John George Adami

Dr. John George Adami, scientist, educationist and author whose eminent position in his profession was indicated in his election to the presidency of the Association of American Physicians in 1911, was born in Manchester, England, January 12, 1862, a son of the late John George Adami of Manchester and Ashton-upon-Mersey, Cheshire. The mother of Dr. Adami, who in her maidenhood was Sarah Ann Ellis Leech, was a daughter of Thomas Leech of Urmston, Lancashire, and a sister of the late Sir Bosdin Leech, one of the founders of the Manchester Ship Canal, while another brother was Professor Leech, a leading member of the staff of Owen’s College and the Manchester Medical School.

Dr. Adami began his more advanced schooling when he entered Owen’s College, Manchester, and in 1880 entered Christ’s College, Cambridge, becoming a scholar of the same and in 1882 gaining a first class in the first part of the Natural Science Tripos followed in 1884 by a first class in the second part of the same tripos. Following upon this he spent eight months in physiological research at Breslau, Germany, under the distinguished physiologist Heidenhain. In 1885, Dr. Adami was awarded the Darwin prize of his college, for original research. The Master of Arts degree was conferred upon him in 1887, and with the completion of the course of medicine at Manchester in this year, he was appointed house physician at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, following upon which he was called to Cambridge to become demonstrator of pathology under Professor Roy.

In 1890, he was appointed to the John Lucas Walker studentship of pathology in the University of Cambridge, and went to Paris for bacteriological research in the Institute Pasteur, under Professor Metchnikoff. He won his M. D. degree in 1891, and in the same year was elected a fellow of Jesus College.

The following year he was called to Montreal, as professor of pathology in McGill University, and his continued success in research work, in practice and in the educational field, led to various degrees and honors being conferred upon him. In 1898, McGill conferred upon him the degrees of M. A. and M. B. Ad Eund.

The University of New Brunswick honored him with the LL. D. degree in 1900, the University of Toronto conferring the same degree in 1911, while in 1912 he received the Sc. D. of Trinity College, Dublin. He had previously, in 1905, been elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He is also a fellow of the Royal Societies of Edinburgh and Canada. In February, 1914, the Fothergillian medal of the Medical Society of London was awarded to Dr. Adami for his “work on Pathology in its application to practical medicine and surgery.” The Fothergillian gold medal was first awarded in 1787 and now is given every third year.

It would be tautological in this connection to enter into any series of statements showing him to be a man of scholarly attainments, for this has been shadowed forth between the lines of this review in the work that he has performed as an investigator and in the honors which have been conferred upon him.

He is perhaps even better known in the field of authorship than in educational circles. The work by which he is most widely known is his “Principles of Pathology” in two volumes (the second in connection with Professor A. G. Nicholls of McGill).

Dr. Adami has written various papers on pathological subjects which have appeared in a number of the leading medical journals in England and America and have also been translated into French. His smaller text-book upon pathology written along with Dr. John McCrae, is being translated into Chinese.

That his activities have not been solely in the path of his profession are indicated by not a few addresses he has delivered on biographical and literary subjects. He stands prominently with those men of broad humanitarian principles and high scientific attainment who are doing everything in their power to prevent the spread of disease and educate the people to a knowledge of preventive methods and sanitary conditions.

He presided at one of the meetings of the International Tuberculosis Congress held in Washington in 1908, and was one of the promoters of the Royal Edward Tuberculosis Institute in 1909. He was a member of the Royal Commission, of the province of Quebec, re spread of tuberculosis in 1909, and in that same year became president of the Canada Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, being reelected for three years in succession. In 1911 he was honored with election to the presidency of the Association of American Physicians. He has been president of the local Medico-Chirurgical Society and is a joint secretary of the Victorian Order of Nurses. In 1899 he was president of the Montreal branch of the British Medical Association and was president of the pathological section of that organization at the meeting in Toronto in 1905. He was a vice president of the section of pathology at the International Congress of Medicine, London, 1913.

He has been offered many prominent positions in the educational field both in England and the United States, but has preferred to remain in Montreal, recognizing that he has a broad field of labor in this city.

His teaching ranks him as one of the foremost educators of the land, and in the class room he enthuses his pupils with much of the high idealism which has always characterized his professional connections.

Aside from all of these activities and interests, bearing upon the practice and science of medicine, Dr. Adami was chosen president of the City Improvement League in 1909, and was elected vice president of the University Club in the same year. He holds membership in the St. James Club, and in the Savile Club of London.

Dr. Adami was married in 1894, to Mary Stuart, a daughter of James A. Cantlie of Montreal, and a niece of Lord Mount Stephen. Their residence, No. 34 Macgregor Avenue, is one of Montreal’s attractive homes, while the family are well known in the best social circles of the city. The Herald has said of Dr. Adami: “Endowed with youth, energy and enthusiasm, his investigations have been important and of great benefit to mankind.” His name in connection with his professional ability and research work is known not only throughout the American continent but in many educational centers of Europe, as his authorship has made him known to the profession.