William Crawford GorgasKCMG (October 3, 1854 – July 3, 1920) was aUnited States Army physician and 22ndSurgeon General of theU.S. Army (1914–1918). He is best known for his work in Florida,Havana and at thePanama Canal in abating the transmission ofyellow fever andmalaria by controlling themosquitoes that carry these diseases, for which he used the discoveries made by the Cuban doctorCarlos J. Finlay. At first, Finlay's strategy was greeted with considerable skepticism and opposition to such hygiene measures. However, the measures Gorgas put into practice as the head of the Panama Canal Zone Sanitation Commission saved thousands of lives and contributed to the success of the canal's construction.
He was aGeorgist and argued that adoptingHenry George's popular'Single Tax' would be a way to bring about sanitary living conditions, especially for the poor.[1]
He was assigned to three posts—Fort Clark,Fort Duncan, andFort Brown—in Texas. He was sent to Fort Brown (1882–84) to take control of an epidemic ofyellow fever. One of his patients was Marie Cook Doughty, who nearly died from the disease. In the course of caring for her, he contracted the disease himself. They both recovered together, and during the time of convalescence, fell in love, soon thereafter getting married.[4][5][3] Having recovered from the disease, they both now had lifetime immunity and consequently were assigned to other yellow fever outbreaks.[4]
In 1898, after the end of theSpanish–American War, Gorgas was appointed Chief Sanitary Officer inHavana, where he andRobert Ernest Noble worked to eradicate yellow fever and malaria.[6] Gorgas capitalized on the momentous work of another Army doctor, MajorWalter Reed, who had built much of his work on the insights of Cuban doctor,Carlos Finlay, to prove the mosquito transmission ofyellow fever. Through his efforts draining both theAedes aegypti mosquito vector breeding ponds and quarantining of yellow fever patients in screened service rooms, cases in Havana plunged from 784 to zero within a year.[7]
As chief sanitary officer on the canal project, Gorgas implemented far-reaching sanitary programs, including the draining of ponds and swamps, fumigation, use ofmosquito netting, and construction of public water systems. These measures were instrumental in permitting the construction of thePanama Canal, as they significantly prevented illness due to yellow fever and malaria (which had also been shown to be transmitted by mosquitoes in 1898) among the thousands of workers involved in the building project.[8]
The involvement ofAmerica in World War I led to a need for what were called "reconstruction aides", civilian women who were sent to France to provide occupational therapy services for wounded soldiers, and in order to train these medical personnel, a number of emergency courses, programs, and schools were set up in the United States. In particular, at the request of Gorgas, theBoston School of Occupational Therapy was founded in 1918 with a goal of providing a supply of trained occupational therapists to U.S. military hospitals. Subsumed intoTufts University, the school exists to this day.[9]
Gorgas retired from the Army in 1918, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 64.[10]
William C. Gorgas' name as it is featured on theLSHTM Frieze
Gorgas' name features on the Frieze of theLondon School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Twenty-three names of public health and tropical medicine pioneers were chosen to feature on the School building in Keppel Street when it was constructed in 1926.[14]
Gorgas Hospital was a U.S. Army hospital in Panama, previously known as Ancon Hospital and named for Dr. Gorgas in 1928. Now held and operated by Panama, it is home to theInstituto Oncologico Nacional, Panama's Ministry of Health and its Supreme Court.
In 1947 theGorgas Science Foundation was founded atTexas Southmost College (on the site of the former Fort Brown). The foundation supports conservation and ecological science research projects worldwide.
Texas Southmost College has a Gorgas Hall named in his honor. The college's campus is located on the grounds of the formerFort Brown.
TheAlabama Power Company renamed its Warrior Reserve Steam Plant on theBlack Warrior River nearParrish in honor of Gorgas in the 1920s. Gorgas had testified on behalf of the utility during the previous decade in lawsuits over mosquito-borne illnesses in the vicinity of itsLay Dam hydroelectric reservoir.[21] The coal-fired steam plant was closed in April 2019.
Gorgas's Rice Rat (Oryzomys gorgasi) is a South American rodent named after Gorgas in 1971.
The Latin University of Panama (Universidad Latina de Panama) named their health sciences faculty in Gorgas's honor (Facultad de ciencias de la salud Dr. William C. Gorgas).
There is aGorgas Avenue in the Presidio in San Francisco, California.[22]
Gorgas Hall at Sewanee - The University of the South is named in his honor and was ranked the worst dorm at Sewanee in 2022 by College Jaguar[1]
In 1984 the "Major General William C. Gorgas Clinic" was dedicated as part of the Mobile County Health Department, located at 251 North Bayou Street, Mobile, AL[2]
^"Famous Surgeon is Dead".Associated Press. Archived fromthe original on November 4, 2012. RetrievedNovember 13, 2010.Maj. Gen. William C. Gorgas, former Surgeon-General of the United States Army, died at an early hour this morning. Gen. Gorgas's death was very peaceful. He was unconscious most of the time for the last few day
^After his death, Gorgas's ongoing work (through theRockefeller Foundation) in eliminating yellow fever in Mexico and Central America was carried on by retired Brigadier GeneralTheodore C. Lyster.
^Atkins, Leah Rawls (2006).'Developed for the Service of Alabama': The Centennial History of the Alabama Power Company. Birmingham, Alabama: Alabama Power Company.
From the brochure "150 Year Celebration of the U.S. Marine Hospital/Mobile County Health Department" – December 15, 1993 – Bernard H. Eichold, II M.D., Dr. P.H., Health Officer
Mellander, Gustavo A., Mellander, Nelly, Charles Edward Magoon: The Panama Years. Río Piedras, Puerto Rico: Editorial Plaza Mayor.ISBN1-56328-155-4.OCLC42970390. (1999)
Mellander, Gustavo A., The United States in Panamanian Politics: The Intriguing Formative Years." Danville, Ill.: Interstate Publishers.OCLC138568 (1971)
Phalen, James M., "Chiefs of the Medical Department, U.S. Army 1775–1940, Biographical Sketches,"Army Medical Bulletin, No. 52, April 1940, pp. 88–93.
Endorsements, Resolutions and other Data in Behalf of the Nomination of Dr. William Crawford Gorgas for Election to the New York Hall of Fame for Great Americans, 2 vols., Birmingham: Gorgas Hall of Fame Committee, 1950.
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