Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2018

JOHN SHAW BILLINGS (1838-1913) A report on the hygiene of the United States Army, with descriptions of military posts. Government Printing Office 1875 lix, 567 pp., illus., fold. map, plates, plans. 29.2 cm.

Although Billings had a distinguished career as a surgeon during the Civil War, he is better known for his achievements as a hospital planner, medical bibliographer, librarian, historian, and statistician. Billings also developed the collection of the Library of the Surgeon-General (now the National Library of Medicine), began Index Medicus, and served as chief executive of the New York Public Library. A native of southeastern Indiana, Billings attended Miami Medical College (later the Medical College of Ohio) in Cincinnati. After completing the two year course in 1860, he remained on the faculty as demonstrator of anatomy. He volunteered for the Army medical corps at the beginning of the Civil War and retired thirty-four years later. Following his army career, he became professor of hygiene at the University of Pennsylvania but resigned in June 1896 to assume leadership of the New York Public Library. In this book he reports on individual military installations around the United States and includes such information as medical statistics, climate, and plans of forts. Billings' lengthy report on the state of army hygiene is included at the beginning of the book.

Gift of John Martin, M.D.