MAY
156
MEACHAM
the hip-joint, and the first in Washinp:-
ton to perform ovariotomy. His skill
was widely recognized, so that for
years most of this kind of practice in
"Washington fell to his care.
Shortly after the Civil War he re- moved to New York, continuing how- ever, to spend much time in Washing- ton attending to his real estate and other interests and the whole family returned to live in Washington about ISSO. In 1SS4 he was elected surgeon on the consulting staff of Garfield Mem- orial Hospital, serving there faithfully and as president of the medical staff for five years, until the necessity for lessening his duties owing to advanc- ing age induced him to resign. He died on May 2, 1891.
D. S. L.
Minutes of Medical Society, D. C, May 4, 1891. Busey'a "Reminiscences."
May, James (1798-1873).
This physician was born on April 11, 1798, in Dinwiddie county, Virginia; graduated from the University of Penn- sylvania in 1820, and began practice in Christiansville, in the county of Mecklenburg, Virginia. After a few years he removed to Petersburg, and practised in partnership with his brother. Dr. Benjamin May, who was the elder and blind, having become so very soon after he began practice. Never- the-less, " By force of intellect, shrewd, hard sense, courage and will, he forged his way to the front among men who were no pigmies, and he stood easily unus inter -pares, acquired a good practice and was much sought in con- sultation.
He was a member of the Medical Society of Virginia. A very hard worker, he was rarely known to have taken a holiday. By frugality and prudence he massed a handsome for- tune, but was a man that could not be allured by the seductions of wealth or by it be moved to display or self- indulgence, being always plain in dress, and almost primitive in his tastes
and habits. In those days it was
sometimes a custom with the wealthier
farmers in Virginia to say to their
physicians, when the patient was con-
valescent, bringing forth at the same
time a roll of bank notes or a bag of
specie, "Doctor, pay yourself." In
connection with this custom, an amus-
ing anecdote is told by the late Dr.
J. H. Claiborne of Dr. May. The
doctor and he had been attending a
valuable negro man, the proi)erty of
a plain old farmer, and on the occa-
sion of their final visit, the patient
having been pronounced convalescent,
the farmer brought forth a bag of
specie and placing it on a table
with the mouth wide open, remarked,
"Doctors, pay yourselves." Dr. May
had a very large hand, and as he went
for the "pay," it looked much larger
than usual. The old man noticed it,
and his confidence failed him, and just
as Doctor Claiborne was about to pay
himself, he touched him on the shoulder
and said, "Doctor, before you put
your hand in that bag, remember there
is a God in Heaven looking at you.
It was afterwards remarked by the
Doctor, "he scared me so that I did
not get half my pay."
He died in Petersburg, November 15, 1873, in the seventy-sixth j^ear of his age, after over half a century of practice.
So far as we can discover, he made no contributions to medical literature, save only his inaugural thesis, " Hemoptysis," if this may be termed a contribution.
R. M. S.
Va. Clin. Record, vol. iii.
Seventy-five years in old Virginia, J. H.
Claiborne, M.A., M.D., 1904.
Meacham, Franklin Adams (1862-1902).
Chiefly known for his heroic efforts in fighting unsanitary conditions in the Philippines Franklin Adams Meach- am was born near Cumberland Gap, Kentucky, October 28, 1862, the son of an army surgeon.
He graduated at Yale and took his
