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction, the medical 
board of Bellevue Hospital became possessed of the care of all the 
medical departments of the various city charitable and penal 
institutions on Ward's Island, with the exception of the Lunatic 
Asylum and the Infants' Hospital. By this arrangement 960 
additional patients came under the care of the Bellevue Hospital 
Medical Board, and the consequent enlarged scope for clinical in- 
struction and observation prompted the medical board to seriously 
consider the expansion of its plan of medical instruction. 
On December 18, 1860, a committee of physicians made refer- 
ence to the great advantages present for the enlargement of the 
field of clinical instruction, and recommending the advisability of 
"advancing the cause of medical science" by establishing in con- 
nection with Bellevue Hospital "a college for the education of the 
young men . . . thus making it one of the best hospitals and med- 
ical schools in the United States-nay, in Europe." 
In March, 1861, a committee was appointed to procure plans for 
a college building, and on the 30th the Commissioners of Public 
Charities and Correction notified the medical board of Bellevue 
Hospital that they approved of the erection of such a building 
within the hospital inclosure. Consequently, the medical board 
considered the formation of a faculty. Some of the board were 
professorially identified with the College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons, and with the Long Island College Hospital; others were 
disinclined to add teaching to their professional duties. However, 
Drs. B. W. McCready, J. E. Taylor, J. R. Wood, L. A. Sayre, 
S. Smith, A. B. Mott and A. L. Loomis were ready, and on April 
1, 1861, the faculty was organized by electing Dr. I. E. Taylor to 478 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
the presidency and treasureship, and Dr. B. W. McCready to the 
secretaryship. A committee was appointed to ascertain what mem- 
bers of the hospital staff would become members of the faculty, 
which committee reported that ten, of the eighteen, would partici- 
pate in the instructional responsibilities. Consequently, on April 
2, 1861, chairs were assigned as follows: Principles and Practice 
of Surgery, S. Smith; Surgery of Bones and Accidents, F. H. 
Hamilton; Operative Surgery, and Surgical Pathology, J. R. 
Wood; Surgical Anatomy, A. B. Mott; Orthopedic Surgery, L. A. 
Sayre; Obstetrics, J. E. Taylor, Fordyce Barker and G. T. Elliot, 
Jr.; Materia Medica and Therapeutics, B. W. McCready; Anatomy, 
J. W. S. Gouley. Later in that month three of the professors of 
Long Island College Hospital joined the faculty, as follows: 
Principles and Practice of Medicine, Austin Flint; Physiology, 
Austin Flint, Jr.; Chemistry and Toxicology, R. O. Doremus. 
These thirteen constituted the original faculty, as recorded in 
the minutes of the Commissioners of Public Charities and Cor- 
rection, April 11, 1861, but the "First Annual Announcement and 
Circular" issued that summer shows that certain changes had 
been made. Dr. R. Ogden Doremus had become treasurer, vice 
Dr. Isaac E. Taylor, who retained the presidency; and Dr. Timothy 
Childs had been appointed to the chair of Descriptive Anatomy, in 
place of Dr. Gouley, who resigned June 1, 1861, considering it his 
duty to remain in the army during the continuance of the war. 
Further appointments for the opening session were: Charles D. 
Phelps, Curator of the Museum; N. R. Moseley, Prosector to the 
Chair of Surgical Anatomy; and Sylvester Teats, Prosector to the 
Chair of Operative Surgery and Surgical Pathology. 
The charter was granted April 8, 1861, with the following 
trustees: Samuel Draper, James B. Nicholson, Moses H. Gunnell, 
and Isaac Bell, Jr., who were appointed by virtue of their ca- 
pacities as Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction; 
Robert H. Haws, Comptroller of New York, James T. Brady, the 
Most Rev. Archbishop Hughes, John J. Astor, Moses Taylor, Wil- 
liam B. Crosley, John Ward, Samuel D. Cook, D.D., E. H. Chapin, 
D.D., Geo. F. Talman, Edward Minturn, J. P. Giraud Foster, 
Anthony L. Robertson, R. M. Blatchford, Robert S. Hone, Watts 
Sherman and Matthew Morgan. 
On April 11, 1861, the Commissioners of Public Charities and 
Correction granted permission to the Trustees of the College to BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE 
479 
erect a suitable building on the southerly part of the hospital 
grounds, and five days later the trustees passed plans for the 
building. They also elected Simeon Draper first president of the 
board of trustees, in which capacity he served five years. 
During the summer the first building was completed, and the 
preliminary term was announced to commence on Wednesday, Sep- 
tember 18, 1861, to continue four weeks, and to be followed by 
the regular term, to continue until early in March of 1862. As a 
matter of fact, the first exercises of the college, as such, were short 
courses given during April and May, 1861, by Profs. Wood and 
Hamilton, upon points connected with military surgery, then ren- 
dered important by the commencement of the Civil War. These 
were attended by about two hundred practitioners and students. 
In many particulars the "First Annual Announcement and 
Circular" is interesting. It is a sixteen-page pamphlet, on front 
outside cover a woodcut of Bellevue Hospital, represented as ' ' con- 
taining 1,200 beds," and on back outside cover a like illustration 
of Blackwell's Island Hospital, "containing 1,500 beds." The 
announcement opened with assurance by the trustees and fac- 
ulty that Bellevue Hospital Medical College "will command the 
approbation and warm interest of the medical profession of this 
country," and that by "systematizing the mode of instruc- 
tion . . . the future success of the institution will satisfy the highest 
expectations of all who are interested in medical education." It 
stated the plans of the College to be mainly that instruction in all 
branches of physics and surgery would be "eminently practical," 
and that the "vast resources" of the Bellevue and allied hospitals 
would be utilized in combining "to the fullest extent thorough 
didactive with demonstrative teaching." It declared that "this 
plan has recently been adopted in this country, but in no other 
instance on a scale so extensive. ' ' The circular further announced 
that "the salubrious situation of the Hospital, with its spacious 
grounds fronting on East River, renders attendance at lectures 
as early as September and October perfectly comfortable for the 
student." The aggregate fees for tickets to all the lectures were 
$105, students who had attended two full courses in other accred- 
ited schools to be admitted for $50. To qualify for graduation the 
student must have studied for three years with "a regular and 
respectable practitioner of medicine," during or after which he 
must take two full courses of medical lectures, the last at Bellevue 480 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
College; in addition, he must present an acceptable thesis in his 
own handwriting, and to substantiate his authorship thereof must 
undergo a satisfactory examination by professors of the faculty. 
Prospective students were informed that "comfortable board and 
lodging" could be obtained in the vicinity of the college for from 
$3.00 to $5.00 per week. 
At the New York Academy of Medicine is a pamphlet recording 
the inaugural exercises of Bellevue Hospital Medical College. 
These took place October 18, 1861, in the lecture room. The guests 
made a tour of inspection of the charitable institutions on Black- 
well's and Randall's Islands, the inmates participating in a num- 
ber of exercises, some patriotic in spirit, and later gathered 
in the lecture room of the new college building. Professor Taylor, 
president of the college, presided. An address was delivered by 
Prof. B. W. McCready, who referred to the Guy's and St. Thomas's 
(London) hospitals as examples of the hospital-college advan- 
tages, and said that while the authorities of Bellevue Hospital 
had been discussing the project of initiating a like system in the 
United States, ' ' our enterprising neighbors on the other side of the 
East River-the City of Churches-stole a march upon New York, 
and ... in the Long Island College Hospital set an example to the 
Union." Speeches were also made by Simeon Draper, Archbishop 
Hughes, Rev. E. H. Chapin, James T. Brady, the Rev. Chancellor 
Ferris closing the exercises with prayer. 
The college building within the hospital grounds had been 
erected at the expense of the trustees and faculty of the medical 
college, and the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction 
were unable to exercise any effective degree of control over the 
institution. Deeming such a condition unadvisable, they bought 
the building from the faculty in May, 1862, and in return leased 
it to the faculty for a term of years. Ten months later, those 
interested in the project met to consider the erection of a larger 
building and on a different site. The Commissioners of Charities 
and Correction, not wishing the college to go outside the hospital 
grounds, proposed to erect a new building therein and lease it to 
the college. This was accepted, it being agreed that the lower 
floor should be devoted to dispensary requirements. A few months 
later a "Bureau of Medical and Surgical Relief for Out-door 
Poor" was established, but it was not until the winter of 1865-66 
that the new building was erected. The lower floor was for the BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE 
481 
dispensary, and on December 2, 1865, the upper part of the build- 
ing was leased to the faculty for the purposes of the college. Cer- 
tain alterations were made to the old college building, and the 
former auditorium was used for the requirements of the museum, 
which by the presentation of many large private collections had 
become an important asset of the college; in addition to the miscel- 
laneous accumulations, it contained the collections of Profs. Wood 
and Mott, and, through purchase by the trustees in 1864, the 
Museum of the New York University Medical College. 
No faculty changes occurred during the first four years, except 
that in 1862 Prof. B. Silliman, Jr., of Yale, substituted for Dr. 
Doremus, who was in Europe. Dr. Childs' death, which occurred 
at Norwich, Conn., September 3, 1865, created a vacancy, and Dr. 
Stephen Smith was appointed lecturer upon anatomy, being ad- 
vanced to the chair of anatomy two years later; as such he re- 
mained until 1872. The Principles of Surgery department, for- 
merly under Dr. Smith, was assigned to Prof. Hamilton, in addi- 
tion to his other duties. In 1866, Dr. Henry D. Noyes, Demon- 
strator of Anatomy, was made Professor of Ophthalmology. A 
summer course of lectures having been inaugurated, it was neces- 
sary to supplement the regular faculty; Dr. Freeman J. Bumstead 
was appointed Professor of Syphilology; Dr. Foster Smith, lec- 
turer on diseases of the skin; and Dr. J. Lewis Smith, lecturer on 
morbid anatomy. Later, Dr. Bumstead resigned, and Dr. W. H. 
Van Buren was called to the newly-created chair of diseases of 
the genito-urinary system. In April, 1867, the chair of diseases 
of the mind and nervous system was created, and Dr. W. A. Ham- 
mond was elected to it. President Taylor, who had tendered his 
resignation, was constrained to withdraw it upon release from 
some of his professorial duties, and as his administration was 
invaluable, he was held in the presidency by being appointed to 
an emeritus professorship. In April, 1868, Prof. Wood became 
Emeritus Professor of Surgery, and in the following autumn 
Professor Barker resigned, but undertook the lessened responsibil- 
ities of the chair of clinical midwifery and diseases of women. 
Prof. Elliot, during the sessions of 1868-70, undertook the full 
didactic course on obstetrics, in place of Drs. Taylor and Barker; 
in 1870, however, he was incapacitated by illness, and in the fol- 
lowing year succumbed. Dr. William T. Lusk, an alumnus of the 
college and formerly lecturer on physiology in the Long Island 482 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
College Hospital and at Harvard University, was appointed to the 
vacancy, and Dr. Foster Swift having resigned, Dr. Edward L. 
Keyes became lecturer in dermatology. In 1871-72, Profs. Mc- 
Cready and Stephen Smith resigned, and Dr. W. A. Hammond 
became Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics and Diseases 
of the Mind and Nervous System, and Dr. Alpheus B. Crosby 
became Professor of Anatomy. Professor Mott retired from the 
chair of surgical anatomy, and became Professor of Clinical and 
Operative Surgery. At the Bureau for the Relief of the Outdoor 
Poor a medical clinic was established, under Prof. Austin Flint, 
Sr., and a clinic for diseases of children was taken by Prof. Lusk. 
The chair of pathological anatomy having been established, Dr. 
Edward G. Janeway was appointed, and Dr. Keyes became Pro- 
fessor of Dermatology. 
The development of the college during the first decade was sub- 
stantial. In instruction, the faculty indefatigably sought ex- 
pansion, and established many new departments. The inauguration 
in 1867 of the summer session was an important advancement, 
although it entailed additional heavy responsibilities to the faculty, 
the following members of which assumed the additional labors: 
Drs. Noyes, J. L. Smith, Swift, Van Buren, Elliot, Flint, Jr., and 
Doremus. In 1871, recitations superseded the systematic lectures 
entirely, the course being made up of clinics, practical instruction 
in diagnosis, surgical operations, chemical manipulations, and reci- 
tations. 
In that year, the Commissioners of Charities and Correction 
erected a larger amphitheatre, and the clinics became more and 
more varied. In February, 1872, Dr. B. W. McCready was hon- 
ored by admission to emeritus rank, and Prof. Janeway became 
examiner in the summer recitation class, in place of Dr. N. R. 
Moseley, resigned. Joseph D. Bryant, A. Hammond, and LeRoy 
M. Yale were appointed lecturers for the summer session. The 
department of obstetrics and diseases of women and children hav- 
ing become too laborious for Prof. Lusk, Dr. D. Warren Brickill, 
formerly Professor of Obstetrics in the New Orleans School of 
Medicine, was appointed afSsociate professor, thus enabling Dr. 
Lusk to carry through his intention to deliver a systematic course 
of lectures on the diseases of children during the subsequent sum- 
mer session. Prof. Hammond resigned on August 11, 1873, and 
soon left the college altogether. The department of diseases of the BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE 
483 
mind and nervous system was abolished, and to the department of 
materia medica and therapeutics, vacated by Prof. Hammond, Ed. 
G. Janeway was appointed lecturer. During 1873-74, Prof. Mott 
ceased his didactic lectures, and devoted himself to his surgical 
clinic. On April 7, 1874, Prof. Brickill resigned, and Prof. Jane- 
way entered the faculty as Professor of Pathological and Practical 
Anatomy; on May 12, 1874, the chair of gynacology was created, 
and Dr. Edward Randolph Peaslee, formerly a professor of the 
University of Vermont and New York University Medical College, 
was elected to it. On April 21, 1875, the chair of the practice of 
surgery and operations and clinical surgery, until then occupied 
by Prof. Hamilton, was declared vacant, and the chairs of the 
principles and practice of surgery were united, and Prof. Van 
Buren placed at the head of the reorganized department, Dr. Wood 
resuming didactic teaching so far as to lecture upon hernia, etc., 
Prof. Sayre taking fractures and dislocations, in connection with 
orthopedic surgery. On May 20, 1875, the chair of Physiological 
Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence, then newly created, was 
filled by appointment of Dr. John P. Gray, and Dr. Beverly Robin- 
son became instructor in Laryngology. On March 1, 1876, Prof. 
Janeway resigned the professorship of Materia Medica and Thera- 
peutics, Dr. William M. Polk succeeding him. Also in March, 
1876, Dr. J. Lewis Smith was appointed Professor of Diseases of 
Children. Prof. Crosby died in August, 1877, and Dr. J. D. 
Bryant was appointed lecturer on Anatomy for the winter session. 
In September, Dr. Erskine Mason, surgeon to Roosevelt and Belle- 
vue hospitals, was appointed Clinical Professor of Surgery, and 
later Dr. Bryant was confirmed to the chair of General Descriptive 
and Surgical Anatomy. 
Early in 1878, Prof. Peaslee passed away, and his chair of 
Gynecology was again taken by Prof. Lusk. In February, 1879, 
Prof. Janeway resigned the chair of Practical Anatomy, and its 
duties were entrusted to Drs. Fred S. Dennis and William H. 
Welsh. In that spring Dr. Polk resigned, and the department of 
Materia Medica and Therapeutics was placed in charge of Dr. 
Abram A. Smith, as lecturer; Dr. Joseph W. Howe was appointed 
Clinical Professor of Surgery. In 1880 Dr. A. A. Smith was 
appointed Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics and of 
Clinical Medicine, and Dr. Charles A. Doremus adjunct to Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry and Toxicology. 484 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
In 1880 the faculty established permanent lectureships under 
Drs. Wm. H. Welsh, T. H. Burchard, A. R. Robinson and C. S. 
Bull. The preliminary classes were abolished, and the regular 
course lengthened, students to assemble about the end of Sep- 
tember, instead of in mid-October. Three courses of lectures were 
to be essential for graduation, with the other customary evidences 
of proficiency. These alterations in the plan of instruction were 
not decided upon until after considerable deliberation. The de- 
sire of the faculty was to send out only thoroughly competent 
practitioners, and the expansion of the departments made it almost 
impossible for the student to obtain within the two-year period an 
adequate grasp of all the subjects he should know. In 1878-79 
adding a third year to the qualification was considered by the 
faculty and the State Regents. In due course it was announced 
that such would become necessary, and the entering class of 1880 
enrolled under the new requirement. 
In the following year the College, for reasons not clearly stated, 
but probably financial (as the first-year enrollments of 1880 were 
not satisfactory), reverted to the two-year system, and although 
recommending the three-year course did not make it compulsory 
for graduation. The faculty was perhaps to some extent influ- 
enced in their decision by the fact that the other two medical 
colleges of the city still adhered to the two-year course as the 
essential to graduation. However, they held to the extension of 
the regular session to six months. That the standard of education 
had been of very high grade, is verified in an announcement made 
by the faculty in 1872, that thereafter the diploma of the College 
would be recognized by the Royal College of Surgeons of Eng- 
land, for those who had passed a regular matriculation examina- 
tion in classics, mathematics, etc. In that year, the matriculation 
requirements at Bellevue were: English language, including gram- 
mar and composition; Arithmetic, including vulgar and decimal 
fractions; Algebra, including simple equations; Geometry, first 
two books of Euclid; Latin, translation and grammar, and one of 
the following optional studies: Greek, French, German, Philoso- 
phy, including Mechanics, Hydrostatics, and Pneumatics. 
In the announcement of 1880, the year in which was inaugurated 
the three-year requirement, the main regulations governing the 
granting of the degree were emphasized, the faculty stating that 
* 'to prevent any misunderstanding, the only course of lectures BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE 
485 
recognized are those taken at regularly organized medical col- 
leges, empowered to confer the degree of M.D., the courses em- 
bracing practice of medicine, surgery, obstetrics, materia medica, 
physiology, anatomy, and chemistry. The tickets and diplomas 
of Eclectic, Homoeopathic, or Botanic colleges, or colleges devoted 
to any peculiar system of medicine, or who advertise, or violate 
in any way the code of ethics adopted by the profession, will not 
be received, under any circumstances, even if the preceptors be 
regular graduates in medicine. The three years of study are re- 
quired by the charter of the college. ' ' 
The fees for 1880-81 were fixed at $140, the same for second 
year, and $100 for the third. At that time almost all the pro- 
fessors gave additional private tuition once or twice weekly. 
These classes were not in the regular curriculum, and the students 
who attended them made payment of additional fees. The class 
of 1880-81 was considerably less than that of the previous year, 
and the full enrollment was only 379, but in the following year 
the enrollment of 480 again approached the normal registration, 
and satisfied the faculty that the appropriate time for the adoption 
of the three-year requirement for graduation had not yet arrived. 
In 1883, Dr. Joseph D. Bryant, Professor of General De- 
scriptive and Surgical Anatomy, was appointed Professor of Anat- 
omy and Clinical Surgery, and Associate Professor of Orthopedic 
Surgery. 
In 1884, Andrew Carnegie gave $50,000 for the erection of a 
building for laboratories, and apparatus for its equipment. The 
trustees purchased a lot on East Twenty-sixth Street, 50 ft. by 
100 ft., adjoining the Hospital, and the erection of the building 
soon followed. It was devoted mainly to laboratory work in 
physiology, pathology, therapeutics, and other departments of 
medicine, and its five stories, containing three general laboratories 
and private rooms for original research, and a large auditorium 
for teaching by lectures, constituted a very valuable adjunct to 
the facilities of the College. The inauguration ceremony took place 
during the winter session of 1884-85. 
For 1886-87, many departments were reorganized, resulting in 
certain changes in positions held by some of the faculty, but no 
new names were added to it. The enrollments for 1884-85-86 were 
poor, but thereafter the advancement was substantial for some 
years. The matriculants of 1884-85 were only 365, those of the 486 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
session 1887-88 were 415, and the register of 1889-90 showed 519 
students. 
In 1890, the faculty agreed with the State Regents to again at- 
tempt to raise the standard of graduates, and announced that be- 
ginning with the session of 1891-92, three courses of lectures would 
be compulsory for graduation, explaining that "to keep pace with 
the progressive advance in medicine, it has been found necessary 
to constantly extend the course of instruction, until it has become 
difficult for students to adequately prepare themselves for the final 
examination, without attending more than two courses of lec- 
tures." As a matter of fact, the course to all intents and pur- 
poses had been one of three years, seeing that more than eighty 
per cent, of the students had found it necessary to take the op- 
tional course of three years. Under the new plan, the fees were 
increased to $150 per annum, with additional fees for the spring 
session, and use of laboratory. 
Although the change caused a considerable reduction in the num- 
ber of enrollments and a consequent loss in fees, the authorities 
held resolutely to the decision. The three-year course involved 
important modifications in the curriculum, and effected a consid- 
erable extension of practical teaching at the bedside and in surgical 
operations and dressings, greater efficiency in the regular college 
recitations, with more time remaining for laboratory instruction 
and dissections. However, generally, and particularly from the 
professional viewpoint, the faculty welcomed the higher standard. 
During 1890-91 two of the oldest members of the faculty passed 
away. Drs. Alex. B. Mott and Isaac E. Taylor had both been 
professorially associated with the College from its inception, in 
1861, the latter having also been president since its organization. 
Dr. William T. Lusk, Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of 
Women and Children and Clinical Midwifery, succeeded Dr. Tay- 
lor in the presidency, just as he had succeeded him in the depart- 
ment of Obstetrics when Dr. Taylor became emeritus professor. 
In 1892, Prof. A. Alex. Smith, Professor of Materia Medica and 
Therapeutics and Clinical Medicine, was appointed to the chair of 
Principles and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine, for- 
merly held by Prof. Ed. G. Janeway; and Dr. Herman M. Biggs, 
Demonstrato.r of Anatomy, assumed the responsibilities of the 
chairs of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Pathological Anatomy, 
and Clinical Medicine. BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE 
487 
In 1893 the State of New York enacted even more stringent 
requirements for graduation, and during the next two sessions the 
enrollments continued to hold discouragingly at about four hundred. 
The session of 1895-96, with its register of 461 students, gave 
indication that the new standard could not more than temporarily 
affect the enrollments, and during the session of 1896-97 the at- 
tendance was abnormal, 713 students taking the course. There was 
a particular explanation of this considerable increase, the circular 
of that year announcing that that would be the last year of the 
three-year standard; that the following session, 1897-98, would 
usher in a higher standard, in which the requirements for gradu- 
ation would entail attendance at four courses of lectures, and cer- 
tificates for four years' study of medicine. 
In 1897 was begun the construction of a new building on the 
corner of First avenue and Twenty-sixth street, opposite Bellevue 
Hospital, adjoining and connected with the Carnegie Laboratory. 
The winter session of 1897-98 began in the old college building, 
and was the first of the four-year system; that, in addition to the 
lengthening of the session from twenty-six to thirty-two weeks, 
appreciably enhanced the standing of the College, and the faculty 
looked forward to the future with confidence. But as the session 
neared its end, the building was partially destroyed by fire, and 
accommodation in the adjacent New York University Medical Col- 
lege building was extended to the Bellevue authorities. This led 
to important results to both institutions; it suggested the merger 
of the two medical schools, a suggestion furthered by the action 
of the Chancellor of New York University, who asked Dr. John P. 
Munn, an alumnus of Bellevue, to introduce the subject to the 
faculty of Bellevue College. After much discussion, and the sur- 
mounting of seemingly serious hindrances to the union, the amal- 
gamation was consummated. 
The first winter session of the consolidated college began Octo- 
ber 1, 1898, in the new Bellevue Hospital Medical College build- 
ing, and although the teaching staff of the new combined college, 
which was thereafter to be known as the 1 ' University and Bellevue 
Hospital Medical College," embraced the majority of the faculty 
and instructors of Bellevue, it is historically important here to 
record in full the constitution of the teaching staff of Bellevue 
Hospital Medical College for the last session, 1897-98, of its indi- 
vidual operation. It consisted of: 488 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Lewis A. Sayre, Emeritus Professor of Orthopedic and Clinical Surgery; 
Edward G. Janeway, Professor of Medicine, and President of Faculty; 
Austin Flint, Professor of Physiology, and Secretary of Faculty; A. Alex. 
Smith, Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine, and Clinical 
Medicine, with Robert J. Carlisle, as Chief of Clinic; Hermann J. Biggs, 
M.D., Professor of Therapeutics and Clinical Medicine, and Adjunct Pro- 
fessor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine, with J. H. Huddleston, 
as Chief of Clinic; Frederic S. Dennis, Professor of the Principles 
and Practice of Surgery and Clinical Surgery; Joseph D. Bryant, Pro- 
fessor of Practical Surgery, Operative and Clinical Surgery, with Wm. C. 
Lusk, as Chief of Clinic; Austin Flint, Jr., Professor of Obstetrics and 
Clinical Midwifery; Geo. D. Stewart, Professor of Anatomy; Charles L. 
Dana, Professor of the Diseases of the Nervous System; Henry C. Coe, 
Clinical Professor of Gynecology, with Wm. E. Studdiford, as Chief of 
Clinic; William P. Northup, Professor of Pediatrics, with Rowland G. 
Freeman, Chief of Clinic; Henry H. Rusby, Professor of Materia Medica 
and Pharmacology; Samuel Alexander, Professor of Genito-Urinary Sur- 
gery, with 0. D. F. Robertson, as Chief of Clinic; John A. Fordyce, Pro- 
fessor of Dermatology and Syphilology; Henry D. Noyes, Professor of 
Ophthalmology; John E. Weeks, Lecturer on Ophthalmology; Ed. B. 
Dench, Professor of Otology; Reginald H. Sayre, Lecturer on Orthopedic 
Surgery; Carlos F. Macdonald, Professor of Mental Diseases and Medical 
Jurisprudence; Beverley Robinson, Clinical Professor of Medicine; 
Francke H. Bosworth, Professor of Diseases of the Throat; Edward K. 
Dunham, Professor of General Pathology, Bacteriology, and Hygiene; 
D. Hunter McAlpin, Jr., Professor of Gross Pathology and Clinical Regis- 
trar; John A. Mandel, Adjunct Professor of Physiological Chemistry; 
William H. Park, Adjunct Professor of Bacteriology and Hygiene; George 
P. Biggs, Lecturer on Special Pathology; John F. Erdmann, Professor of 
Practical Anatomy, with William C. Lusk, R. Harcourt Anderson, H. F. 
Quackenbos, Demonstrators of Anatomy; R. Kalish and W. N. Berkeley, 
Assistants to the Chair of Principles and Practices of Medicine; H. M. 
Archer, Assistant to Chair of Principles and Practice of Surgery; William 
C. Lusk, Assistant in Practical Surgery and Operative Surgery; George P. 
Biggs and W. J. Pulley, Assistants in Therapeutics; H. A. Haubold, 
Assistant in Physiology; C. B. Slade, Prosector to the Department of 
Anatomy; H. A. Purdy and D. Bovaird, Assistants in Pediatrics; W. 
Ayers, Assistant in Genito>-Urinary Surgery; 0. H. Holder, Assistant in 
Dermatology and Syphilology; J. F. McKiernon, Assistant to Chair of 
Otology; W. J. Furness, Assistant in Mental Diseases; E. H. Griffin and 
H. Brooks, Instructors in the Carnegie Laboratory. CHAPTER IV 
UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE 
IT must be borne in mind in comparing the achievement of 
Buffalo University with that of other universities and colleges, 
during the war of 1812-1814 Buffalo was literally burned to the 
ground, but one house remaining when the British and Indians 
withdrew. That a little over a quarter of a century later a com- 
munity had there gathered with an ambition to take its place among 
cities as an educational center, speaks volumes for the men Buffalo 
produced or attracted to her borders. 
On May 11, 1846, a charter was granted the University of Buf- 
falo by the State of New York, chiefly through the exertions of 
Nathan K. Hall. The first governing body, The Council, presents 
a list of names which shows how admirably the undertaking was 
supported by the most representative citizens. The office of Chan- 
cellor was given very naturally to Millard Fillmore, who held it 
until his death in 1874, not resigning it during his tenure of office 
as President of the United States. Judge George W. Clinton was 
president of the Council until 1856, when he moved to Albany, 
having been elected Regent of the State University. Joseph G. 
Masten, who succeeded Judge Clinton as mayor of Buffalo, was 
one of the original Council; so was Elbridge G. Spaulding, whose 
Civil War record as congressman and financier commends him to 
all. George R. Babcock was also a "founder," and it was on the 
site of Mr. Babcock's home that the Woman's Educational and 
Industrial Union building was erected, that being the first impor- 
tant gift to the University to aid in the foundation of an art 
department. Orsinus H. Marshall, who succeeded Millard Fillmore 
as Chancellor, was a member of the first Council, and to him Buf- 
falo owes a debt for the part he took in founding the University, 
the Historical Society, and the Grosvenor Library. Nathan K. 
Hall, a federal judge, and Postmaster-General in the cabinet of his 
friend, President Fillmore; James O. Putnam, diplomat and legis- 
lator; William A. Bird, surveyor of the United States-Canada 
489 490 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
boundary line; Garus B. Rich, a banker; Dr. Thomas M. Foote, 
as distinguished in literature as in medicine; Ira A. Blossom, 
Isaac Sherman, State Senator and Congressman-these and other 
men of note formed the first Council, including Dr. James P. 
White, representing the medical faculty. 
As for forty years (1846-1886) the Department of Medicine was 
the only organized department of the University of Buffalo, the 
first Council is of prime importance in a history of medicine in 
New York State. They were the men who on August 25, 1846, 
appointed the Faculty of Medicine, that being also the year which 
witnessed the first demonstration of the possibility of alleviating 
pain during surgical operation. The following is a list of the 
members of the first Council with their length of service: Millard 
Fillmore, 1846-74, first Chancellor; Geo. W. Clinton, 1846-56, 
President of Council; Ira A. Blossom, 1846-57; Thos. M. Foote, 
1846-51; Jos. G. Masten, 1846-56 (not certain) ; Isaac Sherman, 
1846-57 (not certain) ; Gaius B. Rich, 1846-57; Wm. A. Bird, 
1846-53; Geo. R. Babcock, 1846-76; Nathan K. Hall, 1846-70; 
James S. Wadsworth, 1846-50; Theodotus Burwell, 1846-57; John 
D. Shepard, 1846-55; Hiram A. Tucker, 1846-49; Orsamus H. Mar- 
shall, 1846-84, second Chancellor; Orson Phelps, 1846-56; Elbridge 
G. Spaulding, 1846-97; Jas. P. White, 1846-82, from Medical Fac- 
ulty; James O. Putnam, 1846-62, 1877-1902, fourth Chancellor. No 
time was lost by the Council in establishing the Faculty of Med- 
icine, which on August 25, 1846, was done by the appointment of 
the following professors: Charles Brodhead Coventry, Physiology 
and Medical Jurisprudence; Charles Alfred Lee, Pathology and 
Materia Medica; James Webster, General and Special Anatomy; 
James P. White, Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children; 
Frank Hastings Hamilton, Principles and Practice of Surgery and 
Clinical Surgery; Austin Flint, Principles and Practice of Medicine 
and Clinical Medicine; George Hadley, Chemistry and Pharmacy; 
Corydon La Ford, Demonstrator of Anatomy, and librarian. Doc- 
tors Coventry, Hadley, Webster, Lee, and Hamilton also held chairs 
in the Geneva Medical College, an institution which had an honor- 
able career for a number of years, but on account of its location 
in a small town could not successfully compete with schools in 
such centers of population as Albany and Buffalo; and in 1872 the 
Geneva College became the Medical Department of Syracuse Uni- 
versity. It had been established in 1834 by a faculty largely aug- UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO MEDICAL COLLEGE 
491 
merited by the retiring professors of the defunct Fairfield Medical 
School, chartered in 1812. The sessions at Geneva being held in 
the early part of the winter, the majority of the Buffalo Faculty 
could not assume their duties until later, so that for several years 
lecturers were giving the same course twice in the same winter 
at different institutions. Naturally the question of accommodating 
students came next after the election of a Faculty, and for the first 
few sessions, lacking a building of its own, the College held its 
lectures in the old First Baptist Church, at the corner of Wash- 
ington and Seneca streets. 
Unfortunately, the first minute book of the Council, recording 
its transactions from 1846 to 1855, has been lost, so that practically 
the only events occurring during those years which are of certain 
knowledge are to be found in newspaper reports. The Council 
for many years held only annual meetings, chiefly to confer degrees. 
It would be interesting to know the details of the erection of the 
first college building, but there is an excellent description of the 
building, together with the work of the college at that time, in the 
Commercial Advertiser of September 8, 1849. The remarks there 
recorded indicate that the edifice was well adapted to the needs 
of medical education of those days, and particular comment is 
made upon the dissecting room, which, in spaciousness and adap- 
tion to its objects, was regarded as unsurpassed in the whole coun- 
try; this, despite the fact that the total cost of building and site 
probably did not equal the sum of $25,000. The location was a 
favorable one, giving the College of those days something of the 
facilities for clinical teaching which the present college building 
enjoys. Adjacent to the building on Pearl Place was the hospital 
of the Sisters of Charity, presenting the best opportunities in the 
city for clinical instruction. 
It is quite remarkable that the seven men who constituted the 
original Faculty all remained in active occupancy of their chairs 
for the first five years. Thus the plans and the policy for the 
College were well crystallized, and a foundation laid for its con- 
tinuance and progressive existence for seventy years, during which 
time it has numbered among its professors many of the men of 
whom American medicine is proudest. The following list includes 
the names, with years of access and exit, of those who have held 
chairs in the permanent (or, as it was later called, the Executive) 
Faculty from 1846 to 1915. In that year a far-reaching organiza- 492 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
tion of the entire teaching methods took place, with many changes 
in the system of instruction and administration. It was accord- 
ingly a new era of the Colleges which began in that year (1915), 
although the changes which took place were not so much in per- 
sonnel as in methods: James P. White, Obstetrics, 1846-81; George 
Hadley, Chemistry and Pharmacy, 1846-51; Chas. B. Coventry, 
Physiology, 1846-51; Chas. A. Lee, Materia Medica, 1846-70; James 
Webster, Anatomy, 1846-51; Frank H. Hamilton, Surgery, 1846- 
60; Austin Flint, Principles and Practice of Medicine, 1846-59; 
James Hadley, Chemistry and Toxicology, 1851-78; John C. Dal- 
ton, Physiology, 1851-55; Benjamin R. Palmer, Anatomy, 1851-53; 
Edward M. Moore, Surgery, 1852-82; Thomas F. Rochester, Prin- 
ciples and Practice of Medicine, 1853-87; Sanford B. Hunt, Anat- 
omy, 1857-58; Theophilus Mack, Materia Medica, 1857-60; Sanford 
Eastman, Anatomy, 1859-70; Austin Flint, Jr., Physiology, 1859- 
60; Joshua R. Lothrop, Materia Medica, 1860-64; William H. 
Mason, Physiology, 1861-86; Julius F. Miner, Special Surgery, 
1867-82; Milton G. Potter, Anatomy, 1870-77; S. M. Eastman, Ma- 
teria Medica, 1870-73; E. V. Stoddard, Materia Medica, 1873-88; 
Chas. A. Doremus, Chemistry and Toxicology, 1878-81; Charles 
Cary, Anatomy, 1887-89; Matthew D. Mann, Obstetrics, 1882-1912; 
R. A. Witthaus, Chemistry and Toxicology, 1882-89; Roswell Park, 
Surgery, 1883-1914; Julius Pohlman, Physiology, 1886-89; Charles 
G. Stockton, Principles and Practice of Medicine; Charles 
Cary, Materia Medica, 1889-99; Charles Cary, Clinical Medicine, 
1889-1911; John Parmenter, Anatomy, 1890-1904; Herbert H. 
Hill, Chemistry and Toxicology, 1890-1910; Eli H. Long, Materia 
and Therapeutics, 1899-1912; Frederick C. Busch, Physiology, 
1900-12; Herbert U. Williams, Bacteriology and Pathology, 1904; 
James A. Gibson, Anatomy, 1905-17; Francis C. Goldsborough, 
Obstetrics, 1910; DeWitt H. Sherman, Materia Medica, 1912; Fred- 
erick H. Pratt, Physiology, 1912. 
Of several of these the length of their incumbency has been 
quite remarkable. Dr. White served thirty-five years; Dr. Thomas 
F. Rochester, thirty-four; Dr. Moore, thirty; Dr. Park (who suc- 
ceeded Dr. Moore), thirty-one; Dr. Cary was in service thirty-two 
years; Dr. Stockton, thirty years. 
The Medical Department has been distinguished in respect to its 
advanced methods of teaching in two important directions. As 
early as the fourth session, Dr. James P. White for the first time UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO MEDICAL COLLEGE 
493 
in this country introduced clinical midwifery into the college 
curriculum. This method had been previously established in Eu- 
rope, but its introduction into America caused severe criticism. So 
bitter and pointed an attack was made upon Dr. White in the 
newspapers as to lead to a suit for libel, the result of which was 
the acquittal of the defendant; but the trial served to vindicate 
Dr. White and his method of teaching. Dr. John C. Dalton, Jr., 
elected to the chair of physiology in 1851, was the first physiologist 
in America to employ the method of experiment on living animals 
in his teachings. 
Dr. Austin Flint, during his incumbency as Professor of Med- 
icine, made his noted observations upon typhoid fever. His study 
of the epidemic in North Boston, New York, in 1843, contributed 
greatly toward recognition of the nature, source and means of 
conveyance of the infection of this disease. Dr. Julius F. Miner, 
Professor of Special Surgery, in 1869 became noted through 
his advocacy of enucleation of ovarian tumors, a method which has 
been universally adopted. Dr. Hamilton achieved a national repu- 
tation as surgeon, teacher and writer; Dr. Ford became one of the 
most noted anatomists in the country, holding until his compara- 
tively recent death at an old age, a professorship at the University 
of Michigan; these, with Lee, Webster, and Coventry, all helped 
to make the first Faculty a group distinguished for intellect. 
As time went on, these men came to be assisted by young prac- 
titioners whom they had trained, and the fact that such physicians 
as M. B. Folwell, D. W. Harrington, and William C. Phelps were 
members of the staff without holding chairs on the permanent 
Faculty does not, of course, free the historian from neglecting to 
mention their teaching abilities or their aid to the young College. 
In the improvement of medical education, the College has been 
in the front rank in enlarging its curriculum and adding to its 
corps of teachers. It was one of the first institutions to favor a 
separation of the teaching and licensing authority. While the 
proposition failed of adoption at the time, it placed the College 
upon record, and it remained for one of its alumni and teachers, 
Dr. H. R. Hopkins, aided by Prof. M. D. Mann and Dr. A. R. 
Davidson, also an alumnus, to secure in 1883 the formulation of 
a bill by the Medical Society of the county of Erie, which, after 
due consideration by the State Medical Society, was presented to 
the Legislature and, after repeated defeats and amendments, be- 494 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
came a law in 1890, creating licensing bodies that should be abso- 
lutely separate and distinct from the teaching faculties. 
Beginning with 1856, the Council meetings assumed more impor- 
tance and interest than the merely routine work of their previous 
gatherings. In that year it suffered the loss of Judge Clinton, 
his place being taken by Dr. George Hadley. Mr. Marshall suc- 
ceeded to the position of president of the Council made vacant by 
Mr. Clinton's resignation, which meant his taking the place of Mr. 
Fillmore whenever the latter could not represent the University, 
leading naturally to his election as Mr. Fillmore's successor. 
Several important changes took place in the Faculty, Austin 
Flint being elected to a new chair, that of Clinical Medicine and 
Pathology, taking the place of Dr. Lee. Dr. Edward M. Moore 
also assumed the duties of a new chair as Professor of Surgical 
Anatomy and Pathology. A third new chair was created, with 
Dr. Sanford B. Hunt as Professor of Descriptive Anatomy and 
Pathology. In February of 1857, Dr. Rochester began his first 
service as dean, with Dr. Hadley as registrar, a combination which 
continued to lend strength and dignity until 1861, when Dr. 
Sanford Eastman became dean. Meanwhile several changes were 
occurring in the membership of the Council, the most important 
of which was perhaps the death of Dr. Thomas M. Foote, and the 
election as his successor of Henry W. Rogers, of the legal firm 
which has had perhaps more historical continuity of weight and 
importance than any other in Buffalo. This firm has also been 
bound up intimately with the fortunes of the University, members 
of it serving either on the Council or in the Faculty of the Law 
Department. 
In 1859 Dr. Hunt resigned his chair, which was divided with 
Dr. Austin Flint, Jr., Professor of Physiology. The latter, how- 
ever, served for one year, joining his father in New York. Dur- 
ing these years the graduating classes had been of about the 
same size, running generally from twenty to thirty men. As the 
sessions became longer and the work more arduous, the students 
naturally tended to become fewer, with a corresponding increase in 
quality. 
In 1855, fifteen degrees were conferred; in 1856, only seven, 
two of which were honorary; in 1857, fourteen; in 1858, nine; in 
1859, twelve, beginning with which year the graduating classes 
commenced a satisfactory and generally consistent increase in UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO MEDICAL COLLEGE 
495 
numbers. The last honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was 
conferred in 1879 upon Charles A. Doremus, who had entered the 
Faculty not as a practicing physician but as Professor of Chemis- 
try. The degree of M. D. as an honorary distinction has been but 
infrequently granted by Buffalo, as by all American universities, 
which have generally preferred to honor physicians of prestige by 
giving them a degree which they did not already possess, such 
as Doctor of Science or Doctor of Laws. Yale honored Dr. Park 
with the LL.D, degree. The same honor has been conferred on 
several present members of the faculties, Charles B. Wheeler re- 
ceiving it from Williams and John Lord O'Brian from Hobart. 
The first active effort to bring to a realization the fervid argu- 
ment of Millard Fillmore for the addition of an academic depart- 
ment seems not to have been begun until 1862, when two commit- 
tees of the Council were appointed to consider the creation of 
departments of law and of liberal arts. Their reports apparently 
were made orally, since there is no record; but the idea of Uni- 
versity expansion received repeated impetus from then on. In 
1868 the addition of a dental department was discussed for the 
first time and the first step actually taken, since it was determined 
to leave the organization of a College of Dentistry to the Medical 
Faculty, where it rested for so many years that it was thought 
to have sunk to its final repose. 
In 1867 Dr. Julius F. Miner was elected Professor of Special 
Surgery, and three years later was made dean, succeeding Dr. 
James Hadley, who had been promoted from registrar to dean in 
1867, but returned to his old position in 1870. Dr. Miner served 
as dean until 1875, when Dr. Milton G. Potter succeeded. In 
1877 Dr. Thomas R. Rochester, who to his commanding personality 
joined the sureness of diagnosis and the rare knowledge and skill 
in practice which gave him a dominating position among Buffalo's 
medical men, was again made dean of the Faculty as he had been 
dean of his profession since Dr. White's death, serving until his 
decease in 1887. Both James Hadley and Potter died in 1878, a 
loss doubly severe, necessitating a partial reorganization of the 
Faculty. After a short interval, Dr. Hadley was succeeded as 
secretary of the Faculty by Charles Cary, who thus began in 1879 
a service in many capacities. The same year he began his teaching 
as Professor of Anatomy, but in 1889 changed his chair to that of 
Materia Medica, adding that of Clinical Medicine. In 1899 he 496 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
gave up the chair of Materia Medica, but continued as Professor 
of Clinical Medicine until 1911, when he was made Professor 
Emeritus, a service in active teaching totaling thirty-two years. 
The Council also elected him to membership in 1879, a connection 
which he has ever retained, and for many years during the thirty- 
seven of his membership he has been the senior member, the only 
one to note the expansion of the University as each of the other 
five departments was added. 
Nothing in the University's charter had prevented the entrance 
of women students, but no woman was graduated until 1876, when 
the degree was conferred upon Dr. Mary B. Moody, now of Los 
Angeles, California, who has retained a lively interest in her alma 
mater despite years and distance. 
In 1877 the Council suffered several losses by death; but the 
places of those who died, George R. Babcock, Orlando Allen, and 
Joseph Warren, were filled by three men, two of whom, Messrs. 
Sprague and Putnam, subsequently became Chancellors of the 
University; and the third was David Gray, whose fame Buffalo 
cherishes as editor and poet. 
From 1870 to 1890 the scope and method of medical education 
were so changed by the rapid progress in medical science as to 
require extension of the college course from two years of five 
months each to three years of six months each. The birth and 
development of the science of bacteriology, the need of more prac- 
tical training in pathology and chemistry, and of a more accurate 
knowledge of anatomy and histology, all demanded largely increased 
facilities not only in material equipment but in teaching. 
From 1882 to 1890 the governing Faculty of the Medical De- 
partment was completely changed, not one chair being occupied 
in 1890 by the incumbent of nine years before. Six new men 
had been called to Faculty positions, and one had been transferred 
to another chair. During this time also occurred an enlargement 
of the teaching staff by the appointment of adjunct, associate and 
clinical professors, with assistants and instructors in the laboratory 
and recitation courses. A spring course was in operation from 1884 
to 1893. It consisted of eight weeks of supplementary and special 
instruction given largely by the members of the adjunct Faculty. 
It was regarded as an excellent feature, but was superceded by 
lengthening the regular session to seven months and shortly there- 
after to nine months for each of the four years. The first of UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO MEDICAL COLLEGE 
497 
these changes in the teaching staff brought Matthew D. Mann, 
M.A., M.D., into the Faculty as Professor of Obstetrics, begin- 
ing a connection which as professor and later as dean was to 
give the institution the impress of an executive ability and a 
rapidly increasing reputation as surgeon and author, which did 
not terminate with his resignation in 1911, for he has continued 
as Professor Emeritus. He became secretary of the Faculty in 
1882 and was made dean in 1887. In 1882 the chair of chemistry 
was given to Rudolph A. Witthaus, M.A., M.D., of New York, 
taking the place of Dr. Doremus, who was called to New York; 
Dr. Witthaus died in 1916, having achieved a national reputation. 
If the Faculty was strengthened by these two appointments it 
was immeasurably weakened by the death in 1882 of Dr. James 
P. White, the last of the founders, for decades a tower of strength 
to his University and his city. His place in the Council was 
taken by Sherman S. Rogers. In the same year Dr. Rochester 
was made Vice-Chancellor of the University, an office purely 
honorary on account of the assiduity and devotion of Mr. Mar- 
shall. The next year the chair of Surgery was made vacant 
through the retirement of that Nestor of surgeons and unequaled 
teacher, Edward M. Moore, and the disability of his brilliant col- 
league, Julius F. Miner. In the words of Dr. Stockton, "to find 
an adequate successor of these men started a canvass of America, 
for only one having the topmost qualifications could hope to fill 
the gap. An appeal to Chicago by Dr. Rochester brought the 
assurance from Professor Moses Gunn that Roswell Park stood 
out as the one whose ability would satisfy every need;" and 
so in June, 1883, he was called from Rush Medical College to 
become professor of Surgery. "His advent in Buffalo was oppor- 
tune; it was a transitional period from old to new concepts in 
pathology at the threshold of modern surgery. Together with 
Mann he re-educated the local medical profession and advanced 
immeasurably through his sound pathology, novel teaching, oper- 
ative skill and spreading fame, the reputation of the Medical 
School. ' ' 
During all these years the work of the University was rendered 
less effective than the quality of the teaching could warrant, by 
the increasingly inadequate facilities of the old building. The 
Virginia street structure was in 1889 fifty years old. Built in 
days when medical instruction necessitated but a few months for 498 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
satisfactory completion, it now accommodated not only medical 
students spending a three years' course in the building, but a 
rapidly growing number of pharmacy students as well. Dr. 
Park brought the material needs of the college to the attention 
of the public in a vivid way, and Dr. Mann earnestly seconded 
Dr. Park's appeal. Describing the cramped and inconvenient 
quarters at college with the disheartening lack of facilities, he 
especially emphasized the need for greater accommodation for 
clinical instruction. Vice-Chancellor Putnam said that he con- 
sidered the request laid before the Council eminently just and 
proper, and one to which a liberal public should respond, and he 
desired to know definitely whether the people of Buffalo cared 
seriously to cultivate anything higher than its material interest. 
