Bisbee daily review., 1920-07-04
GENERAL GORGAS
 DIES IN LONDON

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 Major General William c. Gorgas was considered one of the worlds foremost authorities on military med icine and surgery. He fought and de feated the malarial mosquito ia Pan anna and thus made possible the building of that great waterway. He dislodged yellow fever from its cen tpry-old stronghold in Havana and under the direction Of the United States government and the Rockefei- Ter Foundation supervised campaigns against that dread disease i1 Central America, Peru and Ecuatlo.'
 At the invitation of the British government he went to South Africa in 1913 to establish sanitary condi- tions in the Rand as a result of which he received high honors from ire medical profession in London and Oxford University conferred a degree upon hin.
 In the last ten years his services were sought to give battle to plaques in many parts of the world. When the typhus epidemic began in Ser bia in the war an effort was made to have him undertake ihe campaign against it but at that time he was needed to direct the medical and sur gical work for the American army in France.
 He was decorated by the French government and made a commander of the Legion of Honor and knighted by King George of England. the lat ter for. as the king expressed it to him, making possible the construc- ton of tEe great canal.
 In the days of the old French com pany which attempted to build the canal. tropical diseases annually claimed one-fourth of all its work CTS. The French were powerless be fore this pestilence.
 When General Gorgas became gen eral sanitary officer of the canal commission, the annual death toll had been reduced. but it was still diff ficult to obtain the vast army Of worknen necessary and to care for those disabled by malaria, yellow fever and dysentery.
 In nine years, by systematic campaign for the destruction of the mosquito. General Gorgas virtually drove these diseases from tEe Isth- mus. When he gave up the work to accept the post of surgeon-seneral in the army in 1914, deaths among the canal workers had been reduced to five per thoushnd annually. Con gress, in recognition of his achieve ment, made him major general and the world hailed him os one of the great men of medical science.
 In recognition of his services he wa made member of the isthmian com mission and served as such until Ee was made surgeon general.
 His work in combating yellow fever in Havana began when he went to Cuba with the rank of major in the Spanish war. When the war ended he remained as sanitary officer of the island. Havana had been for more than a century the focus of yellow fever infection for nil the northern hemisphere. When he left Cuba in 1902 the island had been cleaned up and Havana. where pre- viously from 200 to 1900 had annual ly succumbed to yellow fever, since has been virtually free from the di- sease.
 While in the canal zone General Gorgas visited Guayaquil and map ped out a plan to rid that city, long known as the ''pesthole of the Pa cific," from the yellow fever scourge and his plan was in process of exc cution when the great war began.
 Soon after the United States en- tered the world war General Gorgas announced the organization of the extensive system devised for the Ire construction" of soldiers crippled in the war which included the establ- lishment of orthopedic hospitals be hind the firing lines in France, re- construction hospitals in the great centers of America and the retrain ing of crippled men and preparation for resuming their vacations or learn ing new ones.
 General Gorgas reached the age limit while still on duty in France in 1915. When the war was over he was retired from active service in the army Subsequently, in 1919 he was head of the yellow fever com mission organized by the Rockefel Ter Foundation and in that capacity made an extensive tour of Central and South America to direct the work of eradicating yellow fevel from some of it's breeding centers notably in Peru and Ecuador.
 King George of England conferred upon him in June, 1920, the decora ton of Knight Commander of tho Df Ca;v AIirhaaI Saint