John B. Hamilton
| John B. Hamilton | |
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| 2nd Surgeon General of the United States | |
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In office April 3, 1879 – June 1, 1891 |
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| Preceded by | John Maynard Woodworth |
| Succeeded by | Walter Wyman |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 1, 1847 Otter Creek Township, Jersey County, Illinois, USA |
| Died | December 24, 1898 (aged 51) Elgin, Illinois, USA |
John B. Hamilton (December 1, 1847 – December 24, 1898) was an American physician and soldier. He was appointed the second Surgeon General of the United States from 1879 to 1891.
Hamilton was born on at Otter Creek Township, Jersey County, Illinois, near the present town of Otterville. He was educated at the Hamilton School, operated by his family, and apprenticed at age 16 to physician Joseph O. Hamilton. The following year (1864), Hamilton enlisted in G Company, 61st Illinois Regiment. After the close of the Civil War, he attended Rush Medical College in Chicago (1869, MD) and entered private practice.
Hamilton's wartime experiences exerted their influence, drawing him from private medical practice into a commission as an Assistant Surgeon in the United States Army (1874) and after he resigned from the Army, into the Regular Corps of the Marine Hospital Service (MHS). In 1876, the 24-year-old Hamilton sat for the first examination for entrance into MHS, passed with flying colors, and was commissioned as an Assistant Surgeon on Oct 21, 1876. His talent in public health practice revealed itself early, during an 1877 assignment to the Boston Marine Hospital at Chelsea, Massachusetts. Changing land use in the area had blocked hospital sewage from draining properly, causing unexpected outbreaks of infectious disease among patients. Hamilton resolved the crisis successfully by directing a renovation of the facility's drainage and sewage systems.
On April 3, 1879 Hamilton was appointed Supervising Surgeon General, succeeding fellow Army veteran and Chicagoan Dr. John Woodworth, the first Supervising Surgeon. Woodworth had died in office, amidst a political battle with the fledgling American Public Health Association and its allies in the United States Congress over the possibility that a new National Board of Health would supersede the newly revamped MHS (1871).
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