Biographical Sketch of William ZENTMAYER, M.D.; Philadelphia Co., PA

Contributed to the PAGenWeb Archives by Diana Smith 
[christillavalley@comcast.net] 

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"Philadelphia, A History of the City and its People; A Record of 225 Years"
Publisher:  S. H. Clark; Philadelphia; 1912.     Vol. 3, page 307
Author, Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer
 
WILLIAM ZENTMAYER, M.D.

     In extensive private and hospital practice and in his frequent 
contributions to current medical literature Dr. William Zentmayer has given 
proof of eminent ability in the field of ophthalmology.  He occupies a place in 
the ranks of those who are foremost in the profession.  It has been said that 
Philadelphia has always been distinguished for the high rank of her bench and 
bar but the legal profession deserves no higher nor more honorable recognition 
than do the practitioners of medicine and surgery who have made this city a 
center of scientific knowledge in their particular field.

     Dr. Zentmayer was born in Philadelphia, October 28, 1864, a son of Joseph 
and Katharine (Bluim) Zentmayer.  The father, who was born at Mannheim, Germany, 
was forced to leave his native land because of his participation in the 
revolution of 1848, and after a short period spent in Washington, D. C., he 
removed to Philadelphia, where he became a manufacturer of optical instruments, 
perfected the microscope and invented the revolving sub-stage and the mechanical 
finger.  He also invented a photographic lens of world-wide renown, constructed 
on entirely novel optical principles and having properties not before possessed 
by photographic lenses.  His wife was born near Mannheim, was brought to America 
in infancy and was reared in Cleveland, Ohio.  Her death occurred in 
Philadelphia in 1903.

     Dr. Zentmayer was the seventh in a family of eleven children, five of whom 
survive.  He was educated in the Friends and public schools of Philadelphia and 
in preparation for a professional career entered the medical department of the 
University of Pennsylvania from which he was graduated in 1886.  He at once 
became a general practitioner and at the same time he did post-graduate work on 
the eye at University of Pennsylvania.  He soon took ophthalmology as a 
specialty and has since continued therein.  The passing years have chronicled 
for him notable success in the field in which he specializes for his 
investigations and researches have discovered to him many valuable truths and 
scientific facts the worth of which has been demonstrated in his constantly 
growing practice.  He was surgeon to the eye department of the Children's 
Hospital from 1887 until 1893, and has done much other important hospital work.  
He was ophthalmologist to St. Mary's Hospital from 1893 until 1909; assistant 
surgeon to Wills' Hospital from 1890 until 1901; surgeon to Wills' Hospital from 
1901 to the present time; ophthalmologist to St. Agnes' Hospital from 1909 to 
the present day; and also ophthalmologist to the House of Refuge.  Since 1900 he 
has been extra mural teacher at the Philadelphia Polyclinic.  He has contributed 
frequently to current medical literature and is associate editor of the 
Ophthalmic Year Book and of the Annals of Ophthalmology.  He is likewise the 
author of a chapter on Anomalies of the Muscular Apparatus in Ball's Modern 
Ophthalmology published in 1907, and is a member of the Trachoma commission of 
the bureau of municipal research.  He holds membership with the American Medical 
Association; the Pennsylvania State Medical Association; the Philadelphia 
Medical Society; the American Ophthalmological Society; and the College of 
Physicians, and of the last named was chairman of the section on ophthalmology 
for two terms.

     Dr. Zentmayer is independent politically.  He belongs to the A.M.P.O., a 
medical fraternity of the University of Pennsylvania, and to the University Club 
and the Medical Club.  Professional service has constantly made greater and 
greater demands upon his time and energies and he finds his recreation in 
literary work.