Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-09
GOLD MEDAL GIVEN
T0SURG. GEN. BLUE
American Medicine 1915
Award Voted by Trustees to
Public Health Service Chief.

The American medicine gold medal
for 1915 has been awarded to Surgeon
General Rupert Blue of the puohc
health service, as tribute 70 the
achievements of the American phss'-
clan who, in the opinion OF the u
tees. has rendered the most notaoie
service to humanity in the domain vi
medicine during the last year Inv
ba sis of the award, as stated oy 'he
trustees. is the work of Dr. Blue IN
connection with national health ana
sanitation
DIR. Blue is a native of South Carolina
and received his education at the IN,
yersity of Virginia and the meaieai
department of the University OF MAJ
land He is also a graduate Oh '
London School of Tropical Meoiclhe'
For more than twenty years ne ma
been a commissioned officer IN the pun
lie health service, of when ne Is ne"
the head. having entered IL DIS an
SiStant surgeon IN 1898. =. tho
He has fought yellow fever in the
south. and was sent to Italy pH res res
dent Mckinley when choiera I'M ca
in 1900. Perhaps his most signai
achievement was the eradication u
bonic plague in California IN isVa-o.
The experience he gained there en-
abled him to set in motion the ma
chinerv which, in July of last year.
stamped out threatened eploeiiiie VI
this disease in New Orleans.
He is an active member of numerous
scientific and public health orsaniza-
tons In June of the present year ne
vas chosen president-elect OF inc
American Medical Association at It's
meeting in San Francisco
Educates individuals.
,rha one factor most important in
the warfare against disease, Surgeon
General Blue holds, is the educatlon
of the individual as the solution of the
broad problem of lettering pubic
health conditions. He has heWed 10
This line in his administration OF the
pubIic health service. He takes the po-
sition that every man is both willing
and anxious to protect his heaith' IL
he knows how to go about IT,
When Congress, in 1912, and only a
few months after DR.. Blues appoint
ment as surgeon general. gave It's
present name to the public health
service and conferred upon 1t broad
powers and duties in the investigation
and eradication of diseases, Such actlon
was generally recognized as the per
manent esta blishment of a centralized
federal health agency-a bureau 10
study the nations needs along the
lines of public health and sanitation.
and to fight the peoples battles
against preventable diseases
As the old Marine Hospital service,
and later as the public health and
Marine Hospital service, this bureau
had for more than a century cared for
the health of sailors of the American
merchant marine. For many years.
also, it had conducted the maritime
quarantine system of the United States,
protecting the country. from entry
through its seaports of the pestilential
diseases in other parts of the world.
But the nations lawmakers realized
that other and even more important
public health work lay within our own
borders. The development of trans
portation facilities, with increased
travel and communication between the
people of all sections, gave rise to
serious sanitary problems, interstate
and national in their character. State
and municipal health organizations,
many of them highly efficient within
their own jurisdictions. could not deal
with these problems in relation to
other communities.