MAYO, WILLIAM JAMES (1861-1939), American sur geon, was born at Le Sueur, Minn., June 29, 1861. He graduated from the University of Michigan (M.D. 1883), and from the University of Dublin (Trinity college) (M.D. in surgery, 1923). From 1883 he was engaged in the practice of surgery in Rochester, Minn. A small hospital was organized under the local branch of the Sisters of St. Francis, which developed into St. Mary's hospital. Here he, with his younger brother, Charles Horace, developed the Mayo Clinic (organized 1889), which became famous throughout the world for the number and success of operations performed. The records of operations have been so carefully made and preserved that they form a valuable asset to medical science. Dr. W. J. Mayo specialized in the surgery of the stomach, and published a large number of papers on gastric surgery and kindred topics. In 1907 he was appointed a regent
of the University of Minnesota. He was elected president of the Minnesota State Medical Society in 1895, of the American Med ical Association (19o5—o6), of the Society for Clinical Surgery in 1911, of the American Surgical Association (1913-14), of the Society of Clinical Surgery (1911-12), of the American college of Surgeons (1917-19) and of the Congress of American Phy sicians and Surgeons (1925). On America's entrance into the World War he was appointed a colonel in the Medical Corps, U.S. Army, and chief consultant for all surgical service, during the period of the war, alternating with his brother, C. H. Mayo, in this capacity (1917-19). He was a brigadier general, Medical Officers Reserve Corps, U.S. Army, in 1921. See SURGERY.