Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/792

NAME MAXWELL 770 MAY Maxwell, George Troupe (1827-1879) George Troupe Maxwell, of Jacksonville, Florida, the son of a planter, was born in Bryan County, Georgia, August 6, 1827. His maternal grandfather. Colonel John Baker, was an officer of the Revolutionary Army from Georgia. George was educated in the Chethara Academy, Savannah, and at the University of the City of New York, receiving an M. D. from the latter in 1848. Beginning practice at Tallahassee, Florida, in 1857, he was ap- pointed surgeon to the Marine Hospital at Key West, and three years later professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children at Oglethorpe Medical College, necessitating his removal to Savannah. On the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861, he enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private and served four years, attaining the rank of colonel, with a recommendation for brigadier-general, a position he was prevented from filling by the ending of the war. In 1865 Dr. Maxwell was a delegate to the 'convention held for the purpose of remodeling the constitution of the State of Florida and he served also as a member of the State legislature. He made Jacksonville his residence after 1866. In 1871 he removed to Newcastle, Delaware, where he became vice-president of the Dalaware Med- ical Society in 1874 and secretary, 1875-76. During this period the doctor contributed many articles to medical literature, including "An Exposition of the Liability of the Negro Race to Yellow Fever," "A Demonstration of the Non-digestive Powers of the Large Intestines," and "A History of My Invention of the Laryngoscope, Medical Record, New York, 1872. He perfected a laryngoscope in 1869 with which he could see the vocal chords in the living, showing originality, but making no claim to priority, as Manuel Garcia had pub- lished his account of the first laryngoscope in 1855. While in Delaware he conducted a daily paper in the interest of the democratic party. He was a prominent Mason and was made Worshipful Master of the State of Delaware. From thence he removed to Atlanta and en- tered upon the practice of medicine in that city. He afterwards returned to Florida and at one time held a professorship in the State Agricultural College. On the outbreak of yel- low fever in 1888 he returned to Jacksonville and remained during the epidemic and after- ward until his death from apoplexy, Septem- ber 2, 1897. The Florida Medical Associa- tion, of which he had been president, passed resolutions on his death. While in Jacksonville he published "Munici- pal Hygiene," 1894; and "Hygiene in Florida," 1895. Dr. Maxwell was a man of brilliant con- versational powers and social qualities, besides being a skilful physician. Phys. and Surgs. of the U. S. W. B. Atkinson, M.D.. Indian., 1878. Rccs. Florida Med. Asso., April 27, 1898. May, Frederick (1775-1847) Frederick May was born November 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts, and took an A. B. in 1792 and M. B. in 1795 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 pre- pared the way for others. The third president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, he was re-elected for fifteen successive years, 1833-1848, and then declined a re-election against the unanimous protests 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 succeeded in securing the confidence of the residents, and, as the city increased in population so did he add to his popularity and professional usefulness. In the year 1823, upon the estabHshment of a medical school in this city, he was appointed to the chair of obstetrics in Columbia Uni- versity. In this he distinguished himself as a lecturer, by the soundness of his doctrine and by the beautiful and classic style of his lectures. He was an incorporator of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. During the last year of his life he with- drew from active duty, and died January ' D.'^NiEL Smith Lamb. Minutes of the Medical Society, Dist. of Columb., January 23, 1847, published in the Boston Medi- cal and Surgical Journal, 1847, vol. xxxvi. "Reminiscences," Busey, 1895. Did. Amer. Biog., Drake, 1872. May, Frederick John (1812-1891) The son of Dr. Frederick May (q. v.), he was bom in Washington, D. C, on May 19, 1812. His ancestry was of the early New England colonists and patriots of the Revolution. He graduated A. B. from Colum- bia College in 1831 and shortly after gradu- ation in medicine from the same college in 1834 he went to Europe and spent over a year in the leading hospitals of London and Paris, in this way familiarizing himself with all the latest in medicine and surgery. After an extended tour through Europe, the West Indies and the United States,