beds had created a long waiting list, and many prospective patients had had to be turned away. Yet, in the five years, 1903-8, there had been an increase of nearly 100 per cent in the number of patients treated each year, and the increase in obstetrical work had been proportionate to the growth of the department’s clinical work as a whole. Another frame house intended as a ward for contagious diseases was moved to a site a little to the west of the Maternity Ward in 1908, but remained empty while city and University officials again discussed the possibility of building a modern contagious disease hospital. Peterson suggested that this second house be used instead as an addition to the obstetrical clinic and outlined a plan whereby the department might obtain a larger proportion of obstetrical patients in the earlier stages of pregnancy. These suggestions were approved by the Regents, and at last the department came into possession of an obstetrical clinic worthy of the name. The newly acquired building was made into a residence for waiting patients and was called the Maternity Cottage; and the former Maternity Ward was changed into a Maternity Hospital, for patients in labor and for post partum patients. At this time the main room of the Maternity Hospital was equipped for small demonstration classes in obstetrics. In the Maternity Cottage eighteen to twenty patients were always available for demonstrations of the various fetal presentations, normal and abnormal. These presentations were also being demonstrated by the use of manikins. In all, the department had about thirty obstetrical beds and more teaching 22 Obstetrics and Gynecology material than was furnished by the type of teaching clinic in which there were more deliveries but few waiting patients. Success in maintaining this necessary teaching material lay in the fact that the patients were charged only while waiting, and this nominal sum, $2.50 a week, they could pay by performing certain duties for the hospital, such as the preparation of bandages and the repairing of linens, during the waiting period. One hundred and one deliveries were reported for the year ended June, 1910. The list contained an unusually large proportion of abnormalities, which were utilized for purposes of instruction. In the next few years the department continued to grow, in spite of serious handicaps. It should be borne in mind that since 1850, although obstetrics and gynecology had been emphasized as major subjects and taught on a par with medicine and surgery, during the first forty years almost nothing had been done to develop the clinical work of the department. Very little more had been accomplished in the nineties. Since 1900, however, the two small buildings had been secured and more liberal rules had been established, whereby, through reduced rates, obstetrical material was obtained. Seen in this perspective, the situation of the department in the years which followed 1908 might appear to have been favorable. Actually, however, conditions were so unsatisfactory that, from the modern point of view, it seems hardly possible that they could have been endured. Both wooden structures were firetraps, and it had been intended that they be used for obstetrical cases only until suitable quarters could be secured. The proximity of the small detention ward to the Maternity Hospital constituted a serious threat to the welfare of post partum patients. Surgical patients in the gynecological service were still endangered by the septic condition of the main Hospital, which in addition to having been poorly designed had not been properly kept in repair. The situation was somewhat improved by the opening of two new buildings in the decade 1901-11 (Palmer Ward and the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Ward), because this additional space provided some relief from congestion in the surgical wards. An attempt was made in 1913 to establish an outpatient obstetrical service for poor patients referred by physicians or Obstetrics and Gynecology (1942) 23 charitable societies, but for several reasons — principally because of the small size of the town — the effort proved a failure and was abandoned. In June, 1914, the much-needed Contagious Disease Hospital, given by the city of Ann Arbor, was made ready for occupancy. With the new unit in operation, maternity patients with doubtful or pronounced contagious diseases could be cared for satisfactorily. The installation of this ward benefited every department of the Hospital, because it prevented epidemics and quarantines, and for the Department of Obstetrics in particular, it provided relief by doing away with the need for the tworoom contagious shack, which had long menaced the welfare of obstetrical patients. Plant alterations involving a new annoyance were made, however, in the same year: the track of a trolley line for carrying coal from the Michigan Central Railroad to the new heating plant on Washington Street was laid between the Maternity Hospital and the Maternity Cottage. This greatly increased the difficulty of transporting patients in labor from one building to the other — not to mention the noise of the loaded coal trains, running between the buildings at night with clanging bells. Peterson was Medical Director of the University Hospital and executive officer of its medical committee from 1913 until 1920,