Nathan Smith Davis Sr., M.D., LLD (January 9, 1817 – June 16, 1904) was a physician who was instrumental in the establishment of the American Medical Association[1][2] and was twice elected its president.

He lived and worked on the farm until 16 years of age, attending district school in the winter, and studying for six months in Cazenovia Seminary.

At the age of 17 he began mastering medicine under Dr. Daniel Clark, attended three courses of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York, Fairfield, and was graduated from that institution, on January 31, 1837, with a thesis on "Animal Temperature".

[4][5] In 1841, he was awarded the prize from the Medical Society of the State of New York for the best "Analysis of the Discoveries Concerning the Physiology of the Nervous System."

A year later he moved to Chicago and accepted the chair of physiology and pathology in Rush Medical College.

Soon after he became connected with this college, he appreciated the necessity of a better system of medical education, as at that time there was no classification of students and no adjustable curriculum.

He withdrew, and with a few colleagues founded the Chicago Medical College, of which he was for more than forty years the dean and professor of principles and practice of medicine.

He straightway began agitation for a system of drainage, and to this end delivered a number of lectures resulting in sewerage reconstruction and foundation of Mercy Hospital.

It was chiefly through his efforts that the Journal of the American Medical Association was established in 1883, and he was its first editor, continuing in that position for six years.