At this period the Medical Faculty which had carried on its work for twenty years in the Coté Street building required more accommodation and a closer connection with the University. Funds for its adequate equipment were not available. Indeed, ten years later Principal Dawson wrote: "It is somewhat singular that this school so ably conducted and so useful, has drawn to itself so little of the munificence of benefactors. Perhaps the fact of its self-supporting and independent character has led to this." It was decided, however, to undertake the construction of a Medical Building on the College property. In 1872 the front block of what was afterwards known as "the old Medical Building" was erected for the Medical School, and the Medical Faculty returned, this time permanently, to the College grounds. Funds for its endowment were afterwards given by its friends. The year 1872 is a notable one in the history of the McGill Medical School, for another reason than the erection of its first McGill building,--it was also the year of the graduation of William Osler, destined later to exercise so great an influence on medical education in Canada, America, and Europe. The department of Applied Science which had been connected with the Faculty of Arts since 1856 was expanded into a separate Faculty in 1878. It had been temporarily suspended because of a lack of funds in 1870; it was now re-created, greater than before. But it had yet no building and no adequate equipment. These, however, were to come in due course.