Mr. Keating moved that a committee of three be appointed to 
report on the sale of the present grounds and the purchase of a 
new lot, and Dr. Park, Mr. Gorham, and Mr. Keating were ap- 
pointed. On the east side of Main street (now corner of High 
street) stood for many years the only dwelling house now in 
existence with which Joseph Ellicott is directly associated. This 
was the land which the Council of the University decided to pur- 
chase and utilize as the site for the new medical building. The 
amount paid for the land was $22,275, probably a fair figure in 
those days, but certainly an excellent bargain in view of the 
increased valuation of real estate since then. There were many 
arguments in favor of this location, the chief of which besides 
its central situation, was its proximity to the Buffalo General 
Hospital, which has always provided most of the clinical facili- 
ties of the College. George Cary was the architect, and the price 
named was not to exceed $125,000. Several meetings of the full 
Medical Faculty, numbering at that time a total of over thirty, 
were held for the purpose of furnishing the building committee 
with the requirements of their respective departments, which data 
was then given to the architect. The architect's final plans called 
for a building with an irregular front of 215 feet, 98 feet on the 
west side and 78 feet on the east side, occupying in all a surface 
of 12,000 square feet. The greater part of the building is of 
fire-proof construction, the rest of so called slow-burning construc- 
tion. The design was to supply the building with rooms of vary- 
ing character, and the main amphitheatre, which, on account of 
the contributions of the graduates towards equipping and fur- UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO MEDICAL COLLEGE 
499 
nishing it, was named Alumni Hall, has a seating capacity of 
400. Two other lecture rooms have a slightly smaller capacity, 
while other recitation and lecture rooms are of varying size. The 
entire building contains no plaster, no partitions other than brick, 
and the only wood employed is oak. The money for the erection 
of the building and the purchase of the lot was raised for the 
greater part by popular subscription, the only important single 
contribution being a legacy of $20,000 from the late Hon. Jonathan 
Scoville. 
In 1898 was secured from the Legislature the first appropria- 
tion ever made from public funds, either in this country or abroad, 
for the purpose of combating the ravages cancer. This money 
was appropriated to the Medical Department of the University 
of Buffalo, largely through the efforts of the late Dr. Roswell 
Park and the late Edward H. Butler. Professor Park became 
director of the Laboratory, with Dr. H. R. Gaylord, as Patholo- 
gist; G. H. A. Clowes, Ph. D., as Biological Chemist, and Prof. 
H. G. Matxinger as Bacteriologist. For the first three years the 
work was carried on in the College building, but in 1901, through 
the generosity of Mrs. W. H. Gratwick and other friends, the 
Gratwick Laboratory was erected-the first in the world built, 
equipped, and intended for this purpose. Dr. Gaylord was made 
director and the work considerably expanded. In 1911 Dr. Park, 
with the co-operation of Senators Hill, Loomis and Burd and of 
Assemblymen LaReau, and with the constant aid of John Lord 
O'Brian, Ansley Wilcox and others, succeeded in raising the lab- 
oratory to the dignity of a State institution. A number of citi- 
zens contributed toward the purchase of the property, which 
was donated to the State to be utilized as the site for a hospital 
adjoining the Gratwick Laboratory on High street. The building 
represented an outlay on the part of the State of $140,000, the 
land being valued at $21,000. The new Hospital was dedicated 
November 1, 1913, with exercises held in Alumni Hall of the med- 
ical building. Addresses were made by Dr. Park, chairman of 
the board of trustees; Hon. Charles S. Fairchild, a trustee; and 
Dr. James Ewing, Professor of Pathology at Cornell Medical 
School. 
The Medical Department of Niagara University has been men- 
tioned previously in this sketch, and the fact should perhaps have 
been brought out that since 1883 the University of Buffalo has been 500 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
stimulated to greater efforts in its medical instruction by the 
active presence of another school, including in its Faculty a con- 
siderable number of the city's most prominent practitioners and 
ablest teachers. In 'many ways, indeed, particularly in its higher 
entrance requirements, the school had pressed hard on the heels 
of the older institution. The friendly rivalry was undoubtedly 
as much of a help to both as of a detriment, but it gradually 
came to be realized that there was an unnecessary duplication of 
energy. Dr. Floyd S. Crego of the Niagara Faculty and Dr. 
Stockton of the Buffalo Faculty were those who conceived and 
helped most energetically to bring about the union. In 1898, when 
the student enrollment at Niagara was only forty, the time had 
come for amalgamation. Most of the members of the Niagara 
Faculty were received into the associate Faculty of the other, 
and among the important accessions thus made were: Earl P. 
Lothrop, Adjunct Clinical Professor of Obstetrics; the late Her- 
man Mynter, Professor of Clinical Surgery; Henry C. Bushell, 
Adjunct Professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine; the 
late Eugene A. Smith, Adjunct Professor of Clinical Surgery; 
W. Scott Renner, Clinical Professor of Laryngology; Floyd S. 
Crego, Professor of Neurology; Alfred E. Diehl, Adjunct Clinical 
Professor of Dermatology; the late Carlton C. Frederick, Clinical 
Professor of Gynecology, and the late Walter D. Green, Clinical 
Professor of Genito-urinary Diseases. Of the above, Drs. Bushell, 
Renner and Diehl are still members of the Faculty. 
Mention should be made of the growth of the Medical Alumni 
Association with which medical graduates of Niagara now become 
identified. The constitution of the association specifies that all 
graduates automatically become members at time of gradua- 
tion. In January, 1875, under the leadership of the loyal younger 
alumni, Edward N. Brush, '74, Alfred H. Briggs, '71, Henry R. 
Hopkins, '67, and Peter W. Van Peyma, '72, the association was 
formally organized, and held its forty-second annual meeting 
during the commencement week of 1917. Niagara University had 
conferred the M.D. degree on 137 of its graduates, most of 
whom have since 1898 been actively identified with the University 
of Buffalo Alumni Association. This spirit of harmony goes to 
show the Niagarans' approval of the amalgamation, the chief 
advantages of which was to place at the disposal of one school 
all of the available clinical material of the city. UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO MEDICAL COLLEGE 
501 
In 1913 the freshman medical class numbered ninety-four. Dr. 
Herbert U. Williams, Professor of Pathology, succeeded Dr. Mann 
as dean of the Medical College, and to him is due a large share 
of the credit for the successful inauguration in the summer of 
1913, of the courses in arts and science. In the Medical Faculty, 
Drs. Mann, Long, and Busch resigned their chairs of Obstetrics, 
Materia Medica, and Physiology, respectively; and to succeed two 
of them, teachers who had achieved reputations outside Buffalo 
were called to the Faculty: Frederick H. Pratt, M.A., M.D., 
of the Harvard Medical School, was made Professor of Physiol- 
ogy; and Francis C. Goldsborough, B.S., M.D., of Johns Hopkins 
University, became Professor of Obstetrics. DeWitt H. Sherman, 
B.A., M.D., was made Professor of Materia Medica. The retire- 
ment of Dr. Frederick C. Busch as Professor of Physiology was 
necessitated by ill health, and his untimely death in 1914 was a 
grievous loss alike to the medical and teaching professions. In 
1910 Dr. James A. Gibson had been elected Professor of Anatomy, 
continuing a connection of many years, and he was made secre- 
tary and treasurer of the College in 1912, succeeding Dr. Long. 
The year 1914 brought generous loss to the Medical department 
and to the entire University, an ardent champion and earnest 
advocate passing to his reward on February 16, when Dr. Park, 
Professor of Surgery, died. His chair was not filled until 1917, 
when his associate, Edgar R. McGuire, 1900, for several years 
associate professor, was elected full professor. 
In the summer of 1915 the system of governing the Medical 
College, practically the same as had been in operation since the 
beginning, was completely modified. Instead of an Executive 
Faculty of a few members with rather autocratic powers of nomi- 
nation to the general Faculty, the new organization vested the 
control in an administration board of ten members, and a board of 
instruction of twelve. The first administrative board under the 
new regime was composed of: Thomas H. McKee; Herbert U. 
Williams; Charles G. Stockton; Grover W. Wende; Francis C. 
Goldsborough; DeWitt H. Sherman, James A. Gibson; Nelson G. 
Russell; Frederick H. Pratt; and Arthur G. Bennett. The board 
is renewed every five years by two annual retirements and elec- 
tions. The first board of instruction consisted of: Delancey 
Rochester, Associate Professor of Medicine, chairman; John L. 
Butsch, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, secretary; Her- 502 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
bert U. Williams, Professor of Pathology and Bacteriology; Al- 
bert P. Sy, Professor of Chemistry; James W. Putnam, Profes- 
sor of Neurology; W. Ward Plummer, Assistant Professor of 
Orthopedics; Grover W. Wende, Professor of Dermatology; Ar- 
thur G. Bennett, Assistant Professor of Opthalmology; James A. 
Gibson, Professor of Anatomy; Charles A. Bentz, Associate in 
Embryology; Frederick H. Pratt, Professor of Physiology; and 
Francis C. Goldsborough, Professor of Obstetrics. Dr. Williams 
retired as dean in order to devote more time to his teaching work, 
and his place was taken by Dr. Thomas H. McKee, '08, who 
entered thoroughly into the spirit of the new regime. In the 
Dental Faculty, Dr. Abram Hoffman was elected Professor of 
Prosthetic Dentistry; Dr. John O. McCall, Professor of Chem- 
istry (transferred in 1917 to the professorship of oral hygiene), 
and Dr. Thomas 0. Hicks, Professor of Histology and Embry- 
ology. 
While for forty years the Medical department was the Univer- 
sity of Buffalo, in fact other departments have been added, the 
statistics of the University for 1916-17 showing an enrollment 
of 1,054 students as follows: Medicine, 107 in Faculty, 206 Stu- 
dents; Pharmacy, 13 in Faculty, 120 Students; Law, 24 in Fac- 
ulty, 147 Students; Dentistry, 42 in Faculty, 285 Students; An- 
alytical Chemistry, 12 in Faculty, 57 Students; Arts and Sciences, 
21 in Faculty, 239 Students; Total, 219 in Faculty, 1,054 Students. 
The men and women who have been recipients of degrees from 
this University (1846-1917) number the surprising total of 5,825, 
divided as follows: Doctor of Medicine, 2,935, including 10 hon- 
orary; Graduate in Pharmacy, 638, including 3 honorary; Bache- 
lor of Pharmacy, 353; Master of Pharmacy, 26, including 1 hon- 
orary; Doctor of Pharmacy, 6; Analytical Chemist, 89; Pharma- 
ceutical Chemist, 3; Bachelor of Laws, 710; Master of Laws, 12; 
Doctor of Dental Surgery, 1,043; Bachelor of Pedagogy, 5; Master 
of Pedagogy, 1; Doctor of Pedagogy, 2; Doctor of Philosophy, 1; 
Bachelor of Science, 1 (honorary). 
The above figures show that slightly over one-half the degrees 
conferred by the University have been that of M.D. Instruction 
in the department covers thirty teaching weeks divided into 
three terms of approximately eleven weeks each. The following 
lists give the membership of the governing bodies, professors full, UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO MEDICAL COLLEGE 
503 
associate, assistant, clinical and adjunct, for the college year end- 
ing June 2, 1916: 
Medical Administration-Thomas H. McKee, Dean; James A. Gibson, 
Sec'y and Treas. 
Administrative Board-Thomas H. McKee, 1917; Chas. G. Stockton, 
1918; Herbert U. Williams, 1920; Jas. A. Gibson, 1920; Francis C. Golds- 
borough, 1919; DeWitt H. Sherman, 1918; Frederick H. Pratt, 1919; 
Grover W. Wende, 1917; Arthur G. Bennett, 1916; Nelson G. 
Russell, 1916. 
Board of Instruction-DeLancey Rochester, chairman; John L. Butsch, 
sec'y; Arthur G. Bennett, Chas. A. Bentz, James A. Gibson, Francis C. 
Goldsborough, Edgar R. McGuire, Frederick H. Pratt, James W. Putnam, 
Albert P. Sy, Grover W. Wende, Herbert U. Williams. 
Standing Committee of Faculty-Alumni: L. Kauffman, chairman; 
Athletics: W. Ralph, chairman; Auditing: J. S. Otto, chairman; Build- 
ings: J. A. Gibson, chairman; W. F. Jacobs, J. Richter, C. C. Cott, H. 
W. Cowper, F. C. Goldsborough, A. P. Sy, W. Ralph, J. L. Butsch, J. C. 
Sullivan; College Events: J. A. Gibson, chairman; H. R. Trick, H. Mead, 
W. Ralph; Dispensaries: D. C. McKenney, chairman; N. G. Russell, 
W. S. Goodale, L. Howe, W. S. Renner, J. D. Flagg; Endowment: P. W. 
Van Peyma, chairman; J. Ullman, J. Spangenthal, M. Clinton, L. Kauff- 
man, I. W. Snow, G. W. Wende, H. G. Russell, L. M. Francis, G. F. 
Cott; Hospitals: W. W. Plummer, chairman; W. S. Doodale, M. Clinton, 
F. W. McGuire, DeW. H. Sherman, E. G. Starr, I. W. Potter, T. J. 
Walsh; Library: I. P. Lyon, chairman; F. H. Pratt; R. F. Morgan, 
Consulting Librarian; J. L. Butsch; Nominations: A. G. Bennett, chair- 
man; C. G. Stockton, A. P. Sy, F. L. Parmenter; Organization: F. H. 
Pratt, chairman; F. L. Parmenter, H. M. Weed; Pedagogy: N. L. 
Burnham, chairman; T. H. McKee, H. A. Smith; Public Instruction: 
H. G. Matzinger, chairman; W. F. Jacobs, G. J. Eckel; Publications: 
F. H. Pratt, chairman; L. Kauffman, H. J. Mulford; Publicity: A. P. Sy; 
Research: H. U. Williams, chairman; F. H. Pratt, E. R. McGuire, J. L. 
Butsch; State Boards: A. P. Sy, chairman; H. U. Williams, A. A. Jones, 
C. A. Bentz; Student Welfare: T. M. Leonard, chairman; J. A. Gibson, 
T. Weight, Edith R. Hatch, K. F. Eschelman. 
Faculty of Medicine, Emeritus Professors-Matthew D. Mann, Emeri- 
tus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Henry R. Hopkins, Emeritus 
Professor of Hygiene; Charles Cary, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Medi- 
cine; Eli H. Lomg, Emeritus Professor of Materia Medica and Thera- 
peutics; Lucien Howe, Emeritus Professor of Opthalmology; Bernard 
Bartown, Emeritus Clinical Professor of Orthopedic Surgery; Peter W. 
Van Peyma, Emeritus Clinical Professor of Obstetrics. 
Professors-Charles G. Stockton, Professor of Principles and Prac- 
tice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine; DeLancey Rochester, Professor 
of Medicine; Herbert U. Williams, Professor of Pathology and Bac- 
teriology, Curator of Museum; Grover W. Wende, Professor of Derma- 504 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
tology and Syphilology; James A. Gibson, Professor of Anatomy; Albert 
P. Sy, Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology; Francis C. Goldsbor- 
ough, Professor of Obstetrics; DeWitt H. Sherman, Professor of Materia 
Medica and Therapeutics, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics; Frederick II. 
Pratt, Professor of Physiology; Irving M. Snow, Professor of Pediatrics; 
James W. Putnam, Professor of Neurology; Elmer G. Starr, Professor 
of Ophthalmology; Herman G. Matzinger, Professor of Psychiatrics; John 
Lord O'Brian, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence; Allen A. Jones, Asso- 
ciate Professor of Medicine; Marshall Clinton, Associate Professor of 
Surgery; Edgar R. McGuire, Associate Professor of Surgery; James E. 
King, Clinical Professor of Gynecology; Walter D. Greene, Clinical Pro- 
fessor of Genito-Urinary Surgery; W. Scott Renner, Clinical Professor 
of Laryngology; Alfred E. Diehl, Clinical Professor of Dermatology; 
Geo. F. Cott, Clinical Professor of Laryngology and Otology; Henry 
C. Buswell, Adjunct Professor of Medicine; Edward J. Meyer, Adjunct 
Professor of Surgery; Nelson G. Russell, Assistant Professor of Medi- 
cine; Irving Phillips Lyon, Assistant Professor of Medicine; Jacob S. 
Otto, Assistant Professor of Therapeutics; Albert E. Woegnert, Assistant 
Professor of Medicine; Wm. Ward Plummer, Assistant Professor of 
Orthopedics and Radiology; John L. Butsch, Assistant Professor of 
Ophthalmology. 
Associates-Lee Masten Francis, Associate in Ophthalmology; Harry 
Mead, Associate in Medicine; Thomas H. McKee, F. A. C. S., Associate 
in Surgery; Lesser Kauffman, Associate in Neurology; Charles Sumner 
Jones, Associate in Pediatrics; Charles A. Bentz, Associate in Embryology 
and Instructor in Hygiene; Henry J. Mulford, Associate in Laryngology; 
Norman L. Burnham, Associate in Medicine; Frederick J. Parmenter, 
Associate in Genito-Urinary Surgery; Thew Wright, Associate in Sur- 
gery; Harry M. Weed, Associate in Anatomy; Carl S. Tompkins, Asso- 
ciate in Clinical Pathology; Thomas B. Carpenter, Associate in Genito- 
Urinary Surgery. 
Instructors-Julius Ullman, Lecturer on Medicine; Nathalie K. Man- 
kell, Lecturer on Mechanical Therapeutics; Herman K. DeGroat, Lec- 
turer on Medicine and Obstetrics; Thomas J. Walsh, Lecturer on Medicine 
and Pediatrics; James J. Mooney, Lecturer on Laryngology and Otology; 
Francis W. McGuire, F. A. C. S., Lecturer on Surgery; W. W. Wuin- 
ton, Major, U. S. A. (Ret.), Lecturer on Military Hygiene and Tropical 
Medicine; John D. Flagg, Instructor in Ophthalmology; A. A. Thibau- 
deau, Instructor in Hygiene; Regina Flood-Keyes, Instructor in Ob- 
stetrics; Ethel A. Jacobs, Instructor in Bacteriology; William T. Getman, 
Instructor in Obstetrics; Prescott LeBreton, M.D., F. A. C. S., Instructor 
in Anaesthetics; Carroll J. Roberts, Instructor in Medicine; Karl F. 
Eschelman, M.D., Instructor in Medicine; Theodore M. Leonard, Instruc- 
tor in Medicine; Charles W. Banta, Instructor in Obstetrics; William 
F. Jacobs, Instructor in Pathology; Harry R. Trick, F. A. C. S., Instruc- 
tor in Surgery; Descum C. McKenney, Instructor in Gynecology and 
Proctology; Harry R. Lohnes, Instructor in Therapeutics and Clinical UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO MEDICAL COLLEGE 
505 
Medicine; Harry H. Ebberts, Instructor in Medicine; Herbert A. Smith, 
Instructor in Surgery; Irving W. Potter, Instructor in Obstetrics; James 
H. Lewis, Instructor in Anatomy and Surgery; Joseph Spangenthal, In- 
structor in Dermatology; Frank H. Ransom, Instructor in Obstetrics; 
Walter S. Goodale, Instructor in Medicine; David E. Wheeler, Instructor 
in Anatomy; Edward C. Koenig, Instructor in Medicine; Edward A. 
Sharp, Instructor in Neurology and Anatomy; James C. Sullivan, In- 
structor in Anatomy; John Tinkler, Instructor in Anatomy; George J. 
Eckel, Instructor in Medicine and Anatomy; John F. Fairbairn, In- 
structor in Laryngology and Otology; John L. Eckel, Instructor in Neu- 
rology and Anatomy; Bernard F. Schreiner, Instructor in Surgery; C. Lee 
Shilliday, Instructor in Histology; Charles W. Bethune, Instructor in 
Genito-Urinary Surgery; Alfred H. Noehren, Instructor in Anatomy; 
Clayton W. Greene, Instructor in Medicine; Harold W. Cowper, Instructor 
in Ophthalmology. 
Assistants-Chester C. Cott, Assistant in Laryngology and Otology; 
Elmer A. D. Clarke, Assistant in Obstetrics; John H. Evans, Assistant in 
Anaesthetics; Frank E. Brundage, Assistant in Pediatrics; Nelson W. 
Strohm, Assistant in Physiology; Edith R. Hatch, Assistant in Pedi- 
atrics; John G. Hoeckh, Assistant in Medicine; Jesse N. Roe, Assistant 
in Medicine; Julius Richter, Assistant in Anatomy; Ray A. Edson, 
Assistant in Ophthalmology; Edward F. Meister, Assistant in Bacteriology; 
Clayton M. Brown, Assistant in Anatomy; Richard N. De Niord, As- 
sistant in Physiology and Pharmacology; Baldwin Mann, Assistant in 
Medicine; Byron D. Bowen, Assistant in Medicine; Herman D. Andrews, 
Assistant in Ophthalmology; Grace A. Persch, Assistant Librarian; 
Josephine M. Loveland, Registrar; Louis Staffeldt, Custodian of Building. 
The city of Buffalo affords through its large and varied popu- 
lation a rich supply of clinical material, distributed among a num- 
ber of institutions, in large part as follows: Buffalo General Hos- 
pital; Erie County Hospital; Childrens' Hospital; Municipal 
Hospital; Ernest "Wende Hospital for Contagious Diseases; St. 
Mary's Orphan Asylum and Maternity Hospital; Buffalo Eye and 
Ear Infirmary; Buffalo State Hospital; Charity Eye, Ear and 
Throat Hospital; Good Samaritan Free Dispensary; Emergency 
Hospital; The Rescue Home. The teaching facilities of all these 
are open to the Department of Medicine. The Good Samaritan 
Dispensary, occupying part of the medical building, and the 
Buffalo General Hospital, form a source of teaching material 
directly at hand. CHAPTER V 
LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
TO the Long Island College Hospital of Brooklyn belongs the 
distinction of having inaugurated the hospital-college system, 
of medical instruction in this country; at the time its medical 
college was organized, it was the only professional school in the 
United States conducted on that plan of instruction. 
Its inception may be traced to some German physicians and 
surgeons of Brooklyn, in 1856, to institute a public medical service, 
of charitable basis in the German section of the city. In March 
that year, the medical men concerned organized the Brooklyn Ger- 
man General Dispensary at 132 (now 146) Court street, Brook- 
lyn. The Dispensary staff, 1856-57, was (Smith's Brooklyn City 
Directory) : Augustus Kalb (or Kalt), M. D., and Gustave 
Braeunlich, consulting physicians; Louis Bauer and Charles 
Neuhass, consulting surgeons; Daniel Pfeiffer, resident physician. 
It was open to the poor every afternoon, Sundays excepted, and the 
first case was treated on March 17, 1856, a Louis Prell, suffering 
from ' ' splenitis chronica. ' ' Apparently the promoters had intended 
the Dispensary to constitute the first action toward the establish- 
ment of a large German Hospital, but the intention was not devel- 
oped to success. In the spring following, they removed it to 146 
(now 217) Court street, where they continued to the distinct ben- 
efit of the poor of the district. Indications were present that the 
primary object was passing; the German physicians formed asso- 
ciation with Drs. John Byrne, Daniel Ayres and William H. 
Dudley, and on October 27, 1857, a meeting was held at the 
Dispensary. Samuel W. Slocum presided, and it was resolved 
"that it is expedient to organize the charitable institution in the 
City of Brooklyn, to be called St. John's Hospital," and a com- 
mittee was named to report a charter and by-laws, Messrs. Dever, 
Ayres, Messenger and Slocum. 
506 LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
507 
On November 5, 1857, preliminaries were arranged, and twenty 
regents were appointed to take over the Dispensary and "provide 
for its maintenance, until the proposed charter has been obtained." 
It was resolved to establish a fund, to which not less than twelve 
dollars was to be subscribed by each of the regents, and by such 
others as may join them, the subscription fees to be regarded as 
fees of membership. On the 6th or 7th of that month (records 
differ), the Dispensary passed to the new combination, which was 
to take the name of "St. John's Hospital." An instrument relat- 
ing to the conveyance states that the "German General Dispen- 
sary ' ' was merged into the ' ' Long Island College Hospital ' ' on the 
7th day of November, 1857, under the following officers: John 
Byrne, Roger S. Olmstead, Gustavus Brauenlich, physicians; Louis 
Bauer, Daniel Ayres, surgeons; Dr. Zundt, resident physician and 
superintendent. The document makes clear that "St. John's" 
was first written thereon, but subsequently erased, and "Long 
Island" afterwards written over it, the additional word."College" 
having been inserted above the line. Subsequent minutes of the 
institution substantiate the inference, proving that the name 
"Long Island College Hospital" was not adopted until February 
4 of the following year. 
On November 5, 1857, the promoters appointed a committee con- 
sisting of Samuel Sloan, Daniel Chauncey, and Harry Messenger, 
to procure the act of incorporation. On November 12, 1857, the 
treasurer reported the sum of $115. Charles Storrs was con- 
stituted a life-member, he having contributed the sum of $100. On 
January 7, 1858, the incorporators arranged an option on the 
Perry property on Henry street, between Pacific and Amity 
streets, the purchase price not to exceed $32,500. The record is 
interesting, because of its inferred information that medical edu- 
cation was also entering into the purposes of the institution, the 
minute of that meeting placing it on record as having been of ' ' the 
officers of the Long Island Hospital and Medical College." On 
February 4th, the projectors resolved that the institution should 
be known under the designation to which it has since held, the 
minutes inscribing the gathering as "a regular meeting of the 
Regents of the Long Island College Hospital." A resolution was 
adopted to purchase the Perry property, which action was made 
possible by the co-operation of Daniel Chauncey, N. E. James, Sam. 
Sloan, H. Messenger, R. L. Delisser, Dan. W. Slocum, Jacques 508 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Cortelyou, Joseph Hegeman, Livingston K. Miller, and Cornelius 
Dever, who each subscribed $400, "or so much thereof propor- 
tionately as may be called for." Two weeks later the purchase 
was accomplished, at $1,250 less than the sum named in option. 
The contract, which called for the payment of $11,250 on May 
1st, 1858, and the remaining $20,000 within three years there- 
after, was entered into on behalf of the hospital by Hon. Samuel 
Sloan, chairman, who gave his personal bond for the amount. 
On March 6th, 1858, the charter was granted and the incorpo- 
rators met. Present were: Hon. Samuel Sloan, Messrs. Daniel 
Chauncey, Nathaniel E. James, Samuel W. Slocum, Harold Doll- 
ner, James S. Brownson, Richard L. Delisser, Henry Messenger, 
J. J. Van Nostrand, Eugene O'Sullivan, Robert H. Berdell, Henry 
F. Vail, Luther B. Wyman, Jacques Cortelyou, Theodore Polhe- 
mus, Jr., Livingston K. Miller, Cornelius Dever, and C. N. Bovee. 
The meeting was presided over by the Hon. Samuel Sloan, Liv- 
ingston K. Miller acting as secretary. The following officers were 
unanimously elected: President, Charles Christmas, who was not 
present, and who subsequently declined; vice-president, Samuel 
W. Slocum; secretary, C. N. Bovee; treasurer, Cornelius Dever. 
A council of professional men was formed with executive power 
over the collegiate department-Doctors Chauncey L. Mitchell, 
William H. Dudley, Theodore L. Mason, and John Byrne. It was 
resolved "that Drs. Daniel Ayres and Louis Bauer be also ap- 
pointed members of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons and 
Professors." The eighteen regents present agreed to pay $100 
each as life-members, and also undertook each to loan the insti- 
tution a sum not exceeding $500. 
The charter appointed Samuel W. Slocum, Cornelius Dever, 
Henry Messenger, Livingston K. Miller, Daniel Chauncey, C. Nes- 
tell Bovee, and their associates, ' ' a body corporate and politic ' ' by 
the name of ' ' The Long Island College Hospital, ' ' for the purposes 
of establishing and maintaining a public hospital, ' ' and of promot- 
ing medical science and instruction in the department of learning 
connected therewith." The charter stipulated for government by 
a board of regents to consist of twenty-five members, five to be 
elected annually, and to retire in rotation; the regents were em- 
powered to grant and confer degrees to graduates who were twen- 
ty-one years or more, had passed three years as student under a 
reputable physician, and completed two courses of lectures, the LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
509 
last at the Long Island College Hospital. Subscriptions of ten 
dollars annually constituted the donors ordinary members of the 
corporation. On March 20, 1858, additional officers were nomi- 
nated: Gustavus Brauenlich, Edwin N. Chapman, as physicians; 
and Roger S. Olmstead as adjunct physician. 
On April 8th Hon. Samuel Sloan was elected president, Charles 
Christmas, who had been elected without his knowledge or consent, 
having declined. The regents prepared a letter to the public, 
appealing "in the strongest manner" to the benevolent and Chris- 
tian sympathies of the residents of Brooklyn to support the project 
of establishing the institution "where the unfortunate and needy 
may be provided for in the hour of suffering," stating that the 
payment of $100 would constitute the donor a life-member, and 
that the sum of $300 would secure a life-membership, and in addi- 
tion one free scholarship in the college. The institution had for 
its objects, as stated by the regents in the circular referred to, the 
furnishing of: 1. A hospital, with an indoor and outdoor depart- 
ment, for the treatment of surgical and medical cases. 2. A lying-in 
department, for the poor and unfortunate. 3. A corps of regularly 
educated and licensed nurses. 4. A college where all the branches 
of medical science could be taught, and medical students practically 
trained. On April 17, 1858, the regents appointed Dr. James H. 
Henry as a member of the council, and A. Haslett and Mr. Ess- 
linger as adjunct physician and warden, respectively. 
The building in which the dispensary was conducted was vacated 
May 1, 1858, and it is presumed that the Perry mansion was occu- 
pied almost simultaneously. An inauguration festival took place 
June 3, 1858, at the Athenaeum, and a banquet, at which about 
two hundred sat. This increased the resources to the extent of 
$79.62 in cash, and considerable increase in public interest; 205 
tickets at $5 each were sold. 
Alteration being necessary to adapt the Perry mansion to the 
requirements of the hospital, in July, 1858, the Joint Board of 
Council and Faculty pledged themselves to raise the $2,500 neces- 
sary. In the meantime it was decided to proceed with the altera- 
tions. By October, 1858, $1,325 had been collected, to which sum 
was added shortly afterwards an additional $875. "In order to 
raise funds for the maintenance of the institution," Robert Waldo 
Emerson was engaged to lecture, his lecture netting $100. In 510 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
November the alterations and additions were completed, and the 
building opened. 
The institution proceeded quietly but not uneventfully, the 
first half of 1859; albeit the main cause of action and discussion, 
apart from the hospital labors, centred upon the need of money. 
In May, Dr. Louis Bauer resigned. The regents decided to per- 
sonally solicit contributions from the citizens; they systematically 
districted the city, but not with conspicuous success. On Septem- 
ber 28, 1859, the treasurer reported debts exceeding $5,000. The 
regents were compelled to curb outgoings, and decided to admit 
no new patients, excepting cases of accident. It seemed that the 
institution would be closed altogether, and that the college would 
not be able to enter upon even its first session. In this serious 
state of affairs, the joint board of Council and Faculty determined 
to take upon themselves the liabilities of the collegiate department, 
and offered their joint guarantee of $3,000 to carry on the col- 
legiate department, provided the regents extinguished the floating 
debt, and took measures to liquidate the mortgage on the property. 
This the regents were not able to undertake, and in November re- 
solved to advertise the property for sale by public auction. The 
council and faculty subsequently undertook to guarantee the 
$3,000 unconditionally, and, this being acceptable to the regents, 
the following were elected the faculty for the first year's instruc- 
tion: 
Dr. Austin Flint, Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine; 
Dr. Frank Hamilton, Professor of Principles and Practice of 
Surgery; Joseph C. Hutchinson, Professor of Surgical Anatomy 
and Operative Surgery, with demonstration on the cadaver; J. D. 
Trask, Professor of Obstetrics, and Diseases of Women and 
Children; D. C. Enos, Professor of General and Descriptive An- 
atomy. The chairs of Physiology, Chemistry and Medical Juris- 
prudence were not filled at that time, but subsequently Drs. Dal- 
ton and Doremus were appointed. 
One gentleman in particular had the interests of the institution 
thoroughly at heart, and in its desperate need unstintingly gave of 
his private resources. Dr. William H. Dudley, of the collegiate 
council, came forward in December, when the regents endeavored 
to end their liability by selling the whole of the property of the 
corporation, and ensured its continuance by purchasing it himself 
for $28,550. The old corporation was thus liquidated, each of the LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
511 
guarantors bearing his proportion of the financial loss thereby en- 
tailed. 
The Long Island College Hospital was "reopened" for the first 
course of lectures March 3, 1860, and an announcement at that 
time states that it "starts with means which will enable it 
not only to succor the afflicted, but to establish a College for in- 
struction. " The circular issued prior to the opening announced 
that the college was "to supply a want expressed by members of 
the medical profession and by students, and which has hitherto 
not been met in the northern and middle sections of this country, 
namely, a medical school of the first order which would afford the 
means of instruction during the later spring and early summer 
months." The faculty anticipated "students from the South" 
especially to welcome the opportunity to study "in a temperate 
climate, in a city beautiful, healthful and quiet, yet populous . . . 
at a season of the year which has hitherto been but little occupied 
with regular courses of medical lectures." The circular empha- 
sized the good fortune of the college "in procuring the co-opera- 
tion, as members of the faculty, of several professors of other 
schools, distinguished by their contributions to medical literature." 
It stated that the members of the Collegiate Council would con- 
stitute also a board of curators, in whom rested the responsibility 
of examining candidates for the degree of M.D., but averred that 
the council could "have no possible motive or desire to admit into 
the ranks of the profession unworthy members, and that they 
have no interest whatever in the institution inconsistent with 
the advancement of medical education, and the welfare of the 
medical profession." Prominence was also given to its claim that 
the school was the first of the hospital-college type in the country, 
ensuring "great advancement in clinical teachings, students be- 
ing able to pass from the lecture room into the hospital wards." 
The session was to embrace four months, the fee $100, with $5 for 
matriculation, $5 to Demonstrator of Anatomy, and to those who 
could qualify, a graduation fee of $25. It was stated that the 
course in physiology would be demonstrative, vivisection and other 
experimental illustrations being employed by Professor Dalton 
(president later of the College of Physicians and Surgeons) "who 
was the first to introduce into this country this method of physi- 
ological instruction." The opening session was distinctly en- 
couraging, bearing in mind the chequered earlier circumstances 512 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
identified with the institution which must have created doubts as 
to its permanence in the minds of many would-be students. Not- 
withstanding this handicap, 58 and a number of graduates of other 
schools, attended the lectures. The Commencement exercises were 
held July 24, 1860, and were made more than customarily cere- 
monious. Dr. Arthur Berceau was granted the first diploma con- 
ferred by the Long Island College Hospital. The first graduating 
class numbered 21, S. J. Morrison being valedictorian. 
In the autumn, the Council, anticipating an increased enrollment 
for the second year, recommended further alterations to the col- 
lege-hospital buildings, and the erection of an additional building 
to contain a spacious amphitheatre, an adequate dissecting room, 
library and museum. The general lecture hall of the main build- 
ing they desired also to have enlarged, these alterations necessitat- 
ing an outlay of about $6,000. It was decided to prosecute the 
work immediately, so that it might be completed if possible before 
the opening of the next session. 
The "Annual Circular," for the 1861 session stated that "the 
success which attended the first session may be considered as 
demonstrating the correctness of the views with which the insti- 
tution was commenced." It pointed out that the Long Island Col- 
lege Hospital buildings "are most eligibly and pleasantly situated 
. . . overlooking the bay . . . surrounded by ample and orna- 
mental grounds." Further that the "City of Brooklyn contains 
about 300,000 inhabitants, being the third city of the United States 
in point of population," and that "its salubrious and beautiful 
situation," its proximity to New York, and the character of the 
city, rendered Brooklyn "peculiarly suited" to become the seat 
of a large medical school. A preliminary course, which would be 
almost wholly clinical, of four weeks' duration, was to precede the 
regular course, the opening day of which was to be March 18, 
1861, and the session was to end about the middle of July. The 
clinical instruction during the preliminary term was given daily 
in the hospital wards, supplemented by a course of lectures in 
military surgery by Professor Hamilton. 
The institution was however very meagrely supported by the 
public, and notwithstanding the invaluable public service afforded 
by the hospital, it remained almost wholly a direct charge against 
the resources of those who gave it also their most earnest and in- 
defatigable personal labor. In particular, the liabilities fell LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
513 
heavily upon Dr. Wm. H. Dudley, who between 1860 and 1862 
practically carried the institution, loaning to it at various times 
during the period sums aggregating $10,874.94. Events of im- 
portance that year were: that on April 1st, there remained in the 
treasury $23.20; the resignation on May 13th of Hon. Samuel 
Sloan, president, and the election of H. B. Cromwell to succeed 
him; the resignation of Mr. Cromwell in October, and the re-elec- 
tion of Mr. Sloan, in December, when he reported that he had suc- 
ceeded in collecting $8,500 in subscriptions, to be applied toward 
the floating debt. Seventy-nine students attended during the 
1861 session, the graduating class numbering 17. Charles T. Inger- 
soll was the valedictorian. 
After the re-election of the Hon. Sam. Sloan to the presidency, 
the regents and council made every possible effort to further in- 
crease the subscriptions, and during the winter they instituted 
some popular lectures which netted $415. A committee appointed 
to raise money in aid of the hospital reported in March, 1862, 
that the subscription fund had been increased to $9,244.18. By the 
end of the year the president was able to report that the indebted- 
ness of the institution to Dr. Dudley had been reduced to $1,300. 
During that terrible year of war, the hospital received many 
drafts of wounded soldiers. Just before the memorable battles 
before Richmond commenced in 1862, the United States govern- 
ment applied to the northern civil hospitals to receive sick and 
wounded soldiers. The regents of the Long Island College Hos- 
pital promptly responded; but room and furniture were want- 
ing, and pecuniary resources were not present. An appeal to clergy- 
men and others of the vicinity brought response to the extent of 
$774.70, which was quite inadequate for the purpose. However, 
the regents did not hesitate to place their full facilities at the 
disposal of the government, and their record in this respect con- 
stitutes a worthy chapter of the institution's history. During that 
year's work, the military situation had prior place in the minds of 
almost all students, professors, and physicians, especially after 
the wounded soldiers began to fill the wards. The graduating class 
only numbered 11, the valedictorian of the year being J. C. Mor- 
ton. The year 1863 was uneventful, apart from the military 
labors; 16 students graduated, of whom J. G. Kalbach was valedic- 
torian. The matriculants only numbered fifty. 
Professor Hamilton was again present during the session of 514 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
1864, after having been absent for two years as surgeon and 
medical inspector in the United States army. There were some 
faculty changes; Professor Chapman was transferred from the 
chair of Materia Medica to the department of Obstetrics, Dr. Gil- 
fallan taking the professorship of Materia Medica; Professor Dore- 
mus having resigned the professorship of Chemistry, Professor 
D. G. Eaton was appointed to that chair; Dr. Austin Flint, Jr., 
also joined the faculty, as Professor of Physiology and Microscopic 
Anatomy, vice Dr. Dalton, resigned. The session showed sub- 
stantial improvement; there was a graduating class of forty, 0. 
C. Sparrow carrying off the valedictorian honors. 
Important progress financially was effected during 1864. On 
March 28, Theodore Polhemus, Jr., was elected president, and 
great efforts were made to clear the debt. The campaign, ad- 
mirably headed by the president, continued actively throughout 
the year, and on December 5, 1864, the institution had become pos- 
sessed of $22,800. Death suddenly called away the president, 
Theodore Polhemus, Jr., in the midst of his worthy work. Joseph 
Ripley was appointed to fill the office thus rendered vacant, and 
commenced under more encouraging conditions than had any one 
of his predecessors. 
The regents of the institution, in a report issued in 1867, re- 
viewing the ten years of endeavor, stated in great detail the 
financial condition, as it existed in 1864. The review reads: 
In 1864 the need of more room for the Out-door department, which had 
hitherto been conducted within the hospital building, had become__so 
pressing that a separate building was prepared for its reception by re- 
modelling and adding to the structure already on the grounds; and yet 
the premises furnish insufficient accommodation for the reception and 
treatment of the patients who apply for the relief which it is intended 
to afford. 
Up to May 21, 1864, as appears from the report then published, the 
expenses of supporting the hospital had been chiefly defrayed by the 
regents, by the members of the councils, and by a few of our benevolent 
citizens; $10,000 to $12,000 had been first raised, and expended for this 
purpose. There were no liabilities for current expenses unprovided for 
at that date, yet the large permanent debt remained, acting as a drain 
on the resources of the institution. This debt . . . had been reduced 
from $32,000 to $21,000. Interest for six years, amounting to $13,440? 
had been paid and the necessary furniture, apparatus, alterations, and 
improvements to buildings are estimated to have cost at least $5,000. 
$29,000 at least had, therefore, been expended on real and personal estate. 
This was the condition on the institution in 1864, when the regents deter- 
mined to attempt the removal of this obstacle . . . and issued a statement LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
515 
appealing to the community for $25,000 which would pay the debt and 
interest. ... As a result . . . $22,000 were realized in subscriptions of 
$5,000, $1,000, $500 and lesser sums. The property was thus freed from 
the mortgage debt and annual interest of $1,400. 
About the end of 1864, the regents applied to the City for a 
portion of the money raised for hospital purposes, and confidently 
relied upon this with the State grant to enable them, with local 
annual contributions, to meet the current expenses of the insti- 
tution. 
The 1865 session of the college established an encouraging rec- 
ord; there were 53 graduates, with E. S. Bates as valedictorian. 
In that year the city of Brooklyn materially and officially recog- 
nized the good work of the hospital by making a grant of $4,000, 
which donation enabled the finance committee, on December 18, 
1865, to report that the fund had reached a sufficient amount to 
redeem the mortgage and the whole of the floating debt incurred 
up to November 26, 1865. 
There were no faculty changes in 1866, the enrollment for which 
was eminently satisfactory, 122 students taking the lectures, of 
whom 49 graduated. The valedictorian was E. S. Bates. That 
year saw the election of Mr. J. J. Van Nostrand to the presidency 
in place of Mr. Joseph Ripley. 
In 1867, there were many faculty changes. Dr. Samuel G. 
Armor was appointed Professor of Therapeutics, Materia Medica 
and General Pathology, the announcement stating that he came 
from the University of Michigan, and was "long and favorably 
known as an accomplished teacher of the departments assigned to 
him." The Annual Circular further announced that the council 
and faculty, '1 convinced of the vital importance of practical knowl- 
edge . . . determined at the very commencement of their opera- 
tions, whilst giving due place to didactive instruction, to make 
demonstrative teaching the basis of their system." A third pro- 
fessor was added to the department of surgery. The number 
of graduates was 34; valedictorian, E. D. Grinder. The Regents 
in that year stated the work and experiences of the institution over 
the first decade of its existence "afforded ample evidence that a 
well-endowed hospital is much needed in the section." During 
the period, the hospital had prescribed for more than 65,000 
patients, but, the regents stated, that to other numerous demands 
they "were constrained to refuse compliance," owing to lack of 516 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
means. Nevertheless the Regents "believe they have every reason 
to be satisfied with the results attained, and feel confident that they 
have finally succeeded in placing the Long Island College Hospital 
upon a permanent basis. ' ' The disbursements for all purposes, ex- 
cepting for construction of the new wing of the hospital, aggre- 
gated $10,955.76, which was more than covered by the year's income 
of $11,415.53. 
With each year, the demands upon the facilities of the institu- 
tion increased; in 1868 the Regents determined to borrow $20,000 
for the erection of an additional building, and also to make fur- 
ther alteration and improvements to the old building. The students 
granted diplomas in 1867 were 26, William C. Coleman being the 
valedictorian. 
The new wing of the hospital was opened March 18, 1869, and 
other alterations were in an advanced state by the end of the year. 
Eighteen students graduated, Ez. C. Scudder being valedictorian. 
The Annual Circular of 1870 referred to the many improvements 
to the buildings, stating that "the original hospital building has 
been greatly altered and improved, a large additional building, 
containing the most modern improvements in ventilation, has been 
added, and greatly increased facilities for bedside instruction and 
study have thus been provided." The faculty in that year was 
increased from nine to eleven, and there were many changes, bring- 
ing much reorganization of departments. Dr. Austin Flint, Pro- 
fessor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine, having resigned, 
his place was taken by Dr. Samuel G. Armor, who vacated the 
chair of Therapeutics, Materia Medica and General Pathology, and 
became for the 1870 session also Professor of Clinical Medicine; 
Professor Armor later became dean of the faculty. Dr. Dewitt C. 
Enos, Professor of Anatomy, was succeeded by Dr. Corydon L. 
Ford, and Dr. E. S. Dunster became Professor of Obstetrics and 
Diseases of Children, vice Dr. Ed. N. Chapman. Professor Joseph 
C. Hutchinson, Professor of Operative Surgery, resigned, as did 
also Dr. Darwin C. Eaton, Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology; 
to the latter chair Dr. George W. Plympton was appointed, and 
Dr. William T. Lusk was appointed head of the departments of 
Physiology and Microscopic Anatomy, in place of Dr. Austin Flint, 
Jr., who tendered his resignation. Dr. A. J. C. Skene. Assistant 
Professor of Obstetrics, was made Professor of the Diseases of 
Women and Children, and Clinical Obstetrics, and Dr. Geo. K. LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
517 
Smith, Demonstrator of Anatomy, was advanced to an Adjunct 
Professorship of Surgery. Drs. Jarvis S. Wight, J. S. Prout and 
Arthur Matthewson joined the teaching staff as lecturers on Ma- 
teria Medica and Therapeutics, Ophthalmology, and Diseases of 
the Ear, respectively. The class of 1870 graduated 30 students, 
headed by P. B. Plotts, valedictorian. At a meeting of the Regents, 
authority was obtained to erect a new building, at a cost of $12,- 
000 on the corner of Henry and Amity streets, to accommodate 
United States sailors. 
The Regents reported that the financial condition of the institu- 
tion, as a whole, was satisfactory. There was no debt, excepting 
that of $20,000, contracted for the erection of the female wing, 
and secured by a mortgage. But the Regents noted that ' ' our city 
continues on the road to prosperity; factories and warehouses con- 
stantly increase in our neighborhood, and vessels of all classes 
throng our wharfs more and more;" which general increased 
prosperity, they averred, "brings increased demand upon the hos- 
pital." It had therefore been considered wise by them, "so as not 
hereafter to have to withhold aid from a single sufferer," to au- 
thorize the erection of a new addition to their hospital. The ad- 
dition was, in all main points, similar to the wing erected two 
years previously, being 148 ft. long by 30 ft. wide, the building 
having three floors, including basement, and furnishing floor space 
for sixty to seventy beds, thereby increasing the hospital capacity 
to 200 beds. 
There were thirty-four graduates in 1871, and W. Barney Mix 
was valedictorian. A reading and recitation term was established 
in 1872, beginning in the fall and continuing until the regular 
session began, the announcement stating that "in addition to 
daily recitations, the class will be divided for practical training in 
the hospital wards." It was also stated that over 8,000 patients 
were treated at the out-door department, to which students had 
unrestricted facility of attendance and observation. The reading 
term would extend from October to February. The graduates 
numbered 43, with S. Arthur Duell, valedictorian. 
For the 1873-74 sessions, there were some faculty changes. 
Henry S. Cheever took the chair of Physiology and Microscopic 
Anatomy, vacated by Professor Wm. T. Lusk; W. Warren Greene 
became Professor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery and 
of Clinical Surgery, in place of Frank H. Hamilton, and Joseph H. 
Raymond was appointed Adjunct Professor of Physiology. The 518 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
announcement stated, that "with a view of keeping thoroughly 
abreast with the most advanced systems of medical education in this 
and other countries, the faculty . . . determined to extend their 
instruction throughout the year, by lectures, recitation, laboratory 
work, and clinical teaching." The regular term was set to com- 
mence March 4 and end June 30, and the reading term was to be- 
gin on October 1, 1873, and continue until February 28, 1874. 
Object teaching would be thoroughly demonstrative, the lectures, 
being supplemented by questions, recitations, and explanations; 
students also would be afforded ample dissection opportunity, and 
clinical instruction would henceforth continue throughout the 
year. The graduating class of 1873 numbered 44, George H. At- 
kinson, Jr., being the valedictorian. 
In 1874, the construction of a new dissecting room was com- 
menced, the cost amounting to $3,000. On October 22, Mr. J. J. 
Van Nostrand resigned the presidency, and Thomas H. Rodman 
was elected to the office. Fifty-seven students received their de- 
grees, John Harrigan being valedictorian. The 1875 class num- 
bered 44, with E. C. Dudley as valedictorian and the record for 
1876 showed 45 graduates, with H. H. Hahn, valedictorian. 
Some rearrangements of departments were made for the 1877-78 
sessions. Dr. Daniel Ayres, who had been one of the most active 
of the founders, became Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Patholog- 
ical and Clinical Surgery; Dr. Edward Seaman Bunker became 
Professor of the Practice and Principles of Obstetrics, and Clinical 
Obstetrics, and Dr. J. D. Rushmore became Professor of Materia 
Medica and Therapeutics, vice Jarvis S. Wight, who relieved Dr. 
Daniel Ayres from the duties of the department of Principles and 
Practice of Surgery and Clinical Surgery. 
The 1877 graduating class totalled 33, of whom H. H. Kane took 
the valedictorian distinctions. The following year there were 33 
graduates. The same number graduated in 1879, E. H. Bartley 
winning position as valedictorian. 
