Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-18
|MAy0RESTS QUIETLY
Distinguished Surgeons Con-
dition Reported ''SpIendid."
RECENTLY OPERATED ON
Attacked With Appendicitis in New
York Friday Night
GOING FROM THIS CITY
He and His. Brother Recognized as
Among the Leading Surgeons
of the World.
RECENTLY OPERATED ON


Among the Leading Surgeons
of the World.
NEW YORK, December 1s.-Dr
Charles H. Mayo, the well known sur
geon of Rochester. Mimi, who was
operated on here for appendicitis Sat
urday night. was resting quietly this
morning. and physicians in attendance
said that his condition was splendid.
Dr. Mayo, who. with his brother.
William James Mayo. has attained a
fame in SURGERY which has spread
from their hospital in the little town
| of Rochester, Mimi, until it has reach
ed every part of the world, was sud-
denly stricken with appendicitis while
on visit to this city Friday. He
was operated on Saturday evening by
DR.. Joseph A. Blake at the Presby
| terrain Hospital. A statement issued
at the hospital late that night said
that the operation was successful and
DR.. Mayo's condition was satisfactory.
Sudden and Acute Attack
The attack of appendicitis in DR..
Mayo's case was unusually sudden and
acute He had dropped into New York
In returning to Minnesota from Wash
ington. where he had been attending
last weeks meeting of the Southern
Surgical Association at the National
Capital. Mrs. Mayo was With her hus-
band, and was at the hospital when
the operation was performed.
| 1t was Friday night that DIR. Mayo
noticed the first symptoms, and it soon
became apparent not only that it would
| be necessary to operate, but to operate
as soon as possible.
| Dr. Mayo is the younger of the two
Mayo brothers by four years. The elder,
DR.. William Mayo. is only fifty. Their
| fame has come early in life. and has is
sued from an otherwise inconspicuous
farming village in fiat. unattractive
part of Minnesota. This village now has
within its boundaries the greatest surgical
| hospital in the world.
Acknowledged Superiority.
OF the two brothers, sons of DR.. Will
liam w. Mayo 1t has been said:
Physicians and surgeons from all parts
of the world do not hesitate to travel
across the seas and continents to consult
with these two young surgeons or, to sit
in the clinics watching operations which
| they themselves have not the skill the
knowledge or the courage to perform"
| The Mayo brothers have made the world
i
that was the place where they happened
to be born. and they happened to be born
there because that was where the elder
| Mayo had settled down to run a farm
| and to practice medicine
His two sons became interested in the
| same profession as a natural sequence to
| the pharmacy. They started in drug
store work. st. Mary's Hospital itself
| succeeded to a rudely constructed build
/ ing to house the victims of a tornado
| that swept over the little town many
years ago.
The hospital is a Roman Catholic be-
nevolence. founded at the elder Mayo's
suggestion by the Sisters of ST. Mary,
and when the doctors sons came home
after graduation they became its sur
geons. While still quite young they
demonstrated genius for surgery, and
their fame steadily grew.
Operations at the Hospital.
One Of the best descriptions of the lat
| ter day conduct of st. Marys grown now
| as vast and as organized as department
store. is from the pen Of DR.. Wilfred 4.
Grenfell, the Labrador doctor, who wrote
| in the Outlook in 1907:
THE daily list Of major operations for
every day in the year here averages from
| fifteen to twenty between breakfast and
luncheon, the afternoons being devoted to
| large private clinics. The operations in
clude every kind of work. One can see
the Work OF the aoOOnnlnal surgeon, the
gynecologist. the orthopedlc surgeon.
the aural specialist, the nose and throat
specialist and the eye specialist.
1.-THE crowd in the waiting room is the
| nearest thing to a crowd after tickets to
a foot ball match that have ever seen in
any similar function. Almost every train
that stops at this village station deposits
| fresh visitors in search Of that help
| which they at least believe can best be
obtained in this tiny townships stream
| that takes its origin beyond the portals
of this great continent
Hospital Always Full.
| There is here a large hospital Of 100
| beds. where cases go for operation. 1t
| is always so full that in spite Of the
comparatively short time patients remain
after operation numerous private nurs-
ing homes have had to rise up all around.
| yet in spite of the great demand the
poorest can obtain help there, and was
surprised to find at one of the nursing
homes that good and competent attention
could eb obtained for as low as 81 a day,
1.-The puzzle to me was what special
| thing there could be that these men
could offer to great surgeons and to men
in search of postgraduate work that they
| should pass by the famous schools of the
west or that could lead medical men to
wish to be treated by a country doctor in
an obscure village-a country doctor. who,
| by the way, is president of the Medical
Association Of the entire United States.
| THAT there are many causes contrib
| uting to this end there can be little
doubt. but the main one. at the bottom
| Of all the rest, appeared to be a very SIM
| pie One-namely, the absolute sincerity
and utter singieness. Of purpose that per-
meate all that these men do
| Absence Of Money Spirit.
lone thing that one feels pre-eminent-
ly In Rochester is the absence of the
money spirit. For instance. here is type
Of story told me on the spot. A. patient,
after most successful operation. was
asked II he could afford to pay. He re-
piled In the affirmative.
"'What Is the source Of your income?
"I have mortaged my farm to raise
| the money.
1.-THE check was accepted and the good
| faith thereby proved. But on returning
home the man received a letter which,
| like the sacks Of Josephs brothers con-
tanned not only the returned check but
one Of a similar amount as a trifiing
help toward the losses that had accrued