NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 85 



qualified to the station; at the head of the latter continued, for some time, the learned 

 and distinguished Samuel Bard, M. D. as dean. Among the professors who were ap- 

 pointed to deliver lectures on the different branches of medicine, were several gentlemen 

 of acknowledged talents and great professional merit. The exertions of the trustees of 

 Columbia College, in their annexing a medical school to that institution, are deserving of 

 the highest commendation ; and it cannot be denied that the science of medicine was 

 promoted by its establishment, particularly in this state. 



By an act passed by the legislature of this state in March, 1791, the Hon. the Regents 

 of the University were authorized to institute a College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

 The power thus vested in them they thought proper to exercise in 1807; and, accord- 

 ingly, a charter for the purpose of establishing a College of Physicians and Surgeons iu 

 the city of New-York was granted, bearing date the 12lh of March, 1807. The esta- 

 blishment of an institution to be exclusively devoted to the cultivation and diffusion of 

 medical science, under the patronage of the Regents of the University, and its sanction 

 by the legislature, were circumstances viewed with the greatest satisfaction, and afforded 

 just cause of congratulation to the friends of science throughout the state. That the 

 high expectations which were entertained of the benefits that would flow to the coramu> 

 nity from its establishment were well founded, the history of the college during the 

 time it has been in operation presents the most conclusive evidence. In November, 

 1807, the business of the medical college commenced, and courses of instruction were 

 delivered on all the branches of medicine. The ability and success with which the 

 teachers filled the important stations assigned them was such, that the legislature, at 

 their next session, made the liberal appropriation of twenty thousand dollars, for the 

 benefit of the college. The whole number of students who attended to the institution 

 the first year was fifty-three ; the second year there was seventy-two students, a greater 

 number than had ever before resorted to a similar institution for medical instruction in 

 this city: the third year the college was attended by seventy- three students from New- 

 York, and other states in the union. 



In 1810 the rapid progress of the college in its importance and usefulness received a 

 temporary check, and its brilliant prospects were, for a while, overcast, owing to certain 

 misunderstandings having taken place between the then president and professors. The 

 Regents of the University, upon receiving authentic information of the dissensions which 

 had thus been created, with the same laudable zeal for the promotion of medical science 

 with which they had originally been induced to organize the establishment, immediately 

 adopted measures for ascertaining the cause of the mischief, and for the removal of every 

 obstacle which might retard its prosperity. This they did at their meeting held at 