For the sessions of 1879-80, Dr. John A. McCorkle became lec- 
turer on Materia Medica and Therapeutics. The curriculum was 
expanded, a new department, to give instruction in histology and 
general pathology, being organized under Dr. Edward Seaman 
Bunker. Forty-five students graduated in 1880, G. R. Butler being 
valedictorian. The enrollments numbered 154, the students com- 
ing from sixteen States of the Union. LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
519 
The college having been established for more than twenty years, 
a movement was initiated in 1880 to form an Alumni Association. 
On May 23 of that year a meeting of graduates was held, at which 
Professor Alexander J. C. Skene was unanimously elected presi- 
dent of the ' ' Association of the Alumni of the Long Island College 
Hospital" then established, and on June 13, 1881, students of the 
college gathered from all parts of the country for the first annual 
meeting. For the 1880-81 session, Dr. Rushmore having resigned, 
Dr..J. A. McCorkle was appointed Professor of Materia Medica 
and Therapeutics. Dr. Charles Jewett also received appointment 
as lecturer on obstetrics. The curriculum was expanding each 
year, and the course became each year more difficult. During the 
regular session of 1880-81, students had classes at which they must 
attend each week day, from 9 o'clock each morning until 5 p. m., 
excepting Saturday, when there were no afternoon lectures; and 
during the reading term the classes began at 1 p. m., continuing 
until 9 p. m. each week day, excepting on Saturdays, when only 
morning classes were held. The class of 1881 graduated 51, of 
whom C. J. Thomas was valedictorian. There were 61 graduates 
in the class of 1882, Robert Emery Scott being valedictorian. In 
1883, Dr. Rushmore again joined the faculty as Professor of 
Surgery, and Dr. Charles Jewett was advanced from the position of 
lecturer on obstetrics to the professorship of that department. The 
enrollments numbered 154, of whom 50 graduated, Andros Palmer 
Chesley being valedictorian. Sanitary Science was added to the 
curriculum and attached to the department of Physiology, under 
the direction of Professor Raymond. 
The announcement of that year stated that the "Long Island 
College Hospital Board of Regents, under advice of the collegiate 
council and faculty, have established a Training School for Nurses, 
under experienced teachers," who gave instruction in anatomy, 
physiology, food and medicine, symptomatology, surgery, and 
gynecology. Applicants between 25 and 35 years of age were 
taken on probation for one month, and admitted by matriculation 
to the Training School for a course of study of two years' duration. 
The catalogue also contained an advertisement stating that the 
Alumni Association offered a prize of $100 for the best essay on 
medical subjects. 
The class of 1884 contained 37 graduates; valedictorian, George 
L. Hutchinson. In the following year, 123 students attended the 520 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
lectures, 47 graduating. Fred Whiting won place as valedictorian. 
The faculty changes in 1885 resulted in the following appoint- 
ments : Dr. Frank Ferguson as Professor of Histology and Patho- 
logical Anatomy; Edwin A. Lewis, M. D., as Adjunct Professor 
of Anatomy; Elias Bartley, as Adjunct Professor of Chemistry. 
The next few years were eventful ones for the institution. Of 
chief importance, probably, were the dispositions made by Dr. Cor- 
nelius Nevius Hoagland, of the Long Island College Hospital Board 
of Regents. In 1886, impressed with the "work already done by 
scientists in the department of bacteriology, he commenced the 
erection of the Hoagland Laboratory "for the promotion of medical 
science, and the instruction of students in special branches 
thereof." This cost Dr. Hoagland more than $180,000, and was a 
most valuable addition to the facilities of the college. The build- 
ing was erected on land owned by Dr. Hoagland, opposite the 
college buildings, and the college announcement of the following 
year gave great prominence to the establishment of the Hoagland 
Laboratory, which would be "equipped with all apparatus neces- 
sary for the study of medicine in all its branches, but more par- 
ticularly in histology, physiology, bacteriology, and pathology.,f 
Although actually not transferred directly to the college, the 
Hoagland Laboratory was to all intents and purposes the property 
of the institution, and was primarily built with that intention. 
The announcement stated also that the establishment of the Lab- 
oratory "will fully meet the demand . . . for practical instruc- 
tion in microscopy, histology, and pathology; in addition . . . stu- 
dents will be made familiar with the technique of bacteriology, 
so that they will be able to determine with certainty the presence, 
or absence, of the known germs of disease." 
In the 1886 session, Dr. Alex. J. C. Skene became dean of the 
faculty, vice Dr. Armor, who had held the chief administrative 
office for sixteen years with much ability. Dr. George W. Plymp- 
ton and Dr. Corydon L. Ford were both honored in that year by 
appointment to emeritus professorships, and Dr. Frank E. West 
became Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. 
On October 9, 1886, occurred the death of Dr. William H. 
Dudley, to whom more than to any of the founders the institution 
owed its continuance during the early years of extreme financial 
stress. The matriculants of 1886 numbered 110; 49 were graduated, 
with Alex. May Redfearn as valedictorian. 
The importance of the Medical College was increasing with each LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
521 
year. Since its inception it had developed steadily and surely. 
In 1887 the teaching staff consisted of ten professors of the fac- 
ulty, and two emeritus professors; ten professors of special sub- 
jects for the regular term; and twelve lecturers and eighteen assist- 
ants for the reading and recitation term. With the approaching 
addition of the Hoagland Laboratory to their facilities, it was 
thought that the progress in the future would become even more 
rapid. Unfortunately, owing to a defect in the title to the ground 
on which it had been intended to erect the laboratory, another 
site had to be procured. This delayed the building of the labora- 
tory, and it was not until December 15, 1888, that the building 
was formally opened. The register of 1887 session showed the 
names of 97 students, and in addition eleven post-graduate stu- 
dents. C. S. Fischer was valedictorian of the graduating class of 
thirty. On March 7, 1887, Dr. Hutchinson was appointed presi- 
dent of the collegiate council, but he died on the 17th of July 
following. 
A large four-story building, erected on the hospital grounds, 
intended as a home for the nurses of the Training School, was 
opened in 1887. A report stated that "a prominent feature of the 
wing is the maternity, which is of special construction to meet 
the requirements of modern midwifery." 
In 1888, Regent Henry W. Maxwell established the Dudley 
Memorial Medal, "in loving remembrance of the late Dr. William 
H. Dudleyand in November of that year, the institution received 
the sum of $10,000, bequeathed to it by the late Mrs. James Hum- 
phrey. The graduating class of 1888 numbered 36, G. W. White 
being valedictorian. There were 48 graduates in 1889, C. A. de la 
Mesa being valedictorian. 
In 1889, the Hospital was made the recipient of a legacy of 
$3,000 bequeathed by John James Van Nostrand, one of the 
founders. About that time, several extensions were made to the 
hospital buildings, and the old dissecting room and chemical lab- 
oratory were replaced by new structures, doubling capacity. In 
1890, the Regents authorized further improvements, the plans 
including the erection of an additional story on the Amity street 
wing, and on a portion of the building between the wing and the 
centre building. The cost was not to exceed $25,000, and, while 
they were being effected, arrangements were entered into to have 
the use of the lecture room of the Hoagland Laboratory. The 522 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
graduating class of 1890 numbered 56, the valedictorian being 
R. W. Kimball. 
The session of 1891 was the first on the three-year requirement 
for graduation; thereafter, candidates for graduation would be 
required to attend three full courses of lectures. Notwithstanding 
this more exacting system, the enrollment of that year was quite 
substantial, 238 students attending the lectures. Eighty-two grad- 
uated, H. T. Hotchkiss being valedictorian. Dr. Joshua M. Van 
Cott, Jr., Lecturer on Histology and Pathological Anatomy, was 
appointed the professor of the departments, vice Frank Furgu- 
son, M. D. The institution received gifts and bequests aggregating 
$15,000 during the year, Mr. H. D. Polhemus donating $5,000, 
and the estates of R. P. Buck and John Ruszits like amounts. 
These contributions enabled the regents to pass plans for further 
needed building additions, the cost of which was estimated at 
$35,000. 
The graduating class of 1892 numbered 64, of whom Wm. F. 
Campbell was valedictorian; full enrollment was 245. In that 
year, Mr. T. H. Rodman, president of the Board of Regents, died; 
he had been a member of the board since 1858, and had been presi- 
dent since 1875. The regents elected Mr. Thomas S. Moore to 
the presidency. 
Fifty-nine students graduated in 1893; in 1894, 56; in 1895, 
70; in 1896, 66; the valedictorians of these years were F. T. Brooks, 
C. R. Hyde, M. Manley, and J. P. Becker, respectively. Notwith- 
standing the more difficult curriculum and the lengthened course 
and term, the enrollments still increased, and comparison was 
drawn in 1897 between the enrollment for 1886, when 122 students 
attended the lectures, and 1896, when 383 students enrolled. There 
was, however, a particular, and urgent reason why the attendance 
m 1896 was so large; it had been announced that the following 
year would inaugurate the four-year graded course. Nevertheless, 
the enrollment augured well for the college. 
In 1895, Mr. Henry D. Polhemus died; he had been a member 
of the Board of Regents since March 21, 1872, and had subscribed 
very liberally to the cause. 
In June of 1897, a fair was held in behalf of the hospital, which 
as a result profited to the extent of $3,175.55. On October 3, 
the four-year graded course was inaugurated. The announcements 
for that and the previous year had made it known that, "begin- LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
523 
ning with the regular term of 1897-8, the course of instruction will 
be more thoroughly graded than heretofore, and will consist, for 
those who have attended no course of lectures, of four collegiate 
years, each beginning the last Wednesday of September, and con- 
tinuing until the middle of May following. . . . Law provides 
that those who do not graduate before January 1, 1902, will not 
receive degree of doctor of medicine, unless four years of study 
have been taken. . . . The lengthening of the regular term, and" 
the adoption of the graded system of instruction will combine the 
advantages of both the regular and the reading terms, the reading 
and recitation term will consequently be abolished, and merged 
in the regular term." In 1897, 68 students graduated, Charles 
Pelton Hutchins being valedictorian; in 1898, 72 graduated, of 
which class N. R. Rathbun was valedictorian. 
Owing mainly to the efforts of Mrs. Frank E. West, the "Guild 
of the Long Island College Hospital" was organized during 1897, 
and commenced its most useful work among the poor. Another 
event of most auspicious consequence to the institution occurred 
that year. For more than forty years the Dispensary had been 
conducted in the building in which it was first organized, excepting 
for the period during which it was known as the German General 
Dispensary. Extensions had from time to time been made, but 
the abnormal increase in students in recent years made expansion 
of facilities for clinical observation imperative. The problem had 
been tabled as insoluble, just prior to the time when announcement 
was made of the munificent gift to the hospital by Mrs. Caroline 
H. Polhemus, of Brooklyn, widow of Henry D. Polhemus, who 
until 1895, when he died, had been a member of the Board of 
Regents since 1872. In his memory, Mrs. Polhemus presented the 
College with a building to be known as the Polhemus Memorial 
Clinic, and devised to provide accommodation therein for both 
the out-patient and medical college departments of the Long 
Island College Hospital. The building was to be of handsome 
exterior, in French renaissance design, eight stories in height, the 
first two stories to be entirely of Indiana limestone, and the 
remainder of brick. It was a most magnificent benefaction, and 
was completed regardless of expense by Mrs. Polhemus, the heating 
plant alone costing $50,000. 
In 1897, the Rev. Charles L. Mitchell established a prize, in 
memory of his father, the late Dr. Chauncey L. Mitchell, for many 524 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
years a member of the collegiate council; the prize was to be an 
annual one of medical books or instruments, to the value of $60. 
In that year also, Professor W. W. Browning established a fund of 
$1,000, the interest to be given annually to the student most effi- 
cient in anatomy, the prize to be known as the "Corydon L. Ford 
Prize." 
During the summer of 1898, the Hospital again placed its facili- 
ties at the disposal of the nation and of United States soldiers. 
The hospital received 421, of whom only twelve died under treat- 
ment, a record of which the institution is proud. 
A summer course, to begin at Commencement and continue for 
ten weeks, was established in 1899, the fee for which course was 
fixed at $30, or $8 for any one branch. For the regular term of 
that year, the fees underwent revision, the course of lectures and 
clinics advancing from $100 to $150 yearly, with $35 to $40 addi- 
tional fees. 
In 1899, Dr. Alexander J. C. Skene became president of the Col- 
lege and Dr. Jarvis S. Wight was appointed dean of the faculty. 
Dr. W. W. Browning, Demonstrator of Anatomy, was advanced to 
a seat in the faculty as Professor of Anatomy. The class of 1899 
numbered 61 graduates. The total enrollment was only 211, as 
compared with 383 of 1896. 
In 1901, Professor Edwin A. Lewis entered into the Emeritus 
Professorship of the Department of Anatomy, and Dr. William 
Francis Campbell became Professor of that department. The 
graduates for 1901 numbered 45, 187 students attending lectures 
that year. In 1902, there were 231 matriculants, but only 27 grad- 
uates. 
Plans for a new hospital building were considered in 1902, its 
erection being made possible by the bequests of the late Henry W. 
Maxwell. Shortly after the decease of Mr. Maxwell, his brother, 
Mr. J. Rogers Maxwell, announced his intention to carry forward 
his brother's unfinished work, and to complete the proposed build- 
ing on a more extensive design. The construction was soon after- 
wards commenced. In addition, Mr. Henry W. Maxwell had pur- 
chased a plot of ground on the opposite corner, and had begun to 
erect a large fireproof Home for the use of the Training School 
for Nurses; this his brother announced would be completed by 
funds of the late Mr. H. W. Maxwell's estate. 
In 1904, Dr. John A. McCorkle became president, and Professor LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
525 
John D. Rushmore, of the Department of Operative and Clinical 
Surgery, was appointed dean, and Dr. Walter C. Wood became 
Professor of Surgery. The enrollment register showed a substan- 
tial increase, that term having been attended by 375 students; 
the graduating class of 1904 numbered 47. The following season 
was even more satisfactory, the lectures attracting 416 students, 
and the graduating class of 1905 numbered 87, with C. H. Watson, 
valedictorian. In 1906, however, there wrere only 341 matriculants, 
the graduating class numbered 57, and the valedictorian was C. C. 
Haines. The next session (1907) was not appreciably better, only 
351 students attending, the year seeing 87 students graduate, with 
F. L. McCrea as valedictorian. 
With the continual expansion of the curriculum, the expenses 
of the institution and the size of the corps of instructors corre- 
spondingly increased, and the council and the regents were com- 
pelled to advance the fees for instruction; in 1909 the fees were: 
First year, $200; second year, $205; third year, $160; fourth year, 
$195; total, $760-fees which did not, however, exceed those of 
neighboring professional colleges. And that the school was favored 
by prospective students may be inferred from the enrollment fig- 
ures, which at that time compared favorably with those of some 
other colleges. The register for 1909 showed an attendance of 350 
students, of whom 82 graduated, H. A. Fisher being valedictorian. 
In 1910 session there were 366 matriculants, with 66 graduates, 
W. G. Siegel having place as valedictorian. 
In 1912, Dr. John O. Polak became Professor of Obstetrics and 
Gynecology, vice Dr. Charles Jewett. The announcement for that 
session stated that the requirements for admission to the freshman 
class were becoming more exacting. Students in the fall of 1913 
would be required to file with the secretary of the faculty: 1. A 
New York State medical certificate. 2. A certificate of at least 
one year's work in chemistry, and in physics, including laboratory 
work in a school registered by the Regents of the State of New 
York. 3. Evidence of having passed the Regents' examination on 
these topics; in default, students would be required to pass an 
entrance examination in chemistry and in physics, at the Long 
Island College Hospital. 
The graduating class of 1912 numbered 68, out of a full enroll 
ment for that session of 422 students; the valedictorian was J. B. 
D'Albora. For the session of 1913-14, J. C. Cardwell, formerly 526 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Associate Professor of Physiology, is listed with the faculty as 
Professor of Physiology, in that year's announcement, to take over 
the duties of the department from Professor Joseph H. Raymond, 
who became Emeritus Professor of Physiology. The Annual An- 
nouncement makes reference to the "north wing of hospital, in 
process of erection, which when completed will increase the. capac- 
ity of the hospital to 474 beds." Graduating class, 1913, 69; 
valedictorian, W. F. McKenna. 
In 1914, in an endeavor to qualify students for entrance for the 
regular term of that year, the faculty inaugurated a medical pre- 
liminary course, of thirty-two weeks, the course being devoted to 
instruction in physics, chemistry and biology, elementary physiol- 
ogy, and German or French. This constituted what in reality is 
the addition of a fifth year to the medical course, such as had for 
many years been advocated by the faculties of many medical col- 
leges, who found it almost impossible to crowd into the four-year 
course adequate instruction in all the branches of medical science 
a graduate should know. 
The graduating class of 1914 number 79, of which class A. L. 
Harris was valedictorian. There were some important changes in 
the faculty during 1914. Dr. Archibald Murray was appointed 
Professor of Pathology; Dr. William Lentz became Professor of 
Bacteriology, dividing the department held by Dr. Joshua M. 
Van Cott, Emeritus Professor, and Matthew Steel, B. S., M. S., 
Ph. D., became Professor of Organic and Physiological Chemistry. 
Dr. William B. Brinsmade was appointed Professor of Clinical 
Surgery, and Dr. Adam M. Miller, Professor of Anatomy, in the 
place of Professor Wm. Francis Campbell, who accepted the chair 
of Surgery when Dr. Walter C. Wood became Emeritus Professor. 
There were 71 graduates in the 1915 class, and also six additional 
graduates of the 1913-14 class. The enrollment for the 1914-15 
course included: Premedical class, 51 students; Freshman class, 
32 students; Sophomore class, 85 students; Junior class, 90 stu- 
dents; Senior class, 79 students, making a total enrollment of 337. 
In reviewing the achievements of the institution during its fifty- 
eight years of existence and useful service, those who have been, 
or are, connected with the College-Hospital must feel quite satis- 
fied with the place it has made for itself among the institutions 
of the great city of New York, and the borough of Brooklyn. 
Leslie's "History of Greater New York," in a few paragraphs LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL 
527 
devoted to the institution, wrote the following of the Long Island 
College Hospital: "With perhaps pardonable partiality, it is the 
conviction of many Brooklyn men that these combined buildings 
and facilities for teaching the art of medicine which they afford, 
in the hands of the scientific body of men who compose its faculty 
and managers, provide a teaching plant unsurpassed by any in 
the country." CHAPTER VI 
NEW YORK HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE AND 
FLOWER HOSPITAL 
ALTHOUGH New York holds the distinction of having 
established the first homoeopathic dispensary in America, 
the same premier place cannot be claimed for the city in 
respect to homoeopathic medical college establishment; in 1852, 
there were more than three hundred homoeopathic physicians en- 
gaged in practice in the City of New York, yet the nearest homoeo- 
pathic medical schools were outside the State, in Allentown and 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This, notwithstanding that it was in 
New York City that Gram, in 1825, first introduced the homoeo- 
pathic system. 
In 1849, a number of homoeopathic practitioners of the city 
endeavored to initiate a movement to give the chief city of the na- 
tion its rightful place in respect to this branch of science. They 
were dissatisfied that medical students, who after graduating would 
practice according to the doctrines of Hahnemann within the 
borders of their native State of New York, should be compelled 
to proceed to the professional schools of other States for their 
medical instruction. So, on November 17th, 1849, at the office 
of Dr. John Augustus McVickar, in New York City, at a meeting 
of homoeopathic physicians, Dr. Federal Vanderburgh moved "that 
it is expedient for the homoeopathic physicians of New York to 
apply to the Legislature at its next session for a charter for another 
College of Physicians and Surgeons to be located in the city of 
New York." It was not considered expedient fo specifically men- 
tion in the negotiation with the State Legislature that the intention 
of the promoters was to establish a college devoted exclusively to 
the teaching of homoeopathic medicine; such a statement would 
probably have defeated the measure, as at that time certain preju- 
dices still lingered, and the Legislature was, it was stated, "domi- 
nated and completely influenced by the hosts of the allopathic 
school." Dr. Joslin presided, and present were thirty-three physi- 
528 HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
529 
cians, including a Dr. Donovan, who offered an amendment to 
Dr. Vanderburgh's resolution; Dr. Donovan wished a direct appli- 
cation to be made to the State Legislature for the establishment 
of a "School of Homoeopathy to be attached to the University; 
with power to confer degrees authorizing the practice of homoeopa- 
thy, on persons who have already taken the degree of doctor of 
medicine." The amendment was defeated, but on motion of Dr. 
Donovan a committee of five was to be constituted to take measures 
for the founding of a medical college. Drs. Metcalf, Gray, Kirby, 
Joslin, and Vanderburgh, as such committee, reported on Novem- 
ber 24th, 1849; the report was, after discussion, "laid upon the 
table for the present." So ended the first attempt to initiate the 
project for a homoeopathic school of medicine. Apparently, the 
projectors despaired of obtaining from the Legislature of that time 
the necessary powers. 
At a later date, it was resolved to perfect an organization to be 
incorporated, ' ' for the purpose of teaching the science of medicine, 
and of receiving the power of conferring degrees and granting 
licenses to practice. ' ' This organization eventually came into opera- 
tion as the Hahnemann Academy of Medicine, but its main object 
was never accomplished. However, it brought into being a most 
useful factor; the officers and supporters of the Academy were the 
most effective agents in creating the Homoeopathic Medical Society 
of the State of New York, which through its efforts became of State- 
wide influence. Several attempts were made to further the college 
idea, without direct success, although eventually the laws of the 
State enabled the examination of candidates for license to practice 
to be undertaken through the processes of the State societies. 
The Hahnemann Academy of Medicine for a short time operated 
with limited powers; it maintained lecture courses, mainly to in- 
struct physicians who had become converts from the allopathic to 
the homoeopathic method; its secondary object was "to open the 
way for the medical education of students until such time as a 
college charter should be secured with power to confer the doctor's 
degree." 
The Academy does not come directly into association with the 
college movement which was promoted about 1853; nor with that of 
1858, which resulted in the founding of the New York Homoeo- 
pathic Medical College; in fact, it is on record that "the college 
movement of 1852-53 was set in motion by influences quite inde- 530 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
pendent of the Academy, although a majority of those who took 
part in the deliberations of that body appeared to favor the new 
enterprise." The Academy members in February, 1853, took formal 
action on the solicitation of the State Society, and sought to ob- 
tain the support of the Academy body; on the date named, on mo- 
tion of Dr. Gray, seconded by Dr. Curtis, the Hahnemann Academy 
of Medicine adopted a resolution recording its opinion that it 
was "not expedient to pray the Legislature for a medical fran- 
chise or monopoly," averring that the degree of Doctor of Med- 
icine could better be dispensed by a board of examiners appointed 
by the State Medical Society. However, the State Society having, 
at a special session in 1852, appointed a committee to consider the 
expediency of establishing such an institution, determined to sup- 
port the findings of the committee to the full extent of its power. 
The committee (Messrs. Ball, Beakley, Chase, Humphreys and 
Childs) presented its report, the spirit of which was contained in 
one of its sentences: "If homoeopathy be the truth in medicine, 
we know of no logic by which we can escape from the conclusion 
that it is as much our duty to teach it as it is to practise it. ' ' The 
Society forthwith now proceeded with the project. In the follow- 
ing year, however, a spirit of dissension appeared among the pro- 
moters, which, aided by "outside antagonistic influences," de- 
feated the objects sought. 
Anterior to that, the Society appointed a committee to nominate 
a board of trustees, to procure a charter, and to raise funds for 
the establishment of a medical college, but this committee ap- 
peared to have reported adversely to the Society, as the project 
was soon abandoned. The committee's report, signed by Drs. 
Alonzo S. Ball, Stephen R. Kirby, attributed their failure to the 
difficulty of securing a suitable board of trustees, "all of those 
most suitable being already engaged in an effort to establish a 
hospital for the treatment of diseases homoeopathically; " and 
from a recognition that "the people are not yet sufficiently ac- 
quainted witjh the superiority of the homoeopathic practice." 
The report referred to the Homoeopathic College of Pennsylvania, 
which, it pointed out, "had had to struggle with many difficul- 
ties." Therefore, the committee recommended the Society to 
discourage "the multiplication of homoeopathic colleges," and 
also because experience in the allopathic school taught that "this 
sort of rivalry diminishes the value of the diploma in the public HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
531 
estimation." Respecting this report, it was resolved "that the 
further consideration of the subject be postponed" thereby 
closing the second chapter of the endeavors to establish a homoeo- 
pathic medical college in New York City. 
Certain medical men, however, held tenaciously to the idea, 
and developed the mission quietly but determinedly during the 
next five years. In the interim between the second and third 
attempts to found the college, the Hahnemann Academy of Medi- 
cine continued its existence, spreading the understanding of 
homoeopathy appreciably, and still held to its hope to ultimately 
secure State authority to itself confer degrees, without success, 
however, "despite the fact that its committees kept themselves 
at the doors of the Legislature, with petitions to that end." 
The State Society also at each annual meeting gave prominent 
place to discussions bearing on the subject, and in 1859 the agita- 
tion again took definite form. It was decided to endeavor to 
harmonize all the conflicting elements of the homoeopathic school 
in the State; and procure the co-operation of all auxiliary socie- 
ties. The Academy, however, still withheld its cordial support, 
and on March 2, 1859, President Barlow submitted a communica- 
tion from Dr. Paine, of Albany, "relating to the Hahnemann 
College Bill now pending before the Legislature." Dr. Guernsey 
thought that the Academy could not take action in the matter, 
while Dr. Freleigh openly opposed the bill; and the academic 
body by resolution directed its secretary, Dr. John M. E. Wetmore 
(Dr. Leach, pro tem.), to inform Dr. Paine that the Hahnemann 
Academy of Medicine have no information and know nothing about 
the charter or institution whatever. 
The opposition, or, to be more correct, the cold indifference, of 
the Academy faculty and managers, did not, however, then carry 
the weight it formerly had; the State Society was becoming more 
influential, and was aided substantially by another influential 
professional body then recently established and subordinate to 
the State Society. The New York County Homoeopathic Medical 
Society had become a known factor and "an influential advocate 
of progress." Also, homoeopathy was becoming more into public 
favor, and it was now possible "to enlist the co-operation of 
business men of influence and means, without being compelled to 
depend on the slender means and less practical knowledge of 
those whose avocations in life gave them little experience in 532 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
business methods." But strong opposition to the proposed legis- 
lation was presented by the allopathic interests, and the "Hahne- 
mann College Bill" was not passed during that session of the 
Legislature. The delay, however, enabled the projectors to perfect 
their organization, and to initiate educational propaganda, which, 
with "quiet earnest missionary work," so effectively prepared 
the way that on April 12th, 1860, a special act of the Legislature 
granted a charter of incorporation to the "Homoeopathic Medical 
College of the State of New York, in New York City." 
It is difficult to individualize in accrediting those responsible 
for the founding of the Medical College; many prominent pro- 
fessionals of city and State were indefatigable in their efforts. 
The prime movers, however, belonged to the State and County 
societies, acting on the initiative of a few determined leaders, 
among whom was Beakley, then recently from the chair of sur- 
gery and the deanship of the old Homoeopathic Medical College 
of Pennsylvania, who had sufficient confidence in the "trend of 
public sentiment in the larger city" to resign his official con- 
nection with the Philadelphia college, and remove to New York, 
so that he might become identified with the organizing forces. 
Another prominent leader was Ward, also a professor of the 
Philadelphia school. There were many others, "and all of them 
worthy founders and college builders." 
The act to incorporate "The Homoeopathic Medical College of 
the State of New York, in New York City" specifically names: 
Hollis White, A. Oakey Hall, Daniel F. Tiemann, Cyrus W. 
Field, Benj. F. Pinckney, James M. Smith, Jr., Abram B. Conger, 
Henry Nicoll, Horace H. Day, Francis A. Hall, Gordon W. Burn- 
ham, Chas. L. Frost, David Austin, Jr., Wm. Barton, John Hag- 
gerty, Chas. E. Milner, Lot. C. Clark, Fred. L. Talcott, James 
F. Hall, John P. Brown, J. M. Cooper, H. L. Van Wyck, P. M. 
Suydam, "and their associates," who were constituted a body 
corporate, "for the purpose of instruction in the various depart- 
ments of medical science." The charter empowered the corpora- 
tion to hold and possess real and personal estate to the amount of 
$100,000; it provided that the gentlemen named be appointed 
trustees, who were authorized to grant and confer the degree of 
doctor of homoeopathic medicine upon the recommendation of 
the professors of the college, excepting to persons who had not 
attained the age of twenty-one years, had not pursued the study HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
533 
of medical science for at least three years after the age of sixteen 
years with some physician and surgeon "duly authorized by law 
to practice his profession," and had not attended two complete 
courses of all the lectures delivered in some incorporated medical 
college, the last of which courses was to have been at the college 
granting the diploma. The college was subject to the visitation of 
the Regents of the University of the State of New York, to which 
body it was bound to report annually. 
The task of the trustees was not an easy one, but they applied 
themselves with energy, and laid the basis of the college firmly, 
not hesitating, when financial pressure demanded it, to apply 
their private financial resources to the purposes of the institu- 
tion, thus setting "an example which their successors in office 
have followed with becoming generosity. ' ' From the outset, it was 
the intention to eventually embrace within the facilities of the 
institution a hospital wherein the students might obtain clinical 
and bedside instruction. The trustees therefore decided to locate 
the college in the business district, and selected No. 116 East 
20th street as "comfortable quarters," where dispensary activ- 
ities, as preliminary to the hospital intention, might be developed. 
During the summer of 1860 was issued the first Prospectus 
and Announcement of the college, which informed the public 
that on October 15th of that year the college would open for its 
first session, with a faculty constituted as follows: Jacob Beakley, 
M. D., Professor of Surgery; Isaac M. Ward, M. D., Professor 
of Obstetrics; William E. Payne, M. D., Professor of Prin- 
ciples and Practice of Homoeopathic Medicine; Franklin W. Hunt, 
M. D., Professor of Clinical Medicine; Matthew Semple, M. D., 
Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology; Stephen R. Kirby, M. D., 
Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics; John D. L. Mon- 
tagnie, M. D., Professor of Anatomy; William W. Rodman, M. D., 
Professor of Physiology. Dr. Beakman was chosen dean. The 
Prospectus and Announcement stated the determination of the 
faculty to provide that "no medical institution in our country 
shall be better prepared to impart a thorough medical education 
than the New York Homceopathic Medical College;" it stated 
further "that the law of similia similibus curantur" would be 
thoroughly upheld, but that students would be instructed in all 
that pertained to both the allopathic and homoeopathic systems 
of medicine. 534 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
At the opening of the first session, October 15, 1860, 59 students 
presented themselves, and at the close of the session 29, having 
complied with the regulations relative to prior instruction under 
physicians in practice, and also instruction for one term in an- 
other school of medicine, were granted the medical degree. This 
first class embraced: H. J. Coleman, W. C. Coulton, F. G. 
Coulton, H. H. Darling, A. C. Fletcher, E. M. French, Charles 
Hait, J. W. Hunton, H. S. Hutchings, B. Lasins, E. D. Leonard, 
N. A. Mosman, William Murrill, W. M. Pratt, G. H. Parkhurst, 
W. M. Payne, C. J. Rosenburg, E. B. Schley, C. W. Skiff, S. A. 
Smith, E. W. Starn, A. H. Thompson, N. H. Travers, C. S. 
Verdi, H. J. Whittlesay, W. W. Munn, and S. H. Worcester. 
In the second session, Dr. Kirby, Professor of Materia Medica 
and Therapeutics, was transferred to the department of Medical 
Jurisprudence and Toxicology, and Dr. Hunt, Professor of Clin- 
ical Medicine, became head of the department of Materia Medica. 
Drs. Payne, Semple, Montagnie and Rodman were absent from 
the faculty, D. D. Smith receiving appointment to the professor- 
ship of Chemistry and Physiology, and John Ellis to that of 
Principles and Practice of Homoeopathic Medicine. The grad- 
uating class numbered 22, and the papers presented by the suc- 
cessful students covered almost the entire range of medical sub- 
jects. 
During the third session (1863-64), Dr. Egbert Guernsey occu- 
pied the chair of Materia Medica, vice Dr. Hunt, retired, and 
Dr. Smith lectured on toxicology in addition to chemistry, phys- 
iology having been merged in other professional work. The grad- 
uating class was equal to that of the previous year. The fourth ses- 
sion of 1863-64 inaugurated many improvements in the curriculum, 
and in the arrangement of the departments. Dr. Beakley, Pro- 
fessor of Surgery, became Professor of Surgery, Surgical Anat- 
omy and Pathology; Dr. Ward, Professor of Obstetrics, added 
"Diseases of Women and Children" to his designation and depart- 
ment; Dr. Guernsey became Professor of the Principles and 
Practice of Medicine; Dr. Smith's responsibility included the 
classes in Chemistry, Physiology, and Toxicology; Dr. Carmichael 
had charge of Anatomy and Physiology; Dr. Kirby, of Medical 
Jurisprudence; Dr. Bradford, of Materia Medica and Thera- 
peutics; and Dr. Melville Bryant became Demonstrator of Anat- 
omy. Radical changes were effected in the personnel of the board HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
535 
of trustees; the original board was named in charter, and of 
their number Daniel F. Tiemann was president; Benj. F. Pinck- 
ney, vice-president; Horace H. Day, treasurer, and J. F. Hall, 
secretary. In 1861 the following were elected: A. Vanderpool, 
D. D. Field, Jona. Sturges, Chas. Butler, John P. Crosby, Wm. 
H. Ludlow, Wm. Thomas, Edmund Dwight, Andrew Thorp, E. V. 
Houghwout, M. Lefferts, J. Bissell, J. Lord, M. H. Grinnell, and 
Robt. M. Strebeigh. In 1862 William C. Bryant, C. H. Marshall, 
William De Groot and Frank E. Howe joined the board. In that 
year also President Tiemann resigned, and William Cullen Bryant 
was elected to the office, which he held with much ability for ten 
years. The introduction of so much "new blood" introduced 
different ideas of management, but the subsequent effect demon- 
strated the change to have been much to its advantage. The 
institution was feeling the depressing results of the Civil War, 
then at its height, but the trustees held firmly to their purpose, 
determined to build the college upon a solid financial base, and 
the faculty sought incessantly to elevate the standard of instruc- 
tion. The fourth annual prospectus stated that "the faculty, 
actuated by no mercenary or selfish motives, have entered upon 
this good work with an earnest and hopeful zeal to place this 
institution upon the broad and elevated platform of an enlight- 
ened and progressive science, in the hope that it shall be unsur- 
passed by any medical institution in the country, in the com- 
pleteness of its curriculum of instruction, and in its practical 
advantages for acquiring a thorough and accomplished medical 
education." It was stated that the institution had secured by a 
special act of the legislature, the right to its students ' ' to walk the 
wards of Bellevue Hospital, and all the great charities on Black- 
well's and Randall's islands, where almost every disease may 
be seen and studied in its varied stages." 
During the Civil War, many institutions were compelled to 
suspend. But the New York Homoeopathic Medical College had 
a greater enrollment of students at the opening of the session 
of 1863-64 than in any previous year, the matriculants number- 
ing 79, of whom 26 graduated. The succeeding session, how- 
ever, had a lesser number, only 67 attending lectures, during 
which Dr. Samuel Barlow accepted the chair of Materia Medica 
and Therapeutics, then rendered vacant by the resignation of 
Dr. Bradford. Thirty-eight diplomas were conferred at the 1865 536 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Commencement. Seventy-four students attended the session of 
1865-66, at the termination of which 40 graduated. In that year, 
Dr. Matthew Semple became Professor of Chemistry and Toxicol- 
ogy. There were eighty matriculants in the seventh session, 
1866-67. The development of the departments necessitated an 
increased corps of instructors. Profs. Beakley and Smith con- 
tinued their former capacities; the department of Medical Juris- 
prudence, of which Professor Kirby had charge, was changed in 
name to that of Forensic Medicine; Profs. Barlow and Semple 
retained their former appointments; Dr. Guernsey resigned the 
chair of Theory and Practice, Dr. Hunt returning and taking 
the department, which was changed in name to Institutes and 
Practice; Dr. H. D. Paine became Professor of Clinical Medicine 
and Special Pathology; Dr. Henry M. Smith, Professor of Dem- 
onstrative Physiology; Dr. T. F. Allen, Professor of General and 
Microscopic Anatomy; Dr. J. B. Holtby, Prosector of Surgery; 
Dr. Ira Remsen, Assistant Chemist; Dr. A. P. Troop, Demonstrator 
of Anatomy. At the Commencement of 1867, 38 regular and two 
special degrees were conferred. 
The eighth session (1867-68) recorded the largest enrollment 
of its history up to that year, 86. In the Announcement the 
council (by which name the board of trustees was then desig- 
nated) commented upon "the success which had attended the 
institution," and expressed "high expectations of increased use- 
fulness in the future." Both the council and faculty expressed 
their deep sorrow that Prof. Semple, a valued co-laborer and 
capable instructor, had died. This vacancy in the faculty was 
filled by the appointment of Dr. J. J. Mitchell to the combined 
chairs of Chemistry and Toxicology. In the readjustment, Dr. 
Hunt was assigned to the chair of Institutes and Practice; Dr. 
H. M. Smith, to the chair of Physiology and Histology; Dr. P. P. 
Wells, to the chair of Practice of Medicine; Dr. Carroll Dunham, 
to Clinical Medicine; Dr. Holtby took the position of Demonstrator 
of Anatomy, formerly filled by Dr. Troop; Dr. William Brinck 
became Prosector of Surgery, vice Holtby; and Dr. J. H. Osborn 
displaced Dr. Remsen as Assistant Chemist. The faculty was 
now increased to ten; of its members, Drs. Wells, Dunham, and 
Mitchell were in their first year of service. 
Just prior to that session, the trustees had been successful in 
an endeavor to institute closer relations between the College and HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
537 
the New York Ophthalmic Hospital, which resulted in the removal 
of the medical department to the building occupied by the latter. 
In referring to the association of interests thus established, the 
announcement of that year stated: "The Trustees of the New 
York Ophthalmic Hospital have placed that institution under the 
exclusive charge of homoeopathic practitioners. Three of the 
board of physicians and surgeons are professors in this college, 
the students of which will thus enjoy especial opportunities of 
acquiring a practical knowledge of diseases and injuries of the 
eye, and their medical and surgical treatment." The advantages 
of the alliance were manifest from the outset, although complete 
fusion of the two institutions was not intended; primarily, the 
arrangement was a temporary expedient, and the occupancy of 
the hospital as the home of the College, which continued thereat 
for some years, was prompted mainly to "conserve faculty inter- 
ests" of those of its professors who taught in both institutions. 
The graduates for the eighth session numbered 42, but in 
1868-69, only 30. In that session, the ninth, which closed what 
may be termed the first era in the history of the College, there 
was some rearrangement of departments, the faculty, as then con- 
stituted, comprising eleven professors who performed the duties 
of eight chairs. The division of duties was as follows: Jacob 
Beakley, Surgery and Surgical Pathology; D. D. Smith and E. M. 
Kellogg, Obstetrics and Gynaecology; Samuel B. Barlow and Car- 
roll Dunham, Materia Medica and Therapeutics; P. P. Wells and 
A. R. Morgan, Practice of Medicine; F. W. Hunt, medical juris- 
prudence and Physiological Diseases; Henry M. Smith, Physiology; 
T. F. Allen, General and Microscopic Anatomy; J. J. Mitchell, 
Chemistry and Toxicology; J. B. Holtby, Demonstrator of Ana- 
tomy; William Brinck, Prosector of Surgery; G. B. I. Mitchell, 
Assistant Chemist. 
During that era, an important allied organization came into 
being. Students formed the Hahnemann Society of the New York 
Homoeopathic Medical College, the main purpose being a "quiz" 
class upon the lectures delivered by the faculty. The students 
appointed professors from their number, and at the end of each 
session, on the evening preceding the college commencement, the so- 
ciety held its annual exercises, called its commencement, at which 
diplomas, signed by officers of the society, were presented to mem- 
bers belonging to the graduating class of the year. 538 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
On April 14, 1869, the Legislature granted an amended charter, 
authorizing change of name to "The New York Homoeopathic 
Medical College"; it constituted John Bissell, William Cullen 
Bryant, William Groot, Edmund Dwight, Theo. W. Dwight, Chas. 
E. Frame, Geo. Griswold, A. Oakey Hall, Edward H. Robinson, 
James M. Smith, Jona. Sturges, H. N. Twombly, John D. Van 
Buren, Benj. H. Walcott, Salem H. Wales, Horace Webster, Alex. 
Wilder, "and their successors," the corporation of said college, 
with full powers as trustees to appoint a faculty, also a board of 
censors, not less than three in number, none of whom shall be 
a professor or instructor in said college, to examine and recom- 
mend candidates for the degree of doctor of medicine; it em- 
powered the trustees to confer degrees; and the charter made valid 
all diplomas previously issued by the college, a most important 
provision, as it was discovered that every diploma issued to grad- 
uates of the nine sessions was invalid, because it had conferred 
the degree of "Doctor of Medicine," instead of "Doctor of 
Homoeopathic Medicine," as provided by original charter. 
The faculty for the tenth session (1869-70) was reorganized 
in accordance with the provisions of the new charter. Prof. 
Beakley was retained as dean and Professor of Surgery, but Drs. 
Kellogg, Dunham, Morgan, Wells, Henry M. Smith, Allen, and 
J. J. Mitchell passed out of the faculty. The new appointments 
included: James H. Ward, Practice; Henry N. Avery, Physiology; 
Alex. H. Laidlaw, Anatomy; Ira Remsen, Chemistry and Toxicol- 
ogy. Dr. Chas. J. Mansfield became Demonstrator of Anatomy; 
and D. G. N. Tibbals, Prosector of Surgery. The board of cen- 
sors comprised Drs. B. F. Bowers, E. E. Marcy, and Samuel 
Lilienthal. With the reorganization of the board of trustees, 
William Cullen Bryant became president. He had served on the 
former board of council since 1861, and "had been above all 
others the mainstay and support of the institution in time of 
adversity and depression." Other officers were: Salem H. Wales, 
vice-president; Edmund Dwight, secretary; H. N. Twombly, 
treasurer. 
The first session under the new regime was generally productive 
of good results, excepting that in the collegiate work certain flaws 
in the methods resorted to by the faculty being bared a short 
while after the close of the commencement exercises, at which 42 
were graduated. The information determined the trustees (who HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
539 
were mainly desirous that the college should be conducted upon 
the highest attainable standard) to make a radical change in the 
construction of the faculty. On May 18, 1870, a member of the 
New York County Homoeopathic Medical Society stated "that 
there had been a violation of the charter, in that the faculty had 
recommended for the degree certain students who failed to attain 
the required standing of proficiency under the charter and law." 
The president of the society offered a resolution proposing that 
the society should "henceforth refuse to accept the diploma of 
the New York Homoeopathic Medical College as a sufficient cre- 
dential for membership." This was referred to a committee, Drs. 
Hallock, Paine, and Joslin, "to invite the dean, faculty, and 
trustees of the college to explain the apparent irregularity." The 
subsequent report of the committee prompted the Society to adopt 
resolutions condemning the action of the college, as "calculated 
to destroy confidence in its diplomas, is an injury to the cause of 
sound medical education, and merits the disapprobation of the 
profession." The trustees promptly vacated all the chairs, al- 
though all the professors were not implicated in the irregularity; 
the trustees, however, felt that confidence in the standard of the 
institution could best be restored by "sweeping aside the entire 
faculty body" when "purging the college of its impure ele- 
ments. ' ' 
A new faculty was appointed, and was subsequently found to 
contain "some of the strongest teachers of the homoeopathic school 
in America." Several former members of the faculty were reap- 
pointed, although none that had been of the faculty of the pre- 
ceding session; fourteen regular faculty chairs were established, 
the chairs being allotted as follows: William Tod Helmuth, Sur- 
gery; John C. Minor, Clinical Surgery and Surgical Anatomy; 
C. T. Liebold, Ophthalmic Surgery; A. R. Morgan, John W. 
Dowling, and F. S. Bradford, Theory and Practice of Medicine; 
Samuel Lilienthal, Clinical Medicine; H. D. Paine, Institutes and 
History of Medicine; Carroll Dunham and T. F. Allen, Materia 
Medica and Therapeutics; H. R. Stiles, Physiology; Samuel A. 
Jones, Histology; S. P. Burdick, Obstetrics; E. M. Kellogg, Dis- 
eases of Women and Children; F. A. Rockwith, Chemistry and 
Toxicology; William 0. McDonald, Anatomy; D. B. Penfield, 
Medical Jurisprudence; T. D. Bradford, Demonstrator of Anat- 
omy ; H. M. Gernegan, Prosector of Surgery; R. W. Martin Assist- 540 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
ant Professor of Chemistry. The dispositions of the trustees com- 
pletely restored the college into professional confidence, and intro- 
duced a higher standard of instruction. 
The trustees, in the twelfth session, adopted a three-year graded 
course, which, while earnestly recommended to students, was not 
made compulsory. This wTas well received by the students, and 
by the Homoeopathic societies it was interpreted as marking a 
decision of the college trustees and faculty to henceforth graduate 
into practice only highly qualified men. 
The twelfth session developed 36 graduates. Minor faculty 
changes included the appointment of Henry C. Houghton to the 
chair of Physiology, vice Stiles; C. A. Bacon to the charge of 
Histology, vice Jones; Charles Avery, to Chemistry and Toxicol- 
ogy, vice Rockwith; and R. H. Lyon, Esq., to the Professorship of 
Medical Jurisprudence, vice Penfield. 
The thirteenth session (1872-73) opened in the new college 
building-a five-story structure occupied jointly by the New York 
Ophthalmic Hospital and the College, at the corner of Third 
avenue and 23rd street, and "one of the most elegant and com- 
modious edifices of its kind in the city. ' ' The occasion was marked 
by gratulatory ceremonies. The trustees announced that the im- 
provement was made possible by a princely benefaction, and that 
' ' the officers of both the hospital and the college desire to acknowl- 
edge the munificent donation of $100,000 from the widow of the 
late Henry Keep, which has not only removed all encumbrance 
from the hospital but leaves a surplus of about $60,000 for its 
current expenses," adding that "such tangible assistance so mod- 
estly and liberally rendered deserves the thanks of the entire 
homoeopathic profession. ' ' 
The Ophthalmic Hospital building was the home of the College 
for several years, and proved to be admirably suited to its imme- 
diate requirements. Dr. Kellogg, Emeritus Professor of Diseases 
of Women and Children, continued his lectures; Prof. McDonald 
was transferred from the Department of Anatomy to that of Dis- 
eases of Women; and Prof. Carmichael became Professor of Anaf- 
omy. Prof. Bacon, Professor of Histology, was absent in Europe, 
but Dr. Geo. S. Allan substituted for him. 
The only faculty change in the session of 1873-74 was in the 
Department of Physiology, Prof. Houghton being succeeded by 
Dr. Adrien J. Ebell, M. D. Thirty-two students graduated in that HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
541 
year, the session having been distinguished by a record enrollment, 
106 students having attended the lectures. 
The fifteenth session (1874-75) established another record, hav- 
ing 133 matriculates, an increase of nearly 150 per cent, in five 
years. Faculty prizes were for the first time instituted, the first 
a medal given by T. F. Allen, and known as the Allen prize, for 
the best original investigation on the properties of any drug; the 
other, the Lilienthal prize, to recognize the best written report of 
Dr. Lilienthal's clinics. 
The Announcement for the sixteenth session (1875-76) referred 
"with pardonable pride," to the great advance in enrollments, 
and stated ' ' the graded course system first introduced into medical 
colleges by this institution seems to meet with favor by both pre- 
ceptors and students." In 1873, nine persons took advantage of 
the reduced rates, pledging themselves to attend three courses of 
lectures; in 1873-74, ten; and during the session of 1874-75, twen- 
ty-one students registered in the graded course. Dr. J. T. O'Con- 
nor was appointed to the chair of Chemistry and Toxicology, in 
place of Prof. Avery, and special lecturers supplemented the regu- 
lar curriculum. Special lectures were delivered by F. E. Doughty, 
P. Arcularius, J. H. Thompson, St. Clair Smith, W. N. Guernsey, 
Adolf Varona, and Martin Deschere. Several additional prizes 
were offered, including the Helmuth and the Burdick prizes. 
About that time, Dr. Lilienthal appealed strongly for greater 
public recognition of homoeopathic efforts, his address in part be- 
ing a challenge to allopathic physicians, and contained the follow- 
ing: "Gentlemen of the allopathic school, the day is past when 
you can call every homoeopath a quack, and a pretender; you no 
longer see the meagre minority even then you vainly tried to 
crush. Look at our Ophthalmic Hospital, and note how its record 
in both surgical and therapeutic results compare with your own. 
