The story of the Mayos—Dr. William, the father, and of his sons, Dr. Will and Dr. Charlie—runs from the Wild West Indian stage to the solemnity of the operating room; from the excitement of tornadoes and racing special trains, to the humanitarian deeds of two great surgeons who loved their fellow men, and to the story of the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota, world-famous today as a medical miracle—the "Clinic of the Cornfields."

When the father of the Mayo brothers set up as a country physician in Minnesota, back in 1858, the doctoring business was in such a low state that he had to accept a sick cow as his first patient.

After Dr. William Worrall Mayo cured that sick cow, the settlers of that old Indian frontier decided they might take a chance on him, too. And so it was that the medical Englishman, who had failed in America as a prospector, river flat-boat captain, surveyor and farmer, went back to dispensing pills and wielding the scalpel.

Dr. Mayo's two sons were gifted, conscientious, idealistic, and hard-working. Dr. Will, the elder, became an adroit businessman-surgeon. Dr. Charlie, the younger, became an ingenious, inventive physician-surgeon. Between them they constituted one of medical science's greatest teams, cutting away false practices, adventuring in little-known fields, experimenting fearlessly when precedents were lacking.

Before the Mayo Brothers had been in practice ten years, they "were making too much money," they decided. What to do with it? They used their money to endow with $2,800,000 the Mayo Foundation, to combat human suffering. Their money came from the people; they believed it had to go back to them.

They were born at the right time, of the right parents, for a generation in desperate need of skilled and adventurous pathology. They made certain their heritage will benefit this and future generations.

From the dust jacket