Louis A Weigel

"A martyr to science, Dr. Louis A. Weigel, one of the foremost orthopedic physicians of the country, and a world-wide authority on Roetrgen rays..." was born in Rochester, New York, on June 29, 1854. He was one of three children born to Michael and Veronika Aman Weigel. Dr. Weigel's father was a druggist and prominent member of Rochester's German community. He received his M.D. from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1875. Upon returning to Rochester, he set up a family practice, later specializing in orthopedics. In 1889, Dr. Weigel was appointed to Rochester City Hospital's Out Patient Department in charge of the Orthopedic Clinic. By 1896, he became Orthopedist to the Hospital, and later established a gymnasium in the basement of the children's pavilion for physical therapy.

Dr. Weigel published widely in medical journals, was an inventor, and pioneered in the study and use of Roentgen Rays. He developed a reputation for "bloodless surgery." He served on the staff or St. Mary's Hospital, was a Consulting Orthopedic Surgeon to the New York Hospital for Crippled Children and Craig Colony for Epileptics, and became a professor of Orthopedics at Niagara University. He held many local, state, and national offices, including the presidencies of the American Orthopedic Society and the Rochester Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Weigel's accomplishments were not confined to his profession. Music was one of his chief interests; he could play several instruments and was said to have possessed a "fine, rich voice." He was an amateur photographer of rare ability and was well known for his "Cloud" photographs, which were shown in many exhibitions all over the country, receiving high praise. Sadly, there are no known surviving copies of his work. It was through his photographic experience that he was placed in charge of the Hospital's x-ray coil in the fall of 1896. Probably because of his experimentations and use of the x-ray, he contracted cancer and died May 31, 1906. (Rochester Union and Advertiser, B-CMA Scrapbook Collection)