The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-12
COL. GORGAS'S
 APPOINTMENT
4 MATTER OF INTEREST TO THE COUNTRY AND TO THE MED-
 TCAL PROFESSION,
His Appointment Urged by the Amerl- can Medical Association--Chief Grounds on which Appoint
 ment was Urged.

Journal American Medical Association.
 The appointment of Col. W. c. Cor gas member of the Isthmian Canal Commission Is of more than ordinary to tne cGants tSs s apd to the original organization of the Commis- sion, in 1904, 1t will be remembered that the American Medical Associa- tion. through it's committee on medical legislation, made strong representa- tions to the President urging that Dr. Gorgas be made a member of the Com mission.
 The chief grounds on which the ap- pointment was urged were: 1, that the sanitary problems at the Isthmus were strictly fundamental to the great enterprise; 2. that the officer placed in charge of a department of such para mount responsibility ought to have CO., ordinate, If not autonomous. power fin the executive body-in no event being made subordinate to those ignorant of the technical questions involved, and, 3, that the medical profession as such by virtue of its intellectual. social, political and commercial status alone, was entitled 10 representation on gov ernmental bodies vested with executive function and dealing in a large way with sanitary problems. While the re- quest was denied, Colonel Gorgas was designated as chief sanitary officer un- der an executive commission, the con trolling spirits of which had no ade- quate conception of modern sanitation. As a consequence, such men were inc imical to many of the most salient fea- lures of the Necessary campaign against the perennially endemic dis eases prevailing on the Isthmus. The status of Colonel Gorgas and of the sanitary department under this ar engagement was shown, in the report of Dr. Reed, as chairman of the Commit tee on Medical Legislation. after Q visit to the Isthmus in February, 1905, to be one of subordination successive fy to the Governor of the Zone; to the chief disbursing officer; to the chief of the bureau of material and supplies; To Mir. Grunsky Especial committee on sanitation) to the com mission; to the Secretary of War; to the President; subordinated, in fact, One can not but be impress ed," continued the report with the anomalous condition by which a man of Colonel GorgaF distinction. the solving the peculiar problems connect ed with sanitation on the Isthmus. pe- ing made a mere instrument in the hands of whole series of men who confessedly are ignorant of the very questions with which he is the most familiar :"
 The publication of this report was speedily followed by material improve
 
 pertinent on the Isthmus. It was not however, until the President visited the Zone, and personally investigated conditions apparently, that he became the recommendations of the American Medical Association made three years Immediately on his return he announced his intention, which he has finally carried out, to appoint Col onel Gorgas as member of the Com 
 As before stated, this Is step of great importance to the medical pro- cognition of the principle that. in pub lie station, the medical profession ought, of right to be placed in execu- recognition of the capacity of physi- clans to serve in high administrative capacity and it. is a recognition of the right of the medical profession to dis of the chief executive The improved status of the sanitary department on the Isthmus is further guarantee to- the country that the great work of with the least possible pros pect of delay caused by epidemics such as defeated the French In both of their efforts to dig the canal.
 The appointment, in its personal as- pects is a just appreciation of the valuable services of Colonel Gorgas. His long career in the army brought hlm In contact with yellow 1eVer on the Rio Grande and elsewhere. Dur Ing the Spanish American war he was identified with Reed, Carroll and La- gear in establishing the mosquito the ory of yellow fever; and, placed in absolute control of Havana (through the intelligent action of Colonel Leon ard Wood, himself formerly of the medical corps), he was the first man in the world to reduce the scientific accuracy of that theory to a positive His work on the 18th mus, in spite of the early embarrass- ments to which he was subjected, has been crowned with the highest success,