Delicate Operation Performed in Knoxville by Dr. R. F. Boyd, of Nashville

(Nashville Banner.)

Dr. R. F. Boyd, colored, of Nashville, has returned from Knoxville where he successfully performed a most delicate surgical operation.  The Knoxville Journal and Tribune of Monday says of the operation:

“The first adbominal [sic] surgical operation that has ever been performed in East Tennessee by colored surgeons, was completed successfully last night, at the Knoxville College, by Dr. R. F. Boyd a member of the faculty of Meharry Medical College, of Nashville and Chief of the Surgical Staff of the Murphy Hospital of Davidson County assisted by Drs. R. A. Williams, W. R. Settle and W. W. Derricks of this city all prominent representatives of the Negro race.

“The operation was performed upon Miss Jane Henry, a female attache of the Knoxville College, who has been badly bothered for several years past by a tumorous growth in the stomach.  As the result of the operation a fibroid tumor weighing twelve pounds was removed from the abdomen and at 11 o’clock last night the patient was resting easy, with every chance for total and easy recovery, the operating having proven capitally successful.

“Dr. R. F. Boyd, of Nashville, who is in charge of the operation, is one of the best-known members of the Negro race in the middle South, he not only occupying a prominent position in middle Tennessee professionally but also being one of the wealthiest Negroes in Tennessee, and one who has many warm white friends.  He arrived in this city several days ago to deliver a lecture at the Knoxville College, which he did on Friday night.

“The Human Body” was the subject of his lecture, he describing the development and the condition of the human body in its various stages of development from infancy to old age, in a manner, which, though technical in nature, interested a large audience of hearers, the lecture being the third of the Knoxville College’s lyceum course, Mr. C. D. Mason, of Cincinnati to appear next.

“The operation mentioned above had been suggested some time ago, and at the conclusion of the lecture Dr. Boyd was prevailed upon to remain and take charge of it he, however, returning to his Nashville home to-day, since the operation resulted successfully.”

Source:  Colored American (Washington, DC), February 14, 1903, page 7

The article included a “cut” (line drawing) with the caption “Dr. Robt. F. Boyd, Nashville, Tenn.”