Evening star., 1915-06-11
SURG. GEN. GORGAS
| TO HAVE BIG TASK
U. S. Army Officer Selected to
Direct Worldwide War on
Yellow Fever.
is DUE TO RETIRE SOON;
MAY TAKE UP WORK THEN
Picked for Position by International
Health Commission. Branch OF
Rockefeller Foundation.

Surgeon General William Crawford
Gorgas. l.. S. A., has been selected
by the international health commits
sion, a branch of the Rockefeller
Foundation, to become director of the
commissions work to investigate anu
exterminate yellow fever wherever 1t
exists. He will take up the work at
such time as will be agreed upon by
the board of directors of the interna-
tional health commission. AS he is due
to retire soon, it is assumed he viii take
charge of the worldwide sanitary
campaign as soon as his active mill
tary career ends.
Gen. Gorgas is regarded as the
greatest yellow fever authority in the
world He was the chief sanitary
officer of Havana and in charge of sani-
tary work there from 1898 to 1902. At
that time he applied methods of com
batting yellow fever which eliminated
that disease in Havana. March 9, 1908.
by a special act of Congress, he was
appointed assistant surgeon general in
appreciation of his yellow fever work
at Havana. He was appointed surgeon
general, United States Army, with the
rank of brigadier general, January 16,
1914.
Eradicated Causes of Epidemics.
In Cuba and Panama, Gen. Gorgas not
only discovered the cause of epidemic
diseases but he also eradicated that
cause. which he found to be mainly the
mosquito stegomjia. which carried the
bacilli of the infectious diseases.
Due to the Investigations of Surgeons
Henry F. Reed and James Carroll of
r ft,n ryt ctnta Il, soI, Ioy,
lost their lives, the discovery was made
that the mosquito was responsible for
the spread of yellow fever. Gen. Cor
gas Immediately began and success
fully carried out campaign against
this dangerous disease-carrying insect.
He followed the same tactics at Pana-
ma. where the French had sacrificed
thousands of lives in their attempt to
construct the isthmian canal
In 1913. Gen. Gorgas received a COM
mission from the British government
to take up the problem of sanitation in
South Africa, and, this government
consenting to loan him to England. he
spent nearly a year in South Africa,
working out plan for the successful
handling of the work assigned to him.
Gen. Gorgas has long string of
college degrees. Some of the medical
colleges he attended are the University
of the South, where he matriculated in
1875; Bellevue Hospital Medical Col
lege, University of Pennsylvania, Har-
ward, Brown, Jefferson Medical College,
University of Alabama and Tulane. In
the last named of these he held schol-
arships.
His military career commenced in
1850, when he was appointed surgeon
in the Cnited States Army. March 1,
1904, lie was appointed chief sanitary
officer of the Panama canal, and March
4, 1907, member of the isthmian canal
commission.
Recipient of Many Honors.
The honors conferred upon Gen.
Gorgas for his work are many. He is
the recipient of the Mary Kingsley
medal from the Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine, awarded May 27,
1907. He is an honorable fellow Of the
New York Academy of Medicine, and
associate fellow of the College of
Physicians of Philadelphia, associate
member of the Societe de Pathologic
otolique, Paris, and was president of
the A. NJ. A, 190s-s. He is member
of the American Society of Tropical
Medicine. OF the American Public
Health Association and Of the Associa-
ton of Military Surgeons.
He was a United States delegate to
the first pan American medical con-
gress. Santiago, Chile. in 1908.
Gen. Gorgas is a member Of the exec
utive committee and also chairman of
the war relief board of the American
Red Cross.