Zabdiel Boylston, FRS (March 9, 1679 – March 1, 1766) was a physician in the Boston area. As the first medical school in North America was not founded until 1765, Boylston apprenticed with his father, an English-born surgeon named Thomas Boylston, and studied under the Boston physician Dr. Cutler. Boylston is known for holding several "firsts" for an American-born physician: he performed the first surgical operation by an American physician, the first removal of gall bladder stones in 1710, and the first removal of a breast tumor in 1718. He was also the first physician to perform smallpox inoculations in North America.
He was a great uncle of President John Adams,[1] as well as philanthropist Ward Nicholas Boylston.[2]