Hermon
Hasseltine was born August 13, 1881 in Bristol, Addison County, Vermont the son
of Erwin and Jenny Searls Hasseltine.
Hermon prepared for college in Bristol High School and attended
Middlebury College (1898-1899). He completed his college education at Kansas
University (1899-1900). He then attended Baltimore Medical College (1900-1904) graduating
with an MD in 1904.[1]
He served his internship at Manhattan State Hospital (1904-1905) in New York
City. He held a contract surgeon position in the United States Army, in Washington
DC and Fort Thomas, Kentucky (1905-1908).
He then became a first lieutenant in the military reserve Corps, United
States Army, Fort Thomas Kentucky and Fort Snelling Minnesota (1908-1919).He
was commissioned an assistant surgeon in the Public Health Service on July 21,
1909 and four years later became a passed assistant surgeon on August 7, 1913. As part of the war effort, in 1917 he was temporarily
assigned to work for the Quartermaster General’s Office of the U.S. Army to
make tests of the Barbe method of cleaning and sterilizing garments at the
Bornot Brothers plant in Philadelphia.[2] In May 1920 he was
requested to assist the Kentucky’s State Health Officer and public health
laboratory in the proper manufacture of typhoid vaccine.[3] In April 1921 Hasseltine was
appointed the director of the Leprosy Investigation Station where he conducted
extensive research on the transmission of leprosy.[4] He was relieved of his
directorship on July 14, 1924 when Surgeon M.H. Neill assumed command.[5]
In 1925 he was given command of the Fort Monroe,
Virginia quarantine station located on Craney Island which served the ports of
Norfolk and Newport News.[6] His work on controlling
rat harborage on board vessels entering Norfolk prompted him to start an
important study of the rat flea the results of which were published. In 1929 he
conducted a four year nationwide field investigation of undulant fever while
domiciled in Washington DC. His epidemiologic work determined that contact with
infected livestock and or raw milk was the cause of the epidemic.[7] His research titled,
Current Studies of Undulant Fever, was published on July 12, 1929 in Public
Health Report Number 1298.[8]
On May 1, 1942 he was appointed Medical Director and
Officer in Charge of the Boston Quarantine Station and twelve nearby sub-ports
within Massachusetts. Taking over
quarantine operations at the start of World War II, Hasseltine saw a noticeable
drop in quarantine activity. In fiscal year 1942, his staff boarded 848 vessels
of which only 64 vessels carried passengers. In that year only 17,097 aliens were
examined in Boston including 521 passengers. Hasseltine reported that 213 of
the 521 passengers were seeking permanent admission into America. Hasseltine
may have been ordered to stop radio pratique due to the onset of war. There
were no vessels given clearance by radio in 1942 whereas 13 were given such
clearance the previous year – all of which were naval vessels. With war in high gear, suspicious activity and
the unauthorized entry of spies was of great concern. Since the outbreak of the
war, the station was used as a detention station for enemy aliens suspected of
hostile activities. As of June 30, 1942 Hasseltine disclosed that 138
passengers were considered aliens suspected of hostile activities and these
persons were “disposed of” without indicating what such a phrase meant. Were
they turned over to the military, local law enforcement or the FBI – Hasseltine
may not have been at liberty to say.
During 1942 Gallops Island was turned over to the U.S.
Maritime Commission for their use due to the rapid expansion of their
activities from war conditions. The boarding office was also moved from the
Army Base to Central Wharf to release space and facilities for use of the U.S.
Army. His report to the Surgeon General reveals the degree to which the war
took hold of Boston harbor. A total of 93 army and navy vessels were permitted
entry into the harbor without quarantine. These vessels were not counted in the
official tally of 848 vessels inspected by Hasseltine’s staff. Understandably,
Boston’s quarantine priorities were secondary to the smooth running of naval
operations and the Public Health Service stepped aside to let the navy press on
with war efforts.
With all of his wide ranging accomplishments within
the Service, Hasseltine found time to publish a wide array of articles on
public health and communicable disease. His expertise in chemistry and medicine
served him well with his literary pursuits. During World War I and in ensuing
years, he published an extensive number of technical articles on the treatment
and quarantine of leprosy (Public Health Bulletin Number 141, July, 1924)[9] as well as articles on the
preparation of public health laboratory specimens (Public Health Report #438,
1918), the bacteriologic examination of water, a rat flea survey of the port of
Norfolk, Virginia (Public Health Report Number 1270, 1929)[10] and a report on
pneumococcus inoculation in New York state institutions (JAMA, September 30,
1922).[11]
He served in a wide range of quarantine and research stations
including Buffalo New York (1909-1910); on board the U.S. Revenue Cutter “Rush”
in Alaskan waters (1910-1911); San Francisco, California (1911-1912); The
Public Health Service Hygienic Laboratory (1912-1920); Molokai, Hawaii
(1921-1924); Fort Monroe, Virginia (1925-1929), Washington DC (1929-1933), San
Francisco, CA (1933-1935), Carville, LA (1935-1940), Cincinnati, OH (1940-1942)
and Boston, Massachusetts (1942-1944). These
assignment involved him leading edge research on leprosy, stream pollution,
psittacosis disease and undulant fever.
He married Bertha M. Mohl June 6, 1905 and had three
children; Jennie; Catherine Luther and Lee Luther.[12] Bertha died on January 31,
1947. Hermon then married Gertrude Armstrong. During his retirement years he
returned to his home town. However, Hermon’s heart was not in good condition,
in early June he was taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center. He
passed away, June 8, 1968 in Burlington, Vermont and is buried in Greenwood
Cemetery in his home town of Bristol.[13] Gertrude survived him, passing away on
September 20, 1978.
[4] Hasseltine,
Hermon, Studies upon Leprosy, Public Health Bulletin Number 130, December 1922,
U.S. Public Health Service, Washington DC, USGPO, 1923;
JAMA,
April 23, 1921, Vol. 76, Number 17, p. 1180
