DR. JOHN JEFFRIES. DR. JOmsT JEFFRIES.1 
Dr. Jeffries was the last survivor in the fifth generation from his 
ancestor, Mr. David Jeffries, who came from England and settled in 
Boston in 1677. His father, Dr. John Jeffries, who died in 1819, was 
a distinguished physician and surgeon in his native town of Boston, 
both before and after the revolutionary war, having during this latter 
period served in the medical department of his majesty’s forces as sur- 
geon and medical purveyor. The New England Medical Journal of Jan- 
uary, 1820, contains an interesting sketch of his life. 
The late Dr. Jeffries was born March 28, 1796, at his father’s man- 
sion-house in Tremont Street. He was the third son named John, and 
the seventh child by second marriage to an English lady named Hannah 
Hunt, six years after his father’s final return to, and settlement in prac- 
tice again in, his native town of Boston. He went to Harvard College 
at hfteen years of age, and was graduated in the class of 1815, which 
contained a number of eminent men, some of whom still survive their 
classmate. The medical men of his class wrere Drs. Joseph Baxter, 
William Goddard, Thaddaeus W. Harris, Appleton Howe, Thomas 
Pratt, William Sweetser, Jonas Underwood, Samuel Webber, and Dan- 
forth Phipps Wight. Three years later he received the degree of 
Master of Arts from Harvard, and March, 1819, the degree of Doctor 
in Medicine, having studied with his father and been a pupil of those 
whose names are attached to his medical diploma, — Drs. James Jackson, 
John C. Warren, John Gorham, Jacob Bigelow, and Walter Channing. 
In 1825, he received an honorary degree of Doctor in Medicine from 
Brown University. In 1826, he became a Fellow- of the Massachusetts 
Medical Society. He was a councilor and censor for several years, and 
one of the principal movers in the establishment of the district societies, 
having been chosen the first president of the Suffolk District Society, 
which office he held for three years. He was an honorary member of 
the New York State Medical Society and of the American Ophthalmo- 
logical Society. He served the city of Boston on the Board of Consult- 
ing Physicians for several years, during which he earnestly strove for 
the establishment of a properly organized Board of Health. For many 
years previous to his death he was a member of the Consulting Board 
of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the City Hospital of Boston. 
For many years also he served on the Boylston Prize Committee of 
1 Reprinted from The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, August 10, 1876. 4 
Dr. John Jeffries. 
Harvard University. In 1820, Dr. Jeffries married Ann Geyer, daugh- 
ter of Rufus Greene and Ann Geyer Amory, of Elm Hill, Roxbury. 
They had eight children, six of whom, two daughters and four sons, 
survive him. 
From a very child he grew up in the spirit and feeling of the profes- 
sion. At five years of age he stood by and held the lancet for his 
father. Intercourse with the medical pupils in his father’s house, and 
familiarity with almost a museum of instruments and specimens there 
contained, naturally shaped his training and stimulated his ambition. 
From the time of graduation at Harvard, in 1815, he worked incessantly 
in study under his father and the professors of the college, so that im- 
mediately on receiving his medical degree he was taken into partnership 
by his father, and thus very rapidly entered into a large and active 
practice, which always so pressed upon him throughout his professional 
life as to give him no opportunity of breaking off to follow European 
study, much as he appreciated its value and envied those who gained it. 
His father’s teaching and example gave Dr. Jeffries special interest 
in and knowledge of surgery. As early as 1829 he received the fol- 
lowing offer from the late Prof. John Collins Warren, M. D.: — 
Tuesday, March 24, 1829. 
My Dear Sir, — Our friend Dr. Reynolds lias resigned the office of assist- 
ant surgeon to the hospital. If agreeable to you, I should he glad to nominate 
you as his successor. Should you require any further information on the sub- 
ject than what you possess, I will be at home to- morrow evening at eight 
o’clock, or will call on you as you may appoint. 
Very truly yours, J. C. Warren. 
