Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1043

NAME SAYRE 1021 SAYRE Sayre, LewU Albert (1820-1900) Lewis Albert Sayre, who has been called the father of American orthopedic surgery, began his surgical career at the early age of four. A hen on his father's farm had hatched an egg which produced two chicks bound together by a link somewhat like the Siamese twins but so short that one or the other was always fluttering in the dust. The child thought if the band uniting the two were only severed the trouble would be cured, and getting his mother's scissors proceeded to operate, with the result that both chickens bled to death. The incident made a profound impression on the family doctor to whom Mrs. Sayre related the story. Dr. Sayre was born on February 29, 1820, at Bottle Hill, now Madison, New Jersey, the son of Archibald Sayre whose ancestor, Thomas, came to this country from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England, and settled at Lynn, Massachusetts, about 1638. His mother was Martha Sayer (not Sayre). His father dying when he was twelve years old, the boy went to Lexington, Kentucky, where he was brought up by his uncle, David A. Sayre, a wealthy banker, who hoped he would enter the ministry and assume charge of a church in Lexington, which he, in a great measure, had built. The young man, however, set his heart on becoming a doctor, and return- ing East entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, having as his preceptor Dr. David Green. He received his diploma in 1842, and was immediately ap- pointed prosector of surgery under Professor Willard Parker (q. v.), a position he held until 1853, when he was made emeritus prose- cutor. In 1853 he was appointed surgeon to Bellevue Hospital and in 1859 surgeon to the Charity Hospital on Blackwell's Island. He was one of the founders of the Belle- vue Hospital Medical College in 1859 whose motto "Chnica Clinice Demonstranda" was the underlying feature of the teaching in the new institution, its faculty believing that medicine and surgery must be taught by living demon- strations instead of theoretical disquisitions. In this institution he held the chair of ortho- pedic surgery and fractures and luxations till its amalgamation with the New ''ork Uni- versity in 1898 when he became emeritus pro- fessor of orthopedic surgery, his son, Dr. Reginald Hall Sayre succeeding him in the active professorship. He was also one of the founders of the New Y'ork Academy of Medicine, New Y'ork Pathological Society, and the American Med- ical Association. Of the last he was elected vice-president in 1866, and president in 1880. In his presidential address he suggested the substitution of the Journal for the previ- ously printed "Transactions," a suggestion that was adopted the following year. Although chiefly known for his contribu- tions to orthopedic surgery. Dr. Sayre from 1860 to 1866 held the office of resident phy- sician of New York City under four succes- sive Mayors, Wood, Opdyke, Gunther, and Hoffman, and during his incumbency showed himself to be far ahead of his time by his advocacy of precautions for the preservations of the health of the community that are now taken for granted, such as compulsory vac- cination against smallpox, intelligent disposal of sewage and sanitary inspection of tene- ment houses. He also demonstrated that cholera instead of being a disease caused by a mysterious miasm as was then thought, was communicated by human beings, and succeeded in anchoring it in the harbor and keeping it from spreading beyond the con- fines of the vessel on which it originated; at this time he urged the necessity of quar- antine regulations being under Federal and not State control. The power of observation and the inven- tive genius which showed itself in his oper- ation on the chickens as a child were dis- played in his professional career. In his first paper contributed to the profession entitled "Case of abscess from pneumonia of left lung terminated fatally by forming a fistulous opening between the third and fourth ribs and an abscess in the substance of the Lung," he made the following query: "In an abscess of one lung, if we could accurately diagnos- ticate that the other was in a perfectly healthy condition, might we not puncture the thorax and collapse the diseased lung with some prospect of success in gaining an adhesion of its walls? or in empyema of a tuberculous patient from rupture of an abscess into the pleura, would we not be justified in tapping as soon as discovered? This was October 18, 1842. When we remember the date of this statement we see the evidence of an original mind and independent thought. In orthopedic surgery Dr. Sayre was a pio- neer. He performed the first successful resec- tiot; of the hip joint in this country in 1854, and in 1871 demonstrated his treatment of hip joint disease before a number of the medical societies of Europe, and received the decoration of the Order of Wasa from Charles IV, King of Norway and Sweden in