Ayer, James Bourne, 1849-1910

James Bourne Ayer (1849-1910) was a physician in Boston, Mass. After graduating from Harvard in 1869, he graduated from its Medical School in 1873. He was a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and the New England Historic Genealogical Society. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1908.

Ayer was born in Boston on 6 January 1849. He maried Martha Bourne, daughter of Benjamin Bourne; they had four children. He married, second, on 4 April 1877, Mary E. Farwell, daughter of Nathantiel Whittemore Farwell of Lewiston, Me. Ayer died in Boston on 14 May 1910.

From the description of Library catalog, c. 1900. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 207110105

James Bourne Ayer (JBA), 1882-1963, James Jackson Putnam Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and Chief of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), received the AB from Harvard College in 1903 and the MD from HMS in 1907.

JBA's contributions to the field of neurology included new laboratory methods, standardization of test procedures, and the establishment of the first neuropathology laboratory at MGH. He developed the cisternal puncture during WWI and invented a tool for measuring cerebrospinal fluid pressure. His scientific work was published in many articles on neurological topics including meningitis, multiple sclerosis, spinal subarachnoid block, and brain tumors.

JBA’s training in neurology began in 1908 with a year of study under Dr. Myrtelle Canavan, a neuropathologist at Danvers State Hospital in Danvers, Massachusetts. JBA was appointed a fellow in pathology at HMS in 1910, and assistant physician to outpatients at MGH in 1911. After serving in the Army Medical Corps during WWI, he returned to MGH and became assistant neurologist, neurologist, and finally chief of neurology in 1926. He was the James Jackson Putnam Professor of Neurology from 1926 until his retirement in 1946.

JBA became president of the American Neurological Association in 1931. He was a member of the American Medical Association, the Massachusetts Medical Association, and the Boston Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.

JBA married Hannah Gilbert Palfrey and they had six children. JBA’s father and grandfather were also physicians. His grandfather, James Ayer, 1815-1891, received the AB in 1834 and the MD in 1839 from Bowdoin College. In 1843 he married Martha Bourne; only one son, James Bourne, survived to maturity. JA was a practicing physician in Boston and a member of several medical associations, including the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, the Obstetrical Society of Boston, the Massachusetts Medical Society, and the American Medical Society.

James Bourne Ayer, 1849-1910, was the son of James and Martha Ayer. He received the AB in 1869 from Harvard College and the MD in 1873 from HMS. He studied in Europe in 1875. JBA specialized in nervous disorders. He was a member of the American Medical Association and the Massachusetts Board of Insanity.

From the guide to the Papers, 1788-1960., (Francis A.Countway Library of Medicine. Center for the History of Medicine.)