Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/794

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MAYO 772 MAYO sylvania, graduating in 1808 with a thesis entitled "On the Sensorium." Mayo became editor of the Jackson Demo- crat in Richmond, Virginia, and in 1830 moved to Washington, where he entered into govern- ment service. He compiled an "Epitome of Ancient Geog- raphy" (1814) ; "A New System of Mythol- ogy" (1819) ; "The Pension Laws of the United States ... by desire of the Secre- tary of War for the Use of the Pension Office" (1832) — a second edition was with Ferdinand Moulton (1852), the fourth edition was published in 1861 ; "Synopsis of the Com- mercial and Revenue System of the United States" (1847). He left an uncompleted gen- ealogical history of the Mayo family. His work, "Political Sketches of Eight Years in Washington" (1839), prints in an introduction letters of commendation from distinguished persons of the time, including Dr. John Syng Dorsey, Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, Dr. Charles Caldwell, the Rev. Dr. Frederick Beasley, John Adams, James Madison, John Marshall and Winfield Scott; in the same book the author bewails the "sacrifice" made "in pursuing the phantom of Jacksonian democracy," Mayo died in Washington, October 31, 1864. Howard A. Kelly. Political Sketches of Eight Years in Washington, by Robert Mayo, Balto., 1839. Appleton's Cyclop, of Amer. Biog., N. Y., 1887. Mayo, William Worrell (1819-1911) William Worrell Mayo was born May 31, 1819, near Manchester, England, being a descendant of an old English family, who settled in the vicinity of Manchester in the year of 1527, and of whom many have won marked distinction in the learned profession. He received his general education in Man- chester, England, where he was a pupil and protege of the famous physicist, John Dalton, under whose direction he was trained as a physicist and chemist. In 1845 he came to the United States and practised his profession as a chemist in New York City. In 1847 he removed to Lafayette, Indiana, where he engaged in the study of medicine with Dr. Eleazar Deming. After serving an apprenticeship with Dr. Dem- ing for two years, he went to St. Louis and completed his medical studies in the Uni- versity of Missouri. There he acted as as- sistant to Professor John Hodges, and gradu- ated in 1854. After obtaining his medical degree he removed to Minnesota with his family, a wife and child. In Minnesota he practised medicine first in St. Paul, and later in Duluth and finally settled in Le Sueur, Minnesota, where he resided at the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1862 occurred the massacre of the settlers in Minnesota by the Sioux Indians. Dr. Mayo was surgeon with the band of settlers who checked the advance of the Sioux at New Ulm, and shortly after this he was appointed provost surgeon for Southern Minnesota in charge of the recruiting stations for the Civil War. In 1863 he removed his residence to Roch- ester, Minnesota, where he continued to reside until his death on March 6, 1911. In 1871 Dr. Mayo took a postgraduate course at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, and received his ad eundem degree. Always greatly interested in surgery and one of the pioneers in abdominal surgery in Amer- ica, he successfully performed his first laparot- omy for ovarian tumor in 1871, and during the next thirteen years made thirty-six sim- ilar operations. He was one of the first physicians in the West to adopt the aid of the microscope in medicine and he became expert in its use. Dr. Mayo was one of the founders of the Minnesota State Medical Society in 1868 and its president in 1873. In 1882 he organized the Olmsted County Medical Society, of which he was a member during the remainder of his life. For nearly fifty years he was a member also of the American Medical Association. He made numerous contributions to medical litera- ture on various medical and surgical topics. Politically he was a staunch democrat. He served as mayor of the City of Rochester several terms, and was state senator for his district for two terms. Dr. Mayo was a life- long advocate of those political reforms which lead to equal opportunity for all men. and he lived long enough to see many of his ideals realized. He was most charitable to the poor, giving of both his time and money freely. Dr. Mayo was not in active practice during the last fifteen years of his life, but he con- tinued to be greatly interested in his profes- sion and paid daily visits to the hospital. When he was 85 years of age he made a trip around the world alone, and when 88 years of age he spent several months in Japan and the Orient. His death occurred I^Iarch 6, 1911, as the result of an injury to his left hand and arm a year previously. In 1851 he married Louise A. Wright. He was survived by three children : Mrs. D. M. Berkman, Dr. William J. Mayo and Dr. Charles H. Mayo, all residing and the sons practising surgery in Rochester, Minnesota. BuRNSiDE Foster.