John Allan Wyeth, surgeon, soldier and author, received his medical training during the era immediately after the Civil War. After realizing the inadequacy of American medical education. Wyeth sought to establish a system of postgraduate medical instruction in the United States. The New York Polyclinic, founded in 1882, was the first facility to provide such training in America and was an important factor in the movement to revolutionize the teaching and practice of medicine and surgery in this country. Wyeth's other contributions include a classic textbook of surgery, the development of numerous surgical procedures, narratives of battles and leaders of the Civil War, and progressive leadership in prominent medical organizations of the period.