Edward Gamaliel Janeway was an American physician, medical diagnostician, and consultant.
Background
Janeway was born on August 31, 1841, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Among his ancestors were William Janeway, a British naval officer who was stationed in New York in the late seventeenth century; George Janeway, a New York alderman; and Jacob Jones Janeway, a clergyman of distinction. His father was George Jacob Janeway, a physician, and his mother was Matilda Smith, the daughter of Gamaliel Smith of New York.
Education
Janeway took a degree in arts at Rutgers College in 1860 and at once began the study of medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, but during 1862-1863 he served as acting medical cadet at the United States Army Hospital at Newark, New Jersey. He received medical degree in 1864.
Career
Having received his medical degree, Janeway settled in the metropolis and for some years was junior partner of an established practitioner. In 1866, with Francis Delafield and J. W. Southack, he was appointed curator to Bellevue Hospital, the trio having begun jointly the systematic keeping of the hospital records. In 1868 he received the appointment of visiting physician to Charity Hospital and was made chief of staff in 1870, resigning in 1871 to become visiting physician to Bellevue Hospital.
In 1870 he had also been appointed physician to the Hospital for Epileptic and Paralyzed. His first teaching position was the professorship of physiological and pathological anatomy in the medical department of the University of the City of New York, which he held for one year (1871-1872), resigning to accept the professorship of pathological anatomy at Bellevue. There also he lectured on materia medica, therapeutics, and clinical medicine. In addition Janeway served at Bellevue from 1872 to 1879 as demonstrator of anatomy and at about this time was giving special courses to graduate students in physical diagnosis.
In 1875 he was appointed health commissioner of New York City, serving until 1881, in which year he was chosen associate professor of medicine and professor of diseases of the mind and nervous system at Bellevue. In 1883 he was appointed visiting physician to Mt. Sinai Hospital, an honor extended to but few physicians who were not Jews, and in 1886, following the death of the elder Austin Flint, he succeeded to the chair of the principles and practice of medicine and clinical medicine at Bellevue. He was president of the New York Academy of Medicine during 1897-1898 and on the consolidation of the University and Bellevue medical colleges in 1898 he was made dean, serving in this capacity for seven years.
He served as president of the American Association of Physicians and was consulting physician to a number of hospitals in New York and vicinity. His death occurred from an acute ailment at Summit, New Jersey, after several years of failing health. During many years his practice was limited almost entirely to continuous consultation work which made it difficult for him to take part in the numerous professional and social activities of the average successful physician, but his public spirit was so great that he never neglected charitable and welfare work. Janeway's professional eminence was due largely to his originality and to his intelligent use of unusual opportunities. He was entirely without the advantages of European postgraduate instruction, then regarded as almost indispensable to success, and even at home he seems to have owed little to any professional prototype or master. It is known that Janeway regarded the promiscuous publication of books and papers as much overdone and too often motivated by the desire for publicity. He dominated his colleagues less by his personality than by his mental powers and his high standards. Janeway died on February 10, 1911.
Achievements
Membership
Janeway was President of the New York Academy of Medicine (1897-1898) and President of the American Association of Physicians.
Connections
Janeway's wife was Frances Strong Rogers, the daughter of the Rev. E. P. Rogers; Theodore Caldwell Janeway was their son.