I BELIEVE that this is the first time that a symposium on the history of dermatology has ever been presented before a medical body. That the Committee on Education of such an important organization as our American Academy of Dermatology and Syphilology decided to present this symposium evidences the growing interest in the history of our specialty and their appreciation of the immense amount of groundwork done by our dermatological forebears, as also the importance of their superlative contributions to the specialty we so greatly love.
In order to allay any qualms of jealousy amidst many personal friends living in cities equally important to those mentioned, may I state that it is my impression that the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago were designated for this symposium simply because they are the centers of an immense population, and the rapid development of the specialty of dermatology in them was not due to any special group of supermen