The Trials and Tribulations of George Miller Sternberg (1838-1915)—America's First Bacteriologist

THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF GEORGE MILLER STERNBERG (1838-1915)AMERICA 'S FIRST BACTERIOLOGIST HAROLD M. MALKIN* One of the truly admirable careers in American medicine is that of George Miller Sternberg, a regular army doctor who, in spite of all the inhibiting and unacademic influence of being a soldier in the nineteenth century, greatly influenced medicine in the United States and particularly in the field of bacteriology. Sternberg was born in 1838, in upper New York, where his father was a Lutheran minister and a member of the faculty of Hartwick Seminary . Like William Osier and William Henry Welch of Johns Hopkins fame, he was raised in a strict Christian environment with its Protestant work ethic which undoubtedly was a major factor in his later accomplishments . He was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City in 1860, practiced medicine for a few months, but then volunteered for service in the Union army shortly after the beginning of the Civil War. He was soon involved in the massacre that occurred at Bull Run where he treated hundreds of casualties on both sides with innumerable cases of gangrene before and after amputations of limbs. While performing his medical duties, he was captured by the Confederates, but he was able to escape. After several days of hardship in the woods without food, he found his way back to Washington, D.C. He then rejoined the army where he took part in the battle of Gaines Mill and Malvern Hill in 1862, and again took care of the wounded and dying. Following the war, he was stationed at Fort Harker in Kansas, where a severe epidemic of cholera occurred which claimed the life of his new wife. It was during this epidemic that he started his lifelong campaign *Address: 250 The Uplands, Berkeley, California 94705.© by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 003 1-5982/93/3604-0840$0 1 .00 666 Harold M. Malkin ¦ George Miller Sternberg for good sanitary conditions in the army camps, although the bacterial origin of cholera was still unsuspected. In 1867 he was assigned as a captain and post surgeon at Fort Riley. It was here he set up his first small laboratory where he carried out experiments in spite of the complete lack of interest or encouragement by any of his superior or fellow officers. He said years later, "When I commenced my research work, I had to provide my own microscope and material of all kinds. There not only was no bacteriology laboratory or apparatus at any military post, but so far as I am informed none at any medical school or university in the country" [1, p. 38]. It is not clear what type of experimentation he carried out, but it appeared to be related to botany since he and his wife had collected various plants in the area. This was at the time when Pasteur had proved that fermentation and putrification were produced by bacteria, and Lister in England was convinced that microorganisms were responsible for surgical infections; but without the development of the oil immersion lens, the Abbe condenser, and staining techniques, it was unlikely that Sternberg was studying bacteria. But like Osier, he learned to use the microscope before almost all other Americans, and this skill was to aid him immensely a few years later. Sternberg's work was ingenious during this period. For example, he invented and patented the first thermostat for controlling temperature using a mercury thermometer with wires as contacts, and he sold it to a company for $5,000. Sternberg's experience with yellow fever began in 1870 when he was sent to Governors Island in New York harbor where he soon faced his first epidemic of yellow fever. He treated, over a period of time, more than 150 cases, of which one-third died. During this period he was aware that he was nonimmune, and the nature of transmission of the disease was still a mystery, but he never asked for reassignment. He was next sent to Fort Barrancas in Florida where another yellow fever epidemic started, but he was able to abort the spread by moving all the army...