MAY 771 MAYO he practised in his native city and joined the Medical Society of the District of Columbia in 1838, his father then being president. In 1839 he was elected to the chair of anatomy and physiology in Columbia College, District of Columbia, and in 1841 was transferred to that of principles and practice of surgery, a position he filled most acceptably un- til his resignation, in 1858. He was honored about the same time with the professorship of surgery in the University of Maryland, which he filled for two years. He became also a member of the section of physiology and medicine of the National Institute, Washing- ton. In 18S8 he was elected to the chair of surgery in the Shelby Medical College, Nash- ville, Tennessee. He was one of the first surgeons in America to amputate at the hip- joint with success, and the first in Washing- ton to perform ovariotomy. His skill was widely recognized, so that for years most of the major surgery in Washington fell to his care. Shortly after the Civil War he removed to New York, continuing, however, to spend much time in Washington attending to his real estate and other interests ; the whole family returned to live in Washington about 1880. In 1884 he was elected surgeon on the consulting staff of Garfield Memorial Hos- pital, serving there faithfully and as president of the medical staff for five years, until the necessity for lessening his duties owing to advancing age induced him to resign. He died on May 2, 1891. ^^^^^ ^^^^^ Lamb. Minutes of Medical Society, Dist. of Columb., May 4, 1S91. "Rdniniscences," Busey, 1895. May, James (1798-1873) This physician was born on April 11, 1798, in Dinwiddle county, Virginia; graduated from the University of Pennsylvania 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. Nevertheless, "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 consultation. James May 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 amassed a handsome fortune, but was a man who 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 convalescent, 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 amusing anecdote is told by the late Dr. J. H. Claiborne (q. v.) of Dr. May. The doc- tor and he had been attending a valuable negro man, the property of a plain old farmer, and on the occasion of this 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." James May died in Petersburg, November IS, 1873, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, after over half a century of practice. So far as we can discover, he made no con- tributions to medical literature, save only his inaugural thesis, "Hemoptysis," if this may be termed a contribution. Robert M. Slaughter. Virginia Clin. Record, vol. iii. Seventy-five years in old Virginia, J. H. Clai- borne, M. D., 1904. Mayo, Robert (1784-1864) Robert A'layo, physician, editor, political writer and author of educational works, came of the distinguished Virginia family whose first representative was William Mayo (168S?- 1744), civil engineer, who, born in England, went to the Island of Barbados in 1716 where between 1717 and 1721 he made a survey, the map of which was deposited in the Library of King's College, O.xford. He Vent to Vir- ginia in 1723, did important surveying there and laid out the city of Richmond in 1737. His grandson, the subject of our sketch, was born in Powhatan County, Virginia, April 25, 1784. He was educated at William and Mary Col- lege, when Bishop Madison was president, and studied medicine at the University of Penn-
