172 BULLETIN OF THE 



he entered Princeton College as a student of the sophomore class, 

 and graduated with the degree of A. B., in 1849. Princeton con- 

 ferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts in 18*52. 



At Princeton, Otis appeared as a slender, rather delicate youth, 

 of highly nervous organization, whose literary tastes were not 

 satisfied with the comparatively narrow curriculum of his Alma 

 Mater. Always standing well in his college classes, that he did not 

 take a still higher place was not due to lack of ability or of studious 

 habits, but rather to his love of general literature, and the large pro- 

 portion of his time expended in its cultivation. He had already 

 acquired a fondness for French literature, which he never afterwards 

 lost, and a taste for verse so far cultivated that Avhen he came to 

 graduate the Faculty assigned to him the task of preparing the 

 commencement-day poem. Retiring and reserved in his manners, 

 often silent and abstracted, the few who were admitted to his intimacy 

 found his nature gentle and sympathetic, and several of the friend- 

 ships he then formed lasted throughout his life. 



By this time Otis had selected medicine as his profession. After 

 leaving Princeton he went to Richmond, Virginia, where his mother 

 was then residing, and began his studies in the office of Dr. F. H. 

 Deane, of that city. In the fall of 1849 he proceeded to Phila- 

 delphia, and matriculated in the Medical Department of the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania. That institution conferred upon him the 

 degree of Doctor of Medicine in April, 1851. In those days the 

 medical teachings of the University of Pennsylvania were shaped 

 in no small degree by the influence of the Schools of Paris. Indeed, 

 this was then true of almost all American medical teaching, and 

 ambitious American medical students still looked with enthusiasm 

 towards the lecture-rooms and hospitals of the French capital as 

 affording the richest opportunities for the completion of their medical 

 education. Accordingly Otis spent in Paris the first winter after 

 he graduated in Philadelphia. He sailed from New York on the 

 16th of August, and reached Paris in the latter part of September, 

 1851. 



During his stay in Paris, Otis made diligent use of the oppor- 

 tunities afforded for professional improvement. A manuscript 

 note-book left among his papers shows that he devoted much time 

 to the clinical teachings of the great French masters of that day. 

 He listened to the instructions of Louis, Piorry, Cruveilhier, and 

 Andral. It was at the time his expectation to give especial attention 



