ARCHIBALD LYLE MACLEISH, M.D. 1854-1930

Abstract

Dr. Archibald Lyle Macleish died on May 20, 1930. He was born in Dunlop, Scotland, seventy-six years ago. Early in life he showed the industry and the passion for exactness that characterized his whole life and made him, for a generation, the outstanding ophthalmologist and a greatly respected citizen of southern California. He attended the University of Edinburgh, supported by his own efforts, winning four scholarships, first class honors in the classics and second class honors in mathematics. There he was awarded the degrees of M.A., M.B., CM. and M.D., and he became president of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. In 1881, he became Physician to the Presbyterian Mission in Amoy, China, where he had to care for patients with any disease, including dis¬ eases of the eye. Here he performed his first 100 operations for cataract without anesthesia. In 1894, he came to America and settled in Los Angeles ; he had no money but a large family, and his wife was fatally ill. At this time the strength of character that made him a distinguished man manifested itself to the full. He had determined to be an ophthalmologist ; he was told by medical friends not only that was there no demand for such a person, but that he would starve. This proved to be nearly correct ; his gross income for the first year was $50. The temptation to go back into general practice and surgery must have been tremendous. But charac¬ teristically, he made no compromises with his plan, nor did he allow him¬ self the least infraction of his strict code of professional ethics, at a time when the code was far from oppressive. It was a clear refutation of the not uncommon belief that financial success demands a judicious amount of chicanery. This sternness of character led him to an unyielding condemnation of medical men whom he thought incompetent or indecent in their pro¬ fessional life ; tolerance is not always a virtue. On the other hand, more than one ophthalmologist, newly settled in a strange city, owed his flying start to the patients sent him by Dr. Macleish and to his guidance and sponsorship. Dr. Macleish was a member of numerous professional societies, including the American Ophthalmological Society and the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. Carl Fisher.