 A year later, he matriculated as a medical student at the City University of New York.While there, Abbott was appointed as clinical lecturer in New York College of Dentistry (1866), as Professor of Operative Dentistry (1868) and as dean, (1869).From 1894 - 1895, Abbott failed in attempts to have the trustees there establish a Chair of Pathology and Bacteriology (with his son as incumbent) and to have the University of New York regents replace an act of incorporation of the college with a new regent-approved charter.