... In the name of science, we demand you to meet us in open 
trial. In the name of our suffering humanity, we demand an 
opportunity to do our duty. Give us hospitals, and then by our 
works you shall know us." 
This address appears to have been directly responsible for the 
acquisition shortly afterwards of the Charity Hospital on Ward's 
Island, which was placed under homoeopathic supervision. The 
announcement for the seventeenth session referred to it thus: 
"The city authorities have turned over to the homoeopaths one 542 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
of the most magnificent hospital buildings in the country, capable 
of accommodating several hundred patients." The hospital facil- 
ity exercised a direct and immediate effect upon the college cur- 
riculum, clinical instruction becoming a more important part of 
the plan of instruction. 
During the succeeding few sessions there was almost no change 
in faculty, but the college continued to progress surely, and appre- 
ciably. Dr. St. Clair Smith became Professor of Physiology in 
the nineteenth session, and in the twenty-first session the number 
of professors was increased to fifteen, the new chairs being physiol- 
ogy, to which G. W. Blodgett was appointed, and chemistry, Mal- 
colm Leal. The three-year graded course was made compulsory, 
the announcement stating "hereafter there will be three classes 
of undergraduate students in the college, to be called the junior, 
the middle, and the senior class. The course of instruction for 
each class shall occupy a year, and the entire course three years." 
For the twenty-second session (1881-82) Martin Deschere, M. D., 
and Bulk. G. Carlton, M. D., were added to the faculty. In 
the announcement of that year, the trustees referred with pride 
to the fact that theirs was the first American college to establish 
the three-year compulsory course. 
In the session of 1882-83, Prof. T. F. Allen became dean, suc- 
ceeding Prof. Dowling, who, however, still retained charge of the 
department of Physical Diagnosis, and was only prevented from 
still continuing in the chief administrative office by failing health. 
He had held the deanship for twelve years, and the high regard in 
which he was held was made manifest by his election to the presi- 
dency. There were many faculty changes; Prof. O'Connor re- 
signed, and the chair of Materia Medica was given to Dr. Smith; 
W. W. Blackman became Demonstrator of Anatomy, vice Carlton; 
Prof. Houghton took Clinical Otology; Dr. Arcularius, Dermatol- 
ogy; Prof. Walter Y. Cowl, General Pathology and Morbid Anat- 
omy; John Butler, Electro-Therapeutics and Electro-Surgery; 
E. V. Moffat, Histology; and C. S. Elsbach became Assistant Pro- 
fessor of Physiology. 
The year 1883 is marked as beginning a new era, in that the col- 
lege for the first time in twenty years discovered that its treas- 
ury contained a surplus after payment of the year's disbursements. 
The dean's report stated that not only was the college in a pros- 
perous condition academically, but that there was a surplus of HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
543 
more than $1,000, which he suggested might be preserved as the 
beginning of a building fund for the erection of a college of its 
own. Another important development was the organization on 
March 15th of the Alumni Association of the New York Homoeo- 
pathic Medical College, "for the purpose of promoting the inter- 
ests and extending the influence of the college." The association 
had at the outset an enthusiastic membership of 295 alumni. On 
Dr. W. M. Pratt, class of 1861 (the opening year), was conferred 
the honor of election as first president. 
In 1883-84 the Announcement for the first time printed the 
names of the faculty officers; they were: T. F. Allen, . dean; 
Francis E. Doughty, president; E. V. Moffat, secretary. The fac- 
ulty professors were: T. F. Allen, St. C. Smith, F. S. Bradford, 
J. W. Dowling, S. Lilienthal, Martin Deschere, W. T. Helmuth, 
F. E. Doughty, S. P. Burdick, E. M. Kellogg, W. 0. McDonald, 
G. W. Blodgett, M. Leal, E. V. Moffat, R. H. Lyon, C. Th. Liebold, 
H. C. Houghton, P. E. Arcularius, W. Y. Cowl, John Butler. The 
demonstrators were: S. F. Wilcox, J. L. Beyea, W. W. Blackman, 
Charles McDowell. 
In that year the trustees and faculty endeavored to establish 
a higher standard of requirement for graduation than that de- 
manded at any other homoeopathic college in America; as a direct 
consequence, the other colleges sought to deprecate the action, 
which gave rise to much adverse criticism. In reference to the 
subject, the trustees of the New York Homoeopathic Medical Col- 
lege openly stated: "We earnestly deprecate the bitterness of 
feeling certain colleges entertain toward us, and distinctly state 
that our action does not evince a distrust of their diplomas, but is 
simply an effort to maintain the honor and dignity of the profes- 
sion in New York state, to guard the trust reposed in us by the 
public and to protect the standing and good name of the college." 
Notwithstanding the more stringent requirements, the enrollment 
for the following year showed an increase, and it was necessary 
to make additions to the adjunct departments of several of the 
chairs; also a new chair, that of Laryngology and Rhinology, was 
established, with Clarence E. Beebe in charge, and Malcolm Leal 
as adjunct professor. 
In 1885, Prof. Lilienthal retired, and Dr. Selden H. Talcott suc- 
ceeded him to the chair of Nervous and Mental Diseases. Other 
changes were: Dr. Moffat, from Histology and Microscopy to the 544 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
chair of Materia Medica, vice Professor Smith, who assumed the 
duties of theory and practice of medicine department; L. L. Dan- 
forth, from Assistant to Professor of Obstetrics, Dr. Burdick hav- 
ing resigned; Dr. Geo. M. Dillow, from lecturer on Diseases of the 
Kidneys to Professor of same, vice Dr. Blodgett; and A. R. Wright 
was appointed Professor of the newly established department of 
hygiene. 
No important faculty changes are on record for the twenty- 
seventh session, when, reported the dean, the college was "in a 
prosperous condition, and still adhering to a high standard of 
professional preparation;" he also said that of the 145 students 
in attendance, a larger proportion than ever were college grad- 
uates. The dean deplored the lack of hospital facilities, "which 
tended to retard the efficiency and prosperity of the college ' '; 
and emphasized the importance of a well equipped college build- 
ing, presenting a form of subscription and an appeal to the alumni, 
by which means he hoped ' ' the friends of the college and homoeopa- 
thy ' ' would put into the hands of the trustees the sum of $250,000 
required for that purpose. The trustees endorsed the dean's ac- 
tion, and authorized the issue of a circular of similar purport, 
but it was not until some years later that substantial result came. 
In 1887, the dean reported ineffectual attempts to obtain clinical 
instruction for students at the Hahnemann Hospital, proposed 
the erection of a college and hospital, and presented the draft of a 
bill for an amended charter; and the trustees appointed Dr. Allen, 
dean, and Geo. W. Clarke, secretary, to prosecute the endeavor in 
legislative circles. On June 3, 1887, an act was passed incorporat- 
ing the "New York Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital," 
which corporation was empowered to succeed the former corpora- 
tion, with all its powers, and in addition "to provide, conduct and 
maintain in said city of New York, by means of voluntary contri- 
butions and otherwise, a hospital for the poor and others, in which 
hospital medical and clinical instruction may be given." The 
corporation was also authorized to hold and possess real and per- 
sonal estate of the value of $1,000,000. 
Before the twenty-eighth session opened, the alumni "and other 
friends of homoeopathy," had subscribed, or promised to subscribe, 
nearly $100,000. A committee purchased lands on the Eastern 
Boulevard, between 63rd and 64th streets, at a cost of $112,500, 
and it seemed that the full desire of the dean, faculty, and trus- HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
545 
tees of the college would be attained, as shortly after the purchase 
of the land had been made, the trustees of a large estate signified 
their desire to erect on part of the land a memorial hospital in 
honor of the deceased testator, but the proposal never went beyond 
that stage, and the hospital when erected "was the result of the 
liberality of another benefactor of homoeopathy in New York 
City; one whose name, from 1886 to the time of his death was 
closely associated with the best history and interests of the insti- 
tution, and who left a monument which indeed has lived after 
him." 
In the Announcement of the twenty-ninth session (1888-89) the 
trustees stated that "work was begun on the college building and 
also on one of the hospital pavilions," and hoped the former would 
be ready for occupancy at the opening of the succeeding session; 
that the new college building would be replete in all modern im- 
provements "for the comfort of students and the advancement of 
medical and scientific study," mentioning that it would contain a 
surgical amphitheatre capable of seating 300 students. It was then 
announced that the hospital pavilion was being erected through 
the munificence of the Hon. Roswell P. Flower. 
The cornerstones of the Flower Hospital and the college build- 
ing were laid October 20, 1888, and on January 9, 1890, both 
edifices were formally dedicated, although the college building 
had been in the use of the college since the opening of the winter 
session in October, 1889. The college building cost $110,000, the 
undertaking being made possible of satisfactory completion by 
contributions of $25,000 each from John D. Rockefeller and David 
Dows, of $50,000 subscribed by the faculty and alumni, and of 
$21,000 subscribed by the Women's Guild. In the minute book 
of the board of trustees of the college and hospital is a minute 
which reads: "New college and hospital formally opened Jan- 
uary 7, 1899, being just two and a half years from the day of 
obtaining the new charter which allows the college to embrace 
under its jurisdiction a free hospital for treatment of the poor, 
and for clinical instruction of its students. Hon. R. P. Flower 
built the hospital, which bears his name, at his own expense." 
There were practically no changes in faculty during the sessions 
of 1889-90, but for the session of 1891-92 there were several, the 
year also bringing into operation a new department, that of Hy- 
giene and Sanitary Science, to which Prof. Malcolm Leal was 546 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
appointed. Other appointments were: A. R. Morgan, Theory and 
Practice; J. M. Schley, to Clinical Medicine; L. H. Friedburg, 
Chemistry and Toxicology; E. H. Porter, Medical Chemistry; and 
Frank H. Boynton, Ophthalmology, vice Prof. Norton. The An- 
nouncement of 1892 stated the intention of the college to establish 
a post-graduate school as soon as the preliminaries could be ar- 
ranged. 
In the session of 1893-94, clinical medicine was separated from 
the department of theory and practice of medicine, and created 
a distinct department, to which Prof. Schley was appointed. Other 
changes of that year were: W. H. King, to department of Materia 
Medica and Therapeutics, as lecturer on electro-therapeutics; and 
Henry M. Dearborn, to the chair of Dermatology, Prof. Arcularius 
having resigned. Dr. McDonald, Professor of Gynecology, also 
resigned in that year. At the close of that session, leading mem- 
bers of the faculty resolved that the best interests of the college 
demanded a reorganization of the teaching staff, both college and 
hospital; and the trustees requested the resignations of the entire 
faculty; it was recommended that the trustees call upon Drs. Hal- 
lock, Wetmore, Baldwin, Kinne, and McMurray, the board of 
censors, to nominate a new faculty, first nominating nine profes- 
sors to constitute the governing faculty. To further this recom- 
mendation, thirty-six members of the faculty tendered their resig- 
nations, which were accepted by the trustees, and the chairs of 
those who did not resign were declared vacant. The board of 
censors then proceeded to select the new faculty which ultimately 
entered upon the next session's work constituted as follows: 
Department of Materia Medica and Therapeutics:-T. F. Allen, Materia 
Medica and Therapeutics, and director of the laboratory of Experimental 
Pharmacology; G. G. Shelton, Materia Medica; E. H. Porter, Physiological 
Materia Medica; W. H. King, lecturer on Electro-Therapeutics. 
Theory and Practice of Medicine:-St. C. Smith, Theory and Practice of 
Medicine; J. W. Dowling, adjunct, Theory and Practice, and lecturer on 
Principles of Physical Diagnosis; Martin Deschere, Pediatry; Seldon H. 
Talcott, Mental Diseases; J. T. O'Connor, Nervous Diseases; George W. 
Dillow, Diseases of the Kidneys; J. T. Simonson, clinical assistant to 
Chair of Pediatry. 
Clinical Medicine:-J. M. Schley. 
Surgery:-W. T. Helmuth, Professor of Surgery; Francis E. Doughty, 
Surgical Gynecology; Sidney F. Wilcox, Principles of Surgery, and lec- 
turer on Orthopedic and Rectal Surgery; W. H. Bishop, Minor Surgery, 
and clinical assistant to chair of Surgery; W. T. Helmuth, Jr., Minor HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
547 
Surgery, and clinical assistant in Surgery; E. G. Tuttle, lecturer on Genito- 
urinary Diseases, and demonstrator of Operative Surgery; J. L. Beyea, 
clinical assistant to chair of Genito-urinary. 
Obstetrics:-L. L. Danforth, Professor of Obstetrics; J. L. Beyea, 
Demonstrator of Midwifery; F. W. Hamlin, assistant to chair of Ob- 
stetrics; J. T. Simonson, assistant demonstrator of Obstetrics. 
Gynecology:-C. S. Macy, Medical Gynecology; C. Ver Nooy, clinical 
assistant to chair of Gynecology; Francis M. Frazier, clinical assistant to 
chair of Gynecology. 
Anatomy:-W. W. Blackman, Professor of Anatomy; H. B. Minton, 
lecturer; Wm. F. Honan, demonstrator. 
Physiology:-Charles McDowell. 
Chemistry:-L. H. Friedburg, Chemistry and Toxicology; Paul Allen, 
lecturer on Pharmaceutics, and adjunct to chair of Toxicology. 
Hygiene and Sanitary Science:-Malcolm Leal. 
Histology:-F. M. Wall, lecturer; W. Ide Pierce, laboratory director. 
Pathology:-George F. Laidlaw, lecturer on General Pathology, and 
director of Microscopic laboratory. 
Medical Jurisprudence:-R. H. Lyon, Esq. 
Dermatology:-Henry M. Dearborn. 
Ophthalmology:-Frank H. Boynton, Professor; George W. McDowell, 
clinical assistant. 
Otology:-Henry C. Houghton. 
Laryngology and Rhinology:-Clarence E. Beebe. 
Bacteriology:-Emanuel Baruch. 
In 1894 also, the faculty and trustees united in the erection of 
another medical hospital, on the college grounds and adjoining 
the Flower Hospital. The contributions of the faculty to the 
building and furnishing fund established the basis for the build- 
ing, the erection of which was commenced under the supervision 
of the faculty. The cornerstone was laid October 2, 1895, by 
Judge Cowing, and the building was completed in the spring of 
1896. The hospital has since proved to be of much value to the 
community and to the college, for bedside instruction to students. 
The year 1894 also marked the beginning of a new era of much 
importance, trustees and faculty adopting a four years' course of 
study as a prerequisite to the diploma and degree, which action 
enhanced the standing and character of the college in the medical 
world. The lengthened course had been under consideration for 
two years, and the acquisition of the new medical college made 
the plan more practicable and contributed to its ultimate adoption. 
The new requirement came into force in the session of 1894-95, 
the year in which Professor Helmuth, ' ' one of the strongest forces 548 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
in college life during his time, ' ' was appointed to take the deanship 
from Professor Allen, who desired to retire, and in that year the 
King lectureship of Electro-Therapeutics was advanced to a full 
professorship. In 1896 the trustees appointed Henry B. Minton 
to the chair of Anatomy, in the place of Dr. Blackman, who had 
resigned, and Dr. Charles McDowell became Professor of Physiol- 
ogy and Hygiene. In 1897 Paul Allen was made lecturer on phar- 
maceutics and Adjunct Professor of Materia Medica; the depart- 
ment of Clinical Medicine was discontinued; Dr. G. W. Roberts 
became demonstrator of Operative Surgery (upon the cadaver), 
I. P. Sherman became clinical assistant of Genito-Urinary Sur- 
gery; and Dr. E. M. Kellogg, an "honored character" in the col- 
lege history, was elected Emeritus Professor of Diseases of Women, 
"having for several years served in that capacity, although his 
name did not appear on the faculty roll." H. S. Nielson and 
O. N. Meyer were appointed Demonstrators of Anatomy, J. S. 
Adriance became Professor of Chemistry, and Edwin S. Munson of 
Histology. Professor Pierce was transferred to the department 
of Pathology, Professor Pearsall to the department of Physiology 
and Hygiene, and Dr. Malcolm Leal became Professor of Laryngol- 
ogy and Rhinology. Physiology and Hygiene were divided in the 
session of 1898-99, Prof. Pearsall being assigned to the former, 
and McDowell to the latter. Pathology and Bacteriology were 
united under Prof. Baruch, with Van der Berg as lecturer, and 
H. C. Allen as demonstrator of Pathology. C. E. Teets succeeded 
Dr. Leal as Professor of Rhinology and Laryngology. 
In the session of 1900-01, the department of Pathology and 
Bacteriology was remodelled; Fred. J. Nott became Professor of 
Theory and Practice of Medicine, with E. D. Rudderow and Geo. 
B. Dowling, as assistants. George W. Schurman was made joint 
Professor of Medical Jurisprudence with Prof. Lyon. 
With the new century, and a general review of the achieve- 
ments, standing, and purposes of the institution, the trustees were 
inspired to effect even greater improvements. The physical affairs 
of the college were healthy, and an endowment fund aggregating 
a quarter of a million dollars emphasized the public support and 
appreciation. Dr. Helmuth recommended certain changes, but un- 
fortunately did not live to see them put into effect; he died in 
May, 1902, one historian marking the event thus: "In May the 
destroyer entered the faculty household and took away its bright- HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
549 
est light, Helmuth, one of the foremost teachers and operators of 
any school in this country." The loss to the college administra- 
tion was great, but the trustees proceeded with their faculty and 
departmental reorganization. In the session of 1902-03 the dean- 
ship was filled by Dr. William Harvey King. Improvements were 
inaugurated in every department, more particularly in that of 
Materia Medica. The most notable event of that session, however 
from the educational standpoint, was the introduction of the prac- 
titioners' course, a step long held under advisement, but only for 
the first time in that year adopted. 
In the following year, Dr. Allen, ex-dean, died; he had recently 
retired from active participation in professorial labors, but still 
remained a conspicuous figure of the college. His son was ap- 
pointed to the chair he had so ably directed, and W. T. Helmuth, 
Jr., likewise succeeded his father to the professorship he had un- 
dertaken. 
The enrollment for 1902-03 showed 105 students, an increase 
of fifty per cent, over the preceding year. The system of bedside 
instruction was thoroughly reorganized and enlarged in scope, as 
to practically constitute a new departure. There was an abund- 
ance of clinical material, and each student of the senior class was, 
during the first fifty days of the college course, enabled to per- 
sonally examine over one hundred and fifty cases, while during 
the whole of the session, each student was able to personally exam- 
ine over twelve hundred cases, not including those that came before 
students in large clinics held in the amphitheatre. In 1903-04, 
total of students in college, 118. A physiological laboratory was 
established, securing "a duplicate of the entire outfit of the 
physiological laboratory of Harvard University, which at that 
time was acknowledged to be the best in the country." 
Hitherto, personal bedside instruction was only given to seniors, 
but in 1903-04 the junior class was included, and three times 
weekly, in sections of four, they were thoroughly trained in the 
wards of Flower Hospital. St. Clair Smith became Emeritus Pro- 
fessor of Theory and Practice; G. F. Laidlaw and W. II. Vanden 
Burg, Professors of Theory and Practice. Dr. F. J. Nott died 
December 20, 1904, "a man of exceptional worth." W. H. But- 
ten was appointed Professor of Mental Diseases; E. M. Kellogg 
became Professor Emeritus of Gynecology; G. W. Roberts, Pro- 550 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
fessor of Gynecology; F. W. Hamlin, joint Professor of Obstet- 
rics; Edwin S. Munson, Professor of Histology. 
In 1904-05 Ed. G. Tuttle was appointed secretary and treas- 
urer, vice G. W. Roberts. Students numbered 107. All medical 
colleges of the State showed during the previous few years a 
marked decrease in enrollments, owing to increasingly exacting 
pre-medical requirements demanded by Regents. The decrease 
in medical students in the State was fifty per cent., in six years; 
but the Homoeopathic College showed gains in years 1903-04 and 
1904-05. 
In 1905-06 F. K. Hollister became Professor of Theory and 
Practice of Medicine. The enrollments were 110. The college in 
that session lacked clinical facilities. Owing to great advance in 
aseptic practice, the amphitheatre in college intended for both 
medical and surgical cases had to be given over entirely to sur- 
gical cases, the medical clinics having to be made up from the 
dispensary, and by taking students, in sections, into the wards 
of the hospital. 
In 1906-07 Walter Gray Crump, lecturer on Obstetrics, became 
Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics. The Dean's report recom- 
mended a voluntary five-year course, the fifth year to take the 
place of interne year at hospital. It was explained that medical 
science was advancing much more rapidly than medical college 
facilities; that since 1895 it had more than completely outstripped 
the four years' course, the advances in medical science forcing 
a fifth year of instruction, and a very thorough pre-medical edu- 
cation. 
The Announcement for 1907-08 stated that "ours is the only 
medical college in the City of New York which owns its own hos- 
pital-except the Woman's College, also homoeopathic; our stu- 
dents have clinical instruction at as many hospital beds-about 
fifteen hundred-as have the students from all the other colleges 
in the city combined, and they have access to out-patient clinics 
aggregating over fifty thousand cases a year." Students enrolled, 
110; graduating class, 1906, 31; 1907, 25. 
In 1908-09, Royal S. Copeland became dean; John W. Dow- 
ling, secretary. Dr. Copeland appointed to chair of Ophthalmol- 
ogy; Frank M. Dearborn, appointed Professor of Dermatology; 
Wm. H. Duffenbach, made Professor of Electro and Hydro-Thera- 
peutics, vice Wm. Harvey King; William H. Freeman, Professor HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
551 
of Materia Medica; Albert E. Hinsdale, Professor of Chemistry, 
and Lecturer on Physiological Materia Medica; Ralph I. Lloyd 
became Professor of Anatomy; Paul Allen, E. B. Nash, and Wil- 
lard Ide Pierce, Professors of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. 
Mr. Anson R. Flower, who had been president of the board of 
trustees of the college-hospital corporation since the death of his 
brother, Governor Flower, founder of the hospital, was compelled 
by ill health to resign; he died on January 3, 1909, Mr. Melbert 
B. Cary succeeding him to the presidency. 
The session of 1909-10 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the 
college. Walter S. Mills became Professor of Medical Jurispru- 
dence, that being the only change in faculty. There were 158 
students in that year and nine graduates. In 1910-11, J. Wex- 
ford Allen, Professor of Materia Medica, resigned, and was suc- 
ceeded by Arkell R. McMichael; Bulkeley G. Carlton, Professor of 
Genito-Urinary Surgery, was appointed Professor of Medical 
Ethics, and Clinical Urology. Graduates, 1910, 13; enrollments, 
210 students. In 1911-12, Joseph H. Ball was called to the direc- 
torship of Bacteriological Laboratory, and also the office of Reg- 
istrar; W. G. Crump became Professor of Gynecology; Farel E. 
Jorrard, Professor of Chemistry. The graduates were 26. 
In 1913-14 announcement was made that the trustees were in 
the midst of a building campaign; that plans for an absolute re- 
construction of the city block owned by the corporation were under 
way, the first of the new group of buildings was then enclosed; 
expected it to be ready for use in October. 
Probably the most significant advance of the past several years 
was the adoption of a new rule regarding Faculty membership. 
Beginning with the approaching college year, all professors and 
assistant professors were to confine their active professional serv- 
ices to that one institution. The change was expected to prove 
particularly advantageous to the student body-better lectures, 
improved clinical instruction, closer attention, etc. Graduates, 
1913, 45. 
The first of the new group of buildings was occupied in Jan- 
uary, 1915. Enrollments, 355 students; graduates, 1914, 46. CHAPTER VII 
NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL FOR 
WOMEN 
THE New York Medical College for Women owes its estab- 
lishment mainly to the indefatigable and earnest efforts of 
a woman-to Dr. Clemence Sophia Lozier, who belonged 
to a family of physicians, was imbued with the time spirit of the 
profession, and had determined that sex should not bar her from 
professional participation in the noble wTork. She was denied a 
course of study by both the dominant schools of medicine, and 
in consequence had to obtain her elementary medical knowledge 
elsewhere. In 1849 she attended an Eclectic College, and some 
years later took the course at the New York Central Medical Col- 
lege in Syracuse, gaining the highest honor of her class by her 
graduating thesis. 
Coming to New York City, she soon built up an extensive prac- 
tice. She noted the ignorance of the poor people regarding even 
elementary principles of health, and seeking a remedy she inaugu- 
rated weekly lectures at her own home, open to all who would 
come. Her lectures mainly bore on the functions of maternity 
and the care of children, and to the interest she aroused may be 
traced the development of the conviction that women medical 
practitioners had become necessary. 
Dr. Lozier, undoubtedly, was the guiding spirit of the new 
movement. She received encouraging support, but difficulties 
were many; chief among them was the opposition of the medical 
colleges. Dr. Lozier was one of three women to whom the medical 
degree was granted by the Syracuse Eclectic College, and its action 
was made the subject of many condemnatory opinions by the other 
schools. However, the petition for charter was duly presented 
at Albany. As expected, it encountered much professional oppo- 
sition, but unsuccessfully, and a charter was granted which was 
liberal, "securing to woman the right to equal collegiate advan- 
tages with men." The incorporators included Maria Louise Ewen, 
552 NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN MEDICAL COLLEGE FOR WOMEN 
553 
Nancy Fish, Maria L. Oscanyan, Elizabeth S. S. Eaton, Maria A. 
Elliott, Augusta T. C. Niven, A. Ensign Newman, Maria S. Con- 
nolly, Mary Ward, Sarah Ann Martin, Elvina A. Lane, Sarah A. 
King, Laura M. Ward, Anna C. Van Ness, Georgianna Gray, 
Frances S. Rugg, Mary A. Camerden, Harriet P. R. White, Cath- 
erine Buckley, Eliza A. King, Sarah Andrews, of New York City; 
Matilda C. Perry, of Albany; Elizabeth Ransom, of Fort Hamil- 
ton, New York; Maria A. M. Fowle, of Brooklyn, New York; 
Lydia E. Rushby, Mary F. James, Charlotte Fowler Wells, Mar- 
garet Austin, of New York City; and S. S. Nevison, who were 
empowered to constitute the New York Medical College for 
Women, the purpose of which was to provide instruction in 
medical science. The corporation might hold real and personal 
estate to the amount of $100,000; might confer the degree of med- 
icine on those of its students who were over twenty-one years of 
age, had registered as a student for three years with some reputable 
physician and surgeon after having reached the age of sixteen 
years, and had attended two complete courses of lectures deliv- 
ered in some incorporated medical college, the last of which courses 
must have been taken at the New York Medical College for Women. 
The act was passed by the Legislature April 14, 1863, and is of 
much historical importance, establishing as it did the first woman's 
medical college "not only in America, but in the world." The 
"History of Homoeopathy" (Lewis Pub. Co., 1905) says, "thus 
was secured the triumph of the great principle of right for which 
the advocates of the institution had contended in the face of bit- 
ter opposition on the part of those who would have denied woman 
the right to practise and teach medicine. It was not a dearly 
bought victory, nor was it secured at the sacrifice of personal or 
professional honor. They who fought the battle in the Legislature 
were of those mentioned in the act of incorporation, and they were 
led by a woman not strong physically, but of wonderful strength 
of character and firmness of purpose." 
Immediately after receiving the charter, the incorporators, aS 
trustees, opened the college. On October 19, 1863, the officers 
were: Mrs. Maria L. Ewen, president; Mrs. Mary Ward, Mrs. 
Laura M. Ward, Mrs. C. F. Wells, vice-presidents; Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Cady Stanton, recording secretary; Mrs. Maria L. Oscanyan, 
corresponding secretary; Miss Lydia E. Rushby, treasurer; Miss 
Maria A. M. Fowle, librarian; Mrs. C. F. Wells, Mrs. A. Ensign 554 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Newman, Mrs. Sarah A. King, Mrs. Elvina A. Lane, Mrs. Laura 
M. Ward, executive committee. Dr. Lozier was made president 
and dean, and held both positions until her death in 1888. The 
faculty for the first session was as follows: Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, 
Professor of Diseases of Women and Children; Dr. Lydia F. Fow- 
ler, Professor of Pathology, and Principles and Practice of Med- 
icine; Dr. Sarah M. Ellis, Professor of Anatomy; Dr. Huldah 
Allen, Professor of Physiology and Hygiene; Dr. Isaac M. Ward, 
Professor of Obstetrics, and Medical Jurisprudence; Dr. J. V. C. 
Smith, Professor of Clinical and Operative Surgery; Dr. Edward 
P. Fowler, Professor of Materia Medica and Diseases of the Chest; 
Dr. A. W. Lozier, Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology. 
The first location of the college was at 74 East Twelfth street, 
the building having been leased for one year. It was the inten- 
tion to establish a hospital in connection with the college, but at 
the outset that was not possible. 
The Announcement for the first session thus stated the funda- 
mental principle of the incorporators: 
The incorporators have been stimulated in their efforts to carry out the 
beneficent intentions of the projectors of this institution, by the conviction 
that the sufferings of women, from the derangements peculiar to their 
organizations, are liable to be misunderstood on account of the relation 
usually existing between the patient and the physician, which does not 
permit that thorough investigation of symptoms essential to their proper 
treatment; and that this evil, connected with the employment of physicians 
of the opposite sex, in the treatment of the diseases of women, will con- 
tinue to exist as long as purity and delicacy continue to be recognized as 
the crowning excellencies of the female character. 
Recognizing the fact that there exists in society an imperative demand 
for female physicians, and a growing conviction that women should be 
educated to meet it, the legislature has granted a special charter for a 
college, in which women desirous of entering the profession, but excluded 
from the existing schools of medicine, may receive instruction in all the 
branches of medical science. 
In addition, the Announcement stated that "the college occu- 
pies ... a position equal to that of any medical college . . . 
will be wholly unsectarian, and no effort will be spared to earn for 
it a position second to none in the world." 
It had been the intention to keep an "open" college, but there 
soon developed a tendency to adopt homoeopathic teachings. No 
mention was made of it in the second Announcement, but in that MEDICAL COLLEGE FOR WOMEN 
555 
for 1865-66 was the information that "although the wide-spread 
and imperative demand for female physicians has been responded 
to by the organization of two colleges exclusively for women, this 
is the first and only one in the world where the law of 'similia' 
is recognized as the only true guide to the administration of 
drugs"; it further stated, "with homoeopathic teachings, in addi- 
tion to all the branches of medical science taught in other medical 
schools, this institution presents itself to the public with appeals 
for patronage such as no other medical school for the education 
of women can claim." The change was not a radical one, insofar 
as it did not revolutionize the college curriculum or plan of in- 
struction, and it only brought a few faculty changes, but it was 
directly the cause which led to the establishment of the second 
women's medical college referred to, i. e., the "Woman's College 
of Physicians and Surgeons," which became identified with the 
New York Dispensary and Hospital for Women and Children, and 
later with Cornell University. The new school was classed as 
"regular," and Dr. Clemence S. Lozier assumed direction of its 
chair of theory and practice, and of diseases of women and chil- 
dren, and Dr. A. W. Lozier also accepted a professorship of sur- 
gery, pathology and microscopic anatomy in the "regular" school. 
But soon Dr. Clemence S. Lozier devoted herself wholly to the 
college she had founded, and became a complete convert to homoe- 
opathy. The new school to some extent detrimentally affected the 
enrollments at the pioneer women's college, but without seriously 
impairing its strength. 
The first session, opening in October, 1863, was attended by 
eighteen students. Constituting the first class were: Emily S. 
Sehettler, Elizabeth D. Wright, Elizabeth B. A. Hamilton, Amelia 
G. Pollock, Anna C. Van Ness, Margaret Cooper, Harriet E. Hall, 
Anna A. Manning, Mary E. Tracy, Eloise B. Smith, Harriet 
Clisby, S. Amelia Barnet, and Jane E. Spaulding. Of this class, 
Miss Emily C. Sehettler was the only student in a position to 
conform with all the state requirements for graduation, and was 
the only graduate of the college at the commencement in 1864, 
the others graduating, without exception, in the class of 1865. 
In 1864 the trustees obtained from the Legislature further pow- 
ers, the charter being amended to authorize them to establish a 
hospital for women and children in connection with the college, 
as had been the original intention. Under the amended charter 556 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
the corporation was henceforth to be known as the "New York 
Medical College and Hospital for Women and Children." 
In 1866 the Regents of the University of the State of New 
York deemed it advisable to make certain changes in the charter, 
virtually reincorporating the institution, on the petition of the 
trustees. This established the college more securely, and there- 
after it steadily progressed. 
For the second session, Dr. John Ellis became Professor of 
Theory and Practice of Medicine; Dr. Joel R. Andrews, Professor 
of the Principles and Practice of Surgery; Dr. James Hyatt, of 
Chemistry and Toxicology; and Dr. S. R. Kirby, of Therapeutics 
and Materia Medica. Mrs. William H. Greenough was president 
of the board of trustees, and held the office until 1870; Mrs. Dr. 
Isaac M. Ward was appointed vice-president; Mrs. Amos C. White 
became recording secretary; and Mrs. H. B. Elliott, recording 
secretary. The graduating class of 1865 numbered fifteen. 
In the Announcement for 1865-66, the trustees made an urgent 
appeal to the public for assistance in furthering the hospital proj- 
ect. The school had accomplished much good work in the educa- 
tion of women for the practice of medicine, and entered upon 
unique charitable work in offering free education to women to 
better fit themselves for missionary labor among heathen peoples. 
In 1867 it was announced that "six capable and well educated 
women, whose means are limited, may be annually received on 
payment of matriculation and demonstration fees" of five dollars 
each. For the third session, two prominent professors of the New 
York Homoeopathic Medical College joined the faculty of the 
Women's College, Prof. T. F. Allen taking the department of 
Chemistry and Toxicology, and Carroll Dunham, that of Thera- 
peutics and Materia Medica. At the commencement in 1866, only 
three students were graduated, but the trustees and faculty were 
moderately satisfied with the attending classes. In 1866-67 there 
were nine graduates. 
Mrs. C. S. Lozier, to further the hospital movement, subscribed 
$10,000 to the fund. This was referred to by the trustees, who 
announced: "We have a college building, which the timely aid 
of our legislature and city has enabled us to secure, and in part 
pay for. A permanent dispensary has been established, and as 
soon as we have the requisite funds, $100,000, our hospital will 
also be permanently established. To aid in our labors, Mrs. C. S. MEDICAL COLLEGE FOR WOMEN 
557 
Lozier has given us $6,000 of her $10,000 subscription made March 
1, 1867." The total donations of cash prior to 1867 amounted to 
about $3,000, but the fund increased during the year, the city 
making an appropriation of $5,000, the State $3,400, and other 
contributions from friends totalled to more than $10,000. 
The new College building was a structure on Second Avenue 
and Twelfth street. The building was remodelled, to meet col- 
legiate requirements, and to provide facility for dispensary work. 
In 1868 substantial amounts were received for the hospital build- 
ing fund; included were further sums from city and state, $5,500 
and $10,000, respectively. 
In 1867-68, J. V. C. Smith was appointed to the chair of Anat- 
omy; E. P. Fowler, to Theory and Practice; F. L. H. Willis, to 
Materia Medica and Toxicology; Mrs. C. S. Lozier was made Emer- 
itus Professor of Diseases of Women. At the Commencement in 
1868, eight students graduated; in 1869 eleven graduated. In 
that session, the chair of Clinical Medicine was taken by Prof. 
Samuel Lilienthal, president of the New York County Homoeo- 
pathic Medical Society; and Mrs. Dr. Charlotte A. Lozier became 
assistant to the chair of Physiology and Hygiene. 
In 1869-70, the trustees adopted a higher standard of require- 
ment for graduation; candidates would henceforth be required to 
attend three courses of lectures. Their announcement stated that 
"the method of instruction generally adopted in our medical 
schools is not conducive to the highest success. Instead of requir- 
ing students of different classes to attend upon the same course 
of lectures through each of two successive terms, it is deemed more 
philosophical to divide and grade the studies, and therefore essen- 
tial to a thorough education, to extend the period of academic 
attendance. Our course of study is arranged in conformity with 
these convictions." 
The condition of the college was now satisfactory and encour- 
aging. The dispensary had developed rapidly, and had become 
practically a hospital. Thirty-three students attended the lectures 
in 1868-69, and since the inception the institution had supplied 
the medical profession with forty-five capable women physicians, 
a result the trustees viewed with gratification. The departments 
were comprehensive, and the faculty quite adequate, comprising 
ten professorships, with one lecturer and one demonstrator, and 
although by comparison with medical colleges for men students, 558 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
the enrollments assumed diminutive proportions, they were suffi- 
cient to encourage the trustees and faculty to renewed efforts. 
The Hospital was opened September 15, 1869; at the end of the 
college session, 43 patients had been treated, twenty-five births 
occurring, and the dispensary physicians treated 1,300 cases, 
attended 1,530 outside calls, and gave 8,000 prescriptions. 
The session 1870-71 was attended by thirty-five students, six 
of whom graduated, as against five of the preceding year. During 
1870-71, John C. Minor had the Department of Principles and 
Practice of Surgery; S. P. Burdick became Professor of Obstetrics; 
E. M. Kellbgg took Diseases of Women and Children; and Mrs. 
C. S. Lozier became Emeritus Professor of Diseases of Women and 
Children. The board of trustees, which up to that time and for 
five years thereafter was composed wholly of women, nominated 
Mrs. Richard R. Connolly to succeed Mrs. Greenough to the presi- 
dency, which office she had held with much credit since 1864, and 
during which period much had been accomplished. 
The lengthening of the term and the requisite for graduation 
affected the enrollments for some years, but met with the approval 
of the profession at large, and elevated the standard of instruc- 
tion. In addition to didactic instruction, four clinics were held 
weekly in the college building, two in the New York Homoeopathic 
Dispensary, and two in the New York Ophthalmic Hospital. There 
had been also, for some years, a supplementary or spring term, 
devoted particularly to ophthalmology, obstetrical surgery, auscul- 
tation, and microscopic examinations. 
For 1871-72, Dr. F. E. Doughty took the department of Sur- 
gery, and H. C. Houghton, that of Physiology. In the next ses- 
sion Alfred K. Hills became head of Materia Medica and Thera- 
peutics; Dr. Mary H. Everett, Demonstrator of Anatomy; and 
Dr. Abraham W. Lozier, Professor of Histology. In 1873, Dr. 
James A. Carmichael was appointed to the chair of Anatomy; 
Robert McMurray to Clinical Medicine; William O. MacDonald 
to Diseases of Women and Children; and Charles A. Avery to 
the department of Chemistry and Toxicology. For 1875-76, Wil- 
liam Tod Helmuth was appointed Professor of Clinical Surgery; 
E. Carlton, Jr., to Surgery; William N. Guernsey and Amelia 
Barnett to the department of Obstetrics. The graduating class 
of 1872 numbered eight; that of the next year, nine; in 1874 
there were seven graduates; and in 1875, nine. MEDICAL COLLEGE FOR WOMEN 
559 
By that time the school had passed beyond the experimental 
period of its history, and had confuted the predictions of certain 
prejudiced persons who had anticipated a very short period of 
existence for the Women's College of Medicine. All "regular" 
medical colleges had closed their doors to women students when 
the subject was first broached, but after the New York Medical 
College and Hospital for Women had successfully passed its first 
decade, some of the professional schools adopted the co-educa- 
tional principle. The Announcement for the eleventh session of 
the Women's College referred to the subject thus: "The medical 
education of women is no longer a question. It is now a fact, 
accomplished and accepted as such, even by those who were at 
first its strongest opponents." The Announcement further stated 
the conviction "that the medical education of women must be 
more thorough and carried to a higher degree than the medical 
education of men," in which must come greater attention to 
details and a more exhaustive treatment of the subjects of study 
than that "obtainable in the ordinary medical colleges." 
In 1874 the trustees acquired a new property at 301 Lexing- 
ton avenue. The plan involved an outlay of $125,000, and when 
the building was ready for occupancy, the former college building 
was sold. For better operation of the new hospital department, 
an aid society of ladies, termed "Hospital Managers," was organ- 
ized to assist the medical staff. The principal purpose to which 
the "Hospital Managers" applied themselves was the raising of 
funds for the hospital maintenance, but they in other ways be- 
came a factor of importance, and "carried forward a noble char- 
ity for several years. ' ' The medical staff first appointed included 
Drs. John F. Gray, Edward Bayard, Henry D. Paine, Lewis Hal- 
lock, Henry B. Smith, E. J. P. Fowler, William J. Baner, S. 
Lilienthal, C. S. Lozier, Mary W. Noxon, Alfred K. Hills, R. Mc- 
Murray, Orlena F. Smith, W. T. Helmuth, E. Carleton, Jr., F. E. 
Doughty, W. 0. MacDonald, most of whom were professors of the 
collegiate department, and also identified with the New York 
Homceopathic Medical College and Hospital. 
The acquisition of the new property made necessary further 
charter powers, which were granted in a charter amendment of 
April 6, 1875. But with the development of the institution came 
also increased business responsibilities, in which the women admin- 
istrators broadmindedly recognized that they might secure mate- 560 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
rial assistance by introducing to the board capable administrators 
of the opposite sex. Consequently, in 1875, the board was strength- 
ened by the inclusion in it of four men, Isaac C. Kendall, Henry 
G. Stebbins, David I. Ely, and Charles Butler. The institution, 
however, experienced much financial stress during the next few 
years; in fact, the project of erecting costly buildings on the site 
of the Lexington avenue building purchased and at that time occu- 
pied by them had to be abandoned. Worse disaster befell the 
institution, as the trustees were forced to sell the Lexington ave- 
nue property, and remove the college temporarily to Lexington 
avenue and Thirty-seventh street, where, in inadequate quarters, 
it remained until 1881. The trustees attributed the disaster indi- 
rectly to the financial panic and the consequent dearth of public 
interest in the support of institutions of a charitable nature. Not- 
withstanding, the college continued its sessions. In 1876 there 
were only four graduates, but the class of the next year numbered 
nine; in 1878 there were 27, a class almost as great in number as 
the combined classes of the four years immediately preceding, 
although the graduates of the next two sessions, 1879 and 1880, 
numbered only six and seven, respectively. 
Faculty changes included: 1877-Henry R. Stiles, to profes- 
sorship of Physiology and Psychological Medicine; George M. Dil- 
low, to Chemistry and Toxicology. 1878-Timothy F. Allen, to 
Materia Medica; N. A. Nosman, to Diseases of Women; St. Clair 
Smith, to Physiology and Hygiene; L. L. Danforth, to Obstetrics. 
1879-Mary E. Bond, to Materia Medica; J. M. Schley, to Prin- 
ciples and Practice of Medicine; Louise Gerrard, to Anatomy; 
Jennie de la M. Lozier, to Associate Professorship of Physiology. 
The session of 1879-80 will always be memorable, because it was 
immediately after the commencement of that year that the Alumnae 
Association of the New York Medical College and Hospital for 
Women was organized, with the object of working "for the higher 
interests of the medical profession, and by united action to pro- 
mote social and harmonious feeling among its members, and espe- 
cially to awaken personal interest in their alma mater." From 
its inception the Association has exercised a powerful influence in 
molding the policy and promoting the welfare of the institution. 
It is apparent that the graduates were aware of the limited re- 
sources of the institution, and had determined to aid as far as 
lay in their power, for in its first year the Alumnse Association MEDICAL COLLEGE FOR WOMEN 
561 
handed in for the hospital fund the sum of $1,400 which its mem- 
bers had given and collected. 
In 1879, for the first time, a man was elected to the headship 
of the institution, Charles Butler becoming president of the board 
of trustees. Following him, in 1881, came Stephen Cutter, who 
remained in the presidency until 1886, and a woman did not again 
occupy the presidential chair until 1894, since which time that 
sex has held this chief honor. 
For 1880-81, J. M. Schley appeared as secretary of the faculty; 
William J. Baner, Professor of the Principles and Practice of 
Medicine; Dr. Phoebe J. B. Wait, first president of the Alumnae 
Association, Professor of Obstetrics; Mrs. J. G. Brinkman, Gyne- 
cology; Mary H. Everett, chief of Pathological Anatomy and His- 
tology ; Henry A. Mott, Chemistry; F. H. Boynton, Ophthalmology 
and Otology; J. M. Schley, transferred to the chair of Diseases of 
the Throat and Chest. In 1881, Sarah J. White took part of 
Dr. Schley's duties, and the following year took over the depart- 
ment of Mental and Nervous Diseases; William B. Wait, Esq., 
was appointed to the chair of Medical Jurisprudence; and Dr. 
M. L. Holbrook to Hygiene. In 1883, Juliet P. Van Evera became 
Professor of Diseases of Children; and W. Storm White, Path- 
ological Anatomy and Histology. In the next year R. Heber 
Bedell became Professor of the Principles and Practice of Med- 
icine. 
In the nineteenth annual Announcement, the trustees mentioned 
with gratification that they had secured "a commodious building 
admirably adapted to the wants of the college and hospital." The 
property, leased in 1881, was destined to be the home of the col- 
lege for nearly twenty years. Situated on West 54th street, be- 
tween Broadway and Seventh avenue, and although not providing 
all desirable facilities, it was a decided improvement on former 
conditions, and "was readily adapted to its intended occupancy 
only as women of determination can adapt conditions to suit their 
requirements." The building housed the students for the session 
of 1881-82, and at the commencement the medical degree was con- 
ferred on ten graduates, a larger class than any since 1878, which 
with its extraordinarily large class of twenty-seven graduates had 
established a record difficult of equalization. The class of 1883 
numbered eight, the next year an identical number, and the 1885 
class thirteen, a gratifying increase. For 1883-84 gold prizes 562 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
were introduced by Professor S. Storm White, for the best and 
most complete notes on his lectures on pathological anatomy, and 
histology. In the succeeding session, Dr. Lozier, the dean, estab- 
lished a gold prize for the most excellent record of her clinical 
lectures, and several other prizes were soon afterwards established. 
The most important event during the next five years (1886- 
1890) was one which cast a gloom over the whole establishment. 
In 1881, April 26, Mrs. Dr. Clemence Sophia Lozier, founder of 
the college, dean since 1866, and Emeritus Professor of Diseases 
of Women and Children, passed away. The "History of Homoe- 
opathy" (Lewis Pub. Co., 1905) states regarding this calamitous 
event in the college history: "For more than twenty-five years 
she had been the guiding spirit of the school . . . had labored 
unceasingly, giving her strength, her time, and her money, with 
free and unstinted hand, for the purpose of securing to women a 
medical education equal to that of men." At her death, the 
whole of the homoeopathic medical profession mourned with her 
family, and the board of trustees and faculty placed on record 
in the college Announcement their appreciation of her labors. The 
resolution of the faculty said "that in her death the cause of 
medical education for women has lost a pioneer and earnest advo- 
cate . . . who for a quarter of a century has permitted no selfish 
motives to come between her and its best interests." In a char- 
acter-sketch Dr. Annie S. Higbie wrote: "Mrs. Lozier was strong, 
because no woman of her time possessed to a greater degree the 
courage of her convictions, or was quicker to act upon them," 
and of the days immediately following that of Dr. Lozier's death 
she wrote, "Forty-eight women physicians, graduates of the col- 
lege she founded, passed her coffin, and took a last look at her 
sweet face, and dropped into the casket a sprig of arbor vitae as 
their tribute of love." 
Dr. Lozier's was a life of noteworthy achievement, and she de- 
servedly is given premier place of honor in all historical reviews 
of the institution. She had been Emeritus Professor of Diseases 
of Women and Children since 1868, but for several years the ardu- 
ous duties of her chair had been performed by others, Dr. Mary 
A. Brinckman being Professor of Diseases of Women, and Dr. 
Juliet P. Van Evera of Diseases of Children. Dr. Lozier, how- 
ever, held to her labors in administrative and professorial capac- 
ities almost to her death; at least, until ill health totally incapac- MEDICAL COLLEGE FOR WOMEN 
563 
itated her. And even then, such had been her worthiness, and 
value to the institution, that the trustees merely assigned substi- 
tutes to perform her duties, determined that as long as she lived 
her name should head the faculty roster. After her death, Dr. 
Phoebe J. B. Wait was appointed dean, and continued to perform 
the duties of the chair of obstetrics. Dr. Wait, class of 1871, had 
since her graduation been a member of the teaching staff, and 
had succeeded Prof. Loomis L. Danforth as Professor of Obstetrics, 
in 1880. She served as dean until 1896, when she was succeeded 
by Dr. J. de la M. Lozier. 
The five-year period of 1886-1890 brought the following ap- 
pointments: 1886-M. H. Dearborn, to Principles and Practice of 
Medicine; Annie Smith to Anatomy; George C. Hawley to Chem- 
istry; J. T. O'Connor, Mental and Nervous Diseases. In 1887- 
William H. Bennett became Professor of Chemistry; Thomas C. 
Williams, Physical Diagnosis and Diseases of Heart and Lungs. 
