836 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



I also attended the practice of physic and surgery at the alms- 

 house, which then offered the only means of clinical instruction 

 in this city ; they were, however, very ample, the house being 

 daily visited by Dr. Post, Dr. William Moore, Dr. Romayne, and 

 Dr. Benjamin Kissam." 



There was then no institution in New York empowered to 

 grant the degree in medicine, the medical faculty of Columbia, 

 formerly King's College, having been broken up by the Revolu- 

 tion. So, after a year of private study, Hosack proceeded to 

 Philadelphia and enrolled at the medical school of the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania, where Drs. Shippen, Rush, Kuhn, and 

 Wistar were then among the professors, and in the summer of 

 the succeeding year obtained his medical degree. In the same 

 year he married at Princeton Miss Catharine Warner, a young 

 lady of great worth, to whom he had become attached while pur- 

 suing his collegiate studies. 



By the advice of Dr. Rush and others whom he consulted, Dr. 

 Hosack settled first at Alexandria, Va., which place he believed 

 was to be the capital of the United States. The practice that he 

 acquired here, although considerable, was not satisfactory to him, 

 and after a year's residence he returned to New York. He now 

 determined to supplement his medical studies abroad. " Observ- 

 ing the distinction," to quote his own words, "which our citizens 

 at that time made between those physicians who had been edu- 

 cated at home and those who had had additional instruction from 

 the universities of Europe, and knowing how little property I 

 had reason to expect from my parents, I found that my chief 

 dependence was upon my own industry and increasing attention 

 to the profession I had chosen as the means of my subsistence : 

 my ambition to excel in my profession did not suffer me to 

 remain insensible under such distinction. Although it was pain- 

 ful for me to think of leaving my family, consisting then of a 

 wife and child, I accordingly suggested to my father the propriety 

 of my making a visit to Europe, and of attending the medical 

 schools of Edinburgh and London. He at once, with his char- 

 acteristic liberality, acquiesced in my views and wishes. In 

 August, 1792, leaving my family to the care of my parents, I took 

 passage for Liverpool." 



After spending a few days in Liverpool he proceeded to Edin- 

 burgh, where he attended the medical lectures at the university 

 during the following winter. In the spring, after a visit to his 

 father's birthplace, where he met two uncles and other relatives, 

 and to some other places in Scotland, he repaired to the metropo- 

 lis and entered as a pupil of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He also 

 frequently visited other hospitals when any important surgical 

 operations were performed, surgery being the favorite subject of 



