102 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



physiology delivered by Dr. Wright Post, those on chemistry 

 and practice of physic, by Dr. Nicholas Romayne, and the 

 valuable course on midwifery and the diseases of women and 

 children, by Dr. Bard. I also attended the practice of physic 

 and surgery at the almshouse, which then offered the only 

 means of clinical instruction in this city ; they were, how- 

 ever, 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 Co- 

 lumbia, formerly King's College, having been broken up by 

 the Revolution. So after a year of private study Hosack pro- 

 ceeded to Philadelphia and enrolled at the medical school of 

 the University 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 War- 

 ner, a young lady of great worth, to whom he had become at- 

 tached while pursuing his collegiate studies. 



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

 Dr. Hosack settled first at Alexandria, Va., which place he be- 

 lieved was to be the capital of the United States. The prac- 

 tice that he acquired here, although considerable? was not sat- 

 isfactory to him, and after a year's residence he returned to 

 New York. He now determined to supplement his medical 

 studies abroad. " Observing the distinction," to quote his 

 own words, " which our citizens at that time made between 

 those physicians who had been educated at home, and those 

 who had had additional instruction from the universities of 

 Europe, and knowing how little property I had reason to ex- 

 pect from my parents, I found that my chief dependence was 

 upon my own industry and increasing attention to the profes- 

 sion I had chosen as the means of my subsistence ; my ambi- 

 tion to excel in my profession did not suffer me to remain in- 

 sensible under such distinction. Although it was painful 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 character- 

 istic liberality, acquiesced in my views and wishes. In August, 



