Nathan Smith Davis was founder of the American Medical Association (AMA), serving twice as that organization's president, and also as founding editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Unlike most nineteenth-century American physicians, Davis was not born to wealthy parents. Instead, he was born in a log cabin, in Chenango County, New York. He had only six months of higher education before starting a medical apprenticeship in 1834. Davis helped pay for this apprenticeship by taking care of his instructor's cow and horse. In 1837, he graduated from The College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York. His thesis challenged the common belief at that time that oxygen combined with carbon in the lungs.

Following graduation, Davis entered general practice in the New York communities of Vienna and Binghamton. It was in Binghamton that Davis started his lifelong involvement in professional societies, beginning...