This very complimentary offer on the part of the professor of surgery 
of Harvard, Dr. Jeffries was obliged to decline, as he had already un- 
dertaken a most important charitable work in connection with his still 
surviving friend, Dr. Edward Reynolds, namely, the establishment of an 
eye and ear infirmary, now known as the Massachusetts Charitable Eye 
and Ear Infirmary. To this charity he devoted his time and talents, 
exercising all his social and professional influence in its behalf. The 
following letter from the late Hon. John Lowell is of some interest as 
showing the efforts on the part of the founders of this now great 
charity: — 
Tuesday Morning. 
Dear Sir, — The statement made by you and Dr. Reynolds is very satis- 
factory as to the facts, and perspicuous and eloquent in its appeal to the pub- 
lic benevolence. I have not known a case so strongly demanding the sym- 
pathy and, of course, none having a better claim to the. charity of the public, 
since the institution of the Massachusetts General Hospital. 
I feel persuaded that it will be so received, or at least I have strong hopes 
that it will be. I shall as far as I have any influence encourage it by my 
opinions and example. I shall attend this evening, if I am not too much in- Dr. John Jeffries. 
5 
disposed. I have been sick for some days past, and have not diminished my 
complaints by attending a public meeting last evening and partaking in the 
debates. Very truly yours, J. Loavell. 
Dr. John Jeffries, Franklin Street. 
Dr. Jeffries not only devoted himself to the founding and establish- 
ment of the infirmary, but he delivered courses of lectures ou the eye, 
both theoretical and clinical, and faithfully worked for eighteen years 
as its surgeon, even then being most earnestly solicited by the man- 
agers, especially the late Robert G. Shaw, not to resign. When he did 
so he received the following testimonial of the value of his services : — 
Boston, February 9, 1843. 
John Jeffries, M. D. 
Dear Sir, — I have much pleasure in conveying to you the inclosed, and 
remain, sir, with much respect, your obedient, humble servant, 
G. H. Siiaw. 
“ At a meeting of the managers of the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and 
Ear Infirmary, held on Tuesday evening the 7th of February, 1843, a letter 
from John Jeffries, M. D., declining a reappointment as surgeon of the in- 
firmary having been read, it was unanimously voted, ‘ that the same be ac- 
cepted, entered at large upon the records, and placed on file; and further, that 
the thanks of the managers of the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear In- 
firmary be presented to John Jeffries, M. D., one of the original founders, and 
for the past eighteen years a surgeon of the institution, for his unceasing 
efforts for the promotion of its usefulness and prosperity, and their deep regret 
that his professional duties require his retirement from the institution.’ 
“ A true copy. Attest: G. H. Shaw, Secretary.” 
Dr. Jeffries practiced here in Boston fifty-six years. Besides his special 
work in ophthalmic surgery, he did a large midwifery and general prac- 
tice. Long before and even after the establishment of the dispensary 
he was most prodigal of his physical and mental efforts among the poor 
of the town. It may be as truly said of him, as of his father before him, 
that “ the poor of the town, from whom no fee could be expected, 
equally shared his best attentions with the richest of his patients ; and 
if money were wanting to purchase the medicines and comforts he pre- 
scribed, it was as frequently supplied from his charitable purse.” He 
made it a rule to give away in charity all fees obtained by his enforced 
professional work on Sundays. His well-known disposition was such 
that he was frequently imposed on during the hurried hours of office 
consultations, and really brought to task by the managers of the various 
charities as they were established in the city, which did not unfortunately 
harden his heart to any tale of poverty and misery.' To a very large 
number of his patients he was physician, lawyer, and spiritual adviser, 
and frequently his time was called upon in the latter capacity as freely 
as the former. But he was ever ready to listen and help. Hardly 6 
Dr. John Jeffries. 
through the whole of his professional life did he ever sit down to a meal 
at his own house without interruption. To him his profession was 
above all things, and the care and relief of the sick and suffering his 
paramount duty. Yet no one more appreciated or enjoyed social en- 
gagements or family gatherings. He was a capital reader and very 
striking declaimer and actor. Tn early life he was very fond of the best 
plays, and many of the. first actors were friends and patients of his father 
and himself. As far as the pressing duties of a most active life would 
allow,, he kept himself well up with the literature of his profession, 
always when in his office having a book in his hand if not otherwise 
occupied. 
