Michael Valentine Ball

MICHAEL VALENTINE BALL, M. D.-To the

practice of medicine and its attendant responsibilities, Dr.

Michael Valentine Ball has devoted more than half a

century of his life. In point of service, he is now one of

the senior physicians and surgeons of Warren, where he

has long been established as a specialist in diseases of the

eye, ear and throat.

Dr. Ball was born in Warren on February I4, i868,

son of George and Mary (Cohn) Ball. His father, who

was born in Prussia on November 24, 1834, son of Hy-

man and Leah (Zork) Ball, came to Warren in i855. He

was a merchant tailor and a dealer in men's clothing and

furnishings here for many years, employing at one time

as many as twenty tailors. Besides his Warren establish-

ment, he had a store for ten years in Buffalo and was a

member there of the Reformed Temple. George Ball died

at Warren on April io, i920. His wife, who was born in

West Prussia, daughter of Simon and Rebecca (Salinger)

Cohn, died in Warren on March 8, i901. Her father was

a produce dealer in Germany.

Michael Valentine Ball received his preliminary edu-

cation in the public schools of Buffalo, followed by two

years in high school at Warren. At the end of this time,

he became an apprentice pharmacist in the Davis Drug

Store at Warren, remaining there for another tjvo years,

until he entered Jefferson Medical School at Philadelphia

in i886, at the age of eighteen. In x889 he was graduated

from this institution with the degree of Doctor of Medi-

cine and went abroad for postgraduate work in Germany,

during which time he worked in the laboratories of the

celebrated bacteriologist, Dr. Robert Koch, and the

equally celebrated pathologist, Dr. Rudolf Virchow.

Upon his return to the United States, he served his in-

terneship in the German Hospital, now Lankenau Hos-

pital, at Philadelphia, under Drs. Deaver, White, Wilson

and Wolf. After a year, he was appointed surgeon on the

Red Star liner "Belgenland," spent three months on that

vessel and then resigned to devote himself to the writing

of a book on bacteriology. This volume, which attained

the status of a standard treatment of the subject, was

first published in i8gi by W. B. Saunders of Philadelphia

and has since gone through eight editions, the last pub-

lished in 19i9

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BALL, Michael Valentine, physician; b. at Warren. Pa., Feb. 14. 1868; *. George and Mary B.: acad. edn.; M.D., Jefferson Med. Coll., Phila., 1889; studied with Vlrchow and Koch In Berlin, 1889-90; m. Grace Paterson, of Buffalo. 1906. Resident at German Hosp., Phlla., 1890-1; phys. to State Penitentiary, Phlla., 1892-5; teacher histology, Niagara U., Buffalo. 1891: teacher bacteriology, Phlla. Polycllnlc, 1896; specialist in the eye and ear at Warren, Pa., since 1898; co. med. inso.; consulting oculist. Wnrren (Pa.) Emergency and Kane (Pa.) Summit hosps.; med. Insp. schs., Wnrren. Mem. Am. Acad. Ophthalmology. Acad. Natural Sciences. Phlla., A.M.A. Author: Essentials of Bacteriology, 1891, 1900, 1908 (first book on bacteriology published In America by Am. au/hor). Andrea: Warren, Pennsylvania.(From Who's Who in America)