in 1836. Dr. Boerne Bettman, after a three-year course of study, under the preceptorship of his father, in the Miami Medical College, received his medical degree in 1877. He was then assistant, for a short time, to Dr. Elkanah Williams (q.v), the first professor of ophthalmology in the United States. Proceeding to New York, he studied for a time in the laboratory of Dr. Heitzman, and then for a year and a half was assistant to Dr. Herman Knapp (q.v.). For the next three years he studied in Europe. In Vienna, his teachers were Arlt, Stellwag, Jaeger, Mauthner, Fuchs, Politzer, Gruber and Storch. At Heidelberg, in 1879, he became the second assistant to Dr. Otto Becker. Later, he was made Becker's first assistant.
In 1887 he returned to America, and, settling in Chicago, was almost immediately successful. He was the first lecturer in ophthalmology and otology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago. This position he resigned, however, in 1883. He founded the Chicago Society of Ophthalmology and Otology, and assisted at the organization of the Chicago Medico-Legal Society. In 1892 he was made professor of ophthalmology and otology in the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons—a position which he held till nearly the time of his death. He was also, for a while, professor of ophthalmology and otology in the Chicago Post-Graduate Medical School. He served, moreover, as oculist and aurist to many of the Chicago hospitals.
Among his publications are the following:
"The Operative Treatment of Episcleritis," Weekly Med. Rev., Mar. 17, 1883; "Aural and Nasal Surgery," Jour. Amer. Med. Asso., Nov. 10, 1884; "Ocular Troubles of Nasal Origin," Jour. Amer. Med. Asso., Jan. 17, 1887; "Traumatic Iridodyalyses," No. Amer. Practitioner, Dec., 1890; "Dislocation of Lens into Anterior Chamber," Chicago Med. Record, June, 1891.
Dr. Bettman was a brilliant operator, and many are the stories of his skill and dexterity. Thus, having introduced his cataract knife with the edge turned downward, instead of up, he quickly "flopped" his blade, without withdrawing (as Knapp himself once did) nor lost a drop of aqueous. He was quick and active in his manner, sometimes abrupt, but really kind at heart. Like all true Jews, he was a patriot, and he loved to talk about the history of his country. He served as assistant surgeon, with the rank of captain, in the second regiment of the Illinois National Guard. He died a lingering and very painful death, but bore his sufferings bravely.
He passed away, May 25, 1906, at Chicago, aged only 50 years. Into that brief period, however, he had crowded the work of a century.
Beyer, Henry Gustav (1850–1918)
Rear Admiral Henry Gustav Beyer, Medical Director, U. S. Navy retired, aged 68, died at his home in Washington, December 10, 1918. Dr. Beyer was born in Saxony, Germany, October 28, 1850, received his preliminary education and took a course in pharmacy in Germany and then entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1876. He received the M. R. C. S. degree in London in 1881 and was given the degree of Ph.D. by Johns Hopkins University in 1887. He entered the Navy as assistant surgeon, immediately on graduation, was made passed assistant surgeon in 1880, surgeon in 1893, medical inspector in 1905 and medical director in 1910 and rear admiral, February 27, 1911, and was retired on attaining the age of 62 years, October 28, 1912.
Dr. Beyer was married in 1880 to Harriet W. Wescott, of Portland, Maine. They had two sons. She died in 1891.
During his 36 years of service in the Navy he had twelve years and ten months of sea service, and three years on special duty at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, and was on special duty in Washington for two years. He was professor of hygiene in the Naval Medical School, Washington, from 1904 to 1912 and was also lecturer on naval hygiene in the War College, Newport, Rhode Island. He was a member of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, National Society for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, American Public Health Association and American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, and was a prolific contributor to medicomilitary literature.
Dr. Beyer wrote frequently for the Military Surgeon and the U. S. Naval Medical Bulletin. His linguistic ability lead to his being called upon often by these publications for reviews and translations of foreign scientific publications. He contributed the chapter on Food in the "Handbook of Hygiene for Men of War" edited by Verth, Bentmann, Dirksen and Ruge and published at Jena, 1914.
Dr. Beyer was a man of very marked and striking personality. His German birth and training predisposed him to the accurate and
