In 1866, Alexander H. Stevens, a former president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of New York (P&S), established a fund of $1000 the interest of which would finance a prize in a competition for the best essay on a medical topic.  The prize was to be awarded every three years and the determination of the winner entrusted to a “commission” composed of the president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the president of the P&S Alumni Association, and the professor of physiology at P&S.  The prize competition was open to all, not just those associated with P&S.