ssor of Physiology in Meharry,
which position, together with a position in the Literary
Department, he held till he graduated from the College
Department of Central Tennessee College, in 1886. In 1887 he
graduated from the Dental Department of Meharry, receiving
the degree of D. D. S., teaching in the school at the same
time. In June, 1887, he opened his office in Nashville,
where so many had tried and failed. In 1888 Dr. Boyd was
made Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Meharry; in 1890
he attended the Post-graduate School of Medicine at Chicago,
from which he received a diploma. In 1890 he was made
Professor of Hygiene, Physiology and Clinical Medicine,
which position he held until 1893, when he was made
Professor of the Diseases of Women and Clinical Medicine,
which chair he still holds. In 1892 he took a special course
in the Post-graduate Medical School and Hospital of Chicago,
on the diseases of women and children, among whom the
greater portion of his practice is. One of the greatest
needs of the colored people in the South is well regulated
hospitals, where trained nurses can handle and care for the
sick under skilled physicians. Until Mercy Hospital was
instituted, there was no place of this kind in the South. It
was Dr. R. F. Boyd who established and instituted this the
largest and most complete hospital owned and controlled by
colored people. There surgeons of our race do all kinds of
operations and trained and graduate nurses of the race care
for the sick under their management.

It is in this institution where the graduates of Meharry in
the Medical and Nurse-Training Departments get their
practical work. It is the great center to which colored
physicians of the South may send cases to be operated upon
by skilled physicians and handled by trained nurses. The
death rate of this institution has been less than three per
cent from all causes.

Besides this work, Dr. Boyd has taken a great interest in
secret societies. As an Immaculate, he has gained a National
reputation and has filled nearly all of the offices in the
Supreme Lodge. As a Pythian he has served the Grand Lodge as
Grand Medical Register, and has been honored by the Supreme
Lodge as Supreme Medical Register, and is Surgeon General of
the Milita