THE NARRAGANSETT TIMES, February 21, 1896. 
fitPARTCRE. 
Deatli of Dr. Janies V. Noyes. 
Dr. James F. Noyes died Sunday 
morning at the residence of his neph- 
ew, Dr. R. F. Noyes of Providence. 
He was a prominent specialist in 
diseases of the eye and ear, and was 
born in Kingston, August 2,1817. He 
was the fifth son of Robert Fanning 
Noyes, born at Stonington, in 1770, 
and Sarah Arnold, born in 1780, in 
North Kingstown. He was one of 
twelve children, of whom five sons 
and three daughters grew to matur- 
ity, all reared on a farm, just east of 
Kingston Hill. Joseph A. Noyes, who 
resides at the homestead, being the 
only one living. One brother, 
Edwin, who died some eight years 
ago, was a well known lawyer and 
railroad man of Waterville, Maine, 
and for some years superintendent of 
the Maine Central railroad. The fol- 
lowing sketch of James F. Noyes, is 
taken from the Journal of Provi- 
dence: 
James Fanning Noyes was descended from 
Rev. James Noyes, who drew up the famous 
Saybrook platform, was a corporator of Yale 
college, and who preached at Stonington, where 
he died in 1719. The line is traced two genera- 
tions further back to Rev. William and Rey. 
Nicholas Noyes, brothers, who in 1634 emigrated 
to America as Puritans and Nonconformists, 
settling the following year in Newbury, Massa- 
chusetts, where was built in 1647 the James 
Noyes house, which has continuously been occu- 
pied by his descendants to the present time. 
The deceased received his earliest education 
from his oldest sister, Susan Arnold, who kept a 
private school for beginners, in the summer, for 
the small children of the neighborhood, and 
later was instructed by his father, who taught a 
private school on the farm in the winter. His 
academic education was continued at the old 
Kingston academy under the tuition of his oldest 
brother, Azel, haying charge of the classical de- 
partment, associated with Christopher Comstock 
and Hon. Thomas B. Church. The finishing 
touches in preparation for a collegiate course 
were received at the Latin School for Boys con- 
ducted by Rey. Thomas Vernon, long pastor of 
the Congregational church at Kingston; but he 
was obliged to abandon a college course on ac- 
count of ill-health. 
In 1842 he began the study of medicine under 
Dr. Joseph F. Potter at Waterville, Maine, con- 
tinuing his medical studies at Harvard college, 
then at the Jefferson Medical college at Philadel- 
phia, where he graduated. He was soon ap- 
pointed to the U. S. Marine hospital at Chelsea, 
Mass., as assistant physician, under Dr. George 
B. Loring, late minister to Portugal. He assis- 
ted in October of that year in the first public ad- 
ministration of ether in surgery in the world. 
After further study in the hospitals of New York 
and Philadelphia, he settled in Waterville. 
Maine, in 1848. He was the first to detect the 
presence of prussic acid in the stomach of a 
murdered man, and the finding, being sustained 
by a chemical analysis, led to the conviction of 
a physician charged with the murder. It being 
the first case in this country in which this dead- 
ly poison had been used to commit murder, it 
attracted unusual interest and notoriety. 
After a short but successful practice at Water- 
ville he joined his former instructor, Dr. Potter, 
with whom he became associated as a general 
practitioner in Cincinnati. Surrendering a lu- 
crative practice here he went abroad for prepa- 
ration as a specialist in the sciences of ophthal- 
mology and otology, spending two years in 
study in the best schools and hospitals devoted 
to diseases of the eye and ear in Berlin, Prague 
and Vienna, afterwards supplementing his study 
by a second trip to Europe, when he gave nearly 
two years more to study in Paris and other cities 
of France, Austria and Germany. While in 
Paris he assisted in the first operation for vesico 
vaginal fistula by the American method per- 
formed on the continent of Europe, an opera- 
tion which was eminently successful, notwith- 
standing the patient had already submitted to 
two unsuccessful operatious by surgeons of 
Paris. It was regarded as a triumph for Ameri- 
can surgery, and the beginning in Europe of a 
new and more successful method of performing 
this operation. 
Returning from Europe, he settled permanent- 
ly in Detroit, bringing with him from abroad the 
first opthalmoscope and hypodermic syringe 
used in practice in this country. Preceding all 
specialists in his line he may be called the pio- 
neer opthalmologist of the Northwest, as he was 
one of the most prominent. In 1873 he became 
professor of opthalmology and otology in the 
Detroit Medical college, a position he held for 
several years. He was also a Government pen- 
sion surgeon for a number of years. At the time 
of his death he was an active member of the fol- 
lowing societies, in which he took much inter- 
est: American Medical association, American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, 
American Opthalmological and Otological soci- 
eties, Michigan State Medical society, of which 
he was president in 1872; Detroit Academy of 
Medicine, serving as president in 1873; Detroit 
Medical and Library association, the Pioneer 
and Historical society, also of Detroit, and the 
American Medical society of Paris. Besides 
these he was an honorary member of the Rhode 
Island State Medical association, and those of 
Ohio, Maine and Texas. He was also a member 
of the Masonic fraternity and of the Detroit and 
Gross Point clubs. He was also made president 
of the Detroit Cremation association upon its 
formation in 1887, and since his residence in this 
city had become a member of the Rhode Island 
Historical society. He was a great lover of 
music and for some time served upon the board 
of directors of the German Harmony society. 
Dr. Noyes was never married. Relinquishing 
his practice seven or eight years ago, he has 
traveled extensively since, making extended 
visits to Cuba, Mexico and the Sandwich Islands. 
Latterly he has made his home with his nephew, 
Dr. R. F. Noyes, of this city, but has passed the 
wi a ters in the South. 
About two years ago he established a free bed 
at the Rhode Island Hospital, and had built a 
hall for entertainments for the benefit of the in- 
mates of the Michigan Asylum for the Insane, 
having given considerable study to the treatment 
of this class of unfortunates. 
He was the last of his family, with but one ex- 
ception, a brother, Joseph, still surviving at the 
old home at Kingston. In accordance with bls 
wishes, the body will be cremated. THE NARRAGANSETT TIMES, February 21, 1896.