Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/795

NAME MAYS ni MEACHAM Mays, Thomas Jef (1846-1918) Thomas J. Mays was born in Lebanon County, Pa., January 10, 1846. He was gradu- ated from the Jefferson Medical College in 1868, and spent nine months in 1882 and 1883 in medical work under the tuition of Kronecker, Grawitz, Frankel and Baumann in Berlin, and also at the Brompton Hospital for Women in London. His principal object in going abroad was to familiarize himself with the latest methods of pharmacological, thera- peutical and pathological investigations, and to study especially diseases of the lungs and heart. Returning in 1885, he resumed practice and three years later was appointed professor of diseases of the chest at the Philadelphia Polyclinic Hospital, holding this position until 1902. In 1890 he assisted in organizing the Rush Hospital for Consumptives and was visit- ing physician there until he resigned in 1905. In 1908 he organized the Philadelphia Clinic for the home treatment of consumption and was made medical director of the institution, a position he filled until his death. He was also visiting physician to St. Mary's Home for Aged Women and consulting physician to the Institution for the Feeble-Minded at Vine- land, N. J. He was a member of the American Climato- logical Association, the American Neurological Association, the Philadelphia College of Phy- sicians, and the state and county medical so- cieties. He was a voluminous writer and con- tributed about five hundred articles to medical periodicals and was the author of "Pulmonary Consumption, a Nervous Disease;" "Thera- peutic Forces and Consumption, Pneumonia and Their Allies." Dr. Mays died of apoplexy. February 14, 1918, at his home in Philadelphia. Med. Record. N. Y., 1918. vol. xcviii. 341. Eminent American Physicians and Surgeons, R. French Stone, Indian., 1894, p. 240. Meacham, Frank Adams (1862-1902) Chiefly known for his heroic efforts in fight- ing unsanitary conditions in the Philippines, Frank Adams Meacham was born near Cumberland Gap, Kentucky, October 28, 1862, the son of an army surgeon. He graduated from Yale in 1887 and took his M. D. • at the University of Virginia in 1889, settling to practice in Salt Lake City, But his bent was towards bacteriology and in 1894 he earnestly studied this and sur- gical pathology at Johns Hopkins University, publishing a number of articles, and on return was made chief surgeon of the Holy Cross Hospital, Utah. In April, 1900 (?) he went to Manila and was assigned chief of the health department and afterwards chief medical inspector. He instituted the campaign against bubonic plague, the extermination of rats, the fungus treatment for the extermination of locusts and the virus inoculation for plague prevention. In the report of the Secretary of the In- terior for 1902, in connection with the epidemic of bubonic plague in Manila, it was stated: "Especial credit is due to Chief Health In- spector Meacham for the ingenuity which he displayed in devising means for the destruc- tion of rats and for the tireless energy with which he devoted himself to securing the adoption of such means." On March 20, 1902, Asiatic cholera ap- peared in Manila and Maj. Meacham's efforts from this time up to the time of his death were largely expended in its suppression. He was taken to the hospital, sick, some time in April, although he had been ailing for several weeks before. He was supposed at the hos- pital to be suffering from gastritis. "I did not see Maj. Meacham when he was sick. It is stated that he had been in bed at the hospital for several days, had got out of bed to walk across the floor and had dropped back dead. This was on April 14. I per- formed the autopsy and found advanced fatty degeneration of the heart muscle and coronary artery disease. His heart is now preserved in the Pathological Museum of our Laboratory. "He had borne the brunt of the fight against bubonic plague, and from the beginning of cholera had displayed tireless energy in his efforts to combat the new epidemic. Although suffering from a high fever, he had for several days continued to expose himself to the intense heat of the sun by day and had worked in his office until late at night, keeping his col- leagues in ignorance as to his true condition. He gave up only when unable to rise from his bed, and died three days later of heart failure, the result of utter exhaustion from long continued overwork. Dr. Meacham was an able administrator, and was endowed with the faculty, as valuable as it was unusual, of discharging disagreeable duties in such a way as to win not only the respect but the regard of those most injuriously affected. He sacri- ficed his life in the discharge of duty, and his death was an irreparable loss. I quote from the ministerial report." Dr. Meacham was married, but his wife was not in the Philippines at the time of his death. She was on her way to the Islands at the time he died, and arrived in Manila a few days after, only to learn she was too late. He was buried in the National Cemetery,