In the history of medicine, William Crawford Gorgas is one of the names that keeps returning.
The record lists William Crawford Gorgas as 22nd Surgeon General of the United States Army.
William Crawford Gorgas was born at Mobile in 1854. His recorded nationality is United States. He trained at Sewanee: The University of the South and St. Andrew's-Sewanee School.
Anaesthesia, antisepsis and germ theory arrived within fifty years and made modern surgery possible for the first time.
The recorded fields of work are malaria, yellow fever and preventive medicine.
The test of medical work is whether practice changed, not whether the argument was elegant.
Recognition followed: Distinguished Service Medal, NAS Public Welfare Medal (1914), Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George and Buchanan Medal (1912).
That the work was done from United States matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
William Crawford Gorgas died in 1920, aged 66. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
Achievements
- Distinguished Service Medal
- NAS Public Welfare Medal — 1914
- Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Buchanan Medal — 1912
- Fields: malaria, yellow fever and preventive medicine
.jpg)
