laryngologist physician medician
John Noland Mackenzie was born on October 20, 1853, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was of the fourth generation of a medical family.
His father, John Carrere Mackenzie, was a physician, as was his grandfather, John Pinkerton Mackenzie; and his great-grandfather, Colin, was a surgeon.
His mother, Eleanor (Noland), was the daughter of Lloyd and Elizabeth (Wynn) Noland of Loudoun County, Virginia. Part of his boyhood was spent in France and England.
In 1872, Mackenzie entered the academic department of the University of Virginia, but two years later transferred to the Medical Department, graduating (M. D. ) in 1876.
He took a second medical degree from the University of the City of New York in 1877 and was subsequently interne at Bellevue Hospital, 1877-79. Meanwhile, he sought the instruction of Dr. Clinton Wagner, then at the full tide of his well-deserved popularity as the founder of the pioneer school of advanced laryngology at the Metropolitan Throat Hospital.
In 1879, Mackenzie went abroad for an extended course of study, devoting himself principally to laryngology, first under Oertel and as assistant to Von Ziemssem at Munich; then under Von Schroetter and Stoerk at Vienna.
Finally, Mackenzie spent a year as chief of a clinic at the London Throat Hospital, Golden Square, under Sir Morell Mackenzie, the distinguished master of laryngology. Here he rendered material assistance in the preparation of Mackenzie's great Manual of the Diseases of the Throat and Nose, work which afforded a discipline rich and productive in the development of his literary gifts. He improved his unusual opportunities to the utmost, gaining an amount of knowledge and experience unusual for one of his years.
Returning to Baltimore, he inaugurated a brilliant career. As a practitioner, he was a surgeon to the nose and throat department of the University of Maryland Hospital from 1887 to 1897, and to the Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1889 to 1912; and consulting laryngologist to a number of different hospitals.
He was a clinical professor of rhinology and laryngology in the University of Maryland, 1887-97, and clinical professor of laryngology in the Johns Hopkins University Medical School, 1889-1912. He was a co-editor of the Maryland Medical Journal, American editor of the British Journal of Laryngology and Rhinology, and connected in some capacity with various other special journals, American and foreign. As investigator and author, beginning in 1880, he covered the full range of laryngo-rhinology.
Mackenzie died on May 21, 1925, at his home in Baltimore.
Mackenzie was a founder and surgeon of the Baltimore Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital. His most important original contributions were a number of papers upon the vaso-motor neuroses of the nose and upper air passages. In this field, he was a pioneer and his writings formed the basis of many of the accepted theories relating to the subject. From 1895 onward his original studies relating to the accessory sinuses were also of great importance. After 1900, he became a leader in the study of laryngeal cancer. He contributed a number of special articles to A Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, edited by A. H. Buck, and to other standard publications. Quickly recognized everywhere as an authority of the first rank, he was elected a fellow of the American Laryngological Association in 1883 and became its vice-president in 1886 and its president in 1889. Widely known and appreciated abroad, he was a corresponding fellow of the leading British, French, and German associations.
Mackenzie opposed excessive surgery, showing a conservatism in the treatment of nose and throat conditions which was much needed at the time.
Attractive in appearance as in intellect, Mackenzie had a charm of manner and a bouyancy of spirit that made him a beloved companion.
Mackenzie was married, February 2, 1887, to Rachel Pratt Clark, grand-daughter of Thomas G. Pratt, a governor of Maryland and a United States senator for many years.
