Paul
Preble, born December 5, 1881 in Auburn Maine, he graduated from Johns Hopkins
Medical School in 1907 and was commissioned in the Public Health Service on
October 20, 1908. Like many surgeons of
the U.S. Public Health Service he lived a peripatetic life with assignments in
Baltimore (1907-09), Staten Island (1908-09), and Washington DC as Division
Chief (1909-12). After becoming a surgeon in 1912 he had assignments in Cincinnati,
Ohio (October 14, 1914), Blytheville, Arkansas (July 1917), Berea, Kentucky
(February 1918) Portsmouth, New Hampshire (May 1918 to June 30, 1919)[1] and Augusta Maine
(November 1918).
He served as the fourth Medical Officer in Charge of
the Boston Quarantine station (July 30, 1921 until June 1, 1923). During his tenure at the Boston Quarantine
station he oversaw the boarding of 774 vessel with 47,667 passengers inspected
for quarantinable diseases. Of this
total 38,791 were officers and crew and the balance (8,876) were
passengers. All steerage passengers were
intensively inspected for Pediculi in light of the continued concern with
typhus in the Mediterranean countries.
Also during his tenure in Boston, the Service began inspecting rodents
to determine the presence of the plague – an activity triggered by the earlier
outbreaks of plague in San Francisco and New Orleans.
Preble’s directed many repairs and improvements to the station using his own staff. A new storehouse,
much needed for the storage of lumber and other material, was built from
material contained in two old sheds located at the
lower end of
the island. Roads were repaired and rebuilt, with,
cement gutters added, and all manholes were re-boxed with reinforced concrete.
A tile and rock drain was extended entirely around the large group of barracks,
with laterals to manholes and laboratory, in order to abate a mosquito nuisance
and remove ground water. With an appropriation of $150,000, work started on June 26, 1922 for extensive remodeling and
enlargement of existing barracks near the wharf. The enlargement provided
detention rooms for about 2,000 untreated persons, and two independent bathing
units with non-infected detention space for about
1,000 persons. [2]
Ironically, despite the expansion of
buildings on Gallop’s Island, three years earlier Surgeon General Rupert Blue had
suggested ending island quarantine. According
to Blue;
“In quite a
number of ports of the country the quarantine station was established by the
local or State officials and in a period of time when the various factors
entering into the spread of quarantinable diseases were not well known. Modern
research has revealed the fact that most quarantinable diseases either are
insect-borne or acquired through contaminated food or drink. Formerly, however,
most of the diseases were supposed to spread by means of aerial transmission,
and as a consequence, remoteness was deemed to be the most essential factor in
the location of the quarantine station. In the light of present-day knowledge
of preventive medicine, it is realized that adequate isolation of an infected
ship or personnel can be accomplished and rational proven the measures applied
without having the quarantine station so far removed from the port. The
inaccessibility and isolation of many of the quarantine stations today is
productive of a totally unnecessary expense in maintenance. Not only is the
maintenance of the station unnecessarily burdensome, but the isolation works a
hardship alike on officers and employees at the station. The bureau is of the
opinion that as the present stations deteriorate it would be to the best
interests of the Government and to the commercial agencies to abandon certain
remote quarantine stations wherever it may be practicable and to reestablish
them at a point nearer to the port which they are designed to protect.” [3]
Blue’s vision
would ultimately reach fruition in the period 1936 to 1950 when many of the
nation’s quarantine islands were closed for economic reasons. However, Preble
never experienced a contraction of quarantine services while working in Boston
due to the ongoing threat of typhus from various European ports.
After his year long stint in Boston, Preble
had numerous other assignments including his last at the Panama Canal where he
died from heart disease at the untimely age of 45.[4] He had been in Panama to
take charge of the Panama City health office after the former health officer
had been removed. He had just completed his plans for the reorganization of the
office when he suddenly died. He had recently been promoted to senior surgeon
and was considered an authority on municipal health work and administration. He
had been engaged for the last seven or eight years of his life in survey work
similar to that he undertook in Panama.
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