John Maynard Woodworth

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John Maynard Woodworth
1st Surgeon General of the United States
In office
March 29, 1871 – March 14, 1879
PresidentUlysses S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJohn B. Hamilton
Personal details
Born(1837-08-15)August 15, 1837
Big Flats, New York, U.S.
DiedMarch 14, 1879(1879-03-14) (aged 41)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political partyRepublican

John Maynard Woodworth (August 15, 1837 – March 14, 1879) was an American physician and member of the Woodworth political family.[1] He served as the first Supervising-Surgeon General under president Ulysses S. Grant, then changed to Surgeon General of the United States Marine Hospital Service from 1871 to 1879.

Early life and education

Woodworth was born at

Big Flats, Chemung County, New York. His family soon moved to Illinois, where Woodworth attended school in Warrenville. He studied pharmacy at the University of Chicago and worked as a pharmacist
for a time.

Woodworth was one of the organizers of the Chicago Academy of Science and in 1858 became curator of its museum. In this capacity, he made several trips west of the

Chicago Medical College
in 1862.

Career

Almost immediately upon graduating from medical school, Woodworth was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the

Union Army. He was soon promoted to Surgeon and eventually became Medical Director of the Army of the Tennessee. Woodworth served under General William Tecumseh Sherman, and on "Sherman's March to the Sea" he was in charge of the ambulance train, bringing the sick and wounded to Savannah
without the loss of a single man.

After the war, Woodworth became a companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

Following the

Chicago Medical College. He was also appointed Surgeon of the Soldier's home of Chicago and Sanitary Inspector of the Chicago Board of Health
in that same year.

Surgeon General

In 1871, Woodworth was appointed the first Supervising Surgeon of the

Pacific Coast
.

The marine hospitals hardly constituted a system in the

Antebellum period. Funds for the hospitals were inadequate, political rather than medical reasons often influenced the choice of sites for hospitals and the selection of physicians, and the Treasury Department had little supervisory authority over the hospitals. During the Civil War, the Union and Confederate forces occupied the hospitals for their own use, and in 1864 only 8 of the 27 hospitals listed before the war were operational. In 1869, the United States Secretary of the Treasury
commissioned an extensive study of the marine hospitals, and the resulting critical report led to the passage of reform legislation in the following year.

The 1870 reorganization converted the loose network of locally controlled hospitals into a centrally controlled Marine Hospital Service, with its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The position of Supervising Surgeon (later Surgeon General) was created to administer the Service. Woodworth began his service in the position on March 29, 1871, and he moved quickly to reform the system. He adopted a military model for his medical staff, instituting examinations for applicants instead of appointing physicians on the recommendation of the local Collector of Customs. Physicians, whom Woodworth placed in uniforms, were no longer appointed to serve in a particular facility, but appointed to the general Service. In this way, Woodworth created a cadre of mobile, career service physicians who could be assigned and moved as needed to the various marine hospitals. The uniformed services component of the Marine Hospital Service was formalized as the Commissioned Corps by legislation enacted in 1889 under Woodworth's successor, John B. Hamilton.

In 1872, Woodworth initiated the publication of annual reports of the Marine Hospital Service. That same year he also served as one of the founders of the American Public Health Association.

From the time of his appointment, Woodworth envisioned broader responsibilities for the Marine Hospital Service, well beyond the care of merchant seamen. In 1873, his title was changed to Supervising Surgeon General. He issued publications on

Bulletins of the Public Health (the forerunner of the Service's journal Public Health Reports). The Marine Hospital Service thus moved into public health activities under Woodworth, paving the way for its later evolution into the Public Health Service
.

Woodworth also designed the seal of the Service, which he first used on a publication that he authored in 1874 on Nomenclature of Diseases. The seal consisted of a fouled anchor, to represent the seamen cared for by the Service, and the

Army Medical Corps
as its symbol. With minor changes in design, this device has remained the seal of the Public Health Service to the present day.

Woodworth remained in the position of Supervising Surgeon General until his death in Washington, DC, on March 14, 1879.

References

  1. ^ Kelly, Howard A.; Burrage, Walter L. (eds.). "Woodworth, John Maynard" . American Medical Biographies . Baltimore: The Norman, Remington Company.