Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/177

 MAY

sity of Iowa, where he obtained his M.D. in 1864. In the same year, entering the Army of the United States, he served as acting assistant surgeon until the close of the Civil War. In 1868 he was promoted to the rank of captain, and in 1889 to that of major. Dur- ing a great part of his military life Matthews was on duty at various army posts in the West. Coming in contact with many Indian tribes, he became deeply interested in Indian ethnology and philology, and wrote numerous articles on anthropological subjects, among which may be mentioned "The Human Bones of the Hemenway Col- lection," "Myths of Gestation and Parturition," "On Measuring the Cubic Capacity of the Skull," etc. A volume of "Navaho Legends" was published in 1896. Matthews died at Washington, April 29, 1905.

A. A.

Watson, Physicians and Surgeons of America, Concord, 1896.

May, Frederick (1775-1847).

Frederick May, was born November 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts, and took his M.B. in 1795; his M.D. in 1811, from Harvard.

He came to Washington in 1795 — five years before the transfer of the National government to the City, and he was a pioneer who prepared the way for others.

The third president of the Medical Society, he was re-elected for fifteen successive years, 1833-1848, and then declined a re-election against the un- animous protest of his colleagues. No other president served in that office for so long a period.

When he came to the City it was a mere wilderness, and he was the only practitioner of medicine. He soon suc- ceeded in securing the confidence of the residents, and, as the city increased in population so did he add to his popu- larity and professional usefulness.

In the year 1823, upon the establish- ment of a medical school in this city

155 MAY

he was appointed to the chair of obstet- rics. In this he distinguished himself as a lecturer, by the soundness of his doctrine, the beautiful and classic style of his lectures. He was an in- corporator of the Medical Society of District of Columbia.

During the last year of his life he withdrew from active duty, and died January 23, 1847.

D. S. L.

Minutes of the Medical Society, D. C, Jan- uary 23, 1847, published in the Boston Medi- cal and Surgical Journal, 1847, xxxvi. Busey, " Remiaiscencea ". Drake's Diet. Amer. Biog., 1872.

May, Frederick John (1812-1891).

The son of Dr. Frederick May, he was born on May 19, 1812, his ancestry was of the early New England colonists and patriots of the Revolution. He graduated B.A. Columbia College in 1831 and shortly after graduation in medicine from Columbia College in 1834 he went to Europe and spent over a year in the leading hospitals of London and Paris, in this way famil- iarizing himself with all the latest in medicine and surgery. After an ex- tended tour through Europe, the West Indies and the United States, he practised in his native city and joined the Medical Association in 1838, his father then being president. In 1839 he was elected to the chair of an- atomy and physiology in Columbia College, District of Columbia and in 1841 was transferred to that of princi- ples and practice of surgery, which 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, Washington. In 1858 he was elected to the chair of surgery in the Shelby Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee. He was one of the first surgeons in America to amputate with success at