Nicholas Romayne

Nicholas Romayne was born in New York in 1756 and entered the medical school of King's College, New York, in 1774. He enrolled at the University of Edinburgh in 1778, graduating MD in 1780. His thesis, 'De Puris Generatione', on the formation of pus, was well regarded. After graduation he studied further in continental Europe before returning first to Philadelphia and then to New York, where he practised medicine. Romayne was instrumental in advancing medical studies in New York. He was the first president of the New York Medical Society and of the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons. He lectured widely, counting among his students Valentine Seaman, who introduced smallpox vaccination to the United States in 1799, and the poet Joseph Rodman Drake. He died in New York in 1817 aged 61.