is told elsewhere. I came to New York City in 1872. To my surprise and disappointment, there was here no opportunity for the special instruction or training of a graduate, except by attending the lectures in common with undergraduates. As this was the best I could do, I took this course at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and was graduated ad eundem in March, 1873. In April of that year I was appointed assistant demonstrator of anatomy in this college, where in this capacity and as prosector to the chair of anatomy and assistant to the professor of pathology I worked until 1877.

I had never lost sight of the conviction brought home to me by my unfortunate experience, that the most perfect theoretical education could not properly prepare one for the practice of medicine and surgery unless supplemented by a thorough practical training, under expert guidance, at the bedside and in the operating-room and laboratory; and in 1877 I undertook to organize a school in which such training could be secured.

The scheme then formulated required for admission a college degree, or an equivalent classical education, to be determined by a preliminary examination, and a five-year term of study, of which three years were to be in the undergraduate and two in the postgraduate or clinical department. I submitted this plan to a number of distinguished medical men-among whom were Doctors J. Marion Sims, Willard Parker, Frank H. Hamilton, and A. Jacobi. All of them gave it their hearty approval. On account of the long term of study and rigid requirements for admission it was realized that in competition with the short-term colleges such an institution could not be supported by student fees; and these eminent men, each of whom had

qua non.

treated me with marked personal consideration, insisted that an endowment sufficient to furnish an income which would assure the payment of current expenses was a sine For three years 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 postgraduate school. Meanwhile I had visited Europe and had studied the methods in vogue in London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna.

The organization was begun in 1881, and the school was opened in East Thirty-fourth Street in 1882, with the following faculty and assignment of subjects:

Department of Dermatology-Dr. A. R. Robinson, Dr. E. B. Bronson. Department of Gynecology-Dr. W. Gill Wylie, Dr. Paul F. Mundé. Department of Diseases of Children-Dr. John H. Ripley, assisted by Dr. L. Emmet Holt, who succeeded him.

Department of Laryngology-Dr. Richard Brandeis, Dr. Louis Elsberg.
Department of Ophthalmology-Dr. David Webster, Dr. Emil Gruening.
Department of Medicine-Dr. James R. Leaming, Dr. E. Darwin Hudson.
Department of Neurology-Dr. Landon Carter Gray, assisted by Dr.
M. Allen Starr.

Department of Surgery-Dr. J. A. Wyeth, Dr. A. G. Gerster.
Department of Orthopedic Surgery-Dr. V. P. Gibney.

At the suggestion of Dr. Richard Brandeis, the foreign appellation of "Poliklinik" was changed to "Polyclinic,' from Tolvd (many), and kλwe (beds). From the day our doors were opened the success of postgraduate instruction was assured, and it has become a permanent feature of medical education. As before stated, it is based upon the recognized fact that no amount of theoretical teaching in an undergraduate college can turn out a thoroughly equipped practitioner.