Although Boston was not fifty years ago the crowded city it now is, 
yet Dr. Jeffries even then recognized that his family of young children 
needed to be out of town during the summer months, and in 1833 he 
built a cottage, still standing, on Noddle’s Island point, when only two 
other houses were on what has now grown into East Boston. There 
he was accustomed to go on summer afternoons, and was a well-known 
character in his boat about the harbor and bay. But except in case of 
illness he never stayed away over night, always returning at nine o’clock 
to his house in Franklin Street, and seeing many a patient afterward. 
He thus got needed recreation without interruption to his professional 
work. Time has proved that he was right, and we see, one after another, 
overworked medical men forced to remove their families from the city in 
summer, and catch the hours when they can join them for their much- 
needed recreation. 
Dr. Jeffries was for many years the intimate friend and confidential 
physician of Daniel Webster, and shared with him his love of shooting 
and fishing. He was with Mr. Webster through the whole of his last 
illness at Marshfield, and after his death built a shooting-lodge on a por- 
tion of land purchased from the estate, and then, as in former days at 
East Boston point, he only too infrequently sought relaxation from the 
fatigue of professional labor. Like his father before him, he was a most 
enthusiastic sportsman, but he never let this take him away from business 
or duty. When nearly eighty years of age, feeble and crippled by in- 
firmities, he nevertheless insisted in going out fishing for, and catching, 
blue fish at Mattapoisett, where he passed his last summer. 
To the medical profession he was most perfectly loyal. lie always 
insisted on their rights, and ever strove to inculcate in the community 
the respect due them. He never from any motive allowed to pass, with- 
out remonstrance, fulsome praise of the licensed or unlicensed fashionable 
charlatan of the day. In his address at the first anniversary of the Suffolk 
District Medical Society, 1850, he showed that while there had been a 
large abatement in the public mind of that reverence with which the ed- 
ucated physician and his prescriptions were once regarded, yet his claims Dr. John Jeffries. 
7 
to confidence had steadily augmented, and the profession, as a body, had 
never stood on so lofty an eminence for knowledge and integrity as then. 
In the spirit of this belief he acted from that time as long as he lived. 
Without anger or irritation, but with firmness and decision which carried 
weight, he argued and reasoned with his patients and the laity as to the 
folly and falsehood of the “ isms ” of the day in medicine. He was most 
thorough and clear in his own belief, and never swerved, whatever re- 
puted authority supported this or that pretender or his cause. He de- 
tested imposture, in or out of the profession, and was ever ready to lend 
his aid fearlessly for its exposure. He had an innate respect for true 
science, and passed no more enjoyable hours than at the meetings of the 
Thursday Evening Club. His family always looked forward with pleas- 
ure to the clear and graphic accounts he gave them at the breakfast- 
table, the next morning, of what he had seen and heard among his 
scientific friends. 
His religious belief was that of his father, and he was a devoted 
member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, working with his pastors at 
old Trinity and St. Paul’s. This is not, of course, the place to speak of 
his long life’s work in matters of religion. No man more thoroughly 
lived up to the warning he gently gave to his professional brethren in 
his address to them above noticed, when he said, “ There is a danger 
that those engaged in investigating material things should forget the 
hand which brought them into existence ; that while science is pushing 
its inquiries into the cause and manner of reproduction, and looking 
through matter for its vital principle, it will forget Him who breathes 
into it 4 the breath of life.’ Let us flee this danger by a cherished regard 
for a divine revelation. Let us labor in our profession with zeal and 
earnestness, as if success depended only on ourselves; and let us seek 
the counsel of the Great Physician as if the blessing was alone from 
Him, without whose aid 
‘ Bethesda’s baths would never heal, 
Nor Siloam’s pool restore.’ ”