BYFORD ]
several amputations which could not be improved upon, and was skillful with the knife, but did not like to use it.
He was a member of the Maine Med- ical Association, and wrote for it two excellent papers, one on the use of the forceps, and another on amputations.
It was, however, in emergencies that Dr. Buzzell was at his best. A man of thirty developed symptoms calling for tracheotomy; a consultation was held, but none of the physicians dared to operate. Dr. Buzzell did the operation successfully, and forty years later the patient was still living. He was exceed- ingly fond of travelling, enjoyed a trip to Europe, and was clever as a musician. He married twice, first to Anna Hanson, next to Susan Whitmore, of Cape Eliza- beth, Maine, by whom he had two daughters and a son.
In his later years he suffered from enlargement of the heart and died very suddenly, for while ascending the stairs to a patient's chamber, he was taken with severe pains around the heart, and died in a few minutes, April 10, 1890. J. A. S.
Trans. Maine Med. Assoc., 1890.
Byford, William Heath (1817-1890).
Dr. Byford, gynecologist, was born in the village of Eaton, Ohio, March 20, 1817, the eldest of three children. His parents were Henry T. and Hannah Byford ; the former, a mechanic in strait- ened circumstances, died when William was only nine, at which tender age he was obliged to seek such work as he could find. At fourteen he was ap- prenticed to a tailor, and spent the en- suing six years in mastering his trade and acquiring such knowledge of books as was possible. When eighteen he deter- mined to become a physician and chose as his preceptor Dr. Joseph Maddox. Not long after the termination of his appren- ticeship, he was examined by a commis- sion and granted license to practise medicine.
His professional life began in the year
8 BYFORD
1S3S in the town of Owensville, Indiana. Two years later he removed to Mt. Vernon, Indiana, where he married the daughter of Dr. Hezekiah Holland, and during his ten years in this town studied medicine in the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati, and in 1845 he graduated from this institution. In 1850 he was called to the chair of anatomy in the Evansville Medical College, and in 1852 was elected to the chair of the theory and practice of medicine in the same college.
In 1857 Dr. Byiord received a call to the chair of obstetrics and the diseases of women in the Rush Medical College of Chicago, and after serving two years he associated himself with others to found the Chicago Medical College, where he occupied a similar chair until the year 1879, when he was recalled to the Rush Medical College to fill the chair of gynecology. In 1870 he was foremost in championing the cause of medical edu- cation for women, participating eagerly in founding the Women's Medical Col- lege of Chicago, to which he ever after- wards contributed most liberally in every respect.
As a worker in medical societies he was also active, being one of the founders of the American Gynecological Society and honored member of the Illinois State Medical Society. Medical journ- alism, too, owes much to him, for he was editor of the "Chicago Medical Journal" and afterwards of the "Chicago Medical Journal and Examiner."
His publications began in 1S47 with a paper on "Cesarean Section," and in- clude a great variety of medical topics, the fruit of a vast professional observa- tion. His literary labors will be best remembered by his works on "Clvonic Inflammation and Displacements of the Unimpregnated Uterus," "Practice of Medicine and Surgery applied to the Diseases and Accidents of Women," and his work on " Obstetrics ' (1862).
Dr. Byford's name is familiar in con- nection with many important innova- itons in the treatment of gynecological
