TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE 19TH-CENTURY AMERICAN NEUROLOGIST - PRELUDES TO THE MODERN NEUROLOGY RESIDENCY

During the nineteenth century, two parallel developments, a surge in n euroscience discovery and the advent of medical specialization, result ed in new educational demands for advanced, postgraduate neurologic tr aining in the United States. Archival data, including trustees' report s, school charters, and instructional plans from medical institutions in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, document three compara tive models for early postgraduate neurologic training. First, senior physicians with an interest in neurologic disease incorporated postgra duates directly into their practice and as laboratory assistants; seco nd, medical universities, as well as distinct postgraduate schools, or ganized advanced general medical curricula with optional opportunities for focused neurologic training; and third, separate neurologic hospi tals provided physicians with full-time clinical instruction specifica lly in neurology. As a result, although neurology residencies were not established until the 1900s, postgraduate neurologic training was fir mly institutionalized in nineteenth-century America. These programs pr ovided doctors in the United States with advanced neurologic education al opportunities and expertise and fostered the development of a disti nct American neurologic school.