Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1297

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WYMAN
1275
WYMAN

ton shipmaster, and was survived by a son and daughter.

In 1846 he published a volume of 400 pages on ventilation which was an authority for many years; in 1868 appeared "Progress in School Discipline" from his pen.

On February 23, 1850, he removed a large quantity of fluid from the chest of a patient suffering from pleural effusion, making use of an exploring needle and a stomach pump. He repeated the operation a few days later with success, and on April 17, of the same year, operated on a patient of Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch (q.v.). Bowditch was convinced of the value of the operation, described it and gave it popularity, assigning, however, the credit of the invention of thoracentesis to Wyman. In 1863 Wyman delivered the annual discourse before the Massachusetts Medical Society on the subject: "The Reality and Certainty of Medicine," an excellent supplement, to Oliver Wendell Holmes' address in 1860 on "Currents and Counter-Currents in Medical Science."

Wyman was the author of a brochure on "Autumnal Catarrh (Hay Fever)," published in 1872, in which he described two forms of the disease of which he was a victim annually.

He was dearly beloved by many generations of students at Harvard College to whom he was not only the college physician, but adviser and helper in time of need.

Harv. Grad's. Mag., June, 1903.
Mem. by H. P. Walcott.
Mem. meeting, Boston Med. & Surg. Jour., vol. clxix.
Bull. Harv. Med. Alumni Asso., April, 1903.
History Harv. Med. School, T. F. Harrington, 1905.
Boston Med. & Surg. Jour., vol. clxviii.

Wyman, Walter (1848–1911)

Walter Wyman, Surgeon-General of the United States, was born at St. Louis, Missouri, August 17, 1848, his parents being Edgar Wyman, LL.D., and Elizabeth Hadley Wyman. His ancestors were among the pioneers of New England.

He attended St. Louis University and Amherst College, graduating from the former in 1866 and from the latter in 1870. From this latter institution he received the degree of A. B. at graduation, and that of A. M. in 1889. He attended the Medical Department of Washington University, and graduated in 1873, receiving the degree of M. D. He later received the honorary degrees of LL.D. from Western University of Pennsylvania in 1897, the University of Maryland in 1907, and Amherst College in 1911.

Dr. Wyman entered the Marine Hospital Service as assistant surgeon October 21, 1876. He was promoted to the grade of surgeon Oct. 1, 1877, and became surgeon general May 27, 1891.

Early in his official life he became interested in public health matters. As a result of this interest, laws were enacted to improve the physicial conditions affecting sailors in the merchant marine. In 1876 he advocated the use of the "prairie schooner" as a means of affording sailors the benefit of the high, dry climate of the Southwestern plateau. In later years he was instrumental in the establishment of a sanatorium for consumptive sailors at Fort Stanton, N. M. Perhaps his most important services to his country were the development of a national system of quarantine already begun and the fostering of scientific research in matters pertaining to the public health.

Dr. Wyman was a member of many societies, in a number of which he held important offices. He was president of the American Public Health Association in 1902 and of the Association of Military Surgeons in 1904. He was vice-president of the American National Red Cross in 1904 and of the American Medical Association in 1905.

Other societies to which he belonged included the American Academy of Medicine. American Medical Editors Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Climatological Society.

He was chairman of the International Sanitary Bureau of American Republics, and in this capacity did much to unify maritime quarantine practice.

He was also chairman of the Committee on International Quarantine of the Pan-American Medical Congress in 1896, and of the Section on Public Health of the International Congress of Arts and Sciences in 1904. During the International Congress on Tuberculosis in 1908 he was president of the Section on State and Municipal Control of Health Matters. For a long period he was director of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis and the National Association of Mental Hygiene.

During his public life he contributed many scientific and popular articles relating to health matters. Lists of these under appro-