American Medical Biographies/Bangs, Lemuel Bolton
Bangs, Lemuel Bolton (1842–1914)
L. Bolton Bangs, New York genito-urinary surgeon, was born in that city August 9, 1842, a son of Lemuel and Julia A. Bangs, and died at the age of seventy-two in New York City, October 4, 1914. He married Isabel Hoyt, December 5, 1894.
His academic course was interrupted by financial reverses that compelled him to take up business temporarily. He was graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (Columbia University) in 1872, served an interneship at Bellevue Hospital, and took postgraduate courses at Berlin and Vienna. On his return he became the associate of the late Dr. Fessenden N. Otis (q.v.), and helped him in the pioneer work which made genito-urinary surgery a specialty.
Dr. Bangs was an attending surgeon at St Luke's Hospital from 1885 to 1892; professor of genito-urinary diseases at the New York Post-graduate Medical School and Hospital from 1889 to 1894; thereafter emeritus professor; a member of its board of directors and treasurer of the corporation. The completion of its present building was largely due to his efforts. During 1898–1901 he was professor of genito-urinary surgery at the Bellevue Hospital Medical School. The hospitals to which he was a consulting surgeon were: St. Luke's, Bellevue, City, St. Vincent's and the Methodist Episcopal.
He was a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine; a member of the American Association of Genito-urinary Surgeons, its president in 1895; the American Medical Association; the state and county medical societies; the Practitioners' and the Clinical Society. Among his non-medical affiliations were the Society of Colonial Wars, the St. Nicholas Society and the following clubs: Century, University, Church and Quill.
Dr. Bangs contributed frequently to the medical journals and edited the "American Text Book on Genito-urinary Diseases" (1895).
He was a man of force and high ideals, an able practitioner, an astute, resourceful consultant, an inspiring teacher.
The Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital erected a tablet to his memory having the following inscription: "He made the study of medicine and surgery his avocation, and by his life exemplified its highest ideals in culture and ethics. To the furtherance of post-graduate instruction he enthusiastically devoted his skill, his knowledge and his scholarly attainments."