George Miller Sternberg | |
|---|---|
 Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg | |
| Born | (1838-06-08)June 8, 1838 |
| Died | November 3, 1915(1915-11-03) (aged 77) |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Service years | 1861–1902 |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
| Commands | U.S. Army Surgeon General |
| Conflicts | American Civil WarSpanish–American War |
Brigadier GeneralGeorge Miller Sternberg (June 8, 1838 – November 3, 1915) was aU.S. Armyphysician who is considered the first Americanbacteriologist, having writtenManual of Bacteriology (1892).[1] After he survivedtyphoid andyellow fever, Sternberg documented the cause ofmalaria (1881), discovered the cause oflobar pneumonia (1881), and confirmed the roles of the bacilli oftuberculosis andtyphoid fever (1886).[2]
As the 18thU.S. Army Surgeon General, from 1893 to 1902, Sternberg led commissions to control typhoid and yellow fever, along with his subordinateMajorWalter Reed. Sternberg also oversaw the establishment of theArmy Medical School (1893; now theWalter Reed Army Institute of Research) and of theU.S. Army Nurse Corps (1901). The pioneeringGerman bacteriologistRobert Koch honored Sternberg with thesobriquet, "Father of AmericanBacteriology".[3]
Sternberg was born atHartwick Seminary,Otsego County, New York, where he spent most of his childhood. He was the eldest child of Levi Sternberg and Margaret Miller Sternberg. His father was a Lutheran clergyman, was descended from a German family fromthe Palatinate, which had settled in theSchoharie Valley in the early years of the 18th century. His father later became principal ofHartwick Seminary in Hartwick, New York, where he started his education. His mother, Margaret Levering (Miller) Sternberg, was the daughter of George B. Miller, also a Lutheran clergyman and professor oftheology at the seminary, which was a Lutheran school. As an eldest child of a large family and he was given adult responsibilities from an early age. He interrupted his studies at the seminary with a year of work in a bookstore inCooperstown and three years of teaching in nearby rural schools. During his last year at Hartwick he was an instructor inmathematics,chemistry, andnatural philosophy. He was at the same time pursuing the study ofmedicine withHorace Lathrop of Cooperstown. For his formal medical training he went first toBuffalo, and later to theCollege of Physicians and Surgeons of New York (M.D. degree, 1860). After graduation he settled inElizabeth, New Jersey, to practice, remaining there until the outbreak of the Civil War.[4][5][6]
On May 28, 1861, he was appointed anAssistant Surgeon in the U.S. Army, and on July 21 of the same year was captured at theFirst Battle of Bull Run, while serving with GeneralGeorge Sykes' division. He managed to escape and soon joined his command in the defense ofWashington. He later participated in thePeninsular campaign and saw service in the battles ofGaines' Mill andMalvern Hill. During this campaign he contractedtyphoid fever while atHarrison's Landing and was sent north on a transport. During the remainder of the war he performed hospital duty, mostly atLovell Hospital atPortsmouth, Rhode Island, and atCleveland, Ohio. On March 13, 1865, he was given theBrevets ofcaptain andmajor for faithful and meritorious service.
The years following the war followed the pattern of frequent moves typical of junior medical officers of the day. He married Louisa Russell, daughter of Robert Russell of Cooperstown, on October 19, 1865, and took his bride toJefferson Barracks, Missouri, from where he was soon transferred toFort Harker, nearEllsworth inKansas. Louisa did not accompany him to the latter post, but joined him in 1867 just prior to an outbreak ofcholera. She was one of the first civilians to develop the disease which killed her within a few hours on July 15 and soon claimed a toll of about 75 people at the fort.[5]
Sternberg was promoted to captain on May 28, 1866, and was soon sent toFort Riley, Kansas (December 1867). With troops from this post he took part (1868–69) in several expeditions against hostileCheyenne Indians along the upperArkansas River in Indian Territory and in western Kansas. Besides his military duties, Sternberg was also interested in fossils and began collecting leaf imprints from the nearbyDakota Sandstone Formation. Some of his specimens went back East where they were studied by the famous paleobotanist,Leo Lesquereux.
Sternberg also collected vertebrate fossils, including shark teeth, fish remains and mosasaur bones, from theSmoky Hill Chalk andPierre Shale formations in western Kansas, and sent the specimens back to Washington, D.C., where they were eventually curated in theUnited States National Museum (Smithsonian Institution). There they were studied and later described in publications byJoseph Leidy. The type specimen of the giantLate Cretaceous fish,Xiphactinus audax, was collected by Dr. Sternberg. His work was also credited byEdward D. Cope andSamuel W. Williston. Sternberg was also responsible for getting his younger brother,Charles H. Sternberg, started inpaleontology. Charles would later credit his older brother for getting many other paleontologists of the day interested in the fossil resources of Kansas.[5]
Sternberg served at Fort Riley until July 1870, when he was ordered toGovernors Island, New York. In the meantime, he had remarried on September 1, 1869, atIndianapolis, Indiana, to Martha L. Pattison, a daughter of Thomas T. N. Pattison of that city.[7]
During two years at Governors Island and three (1872–75) atFort Barrancas, Florida, Sternberg had frequent contacts withyellow fever patients, and at the latter post, he contracted the disease himself. He had earlier noted the efficiency of moving inhabitants out of an infested environment and successfully applied that method to the Barrancas garrison. At about this time, Sternberg published two articles in theNew Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal ("An Inquiry into the Modus Operandi of the Yellow Fever Poison," July 1875, and "A Study of the Natural History of Yellow Fever," March 1877) which gained him status as an authority on yellow fever. While convalescing from his bout with the disease in 1877 he was ordered toFort Walla Walla, Washington, and later that year he participated in a campaign against theNez Perce Indians. The spent his spare hours in study and experimentation which laid a foundation for his later work. In 1870 he perfected ananemometer and patented an automatic heat regulator which later had wide negative use.[7]
On December 1, 1875, Sternberg was promoted major, and in April 1879, he was ordered to Washington, D. C., and detailed with the 1880Havana Yellow Fever Commission. His medical colleagues on the Commission were DoctorsStanfard Chaille ofNew Orleans andJuan Guiteras ofHavana. Sternberg was assigned to work on the problems relating to the nature and natural history of the disease and especially to itsetiology (origins). This involved the microscopical examination of blood and tissues in which he was one of the first to employ the newly discovered process ofphotomicrography. He developed high efficiency in its use. In the course of this work, he spent three months in Havana closely associated with Dr.Carlos Finlay, the main proponent of the theory of mosquito transmission of yellow fever.
