Wednesday, April 11, 1956, shall henceforth be remembered by us and by those who are curious about medical history, as the day when a Chair of Dermatology and Syphilology was dedicated at the New York University-Bellevue Medical Center in the name of George Miller MacKee. It is fitting that Marion B. Sulzberger should be the first to occupy this chair, thus insuring the perpetuation of the accomplishments and the advancement of the goals of the Skin and Cancer Unit.
It is my pleasant task this evening to relate the story of this Unit. It begins in 1882, the year of the founding of the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital at 243 East 34th Street. This institution was thus one of the very first of all hospitals expressly devoted to the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The main floor was opened as a dispensary for