Introduction xxi 



the founding of the National Board of Health is 

 largely due. 



In 1879 his interest in the State medical problems, 

 as shown by his labours as Chairman on Health and 

 Quarantine of the General Assembly of the State of 

 Louisiana, caused his election as vice-president of 

 the Louisiana Medical Society, and later as a presi- 

 dent of that distinguished body. He was a member 

 of the American Medical Association and was hon- 

 oured by an election as one of the vice-presidents of 

 the Ninth International Medical Congress, in Wash- 

 ington. For many years he was the Surgeon Gen- 

 eral of the State of Louisiana, as well as president 

 of the Board of Health of Baton Rouge ever since 

 the war, and of the Medical Examining Board for 

 the Pension Bureau at Baton Rouge. He was also 

 for over twenty years the medical officer of the 

 Louisiana State University and the Agricultural 

 and Medical College. From 1878 he filled the chair 

 of anatomy, physiology, and hygiene at that insti- 

 tution. Not only this, but for four terms he was 

 appointed to the State Legislature. 



As a bacteriologist he was an expert, owning one 

 of the best laboratories in the State. He used, with 

 great amusement, to tell me about how, when he 

 first took up the work with bacteria, no other doc- 

 tor in that region would accept the theories at 

 all, but scoffed openly and dubbed him " Microbe 

 Jimmy." He did much bacteriological research, 

 including comparative experiments with Sternberg's 

 Bacillus and Sanarelli's Bacillus icteroides. As a yel- 

 low-fever expert, indeed, he bore an international 



