Y., and, as a student was successively under Dr. Daniel Ayers, of Openheim, N. Y., and Dr. Nathaniel Drake, of Peekskill. He completed his studies as the private pupil of Dr. Cyrus Perkins, professor of anatomy and surgery in Dartmouth College, where he attended lectures and fulfilled all requirements necessary for his degree as doctor of medicine, but could not obtain it because two conflicting boards of trustees claimed to control the affairs of the institution. He, however, on November 8, 1819, passed an examination before the censors of the medical society of the county of New York, who granted him a license to practice, which for the greater part of his professional life, was his only diploma. But on March 27, 1860, the regents of the State University, at the instance of the State Medical Society, conferred on him the honorary degree of doctor of medicine, and in 1864 he was elected a permanent member of the State Society. In November, 1819, he established himself in East Chester, and his reputation for learning and skill soon spread throughout that part of Westchester County. His practice extended into the towns of White Plains, Scarsdale, Yonkers, Greenburgh, New Rochelle, Pelham, Mamaroneck and Rye. In 1835 or '36 he transferred his location to New Rochelle, where he practiced for nearly forty years.

About two years before his death, while walking upon the track of the New Haven Railroad, a short distance above New Rochelle, he was struck by an engine and he and his medicine chest thrown thirty feet forward and down an embankment twenty feet deep. Refusing to go into the train, he walked home with his precious chest under his arm. "On my entrance," says Dr. Pryer, " he called out, 'doctor, I have a broken arm.' Proceeding to examine the arm very tenderly, fearful of giving pain, I said, 'are you sure it is broken? ' 'Oh, yes,' said he, ' see here,' and he shook the elbow to and fro again and again, until the broken bones grated against one another in a manner that produces a shudder to this day when the sensation comes back to me.