BYRNE 185 CABELL mechanical skill and a life-long student of physics he invented, after much disappoint- ment and long experiment, a liquid storage battery that would give current enough to amputate the diseased cervix vi'ith his cautery knife. This operation of "high amputation" he perfected and continued to perform and advocate with great energy for many years. In 1872 he published a work entitled "Electro- cautery in Uterine Surgery." The material which came to him was enormous, and his re- sults, published in 1889 in a monograph, en- titled, "A Digest of Twenty Years' Experience in the Treatment of Uterine Cancer," have never been equalled. His earliest complete removal of the uterus by cautery was per- formed in 1225. His operation attracted at- tention abroad and he was invited to operate and demonstrate his methods in the larger clinics of France and Germany. Of late years this method of Byrne has been receiving a good deal of attention from numerous gyne- cologists. Dr. Byrne was a prolific and convincing writer and contributed articles on many gyne- cological subjects, but his principal claim to distinction rests upon his many articles on the treatment of uterine cancer by means of the cautery knife. Dr. Byrne was active in many societies. He was a founder of the American Gynecological Society and president in 1892, a member of the New York Obstetrical Society, 1874-75, and first president of the Brooklyn Gyneco- logical Society, 1890-91. The degree of LL.D, was conferred upon him by the College of St. Francis Xavier, New York, in 1896. In religion Dr. Byrne was a Roman Catho- lic, for which he manifested the proverbial love and loyalty of the Irish race. He was married and his family life was ideally happy, being blessed with three sons and four daugh- ters. In 1902 Dr. Byrne made his annual visit to Europe for rest and diversion. His health had always been robust but his years were telling upon him. After a short illness he died in Montreaux, Switzerland, on October 1, 1902. By his friends he will be remem- bered as a man of scholarly attainments, strong convictions, loyalty to friends, a cheery disposition that was infectious, a capacity tor hard work seldom equalled, and unselfishness of disposition. Victor L. Zimmermann. Trans. Amer. Gyn. Soc, Charles Tewett, 1903, xxviii, 323-325. Also same, Album of Fellows. 1901. Portrait New York Journal Gyn. & Obs., 1892, ii, 42-43. Portrait. Cabell, James Lawrence (1813-1889) William Cabell (q.v.), founder of the Cabell family in Virginia, a surgeon and citizen of the eighteenth century, had for a grandson one Dr. George Cabell, Jr., who married Miss Susanna Wyatt. To them was born August 26, 1813, James Lawrence Cabell. As a boy he went to private schools in Richmond, and to the University of Virginia, where he matricu- lated in 1829. An earnest and diligent student, he obtained his A. M. in 1833. The following year he continued the study of medicine in the University of Maryland, and took his M. D., having taken his first course of lectures at the University of Virginia. In 1873 Hampden-Sydney College conferred upon him her LL.D. To further his studies, he went to Paris, and continued to study there until 1837, when he was called to the chair of anatomy, physiology and surgery in the Uni- versity of Virginia, which he filled with eminent ability until 1856, when a chair of anatomy and materia medica was created, he continuing to teach physiology and surgery, and for a time comparative anatomy, until his retirement from active work at the end of the session of 1888-89, after over fifty years of active service. He was a member of the Medical Society of Virginia, and in 1876 was elected president. During the war between the states. Dr. Cabell was in charge of the Confederate States Military Hospital at Charlottesville, Virginia, from July, 1861, to May, 1862, and again from September, 1862, to the end of the war. Dr. Cabell was a man of zeal and learning, both of a professional and general nature, and wonderfully well rounded in his acquire- ments. For half a century the greater part of his energies were devoted to teaching and it was as a teacher that he stood preeminent. An able diagnostician and possessing a vast fund of knowledge, his services as a con- sultant were much sought. During the Civil War, when in charge of the military hospital at Charlottesville,- his skill and his remarkable executive abilities were exhibited in a high degree. He married in 1839 Margaret Gibbons, but had no children, and he adopted two nieces who grew up to comfort his declining years. After some months of failing health, he passed away on the thirteenth of August, 1889, at the house of Major Edward B. Smith, in .Albemarle County, Virginia. While by no means a voluminous writer, he was the author of a book and some valuable papers. His most notable work, entitled "Testimony of Modern Science to the Unity
