# American Medical Biographies/Dixon, Samuel Gibson

​Dixon, Samuel Gibson (1851–1918).
Samuel Gibson Dixon, lawyer and sanitarian, was born in Philadelphia, March 23, 1851. He was descended from a long line of Quakers. His father was Isaac Dixon and his mother Ann Gibson. As a boy, he attended the Friends' School at 15th and Race streets, and later received instruction from private tutors with the idea of preparing for Harvard University. Failure in health, however, necessitated a trip abroad, and upon his return home he decided to devote himself to the, study of law. He attended the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the bar in 1877. He practised law for six years, but the necessary confinement and strain proved too much for his constitution and once more he was forced to seek rest. Realizing the necessity for a permanent change of occupation, he decided to devote himself to the scientific side of medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1886, then studied in the department of bacteriology in King's College, London, in the State College of Medicine, London, and in Pettenkoffer's Laboratory of Hygiene, Munich. In 1888 he was appointed professor of hygiene in his alma mater, and soon after became dean of the auxiliary department of medicine. His duties at the University became irksome to him, however, and he longed for more opportunity for original research. In 1889 he discovered the branched form of the tubercle bacillus and attempted experimental immunity in a guinea pig. In order to further these researches, he withdrew from the university and went to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, where, in 1890, he became a member of the microscopical and biological section, and later was elected professor of microscopic technology. In 1891 he was made curator, and in 1893, executive curator; in 1895, president of the Academy. He retained the two latter offices until the time of his death. In 1898 Dr. Dixon was appointed on the Board of Public Education in Philadelphia, and took an active part in improving the hygienic conditions in the city schools. In June, 1905, he was appointed commissioner of health of the State of Pennsylvania, an office he held up to the time of his death. In 1909 the University of Pennsylvania conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, and in 1916 Lafayette College honored him with the degree of Doctor of Science. He was vice-president of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, a director of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy, trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, Fellow of the College of Physicians, in 1917 president of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, and a member of numerous medical and scientific organizations.
Dr. Dixon made his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He was married in 1881 to Miss. Fannie Gilbert, and she and a daughter, Catherine H. Dixon, survived him.
Dr. Dixon died in Philadelphia, February 26, 1918, after a prolonged illness.
He was a prolific writer on bacteriologic and hygienic subjects. He wrote: "Physiological Notes," 1886; also many articles for the medical journals and for the proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences. While he was commissioner of health there were collected complete birth and death records, the morbidity statistics were compiled, rural quarantine details were properly classified, a state laboratory and a division of sanitary engineering were organized, and three large tuberculosis sanitoria opened, and a state-wide system of dispensaries for tuberculosis inauguarated.