20 Facts About Isaac Hays

Isaac Hays was an American ophthalmologist, medical ethicist, and naturalist.

Isaac Hays was editor or co-editor of The American Journal of the Medical Sciences for over 50 years.

Isaac Hays later moved to the Pennsylvania Infirmary for Diseases of the Eye and Ear, and upon its opening in 1834 joined the staff of the Wills Hospital for the Relief of the Indigent Blind and Lame.

Isaac Hays remained at Wills until 1854, when he resigned due to "the pressure of literary work".

At Wills, Isaac Hays published the first study of noncongenital color blindness, reported the first case of astigmatism in America, and devised a needle-knife for cataract surgery.

Hubbell deemed Isaac Hays "fitted by Nature and by training for literary work" and Isaac Hays's output would seem to confirm that judgment.

Isaac Hays spent fifty-two years as editor or co-editor of The American Journal of the Medical Sciences.

Isaac Hays joined Nathaniel Chapman's staff in 1820, became the sole editor in 1841, and upon his retirement passed the editorial duties to his son, I Minis Hays.

Isaac Hays took particular care to include ophthalmology articles and "Isaac Hays' journal" was very well regarded.

Isaac Hays was among those Philadelphians who stubbornly advocated for an incremental theory of evolution, describing fossil vertebrates in the 1830s and '40s as supporting the theory of natural selection that eventually was elaborated by Charles Darwin in Origin of Species.

Isaac Hays argued that his name for a New Jersey specimen should replace Richard Harlan's Saurocephalus on the grounds that Harlan's 1824 description of a specimen from Iowa was inaccurate.

Isaac Hays took Godman's part, publishing a paper on the subject, Descriptions of the inferior maxillary bones of mastodons.

Isaac Hays was among the founders of the American Medical Association, serving as its first treasurer and chairman of the Committee on Publications.

Isaac Hays is credited with the authorship of the AMA's first Code of Ethics.

Isaac Hays was an honorary member of the American Ophthalmological Society and the first president of the Philadelphia Ophthalmological Society.

Isaac Hays took an active role in non-medical organizations, including the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Boston Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Franklin Institute.

Isaac Hays married Sarah Ann Minis in Savannah on May 7,1834.

Isaac Minis Hays followed in his father's footsteps, training as an ophthalmologist, writing on medical subjects, joining learned societies, and editing The American Journal of the Medical Sciences.

Isaac Hays died in 1879 during an influenza epidemic in Philadelphia.

Isaac Hays left his first and only book, American Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine and Surgery, unfinished.