Dr. John Kearsley and Dr. William Thornton were two busy and intensely active eighteenth century physicians who found time to acquit themselves most creditably in the field of architectural endeavour as well as to do their full share in the discharge of sundry public duties which their fellow citizens entrusted to them. Dr. Kearsley, arriving in Philadelphia in 1711, soon built up an extensive practice and, at the same time, undertook the instruction of a younger generation of medical men whom he is said to have enrolled as apprentices for a seven years’ term of tutelage, a relation that the “apprentice” students apparently found “both onerous and exacting, as it seemed to include the duties of a servant, coachman, messenger-boy, prescription clerk, nurse and assistant surgeon.” Apart from his labours as a physician, he was engaged in civic and Provincial activities of the first order and long occupied a seat in the Assembly of the Province. As an architect, he is entitled to the highest praise for the masterly and surpassingly beautiful design of Christ Church, erected from his plans in 1727, and inspired to some extent, so it appears, by Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, in London. Dr. William Thornton is to be remembered as the designer of the first Capitol at Washington whose erection he likewise superintended. When Latrobe restored the building, after its partial demolition by the British troops in the War of 1812, he adhered very largely to Dr. Thornton’s plan. During a long residence in Philadelphia, he took an active part in public affairs, was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society and designed the old Philadelphia Library, which was completed in 1790. Many houses are also to be ascribed to Dr. Thornton’s agency. His connexion with the federal buildings necessitated his removal to Washington where he continued to live for the remainder of his life, occupying a position as first head of the Patent Office.