The School was opened on 25th October, 1831. The founders secured premises at the Leeds Public Dispensary and invited others to contribute lectures to the prospectus, which was published in newspapers and The Lancet.
Mr. Thomas Teale delivered the inaugural address to the year’s thirteen students and the wider public; the address was published in full in the Leeds Mercury. Part of it was advice to the students:
"It is too frequently considered by the medical student that the great end of his studies is to qualify himself for passing an examination and obtaining a diploma.
"Let me beg of you to aim at nobler objects. Let your unwearied endeavours be to store the mind, not merely for passing an examination, but for future usefulness.
"Permit me also to guard you against the too prevalent idea that in receiving a diploma or what is termed ‘completing your education’ you have exhausted the stores of science, - nothing more is to be learnt, - that you are infallible. Every subsequent part of your life will convince you of your delusion. Indeed so far from the act of receiving a diploma being considered the completion of your medical education you must regard it as being the very threshold -The whole life of a medical practitioner is one continued course of pilgrimage."
