James Carroll 

 1854-1907 



James Carroll, the second in command on the Yellow 

 Fever Commission, United States Army, was an Englishman, 

 born at Woolwich, on June 5, 1854. His early years, like 

 those of many men whose maturity is spent in a country not 

 their own by birth, are little known, especially as his entire lack 

 of egotism prevented his dwelling upon them. He was educated 

 at a private school, Albion House, with a view to his entering 

 the British Navy as an engineer student, but shortly before the 

 time came for his admission, he emigrated to Canada. For 

 some time after he reached Canada his life was that of a farmer 

 in the backwoods, until, in course of time became to the States, 

 and in January, 1874, he enlisted in the United States Army. 



Upon enlisting he was ordered to the far west, and while 

 serving in Montana as a hospital steward he became interested 

 in the study of medicine. After some difficulty he obtained 

 permission to attend medical lectures at St. Paul, Minnesota, 

 and from this time on he pursued his medical education as he 

 could and where he could, until, on his return to the east he 

 finally completed it at the University of the City of New York 

 and the University of Maryland, receiving his degree of M.D. 

 from the latter institution in 1891. He became intensely inter- 

 ested in the new science of bacteriology, then beginning to de- 

 velop in this country, and availed himself of the graduate 

 classes just opened at Johns Hopkins Hospital to prosecute this 

 line of work. In 1895 he was assigned to duty in the Army 

 Medical Museum at Washington, where Walter Reed was Cu- 

 rator, and from this time forward these two men were constantly 

 associated as co-laborers. In 1899 Reed and Carroll were ap- 

 pointed by Surgeon-General Sternberg to investigate the true 

 nature of the Bacillus icteroides^ which Sanarelli had just de- 

 clared to be the specific agent of yellow fever. Their work on 

 this subject naturally associated their names prominently with 



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