In 1888 Alexander S. Lyman came to the chair of Medical Juris- 
prudence. In 1889-Dr. M. Belle Brown, class of 1879, became 
Professor of the Diseases of Women; B. W. James, Physiology; 
Louise Z. Buckholz, Chemistry. In 1890 Emily Kempin became 
the head of the department of Medical Jurisprudence. The grad- 
uating classes of these years were: 1886, thirteen; 1887, ten; 
1888, nine; 1889, five; 1890, fifteen. 
The trustees elected president in 1886, Rev. Henry Day, who 
served until 1894, with Mrs. C. Fowler Wells as vice-president. 
The office of second vice-president, which was abolished in 1866, 
was reestablished in 1887, Henry Welsh being elected to the honor; 
two years later he was succeeded by William Jennings Demorest, 
who vacated the office the following year, and it had no incum- 
bent until 1896, when Mrs. Mary Day was elected. Dr. Cordelia 
Williams succeeded Amelia Wright as recording secretary in 1888; 
Dr. Mary S. Mann became corresponding secretary. 
In 1893, the trustees, with approval of the faculty, adopted 
the four years ' graded course. Respecting this change, which had 
such disastrous possibilities to the college enrollments, without 
which of course the college could not prosper, the "History of 
Homoeopathy" (Lewis Pub. Co., 1905) states: 
"This step was taken advisedly, and after full consideration of its 
probable effect and ultimate result for it was assumed that the change 
would increase the cost of medical education to students, and would 564 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
probably reduce the attendance, and also the revenues of the school; but 
the four years' compulsory course was being adopted by other medical 
colleges in the interest of more thorough education and to meet the exact- 
ing requirements of the laws; and as the New York Medical College and 
Hospital for Women never was a follower, but always a leader, as it was 
in fact a pioneer, the new advance step was taken early, even before the 
standard of professional education was raised by the regents." 
As a matter of fact, the majority of the leading medical col- 
leges did not adopt the four years' course until 1897, and the New- 
York Medical Colleges had only made a three years' course com- 
pulsory in 1891, whereas the New York Medical College for Women 
had inaugurated a compulsory three-year standard as far back as 
1869-1870, so that the words "always a leader, as it was in fact a 
pioneer," were not mere vapid flourishes. The plan for the ex- 
tended course was courageously introduced, though with much 
misgiving as to detrimental financial possibilities. Happily, they 
experienced a contrary effect; the introduction made no apprecia- 
ble effect upon attendances. And in prestige and high professional 
standing, the institution certainly gained. The graduates of the 
five-year period, 1891-1895, were: nine in 1891; the same number 
in 1892; six in 1893; eighteen in 1894; and ten in 1895. The 
faculty changes were: 1892-Dr. Malcolm Leal, Associate Profes- 
sor of Principles and Practice of Medicine; Louise Lanin, Profes- 
sor of Diseases of Children; Frank Moss, Esq., Department of 
Medical Jurisprudence. In 1893, Dr. A. R. McMichael became 
Professor of Materia Medica; Dr. Sidney F. Wilcox, of Surgery; 
and William F. Honan of Physiology. In 1894, Dr. Gertrude 
Allen succeeded to the chair of Physiology, and in 1895 Dr. Har- 
riette D'Esmonde Keatinge became Professor of Pathological 
Anatomy and Histology. 
In 1895, the trustees made application to the Regents of the 
University of the State for an ordinance of reincorporation, and 
a new charter was granted, naming as trustees: Amelia Wright, 
Charlotte Fowder Wells, Ellen Louis Demorest, Rosalie MacBride, 
Cordelia Williams, Henry S. Day, Mary Knox Robinson, Louise 
A. Wilson, Jefferson M. Levy, Marion Gurney, Andrew J. Rob- 
inson, Harriet L. Bender, Mary Day, Mary Eliza Merritt, Mar- 
garitta Kingsland Welsh, and Mary Lloyd. By the action of the 
Regents, the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women 
was incorporated a part of the University of the State of New MEDICAL COLLEGE FOR WOMEN 
565 
York. Diplomas were to be signed by the trustees and faculty 
administrative heads, and countersigned by the regents, thereby 
insuring a diploma "equal to that of any medical institution in 
America. ' ' 
For a decade the trustees and faculty had been endeavoring to 
provide more suitable quarters for both college and hospital. Said 
the trustees of the hospital department: '1 Our work has outgrown 
the limits of the building we now occupy; and our only hope is 
that some noble persons . . . will aid us in securing a building 
adequate in size and better calculated for the work we have to 
do." In 1887 the trustees endeavored to establish a fund for the 
purpose, but received little encouragement, and after the death 
in 1888 of Dr. Lozier, the alumnae and personal friends of the 
decedent undertook to raise funds for the erection of a hospital 
building to be known as "The Lozier Memorial Pavilion." The 
Alumnae Association shortly afterwards organized a fair, which 
increased the fund by nearly $2,000. But for several years, the 
subscriptions were such as to prohibit immediate application to 
the projected undertakings. In 1895 the fund amounted to only 
$8,000, but was then rapidly growing. In 1896 the trustees took 
more decisive action, and in the following year purchased land on 
101st street, west of Central Park. In the meantime it had been 
decided to erect both college and hospital buildings, the college 
first, and the latter ' ' as soon as the needed funds could be raised. ' ' 
The estimated cost of the college building was $25,000 and of the 
hospital $45,000. Building operations were commenced, and in 
October, 1898, the western half of the structure occupied by the 
college was ready; the erection of the right half of the building, 
as it is to-day, for the purposes of the hospital, was not commenced 
until 1901. 
One of the most efficient agents in providing funds for the com- 
pletion of the hospital building was the Hospital Guild, which 
body of worthy workers collected and paid to the treasurer the 
sum of $12,000. The building, which is in French renaissance 
style, has a frontage of forty-five feet, and is of substantial con- 
struction, limestone up to the line of the first floor, the rest of the 
building of brick. At the time it was stated that the college pos- 
sessed "one of the most modern medical school buildings in the 
country. ' ' 
Regarding the collegiate courses of the five-year period, 1896- 566 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
1900, the graduating classes did not hold up the satisfactory 
average as to numbers. There were five graduates in 1896, seven 
in 1897, four in 1898, six in 1899, and four in 1900. In the suc- 
ceeding five years, however, the classes were more encouraging, 
that of 1901 containing eight; 1902, six; 1903, eight; 1904, six, 
and 1905, nine. The staff now comprises 23 professors, and 22 
instructors of other grades. 
The most important faculty changes during the period were the 
appointment of H. M. Dearborn, as president of the faculty in 
1896, an office to which no member of the faculty had been ap- 
pointed since 1864, when Dr. Clemence Sophia Lozier was elected 
to it. Dr. Dearborn held the honor until 1899, when F. H. Boyn- 
ton was appointed. In 1896 Dr. Phoebe J. B. Wait retired from 
the deanship, and Dr. Jennie de la M. Lozier succeeded to the 
office, two years later to be succeeded by Dr. M. Belle Brown. 
Other faculty changes were: 1896-Dr. Emily V. Pardee, Pro- 
fessor of Hygiene and Dietetics; Dr. Marea H. Brokhaus, Laryn- 
gology and Rhinology; William H. King, Electro-Therapeutics; 
William E. Rounds, Otology. 1897-Rita Dunlevy, Otology; St. 
Clair Smith, Diseases of Children; Geo. W. Roberts, Adjunct Pro- 
fessor of Surgery. 1898-Geo. G. Sheldon, Physical Diagnosis and 
Diseases of the Heart and Lungs; J. Perry Seward, Hygiene and 
Dietetics. 1899-Helen Cooley, Chemistry; Elizabeth Jarrett, 
Adjunct Professor, Practice of Medicine. 1900-Helen Colley 
Palmer, Chemistry. 1901-William H. Vanderburg, Physical 
Diagnosis and Diseases of Heart and Lungs; George W. Roberts, 
Surgery, 1902; W. T. Helmuth, Orthopedic Surgery; Elizabeth 
Jarrett, Associate, Practice of Medicine; Sophia Morganthale'r, 
Associate, Diseases of Women. 1903-Rita Dunlevy, Principles 
of Surgery; Eirene L. Rounds, Electro-Therapeutics. 
Mary Knox Robinson was elected president of the board of 
trustees in 1896, giving place to Mrs. Dave Hennan Morris in 
1898, but was again elected to the presidency in the following year. 
She held the office until 1904, when Mrs. William Tod Helmuth 
was elected. CHAPTER VIII 
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE 
THE history of the College of Medicine of Syracuse University, 
told completely and in detail, is the history of the develop- 
ment of New York State. It has followed the commercial and 
led the professional development of Central New York almost from 
the beginning of the settlement of this territory. The history of 
the college is threefold according to the location of the college; 
first it was at Fairfield, next at Geneva, and then at Syracuse. 
And while the connection between Fairfield and Geneva was per- 
haps not entirely official, it is yet logical and natural, and to Fair- 
field we may with propriety trace back the history of the Syracuse 
Medical College. The first medical instruction was given at Fair- 
field in 1809. Dr. Alfred Mercer, one of the oldest of the professors 
of the Syracuse Medical College, wrote an account of these three 
periods of its history, so full and so delightful, that we shall quote 
from it: 
In 1812 the Legislature of the State of New York granted a charter to 
this embryo medical school under the name and title of the "College of 
Physicians and Surgeons of the western district of the State of New 
York" known as Fairfield Medical College. It was placed under the 
direction of a board of trustees, who organized the school the following 
year with five professorships; which, if not in the beginning, were soon 
after filled by Joseph White, Westel Willoughby, James Hadley, T. 
Romeyn Beck, author of Beck's "Medical Jurisprudence," and James 
McNaughton. This was the second medical school organized in New York 
State, and the sixth medical school organized in the United States, and 
upon its benches many of the early physicians of this and other states 
obtained their medical education. 
Fairfield Medical College held sway as a popular and flourishing insti- 
tution for about thirty years, and well served its purpose for its day and 
generation. But thirty years brought a new generation, with altogether 
different surroundings; lines of stage coaches had appeared and disap- 
peared, canals and railroads had changed and were changing the whole 
thought and business of the country, and Fairfield had to yield to the 
change of surrounding circumstances. The session of 1839 was its last 
session. 
567 568 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Geneva Medical College was chartered in 1834, and the first course of 
lectures was given in 1835, the following gentlemen constituting the 
faculty of the college: Edward .Cutbrish, Willard Parker, Thomas Spen- 
cer, John G. Morgan, Charles B. Coventry, of Utica, and Amos Colman. 
The Albany Medical College obtained its charter in 1839, four years 
later, both proving rivals to Fairfield. At the breaking up of the Fairfield 
School at the close of the session of 1839 and 1840, the faculty found 
new fields of labor at Albany and Geneva. Profs. Beck and McNaugh- 
ton were elected to chairs in the Albany Medical College, while Profs. 
Hadley, DeLamater and Hamilton were added to the faculty of the 
Geneva Medical College, greatly to the advantage, increasing its popu- 
larity and classes, which rivaled in numbers the classes of some of the 
older colleges of the sea-board cities. But this prosperity was not to be 
lasting. The University of Buffalo instituted a medical department in 
1846, proving a powerful rival to Geneva. In fact, the United States 
seems to have been seized by a medical college mania about this time, 
organizing forty-four new colleges in thirty years from 1840 to 1870. 
Geneva Medical College as such had an existence of thirty-seven years, 
from 1835 to 1872, the period of its greatest prosperity being from 
1840 to 1850. 
Great changes were taking place during these thirty-seven years, in 
the moving centers of our population, in our social and industrial thoughts 
and habits, in the growth and development of our great inland, as well 
as our sea-board cities, by vast, widely extending, I may say, ocean to 
ocean, railway connections. The faculty of the Geneva Medical College, 
appreciating the situation, took steps in 1871 looking toward the removal 
of the college to Syracuse, in connection with the newly established 
University of Syracuse, where two well-appointed hospitals had been in 
successful operation for several years. Through the kindness of the 
hospital trustees the college obtained permission to use both of these insti- 
tutions for clinical instruction. 
This movement of the faculty was successful. In 1872 the Geneva 
Medical College, with its valuable library and museum, was transferred 
from the village of Geneva to the city of Syracuse, and became the 
College of Medicine of the Syracuse University. The first steps in rela- 
tion to this removal were taken late in the year 1871. A special meeting 
of the Onondaga County Medical Society was held in the court house 
of this city November 18, 1871, to learn the views and feelings of the 
profession of the county in regard to such removal. At the meeting the 
late Bishop Jesse T. Peck, D.D., and Dr. W. W. Porter, of Geddes, took 
their seats as representatives of the Syracuse University. Profs. Fred- 
erick Hyde, of Cortland, and John Towler, of Geneva, were present as 
representatives of the Geneva Medical College. The subject was discussed 
by the above-named gentlemen and by several members of the Onondaga 
County Medical Society. 
The spirit and animus of this discussion was that if the college were 
removed, it ought to elevate the standard of culture above the then pre- 
vailing standard common in nearly all the colleges of the country; that SYRACUSE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE 
569 
we had inferior colleges enough as to time of study and the requirements 
for graduation; that if a medical department were added to the Syracuse 
University it ought to inaugurate a plan for a higher medical education. 
These preliminary steps were followed by the removal of the Geneva 
Medical College to this city, and the college was formally opened in 
temporary apartments procured in the Clinton block on the first Thursday 
of October, 1872, which rooms were occupied for college purposes for 
three years, when the college was removed to its present location on 
Orange street. 
The following gentlemen of the faculty of the Geneva College still filled 
chairs after its removal to Syracuse: Profs. Hyde, Towler, Nivison, East- 
man and Rider. Under the reorganization, the institution was known as 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Syracuse University. The 
following gentlemen constituted the faculty, giving the first course of 
lectures in Syracuse: John Towler, M.D., Frederick Hyde, M.D., Hiram 
M. Eastman, M.D., Nelson Nivison, M.D., Edward B. Stevens, M.D., 
Harvey B. Wilbur, M.D., Rev. John J. Brown, A.M., Wilfred W. Porter, 
M.D., John Van Duyn, M.D., Joseph P. Dunlap, M.D., Henry Darwin 
Didima, M.D., Roger W. Pease, M.D., Alfred Mercer, M.D., J. Otis 
Burt, M.D., Wm. T. Plant, M.D., John W. Lawton, M.D., Miles G. 
Hyde, M.D. 
Since the removal to Syracuse the Medical College has been pledged 
to higher standards. It was the first college in the state and the third 
in the United States to adopt a three-year course. It did it in the 
face of opposition. It has continually labored for the raising of standards 
of admission and of scholarly attainment. 
Frederick Hyde, M.D., of Cortland, New York, Professor of 
Surgery, was the first dean of the school and served its interests 
with great intelligence and devotion from 1872 to 1888. Henry 
Darwin Didima, A.M., M.D., LL.D., the Professor of the Prin- 
ciples and the Practice of Medicine, succeeded him, and gave to 
the school the inspiration of his thorough training and delightful 
personality from 1888 to 1905. Gaylord Parsons Clark, A.M., 
M.D., was trained in medicine in this school and was the first of 
our own graduates to devote himself exclusively to teaching. He 
was elected to the chair of Physiology, in which he distinguished 
himself and earned a nation-wide reputation, in 1892. Upon the 
retirement of Dean Didima the faculty unanimously turned to him 
as their administrative officer and he was Dean of the school from 
1905 to the day of his sudden and most untimely death in the early 
fall of 1907. It was under Dean Didima's administration that the 
new building for the college was erected, the curriculum broadened, 
and laboratory teaching in accordance with University methods 570 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
was introduced. John L. Heffron, Professor of Clinical Medicine, 
was selected to serve as dean upon the death of Dr. Clark and is 
still the incumbent of that position. 
Many distinguished men whose careers have been closed by 
death since 1872 have served upon the faculty of this school. 
Most notable amongst these are Professors Frederick Hyde, Henry 
B. Wilbur, Henry Darwin Didima, Alfred Mercer, W. Herbert 
Dunlap, Henry B. Allen, Gaylord P. Clark, Nathan Jacobson and 
Henry L. Elsner. Each one of these men was a teacher of remark- 
able earnestness and clarity and force, and we recognize that the 
success of a school, in the last analysis, depends upon the quality 
and character of its teachers. 
The entrance requirements have always been higher than the 
standard usually recognized. In 1909 the University demanded 
that students should present in addition to the state requirements 
the first year, and in 1910 the- first and second years, a recognized 
course in a College of Arts, or of Science, and specified that cer- 
tain subjects should be included in that preparatory work. 
The laboratory method of instruction was early recognized and 
extended into the clinical years. Laboratory instruction in anat- 
omy, including histology, and in chemistry, was provided at the 
outset. In 1896 the first physiological laboratory for students 
opened in a school in this country was installed and perfectly 
equipped under the professorship of Gaylord P. Clark. In 1910 
the laboratory for Clinical Diagnosis was separated from the De- 
partments of Chemistry and Pathology, and put in charge of com- 
petent paid teachers. In 1907 the anatomical laboratory was put 
in charge of fully paid teachers. In 1911 the department of bac- 
teriology was separated from pathology and made a co-ordinate 
department under a special corps of teachers. In 1914 the labora- 
tory of Hygiene and Sanitation was equipped and put under the 
charge of the professor of Bacteriology. In 1915 arrangements 
were consummated by which the department of Hygiene and Sani- 
tation became responsible for the work in the city bateriological 
laboratory, so that this laboratory is also a teaching laboratory. 
The physical equipment of the college has kept pace with its edu- 
cational development. In 1896 an adequate building for the labo- 
ratory courses was dedicated by the University. In 1914 an unsur- 
passed building was erected by the University for a teaching Free 
Dispensary. In 1915 the University accepted the property of the SYRACUSE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE 
571 
Hospital of the Good Shepherd and has developed it into a plant 
well fitted for the clinical teaching of Medicine and Surgery. 
Besides this hospital the school has the unrestricted use of the 
clinical material in the following hospitals: St. Joseph's Hospital, 
the oldest and largest hospital in the city; the Syracuse Memorial 
Hospital, with a large department for children and an Eye, Ear, 
Nose and Throat Infirmary (formerly known as the Syracuse Hos- 
pital for Women and Children), the New York State Institution for 
Feeble Minded, the Onondaga County Orphans Home, the City 
Hospitals for Contagious Diseases, the City Psychopathic Hospital, 
and the City Tuberculosis Clinic. 
The Library of the college now contains 10,428 volumes and its 
reading room has upon its tables the current literature of the 
United States and of all foreign countries. The Library has been 
enriched by the gifts of books from many sources, the richest of 
which has been the library of Dr. Stephen Smith of New York, 
and contributions from the libraries of Drs. Mercer, Jacobson and 
Elsner of our own city. It is supported and kept up to date with 
the advances in medical publications by the University and by a 
contribution from the Onondaga Medical Society and one from the 
Syracuse Academy of Medicine, the members of each of which 
organizations have free access to its facilities. 
The faculty requires that not only in the college courses, but 
in the premedical years, every student must attain a minimum 
grade in each subject of 75 per cent. Graduates of this school 
secure positions as internes in all of the leading hospitals of the 
country for which they compete. The College has not added a 
fifth compulsory hospital year, first, because it does not consider 
that hospital instruction not controlled by its own faculty can be 
considered part of its own educational scheme, secondly, because 
it believes it to be the duty of the state to impose such an obligation 
upon candidates for license to practice medicine, and, lastly, be- 
cause it has been unnecessary, as every graduate selects an interne- 
ship in a first-class hospital under the advice of the administrative 
office except in the instances in which a graduate elects to pursue 
postgraduate work to fit him better for a teaching or a laboratory 
position. 
A chapter of the honorary medical scholarship society, Alpha 
Omega Alpha, was established in the school in 1911 and is known 
as the Gamma of New York Chapter. 572 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
The World War against the Central European powers, now vic- 
toriously ended, met an instant response to the call to service from 
our alumni. We are not certain that our records are complete. We 
know, however, that of our 471 living male alumni from and includ- 
ing the class of 1888 to and including the class of 1918, 33 per cent, 
have been commissioned and are active in the medical service of 
the United States Army or Navy. Of these, twenty-five have been 
released from the teaching staff. This number of commissioned 
medical officers is made up of three colonels, one lieutenant-colonel, 
ten majors, forty-eight captains and ninety-six lieutenants, many 
of whom have won promotion by the character of their service in 
their assigned positions. John L. Heffron. CHAPTER IX 
POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL AND HOSPITAL 
PRIOR to 1875, medical graduates who desired to pursue fur- 
ther special study had no facilities in New York State, other 
than those afforded by the hospitals and by the under- 
graduate professional schools. In 1875, the New York University 
Medical College, recognizing the need, established a post-graduate 
course, and appointed a separate departmental faculty of seven 
professors, who were permitted to grant certificates to those grad- 
uates who attended and otherwise qualified. For seven years the 
course continued in successful operation, then, however, to be sud- 
denly discontinued, by the secession of the faculty of the post- 
graduate department. 
Many circumstances contributed to determine the Post-Graduate 
Faculty to adopt so radical a decision. Gen. Joshua A. Cham- 
berlain, in his "History of New York University," appears to 
indicate that it was mainly because of financial limitations, noting 
that for some years prior to 1880-81 the University was in serious 
financial embarrassment, and that, in February, 1881, it had been 
determined to temporarily suspend the Academic Department of 
the University at the close of that session, and use its endowments 
to strengthen the Medical College, which although at that time 
the most vigorous of the University departments were also laboring 
under financial stress. He stated that while the Council of the 
University discussed the resolved suspension of the Academic de- 
partment, which an influential minority of the Council strove to 
prevent, an attempt was made to bring a decided advantage by 
the suspension to the Post-Graduate Department of the Medical 
College. Quoting from Gen. Chamberlain's history (Vol. I, p. 
162), the version reads: "There was a vigorous movement in one 
quarter to divert the assets of the Undergraduate (Academic) Col- 
lege, after its disestablishment, to the project of rendering autono- 
mous and independent the Post-Graduate Department in the 
School of Medicine. ' ' This endeavor was defeated by the ultimate 
573 574 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
decision of the University Council to continue the Academic Col- 
lege, it having been recognized that the planned suspension, and 
the use of the endowments of the Academic College for other pur- 
poses, would have constituted "a perversion of the trust." 
An interpretation of the matter is contained in the "History of 
the Medical Department of the University of the City of New 
York," published in 1890, by the Alumni Association. The inter- 
pretation rendered by the Alumni historian was very like that 
later deduced by Gen. Chamberlain in his larger work on the 
University; and it stated that: ' ' after seven years of existence, this 
Post-Graduate Course was abolished. The 'Supplementary Fac- 
ulty,' as the professors giving instruction in this course were 
styled to distinguish them from the Governing Faculty of the 
College, desired to be allowed to grant degrees, instead of certifi- 
cates, and they also desired to have a system of separate fees, 
separate lecture halls, etc., and to be allowed a share in the gen- 
eral government of the college." The Post-Graduate, the official 
organ of the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital 
for many years, took issue with the College historian, saying ed- 
itorially, in July, 1891: "The Post-Graduate Faculty (of the Uni- 
versity Medical College) did desire to have a building or rooms of 
its own, in which lectures could be given to graduates apart from 
the undergraduates; they did desire to have a system of separate 
fees for this instruction; but they were willing to hire a building 
of the College, and pay its expenses from these fees; and they 
never asked or desired to grant degrees instead of certificates; and 
they never asked to have a share in the general government of the 
Faculty which taught the undergraduates." It also drew atten- 
tion to "a minor mistake" of the history by the Alumni Associa- 
tion, in that it ignored the fact that "the Post-Graduate Faculty 
found it utterly impossible to give adequate instruction in the 
manner in which things were arranged-the undergraduates and 
graduates together. The examinations were a farce, or at least it 
was desired that they should be; and the Post-Graduate Faculty, 
not having the substance, desired to give up the name, and finally, 
after giving fair notice of what they were going to do and why 
they were going to do it, the seven professors resigned." The 
Alumni historian, continuing, said the suggestions of the Supple- 
mentary Faculty did not meet with the approval of the Governing 
Faculty, and that consequently the resignations tendered "by a POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL 
575 
majority of the Post-Graduate professors" were accepted. The 
seceding professors, he stated, were: William A. Hammond, James 
L. Little, D. B. St. John Roosa, Frederic R. Sturgis, Montrose R. 
Pallen, John W. S. Gouley, and Henry G. Piffard. Ten years 
later these names were deposited in the corner-stone of the new 
building erected for the New York Post-Graduate Medical School 
and Hospital, so as to record "the founders of the institution," 
and the date upon which the new school was organized. The paper 
places the date of organization as that upon which they, its found- 
ers, resigned from the University, i.e., April 4, 1882. 
At the corner-stone laying, Nov. 30, 1892, Dr. D. B. St. John 
Roosa said: "In 1875 an attempt was made in one of the medical 
colleges of the city, that connected with the University, for these 
men (general practitioners who came to the metropolis, some from 
far distant parts of the country, seeking a well-arranged course 
among the ample opportunities for clinical study then available in 
the city, hoping thereby to benefit during the very brief period, in 
many cases only a few weeks, they could spare from their own 
home practices) to be afforded post-graduate lectures. But these 
were too few; too few patients were exhibited at one time to be 
of any great service. The intervals between the clinics were so 
great that the time required to attend them was too long." In 
consequence of the unsatisfactory condition "the Post-Graduate 
Faculty of that institution (Medical College of the University) on 
the 4th April, 1882, giving up the work of teaching graduates and 
undergraduates on the same benches, decided to resign, and to 
found what was to be termed a post-graduate school." 
Of the need of establishing a school where post-graduate study 
might be pursued without loss of time, by busy practitioners who 
had little time to give to such study, there can be little difference 
of opinion. Dr. T. Gaillard Thomas, speaking at the corner-stone 
laying, referred to the subject, saying: 
Only a quarter of a century ago, the science and art of medicine were 
taught in this great metropolis in this way. On the first day of November 
three medical colleges opened their doors to a horde of men, for the most 
part half-educated; delivered to them didactic lectures in their halls, clin- 
ical lectures in their hospitals, and instruction in the dissecting rooms, for 
four months; and closed their doors on the first of March. This was gone 
through three times. Then these students of medicine scattered themselves 
over the land, and coolly took into their hands the dearest interests known 
to mankind. The incomplete state, as regards knowledge of their pro- 576 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
fession, under which many general practitioners then entered practice, 
would of course come directly under the cognizance of the professors of 
the post-graduate course, the condition being made evident to them by the 
limited knowledge of medicine exhibited by those graduates who attended 
their classes; and the imperative need of a greater effort to remedy the 
deficiency must have been the main factor governing their revolt. How it 
was to be accomplished was at the outset uncertain; whether as an estab- 
lishment entirely independent of any undergraduate college, or by alliance 
with some other already established institution of learning had not been 
decided. But the professors could not continue to act under the New York 
University under conditions which made their work ineffective, or insuffi- 
cient. The Post-Graduate, of May, 1898, stated that "in 1882, a serious 
effort was made to unite the incipient New York Post-Graduate Medical 
School, with an undergraduate medical department, to belong to Cornell 
University. The matter went so far that the Executive Committee of 
Cornell endorsed the proposition which was made by the seven professors 
who had resigned from the Faculty of the New York University. President 
Andrew D. White was fully in favor of the plan, but outside influences 
were brought to bear upon the Trustees, and they failed to confirm the 
action of their Executive Committee." 
The year 1882 saw the establishment and opening of two grad- 
uate schools of medicine in New York City-the New York Post- 
Graduate, and the New York Polyclinic. As to which institution 
can claim priority of establishment,-is a point of importance, see- 
ing that to one of these institutions belongs the distinction of hav- 
ing founded the first entirely post-graduate school of medicine to be 
organized in any country,-much has been written by friends of one 
or the other school, opens a somewhat involved question which it is 
not the purpose of the present chronicler to decide. And neither in- 
stitution has been keenly insistent upon claiming the honor, each 
being more concerned in the present development and efficiency 
of its organization. But some mention must be made here, and 
in the chapter regarding the Polyclinic School to be given place 
on other pages of this volume. Post-Graduate, of November, 1890, 
issue stated: 
There has been some misunderstanding at times as to the history of the 
organization of the Post-Graduate School. The facts are these: There 
was a Post-Graduate Faculty connected with the University of the City 
for years. It was established in 1875. The members of this Faculty were 
the founders of the Post-Graduate Medical School, in April, 1882, they 
having resigned from the University for the purpose, as stated in their 
letter of resignation, of establishing such an institution. They had found 
that unless the Faculty of the University would do much more than they POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL 
577 
felt themselves able to do, for the purposes of post-graduate study in 
connection with an undergraduate school, nothing would be accomplished, 
and had given up the name of a distinctive Post-Graduate faculty two or 
three years before they resigned. ... In 1880, attempts were made to 
found the Polyclinic, and members of the Post-Graduate faculty of the 
University were asked to join in the enterprise. The scheme however 
came to nothing, until it was revived in the summer of 1882, after it was 
well-known that the Post-Graduate Medical School was organized. 
According to another version, the organization of the Polyclinic 
School "was talked over, and agreed to in some kind of way" in 
1881, but no public announcement was made until after the Post- 
Graduate School was fully launched. The claims of the Polyclinic 
to priority of establishment, and organization, differ, as might be 
expected from the points here given, and they will have place in 
the chapter regarding that institution. 
The New York Post-Graduate Medical School made its first 
public announcement in July, 1882, and the school was opened in 
November of that year, in the College of Pharmacy building; the 
inaugural exercises were held in Chickering Hall, where Bishop 
Potter, Dr. Marion Sims, and Dr. St. John Roosa made speeches. 
Twelve years later, at the first meeting held in the new building 
of the Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, one of the 
executive officers stated " it is only a month over twelve years since 
the institution began its existence in the College of Pharmacy; 
soon afterwards it bloomed out in a tenement house; and finally 
in 1885 took an Old Ladies' Home, in Twentieth Street." Dr. 
Clarence C. Rice on the same occasion stated: 
Like most teaching institutions, our school started with few friends and 
no money. Of the five or six physicians who rallied to support the under- 
taking at the meeting of organization held on June 15,1882, only our pres- 
ident, Dr. Roosa, remains to-day on the faculty. The first course of 
instruction was begun at the old College of Pharmacy, in East Twenty- 
third Street, November 6, 1882. There were six physicians in attendance, 
and one hundred students matriculated during that year, 1882-83. The 
first annual announcement contains the names of nine professors, eight 
associate professors, and eight instructors. The School at first had no 
hospital of its own, and the teachers were compelled to supply their clinics 
with such patients as were able to walk to the building, but the faculty 
adhered to the fundamental principle upon which the School was organ- 
ized, that all teaching should be by actual demonstration of patients, and 
that didactic lecturing should have no part in its methods of instruction. 578 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
The "Announcement" for the second year, 1883-84, bears the 
names of fourteen professors. It was made clear that no professor 
benefited pecuniarily, their labors being given mainly for the 
betterment of the professional body in general. "It has always 
been an inflexible rule of the school," announced the catalogue, 
"that no teacher should be allowed to give private instruction to 
students for which he received a fee." In the early years the 
comparatively small expense was nearly covered by tuition fees, 
and the deficit was met by the unpaid faculty. One hundred and 
eighteen students attended the classes during the second year; 
for 1884-85 there were 129. 
The institution gave promise of permanence, and gathered to 
its teaching staff many of the city's ablest specialists in the different 
branches of medicine. Before the opening of the fourth session 
"the school was obliged to obtain more commodious quarters," 
which they secured at No. 226 East 20th street. In the new 
quarters, the hospital idea, which had been in the minds of the 
founders from the outset, but which for want of space they had 
hitherto been unable to carry out, now became possible. The 
hospital department was opened May 1, 1884, "although it in- 
volved the school in a very large financial responsibility." At 
first, only a ward for surgical diseases of women, and several 
small rooms for individual patients, were prepared, the school 
having no endowment with which to support free beds; but little 
by little the capacity of the hospital was increased until all of the 
building above the second floor was filled with patients. 
The Babies' Ward, opened in November, 1885, was made possi- 
ble mainly through the exertions of Dr. Sarah J. McNutt, "who 
so impressed a benevolent woman of New York City with the need 
of such a hospital that she donated the sum of money necessary 
to fit up a ward for the treatment of children." The ward had 
accommodation for 20 children on the fourth floor. By January 
1, 1886, 21 patients had been admitted, and 22 cases had to be 
refused. The first hospital year, 132 cases had been received; the 
average stay of each patient had been four weeks; and the receipts 
from patients had been sufficient, with other donations, to meet all 
fixed charges; 63 operations had been performed, and there had 
been seven deaths. 
The Training School for Nurses followed the opening of the 
Babies' Ward. It was organized in December, 1885, with five POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL 
579 
pupils. In February, 1886, seven more pupils from the Post- 
Graduate Hospital were admitted. It then became necessary to 
seek quarters outside the hospital, and the dwelling house, No. 
163 East 36th street, was rented. The School was organized inde- 
pendently of the Hospital, and its first officers were: Mrs. Andrew 
H. Smith, president; Dr. Sarah J. McNutt, vice-president; Mrs. 
Thomas E. Satterthwaite, secretary; Dr. Julia G. McNutt, treas- 
urer and superintendent. During the first year, 125 women applied 
for training, but only 35 were admitted as pupil-nurses. The 
pupil-nurses, after a probation of two months, were paid $8 
monthly during the two years of tuition, which was by service in 
the Post-Graduate Hospital, and attendance at lectures given by 
fourteen professors of the Post-Graduate School. The finances of 
the Training School came largely from subscriptions from mem- 
bers, and life-members, eligibility to the latter class being by dona- 
tion of $100 or more. The first life-members of the Nurses' School 
were: Mesdames Andrew H. Smith, George Kemp, D. Willis James, 
D. B. St. John Roosa, T. E. Satterthwaite, and Drs. Sarah J. Mc- 
Nutt and Julia G. McNutt. 
Dr. James L. Little, one of the founders of the New York Post- 
Graduate Medical School, died April 4, 1886; it was Dr. Little 
who conducted the first clinic of the Post-Graduate School after its 
organization, and "as a teacher of surgery he had few equals." 
The "Announcement" for 1885-86 stated that very few matricu- 
lates of the winter term of 1884-85 were in attendance less than 
twelve weeks, while some attended the course for six months. Con- 
sequently, the schedule of instruction was revised, making it prac- 
ticable for matriculates to attend all the courses, or to confine 
their studies to very few departments, or even to one branch. The 
school year was divided into two distinct but continuous terms- 
the winter term to open September 12, 1885, and end on June 2, 
1886, when the summer term would begin. The fee for instruc- 
tion, for a period of four weeks, in all the courses and clinics of 
the School and Hospital, except instruction in laboratories and 
operative surgery, but including urinary analysis, was $65; or 
for six weeks, $90; twelve weeks, $150; twenty-four weeks, $250. 
For the separate courses, the charge for six weeks' instruction was 
$15 to $20. These were the prevailing rates for tuition during 
the winter term, but a "general ticket," for all the clinics and 
courses of the summer term could be obtained for $75; a monthly 580 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
ticket cost $30. The week-days were fully occupied, the first 
clinic commencing at 9 o'clock, followed by other clinics until 6 
p. m. The report of officers May 4, 1886, recorded that "the last 
had been the most prosperous year yet experienced. ' ' 
Satisfactory as had been the development of the School, that of 
the Hospital was not less so. Applications for admission were 
numerous. Over 100 patients were treated during the first year, 
and in the second year in the General Hospital and Babies' 
Ward, 184 were treated. During July and August, the children 
in the Babies' Ward were sent to the Seaside Sanitaria at Far 
Rockaway, Coney Island, Asbury Park, and also to the Summer 
Home at Poughkeepsie. 
Early in 1886, Dr. Hy. J. Garriques was appointed Professor 
of Obstetrics. In 1887 Dr. C. C. Rice came to the chair of Diseases 
of the Nose and Throat; and Geo. B. Fowler to the professorship 
of Clinical Medicine and Medical Chemistry. The school magazine 
was issued in July, 1887, under the name of the Post-Graduate, 
and became a widely-circulated and important medical journal. 
The July, 1887, issue noted that "the average attendance of matric- 
ulates during the summer session almost doubled that of the 
previous year;" also that "The Nursing Home received a $1,000 
donation, for the nursing of poor in their homes. ' ' 
At the winter term, 1887-88, of the Medical School, the enroll- 
ments were 87 per cent, over the previous year. Robert Abbe 
joined the Faculty, assuming the department of Clinical Surgery; 
A. M. Phelps became Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Me- 
chanical Therapeutics; Hy. D. Chapin went to the department of 
Diseases of Children; A. D. Rockwell, to Electro-Therapeutics; 
and J. E. Weeks was appointed instructor of bacteriology, regard- 
ing which the Post-Graduate announced: "The course in this 
department is the only one of its kind to be found in this city. A 
special laboratory has been fitted up, and apparatus specially 
imported for it." 
The Hospital Report for 1887-88 stated that 4,834 new patients 
had been treated in the dispensary, and 320 in the wards, including 
148 infants in the Babies' Ward. The Announcement for 
1888-89 emphasized the fact that the "College and Hospital occupy 
entirely a large building, five stories in height, with a frontage of 
100 feet on Twentieth street;" and stated that the "Dispensary 
and Hospital furnish more than 20,000 patients annually for the POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL 
581 
study of disease." Dr. L. Bolton Bangs entered the Faculty in 
that year as Professor of Venereal and Genito-Urinary diseases; 
Peter A. C. Allan was appointed Professor of Diseases of the 
Eye; and Professor Winters took the department of Diseases of 
Children. Drs. Abraham Jacobi and Robert F. Wier also entered 
the Faculty in that year. A new Clinic Room was erected in 
1888, for the accommodation of the increasing number of students; 
the new Clinic could accommodate eighty. 
The teaching staff of the School grew larger each year; for the 
winter session of 1888-89 it comprised sixty-seven professors and 
instructors. In January, 1889, the Post-Graduate stated that "the 
prosperity of the School was such, and the present premises so 
well adapted to the wants of the institution, that the board of 
directors had decided to purchase the property for $60,000," that 
"the increase in the number of matriculates is beyond all expecta- 
tions, and if the demand for post-graduate instruction continues 
we shall have to still further enlarge our building." To provide 
for the need, the property, No. 222 East 20th street, adjoining the 
Hospital block, was leased for ten years almost immediately after 
the purchase of the buildings then occupied by the School and 
Hospital, the intention being to convert the leased building into 
a lying-in department. 
The "Fifth Annual Report," 1888-89, announced that "last 
year was the busiest of the Hospital's existence. For the first time 
the Babies' Ward was open for the entire year. During the eigh- 
teen months since last report, 486 house patients were received, and 
8,086 new patients were treated in the dispensary department." 
All this clinical material was available to the graduate-students of 
the School, and they also had opportunity for instruction and 
clinical observation at many of the leading city hospitals and 
dispensaries, to which members of the teaching staff were at- 
tached. 
In the spring of 1890, Hon. D. B. St. John, of Newburg, New 
York, formerly State Senator, presented to the institution the 
sum of $10,000; "an encouraging sign, when a layman leaves so 
much to a medical school," commented the Post-Graduate. 
Although the Hospital department was a continuous and heavy 
liability, the School had by this time established itself on a firm 
basis; its reputation had spread to all parts of the country, and its 
students were drawn from almost all the States of the Union. 582 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
There were representatives of forty-four States among the 410 
matriculates of the School in 1889-90, and of the matriculates 26 
were females. 
Whether the institution was that year subjected to any criti- 
cisms, in regard to its finances and large corps of instructors, the 
writer does not know, but the November, 1890, Post-Graduate made 
it clear that the professors were entirely unselfish in their service: 
"The Post-Graduate School is not a stock company, but a scien- 
tific institution, devoting its entire income towards its expenses and 
endowment, without paying a dollar in salary to the professors." 
The Faculty at that time was made up as follows: 
Diseases of the Mind and Nervous System, Charles L. Dana, Graeme M. 
Hammond, A. D. Rockwell; Diseases of Eye and Ear, D. B. St. John 
Roosa, W. Oliver Moore, Peter A. Callan, J. B. Emerson; Venereal and 
Genito-Urinary Diseases, L. Bolton Bangs; Diseases of the Nose and 
Throat, Clarence C. Rice, 0. B. Dougies, Charles H. Knight; Pathology, 
Physical Diagnosis, Clinical Medicine, Therapeutics, and Medical Chemis- 
try, Andrew H. Smith, William H. Porter, Stephen S. Burt, Geo. B. 
Fowler, Frank Ferguson, Reynold W. Wilcox; Surgery, Lewis S. Pilcher, 
Seneca D. Powell, A. M. Phelps, Robert Abbe, J. E. Kelly, Daniel Lewis, 
W. B. DeGarmo; Diseases of the Rectum, Charles B. Kelsey; Diseases of 
Women, Bache McE. Emmet, Horace T. Hanks, Charles Carroll Lee, J. R. 
Nilsen, Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System, Ambrose L. 
Ranney; Diseases of Children, Hy. Dwight Chapin, J. O'Dwyer, J. H. 
Ripley; Obstetrics, C. A. Von Ramdohr, Hy. J. Garrigues; Diseases of the 
Skin and Syphilis, L. Duncan Bulkley; Hygiene, Edward Kirchner; 
Pharmacology, Frederick Bagoe. 
In the Hospital report, September 15, 1890, it was noted that 
many matriculants of the session of 1890-91 were physicians who 
had attended the courses of the school previously; "a flattering 
compliment" it was considered. The institution had now more 
patients than in any previous year-570 house patients, and 9,064 
dispensary. The Hospital deficit was $2,023.34, which liability 
was met from the funds of the Medical School. 
In February, 1891, the School Faculty discussed the needs of 
securing new and more commodious buildings for the School and 
Hospital, but came to no decision. Not long afterwards, however, 
the directors purchased a large house in the rear of the School 
and Hospital buildings; it was located on 19th street, and imme- 
diately after possession was made suitable to the needs of the Dis- 
pensary. The Hospital report for 1891 also announced that 
"Through the generosity of Mrs. C. P. Huntington, a Lying-in POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL 
583 
Service was established at No. 543 East 13th street, under the 
charge of Prof. Von Ramdohr, where poor women can be cared 
for in their homes without charge. ' ' 
The imperative need of larger quarters was the principal subject 
discussed at the annual dinner of the Faculty in 1892. The gather- 
ing was at Morello's, on March 3, 1892. Eighty professors and 
instructors were present; the discussion led to definite and imme- 
diate action, and "a large sum of money was raised from the 
Faculty for a new building." Bearing on the movement, the 
April, 1892, number of the Past-Graduate records that the directors 
of the Post-Graduate Medical School "have purchased five lots on 
Second avenue, corner of 20th street, and will soon build a capa- 
cious, beautiful, and fireproof building to contain the Medical 
School, the Hospital, and the Babies' Ward." The next number 
of the journal stated~that six lots, instead of five, on Second avenue, 
had been purchased; and that the work of demolition of the old 
houses on the lots had commenced. The corner-stone of the new 
building was laid November 30, 1892, and, after surmounting a 
difficulty arising from the discovery of a running stream of water 
some feet below the surface, the construction work proceeded 
steadily. 
Efforts were made in 1891-92 to obtain from the State the same 
privileges for the medical graduate schools of New York-the 
Polyclinic and the Post-Graduate-as those enjoyed by the under- 
graduate medical colleges, in regard to anatomical material, and 
in April of that year the State Legislature passed the "Anatomy 
Bill," in favor of the two graduate institutions. This followed 
action by the Legislature in 1891, when it enacted the first bill 
designed to grant the graduate schools the same rights as the 
undergraduate medical schools in the distribution of dead bodies. 
The bill was strenuously opposed by the undergraduate colleges, 
and the second enactment was to insure the position of the Poly- 
clinic and Post-Graduate Medical Schools. Nevertheless, the Gov- 
ernor declined to sign the "Anatomy Bill," ruling it defective in 
construction. 
The new building was not ready for occupancy in the summer of 
1893, the Faculty contenting themselves by stating in the "An- 
nouncement" for 1893-94, that the new building was "well on 
towards completion." The "Announcement" further stated that 
"the building is the result of great self-denial on the part of the 584 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Faculty of the School, who for eleven years have devoted money 
that should have been their salaries, to increase the building 
fund; . . . also, they have in a very large proportion made per- 
sonal contributions to the building fund. ' ' 
The teaching staff for the 1893-94 session consisted of 120 pro- 
fessors and instructors, most of whom had been supporters of the 
institution since its early days. The rapid growth of the School 
and Hospital was most gratifying to the founders, and to those 
unselfish city physicians and surgeons who gave so much of their 
time without pecuniary advantage. The following statistics show 
the growth of the school during the first eleven years: Matriculates, 
first year, 100; fourth year, 160; fifth, 209; sixth, 337; seventh, 
415; eighth, 410; ninth, 469; in the tenth and eleventh year the 
attending graduate students exceeded 500, the respective enroll- 
ments being 502 and 527. The first class, November 6, 1882, was 
attended by six physicians; while in 1893-94, 120 gave instruction 
in the school. 
Before the close of the eleventh session, the new building was 
ready and occupied. Needless to say, however, the present mag- 
nificent structure of the New York Post-Graduate Medical School 
and Hospital was not the building occupied by the school in 1894, 
but the building then entered was one specially built to amply meet 
their then requirements, and was a notable step forward for the 
school. The building was nine stories high, entirely fireproof, 
with hospital capacity for 190 patients; and during its erection 
almost every member of the faculty contributed a monthly sum 
toward the expense involved. Because of the enlargement of the 
Hospital facilities, however, and the heavy expense necessarily en- 
tailed in the maintenance of so large a number of beds, the insti- 
tution sought outside means of support. As regards the school, it 
was more than able, out of fees paid by students, to maintain 
itself. 
Much interest was shown by the public in the new undertaking 
of the School and Hospital; at the opening more than six thousand 
people visited the building, and inspected the Babies' Wards, 
Orthopedic Wards, and all the departments of the school. Ad- 
dresses were made by the Rev. Dr. Huntington, Dr. McKelway, 
and by the president, Dr. Roosa, and the secretary, Dr. C. C. Rice. 
In the opinion of some, the building exterior was ' ' one of the hand- 
somest fagades in the city," and the interior "reminded one of POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL 
585 
the work of some of the best French architects. ' ' Dr. Rice said: 
"The Post-Graduate School has at last attained the position which 
its founders and devoted supporters have hoped and worked for 
during the past twelve years. The history of the origin and devel- 
opment of the medical school is simply a record of the wisdom, the 
earnest effort and the indefatigable zeal of a number of physicians 
of this city, who have been willing to give to it the best years of 
their lives. The success which has attended it again demonstrates 
the tremendously effective working power of a body of men filled 
with enthusiasm and laboring unselfishly and increasingly for a 
common purpose." The first clinic held in the new building was 
on April 23, 1894; although work on the amphitheatre had not then 
been finished. The formal opening was on May 8th, same year. 
As to the quality of the instruction given, it was of the highest 
class. In June, 1894, the more important changes were the pro- 
motion from instructorships to professorships of: Dr. Francis 
Valk, Diseases of the Eye; Dr. B. Farquhar Curtis, Surgery; Dr. 
Francis Foerster, Diseases of Women. In November, Dr. Ramon 
Guiteras became Professor in Operative Surgery, as well as in the 
department of Anatomy. In 1895, Dr. Andrew Hermance Smith 
became vice-president; James L. Skillin, secretary; and Bache 
McE. Emmet, treasurer,-these succeeding George Henry Fox, 
Clarence C. Rice, and L. Bolton Bangs, respectively. Charles B. 
Kelsey was appointed secretary of faculty. 
Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa, about that time, made reference to 
the difficulty originally experienced in obtaining a charter for the 
School from the State. The first application made to the Regents of 
the University of the State of New York by the projectors of the 
New York Post-Graduate Medical School was vetoed, under advise- 
ment of the then Attorney-General, on the extraordinary ground 
that the phrase "other institutions of learning" did not compre- 
hend a post-graduate medical school, since none existed when the 
law was passed. Finally, however, a special law was enacted by 
the State Legislature to incorporate the School. Dr. Roosa's 
comment was, "Governor Hill and the Legislature were, however, 
more kind (than the Attorney-General) and this institution has 
a charter from the Legislature of the State of New York." 
At the close of the thirteenth term, the announcement was made 
(June, 1895) that "during the past year the classes were the larg- 
est in the history of the school (550 having attended). The classes 586 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
attending the different clinics averaged between seventy and one 
hundred students at one time, but owing to the facilities afforded 
in the new building, classes were able to be subdivided so as to give 
almost individual instruction." With the opening of the larger 
Hospital building, the facilities for the development of the Nurses' 
Training School became very much better, and the 1895 report 
says that it had developed "very satisfactorily," thirty-two grad- 
uating at the Commencement, May 23, 1895. The first graduating 
class was in 1888, when twelve received diplomas. 
