OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : MAY 24, 1864. 297 



have a medical oversight of the militia, it was also constituted a Board 

 of Examining Surgeons to decide upon the competency of surgeons for 

 the army ; and Dr. Hayward was selected as its chairman, which duty 

 he performed until his death. In none of his various positions did he 

 play an idle or secondary part. As a surgeon he was quick and con- 

 fident in his decisions and in his operations. In some of the more 

 delicate and unpromising operations he claimed to have originated pro- 

 cesses which contributed essentially to their success. Though a few 

 minor operations with the knife had preceded, it was his lot, as one of 

 the surgeons at the Hospital, to perform the first capital operation (the 

 amputation of a leg) under the anaesthetic effects of sulphuric ether, 

 November 7, 1846, — a circumstance which he often alluded to with 

 evident satisfaction. Both in this country and abroad, he strenuously 

 and conscientiously advocated the claims of this agent over all others, 

 on account of its absolute safety. As a teacher, he may not have been 

 so brilliant as some others ; but no one excelled him in presenting clearly 

 the fundamental principles of his art, and in imparting sound practical 

 instruction. He was ever zealous for the purity and dignity of his 

 profession, was exceedingly intolerant of every form of empiricism, and 

 was ever zealous in devising and promoting measures for the elevation 

 of the true and the abasement of the false. 



While in Europe as a student he began a translation of the writings 

 of Bichat, which, together with the Supplement by Beclard, were com- 

 pleted and published in four octavo volumes, in 1818-23. This was 

 the first introduction of the works of the French school to this country. 

 In 1834 he pubUshed his " Outlines of Physiology." He was a fre- 

 quent contributor to the medical journals, and in 1855 he republished 

 many of his papers, with additions, under the title of " Surgical Reports 

 and Miscellaneous Papers on Medical Subjects." All his writings were 

 concise and expUcit, and of a strictly practical nature. Among the 

 more important were his " Surgical Reports on Cases and Operations 

 at the Massachusetts General Hospital " ; on " Diseases of the Knee- 

 joint " ; on " Vesico-vaginal Fistula " ; on " Anaesthetic Agents " ; on 

 the "Asiatic Cholera" (1832), in which he was one of the first to 

 maintain, what is now generally admitted, the non-contagiousness of 

 that disease ; and an " Address to the Public on the Necessity of Le- 

 galizing the Study of Anatomy " (1831), in which he most effectively 

 prepared the public mind for the enactment of a State law to that 

 effect, which was passed quite in advance of any action in any other 

 State of the Union. 



