Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/187

Mayo ’ (, author of Surgeon's Vade Mecum). While lecturer on anatomy in the Medical School, Great Windmill Street, he published on 1 Jan. 1827 the first edition of ‘Outlines of Human Physiology,’ being heads of lectures delivered at that school. He was surgeon of the Middlesex Hospital from 1827 until 1842, professor of anatomy and surgery to Royal College of Surgeons 1828 and 1829, F.R.S. 1828, F.G.S. 1832, and his name appears in the first list of fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843. On the establishment of King's College in 1830 he received the appointment of professor of anatomy, and he became professor of physiology and pathological anatomy in 1836. He resided at 19 George Street, Hanover Square.

Mayo's ill-judged and unsuccessful candidature in 1836 for a vacant professorship at University College necessitated his withdrawal from King's College. He thereupon founded the Medical School at the Middlesex Hospital, which has since attained great practical reputation. ‘As a teacher he was admirable, bringing forward the leading facts or doctrines without superfluous detail, and illustrating them with impromptu drawings on the black-board, in which he showed great power as a draughtsman. He was an accomplished scholar, profoundly versed in the best English literature and history, of a peculiarly quaint and pithy style of conversation, and he had a great power of attaching the students to him’ (ib.) In 1843 gradually increasing rheumatic gout reduced him to a state of helplessness, and compelled his retirement from his duties as lecturer on surgery at the Middlesex Hospital, after six years' tenure of the post. Finding relief in Germany from hydropathic treatment, he became physician in a hydropathic establishment at Boppart, and afterwards at Bad Weilbach, where he died 15 May 1852. In the later years of his life he had thrown himself into the hands of the mesmerists, and his work on the ‘Truths contained in Popular Superstitions’ is an ably written exposition of his views regarding the supposed cause of mesmeric and kindred phenomena. He married Jessica Matilda, daughter of Samuel James Arnold [q. v.], the dramatist, and had issue one son and two daughters.

He published: 1. ‘Anatomical and Physiological Commentaries,’ 1822–3. 2. ‘Course of Dissections for Students,’ 1825. 3. ‘Outlines of Human Physiology,’ four editions, 1827–1837. 4. ‘A Series of Engravings of Brain and Spinal Cord in Man,’ 1827. 5. ‘Observations on Injuries and Diseases of the Rectum,’ 1833. 6. ‘An Introductory Lecture,’ 1834. 7. ‘Outlines of Human Pathology,’ 1836. 8. ‘Management of Organs of Digestion,’ 1837 and 1840. 9. ‘Powers of the Roots of the Nerves in Health and in Disease,’ 1837. 10. ‘Philosophy of Living,’ 1837 and 1851. 11. ‘Treatise on Syphilis,’ 1840. 12. ‘Nervous System and its Functions,’ 1842. 13. ‘The Cold Water Cure,’ 1845. 14. ‘Letters on Truths in Popular Superstitions,’ 1848 and 1851. The ‘London Medical Gazette’ contains many contributions from his pen. 

MAYO, JOHN (1761–1818), physician, son of Thomas Mayo, and grandson of Charles Mayo of Hereford, was born in that city 10 Dec. 1761. He matriculated at Oxford in 1778 from Brasenose College, graduated B.A. 1782, was elected fellow of Oriel College 16 April 1784, and proceeded M.A. 1785, B.M. 1787, and D.M. 1788. He became F.R.C.P. 30 Sept. 1789, and was censor in 1790, 1795, 1804, and 1808, Harveian orator in 1795, elect on 10 April 1807, resigning this last position 6 Oct. 1813. He served as physician to the Foundling Hospital from July 1787 to 1809, physician to the Middlesex Hospital 6 Nov. 1788 until 11 Jan. 1803, and was also physician in ordinary to the Princess of Wales. At a meeting of the board of the Middlesex Hospital, December 1802, it was resolved that Dr. Mayo, ‘who had been physician to this hospital with equal advantage to the charity and honour to himself for fourteen years, be solicited to attend the cancer ward as physician extraordinary’.

Mayo long divided his time between London and Tunbridge Wells, residing at the latter resort during the summer months. There he enjoyed ‘the undisputed lead in medical business and emoluments’. On resigning his hospital appointments in 1817, he fixed his permanent abode at Tunbridge Wells, and dying 29 Nov. 1818, was buried at Speldhurst, Kent.

By his first wife, Jane, daughter of Thomas Cock, esq., of Tottenham, he had issue three sons: Thomas [q. v.], subsequently president of the Royal College of Physicians; John, in holy orders; and Herbert [q. v.] His second wife was Frances Lavinia, daughter of William Fellowes, esq., of Ramsey Abbey, M.P. for Sudbury and Andover.

After his death his eldest son published ‘Remarks on Insanity, founded on the Practice of J. Mayo, M.D.,’ 1817. 