An annual reception held at the Hospital on January 5, 1897, 
was the occasion of an announcement of particular importance to 
the Nurses' Training School. Dr. Bache Emmet referred to the 
approaching discontinuance of the nursing institution conducted 
"by an entirely independent corporation" under the name of the 
Hospital, and which training school had supplied the hospital with 
nurses. He declared that the directors felt called upon to estab- 
lish a similar training school directly under their own control, 
which would necessitate a considerable outlay; he estimated the 
expense of conducting a training school adequate for the Hospital 
at about $18,000 per annum. In March, 1897, it was announced 
that the Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital had "secured 
a large apartment house, at the corner of 19th street and Second 
avenue, for its training school, which was then about to be estab- 
lished." And in August, 1897, the Post-Graduate stated that 
"the Post-Graduate Hospital has at last undertaken the entire 
responsibility for the Training School for Nurses." The Septem- 
ber number of the same journal went further: "The Training 
School has been hitherto conducted by benevolent ladies in the city, 
who, at great pecuniary loss, have carried on and supplied us with 
nurses for a number of years. During the last year, Mrs. Ada 
Van Zandt was responsible for the institution, the board of man- 
agers having given it up. So that nurses studying during the last 
two years should receive their diplomas and badges, a commence- 
ment was held on the 8th June, in the reading room of the Post- 
Graduate College, and diplomas were presented by the president, 
in the name of the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and 
Hospital. Sixteen nurses were graduated." 
In 1897, Dr. Seneca D. Powell was appointed secretary of the 
Faculty, to succeed Dr. Charles B. Kelsey. During the 1896-97 
session, 542 physicians attended the courses. POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL 
587 
The city newspapers during 1897 gave space to an agitation 
which sought to influence the city administration to discontinue 
the annual grant to the Post-Graduate Hospital. The attempt 
was, however, unsuccessful. Regarding it, the Post-Graduate of 
January, 1898, after announcing that the Board of Estimate and 
Apportionment had voted the usual grants to the so-called private 
hospitals, dispensaries, and other charities in the city, stated: 
"The municipality can by no means do all the charitable work in 
hospitals, asylums, dispensaries, and so forth, that is justly re- 
quired of it, but it can supplement that which is chiefly done 
through private gifts. The Post-Graduate Hospital receives thir- 
ty-eight cents a day for each pauper baby that it treats, and 
$25,000 a year for its general purposes. The professors and in- 
structors add $30,000 a year by giving all the fees paid for instruc- 
tion, except a few hundred dollars paid as salaries for laboratory 
work and operative courses." 
At the thirteenth anniversary meeting of the Post-Graduate 
Hospital, January 8, 1898, the acting-treasurer, George N. Miller, 
appealed for $150,000 to endow the institution. He stated that 
$31,543 had been received for instruction during the previous year, 
but that had it not been for the city grant of $25,000, the institu- 
tion would have fallen very seriously behind, the care of nurses, 
to mention only one instance, costing the Hospital $15,000. He 
estimated the asset of the corporation, in the building, at $450,000, 
against which stood a floating debt of $70,000, and a mortgage of 
$230,000, which he wished to see reduced to $150,000. 
As was to be expected, the year 1898 was a trying one for the 
Medical School; the Spanish-American War considerably affected 
the attendance of students. Dr. G. N. Miller, reporting on Jan- 
uary 5, 1899, stated: "During May, June, July and August, our 
revenue fell off sadly. In September and October it was our priv- 
ilege to care for many of our sick soldiers. Notwithstanding 
these drains we have done well 'financially, and our debt this year 
has been materially reduced." There was, however, cause for 
congratulation that the institution in its sixteen years of existence 
matriculated over six thousand doctors, and had been able to gather, 
chiefly among themselves or by their labor, more than $600,000 
that had been spent on school and hospital buildings. Prof. A. M. 
Phelps said that the New York Post-Graduate Medical School "was 
the first post-graduate school in the world to be founded." 588 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
The year 1899 was one of note. In April it was announced that 
Mr. H. C. Fahnestock had given $100,000 to be spent in building 
a new Nurses' Home, to be known as "The Margaret Fahnestock 
Training School for Nurses." It was decided to erect a six-story 
building, of fire-proof construction, and affording accommodation 
for sixty-five nurses; within a year the inauguration took place, 
the building having been erected on 19th street, directly opposite 
the hospital. 
Dr. William H. Hammond, Surgeon-General, U. S. A., during 
the Civil War, and one of the founders of the New York Post- 
Graduate Medical School, died January 5, 1900, aged 72 years. 
The statement was made that "Dr. Hammond may be said to be 
the originator of the Post-Graduate School. ' ' 
Notwithstanding the Spanish-American War, the enrollment of 
students was far in advance of the other six post-graduate schools 
of the United States; the New York Post-Graduate enrolled 524 
students that year, the New York Polyclinic School coming second 
with 293. Six hundred and nine graduates attended the session 
of 1900, the amount received in fees being $31,113.26; of this, only 
$2,259 was expended in payments to the teaching staff, being to 
a few special professors for services in the operating rooms and 
laboratory. Notwithstanding this, the institution as a whole showed 
a deficit of $15,214.78 on the year's working. Next year brought 
many substantial donations; two anonymous gifts were of the 
amount of $15,000; $10,096.45 came to the Hospital from Miss 
Grace Scoville; $5,000 in memory of Arthur E. White; $7,500 in 
memory of James W. Quintard; $5,462.80 from Mr. and Mrs. 
Philip B. Niles; and Mrs. H. N. L. Sherman, of Lawrence, Long 
Island, gave $25,000 to endow five beds for the care of patients 
suffering from nervous diseases. In 1902 treatment was given 
in the Hospital to 1,894 patients, and in the Dispensary to 18,252. 
The Medical School had an enrollment of 653. The Hospital 
at that time had 204 beds, but its capacity was taxed to the ut- 
most. By the gift to the Hospital in 1903, of $7,500 by Mr. and 
Mrs. Walter G. Ladd, the Charles L. Dana Bed was endowed, with 
the stipulation that Prof. Dana, and after him his heirs, shall have 
perpetual right to name the occupant of the bed. 
In 1903 a new feature was inaugurated; by it, physicians who 
had attended the clinics and demonstrations of the School for 
six consecutive months could come for examination in any depart- POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL 
589 
ment or departments they chose, and if successful would be en- 
titled to a certificate of proficiency in the departments taken. 
In June, 1904, the Association of the Elks entered into an 
agreement with the Post-Graduate Hospital, by means of which 
two beds in the institution were set apart for members of that 
order, $15,000 being placed by the Elks for that purpose. The 
action is worthy of note, inasmuch as other city hospitals offered 
to supply the service at a much lower figure, but in explanation it 
was stated at the time that "the Elks believe that the advantages 
offered by the Post-Graduate, in the variety of cases cared for by 
the attending physicians and surgeons who are specialists, we^e 
greater than those of the other hospitals. ' ' 
The debt under which the institution labored was hindering the 
extension of the Medical School, and in 1904-05 a determined 
effort was made to lift the debt altogether from the institution. 
The Post-GradxMte for June, 1905, stated there had been pending 
an offer of $100,000 for the Medical School, in case another $100,- 
000 were raised; that the amount given or promised by the Faculty 
by Thanksgiving Day makes the total already raised about 
$50,000. The New York Evening Post said: "By Thanksgiving, 
the trustees hope to have in hand the entire $100,000, which the 
institution is raising. Another $100,000 is promised, and this, with 
the legacy from the Miss Margarette A. Jones estate will be suffi- 
cient to rid the School of debt. The Jones bequest is estimated at 
about $200,000, St. Luke's and Presbyterian receiving similar 
amounts." The Jones bequest did not, however, come to the 
Post-Graduate until 1907, and the total amount then apportioned 
to the Post-Graduate was $142,000. This sum established the 
"David Jones Fund," which maintains nineteen beds in the Hos- 
pital. In memory of Miss Jones, the directors placed an appro- 
priate memorial in a prominent position in the Hospital. 
That the standing of the New York Post-Graduate School "as the 
leading post-graduate school of America" was universally recog- 
nized was inferred from an invitation cabled, in 1906, to President 
Roosa and Professor Carl Beck, to attend the opening by the 
German Emperor of the Berlin Post-Graduate School of Medicine. 
About two years later, Professor R. Kutner, at the eighth annual 
meeting, held in Berlin, of the Central Commission for Post-Grad- 
uate Medical Education in Prussia, paid a great compliment to 
the New York Post-Graduate School, by requesting all present "to 590 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
rise from their seats and pay homage to the memory of this de- 
serving man, Dr. Daniel Bennett St. John Roosa, then recently 
deceased, who had been the most active of the founders of the 
New York pioneer school, and its president since its establish- 
ment." 
Dr. Roosa died March 8, 1908. Had he lived a few more months, 
he would have realized the principal endeavor of his last quarter- 
century of work; he would then have known that the permanence 
of the School and Hospital was assured in the intimation then con- 
veyed to the trustees of the Post-Graduate Hospital that the insti- 
tution would benefit to the extent of about $2,000,000 by the will 
of Frederick Cooper Hewitt, of Owego, New York, who was a 
classmate of Dr. Roosa at Yale. 
Dr. Roosa was responsible for the passing of much medical 
legislation; in legislative halls he was variously known as "The 
Fighting Doctor," and as "The Eloquent Doctor." 
The Hewitt bequest, "a most fitting memorial to Dr. Roosa," 
was the subject of litigation; the will was contested, but eventually 
was sustained, and in 1909 the New York Post-Graduate Medical 
School and Hospital came into possession of about $1,600,000. In 
that year also came donations of $10,000, $25,000, and $25,000. 
Even these large amounts were, however, insufficient to completely 
meet the requirements as planned by the executive heads, and 
faculty. The Post-Graduate stated: "It appears that the Post- 
Graduate Medical School and Hospital is now to have the greater 
part of the Hewitt gift of $2,000,000 for immediate use. The gift 
will be of great value in developing the ideas of our educational 
institution up to the power allowed by that endowment, but it 
will attract the attention of other public-spirited citizens who are 
in doubt about institutions for endowment. An expression of con- 
fidence of Mr. Hewitt to the extent of $2,000,000 means a great 
deal to these people, and we look for a number of similar endow- 
ments until we have the $10,000,000 required for placing our insti- 
tution upon an ideal basis of usefulness to the public. That amount 
of endowment will be forthcoming when the results of the steps 
made with the Hewitt endowment are appreciated generally." 
In 1909-10 the Announcement stated, "Since last report, more 
doctors (673) than ever before in the history of the Post-Graduate, 
have attended, the summer classes being unusually well attended." 
It also said that a portion of the Hewitt legacy was used in build- POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL 
591 
ing additions to the Hospital, Dispensary, and Nurses' Home, which 
when completed will double the equipment, and that when, within 
a year, we open our Annexes, we shall have approximately 400 
beds for patients, and accommodation for 140 nurses. It was also 
decided to quadruple in size the laboratories of the School. 
For the addition to the Home for the Nurses of the Margaret 
Fahnestock Training School, Mr. H. C. Fahnestock in 1909 con- 
tributed $100,000. The Hospital Annex was completed and occu- 
pied in the autumn of 1910, in which year came a bequest of $5,000 
from Catherine Phelps Stokes, and Colonel Robert M. Thompson 
and Mr. J. H. McFadden donated $15,000 "to be devoted to an 
investigation into the prevalence of pellagra in the South, the 
scientific investigation to be undertaken under the auspices of the 
Tropical Medicine Department of the New York Post-Graduate 
School. ' ' 
As to the standing of the New York Post-Graduate Medical 
School among similar institutions of the United States: Prof. R. 
Kutner, of Berlin, in an address on "Post-Graduate Medical In- 
struction, its present status and future objects," delivered at the 
foundation of the International Commission for Medical Post- 
Graduate Education, Budapest, August 30, 1909, reviewed the 
Post-Graduate institutions of America, and stated that "in a gen- 
eral way, the development of the New York Post-Graduate School 
was the prototype of all other schools. He listed the schools as 
follows: 
1. The New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital; founded 
1882; 218 beds; about 572 matriculates annually. 
2. New York Polyclinic Medical School and Hospital; 105 beds; 300 
matriculates; founded 1882. 
3. Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital of Chicago; founded 
1899; 100 beds; 300 matriculates. 
4. Chicago Polyclinic; established 1899; 110 beds; 290 matriculates. 
5. Philadelphia Polyclinic and College for Graduates; 150 beds; 170 
matriculates. 
6. New Orleans Polyclinic; established 1888; 175 matriculates. 
7. Illinois Post-Graduate Medical School; founded 1907; 95 beds; 65 
matriculates. 
8. New York School of Ophthalmology and Otology; organized 1881; 
147 beds; 47 matriculates. 
9. San Francisco Polyclinic and Post-Graduate School of Medicine; 
established 1889; 30 matriculates. 
10. Chicago Eye, Ear, and Throat School; forty matriculates. 592 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Dr. George N. Miller had succeeded Dr. Roosa in the presidency 
of the Medical School and Hospital, but in 1911 resigned, and Dr. 
James F. McKernon became president, with Dr. Edward Quin- 
tard, first vice-president, and Dr. Henry D. Chapin, second. Dur- 
ing 1911-12, 790 physicians attended the courses. 
In 1913, a memorial tablet in appreciation of the labors of Dr. 
Roosa, was placed in a prominent place within the Hospital build- 
ing; at the unveiling, Dr. Henry Dwight Chapin delivered an 
appropriate address, emphasizing the value to the School of Dr. 
Roosa's long association with its administration and faculty. 
The School Report for 1914-15 session stated that "At present 
the number of matriculates is larger than usual. This is due to 
the fact that many who under normal conditions would have gone 
abroad for instruction are kept here by the European war, and 
find that they can get from us what they want quite as well as in 
Europe." A substantial incoming to the institution during that 
year was $48,000 received from the estate of John Torrance Van- 
nick. 
Regarding the development of the School and Hospital, the 
report for 1914-15 stated, "the modest inauguration of the Post- 
Graduate idea began with introductory exercises held at Chicker- 
ing Hall, New York, on November 4, 1882, and reached its present 
status in the dedication of the latest addition to the hospital group 
of buildings on January 11, 1913. The Hospital now has bed 
capacity for over 400; 9,000 persons were admitted as bed patients 
during the year; 30,000 examinations were made in the labora- 
tories; and approximately 1,000 doctors attended the school. In 
addition, 209,541 visits were made by patients to the out-patient 
department, and over 200,000 prescriptions were filled at cost." 
The Summary of Receipts and Disbursements for the year end- 
ing September 30, 1915, shows that the disbursements of the insti- 
tution, in all its departments, amounted to $428,657.70, and its 
receipts $374,756.65. Matriculates' fees amounted to $57,367.24. 
Physicians to the number of 17,784 had taken graduate courses 
up to and including the session of 1915-16. The faculty that year 
was composed of 183 professors and instructors, and each year 
brought some expansion in the many departments of medicine 
embraced in the plan of instruction. In general, the fees for 
instruction are approximately the same as when the School was 
first established, but the rapid development of medical science POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL 
593 
has made it necessary to institute very many special operative 
and non-operative courses, for which additional fees are charged. 
The New York Post-Graduate Medical School has unquestion- 
ably filled an important place in the history of medicine in New 
York. As stated in a recent Post-Graduate announcement, "the 
day of the haphazard association of clinical facts is passed. 
Modern medical teaching must be scientific, and the old fallacious 
idea of scientific versus practical work is a thing of the past. The 
physician represents higher ideals than heretofore, and his work 
demands more and more scientific training. . . . That the New 
York Post-Graduate School has met the demand is attested by the 
increasing number of students that avail themselves of its teach- 
ing." CHAPTER X 
NEW YORK POLYCLINIC. MEDICAL SCHOOL AND 
HOSPITAL 
THE New York Polyclinic Medical Schooland the New York 
Post-Graduate Medical School, the first two graduate schools 
of medicine to be established, entirely independent of under- 
graduate institutions, were both inaugurated in 1882. 
While there has been disagreement between the two schools, as 
to priority of establishment, it is interesting to read the version of 
the Polyclinic as made known by its founder, John Allan Wyeth, 
M. D., LL. D., in his "With Sabre and Scalpel," an autobiograph- 
ical work of much merit published in 1914 by Harper & Brothers, 
New York. He wrote: "The founding of the New York Polyclinic 
Medical School and Hospital in 1881, which marked the introduc- 
tion of post-graduate medical instruction in America was, if not 
the chief, at least an important factor in the great movement which, 
starting at that period, has revolutionized and carried to a degree 
approaching perfection the teaching and practice of medicine and 
surgery in the United States. The idea of establishing a post-grad- 
uate course of study came to my mind as a result of my own 
necessities." He details the deficiencies of professional instruction 
in medical colleges at the time he graduated and entered practice 
(1869), and confesses to a conviction forced upon him after a 
practice of six weeks that he "needed a thorough clinical and 
laboratory training, and could not conscientiously practice without 
it." Continuing, he stated: "I came to New York City in 1872. 
To my surprise and disappointment, there was no opportunity for 
special instruction or training of a graduate, except by attending 
the lectures in common with undergraduates." Seeking oppor- 
tunities for research, he joined the teaching staff of the Bellevue 
Hospital Medical College in 1873. Regarding his first decade of 
professional endeavor, Dr. Wyeth wrote: "I had never lost sight 
of the conviction brought home to me by my unfortunate expe- 
rience that the most perfect theoretical education could not prop- 
594 POLYCLINIC MEDICAL SCHOOL 
595 
erly prepare one for the practice of medicine and surgery, unless 
supplemented by a thorough practical training . . . and in 1877 
I undertook to organize a school in which such training could be 
secured." His plan met with the approval of many eminent 
medical men, among them Drs. J. Marion Sims, Willard Parker, 
Frank H. Hamilton and Abraham Jacobi, who, however, became 
convinced that an endowment sufficient to meet current expenses 
would be the only method likely to meet success in the aim to 
establish a four-year course, the last to be a post-graduate year. 
Dr. Wyeth, continuing, wrote: "I tried without success to raise 
the amount deemed necessary, and finally, in the early winter 
of 1881, I abandoned the undergraduate feature of the plan, and 
took up actively the organization of the Polyclinic, as a post-grad- 
uate school. The organization was begun in the early winter of 
1881, and the school was opened in East 34th street, in 1882. 
In The Journal of the American Medical Association, February 
5, 1916 (vol. Ixvi, p. 447), is "A Contribution to the History of 
Medical Education in the United States," by Dr. Wyeth. This 
took the form of a letter addressed "To the Editor," and enclosing 
fac-simile of letter Dr. Wyeth wrote to Dr. J. Marion Sims, then 
in Paris, on March 28, 1878, the letter substantially corroborating 
the above-quoted version by the Polyclinic founder, as to the 
movement which led to the organization of that school. The "Con- 
tribution" also referred to a statement made in the Boston Tran- 
script of November 17, 1914: "Nor can there be any question that 
the establishment of the Polyclinic was the chief stimulus to the 
advance of medical thought and science in the United States; a 
stimulus that was felt not only throughout this country, in all of 
whose important cities one or more postgraduate medical schools 
have been founded, but across the sea as well, where this system has 
been adopted in London and other cities." 
In an address delivered by Dr. Wyeth at the Polyclinic Hospital, 
to members of the Medical Faculty, on the fifteenth anniversary 
of the institution, he said: "In the winter of 1880-81, I invited 
together half a dozen friends in the medical profession to discuss 
the propriety of establishing a post-graduate school in this city. 
The suggestion met with hearty approval, and by 1882 we had a 
corps large enough to justify organization. ' ' 
Elsewhere in this work is detailed the version of the founders of 
the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital as to 596 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
priority of establishment. That the executive heads of the two 
schools did not pursue the point so keenly as did some of their 
supporters, may be inferred by knowledge of the following. It 
has been stated that at one time, many years after the establish- 
ment of both schools, Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa, one of the founders 
and for almost twenty-five years president of the New York Post- 
Graduate School, suggested, through an intermediary who was 
one of the executive officers of that institution, ' ' that the Polyclinic 
and Post-Graduate medical schools be merged in one," the con- 
solidated school to take the name of the Polyclinic. Whether that 
suggestion by Dr. Roosa can be interpreted to signify that he, who 
may be assumed to have known the full facts regarding the early 
movements of the projectors of both schools, recognized the right 
of the Polyclinic institution to the place of honor is a moot point, 
and beyond the province of this present recording. It would seem 
from the following that the claim of the founder of the Polyclinic 
was fully substantiated: 
(From The Medical Record of Nov. 29, 1890, pp. 617-18.) 
The Question of Priority-The Polyclinic rests its case. 
Sir: In your issue of Nov. 15th, Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa writes: 
"Seven Members of the Faculty of the University of the City of New 
York resigned their positions at that institution on April 4th, 1882, for 
the purpose of founding a Post-Graduate Medical School." 
We the undersigned, during the winter of 1881-82, organized and ac- 
cepted professorships in the New York Polyclinic and opened this school 
in November, 1882. From the incipiency of the organization it was the 
expressed intention of its founders to conduct it as a clinical school, for 
practitioners of medicine and surgery. (Signed:-John A. Wyeth, Virgil 
P. Gibney, E. Gruening, W. Gill Wylie, Landon Carter Gray, A. R. Robin- 
son.) Were they living, the names of Dr. Louis Elsberg and Dr. Richard 
Brandeis would also be subscribed. 
The organization of the New York Polyclinic and its plans of study, 
as carried into practice, were effected uninfluenced by any similar effort 
by any other body of men, and while the gentlemen who later on "resigned 
their positions to organize the New York Post-Graduate School" were 
teaching in an undergraduate College. The Polyclinic by the above un- 
impeachable evidence was the pioneer Post-Graduate Medical School in 
the United States. 
On this evidence it rests its case. 
Yours truly, 
(signed) John A. Wyeth, M.D. 
The medical school and dispensary of the New York Polyclinic 
entered upon its work on October 23, 1882, and the following con- POLYCLINIC MEDICAL SCHOOL 
597 
stituted the faculty and assignments at date of organization: De- 
partment of Dermatology, Drs. R. Robinson, E. B. Bronson; Gyne- 
cology, Drs. W. Gill Wylie, Paul F. Munde; Diseases of Children, 
Dr. John H. Ripley, assisted by Dr. L. Emmet Holt, who later 
succeeded him; Laryngology, Drs. Richard Brandeis and Louis 
Elsberg; Ophthalmology, Drs. David Webster and Emil Gruening; 
Medicine, Drs. D. James, R. Learning, E. Darwin Hudson; Neurol- 
ogy, Dr. Landon Carter Gray, assisted by Dr. J. Allan Starr; 
Surgery, Dr. J. A. Wyeth and Dr. A. G. Gerster; Orthopedic 
Surgery, Dr. V. P. Gibney. 
The first session was held in the basement and ground floor of Nos. 
214-216 East 34th street. Dr. Wyeth once referred to the building 
as ' ' the old barn, ' ' further stating ' ' we were gratified to open with 
the respectable number of eighteen students, which during the 
first year increased to 182. ' ' The organizers had, on the day imme- 
diately preceding that of opening, become a corporate body for 
(Art. II of constitution) : "the establishment, support and man- 
agement of an institution for the purpose of affording a more 
thorough scientific and practical course of study in all the depart- 
ments of medical science to physicians who have received diplomas 
from other institutions entitling them to be licensed as practition- 
ers, and for the support, management and maintenance of a hos- 
pital and dispensary for the gratuitous care and treatment of 
indigent persons who require medical attendance." The basement 
and the ground floor of "the old barn" were leased "for a term 
of years," but these quarters soon became too restricted, and the 
floor above was rented for three years, at the end of the second 
session. 
The "Report of the Free Dispensary of the New York Poly- 
clinic" (October 23, 1882, to October 31, 1884) stated that 15,960 
patients had received gratuitous treatment during the period, at 
a cost of $19,376.17, "every dollar of which, with the exception of 
$502 received from the excise fund, was contributed by the board 
of directors," as follows: Charles Coudert, Esq., president; Wil- 
liam T. Wardswell, vice-president; John A. Wyeth, M. D., secre- 
tary; V. P. Gibney, M. D., treasurer; Profs. Fordyce Barker, T. 
Gaillard Thomas, F. H. Hamilton, Dr. T. A. Emmet, Hon. E. P. 
Wheeler, Hon. B. F. Tracy, H. Dormitzer, H. H. Rogers, A. F. 
Wilmarth, W. A. Butler, G. B. Grinnell, and J. Hammerslaugh, 
members of the board. 598 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
The Faculty for the second session consisted of: Janies R. 
Learning, president; J. A. Wyeth, secretary; E. Darwin Hudson, 
Jr., J. H. Ripley, Louis Elsberg, L. C. Gray, R. C. Brandeis, A. R. 
Robinson, E. B. Bronson, A. G. Gerster, P. F. Munde, W. GiE 
Wylie, James B. Hunter, Emil Gruening, David Webster, V. P. 
Gibney, W. R. Gillette, George B. Fowler, with thirty-eight assist- 
ants. The second annual announcement stated the circumstances 
to be "peculiarly gratifying" to the Faculty. It declared that 
"inaugurating a new departure in medical education in the United 
States, in the establishment of a clinical school of medicine and 
surgery for the benefit of practitioners who might desire a more 
thorough practical training in general or special medicine, its 
founders, while believing that time would popularize the move- 
ment, were scarcely prepared for its prompt recognition and imme- 
diate success." During the first session over 150 physicians at- 
tended, ' ' and at several periods during the year the limit of some 
of the sections was reached, so that many applicants were refused 
admission." The Polyclinic at that time treated monthly about 
800 patients. The school fees varied from $10 to $35 per depart- 
ment, tickets covering an instructional period of six weeks; or a 
"general" ticket, covering all the departments for one year, could 
be obtained for $300, or for six months $200. The second school 
year opened in preliminary session September 17, 1883, and in 
regular session October 1, 1883, continuing until June 26, 1884, 
when a summer session began. 
Dr. Thomas A. McBride became Professor of Diseases of the 
Mind and Nervous System, in the third session, in association with 
Dr. L. C. Gray. The "Announcement" stated: "The third year 
opens full of the promise of a greater success," and averred that 
"the success of the Polyclinic has been, in great part, due to the 
introduction by its founders, of . . . clinical demonstration to 
limited classes," the policy followed being to refuse admission 
when the limit of the sections had been reached. The number of 
tickets issued in 1883-84 to the various departments was "three- 
fold in excess of the session of 1882-83." Thus encouraged, the 
Faculty determined to enlarge the scope of its work, and pur- 
chased the "extensive property" then in part occupied by the 
Polyclinic School and Dispensary. Another record states that "at 
the end of the third session, the directors entered into negotiations 
to lease the entire building, the arrangement made being of such POLYCLINIC MEDICAL SCHOOL 
599 
a nature that the School could hold the building indefinitely upon 
the same rental basis." This was a precautionary measure, "be- 
cause we felt we would suffer greatly if at any time we were com- 
pelled on short notice to change our habitation." The record 
continues, "It soon became apparent that in order to reach the 
degree of success to which we had aspired, as teachers in the first 
clinical institution in the land, we would be compelled to main- 
tain a hospital to furnish us with capital material. Steps were 
immediately taken to carry this into effect." 
In 1885-86, 22S physicians were matriculates during the third 
session. In the fourth session, the department of diseases of the 
throat and nose, previously in charge of Profs. Louis Elsberg and 
R. C. Brandeis, came under Dr. D. B. Delavan; and in the depart- 
ment of diseases of the mind and nervous system, Prof. J. Allan 
Starr became head in place of Dr. T. A. McBride. That cession 
saw the inauguration of a laboratory of pathological histology and 
state medicine. Two hundred and forty physicians were matricu- 
lates in the school year, 1885-86. 
In the next session, Dr. James R. Learning, president of the 
Faculty, was appointed Emeritus Professor of Diseases of the 
Chest, and Physical Diagnosis; Dr. D. B. Delavan became Profes- 
sor of Laryngology; and Dr. Walter B. Gillette, Professor of Ob- 
stetrics, resigned. The enrollment was 301. In 1887-88, Drs. 
Joseph W. Gleitman, R. C. M. Page and Oren D. Pomeroy became 
professors, and Profs. E. Darwin Hudson, Jr., and G. B. Fowler 
went out. Three hundred and thirty-nine physicians attended the 
classes. The "Announcement" for 1888-89 is notable as the first 
upon which the words "and Hospital" appear as part of the name 
of the institution. Drs. H. N. Heineman and Charles Stedman Bull 
became professors of the Polyclinic in that session. The School 
registered 383 matriculates. 
The'Faculty was enlarged by seven additional professors in 
1889-90, Drs. B. Sachs, T. R. Pooley, L. Emmet Holt, August Sie- 
bert, H. Marion Sims, W. F. Fluhrer, and Henry C. Coe receiving 
assignments. The teaching staff consisted of twenty-four profes- 
sors, twenty-three lecturers, seventeen instructors, and thirty-five 
clinical assistants. The "Announcement" pointed out that the 
New York Polyclinic, "organized in 1880-81, and opened in 1882, 
was the first school of graduates in medicine in America independ- 
ent of an undergraduate college," and stated that "The Polyclinic 600 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Hospital occupies the upper floors of the building, 214-216, and 
the entire building 218 East 34th street, ' ' explaining that ' ' it is 
divided into six wards and fifteen private rooms, ' ' and in addition 
that "the Polyclinic sustains its own dispensary in its own build- 
ing, where, in the presence of matriculants, from 12,000 to 15,000 
patients are treated annually." There were 422 physicians en- 
rolled as students in 1889-90, and 462 the next year. 
In 1891-92, Drs. Edward A. Ayres and Robert H. M. Dawbarn 
came into the Faculty, with 473 students. Dr. Brooks H. Wells 
became Adjunct Professor of Gynecology in 1892, and in 1892-93 
it was stated that more than 3,100 graduates in medicine had 
attended the courses of the New York Polyclinic Medical School. 
There were many important changes in 1893-94. Dr. J. A. 
Wyeth, in January, 1893, was elected president; Dr. L. Emmet 
Holt becoming secretary of the Faculty. Drs. Ed. B. Dench, 
Florian Krug, Andrew J. McCosh, Isaac Adler, Christian A. 
Herter, and Morris J. Asch were appointed to professorships in 
1893, and J. Riddle Goffe, W. W. Van Arsdale, James P. Tuttle, 
J. Herbert Claiborne, William B. Pritchard, Brooks H. Wells, and 
William R. Pryor became adjunct professors. In January, 1894, 
Dr. Dench resigned, to take appointment at the Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College; he was succeeded by Dr. J. E. Sheppard, of 
Brooklyn. 
The School journal, January, 1893, stated that the growth of 
the institution had been such as "to make a change from present 
quarters an absolute necessity," and that "the Faculty is taking 
steps to procure a proper site for a new building. ' ' Apparently, the 
plan was to make extensive alterations to the building then occu- 
pied, for the Polyclinic Journal in August, 1893, stated that "the 
alterations were nearing completion." 
The School "Announcement" in the summer of 1893 made ref- 
erence to the organization of a special hospital for the care of 
women in confinement, which had been established the previous 
year, making possible systematic bedside instruction in abdominal 
palpation, pelvimetry, etc., while deliveries involving the various 
operations took place in the presence of the entire class. 
The August, 1893, number of the School journal stated in an 
editorial that "it is particularly gratifying to note the increasing 
number of physicians every year who are taking three and six 
months' tickets." It explained, however, that many physicians POLYCLINIC MEDICAL SCHOOL 
601 
were only able to spare six weeks from their practice, and ex- 
pressed a wish that "it were true that no one would spend less 
than three months at the Polyclinic." 
The Polyclinic Hospital Report for 1894 mentioned the Moth- 
ers' and Babies' Hospital, which had been incorporated April 28, 
1893. It stated, "the work of the Mothers' and Babies' Hospital 
started in 1882, at that time consisted of giving medical attendance 
to poor women in their homes during confinement. The district 
within its sphere of operations was chiefly the East Side, from 
Third avenue to the East river, and from 14th to 59th street, a re- 
gion comparatively unattended even by midwives, notwithstanding 
that it was crowded with people scarcely able to purchase food." 
During a decade of busy work in the Mothers' and Babies' Hos- 
pital, over 2,500 women were attended, with only three deaths, or 
one-tenth of one per cent. The Hospital, which was a branch of 
the New York Polyclinic, was located at No. 218 East 34th street, 
adjoining the Polyclinic building. In 1893 it contained forty 
beds, and a few rooms for private patients. The number of women 
received during 1893-94 was 112, all of whom were successfully 
delivered. 
The School "Announcement," for 1894-95, showed that Dr. J. 
Riddle Goffe had been appointed professor, and that Drs. S. M. 
Payne, R. C. Myles, Dillon Brown, Floyd M. Crandall, and W. R. 
Townsend had become adjunct professors. The School journal 
stated that the fall session opens with the most flattering promises; 
great improvements have been made; the entire building has been 
altered, cleaned, and repainted; an elevator has been put in, run 
by electricity, and the entire building well supplied with electric 
lights; accommodations have been enlarged, and the upper floor 
of its main building is reserved for private patients; in the Moth- 
ers ' and Babies' Hospital are two large airy wards and five pri- 
vate rooms devoted to obstetric patients; the top floor is reserved 
for a general female ward. 
The session of 1895-96 brought the promotion to professorships 
of Drs. Robert C. Myles, W. R. Townsend, William R. Pryor, and 
Wilbur B. Marple, and to adjunct professorships, Drs. H. E. Staf- 
ford, Francis J. Quinlan, Herman F. Nordeman, Royal Whitman, 
Frederick H. Dillingham, and Robert H. Wylie. The annual re- 
port of the Mothers' and Babies' Hospital for 1895 was "of inter- 
est to students at the Polyclinic, inasmuch as the extensive obstet- 602 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
rical service of the hospital is now a part of the regular course. 
Dr. E. A. Ayers, with a desire to widen the scope of the obstetrical 
department to the fullest degree, having generously thrown open 
the resident interne service to members of the Polyclinic classes." 
It announced that during the year reviewed, 412 confinements 
had occurred, with no maternal deaths. 
The Polyclinic Hospital, on November 1, 1895, opened its doors 
to non-paying patients; sixty free beds were then available. In 
that year also a Training School for Nurses was organized in con- 
nection with the Hospital. 
In an address before the medical staff by Dr. J. A. Wyeth, on 
the fifteenth anniversary of the New York Polyclinic Medical 
School and Hospital, he stated that more than 6,000 practitioners 
had matriculated up to that time, and that more than half a million 
cases had been treated, practically all free of charge. The money 
received in fees from students and from the small number of pay- 
ing patients had been expended, "every dollar of it, and more," 
in the maintenance of poor patients; no teacher or member of the 
medical staff had ever received one dollar in pay for the work done 
in the institution; and Dr. Wyeth further explained that "when 
the receipts have been insufficient, the members of the Faculty have 
provided the deficiency, amounting in all to several thousand dol- 
lars." His address had chiefly in view the raising of $6,658.77 
to cancel the deficit upon the Hospital account for the previous 
year, and to secure subscriptions to building and endowment funds, 
it being the intention to erect a new building when a sufficient 
amount had been secured. He favored the selection of as cheap 
a piece of ground as possible within a block or two of their then 
location, reasoning that cheap land would insure more room, and 
more money to put into the building. 
That the School was giving a high and much appreciated stand- 
ard of instruction was indicated in the June, 1896, issue of The 
New York Polyclinic. An editorial drew attention to a letter from 
a physician-matriculate who had taken the course at the School 
seven separate times, notwithstanding which the student was ' ' look- 
ing forward to being with you again for at least two months during 
the session of 1896-97." Changes in faculty that year included 
appointment to professorships of Drs. Geo. R. Fowler, W. W. Van 
Valsah, and W. W. Van Arsdale. Dr. H. Marion Sims, who had POLYCLINIC MEDICAL SCHOOL 
603 
been a member of the Faculty since 1889, resigned the chair of 
gynecology. 
An outstanding event was an outbreak of fire in the Hospital 
on Christmas Day, 1896. The fire started in a factory in the rear of 
the Polyclinic buildings, and the last of the sixty-five patients in 
the Polyclinic Hospital had just been removed when the building 
itself caught fire. The fire reached the roof and top floor of the 
hospital, but extended no further. The removal of the patients 
was effected "without injury to the most delicate," and many 
hotels, charitable institutions, and hospitals in the vicinity ex- 
tended hospitality to the patients. Arrangements were made for 
temporary quarters in 35th street near the Polyclinic, where the 
regular routine of clinics was resumed at once. By the middle of 
January a portion of the Hospital had been put in order, and 
lectures and clinics were again resumed in the Polyclinic building. 
The trustees and medical faculty having decided to rebuild upon 
the site of the old building partially destroyed, plans were per- 
fected, and contract placed, under guarantee that certain of the 
lecture rooms would be ready in April, 1897, and the entire build- 
ing finished by September, 1897. The massive ornamental iron 
facade was not damaged by the fire, and was retained, but the 
remainder of the old edifice was tom down, and a building was 
erected one story higher than was the old. This was opened in 
September, 1897. Its capacity was seventy-nine beds, and the 
interior arrangements were much better than in the old building; 
the wards being brought directly in communication with the amphi- 
theatres and lecture rooms. As a matter of fact, the fire proved to 
be rather an advantage than otherwise. Said the New York Poly- 
clinic, ' ' the fire proved truly a blessing in disguise. The Polyclinic 
offers far better advantages now than at any period in its history. ' ' 
The catalogue for 1899-1900 showed that W. R. Townsend was 
then secretary of the Faculty, to which body Drs. J. P. Tuttle, 
Charles H. Chetwood, and F. Whiting were appointed as profes- 
sors, and Drs. J. A. Bodine, L. J. Ladinski, and Alfred Weiner, as 
adjunct professors. It was then stated that since the opening of 
the school in 1882, over 6,500 physicians had attended its classes. 
There were 416 matriculates in 1900-1901, and in 1902 Professors 
Paul F. Munde, Oren D. Pomeroy, and David Webster, were ad- 
vanced to emeritus rank, and Drs. R. O. Born, Morris Manges, and 
F. J. Quinlan became professors. In the following year, Professor 604 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
W. Gill Wylie became Emeritus Professor of Gynecology; Walter 
Eyres Lambert, B. H. Wells, R. H. Wylie, F. M. Jeffries, M. D. 
Lederman, Albert Kohn, and J. H. Burtenshaw became professors. 
In 1903-04, Edward A. Ayers became Emeritus Professor of 
Obstetrics; C. G. Kerley was appointed Professor of Pediatrics, 
and Drs. W. V. V. Hayes, Adolph Baron, Alex. Lyle, and E. L. 
Keyes were made adjuncts. Charles H. Chetwood was elected sec- 
retary in 1904; Joseph W. Gleitsmann, George R. Fowler, H. New- 
ton Heinemann became emeritus professors; W. Van Valzah Hayes 
was promoted to professorial rank, and Drs. Joseph Brown Cooke 
and James J. Walsh became adjunct professors. In 1905, Prof. 
E. B. Bronson became Emeritus Professor, W. B. Pritchard, pro- 
fessor, and J. J. MacPhee, adjunct. In 1907, W. W. Van Valzah 
and Professor Isaac Adler were advanced to emeritus class. Drs. 
Charles G. Child, Jr., Jerome Hilton Waterman, W. S. Bainbridge, 
A. S. Morrow, and Henry Heiman were appointed to adjunct pro- 
fessorships. 
The Hospital service continued to develop; in 1907 the capacity 
was 105 beds; there were six wards, including a medical ward; 
one private room holding five patients, for accommodation in which 
room $15 weekly was asked; there were two rooms designed to 
hold three patients, who would pay $18 per week; one room for two 
patients at $20 weekly, or for one patient at $40 weekly; and there 
were nine private rooms for one patient, at $25 per week, and two 
rooms at $30. The financial sheet for 1907 showed the receipts 
from the pay-patient department in 1907 exceeded those of 1906 
by more than $2,500. The School receipts, however, were less than 
in 1906 by $1,500. The year's expenses were $19,322.35, and the 
income $23,037. At the annual meeting, the executive committee 
recommended that "the position of clinical or junior professor 
be inaugurated, for the purpose of rewarding those who have 
worked long in the interests of the School who hold individual 
clinics," the Faculty believing them to be entitled to special dis- 
tinction. It was not proposed to make the clinical professors mem- 
bers of the voting body, the plan providing that the then senior 
professors would continue as heads of departments. In conse- 
quence, the next "Announcement" contained the names of four 
clinical professors: L. J. Ladinski, Alexander Lyle, E. L. Keyes, 
Jr., and W. S. Bainbridge. In that year also, T. B. Berens, and POLYCLINIC MEDICAL SCHOOL 
605 
Royal Whitman became professors, and F. E. Beal, adjunct pro- 
fessor. 
The New York Polyclinic Journal, May, 1909, referred to the 
strenuous efforts made in recent years to improve the financial 
position of the School and Hospital; it stated: "It was a memora- 
ble occasion to the Polyclinic three years ago, when we were able 
to announce the liquidation of a large portion of our outstanding 
indebtedness, and, a year later, of the complete disposal of our 
entire mortgage, accomplished by the joint efforts of the Faculty 
and Staff, together with the generous assistance of friends. We 
are at present enjoying a still greater elation by the acquisition of 
a magnificent benefaction of $100,000, and this last substantial 
donation should prove an important aid toward the erection of an 
entire new institution upon a larger and better site." 
Two years later the Trustees, Medical Staff, and Woman's Auxil- 
iary Board expressed their "gratitude for financial aid received 
from many friends of the Polyclinic; and especially for the 
generous donations from William P. Clyde, and Mrs. Helen Hart- 
ley Jenkins, whose timely aid has assured the early completion of 
the new building for the School, Hospital, and Dispensary service. ' ' 
In 1910-11 Prof. R. H. M. Dawbarn, and R. O. Bam became 
emeritus professors; W. S. Bainbridge, Alex. Lyle, A. B. Duel, 
E. S. Thomson, P. D. Kerrison, and John R. Shannon were ap- 
pointed professors; F. M. Jeffries, C. G. Child, Jr., F. E. Beal, 
Henry Heiman, J. J. MacPhee, F. H. Dillingham, M. D. Leder- 
man, and L. G. Cole were advanced to clinical professorships; 
J. M. Lynch, E. L. Kellogg, J. H. Abraham, E. M. Foote, J. A. 
Robertson, W. B. Hoag, J. C. Taylor, J. I. Edgerton, George P. 
Shears, M. Packard, D. E. Dougherty, W. Van P. Garretson, Earle 
Connor, D. A. Sinclair, John C. Lynch, F. C. Keller, J. R. Page, 
J. H. Guntzer, and D. J. McDonald to adjunct professorships. In 
the next session, Prof. James P. Tuttle became emeritus; J. C. 
Taylor and J. M. Lynch became clinical professors; and A. E. 
Reich, O. S. Wightman, A. M. Anderson, O. E. Prellwitz, and 
Simon Strauss, adjunct professors. 
On May 1, 1912, the new building erected for the School and 
Hospital upon the plot extending from 341 to 351 West 50th street, 
was formally opened, Dr. J. A. Wyeth conducting the first clinic 
therein. In the new building, the hospital department had much 606 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
more commodious quarters, and was able to accommodate 300 
patients. 
An interesting and pleasing event in the history of the institu- 
tion was the public recognition expressed by all departments of the 
New York Polyclinic, on May 1, 1914, of the invaluable services 
rendered to the institution by its founder, Dr. John Allan Wyeth. 
On that day, the second anniversary of the opening of the new 
building, all connected with the institution gathered in the main 
corridor to witness the unveiling of a statue, inscribed "John 
Allan Wyeth, M. D., LL. D., Surgeon, Author, Teacher, in recog- 
nition of his pre-eminence as foremost founder and surgeon-in- 
chief of this institution, this testimonial is dedicated by the Poly- 
clinic Medical Staff, MCMXIV. ' ' The portrait-bust was presented 
on behalf of the medical staff, by Dr. Charles H. Chetwood, who 
stated "The name of Dr. John Allan Wyeth, surgeon, author, 
and teacher, has long been inscribed in this niche of the Hall of 
Fame, so unquestionably its foremost founder, so unqualifiedly its 
most untiring worker." An address of appreciation was also de- 
livered by Dr. J. A. Bodine, and that of acceptance by Dr. D. 
Bryson Delavan. The ceremony constituted a dignified and grace- 
ful tribute to the unselfish endeavors of an earnest and able mem- 
ber of the medical profession to advance the standard of medical 
science. 
The session of 1914-15 brought more faculty changes: Profes- 
sors Arped G. Gerster and R. H. Wylie were advanced to the 
emeritus; L. J. Ladinski, F. M. Jeffries, Charles G. Child, Henry 
Heiman, J. M. Lynch, J. C. Taylor, Ed. L. Kellogg, and Geo. P. 
Shears were appointed to chairs; A. Reich, F. Kennedy, Earle 
Connor, J. H. Abraham, A. Bassler, M. Packard, A. J. Quimby, 
0. S. Wightman, A. Sturmdorf, J. P. Grant, A. S. Morrow, E. M. 
Foote, D. S. Dougherty, J. R. Page, J. A. Robertson, F. C. Keller, 
and D. A. Sinclair were promoted to clinical professorships; and 
T. H. Curtin, W. L. McFarland, D. W. Tovey, T. H. Morgan, P. M. 
Grausman, F. C. Yoemans, P. H. Ernst, H. Holcomb, W. Sharpe, 
J. H. Bainton, H. D. Meeker, J. F. White, C. R. Hancock, J. W. 
Draper, Alfred Braun, Henry G. Bugbee, Robert E. Brennan 
became adjunct professors. 
In 1915-16 the staff changes were: August Seibert and Brooks 
H. Wells, to emeritus; Earle Connor, to professorship; W. Van 
P. Garretson, F. M. Stephens, J. E. MacKenty, J. W. Draper, E. S. POLYCLINIC MEDICAL SCHOOL 
607 
Bishop, H. Fox, Thos. H. Morgan, and W. B. Hoag, to clinical 
professorships; and A. T. Fisher, D. E. Hoag, J. Van D. Young, 
L. R. Van Roeder, and A. J. Walscheid, to adjunct professor- 
ships. 
The foregoing record is not presumed to be a complete detailing 
of the principal events in the history of the New York Polyclinic 
Medical School and Hospital; in fact, the compiler recognizes it 
to be very incomplete, because of the destruction of official records 
in the fire of Christmas Day, 1896. 
At present the New York Polyclinic Medical School and Hos- 
pital constitutes one of the two leading graduate schools of medi- 
cine in America; during the thirty-five years of its operation, more 
than 20,000 students have attended its clinics, the matriculates 
coming from all parts of the United States, as well as from 
Canada, Mexico, the South American states, West Indies, Aus- 
tralia, China, and Japan. The plan of instruction follows the 
purpose of the Faculty to render the instruction so practical that 
students may apply in actual practice what they have learned 
while attending the School. The essentials of diagnosis and the 
modern methods of treatment and of surgical procedure are dem- 
onstrated by means of lectures and clinics, supplemented by oper- 
ative courses on the cadaver. Of general clinics, its departments 
include: Clinical Medicine, including its special branches, phys- 
ical diagnosis, diseases of the digestive system, and diseases of 
children; Diseases of the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat; Diseases of 
the Mind and Nervous System; Surgery, general, orthopedic, rec- 
tal, genito-urinary, and neurolgical; Diseases of the Skin; Diseases 
of Women; Obstetrics. The special courses embrace Physical 
Diagnosis; Examination of Stomach Contents; Diseases of the 
Eye (including refraction), Ear, Nose, and Throat; Diseases of 
the Rectum; Genito-Urinary Surgery, including cystocopic work 
and ureteral catheterism; Diseases of Women, operative, and non- 
operative; Ansesthesia, including gas, ether and vapor methods; 
Clinical Microscopy and Urinary Analysis; Practical Histology 
and Pathology; Bacteriology; Roentgenology, and Special Annual 
Course in Major and Minor Surgery and Gynecology. The corps 
of instructors attached to the various departments include: De- 
partment of Surgery: five professors, 6 clinical professors, 8 ad- 
junct professors, 4 lecturers, 13 instructors, and 13 clinical assist- 
ants. Gynecology: seven professors, 3 clinical professors, 6 ad- 608 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
junct professors, 6 lecturers, 8 instructors, 13 clinical assistants. 
