William Crawford Gorgas / [Franklin H. Martin].

  • Martin, Franklin H. (Franklin Henry), 1857-1935.
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: William Crawford Gorgas / [Franklin H. Martin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprint from SURGERY, GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS October, 1923, pages 546-358 WILLIAM CRAWFORD GORGAS By FRANKLIN H. MARTIN, M.D., F.A.C.S., Chicago Major general william crawford gorgas was an inter¬ national character and his professional career, medical and military, included accomplishments of supreme importance, involving respon¬ sibilities that brought to him enduring fame. In this brief sketch of his life, it is the purpose to bring out only a few of the salient points of his remarkable career which will serve to illustrate his character, and particularly to bring to light a few unknown facts about his labors as Sur¬ geon General of the United States Army during the World War. I. BIOGRAPHY William Crawford Gorgas was born in Mobile, Alabama, on October 3, 1854. He was the son of General Josiah Gorgas, the chief of ordnance of the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War, and later the president of the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tennessee. Gorgas was graduated from the University of the South with the degree of A.B. in 1875, and from Bellevue Hospital Medical College with the degree of M.D. in 1879. He entered the Medical Department of the United States Army on June 16, 1880, as first lieu¬ tenant, was advanced to captain in 1885, and to major in 1898. In 1880, yellow fever was prevalent in Brownsville, Texas, in violent epidemic form. Conditions were bad beyond the power of words to portray to those who have no recollection of conditions in a yellow fever stricken city prior to 1880. The government as well as the people at large had been appealed to. General Gorgas, with the rank of lieutenant, was sent to Fort Brown, near Brownsville, to assist in the medical care of the civilian population. There he first met Miss Doughty, later Mrs. Gorgas, who then was seriously ill of yellow fever, and there he contracted the disease also. Later, Gorgas was in active service in Florida, in the West, in Dakota, and in the old Indian Territory. He accompanied the military expedition against Santiago in 1898. Fate, possibly with a purpose, visited his system with yellow fever in early life, thereby making him immune to the disease. Because of his practical knowledge of yellow fever, he was appointed chief sanitary officer of Havana, which post he occupied from 1898 to 1902. It was in 1900 that Gorgas was in close contact with the investigation that was being conducted in Havana by the Walter Reed Board, the purpose of which was to determine the course of yellow fever. The memorable discovery 1 Published by Surgical Pub. Co., Chicago, U.S.A.