Julius Mount Bleyer (16 March 1859 – 3 April 1915) was a New York doctor who specialized in

laryngology Laryngology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders, diseases and Trauma (medicine), injuries of the larynx, colloquially known as the voice box. Laryngologists treat disorders of the larynx, including diseases that affects the voice, swa ...

who took a keen interest in

medical jurisprudence Medical jurisprudence or legal medicine is the branch of science and medicine involving the study and application of scientific and medical knowledge to legal problems, such as inquests, and in the field of law. As modern medicine is a legal ...

. He studied the methods used for

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

and as a member of a commission, was among the first to propose

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium) for the express purpose of causing death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but t ...

s in 1888. He pointed out in ''The Medico-Legal Journal'', the problems with other methods of executing death sentences including decapitation and electrocution. Lethal injections were however not used until the early 1980s. Bleyer was also a pioneer of photofluoroscopy, a method of visualizing x-rays to observe the functioning of internal organs. He also introduced the idea of an

inhaler An inhaler (puffer, asthma pump or allergy spray) is a medical device used for delivering medicines into the lungs through the work of a person's breathing. This allows medicines to be delivered to and absorbed in the lungs, which provides the ...

for delivering medication into the lungs and considered applications in laryngology that made use of sound recording instruments.

Early life and education

Julius Bleyer was born in

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

to Jewish parents Samuel and Sophia, who moved to the United States in 1868. He studied at the University of Prague and obtained a medical degree in New York in 1883 from Bellevue Medical College. He obtained an

LL.D. A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

in 1896 and practiced in New York from 1883 until his death. Bleyer was a specialist consultant for the Metropolitan Opera Company from 1888 and dealt with the health of the throat. He served as a vice-president during an American congress on

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

and was a member of the New York Medico-Legal Society.

Personal life

Bleyer married Rose Florsheim in 1884.

Early life and education

Personal life

References

Further reading