Emil Mayer

Background

Emil Mayer was born on May 23, 1854 in New York City. He was the son of David Mayer, a native of Prussia, and of Henrietta (Rosenbaum), of Bavaria.

Education

After receiving his preliminary education in the public schools and the College of the City of New York, he graduated in 1873 from the College of Pharmacy of the City and County of New York. He then took up the study of medicine and graduated from the Medical Department of the University of the City of New York in 1877.

Career

After serving as an interne at the hospital on Blackwell's Island he began the practice of medicine in New York City. From the outset he devoted himself particularly to diseases of the nose and throat, working after 1880 with Dr. Morris J. Asch at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. From 1893 to 1904 he was chief surgeon to the clinic for diseases of the throat in that institution, and then became attending laryngologist at the Mount Sinai Hospital. In 1919 he was appointed consulting laryngologist at the Mount Sinai Hospital. Mayer was a pioneer in the performance of the operation of sub mucous resection of the nasal septum. In the New York Medical Journal, June 13, 1896, he described his method in this operation, and the instruments devised by him for the purpose. During the World War he served in the medical intelligence bureau of the American Red Cross. He was chairman of the section of laryngology of the American Medical Association in 1920; from 1915 to 1918 he was abstract editor of the American Laryngological Association, and was president of the Association in 1922. The Laryngological Society of Berlin elected him a corresponding fellow, and he was American correspondent of the Centralblatt fur Laryngologie. When the Therapeutic Research Committee on Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association undertook to investigate the advantages and dangers of local anesthetics, Mayer was chosen as chairman and as such submitted the report presented by the committee to the American Medical Association. This report constitutes a most valuable contribution to the subject. Mayer was a frequent contributor to the periodical literature of his specialty. The papers which he read before the various societies of which he was a member were remarkable for their originality and for facility of expression. Mayer suffered in his later life from organic heart disease and had retired from active practice some years before his death, which occurred at his home in New York City in October 1931.

Achievements

• Mayer served as chairman of the section of laryngology of the New York Academy of Medicine and as president of the Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology.

Personality

His genial disposition, kindness especially toward the younger men and wide erudition won him well-deserved popularity and respect among his professional colleagues.

Connections

In 1884 Mayer married Louise Blume, who died several years before his decease. They had no children.

Father:

David Mayer

Mother:

Henrietta (Rosenbaum) Mayer

Wife:

Louise Blume