Edward G. Janeway

We also lost last year two of our old members, one of whom was at the head of the medical profession in this city. It was in keeping with the greatness of Edward Gamaliel Janeway that his goodly qualities hung out no signals to the public eye, nor struck the attention of casual acquaintances. They were so unobtrusive, so self-abnegating, and yet for the purposes of his calling so strong, so rounded, and complete. The eminent physicians of his own age and the younger men who were his pupils, and now are the leaders in all branches of the medical profession, unite in recognizing his influence upon the practice of medicine in this country; they are at one in the acknowledgment of his pre-eminence as a diagnostician, and at one in the avowal that in Edward Janeway all the elements of a great consultant worked together for the good both of the patient and the attending practitioner.

He was born in 1841 and graduated from Rutgers College in 1860. Then he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he interrupted his studies, but added to his experience, by serving as a medical cadet in the army hospital at Newark. Afterwards returning to the “P. & S.” he received his degree, began practice in New York, and in 1866 was appointed curator of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College. This position afforded him abundant opportunity for making autopsies, of which he availed himself to the full. A few years later he was made visiting surgeon at Bellevue, visiting physician at the Charity Hospital of New York, and in the course of time consulting physician at practically all the best hospitals in New York. He also took on the formal duties of a teacher, as Professor of Pathology and Anatomy at Bellevue, and later as Professor of the Diseases of the Mind and Nervous System, next as Professor of Medicine. In 1892 he accepted the Professorship of Medicine at the New York University Medical School, of which he afterwards became the Dean. But wherever he was lecturing or demonstrating, his lectures were attended not only by his own students but by the keen-minded from other medical institutions. Dr. Janeway was at some time in his career President of the Academy of Medicine, and Health Commissioner of New York; also the author of Pathological Reports of Autopsies, and other professional writings. With interest we note that he was altogether an American-trained physician.

As a diagnostician, Dr. Janeway belonged to the old school, to the time of gross pathology which seeks to recognize the character of a disease through general appearances and examination. But, of course, he constantly had his own results tested by the later methods of microscopic investigations, as these came into use. He was a broad and thorough investigator of the case before him, while the truthfulness of his mind, his enormous knowledge of the human body in health and sickness, his freedom from passion, prejudice, and fad, his poise and fearlessness, all contributed to give unique authoritativeness to his diagnoses. Still further qualities of mind and character helped to make this clear-seeing all-considering man the great consultant that he was. And these were the qualities of a self-abnegating Christian gentleman. He never made capital for himself through exposure of the mistakes of others. All physicians trusted him; eminent men called in his co-operation, hoping to find their best conclusions confirmed by the judgment of his wisdom; and when some hapless doctor was hopelessly mistaken as to his unfortunate patient’s predicament, Janeway’s skill set right the diagnosis and the treatment, while the nobility of his character covered the failings of the lesser man with the cloak of Christian charity.

Henry Osborn Taylor
1912 Century Association Yearbook