Orthopedic Surgery: one professor, and four assistants. Genito- 
urinary Surgery: three professors, and seven assistants. Rectal 
Surgery: two professors, and four assistants. Neurological Sur- 
gery: one clinical professor, and two assistants. Clinical Medi- 
cine: two professors, 4 clinical professors, 1 adjunct professor, 
5 lecturers, 6 instructors, 11 clinical assistants. Diseases of the 
Digestive System: three professors, 2 adjuncts, 2 lecturers, one 
instructor, and 4 clinical assistants. Diseases of the Skin: two 
professors, 2 clinical professors, 3 lecturers, 2 instructors, 
3 clinical assistants. Diseases of Children: three professors, 
1 clinical and 2 adjunct professors, 4 lecturers, 4 instructors, 
and 4 clinical assistants. Diseases of the Mind and Nervous Sys- 
tem: one professor, 1 clinical, 1 adjunct, and 3 clinical assist- 
ants. Roentgen Diagnosis and Roentgen Therapy: one clinical 
professor, and 1 instructor. Diseases of the Eye: three profes- 
sors, 1 adjunct, 3 lecturers, and 3 clinical assistants. Diseases 
of the Ear: one clinical professor, and a lecturer. Diseases of the 
Throat and Nose: four professors, 2 clinical professors, 4 adjuncts, 
3 lecturers, 4 instructors, and 6 clinical assistants. With such a 
large number of medical specialists, the standard of instruction is 
necessarily very high. The cost of tuition for general clinics is: 
$100, for a six weeks ticket; $150, for 3 months; $250, for six 
months; and $350, for twelve months. The fee for most of the 
special courses is $25. 
As declared in one of their publications, the New York Poly- 
clinic Medical School and Hospital "stands for an ideal which 
represents the highest and best in scientific medicine and surgery; 
it stands for an altruism which is evidenced in the fact that 350 
men and women, laboring day in and day out for its success, are 
not only working without remuneration, but many of them are 
giving, in addition to their time and labor, generously of their 
private means." 
The supporters of the institution, lay and professional, sub- 
scribed for its purposes between 1897 and 1913 more than $650,- 
000. The following subscribed sums of $1,000 and above: Dr. 
Isaac Adler, J. W. Aitken, Dr. W. S. Bainbridge, Dr. J. A. Bodine, 
Dr. R. O. Born, Dr. E. B. Bronson, Mrs. A. Carnegie, William P. 
Clyde, A. Costello, A. E. Darling, Dr. R. H. M. Dawbarn, Dr. D. 
Bryson Delavan, Cleveland H. Dodge, Edward Earl, James W. POLYCLINIC MEDICAL SCHOOL 
609 
Ellsworth, Amos Eno, David J. Garth, Dr. V. P. Gibney, Charles 
Hathaway, William Hayes, Dr. H. Newton Heineman, Mrs. Helen 
Hartley Jenkins, J. Milbank, Dr. Robert C. Myles, Dr. R. C. M. 
Page, Dr. W. B. Pritchard, Dr. F. J. Quinlan, Nelson Robinson, 
Dr. A. R. Robinson, Dr. A. Seibert, Col. J. J. Slocum, A. Sladone, 
A. P. Troescher, Dr. James P. Tuttle, Mrs. H. E. Weatherbee, Dr. 
David Webster, Dr. J. A. Wyeth, Dr. Robert H. Wylie, Dr. W. 
Gill Wylie, Mrs. Mary Anna Palmer Draper. The place of honor 
on the list belongs to Mr. William P. Clyde, who donated $300,000; 
next is the bequest of $127,911.83 by Mrs. Helen Hartley Jenkins. 
Mrs. Mary Anna Palmer Draper willed $50,000, and Col. J. J. 
Slocum donated $28,500. The Woman's Auxiliary Board of the 
Polyclinic Hospital contributed $12,675, and the Alumnae of the 
Young Women's Christian Association, $3,500. 
On October 20th, 1918, the Medical Department of the United 
States Army, by the unanimous consent of the trustees, took 
charge of and occupied the Polyclinic Hospital for the use of the 
soldiers of the United States army during the World War. 
At a special meeting of the trustees, on the evening of October 
30th, 1918, at which a quorum was present, the founder of the 
institution, after giving an epitome of its history from its founda- 
tion to the present moment, and, as he stated, in order to assure 
the perpetuation of the New York Polyclinic Medical School and 
Hospital and to maintain the high ideals for which he and his 
associates for so many years had labored, moved the following 
resolution, which was unanimously adopted: 
Resolved, That the Trustees of the New York Polyclinic Medical School 
and Hospital transfer by proper legal method, the property of this insti- 
tution to Columbia University of the State of New York, under an agree- 
ment to be entered into in accordance with the law, that the Trustees of 
Columbia University shall perpetuate the institution thus transferred, as 
the New York Polyclinic Medical School and Hospital, the Post Graduate 
Medical Department of Columbia University. 
At a meeting of the Trustees of Columbia University on Novem- 
ber 4, 1918, the following resolution was voted: 
Resolved, That the Trustees receive with grateful appreciation the pro- 
posal of the Trustees of the New York Polyclinic Medical School and 
Hospital to transfer the property of this institution to Columbia University 
in the City of New York for purposes of advanced medical instruction 
and research. 610 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Resolved, That the Trustees tender to Dr. John A. Wyeth of New 
York and to those who have been associated with him in building up and 
maintaining the Polyclinic Hospital, their cordial congratulations upon 
their accomplishment, as well as their high appreciation of the public 
spirit which has prompted their present action and that of the Trustees 
of the Hospital. 
Resolved, That it be referred to a Special Committee consisting of the 
Chairman of the Standing Committees on Finance, on Buildings and 
Grounds, and on Education, of the Special Committee on Hospital Rela- 
tions, of the President, the Treasurer, and the Attorney of the University, 
to confer with the Committee appointed by the Trustees of the New York 
Polyclinic Medical School and Hospital, and to report in detail as to the 
terms and conditions for the acceptance of gift as well as the proposed plan 
for the administration of the property. 
In a letter from President Nicholas Murray Butler, it was sug- 
gested that advantage be taken of the present opportunity to 
raise a million dollar endowment fund to be known as the Wyeth 
Foundation for Post-Graduate Medical Education. CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL CHAPTER XI 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
THE creation of a Medical Department for Cornell University, 
which had long been contemplated by the trustees, was made 
possible in 1898 by the gift to the University for that pur- 
pose of funds ample for the construction of the necessary build- 
ing and for the support of the college. The college was established 
in New York City, in order that it might have adequate facilities 
for clinical teaching. From the start, the faculty was composed 
of men most of whom had been associated for many years with the 
Medical Department of New York University, and joined with 
them a number of physicians and surgeons connected with impor- 
tant hospitals. The college was able in this way to begin with 
an excellent equipment. The first instruction was given in tem- 
porary buildings located on the grounds of Bellevue Hospital. 
Later the college moved to its own building on First avenue, be- 
tween 27th and 28th streets. The building was given by Colonel 
Payne, and cost about $1,000,000. 
From its foundation, Cornell University had offered special 
courses for students preparing for the study of medicine, first in 
the Natural History course, and later also in a special two-year 
Medical Preparatory course. At the time the Medical College 
was established in New York, the first two years were duplicated 
at the University at Ithaca, since many of the fundamental scien- 
tific subjects of which this part of the course mainly consists were 
already provided for in the long-established departments of 
Botany, Zoology, Comparative Anatomy, Physics, Chemistry, 
Physiology, Histology, Embryology, and Bacteriology. The courses 
in these departments were modified where necessary, and additional 
courses were added so as to make the work at Ithaca equivalent 
to the first two years in New York. The first faculty at Ithaca 
consisted of Professors Caldwell, "Wilder, Nichols, Gage, Moore, 
Orndorff, Trevor, Fish, Coville, and Chamot. 
The main College building in New York comprises a Medical 
611 612 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
School and Dispensary on First avenue, opposite Bellevue Hos- 
pital, and occupies the entire block between Twenty-seventh and 
Twenty-eighth streets. The building is devoted to the Depart- 
ments of Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry, Medicine, Therapeu- 
tics, Surgery, Obstetrics, Pathology, Bacteriology, Neurology, 
Psycho-Pathology, Pediatrics, Gynecology, Urology, Dermatology, 
Laryngology and Rhinology, Ophthalmology, Otology, Orthopaedic 
Surgery, Roentgenology, and Medical Jurisprudence. 
The Loomis Laboratory (founded in 1886 by Colonel Payne) is 
used for undergraduate instruction in Pharmacology and Hygiene, 
and it has also been reorganized as a research laboratory with spe- 
cial departments in bacteriology, physiological chemistry, experi- 
mental medicine, and pharmacology. 
The College Dispensary, in the main College building, is fully 
equipped for purposes of instruction. Its service is extensive and 
thoroughly satisfactory. The average daily attendance is about 
268, and the number of new patients number annually about 20,- 
813. The Dispensary is brought into close touch with the labora- 
tory and research facilities of the College. In the Department of 
Medicine, especially, students in the fourth year are assigned to 
service in the Dispensary. The Department of Radiology, as 
well as the Laboratory of Clinical Pathology, is in direct connec- 
tion with the Dispensary, and by cooperation and coordination of 
work their services are placed at the disposal of the various other 
departments of the Dispensary for the diagnosis and investigation 
of disease, and for the purpose of instruction. 
The Library is supplied with current periodicals in German, 
French, English, and Italian, which include nearly all the more 
important journals in the field of medical science. Every effort 
is made to maintain a library commensurate with the needs of the 
College. In addition to the College Library, students enjoy cer- 
tain privileges at the Library of the New York Academy of Med- 
icine, 17 "West 43d street, the second largest medical library in 
the United States, and at the various public libraries of the city. 
The Medical College has privileges for instruction in the New 
York Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, the Neurological Institute, the 
Manhattan State Hospital, the Hudson Street Hospital, and the 
Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled. The College also has an 
affiliation with the General Memorial Hospital, and although no 
teaching is done there at present, a course is contemplated. CORNELL MEDICAL COLLEGE 
613 
In 1913 a definite arrangement was established between Cornell 
University and the New York Hospital, through the donation to 
the Hospital of a fund which was presented by Mr. George F. 
Baker, one of the governors of the Hospital, upon the condition 
that thereafter half the entire medical, surgical, and pathological 
services of the institution should be definitely assigned to the 
Cornell University Medical College for the advancement of its 
teaching and research. By this advantageous arrangement the 
University nominates the visiting staff and laboratory staff of its 
division, and secures the admission of its students to the wards as 
clinical clerks. Furthermore, the laboratory staffs of the different 
departments of the Medical College are placed at the service of 
the Hospital for the purpose of extending its scientific work. 
Bellevue Hospital is located opposite the main College building. 
It is organized in four divisions, one of which has been placed by 
the trustees of the Hospital at the disposal of the faculty of the 
Cornell University Medical College for medical instruction. The 
visiting staff of the Second, or Cornell, division, is drawn entirely 
from the faculty and instructors of the College, and by coopera- 
tion with the Medical Board of the Hospital this division has been 
organized with a view to the best interests of the patients, as well 
as with a view to furnishing adequate facilities for instruction. 
In addition to the staff provided by the hospital, the College main- 
tains a corps of research workers and special assistants who con- 
duct their routine examinations in extension laboratories equipped 
by the College, in rooms adjacent to the wards of the hospital, 
and who consummate their major investigations in the more com- 
pletely equipped laboratories of the College building. 
By courtesy of the Neurological Institute, the section work in 
nervous diseases is offered to third and fourth year students in 
the wards and Out-Patient Department of this hospital, the stu- 
dents being assigned for ward work in small sections during the 
third and fourth years. The Neurological Institute is a hospital 
of considerable size, devoted to the care of nervous diseases and 
possessing a complete equipment for neurological examination, 
diagnosis, and treatment. 
The Manhattan State Hospital is devoted to the care of the 
mentally incompetent of New York City, and has a capacity of 
3,600 patients. Through the courtesy of the authorities the Pro- 
fessor of Psycho-pathology is enabled to offer in its wards clinical 614 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
instruction, which is conducted during the entire morning, weekly, 
for eleven weeks in the fourth year. 
The Ithaca Division of the Medical College was enabled through 
the generosity of the late Dean Sage, of Albany, to erect a build- 
ing especially designed for anatomy, histology, embryology, phys- 
iology, and biochemistry. The general form is that of an E, 157 
feet long and 50 feet wide, with wings 40 feet apart. The building 
was named Stimson Hall, by request of Dean Sage, in recognition 
of the services rendered toward the establishment of the Medical 
College by Dr. Lewis A. Stimson. Among the facilities of the 
University of special value to the Medical College may be men- 
tioned the museums of Vertebrate and Invertebrate Zoology, in- 
cluding Entomology and Comparative Anatomy, of Agriculture, of 
Botany, of Geology, and of Veterinary Medicine. The University 
Library, with its 475,000 bound volumes and 3,700 current period- 
icals and transactions, is as freely open to medical students as to 
other University students. Mrs. Dean Sage bequeathed to the 
University the sum of $50,000, the income, or, in the discretion of 
the University, the principal also, to be used to promote the ad- 
vancement of medical science by the prosecution of research at 
Ithaca, by the Ithaca division of the Cornell University Medical 
College, in connection with any or all of the subjects at any time 
embraced in the curriculum of the Cornell University Medical 
School. 
The purpose of the Cornell University Medical College is to 
develop physicians of the best type, and to conduct researches 
into the nature and cure of disease. Since the founding of the 
Medical College, 862 students have been granted the degree of 
Doctor of Medicine, and a marked advance has been made in the 
field of research. 
The faculty of the Medical College in New York City numbers 
at present fifty-two professors and assistant professors, with fifty- 
six instructors and assistants, twenty-two clinical instructors and 
clinical assistants, and eighty-two members of the Dispensary Staff. 
The faculty of the Ithaca Division of the Medical College consists 
of seven professors and assistant professors, with fourteen in- 
structors and assistants. 
At the foundation of the Medical College, the board of trustees 
of the University established a Medical College Council for the 
purpose of making recommendations to the board of trustees in CORNELL MEDICAL COLLEGE 
615 
relation to the business management of the College. The Council 
at present consists of the following members: Jacob Gould Schur- 
man, president of the University and chairman ex-officio of the 
council; William M. Polk, dean of the Medical College; H. R. 
Ickelheimer, H. H. Westinghouse, and Ira A. Place of the board 
of trustees; L. A. Stimson and W. Gilman Thompson of the fac- 
ulty, and J. Thorn Willson, clerk of the council. The principal 
administrative officers of the faculty are William M. Polk, M. D., 
LL. D., dean of the Medical College; J. S. Ferguson, M. Sc., M. D., 
secretary of the Medical Faculty in New York City; A. T. Kerr, 
B. S., M. D., secretary of the Medical College in Ithaca. CHAPTER XII 
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE 
IN what was felt to be the normal course of the development of 
the institution, on June 21, 1904, the board of trustees of St. 
John's College, Fordham, New York, authorized the opening 
of a school of law and a school of medicine. St. John's College 
had been established in 1841 under a Roman Catholic Bishop of 
New York, but in June, 1846, the administration of the institution 
passed to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who transferred their 
College of St. Mary's from Marion county, Kentucky, to Fordham. 
St. Mary's, founded in 1820 and incorporated with all the powers 
of a university by Kentucky, was the original home of the New 
York institution. 
The first courses in law and medicine were begun in September, 
1905. The presence of Fordham Hospital, one of the chain of city 
hospitals, recently erected on ground that had belonged to the 
college, had been one stimulus for the foundation of a medical 
school, since it afforded abundant clinical material. The School 
of Medicine was established in connection with the Department of 
Arts in the part of the city that had been the village of Fordham, 
though the Law School was organized down town near the courts, 
because it was felt that the almost suburban conditions made a 
much better environment for medical students than the crowded 
down town quarter of the city with its many distractions and 
temptations. 
The first year, the Medical School was directed by Dr. James N. 
Butler as dean, and eight medical students registered. The fol- 
lowing year Dr. James J. Walsh became acting dean and the 
number of students rose to twenty-three. At the end of five years 
the School had over one hundred students, and the number had 
increased to over two hundred in the session of 1912-13. Dr. 
Walsh was succeeded as dean by Dr. William S. Healy, and, with 
some fluctuations, the number of medical students continued to 
grow. In 1913-14 there were 138; in 1914-15, 174; in 1915-16 
616 MEDICAL SCHOOL, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE 
617 
there were 210; in 1916-17, 271; and then, with the opening of the 
World War and the call for medical help for the soldiers to as 
great an extent as possible, the number of medical students rose 
to nearly three hundred. Altogether, some 1,800 medical stu- 
dents have been in attendance at the University. Dr. Healy was 
succeeded as dean in 1917 by Dr. Joseph Byrne. 
Some features of the teaching at Fordham represented pioneer 
work in medical education. A regular series of lectures on the 
history of medicine was given, on which attendance was required. 
From the beginning a course in physiological psychology, the first 
in the country to be established for medical students, was arranged 
for so as to provide the basis of knowledge of the influence of 
the mind on the body. This was supplemented by a course in psy- 
chotherapy, also the first for medical students in America so as 
to enable young physicians to understand the success of so many 
modes of irregular practice of medicine and in order that their 
dependence on drugs and other physical remedial matters might not 
be absolute, but be helped out by suggestion in various forms. 
In 1911, under the active stimulus of Dr. Victor Sorapure, the 
Pro-Dean and Professor of Pathology, a handsome new clinical 
building was planned and erected. This provided ample facilities 
for doing clinical teaching of medicine and surgery, as well as 
all the specialties. Unfortunately, Dr. Sorapure's connection with 
the School was severed just at the time when the organization of 
the clinic was to have taken place. This undoubtedly delayed 
and hampered the successful introduction of certain features of 
the clinical work, and led to a considerable reduction in the num- 
ber of students in the following years. 
The first use to which the new clinical building was put was 
for the holding of a Medical Extension Course of clinics and lec- 
tures in nervous and mental diseases. Up to this time, graduate 
teaching in medicine had been entirely in the hands of the so- 
called post-graduate schools. It was felt that the regular medical 
schools could not take this up, though the need for it was manifest. 
The extension course planned at Fordham was meant to fill this 
long-felt want. As planned and carried out, it was an absolute 
innovation in American medical education and attracted wide and 
very favorable attention. Under the direction of Professor Wil- 
liam J. M. A. Maloney, who had come to the Faculty as Professor 
of Nervous Diseases during the preceding scholastic year, after 618 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
years of rather intimate relationship with distinguished European 
workers in nervous and mental diseases, some of the very best for- 
eign teachers and original investigators were secured, who were 
willing, during the vacation period, even to cross the ocean to take 
part in an organized effort to extend the field of higher medical 
education. 
Up to this time, American physicians who wanted to get in 
touch with the latest advances in medicine, had been compelled to 
go abroad. There they were very seriously hampered by the lan- 
guage difficulty and as a result, even though they could stay a 
year, found their efforts rather unsatisfactory. As a rule, they 
had to confine themselves to a single country and sometimes to 
one clinic and its teaching. They did not secure a broad general 
view of the subject and came home encouraged in narrow special- 
ism as regards certain ideas, even in their specialties. 
The idea of the Fordham Medical Extension course was to bring 
representative men from the various countries and schools of 
thought in Europe who could talk English themselves and thus 
give American physicians opportunities to get in touch with the 
whole rounded aspect of their subject. Dr. Henry Head of Lon- 
don, the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society, whose fine original 
work on the sensory nerves had brought him early fame, was the 
best known among the teachers who came, though Dr. Gordon 
Holmes, his English colleague, Professor of the Physiology of the 
Nervous System at the University of London, was almost his peer. 
The one represented the anatomical and the other the physiological 
trend in neurology. From Zurich came Dr. Jung, Associate in 
Psychiatry in the University of Zurich, the co-developer with 
Freud of Vienna of the system of psycho-analysis. From Munich 
came Assistant Professor Knauer, long associated with Professor 
Kraepelin, the most distinguished of living psychiatrists. The 
Spanish School of Neurology, for which Ramon y Cajal had done 
so much, and attracted so much attention that he had been awarded 
both the prize of Paris and the Nobel Prize, was represented by 
Dr. Achucarro of Madrid. Features of American original work in 
nervous and mental diseases were represented by Dr. William A. 
White, superintendent of the Government Hospital for the In- 
sane at Washington; Dr. J. V. May, president of the Commission 
of Lunacy in New York State; Dr. Colin K. Russell, of McGill 
University and Victoria Hospital, Montreal; Dr. Carl L. Alsberg, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE 
619 
of Washington, biological chemist to United States Government; 
Dr. H. H. Goddard, superintendent of the New Jersey School for 
Feeble-minded Children at Vineland, N. J.; Dr. Elsberg of New 
York City, well known for his surgical work on the central nervous 
system and especially the spinal cord, and Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe, 
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Fordham and author of articles 
and books on the subject that are widely read. 
The response in number of students to this program was, in 
spite of general unfamiliarity with Fordham's Medical School up 
to this time, and the inability to secure such advertising as was 
necessary, most gratifying to those who had planned and worked 
out the course. Altogether, 112 physicians from various parts of 
the country came to take advantage of it during the three weeks 
of late September, 1912. Among these were Professor Sears of 
the University of Vermont, Professor Ayres of Harvard, Profes- 
sor Bliss of George Washington University, St. Louis, and a num- 
ber of assistant professors, university assistants, heads of lunatic 
asylums, and of neurological and psychiatric institutions and as- 
sistant physicians from these places, as well as practising neurolo- 
gists from various parts of the country. 
The course proved most successful. The University conferred 
degrees on the most distinguished of the visiting professors, and 
a dinner given to the visitors at the Manhattan Hotel, New York, 
brought together some of the best known neurologists and psy- 
chiatrists of the country. Among them were Dr. Adolph Meyer, 
Director of the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at Johns Hopkins, Bal- 
timore, Dr. Charles K. Mills, Professor of Neurology at the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, Dr. Hugh T. Patrick, Professor of Neur- 
ology at the University of Chicago, Professor Frederick Peterson 
of Columbia University, Professor Harry Cushing of Harvard, 
Professor Charles L. Dana of Cornell, Professor Graeme Ham- 
mond of the Post-Graduate School of Medicine, Professor Theo- 
dore H. Janeway of Columbia University, Professor M. Allen 
Starr of Columbia University, Professor Sears of the University 
of Vermont, Dr. B. Sachs of Mt. Sinai and Bellevue Hospitals, Dr. 
William A. White, Superintendent of the Government Hospital 
for the Insane, Washington, and many others. The Catholic 
Church in New York was represented by Rt. Rev. Mgr. Lavelle, 
delegated by the Cardinal, and the Jesuit Order by the Provincial, 620 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Very Rev. Joseph Hanselmann, and the University by the presi- 
dent, Very Rev. Thomas J. McCloskey. 
The international character of the course and the magnificent 
response of representatives of the most important medical schools 
in this country to the effort thus put forth, and their manifest ap- 
preciation of it, marked an epoch in American medical education. 
Probably the most important feature of it was the fact that this 
broad, thorough work had been undertaken by a medical school 
under Catholic Church auspices, for it made it perfectly clear 
that the one idea of the creation of Catholic universities and their 
extension into the field of teaching medicine and law was to afford 
the highest facilities for the best possible education to Catholic 
students and such as might be in attendance at their graduate 
departments. There had been an unfortunate tradition, quite 
without foundation, that the Church was rather opposed to the 
development of modern science. Here was the open contradiction 
of it. 
Unfortunately, just after this course was completed, a number of 
differences of opinion between the university authorities and the 
medical school faculty in the matter of the maintenance of stand- 
ards led to a series of resignations which sadly impaired the value 
of the publicity secured by this Extension Course and to a serious 
reduction in the number of students for several following years. 
The handicap thus incurred was gradually overcome, and the 
number of students increased by 1915-16 to what it had been in 
1912-13. With the coming of the War there was, as has been 
said, a large increase in the number of medical students. Ford- 
ham Medical School's response to the demands of the war was 
immediate. During the first month after the declaration of war, 
an ambulance unit consisting of more than one hundred Fordham 
men, was organized and dispatched to the front. The University 
altogether had over 1,000 stars on its service flag and the Medical 
School was thought to have more men in the service in proportion 
to the number of graduates than any other. 
In 1912, the Department of Pharmacy in connection with the 
School of Medicine was established and this afterwards became 
the College of Pharmacy. The stimulus for this new develop- 
ment was due to Dr. Sorapure, the Dean of the School of Medicine, 
and Dr. Jacob Diner, at the time a medical student of the Uni- 
versity, but who had been very prominent in pharmaceutical cir- FORDHAM UNIVERSITY FREE DISPENSARY FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE 
621 
cles in New York City before taking up this study of medicine. 
In 1912, the first year after its foundation, there were thirteen 
students, increased to 35 in 1913, and to 60 in 1914. In 1915 
there were about 100 registered and the number increased during 
the following year until the war came to disturb educational con- 
ditions. CHAPTER XIII 
ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
THE Albany Medical College was organized in 1838 and incor- 
porated in 1839, in which year it gave its first course of 
instruction and graduated its first class. It is the second 
oldest medical school now existing in the State of New York, and 
only sixteen schools still survive in the United States which were 
organized at an earlier date. These, in chronological order, are: 
University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Harvard, Dartmouth, Uni- 
versity of Maryland, Yale, University of Cincinnati, Bowdoin, 
University of Vermont, Medical College State of South Carolina, 
George Washington University, Jefferson, University of Virginia, 
Medical College of Georgia, Tulane, and the University of Louis- 
ville. The Medical College of Virginia, at Richmond, was organ- 
ized in the same year. 
In those days the need of clinical facilities was not recognized, 
and medical schools, like the old-time seminaries, were often 
located in small villages where the cost of living was low. The 
courses were short and the faculties small, and many of the pro- 
fessors came from the cities and gave condensed lecture courses 
of short duration. When the Albany school was organized there 
were two others in New York besides Columbia, and three others, 
not very far off, in New England, all now extinct except that at 
Burlington, Vermont. At Fairfield, Herkimer county, New York, 
was the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western Dis- 
trict of the State of New York, organized in 1812, and lasting 
until 1840, which was for a good many years a large and successful 
school. Drs. James McNaughton and T. Romeyn Beck, both of 
Albany, were members of its faculty, and during the twenty-eight 
years of its existence it had 3,123 students, of whom 589 were 
graduated. The Vermont Academy of Medicine, at Castleton, 
Vt., was created in 1818 and ceased to exist in 1861. For years 
this was a thriving school with a strong faculty which included 
Drs. William Tully, Theodore Woodward, Alden March, one of 
the founders of the Albany school; Lewis C. Beck, Amos Eaton, 
the distinguished naturalist; and James H. Armsby, a graduate 
of the school and later, with his brother-in-law, Dr. March, a 
founder of the Albany Medical College. At Pittsfield, Mass., was 
established in 1823 the Berkshire Medical College, which survived 
until 1867 and was a good school in its day; and the other school 
Willis G. Tucker, M. D. 
622 ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
623 
in New York State which antedated Albany was at Geneva, and 
known as the Medical Institute of Geneva College, which was 
organized in 1836 and was the nucleus of the Medical Department 
of the University of Syracuse in 1872. As medical teaching pro- 
gressed and the need of clinical and laboratory facilities became 
more apparent, these four flourishing schools, which did good 
work in their day, one after another, closed their doors, and the 
Albany school may be considered, in a way, as the successor of 
that at Fairfield and an offshoot from that at Castleton. 
The Albany Medical College was founded by Drs. Alden March 
and James H. Armsby in 1838, and incorporated by the legislature 
in 1839, the Act of Incorporation being Chapter 26 of the laws 
of that year. Dr. March was born in Sutton, Mass., September 
20, 1795, was brought up on a farm, acquired his early education 
in the public schools, studied medicine with his brother, Dr. David 
March, who was an army surgeon, and attended lectures upon 
medicine in Boston and at Brown University, from which he 
received, September 6, 1820, the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He 
began practice in Albany the same year and, although the place 
then had a population of less than 15,000, he soon formed a plan 
to establish a medical school here. In 1821 he delivered a course 
of lectures upon anatomy which were illustrated by dissections, in 
a small wooden building on Montgomery street, north of Columbia, 
to a class of fourteen students. At that time the prejudice against 
dissection of the human body was very great, and Dr. March 
found it impossible to obtain material at home, and was obliged 
to go so far as to Boston for it, sometimes driving the entire dis- 
tance, at great personal discomfort and no little risk, with a body 
in a sack beside him. In 1825 he was appointed Professor of 
Anatomy and Physiology in the school at Castleton, serving as 
such for ten years, but continuing his lectures in Albany, and on 
Jan. 11, 1830, he delivered a public lecture on the "Expediency 
of Establishing a Medical College and Hospital in the City of 
Albany," as an introduction to his course of lectures on anatomy, 
which was published by the class and attracted much attention. 
In 1832 he opened "Dr. March's Practical School of Anatomy 
and Surgery," with twenty students, and the catalogue of May, 
1833, in which it is called the "Albany Medical School," gives a 
faculty of six lecturers, and 51 students in two classes. Among 
the senior students appears the name of James H. Armsby, who 
was born at Sutton, Mass., December 31, 1810, and came to 
Albany in 1831 as a student of Dr. March, whose brother-in-law 
he was, and became his assistant in the school, meanwhile at- 
tending lectures at Castleton, from which school he was graduated 
in 1833. He served as Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at 
Castleton from 1834 to 1838, when he resigned the position in 
order that he might devote his entire time to the work of organ- 
izing, with Dr. March, the Medical College at Albany which Dr. 624 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
March had projected in 1830. In 1836 Dr. March's "Albany 
Medical School" appears to have been a smaller affair, and a 
prospectus of that year is entitled "A Catalogue of Students 
attending Drs. March and Armsby's Lectures on Anatomy, 
Physiology and Surgery in Albany," and there seem to have been 
no other teachers. There were 37 students, but they had to go to 
Castleton or elsewhere to obtain a degree, and the need of an 
incorporated and degree-conferring school was apparent. With 
this end in view, Dr. Armsby delivered several courses of public 
lectures in Albany, Troy, and neighboring places, illustrated by 
dissections of human subjects, for the purpose of arousing an 
interest in medical education and hospital work, and these were 
largely attended. One such course was delivered in 1837 at 
Morange's building, corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane, which 
was attended by some three hundred of the prominent citizens 
of Albany, and at its close a complimentary letter of appreciation 
and thanks was addressed to Dr. Armsby and signed by Greene 
C. Bronson, Gideon Hawley, Daniel D. Barnard, Erastus Corning, 
Gerritt Y. Lansing, Friend Humphrey, John Meads, Amos Dean, 
and many others of equal prominence in the community who had 
attended the course. Largely as a result of the interest excited by 
these lectures, a meeting was held April 14, 1838, at the Mansion 
House, to take steps for the organization of a medical school. 
It was attended by Ira Harris, Robert H. Pruyn, Bradford R. 
Wood, George Dexter, James Goold, John O. Cole, Thomas McEl- 
roy, Drs. March and Armsby, and many others. Most of these 
gentlemen subsequently served as trustees, and all of them are 
well remembered by the writer, who studied medicine with Dr. 
Armsby and was associated with him as teacher for several years 
and until his death in 1875, and who attended as a student the 
two last courses of lectures upon surgery which were given by 
Dr. March. At this meeting of 1838 Dr. March stated the object 
and the following resolution was adopted: "Resolved, that this 
meeting deem it expedient to establish a Medical College in this 
city, and to endeavor hereafter to obtain an act of incorporation 
from the legislature." 
A committee was appointed to prepare a petition to the legis- 
lature and obtain signatures to the same, and it was drawn up 
forthwith and signed by those present as a beginning. Judge 
Harris offered the following resolution, which was adopted: 
"Resolved, that a stock of $5,000 be created, and a committee ap- 
pointed to solicit subscriptions to aid in the establishment of the 
Institution. ' ' 
Samuel Stevens and George Dexter were appointed a committee 
to prepare articles of association and a paper for signature by 
those who should subscribe to the fund. And a committee was 
appointed to apply to the Common Council for the use of the 
unoccupied Lancaster School building on Eagle street by the col- ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
625 
lege for five years ensuing. This building was a substantial brick 
structure which had been erected in 1816, and opened in 1817, by 
the city, as a school. Joseph Lancaster was an Englishman who 
had established in England a monitorial system of school teaching 
which had proved successful, and very economical in its adminis- 
tration, and it appears that as early as 1810, when there were no 
public schools in the city, the Common Council had under consid- 
eration the project of establishing a free school on the Lancaster 
plan. On May 26, 1812, the legislature incorporated the Albany 
Lancaster School Society, and the school, which had been organ- 
ized some time before, moved into the new building on its comple- 
tion in 1817. The matter is of interest in this connection because 
this building was subsequently acquired by the Medical College 
which has ever since continued to occupy it. It was built by the 
Common Council at a cost of $23,918.93, and it was opened on 
April 5, 1817, with impressive inauguration services. A proces- 
sion, consisting of the trustees, principal and 400 pupils, formed 
at the house of the president of the society, Philip S. Van Rensse- 
laer, corner of State and Chapel streets, and moved to the Capitol, 
where it was met by the Governor of the State, mayor and recorder 
of the city, clergy and citizens, and proceeded to the school house. 
The exercises consisted of a prayer by Rev. Dr. Bradford, an ad- 
dress by Dr. T. Romeyn Beck, and benediction by Dr. De Witt. 
In 1818 Lancaster made a tour in the United States and visited 
Albany, where he was received with much ceremony. His method 
is unheard of now, but was famous in its day, and it is well that 
some record of it should be preserved. In 1888, Mr. Theodore 
Van Heusen, of Albany, who had attended the school, read a paper 
before the Albany Institute in which he gave his recollections of 
it. He gives a letter received by him from Mr. William H. Bogart, 
the distinguished legislative correspondent and long a winter resi- 
dent of Albany, whose letters signed '1 Sentinel ' ' were well known 
to a former generation, which is dated from Aurora, N. Y., Octo- 
ber 4, 1888, in which he says: 
I observe that you are to give the history of the old Lancasterian 
School. I am very much gratified at such an announcement for I know 
that in Albany history that should be preserved. I recollect seeing Mr. 
Lancaster in Albany, and quite likely it was at the Academy where your 
paper will be read. He was, I think, a full-sized man, perhaps more so, 
as that would give point to the clever anecdote that when Joseph Lan- 
caster was at Washington he was called to preside at some meeting held 
in the House of Representatives, and Henry Clay said he never before 
saw the chair so well filled, and Lancaster answered that he who filled it 
best was no better than Clay. Albany took up the Lancasterian idea 
and for years the school was a feature of the new and progressive edu- 
cation. 
Speaking of the school, Mr. Van Heusen says: 626 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
As I call to mind the school building it was convenient and admirably 
adapted to the purpose. The main room was arranged to seat 450 pupils, 
and not an obstruction in it to prevent the teachers seeing every scholar. 
Two stories were thrown into one. Starting from the center on either side, 
the desks were placed, row after row, each one higher than the other, 
so that at the extreme ends the last row was only about eight feet from 
the ceiling. They were arranged for nine pupils and, at the head of each 
class, a seat for the teacher. In the center of the room a large black- 
board was placed on which was plainly written the writing lesson for the 
day. On one side was the principal's desk and on the other a high 
pulpit for the deciaimers. The boys were on one side and the girls on 
the other side of the room and there was a play-room for each at either 
end of the building. 
The machinery that worked this large school was economical and easily 
understood. There was one principal and two assistants and $700 paid the 
salaries of all. To aid these teachers there were two monitor-generals, 
and over each class a pupil was placed to act as teacher. The system was 
full of incentive to get on, to excel, to be the foremost scholar. At every 
stage was a reward and the best scholars were selected as teachers and moni- 
tors. In writing the youngest were provided with sand-boxes; next higher, 
slates were used, and further on pen, ink and books for the more advanced; 
and in all the studies the same thought prevailed-"Excelsior" always. To 
be a teacher was something; to be a monitor-general was a great thing; 
and to obtain a scholarship in the Albany Academy the most coveted of all. 
Mr. William A. Tweed Dale was principal of this school for 
twenty-three years. He was a Scotchman; a pedagogue of the old 
type, learned and eccentric, and he had been a pupil of Lancaster 
and of Dr. Bell, who was really the originator of the system. In 
1832 Asiatic cholera first visited this country and Albany suffered 
greatly. It caused the deepest gloom and such terror that all who 
could do so got away from the city. The Lancaster School, being 
controlled by the city, was converted into a hospital, and this broke 
up the school which was formally declared closed in 1834. The 
building had been designed by Philip Hooker, architect of the old 
Capitol and some of the finest buildings in Albany, a few of which, 
like the Albany Academy, Second Presbyterian Church and State 
Bank, are still standing. It was substantially built, commodious, 
well situated and not lacking in dignity, and in every way well 
adapted to the use which the founders of the medical school de- 
sired to make of it. In compliance with the request of the com- 
mittee on organization, the use of this building for five years was 
granted, free of rent, by the Common Council, for the purpose 
proposed. 
At this time Teunis Van Vechten was mayor of Albany, and he 
took an active part in the organization of the school and was the 
first president of the board of trustees, serving until 1841, when 
he was succeeded by Jared L. Rathbone. Among other active par- 
ticipators were George Dexter, secretary of the trustees from 1838 
until his death in 1882; Amos Dean, and Robert H. Pruyn, who ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
627 
served as trustee for forty-four years and until his death in 1882. 
In May, 1838, another meeting was held which was largely at- 
tended. Articles of association were adopted and the following 
trustees were chosen: Daniel D. Barnard, Samuel Stevens, John 
Tayler, Ira Harris, Robert H. Pruyn, Friend Humphrey, Bradford 
R. Wood, James Goold, George Dexter, Thomas McElroy, William 
Seymour, John 0. Cole, John L. Wendell, Conrad A. Ten Eyck, 
John Davis, Israel Williams, Charles D. Gould, John Trotter, 
Arnold Nelson, John Groesbeck, Oliver Steele and Philip S. Van 
Rensselaer. These were very distinguished men, for the list in- 
cludes a United States Senator and no less than three gentlemen 
who subsequently represented their country as Ambassadors at 
foreign courts. A committee was appointed to nominate a faculty, 
and at the next meeting, through Judge Harris, reported the fol- 
lowing: Alden March, Professor of Surgery; James H. Armsby, 
Professor of Anatomy and Physiology; Amos Dean, Professor of 
Medical Jurisprudence; Ebenezer Emmons, Professor of Chem- 
istry and Pharmacy; Henry Greene, Professor of Obstetrics; 
David M. McLachlan, Professor of Materia Medica; and later, 
David M. Reese, Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine. 
The reconstruction of the building was immediately begun, and 
by September, 1838, the work was practically completed. During 
the first two years over $10,000, contributed by citizens of Albany, 
was expended on the building, and the museum was opened to the 
public. Drs. March and Armsby contributed all their anatomical 
and pathological preparations, and many of these remain to-day 
as perfect as when first installed. Dr. March's collections dated 
from the beginning of his professional career and formed, by them- 
selves, quite an extensive museum when the college opened. From 
year to year he added to it until it became one of the largest and 
most valuable private collections ever made in this country. When 
first opened to the public the museum was crowded with curious 
and interested visitors, and it did much to educate the people and 
dispel the prejudice which had long existed against the dissection 
of the human body and the preservation of its parts for purposes 
of medical instruction. During three years Dr. Armsby resided 
in the college and devoted his entire time to the preparation of 
specimens and building up the museum. Both he and Dr. March 
made repeated visits to Europe, and brought home with them many 
additions to the collection and, later, Dr. McNaughton's valuable 
collection, made during twenty years of teaching at Fairfield, was 
added, and the museum became, and continued for many years to 
be, the largest and most valuable in the United States, and excelled 
by but few in Europe. 
The college was chartered by the legislature by an act passed 
February 16, 1839, creating a corporation under the name of the 
Albany Medical College, and naming the persons to act as trus- 
tees. It authorized the corporation to hold property to the amount 628 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
of $100,000, and empowered the trustees to appoint professors 
and confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and made the diploma 
a license to practice medicine. 
In 1841 the legislature appropriated to the college the sum of 
$5,000 a year for three successive years, "to be expended for 
additions and improvements to the college buildings, museum, 
chemical and philosophical apparatus, and for the purchase of a 
library," with the provision that the school should admit to its 
course of instruction annually, and free of all charges, "so many 
indigent students, not exceeding one from each of the first, second, 
third and fourth senate districts, as shall be recommended for that 
purpose by the board of censors of the State Medical Society for 
such districts, ' ' and this the college continued to do until the boards 
were abolished by the society many years later, when its by-laws 
were revised. Indeed, in its desire to comply with the law, and 
recognizing the fact that some of its best students and most dis- 
tinguished graduates had been beneficiaries under this law, it con- 
tinued to receive such students so long as the surviving members 
of the old boards of censors chose to recommend them. 
Again, in 1844, the legislature appropriated to the college the 
sum of $1,000 a year for five years to be expended for similar 
purposes, and while such grants seem small as compared with lat- 
ter-day benefactions to similar institutions, they were very helpful 
to the school and enabled it to make large additions to its museum, 
its scientific collections and apparatus, and to build up a valuable 
library which was, for many years, one of the best of its kind in 
this part of the country. Indeed, this library became the nucleus 
of the medical division of the New York State Library, for the 
college donated its library to the State when this division was 
established, believing that it would thus be of much greater use 
to their students, and to the medical profession, than if they con- 
tinued to maintain it in the school. 
The building which has been described has been continuously 
occupied by the college until the present time. For many years 
it was leased by the city to the institution at a nominal rental, 
but in 1874 differences arose, attacks were made upon the school 
by certain opponents, the site was suggested as a desirable one for 
the new high school building which it was proposed to erect, and 
after much discussion the college was allowed to retain possession 
under a new lease executed by the city but at an annual rental of 
$2,000. About 1850 the building had been enlarged by the addi- 
tion of wings at either end, chiefly with a view to affording accom- 
modations for various departments of the University of Albany 
which had been organized and incorporated about this time. 
Courses of instruction were to be given by various eminent scien- 
tists on such subjects as Agriculture by Professor John P. Norton, 
Geology by Professor James Hall, Astronomy by Professor O. M. 
Mitchell, and others no less renowned, and a Law School had been ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
629 
organized and opened in December, 1851. The Albany Medical 
College was to constitute the medical department of this university, 
and other departments were projected. Some of these, like the 
Law School and Dudley Observatory, have survived and, like 
the medical school, have been prominent and successful institu- 
tions, but the scientific schools, as of agriculture, never material- 
ized, and the parent institution, the University of Albany, after 
maintaining a nominal existence for a time, suspended its activi- 
ties and ceased to be, as a matter of fact, although its existence 
was implied in the announcements of both the medical college and 
law school which continued to appear under the caption "Uni- 
versity of Albany" until the incorporation of Union University in 
1873 and their affiliation therewith. Of the two wings which were 
added to the building, that on Jay street was occupied by the Law 
School until 1879, when it moved to its present building on State 
street. The other wing, on Lancaster street, was built for a chem- 
ical laboratory, was rebuilt in 1884, when another story was added, 
and it has been occupied as such ever since. In 1883 the central 
part of the building was enlarged by the addition of a fourth 
story for the use of the anatomical department, and when the law 
school vacated its quarters the south wing was converted into a 
lecture room, known as "Alumni Hall," and it was subsequently 
used as a histological and pathological laboratory, and, later, as a 
laboratory of physiological chemistry. In 1877 the property was 
purchased from the city by the corporation for $12,000, subject to 
a non-interest bearing mortgage of $10,000 which became a lien 
upon the property in case it ceased to be used as a medical school. 
The trustees borrowed the money with which to make the purchase 
from one of the banks on a mortgage, which was gradually paid 
by the faculty from their earnings, and certain members of the 
faculty eventually became the owners of the mortgage. The fac- 
ulty had been organized as a corporation for this purpose, and the 
members received scrip certificates, representing their respective 
pro rata ownership, issued to them by the trustee of the corpora- 
tion of the faculty, who was also trustee of the college and secre- 
tary of the board, and in proportion to the number of lectures 
delivered, or other college duties performed, by them as members 
of the faculty. This was all done in good faith and was, probably, 
the only way in which the money could at the time have been 
raised. The trustees neither contributed nor raised any money 
for the purpose, so that it amounted to this, that the active faculty, 
who had faith in the institution, served for several years without 
compensation, but became owners of the building occupied by the 
college, though title to the same was vested in the trustees, subject, 
as stated, to a second mortgage held by the city. And it came 
about in time that, as certain members of the faculty died, resigned 
or removed from the city, their scrip or ' ' stock ' ' was purchased by 
other members of the faculty, so that eventually a limited number 630 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
owned the greater part of it. This was not a desirable condition 
of affairs, but it was the natural result of a method of financing 
which had been adopted when no better seemed practicable. Those 
who held the scrip had earned it by work done for the institution, 
or they had purchased it as an accommodation from their col- 
leagues who wished to dispose of it when it had in reality no 
market value, and they held it in the interests of the school and 
not without risk to themselves. But they have been maligned and 
maliciously aspersed from time to time by those who, without 
knowledge of the facts in the case, have insinuated, if they have 
not directly alleged, that certain members of the faculty were 
enriching themselves at the expense of the school, and that the 
institution was a kind of stock company which was paying divi- 
dends to its stockholders. Whereas, as a matter of fact, the school, 
by the self-sacrificing labors of the members of its faculty, and 
by carefully planned and most economical administration, was sup- 
porting itself and carrying on its work efficiently without endow- 
ment, pecuniary grants from any source, or aid of any kind from 
its trustees. In 1849 the college received another grant of $1,000 
from the State, so that the total sum raised by the citizens of 
Albany and by State appropriation for the establishment of the 
college was but $31,000. 
The first course of lectures opened on January 3, 1839, to a class 
of fifty-seven students. The college had no charter, nor power to 
confer degrees, and met with determined opposition from the three 
other colleges in the State, and from many physicians in Albany. 
Nevertheless the citizens generally supported the undertaking, 
and aided the trustees and faculty in securing from the legislature 
the act of incorporation. On the first Saturday of the term, Dr. 
March inaugurated his surgical clinics, held in the college, and at 
which he presented a large number of cases requiring operation 
or treatment, and this new feature in medical education which he 
introduced soon came to be generally adopted by medical schools 
throughout the country. During the early years of the school, 
both Dr. Armsby and Professor Amos Dean delivered public lec- 
tures in the college amphitheatre, which were largely attended by 
the people of Albany, members of the legislature, and visitors to 
the city, and these lectures created an interest in the institution 
and aided in securing both charter and appropriations from the 
State. As soon as the act of incorporation was passed, the trustees 
confirmed the election of the faculty and appointed the following 
curators to take part in the annual examinations of candidates for 
degree: Drs. Peter Wendell, Platt Williams, Barent P. Staats, 
Thomas C. Brinsmade of Troy, and Samuel White of Hudson. 
This board was appointed pursuant to the provisions of the char- 
ter, and they, or their successors, continued to hold an oral exami- 
nation of all candidates for graduation at the end of each session 
until 1891, at which time, on application of the faculty, the charter ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
631 
was amended and the board abolished by the Board of Regents as 
being no longer of any real usefulness. 
The first annual commencement exercises were held April 24, 
1839, and the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon the 
following thirteen candidates: Jared Bassett, Montpelier, Vt.; 
Gilbert H. Brownell, Northampton, N. Y.; Alfred Cook, Delphi, 
N. Y.; Henry Cartier, St. Antoine, Canada; Anderson S. Dean, 
Cambridge, N. Y.; Almon B. Edmonds, Edinburg, N. Y.; Nahum 
P. Munro, Belfast, Me.; John V. Newman, Chatham, N. Y.; Marcus 
T. Peake, Andes, N. Y.; William H. Snyder, Jr., Sand Lake, 
N. Y.; Phineas H. Strong, Pawlet, Vt.; Rial Strickland, Somers, 
Ct., and John Vought, Freehold, N. J. 
The writer remembers several of these gentlemen very well, for 
some of them used to attend the earlier meetings of the Alumni 
Association, and Dr. Strong served as president of the Association 
in 1877. All are now dead, the last survivors, with year of death, 
being: Dr. Vought, '82; Strong, '90; Snyder, '01; Strickland, '03 
and Bassett, '05. 
The first faculty of the college and their immediate successors 
were, most of them, illustrious men whose names are enrolled in 
the history of American medicine and science. Dr. March was 
president of the faculty and Professor of Surgery from the estab- 
lishment of the school until his death in 1869, and stood in the 
forefront of American surgeons, and Dr. Armsby was no less dis- 
tinguished as an anatomist and most accomplished lecturer. Dr. 
March gave ten courses of lectures at Castleton and forty-one in 
Albany, and Dr. Armsby, first Professor of Anatomy, and of Sur- 
gery from 1869 until his death in 1875, gave six courses in Castle- 
ton, and forty-one in Albany. Amos Dean, the distinguished 
author and lecturer upon law, held the professorship of Medical 
Jurisprudence for twenty years; Ebenezer Emmons, who served 
until 1853, was a scientist of whom New York State is justly proud, 
and Greene, McLachlan and Reese, whose terms of service were 
brief, were able men, prominent in the profession, and teachers of 
ability. 
