WILLIAM CRAWFORD GORGAS. 1 



By Brig. Gen. Robert E. Noble. 



[With 1 plate.] 



So much has been written about the life and work of Gen. William 

 Crawford Gorgas, that whatever the writer may say will be much 

 like repeating in new words facts that are already well known. 



Intimacy with such a man does not always lead to ease in speak- 

 ing or writing of his personality or of his work, for there may be 

 feeling that represses rather than causes an easy flow of words. 



Intimate association for more than 13 years, with this, the most 

 knightly man that I have ever known, leaves me when I hear others 

 speak of him, almost dumb. I listen, I think of him, of the great 

 things he has accomplished and accomplished in the face of opposi- 

 tion and of a disbelief in him and in his methods, and finally of the 

 acknowledgment by many of those who had opposed him that he 

 was right, of the adoption of his methods by men and nations, of the 

 lives he has saved, of the men yet unborn who because of his teach- 

 ings will be conserved to the world, and finally of his end, while he 

 was yet able to give to the world a service that would benefit man- 

 kind. 



He was freeing the world from yellow fever, a disease that has 

 taken its toll from both hemispheres, that has been epidemic for 

 centuries in Central and South America and in the West Indies; 

 a disease that has paralyzed commerce and has caused panic and 

 disaster in the Southern States; a disease, which as a result of the 

 practical application by General Gorgas of the discovery by the 

 Reed Board that yellow fever is transmitted by a mosquito, and 

 by only one mosquito, the Stegomyia faseiata, is now confined to a 

 few endemic and epidemic centers, and which in five years will be 

 eliminated from the earth. 



General Gorgas was born at Mobile, Ala., October 3, 1854, the 

 son of Gen. Josiah and Amelia Gayle Gorgas. He was educated in 

 private schools until he entered the University of the South, grad- 

 uating with an A. B. degree in 1875. Deciding to study medicine. 



1 Reprinted by permission from the American Journal of Public Health, March, 1921. 



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