Isaac Hays, Dr.

Isaac graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in1820, specializing in ophthalmology. He was one of the first to detect astigmatism and to study color blindness. He also invented a special knife for cataract operations. He was elected the first president of the Ophthalmological Society of Philadelphia. He was appointed editor of the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, succeeded in this position by son Isaac Minis Hays. He was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, serving as its president from 1865 to 1869, and was one of the founders of the Franklin Institute and of the American Medical Association. He was also an active member of the American Philosophical Society.

From Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936.