Presidential Physician: John Shaw Billings
1838-1913
Presidents
| James Garfield | Before Presidency: | Operating Surgeon |
Education
- Degree: MD
Military
- Battlefield surgeon during the Civil War, including Gettysburg and Chancellorsville. [Cameron]
- Spent 31 years at the Office of the Surgeon General. Retired from the Army in 1895. [Cameron]
Notes
- In 1875 not-yet-President James Garfield developed a painful anal fissure, on which Billings operated. [Deppisch]
- "Belongs without question in the genus Genius" [Chapman]. Billings' list of accomplishments make it clear that he was one of the most important physicians in the history of the United States:
- Started the Surgeon General Library, which became the National Library of Medicine.
- Started the Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office," which became Pubmed.
- Designed Johns Hopkins Hospital and insisted that medical students have a strong liberal arts education beforehand.
- Recruited William Osler and William Welch to Johns Hopkins.
- Seeded the idea to Herman Hollerith that the punched cards used in Jacquard's loom could be used to tabulate information... which effectively started the modern computer industry in general, and the IBM corporation in particular.
- Created the New York Public Library.
- During summer vacations in college, he broke into the college's library to read. [Chapman]
- Died of post-operative pneumonia. Buried in Arlington National Cemetery. [Chapman]
References
- Cameron JL. Early Contributions to the Johns Hopkins Hospital by the "Other" Surgeon: John Shaw Billings. Annals of Surgery. 2001; 234: 267-278. Pubmed Central
- Chapman CB. John Shaw Billings, 1838-1913: nineteenth century giant. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine. 1987; 63: 386-409. Pubmed Central
- Deppisch LM. Homeopathic medicine and presidential health: homeopathic influences upon two Ohio presidents. Pharos. Fall 1997;60:5-10.
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shaw_Billings
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