Gorgas
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM CRAWFORD, an American physician; born at Mobile, Ala., Oct. 3, 1854. He graduated from the Ur University of the South, in 1875, received the degree of M. D. from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1879, and served as interne at Bellevue Hospital 1878-1880. Appointed a surgeon in the United States Army in 1880, he rose successively through the ranks of captain, assistant surgeon, major brigade GENERAL WILLIAM C. GORGAS surgeon of volunteers, and became chief sanitary officer of Havana, Cuba, in 1898. He continued in charge of sanitary administration at Havana until 1902, and by his efficient methods of direction and control in the fight against the yellow fever he finally accomplished the practical elimination of that disease from the port of Havana. Congress, by special act, Mar. 9, 1903, made him colonel assistant surgeon-general in recognition of his successful campaign against the yellow fever plague. He was subsequently honored by the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of the South, Harvard, and Brown University with honorary degrees in acknowledgment of the extraordinary merit of his achievements. In 1914 he was made surgeon-general, U. S. A., with rank of brigadier-general, and was advanced to major-general in 1915. He retired from the service in 1918, and became director of the division of yellow fever research of the Rockefeller Foundation, having previously become a permanent director of its International Health Board. As chief sanitary officer (1904) in connection with the building operations of the PANAMA CANAL (q. v.), he did his most distinguished public work, and brought to a successful sanitary issue the difficult task of cleaning up the fever-infested isthmian territory. His work made possible the maintenance of the high record of industrial efficiency which was a large factor in contributing to the rapid completion of the canal. In 1907 he became a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission. He was honored by some of the most exceptional national and foreign awards for scientific achievement, and was a member of many domestic and foreign scientific societies. He died in London, England, July 4, 1920, when about to depart on a mission to west Africa in behalf of the British Govern-. ment to investigate sanitary conditions.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Gorgas died in London on 4 July 1920, so Collier's account of 1921 was written over a fresh grave and needs almost no correction: the dates, the Havana campaign of 1898-1902, the Panama sanitation work from 1904, and the surgeon-generalcy all still stand. What has collapsed is the assumption behind his final job. Gorgas took the Rockefeller Foundation post believing yellow fever could be wiped out by attacking mosquitoes in a handful of key ports; in the 1930s researchers found a jungle reservoir of the virus circulating in forest monkeys and canopy mosquitoes, which made eradication impossible and still fuels outbreaks in South America and Africa today. Max Theiler's 17D vaccine of 1937, which won him a Nobel Prize in 1951, gave the weapon Gorgas never had, and the Gorgas Memorial Institute, founded in Panama in 1928, carries his name in tropical medicine.
Written for this edition, 2026.