These surgeons had a wide range of expertise in the field of communicable disease including expert knowledge of plague prevention, typhoid, typhus, tuberculosis, undulant fever, leprosy, malaria, influenza, vaccine manufacturing standards, public health administration, institutional medicine (e.g. prisoners and veterans), vessel fumigation and rat control measures. Those selected for the post of Medical Officer in charge of the Boston Quarantine Station were some of the most well respected and accomplished surgeons in the Public Health Service. Only those surgeons with years of experience in smaller ports were considered for command in Boston. The 13 surgeons who served as the Medical Officer in charge during the period 1915 to 1945 had an average of 20 years in the Service before they took command of the Boston Quarantine Station. The thirteen surgeons who took command of the Boston quarantine station in this era were:
Public Health Service Physician/Years Served at Boston Quarantine Station
- Samuel B. Grubbs (1915-1917)
- Donald H. Currie ( 1917-1918)
- William M. Bryan (1919-1921)
- Paul Preble (1921-1923)
- Henry.W. Wickes (1923-1923)
- Geoge Parcher (1923-1924)
- Friench Simpson (1924-1927)
- Alvin R. Sweeney (1927-1935)
- Ernest A. Sweet (1935-1936)
- Alfred Aselmeyer (1936-1936)
- Harry J. Warner (1936-1939)
- Roy E. Bodet (1939-1942)
- Hermon E. Hasseltine (1942-1945)
- Henry A. Rasmussen (1945-1957)
Samuel Bates Grubbs
Years Served: 1915-1917
Samuel Bates Grubbs was
born in Indianapolis, Indiana on February 11, 1871. He received his early
education in Farmington, Maine (1884-1886) and at the Hogshead Academy in
Harrodsburg Kentucky near his family home. He graduated from the University of
Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1893. After completing his studies
in Ann Arbor he returned to Kentucky where he sold kerosene to merchants of
that state during which time he met a humanitarian minded physician that
inspired him to go to medical school. He
received his MD at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City in
1896.[1] He
entered the Public Health Service on May 17, 1897.[2] He
was fortunate to work in the Service’s Hygienic Laboratory for several years
(1900-1902) where he conducted leading edge research on numerous topics
including an organism resembling the bacillus pestis.[3] On
April 18, 1902 he assumed command of the Gulf quarantine station located on
Ship Island in Mississippi and two months later, on June 7, 1902, he achieved
the title of Passed Assistant Surgeon on June 7, 1902.[4] He married Mary Evelyn Noble in June 1903 and
the following year their son Daniel Dean Grubbs was born on April 22, 1904.[5] In
1908 he was appointed as the United States representative to the International
Office of Public Hygiene in Paris, France with the mission of establishing an
international organization to coordinate sanitary treaties with America’s
trading partners. He was relieved of that duty and sent to San Juan Puerto Rico
in 1908 with the title of Passed Assistant Surgeon.[6]
From 1908 to 1912 he was the chief quarantine officer in San
Juan, Puerto Rico with responsibility for eight island sub-ports.[7] During his tenure, cases of bubonic plague
were identified and the Governor of Puerto Rico requested help to prevent an
epidemic.[8] He
conducted an important vessel fumigation study that received wide spread
coverage within the public health service network. On November 12, 1912 he was promoted to
Surgeon[9] and
one month later he was relieved of his duties in Puerto Rico and placed in
charge of the Providence Rhode Island quarantine station.[10] On
August 18, 1914 Grubbs served as a special advisor to the city Mobile Alabama
combating the influx of plague. It was a unique opportunity for him to
introduce rat proofing concepts for buildings and vessels and to improve the
city’s sanitation.[11]
He was fortunate to have worked at a time when the battle
against communicable disease was a central concern of American society. He made
lasting contributions to public health with his wide array of assignments where
he battled yellow fever, plague, typhus fever, epidemic meningitis, and other
diseases that were having devastating impacts on public health.[12]
He was exposed to yellow fever in the pre-scientific era before Walter Reed
proved that it was caused by the bite of mosquitoes but he lived long enough to
see the tremendous scientific, epidemiological and emergency response work of
the Public Health Service reach fruition in the 20th century. His
role as one of the nation’s leading quarantine physicians cannot be fully
described in this brief bio-sketch. He was a man of deep religious beliefs and
a good student of character which served him well as he negotiated the gauntlet
of local, state and federal politics which he faced as he implemented
quarantine and other public health improvements throughout the nation.
While his achievements far exceed his 2 year stay in Boston,
it is there that he made a lasting contribution to the reorganization of the
nation’s oldest quarantine station. In
his brief stay in Boston he negotiated the federal government’s takeover of
quarantine services working with Mayor Curley, one of the most famous mayors in
Boston history. Grubbs
arrived in Boston May 28, 1915 and reported to the mayor on the
following day. Wasting no time he took charge
station on June 1st.[13]The
city’s agreement with the Public Health Service required the federal government
to lease the station for one year pending a real estate appraisal prior to its
sale.[14]
His chief concern in 1915 was the importation of cholera,
typhus fever and plague with the greatest threat posed by typhus fever. Grubbs
vigilantly enforced delousing of passengers. Passengers were separated by sex
and then told to undress. Each person was sprayed with a solution of one part
soap, four parts water, and four parts gasoline, diluted with five parts of hot
water and made to pass through a shower bath 15 feet long in which water stood
20 inches deep. The shower was the only means of reaching the bath house exit.[15] Despite
his hectic schedule, he found time to teach a course on maritime quarantine to
public health officers at the Harvard School of Public Health.[16]It
is unclear why Grubbs left Boston but frayed relations with Mayor Curley may
have contributed to his transfer.
After Boston, he had numerous other assignments including
Newport News, Virginia (1917-1919),[17] Panama
Canal (1920),[18] New
York City (July 1921 to 1924),[19] Washington,
DC (1925-1927), [20] Chicago,
IL (1927-1929) [21] and
Honolulu, Hawaii (1929-1932). [22] While Honolulu was a coveted assignment for
USPHS surgeons for a man of his status and tenure within the Service, it was a
demotion. In 1943, Grubbs wrote a book
titled “By Order of the Surgeon General” which was privately printed by
Pleasant Wood Farms, Carmel, IN. The book recounts the professional life of Dr.
Grubbs who retired in 1933 after serving in the Public Health Service for 37
years. He died September 19, 1942 in Poughkeepsie, New York.
[5] Accessed
online: http://home.comcast.net/~kennedybf/grubbs/miller_samuel-ddg_intro.pdf
[8] Ibid, p.
162
[12]
Vaughan, Henry, Odyssey of a Public
Health Doctor, Quarterly Review, A Journal of University Perspectives, Autumn
1943, Vol. 50, No. 10, December 4, 1943, pp. 90-91
[14] JAMA,
Boston Quarantine Transferred, June 19, 1915, Vol. 64, No 25, p. 2076.
[15] Annual
Report of the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, 1916, p. 123
No comments:
Post a Comment