Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/71

AYERS on the fifth of January in the First Presbyterian Church, discussed the propriety of establishing a hospital for the care of the insane, and a school for the education of the blind, and sent a memorial, embodying their discussions, to the legislature. Before the close of their session, an appropriation was made for the erection of a hospital for the insane at Columbus, a site purchased, the building completed in 1838, and Dr. Awl became superintendent. In 1837 he headed a movement for the establishment at Columbus of schools for the blind and feeble-minded, and the original resolution (which became a law), in his own writing, properly framed, hangs in the entrance hall of the "School for the Blind" in the southeastern part of the city. The school for the feeble-minded was not established until the "sixties."

Awl was married January 28, 1830, to Miss Loughey, and had five children, John, Woodward, Mary, Jennie, and Margaret, all of whom, with their mother, survived the doctor who died in Columbus, November 19, 1876, from the consequences of an attack of cerebral hemorrhage sustained some months before.



Ayers, Edward A. (1855–1917)

Edward A. Ayers, physician, lecturer, writer, was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, Dec. 20, 1855, the son of Marshall P. Ayers, a banker and railroad builder, and Laura Allen. His early education was had in the public schools, and at Whipple Academy; he graduated from Illinois College in 1877. He graduated in medicine from the New York University in 1880, and practised in New York for several years. He was professor of obstetrics in the New York Polyclinic; a founder and first president of the Mothers and Babies Hospital of New York, and was a well-known scientific lecturer. His paper, "The Mosquito as a Sanitary Problem," won the Carpenter Prize of the New York Academy of Medicine. This formed a lecture which he gave in many places, using illustrations made by himself. It is a full, admirable, popular, well-illustrated exposition of the life-history of the mosquito in its relation to disease and the methods of extermination. This paper was published in Fulton's "Expository Writing" as one of "fifteen best examples of the English language." He contributed to magazines and medical journals, and wrote "Physical Diagnosis of Obstetrics."

Ayers was a musician, a trained organist, and skilled as an artist, making illustrations for many of his articles. He was a notable golf-player and won nine cups.

For two years he was a member of the New Jersey State Board of Health and medical inspector of the local schools.

In 1895 Dr. Ayers married Joy, daughter of Van Sinderen Lindsay, of Nashville, Tenn.

In 1908 he went to Branchville, New Jersey, where he practised until he moved to Franklin, in the same State, not long before an attack of pneumonia, which lasted but four days. He died at the Franklin Hospital, Dec. 3, 1917, survived by his widow, a son, Edward L., who served on ambulance duty in France, and a daughter, Ellen.



Ayres, Daniel (1822–1892)

This Brooklyn surgeon was born in New York City, October 6, 1822. He was educated at Princeton College and after attending medical lectures at Castleton Medical College, Vt., graduated M. D. at the University of the City of New York in 1845. He served as assistant physician at Bellevue Hospital and settled in Brooklyn where his life was spent. From 1846 to 1853 he was surgeon to the Brooklyn City Hospital, which he helped to establish, and in 1856, at the founding of the Long Island College Hospital, he became surgeon to that institution and professor of clinical surgery and surgical pathology in the medical school connected with it, positions he held until 1874 when he became professor emeritus. He was said to be successful as a lecturer and to illustrate his subject with many ingeniously prepared specimens, which he made himself. Another office he held after 1870 was consulting surgeon to St. Peter's Hospital. In 1856 Wesleyan University conferred the honorary degree of LL. D. upon him. Dr. Ayres did a successful plastic operation for exstrophy of the female bladder in November, 1858, reported in the American Medical Gazette, N. Y., 1859, x, 81–89, 2 plates. This was similar to the first successful operation for this affection that had been done by Joseph Pancoast, of Philadelphia, in February, 1858, but not reported until the following year, therefore Ayres should have the credit of having worked out the details of a new operation, independently.

Dr. Ayres published in addition papers on "Successful Reduction of Complete Dislocation of the Cervical Vertebrae;" "Operation for Artificial Anus;" and "Trepanning of the Skull for Reflex Epilepsy."