At the close of the first session, Dr. Greene resigned the Profes- 
sorship of Obstetrics, and Dr. Gunning S. Bedford, of New York, 
was appointed to succeed him, and Dr. Thomas Hun was appointed 
Professor of the Institutes of Medicine, as physiology applied to 
medicine was then called, and served as such for twenty years. 
In 1840 both Professors Reese and Bedford resigned and the former 
was succeeded, in the chair of practice, by Dr. James McNaughton, 
whose active connection with the school continued until his death 
in 1874. Of this remarkable man something should be said. Born 
in Scotland, in 1796, he was educated in the University of Edin- 
burgh; came to America as surgeon of an emigrant ship, and 
landed at Quebec in 1817; visited Albany, where he had relatives, 
and decided to settle there. Early in his career, Private Hamilton 632 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
murdered the commander of his regiment at West Troy, was exe- 
cuted, and his body turned over to the physicians for dissection. 
Dr. McNaughton began the dissection, and exhibited so much skill 
that he was urged to complete it, and this he did, giving a series 
of very complete demonstrations which attracted much attention 
in the profession, since such occasions were then rare. How very 
rare they were it is hard for us to believe, but is evidenced by the 
fact that on one occasion, and at about this time, when Dr. March 
exhibited some of his preparations to a respectable country prac- 
titioner, he received not only his cordial and appreciative thanks, 
but was assured that it was the first time that he had ever seen a 
human skeleton. Dr. McNaughton's dissections gained him such 
distinction that he was appointed to a professorship in the medical 
school at Fairfield, where he lectured from 1820 to 1840, when he 
was appointed professor in the Albany School, and so continued 
until 1874. This long service,-fifty-four years in all,-distin- 
guishes him as one of the notable medical teachers of this country 
and of the age. 
Dr. Emmons must have been a very versatile man. Famous as 
a geologist, he had been educated as a physician and practised 
medicine for many years. He was first Professor of Chemistry and 
Natural History in the Albany Medical College from 1838 to 1839; 
then of Materia Medica and Natural History from 1840 to 1843, 
and then of Obstetrics and Natural History until 1853. Subjects 
more diverse can scarcely be conceived, but in those days scientific 
men were omniscient, seemingly, and perhaps because there was 
less to know at that time than there is nowadays. In 1840, when 
Dr. Emmons gave up the chair of chemistry, Dr. Lewis C. Beck 
was appointed in his place, and the next year his brother, Dr. T. 
Romeyn Beck, was appointed to succeed Dr. McLachlan and Dr. 
Emmons in the chair of Materia Medica. Truly, "there were 
giants in those days, ' ' and no more noted men than the Becks were 
ever connected with the institution. Dr. Lewis C. Beck, who 
served as Professor of Chemistry and Therapeutics from 1840 to 
1841, and of Chemistry and Pharmacy until his death in 1853, 
was a man of commanding talents, who wrote the great volume on 
mineralogy for the "Natural History of the State of New York," 
and served as professor both at Rutgers College and in Albany for 
years with great distinction and unwearied fidelity. His brother, 
Dr. T. Romeyn Beck, Professor of Materia Medica from 1842 until 
1853, and Emeritus Professor until his death in 1856, was even 
more widely known. Born in Schenectady in 1791, he was grad- 
uated from Union College in 1807, and from the Medical Depart- 
ment of Columbia College in 1811. He began the practice of 
medicine in Albany, but, not finding it to his taste, abandoned it 
for the study of science. He was professor in the Fairfield school 
from 1816 to 1840, and was principal of the Albany Academy 
from 1817 until 1848. It was while the head of this famous old ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
633 
school for boys that he wrote his authoritative work on "Medical 
Jurisprudence," which gave him a great reputation at home and 
abroad. Another brother, Dr. John B. Beck, contributed to this 
monumental work; wrote many other books, and was, for many 
years, Professor of Materia Medica in the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons of New York. 
Dr. Howard Townsend followed Dr. Emmons and Dr. Bedford 
in the chair of Obstetrics, serving until 1855, and subsequently 
lecturing upon Materia Medica and Physiology until his death in 
1867. He was a scholarly and accomplished man and an excellent 
teacher. Dr. Ezra S. Carr followed Dr. L. C. Beck in the chair 
of Chemistry and Pharmacy, which he filled from 1853 to 1857, 
and in 1855 Dr. John V. P. Quackenbush was appointed Professor 
of Obstetrics and of Diseases of Women and Children, and so con- 
tinued until 1870. He was a fluent and popular lecturer, and as 
an obstetrician had a large practice and widely extended reputa- 
tion. Dr. Carr was followed by Dr. Charles H. Porter in 1857 
as Professor of Chemistry, and later of Medical Jurisprudence also. 
As a toxicologist he occupied a prominent position for years, serv- 
ing as an expert in many important cases and contributing to the 
literature of the subject. When the War for the Union broke 
out, he entered the army as surgeon, and his place was temporarily 
filled by Dr. George F. Barker, later Professor of Chemistry at 
Yale and of Physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He was 
followed, in 1864, by Dr. Jacob S. Mosher, who served as lecturer, 
and afterwards as Professor of Chemistry and of Medical Juris- 
prudence from 1864 until 1870, and later as Professor of Medical 
Jurisprudence and Hygiene from 1876 until 1882, and of practice 
until his death in 1883. Dr. Mosher was bom in 1834; was for a 
time a student at Rutgers, taught school in Albany, entered upon 
the study of medicine, and was graduated from the Albany Med- 
ical College in 1863. He was teacher of chemistry in the Albany 
Academy for a time; served as surgeon with the Army of the 
Potomac in 1864, and subsequently as Military Superintendent 
and Surgeon in charge of the Hospital for Disabled Soldiers in 
Albany, and later as Surgeon-General of the State under Governor 
Hoffman, and as Deputy Health Officer and executive officer of the 
Port of New York. For many years he was registrar of the col- 
lege, and he was widely known and generally admired and beloved 
by the student body and alumni. He was a very able and versatile 
man, who filled many conspicuous positions with distinction, and 
his sudden death in 1883 was greatly mourned and left many va- 
cancies which it was hard to fill. At the annual meeting of the 
Alumni Association of the college in 1884, eulogies were delivered 
by Secretary Murray, of the Board of Regents; Regent McKelway 
and Dr. Samuel B. Ward, which were printed in the proceedings 
of the Association, and a memorial sketch of his life and character 634 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
by the present writer may be found in the "Transactions of the 
State Medical Society" for 1885. 
Dr. S. Oakley Vander Poel was appointed Professor of Pathol- 
ogy and Clinical Medicine in 1867 and served until 1870, and he 
filled the chair of Pathology, Practice and Clinical Medicine from 
1876 until 1882. He was a highly educated and accomplished man, 
and an able teacher, who occupied a prominent place in the pro- 
fession, and filled many positions of honor and trust. Dr. Town- 
send was followed, in the chair of Physiology, by Dr. James E. 
Pomfret, who served from 1867 until his death in 1869, and, in the 
chair of Materia Medica, by Dr. John V. Lansing, who served until 
1870, and also as Professor of Physiology and Clinical Medicine 
from 1870 until 1873, and of Practice until 1876. He was a man 
of scholarly tastes and many accomplishments, but his life was 
saddened by certain reverses and a distressing accident and, after 
leaving Albany, he came to an untimely end by drowning in 1880. 
In 1869 Dr. March, whose activities and usefulness had been 
unimpaired, died after a short illness, and Dr. McNaughton became 
president of the faculty, and Dr. Armsby was made Professor of 
Surgery. The chair of Anatomy was divided, Dr. Henry R. Has- 
kins taking surgical, and Dr. Albert Vander Veer, general and 
descriptive anatomy. Dr. Haskins served in the Department of 
Anatomy until 1876, and Dr. Vander Veer until 1873. In 1876 
Dr. Vander Veer was made Professor of Principles and Practice 
of Surgery, and he served in the Department of Surgery, with 
various titles, until 1914, when he was made Emeritus Professor 
and so remained until his resignation in 1915. 
At the time of his death, in 1869, Dr. March was the leading 
surgeon in this part of the country and, as head of the medical 
school, he was unopposed. Second only to him in influence and 
prominence upon the faculty was Dr. Armsby, his brother-in-law, 
who, with him, had founded the school. Dr. Armsby was a very 
remarkable man, of great originality, extraordinary activity, wide 
influence, and persistent in his devotion to any enterprise with 
which he was associated. Not only does the medical college largely 
owe to him its very successful existence but, chiefly by his unremit- 
ting efforts, the Albany Hospital was organized in 1851, and public 
interest in it maintained. By his individual efforts over one hun- 
dred thousand dollars was raised for this institution. To found 
in Albany a university, with departments in all branches of lit- 
erature, science and art, was his ambition, and his design was 
realized in part by the establishment of the Dudley Observatory, 
and the Albany Law School, in 1851. He took a prominent part in 
the incorporation of Union University in 1873, with which the 
Albany Schools of Medicine and Law and the Dudley Observatory 
became affiliated, and he was a trustee and patron of the Albany 
Female Academy and many other institutions. He was a warm 
admirer and patron of art, and many leading American artists ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
635 
owe much of their success to his early encouragement and aid. He 
was a generous contributor of money and counsel to all philan- 
thropic objects, to enterprises for city improvement, and to any 
object that made for the advancement of learning. He was a skil- 
ful anatomist, an accomplished surgeon, and an able, graceful and 
successful teacher, and he gave so much of his time and money to 
educational, scientific and philanthropic objects at the expense of 
his private interests, that he died, in 1875, a comparatively poor 
man. No man so prominent as he escapes calumny and Armsby, 
who did not readily brook opposition and was not always concil- 
iatory, made a good many enemies and met with a good deal of 
opposition, but, so long as March lived, this opposition was neither 
outspoken nor effective. But with the death of Dr. March it took 
on an active form, and his distinguished relative, associate and 
patient was hardly in his grave before Armsby was accused of 
negligence in his surgical treatment of the case, and vilified and 
most wantonly asailed. Dr. Charles A. Robertson was the chief 
fomenter of discord, and behind him ranged those of Armsby's 
opponents who, actively or insidiously, endeavored to bring about 
his downfall. Robertson was a southerner, a graduate of Harvard 
and of Jefferson, served as surgeon in the army, and settled in 
Albany as an ophthalmologist in 1864. He was a born contro- 
versialist ; wielded a trenchant and vigorous pen; was a ruthlessly 
vindictive vilifier, and no respecter of persons. A statement con- 
cerning Dr. March's case had been published by his attending 
physicians, and this was reviewed by Robertson in his pamphlet 
bearing the motto, "Lo, The Cranes of Ibycus. " In this paper 
he accused Armsby of many offenses, and implied that he had killed 
his brother-in-law in order that he might step into his shoes. A lot 
of pamphleteering followed, and it seems incredible that such vitu- 
perative malignity should have received the notice which it did, 
but there were a good many in the profession who, while they 
placed no confidence in Robertson and did not credit his state- 
ments, were yet glad to see Armsby attacked and were anxious 
to see him deposed. But the attempts to discredit and displace 
him did not succeed. Blameless as he was, he bore himself with 
dignity, and so long as he lived retained the esteem and confidence 
of his friends and remained in control of the institutions for which 
he had labored so long, so zealously and so unselfishly. When he 
died in 1875, no citizen of Albany was ever more deeply mourned, 
and his death was regarded as a public calamity. 
In 1870 Drs. Vander Poel, Quackenbush and Mosher resigned, 
and the following additions were made to the faculty: Edmund R. 
Peaslee, Diseases of Women, served from 1870 until 1873; Mere- 
dith Clymer, Diseases of the Nervous System, 1870-1873; William 
P. Seymour, Obstetrics, 1870-1876; Ira Harris, Medical Jurispru- 
dence, 1870-1874; George T. Stevens, Ophthalmology, etc., 1870- 
1876; John M. Bigelow, Materia Medica, 1870-1873, and later, 636 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
Therapeutics, Laryngology, etc., 1876-1896, Laryngology and 
Rhinology until 1899, and Emeritus Professor of same until his 
death in 1913; Maurice Perkins, Chemistry, 1870-1876, and Or- 
ganic Chemistry until his death in 1901. In 1874 Drs. Vander 
Veer and Bigelow resigned, and Dr. Willis G. Tucker, who had 
served as Assistant Professor of Chemistry since 1871, was made 
lecturer on Materia Medica also; Adjunct-Professor of same, 1875- 
1876; Professor Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, 1876-1887; 
of Toxicology also until 1901; and of Chemistry and Toxicology 
until his resignation in 1915. In 1874 Dr. William Hailes was 
made lecturer on Pathological Anatomy; in 1875 Adjunct Pro- 
fessor of same; Professor of Histology and Pathological Anatomy, 
1876-1886; with Clinical Surgery until 1889; with Fractures and 
Dislocations until 1908; and Emeritus Professor of same until his 
death in 1912. In 1875 Prof. Harrison E. Webster, of Union Col- 
lege, was made Professor of Physiology, and served as such until 
1880. 
On the death of Dr. McNaughton in the summer of 1874, Dr. 
Armsby became president of the faculty, and the sudden death of 
the latter, on December 2, 1875, was a great blow to the institution, 
and was followed by a reorganization of the faculty. Drs. Seymour 
and Haskins were eliminated; Drs. Lansing and Stevens declined 
reappointment, and a faculty of sixteen active members was cre- 
ated. This was headed by Dr. Thomas Hun as Dean and Emeri- 
tus Professor, and included in the chair of Practice, S. O. Vander 
Poel; Surgery, John Swinburne, A. Vander Veer and Samuel B. 
Ward; Medical Jurisprudence and Hygiene, J. S. Mosher; Chemis- 
try, M. Perkins and W. G. Tucker; Materia Medica, J. M. Bige- 
low; Anatomy, Lewis Balch and W. Hailes; Psychological Medi- 
cine, John P. Gray; Nervous Diseases, E. R. Hun; Obstetrics, J. V. 
P. Quackenbush, who died June 2, 1876, and in whose place Dr. 
James P. Boyd, Jr., was appointed; Ophthalmology, C. S. Merrill; 
and Physiology, H. E. Webster, with Henry March as Curator of 
the Museum, and Eugene Van Slyke, Demonstrator of Anatomy. 
This rather pretentious faculty was hastily organized; it was 
complex, unwieldy, and many of the chairs should have been occu- 
pied by adjunct or clinical professors or lecturers, for the affairs 
of the school could have been better managed by a smaller execu- 
tive faculty. But it included a good many prominent men and 
good teachers, and the members worked together harmoniously for 
many years. Dr. Swinburne was an able surgeon and had a more 
than national reputation. Dr. Ward was a New Yorker, and had 
been the choice of the old faculty as Dr. Armsby's successor. He 
was a pupil of Dr. Willard Parker's; had served for a time in the 
army, and was Professor of Anatomy, and subsequently of Sur- 
gery, in the Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary. 
His connection with the school was terminated only by his death 
in 1915. Dr. Gray was for many years medical superintendent of ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
637 
the Utica State Asylum for the Insane, and had a widely extended 
reputation as an expert in insanity. 
In 1873 Union University was created by act of the legislature, 
being chapter 193, Laws of 1873. With the close of the war, and 
the death of Dr. Nott in 1866, the attendance at Union College had 
fallen off and its influence had declined. Under the succeeding short 
presidencies of Dr. Hickok and Dr. Aiken, there had been no 
improvement and when, in 1871, Dr. Eliphalet Nott Potter, a 
grandson of Dr. Nott, was called to the presidency, efforts were 
made to raise funds and rehabilitate the institution. It was thought 
that the organization of a university, uniting the College of Schen- 
ectady with the professional schools at Albany, might be helpful 
to each, but the Albany representatives in entering into the agree- 
ment were careful to safeguard the rights and privileges possessed 
by their institutions. Those who took part in the organizations were: 
Hon. Ira Harris, President Potter and Judge W. F. Allen, from 
Union College; Judge A. J. Parker, Robert H. Pruyn and George 
Dexter, from the Medical College; Isaac Edwards and Thomas 
W. Olcott, from the Law School; and Dr. J. H. Armsby and H. R. 
Pierson, from the Dudley Observatory. As organized, the Uni- 
versity consisted of these four institutions, and to these has been 
added, in pursuance of the provisions of the original law, the 
Albany College of Pharmacy, created in 1881. By the charter, 
the original consenting institutions were authorized to make an 
agreement establishing the university, the government of which 
was placed in the hands of a board composed of representatives 
from the several institutions. But, and very wisely, the distinct 
powers of the several bodies thus uniting, relating to the holding 
of property, conferring of degrees, and indeed all other individual 
rights and prerogatives, were left unaffected and entirely undis- 
turbed by this union. The objects sought by affiliation were the 
mutual encouragement to be derived from combination, the help 
to be obtained from the faculties of the different schools in their 
common work of teaching, and such mutual financial aid as might 
be found possible. It was not thought that the location of the 
different institutions in different places need interfere with their 
mutual help and efficiency, nor has it proved so, but it can hardly 
be said that the union has been productive of any very tangible 
results. Attempts have been made from time to time to bring the 
different departments into closer affiliation, but with little success, 
nor is any very close union possible unless amendments are made 
to the charter, nor likely to be desirable unless the university, as 
such, is endowed with funds sufficient for its proper maintenance. 
Until such time, the trustees of the different institutions undoubt- 
edly can best and most economically manage their own, and par- 
ticularly their own financial, affairs. The union has done no harm 
and has probably been of some benefit in the past and has in it 
possibilities of further good in the future. 638 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
The additions which have been made to the teaching force of the 
college since 1876 have been very numerous. Many new positions 
have been created to meet the necessities of modern and enlarged 
methods of teaching, but it is doubtless true that a good many 
unnecessary appointments have been made, and that the places in 
the different departments have not been so well coordinated as they 
might have been. From 1876 to 1915 the more important additions 
to the faculty, or teaching staff, have been as follows and in the 
departments named: 
S. 0. Vander Poel, Jr., Practice, 1880-84; Franklin Townsend, Jr., 
Physiology, 1880-91, Emeritus to death in 1895; Frederic C. Curtis, Derma- 
tology 1880 to resignation in 1915; Henry Hun, Diseases Nervous System, 
1883 to resignation in 1914; Samuel R. Morrow, Surgery, 1884-87, and 
Anatomy to 1889, Anatomy and Orthopedic Surgery to 1902, Practice 
of Surgery and Orthopedic Surgery to resignation in 1915; Joseph D. 
Craig, Anatomy, 1890 to resignation in 1915; Howard Van Rensselaer, 
Materia Medica, 1890-96, Practice and therapeutics, 1896-98, Materia 
Medica, therapeutics and Practice, 1898 to resignation in 1914; Hermon 
C. Gordinier, Anatomy Nervous System, 1890-95, Physiology, 1895 to 
resignation in 1914; Carlos F. MacDonald, Insanity, 1891-92; Willis G. 
MacDonald, Surgery, 1891 to death in 1910; Herman Bendell, Physiology, 
1892-94, Otology, 1894-1915; Ezra A. Bartlett, Electro-therapeutics, 1892- 
96; G. Alder Blumer, Insanity, 1893-99; Theodore F. C. Van Allen, Oph- 
thalmology, 1894-1902; Andrew MacFarlane, Physical Diagnosis, 1895-99, 
and Medical Jurisprudence to 1914, Clinical Medicine and Medical Juris- 
prudence to resignation in 1915; Clinton B. Herrick, Clinical Surgery, 
1895-99, Railway Surgery, 1899-1903; John V. Hennessy, Materia Medica, 
1896-1901; William G. Lewi, Pharmacy, 1896-1900; Leo. H. Neuman, 
Symptomatology, 1896-1901, Gastro-enteric diseases, 1901-14, Clinical 
Medicine to resignation in 1915; George Blumer, Pathology and Bacteriol- 
ogy, 1897-1904; W. O. Stillman, History of Medicine, 1898-1915; Arthur G. 
Root, Diseases Throat and Nose, 1899 to resignation, 1915; J. M. Mosher, 
Insanity, etc., 1910-15; H. J. Lipes, Obstetrics, 1900-15; A. W. Elting, 
Surgery, 1901 to resignation, 1914; G. E. Lochner, Gynaecology and Ob- 
stetrics, 1901-15; S. L. Dawes, Materia Medica, 1902-14; C. F. Theisen, Dis- 
eases Throat and Nose, 1903-15; A. Sautter, Dermatology, etc., 1903-15; 
H. L. K. Shaw, Diseases Children, 1903-15; Richard M. Pearce, Pathology 
and Bacteriology, 1904-08; Edgar A. Vander Veer, Surgery, 1904 to resig- 
nation, 1915; J. A. Sampson, Gynaecology, 1906-15; H. C. Jackson, Physio- 
logical Chemistry, 1906-09; L. Archambault, Neurology, 1907 to resigna- 
tion, 1915; A. J. Bedell, Ophthalmology, 1908-15; T. Ordway, Pathology, 
1902-12; V. C. Myers, Physiological Chemistry, 1909-11; J. W. Wiltse, 
Dermatology, etc., 1909-15; H. J. Bernstein, Pathology, etc., 1911 to 
resignation, 1914; J. H. Gutmann, Surgery, 1911-15; R. W. Keeton, 
Physiological Chemistry, etc., 1912-14; A. H. Travers, Surgery, 1912-15; 
Ellis Kellert, Pathology, etc., 1914 to resignation, 1915; J. B. Harvie, 
Surgery, 1914-15; J. Meyers, Materia Medica, etc., 1914-15; A. Krida, 
Physiology, 1914-15; Arthur Knudson, Physiological Chemistry, etc., 
1914-15. 
The following table gives a list of courses given, with dates of 
commencements, number of students in attendance, and of grad- ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
639 
nates. It will be observed that from 1853 to 1863 two courses were 
generally given each year: 
COMMENCEMENTS AND GRADUATES 
No. of Course 
Date of 
Commencement 
No. of Students 
Attending 
Number of 
Graduates 
No. of Course 
Date of 
Commencement 
No. of Students 
Attending 
Number of 
Graduates 
1 
April 24, 1839 
68 
13 
44 
December 22, 1874.. 
116 
47 
2 
April 24, 1840 
February 24, 1841... 
73 
17 
45 
December 23, 1875.. 
123 
39 
3 
122 
30 
46 
January 31, 1877.... 
116 
38 
4 
February 23, 1842... 
101 
28 
47 
January 30, 1878.... 
123 
31 
5 
January 24, 1843.... 
103 
20 
48 
January 29, 1879.... 
153 
43 
6 
January 23, 1844.... 
108 
24 
49 
March 3, 1880 
161 
47 
7 
January 21, 1845.... 
108 
22 
50 
March 2, 1881 
179 
58 
8 
January 27, 1846.... 
115 
42 
51 
March 1, 1882 
170 
54 
9 
January 26, 1847.... 
109 
31 
52 
March 7, 1883 
157 
51 
10 
January 25, 1848.... 
88 
20 
53 
March 5, 1884 
March 4, 1885 
149 
43 
11 
January 23, 1849.... 
96 
25 
54 
143 
33 
12 
January 22, 1850.... 
93 
24 
55 
March 3, 1886 
145 
40 
13 
January 21, 1851.... 
81 
22 
56 
March 16, 1887 
145 
37 
14 
January 27, 1852.... 
66 
28 
57 
March 15, 1888 
March 21, 1889 
132 
37 
15 
January 25, 1853.... 
58 
19 
58 
136 
41 
16 
May 31, 1853 
38 
12 
59 
March 19, 1890 
148 
37 
17 
December 27, 1853.. 
75 
22 
60 
April 1, 1891 
April 27, 1892 
163 
42 
18 
June 13, 1854 
89 
31 
61 
168 
54 
19 
December 26, 1854.. 
76 
18 
62 
April 26, 1893 
171 
50 
20 
June 12, 1855 
73 
40 
63 
April 18, 1894 
173 
44 
21 
December 24, 1855.. 
74 
26 
64 
April 16, 1895 
204 
47 
22 
June 10, 1856 
81 
46 
65 
April 14, 1896 
April 20, 1897 
210 
50 
23 
December 19, 1856.. 
56 
18 
66 
244 
60 
24 
June 9, 1857 
50 
27 
67 
April 20, 1898 
195 
57 
25 
December 26, 1857.. 
99 
22 
68 
April 19, 1899 
154 
67 
26 
June 8, 1858 
71 
25 
69 
May 2S 1900 
124 
26 
27 
December 28, 1858.. 
65 
29 
70 
May 1, 1901 
142 
28 
28 
December 27, 1859.. 
85 
40 
71 
May 6, 1902 
154 
26 
29 
December 26, 1860.. 
73 
23 
72 
May 5, 1903 
May 3, 1904 
165 
33 
30 
December 21, 1861.. 
63 
21 
73 
173 
41 
31 
December 23, 1862.. 
98 
28 
74 
May 2, 1905 
172 
52 
32 
May 28, 1863 
60 
22 
75 
May 1, 1906 
May 8, 1907 
165 
32 
33 
December 22, 1863.. 
104 
21 
76 
195 
40 
34 
December 24, 1864.. 
110 
45 
77 
May 19, 1908 
180 
40 
35 
December 25, 1865.. 
111 
41 
78 
May 18, 1909 
180 
37 
36 
December 22, 1866.. 
116 
53 
79 
May 17, 1910 
196 
41 
37 
December 24, 1867.. 
88 
34 
80 
May 16, 1911 
208 
42 
38 
December 22, 1868.. 
96 
33 
81 
May 14, 1912 
223 
43 
39 
December 23, 1869.. 
76 
28 
82 
May 27, 1913 
239 
48 
40 
December 22, 1870.. 
86 
27 
83 
May 26, 1914 
258 
52 
41 
December 26, 1871.. 
100 
33 
84 
May 25, 1915 
173 
50 
42 
December 23, 1872.. 
100 
25 
2,967 
43 
January 20, 1874 ... 
107 
34 
Total graduates 1839-1915, 640 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
The first president of the faculty was Dr. Alden March, who 
served as such from 1839 to his death in 1869. His successors have 
been: James McNaughton to death in 1874; James H. Armsby to 
death in 1875. The title was then changed to Dean, and Dr. 
Thomas Hun served as such until death in 1896, and was followed 
by Albert Vander Veer to 1904; Samuel B. Ward to 1914, and 
Willis G. Tucker to resignation in 1915. The registrars of the 
faculty, who have managed the finances and had charge of the 
internal affairs of the school, have been: J. H. Armsby, 1839-1842; 
Thomas Hun to 1853; Howard Townsend to 1856; J. V. P. Quack- 
enbush to 1864; J. S. Mosher to 1870; John V. Lansing to 1876; 
Jacob S. Mosher to 1882; Willis G. Tucker, 1882 to 1914; Joseph 
D. Craig, 1914 to 1915. 
The Alumni Association, organized January 20, 1874, was first 
proposed by two members of the graduating class of that year, 
Henry B. Whitehorne and S. Oscar Myers. The writer approved 
their plan and cooperated with them in calling the first meeting, 
and drawing up a constitution and by-laws, and he was elected 
first secretary of the Association, served as such for twelve years, 
and was one of its incorporators. By the constitution, all grad- 
uates of the college are declared members of the association, the 
objects of which are to "promote the interests of the Albany Med- 
ical College in the work of medical education and to cultivate social 
intercourse among the alumni. ' ' In both respects it has been very 
successful. On various occasions it has given prizes for meritorious 
essays; under its auspices lectures upon scientific subjects have been 
given; it secured the erection of a bronze bust of Dr. J. H. Armsby 
in Washington Park, which was dedicated November 25, 1879; it 
has collected and arranged a large amount of historical data relat- 
ing to the school and its alumni, and at its annual meetings and 
banquets the graduates of the school have been brought together 
in large numbers. Since 1891 the "Albany Medical Annals" has 
been published under its auspices. The Association has about 1,600 
alumni upon its roll of members, and a record of 243 graduates 
who served as volunteer surgeons, or as commissioned officers, dur- 
ing the Civil War. The first president of the association was Dr. 
Henry D. Didama, Syracuse, class of '46, and the succeeding presi- 
dents have been: J. H. Beech, 1875; P. H. Strong, 1876; R. F. 
Stevens, 1877; J. H. Scoon, 1878; I. G. Collins, 1879; F. L. R. 
Chapin, 1880; A. Vander Veer, 1881; S. Van Etten, 1882; J. S. 
Mosher, 1883; H. T. Hanks, 1884; H. Bend ell, 1885; W. M. Flem- 
ing, 1886; J. H. Helmer, 1887; W. H. Bailey, 1888; W. C. Wey, 
1889; M. H. Burton, 1890; H. R. Powell, 1891; S. H. Freeman, 
1892; W. H. Woodruff, 1893; A. T. Van Vranken, 1894; Theobald 
"Smith, 18995; W. Hailes, 1896; H. B. Maben, 1897; W. G. Tucker, 
1898; J. H. Mitchell, 1899; T. D. Crothers, 1900; C. C. Schuyler, 
1901; W. W. Scofield, 1902; J. D. Craig, 1903; J. H. Cotter, 1904; 
C. B. Tefft, 1905; T. Wilson, 1906; T. H. Willard, 1907; F. H. BENDER LABORATORY, ALBANY ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
641 
Brewer, 1908; S. Voorhees, 1909; M. M. Lown, 1910; W. A. Hall, 
1911; A. G. Root, 1912; G. H. Janes, 1913; H. L. Chase, 1914; 
M. J. Lewi, 1915. 
Dr. Tucker served as secretary until 1886 and as recording sec- 
retary until 1897, when he was succeeded by Dr. J. M. Mosher; and 
in 1886 Dr. E. A. Bartlett was elected corresponding secretary 
and succeeded by C. M. Culver in 1887; J. B. Stonehouse, 1895; 
A. Mac Farlane, 1898; and J. N. Vander Veer in 1910. The fol- 
lowing have served as treasurer: J. S. Bailey, 1874; G. L. Ullman, 
1875; T. W. Nellis, 1885; S. A. Russell, 1889; T. F. C. Van Allen, 
1894; W. G. Lewi, 1900; R. Babcock, 1901 to date. In 1878 the 
office of historian was created and has been filled as follows: J. B. 
Stonehouse, 1878; E. A. Bartlett, 1887; C. E. Davis, 1896; H. S. 
Pearse, 1898; E. E. Hinman, 1902; A. J. Bedell, 1908. 
The Bender Hygienic Laboratory, established in 1895, was 
opened in the fall of 1896, and although a separate institution, has 
been operated in conjunction with the medical college, the two 
institutions being intimately associated and interdependent. The 
director of the Bender Laboratory has always been a member of 
the college faculty, and the college has provided most of the lab- 
oratory equipment, and for many years paid the salaries of its 
staff. In this laboratory, until very recently, all of the instruction 
in histology, embryology, bacteriology and pathological anatomy 
has been given, and a very large amount of work has been done 
under contracts with the State and city boards of health, and 
for the hospitals of the city and members of the profession in 
Albany and neighboring places. Much research work has been 
carried on, and the scientific publications of the laboratory have 
been numerous and important. Working in harmony with the 
medical school, and operated practically as an integral part of it, 
this laboratory has been of inestimable value to the college in its 
work of education and it has been of great service to the people 
of Albany and its vicinity and indeed to the State. The following 
have been the directors since its establishment: Dr. George 
Blumer, 1896-1904; Dr. Richard Mills Pearce, 1904-1908; Dr. 
Thomas Ordway, 1909-1912; Dr. Harry Saul Bernstein, 1912-1914; 
Dr. Ellis Kellert, 1914. 
In the matter of the medical student preliminary education re- 
quirement, as also in the raising of medical education standards, 
and the passage of laws providing for the examination and licen- 
sing of graduates in medicine by the State, the record of the 
Albany Medical College will show that it has been a leader in all 
the advances which have been made. As early as 1876, and four- 
teen years before the law providing for the preliminary education 
of medical students became operative, the school adopted and en- 
forced an entrance examination requirement; the faculty of the 
school aided in securing the passage of the medical examining and 
licensing laws; and the need of a State licensing board, independ- 642 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
ent of the colleges, was urged at a meeting of the Alumni Associa- 
tion in 1880 which was met by appropriate legislation thirteen 
years later. The writer, being registrar of the college, served as 
a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners from 1882 to 
1891, as did other members of the faculty, and the author of an 
historical sketch of the school published in the American University 
Magazine in May, 1897, very justly says: 
The additional requirement of this [examining and licensing] law 
and of other statutes directed to the improvement of the status of the 
medical profession, have always been promptly met and often anticipated 
by the rules of the college. Without endowment, and without other 
resources than the income from its matriculates, the college has always 
maintained the highest possible standard. The wisdom of this course 
has been attested by the loyalty of its alumni, the respect of its friends, 
and the growth of its classes. For three generations it has had a vigor- 
ous and honorable career. Its future is no less assured than its past. As 
long as pride in literary and scientific culture shall be characteristic of 
the city of its home, so long shall the Albany Medical College exist. 
The record made by the graduates of the college before the exam- 
ining and licensing boards of this and other States has been, for 
many years, an excellent and most gratifying one, and this despite 
imperfections in the methods adopted by the boards in the conduct 
of their examinations, and errors and inconsistencies in the tabula- 
tion of the results by the boards, and by the ' ' Council on Medical 
Education" of the American Medical Association which has col- 
lected and collated the statistics for the entire country, and pub- 
lished them annually in tabulated form in the A. M. A. Journal. 
In 1905, of fifty-one schools having fifty or more graduates exam- 
ined in various States, the Albany Medical College was one of only 
three schools which had no candidates rejected. Fifty-six of its 
graduates were examined in seven States, and all passed. In 1906 
thirty-seven graduates of 1901-6, inclusive, were examined in five 
States and all but one passed. In 1907 forty-three graduates of 
1902-7, inclusive, were examined and two failed. In 1908 forty- 
five graduates of 1903-8 were examined in four States and all 
passed. In 1909 thirty-seven graduates of 1905-9 were examined 
and three failed, and in 1910 out of forty-two graduates of 1906-10 
three failed. For the six years ending in 1910, the percentage of 
failures of recent graduates, meaning those of the preceding five 
or six years, as reported by the A. M. A., has been 3.7, while the 
average percentage of failures for all the medical schools of the 
country was 14.9 in 1910. Not very much importance, however, 
should be attached to these figures, for the examination methods 
in the various States are so different, and in many cases so imper- 
fect and unsatisfactory, and the method employed in tabulating 
the results by the American Medical Association is so irrational ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
643 
and unjust, that the data are of little value. For example, in the 
A. M. A. reports the same individual is counted over and over 
again in some cases, so that for the six years ending in 1912 there 
was reported the examination of 308 A. M. C. graduates, although 
only 243 had received its diploma. That is, 26 per cent more men 
were reported as having been examined by boards than had been 
graduated from the college. Such methods of collecting and tabu- 
lating statistics are entirely unreliable, and often highly mislead- 
ing and unjust. Unavailing protests have been made against such 
methods because some of these misleading figures have been used 
by those unfriendly to the school, as proof of inefficiency, in recent 
attacks upon the school, although its record has been consistently 
good and continuously creditable. It is certainly a very unfor- 
tunate thing, which threatens the usefulness, and in some cases the 
very existence, of our educational institutions, that irresponsible 
associations and corporations, having no jurisdiction, may yet by 
influence derived from mere wealth or size interfere with, dictate 
to and, in a measure, regulate independent schools, as of medicine, 
which are in no way answerable to them, and which they have no 
legal right in any way to manage or control. 
The course which the Carnegie Foundation has pursued, and its 
treatment of the medical schools, is illustrative of what has been 
said, and its investigation of the Albany Medical College is typical 
of that kind of outside interference which has done much harm 
and threatens, unless controlled, to do a great deal more. No his- 
tory of this school, however brief, can omit mention of this investi- 
gation, which was productive of no good result whatever, but, on 
the contrary, did it irreparable injury. The school had never 
applied to the Foundation for advice or assistance; was in no 
way answerable to it, and the Foundation had no jurisdiction in 
the premises. Nevertheless the registrar received a call by tele- 
phone, January 27, 1910, from Mr. Abraham Flexner requesting 
that he meet him at nine o 'clock. He was busily engaged, but other 
matters were put aside and Mr. Flexner was courteously received 
and everything was exhibited to him, and even the college books 
put at his disposal. He was given every opportunity to make 
a proper inspection of the school, the Bender Laboratory, the hos- 
pitals, dispensaries and other institutions used by the college in 
its work of instruction, but he contented himself with a hasty glance 
here and there and hurried back to New York by a mid-day train. 
His report on the school may be found at page 265 of Bulletin No. 
Four and it is evident that he found more time to advise with 
those unfriendly to the school than with its faculty, friends and 
supporters, for the report is unfriendly, unfair, incomplete and, 
indeed, distinctly hostile in its tone. The faculty was assured 
that a proof of the report would be submitted to them for sug- 
gestions before printing but this was done at such a time and in 
such a manner that no revision was possible and, despite a unani- 644 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
mously voiced protest from the faculty, the report was published 
essentially as first written. It is filled with flippant and unwar- 
ranted judgments and is based on hastily formed opinions resting 
upon careless observation and preconceived opinions and preju- 
dices. Matters which have occupied the attention of educators 
and leading Albanians for years are passed upon out of hand 
with superficial flippancy, as for example the organization of 
Union University (pp. 13-141) ; the financing of the Bender Labora- 
tory (pp. 80-138) ; the reference to medical politics and cliques 
(p. 112), and the statement that another college and Albany 
"have no books at all" (p. 82), whereas the fact is that the 
Albany school presented its library to the state as the founda- 
tion of the medical division of the State Library and that its 
students have admirable, if not unequaled, facilities for library 
study and research. The statements on p. 265 as to laboratory 
facilities are incorrect, misleading and unjustified by the facts in 
the case, and whereas the statement made concerning the anatom- 
ical department is that there are "a few charts, models, etc.," the 
fact is that the museum is richly supplied with illustrative material 
of all kinds, and with charts, plates and slides for screen demon- 
stration in good condition, and great abundance, which are in con- 
stant use. But Mr. Flexner gave not a moment of his time to 
any inspection of these but hurried away to take a glimpse of the 
Bender Laboratory and a glance at one of the hospitals and one 
of the dispensaries, and then back to New York to write a report 
in which he sets it down that "the schools of Buffalo, Albany and 
Brooklyn belong to the past" (p. 276). 
This action of the Carnegie Foundation hurt the school mate- 
rially. It was not that the citizens of Albany, the alumni, or 
friends of the college in general, were much affected by it, but it 
injured its reputation in educational circles, with state examining 
boards and similar bodies, supplied those unfriendly with material 
on which to base further attacks, and made it difficult to secure 
pecuniary or other support for the school. Meantime the school 
had never been more efficient, better organized and maintained, 
never better supported by its alumni, nor had its classes ever been 
so large. It would be difficult to select a case that would better 
illustrate the damage that may be inflicted upon a well-established 
and well-organized, reputable, going institution by the unwar- 
ranted interference and attack made upon it by an outside and 
irresponsible body, possessed of no authority, hostile in its attitude, 
suggesting no remedy for the imperfections it alleged to have 
discovered, and proffering neither aid nor useful advice. Our 
educational institutions have indeed fallen upon evil days in that 
they are exposed to such assaults as this, and the Albany medical 
school is but one of many which have suffered. The people, and 
especially is it true here in the East, seem as yet hardly to realize 
the existing danger to our schools, colleges and professional insti- ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
645 
tutions, which is a grave and menacing one threatening their very 
existence if this unwarranted interference is not opposed. 
In 1907 some additions were made to the regular or voting fac- 
ulty which were opposed by the minority, and this led to various 
attempts to define more accurately the regular professorships, with 
better coordination in the different departments, and gradual 
reduction of the number of positions on the executive faculty. The 
faculty eventually adopted a plan which was recommended to the 
trustees but, as it was not unanimously approved by the faculty, 
a conference of the faculty and trustees was held which resulted in 
the adoption in 1912 by the trustees of certain new by-laws provid- 
ing for nine departments and prescribing the method by which 
appointments thereafter should be made. These appeared to be 
satisfactory to the faculty and they constituted a working agree- 
ment between the trustees and faculty and, although the trustees 
subsequently made very radical changes in the faculty organiza- 
tion, the faculty never received any information that these by-laws 
had been rescinded or even in any respect amended. At this time 
the faculty were making a determined effort to raise funds for the 
erection of new buildings. They had secured from the County a 
plot of ground on Delaware avenue; had made a contribution of 
$10,000 to the building fund in hands of the trustees; had raised 
nearly $18,000 for a MacDonald memorial which was to form part 
of the building fund, and they had caused plans to be drawn and 
estimates made for new buildings. In addition to these funds 
the trustees had in their hands nearly $10,000 which had been 
given to the building fund by an alumnus of the school and other 
friends of the faculty which was planning an active campaign 
to raise money for the school. All this had been accomplished 
without any financial aid from the trustees who, so far as known 
during fifty years and up to 1915, had never contributed anything 
to the support of the school. 
It has already been pointed out that although the Board of 
Governors of Union University is possessed of no real control of 
the various departments the closer affiliation of these departments 
has often been discussed. In 1914 a committee, made up of repre- 
sentatives from the different institutions, was appointed to con- 
sider the matter and several meetings were held at which there 
was much acrimonious discussion but nothing was accomplished 
since the Albany institutions were not disposed to relinquish the 
control of their own affairs without substantial reason, and as it 
was seen that no real change in administration could be made un- 
less the charter was amended by the legislature or Regents the 
committee was discharged from further consideration of the mat- 
ter at the next meeting of the governors and the matter was 
dropped. 
The discussion of this matter, however, had an important influ- 
ence upon the affairs of the school. In the natural order of things 646 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
several members of the faculty, who had served for thirty or forty 
years, resigned their active professorships and this seemed to 
afford the desired opportunity for two or three other members, 
who had been of the minority that opposed the addition of the 
new members in 1907, to demand a change in college management 
with resignation of the entire faculty, rearrangement of the de- 
partments, and appointment of a new faculty by the "university" 
in some way which was not even suggested and certainly was not 
feasible. These gentlemen, constituting but a very small minority 
of the then existing faculty, failing to convert the majority to 
their view, thereupon resigned in the summer of 1914. These 
withdrawals were regretted but they did not seriously impair the 
efficiency of the faculty. The majority had made every reasonable 
concession to the wishes of the minority but to no purpose since 
three members (in reality but two since one had no intention of 
remaining) demanded, as their ultimatum, the resignation of all! 
To have complied would have destroyed the school. No new plan 
had been formed, or even proposed, nor had authority to appoint 
a new faculty been vested in any other board than that which 
had always possessed it,-that is, in the trustees of the school, and 
they, speaking through their vice-president in the absence of the 
president, advised the faculty to fill the vacancies in the prescribed 
manner, and assured the faculty of their support. It was a trying 
time. The middle of July had come and if the entire faculty had 
resigned no one stood ready to effect a reorganization nor could 
such have been brought about in time for reopening the school in 
September, and if its doors had not reopened then they would prob- 
ably have remained closed forever. Those who stood by the school 
in the summer of 1914, in the face of the strong opposition of a 
small minority, saved the institution. The existing faculty was 
the legally constituted and properly appointed faculty, and the 
immediate need was only that a few places should be filled. A 
meeting of the entire teaching staff was held, at which more than 
forty were present, and only one withdrew his support, and, 
assured by the trustees of their approval and support, vacancies 
were filled, the staff well organized and the writer, who was acting 
dean, was chosen dean until such time as a successor occupying 
one of the medical chairs should be selected. The school opened 
at the usual time in September with a smaller entering class as 
anticipated on account of the raised entrance requirement but 
with a total attendance of 173. The teaching staff consisted of 
eleven full professors, twelve clinical and three adjunct-professors, 
twenty-seven lecturers, including five special lecturers from the 
State Department of Health, and fifty-six instructors and clinical 
assistants. Need there was of some additions and changes, and 
of the appointment of one or two more full-time teachers, and 
these were under consideration, but that the work of the year was ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
647 
efficiently done is evidenced by the results of the licensing exami- 
nations, if any value is to be given to these, for, of the graduating 
class of this year (1914-15) taking state board examinations the 
percentage of failures was 8.8, while for Cornell it was 6.7, for 
Syracuse 11.1, for Columbia 11.8, and for the ten schools of the 
State averaged 12.87 per cent. 
In October, 1914, a conference was held at the office of the vice- 
president of the board of trustees, at which the executive com- 
mittee of the board and certain members of the faculty were pres- 
ent, to consider the needs and condition of the school, and on 
November 30 another conference was held at which both the presi- 
dent and vice-president of the board were present, and plans which 
the faculty were making for raising funds were discussed. At 
neither of these conferences was anything said or implied to the 
faculty representatives which indicated that the trustees contem- 
plated withdrawing their support, or were other than in full 
sympathy with the efforts which the faculty were making to carry 
on and strengthen the school. And in conformity with sugges- 
tions made at the second conference, meetings of the trustees and 
faculty were held on December 19 and 21 at which plans were 
presented by well-known campaign promoters for raising funds. 
At the first of these meetings several trustees were present but 
exhibited little interest in the matter and at the second meeting 
only one was present. A few days later the faculty were informed 
that the trustees deemed it unadvisable "at present to enter into 
a contract for a public campaign for funds." At the second of 
these meetings the secretary of the trustees handed to the dean 
a paper requesting the faculty to ' ' take prompt steps to recommend 
to the board ' ' a dean, and stating that a sub-committee of three had 
been appointed to act with the faculty in the matter. The com- 
munication was a surprising one because, while it recognized the 
fact that the nomination should originate with the faculty, it indi- 
cated that the trustees were disposed to take the initiative in 
any selection which was to be made. One or two hastily called 
conferences were held but after that of December 30, the coopera- 
tion of the faculty was not requested, and in the action subse- 
quently taken the faculty had no voice. 
On February 15, 1915, the trustees notified the faculty that they 
were prepared to appoint a dean and to meet the deficits of reve- 
nue under a plan proposed for a period of five years and until an 
endowment should be raised. This was a surprising burst of 
activity since the trustees had never contributed anything 
heretofore to the support of the school, but the reference to their 
action as a plan "proposed" for the "consideration" of the fac- 
ulty meant nothing since a dean had already been appointed, by 
a method entirely unprecedented, and in advance of the existence 
of any vacancy in the office. Thus were past precedents, by-laws 648 
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK 
and agreements, swept aside in the precipitate and questionable 
exercise of a technical right. The dean of the faculty, who had 
never desired to retain the office permanently, promptly tendered 
his resignation. Early in March a conference, so-called, of faculty 
and trustees was held at which was presented a plan for ' ' reorgan- 
ization" calling for the resignation of the entire faculty and the 
appointment of a dean with power to appoint a new one and 
administer the affairs of the school. That a proposal so revolu- 
tionary and unprecedented should have been approved by any 
self-respecting body of teachers could hardly have been expected, 
and adjournment was taken for a few days during which time the 
faculty prepared a statement of their case for consideration at 
the conference to which adjournment has been taken. But this 
conference was never held, for the trustees, learning of the action 
taken by the faculty, refused to meet with the faculty and sent them 
a communication demanding their resignations. Had the faculty 
complied with this request by tendering their resignations, 
to take effect immediately, the doors of the school must have been 
closed, and they would, in all probability, never have been reopened. 
But the faculty remained at their posts without further argument 
or protest, having tendered their resignations as demanded, carried 
on the work of the school successfully to the close of the session, 
and then turned over to the trustees all property in their possession, 
however acquired, all books and records, and nearly eleven thou- 
sand dollars in cash, although with a few exceptions the entire 
teaching staff had received no compensation whatever during three 
of the five years preceding. 
That the Albany Medical College should have survived such 
a method of reorganization is indeed surprising and is to be ex- 
plained by the fact that the real friends of the school desired 
its perpetuation and entered into no contest that might have 
injured the school. The old faculty left to their successors a well 
organized and equipped going institution, with a large and expe- 
rienced teaching staff, and while a good many of these did not 
choose to accept reappointment, none of them exhibited any antag- 
onism to the institution nor attempted to injure it by opposi- 
tion. The majority of the students remained in the school, for it 
is by no means easy to change from one college to another, and as 
the trustees agreed to finance the school for a term of years the 
administration of its affairs was not a difficult task. But this 
method of financing is at best but a temporary one and the con- 
tinued existence of the school must depend upon the raising of 
sufficient funds to permit the erection and equipment of new build- 
ings and the providing of an adequate endowment. For over three- 
quarters of a century the school has been successfully operated; its 
reputation is widely extended, and its long and creditable history 
is one of its most valuable assets. It has a large and loyal body ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE 
649 
of alumni who have always been its best friends and chief sup- 
porters, and despite the wrongs which have been done, the school 
survives and its friends are encouraged to hope that it may be 
perpetuated and eventually so managed as to secure and deserve 
the respect and support of its many friends.