In 1880, the Commission concluded that the solution of yellow fever causality must await further progress in the new science ofbacteriology. Sternberg was soon sent to New Orleans to investigate the conflicting discoveries ofPlasmodium malariae byAlphonse Laveran, and ofBacillus malariae byEdwin Klebs andCorrado Tommasi-Crudeli.[8] His report (1881) declared that theBacillus malariae had no part in the causation of malaria. The same year—simultaneously withLouis Pasteur—he announced the discovery of thepneumococcus, eventually recognized as the pathogenic agent oflobar pneumonia. He was the first in the United States to demonstrate thePlasmodium organism as cause of malaria (1885) and to confirm the causitive roles of the bacilli of tuberculosis and typhoid fever (1886). He was the first scientist to producephotomicrographs of thetubercule bacillus. He was also the earliest American pioneer in the related field of disinfection in which he began with experiments (1878) withputrefactive bacteria. This work was continued in Washington and in the laboratories ofJohns Hopkins Hospital inBaltimore, under the auspices of theAmerican Public Health Association. For his essay "Disinfection and Individual Prophylaxis against Infectious Diseases" (1886), later translated into several languages, he was awarded theLomb Prize. He oversaw creation the US Army enlisted hospital corps ("medics") in 1887.[6]
During theHamburg cholera epidemic of 1892 he was detailed for duty with the New York quarantine station as a consultant on disinfection as applied to ships, their personnel, and cargo. Although some cases of the disease reached United States shores, none developed within the country.[6]
Sternberg was promoted to lieutenant colonel on January 2, 1891. In 1892 he published hisManual of Bacteriology, the first exhaustive treatise on the subject produced in the United States. With the retirement of Surgeon General Sutherland (May 1893), Sternberg, along with many others, submitted his claims for consideration for the vacancy. Although hardly the seniormost officer in theMedical Corps, he was among the top dozen and was without question the most eminent professional scientist in the service. He received the appointment of Surgeon General by PresidentGrover Cleveland on May 30, 1893, succeedingCharles Sutherland and receiving promotion to brigadier general.
Sternberg's nine-year tenure (1893–1902) as Surgeon General coincided with immense professional progress in the field of bacteriology as well as the occurrence of theSpanish–American War. He was responsible for the 1893 establishment of theArmy Medical School (precursor of today'sWalter Reed Army Institute of Research), the organization of a contract dental service, the creation of the tuberculosis hospital atFort Bayard, New Mexico, and of a special surgical hospital atWashington Barracks. The equipment of the medical school included laboratories of chemistry and bacteriology, and a liberal-minded policy was adopted in the supply of laboratory supplies to the larger military hospitals. With the Spanish–American War and its epidemic of typhoid fever, the problem of field hospitalization was confronted with fair success. (He was subjected to much criticism for conditions at these hospitals, but made little reply.) Sternberg created theTyphoid Fever Board (1898), consisting of MajorsWalter Reed,Victor C. Vaughan, andEdward O. Shakespeare, which established the facts of contact infection and fly carriage of the disease. In 1900 he organized theYellow Fever Commission, headed by Reed, which ultimately fixed the transmission of yellow fever upon a particular species of mosquito. (These became celebrated as the "Walter Reed Boards"). On his recommendation the first tropical disease board was also established in Manila (January 1900) where it continued for about the next two years. In 1901, Sternberg oversaw the establishment of theU.S. Army Nurse Corps. In July 1900, Sternberg recognizedElizabeth Fleischman for herradiographic work withX-rays on the wounded soldiers during theSpanish–American War.[9]
Sternberg was retired on account of age on June 8, 1902, and devoted the later years of his life to social welfare activities in Washington, particularly to the sanitary improvement of dwellings and to the care of tuberculous patients. Sternberg died at his home in Washington, on November 3, 1915.[7] He was buried atArlington National Cemetery.[10]
Sternberg was a member of theMilitary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, theSociety of the Army of the Potomac, theSons of the American Revolution and theAssociation of Military Surgeons of the United States.
He was awarded theCivil War Campaign Medal and theIndian Campaign Medal. He was posthumously eligible for theSpanish War Service Medal.
On Sternberg's monument inArlington National Cemetery is the inscription:
Pioneer American Bacteriologist, distinguished by his studies of the causation and prevention of infectious diseases, by his discovery of the microorganism causing pneumonia, and scientific investigations of yellow fever, which paved the way for the experimental demonstration of the mode of transmission of this pestilence. Veteran of three wars, breveted for bravery in action in the Civil War and the Nez Perce Wars. Served as Surgeon General of United States Army for period of nine years including the Spanish War. Founder of the Army Medical School. Scientist, author and philanthropist. M. D., LL. D.[11]
Along with Pasteur and Koch, Sternberg is credited with first bringing the fundamental principles and techniques of the new science of bacteriology within the reach of the average physician.
A collection of his papers is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.[12]
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