BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
OF 
DR. JOSEPH JONES. 
[Reprint from Physicians and Surgeons ok America.J1 JOSEPH JONES JONES, Joseph, New Orleans, La., born 
September 6, 1833, in Liberty county, Ga., is the 
son of Rev. Charles Colcock (D. D.) and Mary 
(Jones) Jones; and grandson of Captain Joseph 
Jones (maternal), who commanded the Liberty 
Independent Troop in the War of 1812; and 
great-grandson of Major John Jones (paternal), 
aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Lachlan Mcln- 
tosh, who fell before the British lines around 
Savannah during the assault of October, 1779. 
His father, the Rev. Charles C. Jones, was a 
Presbyterian divine, the author of the “ History of 
the Church of God;” of a catechism for the in- 
struction of the Negroes of the United States, and 
of many elaborate reports extending over a series 
of years and detailing his labors among the blacks 
of Liberty county. 
Joseph Jones acquired his early education under 
private tutors; in 1845, entered the University of 
South Carolina, Columbia; in 1850, matriculated 
in Princeton College, N. J., from which institu- 
tion he was graduated with distinguished honors in 
1853, and received therefrom the degree of A. M., 
in 1853. He then entered the University of 
Pennsylvania, Department of Medicine, and was 
graduated M. D., in 1855. He was the first 
private student of Prof. Joseph Leidy, M. D., and 
enjoyed the personal friendship of Prof. Samuel 
Jackson, M. D., Hugh L. Hodge, M. D., and of 
Prof. George B. Wood. The honorary degree of 
LL. D., was conferred upon Dr. Jones by the 
board of trustees of the University of Georgia 
June 17, 1892. 
Dr. Jones commenced the practice of medicine in 
Savannah, Ga., in 1855, in which year he was elected 
professor of chemistry in the Savannah Medical Col- 
lege, continuing in that chair until 1858, when he 
was elected professor of natural philosophy and nat- 
ural theology in the University of Georgia, Athens. 
In 1859, he was elected to the chair of chemistry 
in the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, which 
position he held until interrupted by active service in the War of the Rebellion, which commenced in 
1861, and terminated with the surrender of the 
Confederate armies under Gen. Joseph E. John- 
ston, in May, 1865. During this war, Dr. Jones 
was for six months, 1861, in the cavalry service, 
and for the remainder of the time, served in the 
Confederate army as full surgeon with the rank of 
major. His most important duties were assigned 
by Samuel Preston Moore, surgeon-general of the 
Confederate army, as will be seen by the following 
orders and correspondence; 
General Hospital, Augusta, Ga., 
February q, 1863. 
S. P. Moore, 
Surgeon-General, C. S. A., 
Richmond. 
Sir : Accompanying this, I have the honor to forward 
to the surgeon-general a small manuscript volume con- 
taining observations on traumatic tetanus. I have en- 
deavored carefully to investigate the phenomena pre- 
sented by a case of tetanus, which occurred in the Gen- 
eral Hospital in this place. Such an investigation as 
that now presented appeared to be necessary, for I am 
unacquainted with the report of a single case of this 
disease, where a careful and full record was kept of the 
pulse, respiration, temperature, nervous and muscular 
phenomena, and physical and chemical changes of the 
urine throughout the course of the disease. 
I hope that results worthy the consideration of the 
surgeon-general have been established by this laborious 
investigation. It appears to be not unphilosophical to 
draw general conclusions from a single carefully con- 
sidered case of a characteristic and well-defined disease, 
for, if we admit that there be anything that can be called 
science in medicine, it must be intimately connected 
with, if not absolutely dependent upon, the fixed char- 
acter of disease. 
The surgeon-general will please excuse the liberty 
which I take in calling his attention to the following 
conclusions, which I have attempted to establish from 
the results of the investigation of this case. The es- 
sential phenomena of inflammation were absent. The 
phenomena were exaggerated manifestations of ner- 
vous and muscular action, rather than results of struc- 
tural alterations. The increased actions in the nervous 
and muscular systems were attended by corresponding changes in the materials composing these structures, 
thus rendering it probable that the two were intimately 
connected and even dependent on each other, in the 
relation of cause and effect. 
The phenomena, during the active stages of tetanus 
point to a change in the electric conditions and relations 
of the nerves and muscles. In the discussion of the 
last proposition I have endeavored to present a clear 
and concise view of the remarkable investigations and 
theory of the German philosopher, Dubois-Reymond, 
who, by a series of experiments of wonderful delicacy, 
accuracy, and variety, has established the important fact 
that both nerves and muscles have their own electrical 
currents, which vary in direction and character with the 
various muscular and nervous actions, and has clearly 
established that the nervous and muscular forces are 
either electricity or some medication of this force. 
I have also presented the theory of Ue-La-Rive, 
which embraces that of Dubois-Reymond, extends and 
perfects it, and is also based upon the experiments and 
physiological labors of Matteuci, Humboldt, Nottili, 
Marianni, and others. This discussion will be found 
at the close of the manuscript. 
I am now engaged on the investigation of the typhoid 
fever of the camp. The investigation has been and 
will be pursued in a manner similar to that followed in 
this case of tetanus. In the course of three months I 
hope to complete a manuscript volume of several hun- 
dred pages on this disease, which will be transmitted to 
the surgeon-general. The subject is of great impor- 
tance and worthy of the most careful study and investi- 
gation. When this is complete, I will then turn my 
attention to intermittent, remittent, and congestive, or 
pernicious, fevers, which will be investigated and treated 
in a similar manner. 
Any suggestions with reference to the method and 
objects of the investigations which the surgeon-general 
may think proper to offer, will be carefully considered 
and acted upon. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
(Signed) Joseph Jones, 
Surgeon, P. A. C. S. 
Confederate States of America, 
Surgeon-General’s Office, 
Richmond, Va., February 17, 1863. 
Surgeon Joseph Jones, 
Augusta, Ga. 
Sir: Your letter of the 10th inst., as well as the re- 
port in the case of tetanus, has been received. The opportunities now offered of making a free and thor- 
ough investigation as to the nature, history, and patho- 
logy of fevers caused by animal effluvia, contra-distin- 
guished from those produced by vegetable exhalations, 
or malaria, should not be permitted to pass unimproved. 
Your attention, therefore, is especially called to this 
class of disease, and you are directed to make a thor- 
ough investigation. Besides the mere satisfaction, in a 
scientific point of view, the results are likely to be of 
the greatest practical importance to the army. 
If additional medical aid is necessary for this pur- 
pose, you will communicate the fact to this office. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
(Signed) S. B. Moure, 
Surgeon-General C. S. A. 
Augusta, Ga., June 28, 1863. 
S. P. Moore. 
Surgeon-General, C. S. A. 
Richmond, Va. 
Sir : Accompanying this I send the surgeon-general, 
by express, the first manuscript volume of my labors, 
conducted in accordance with the order issued from the 
surgeon-general’s office, Richmond, Va., February 17, 
1863. 
Since the receipt of this order I have devoted all the 
time not absolutely demanded for the discharge of my 
duties as surgeon, to the investigation of the class of 
diseases indicated, and this volume contains the results 
of my labors. In the prosecution of these investiga- 
tions the inductive method has been followed. The 
phenomena and individual facts have been observed 
and recorded, and general principles established by the 
analysis, comparison, classification, and combination of 
the facts and phenomena. 
If the surgeon-general will furnish an order suf- 
ficiently definite and liberal, the present report will be 
preliminary to a more extended investigation of di- 
ease in the different divisions of the army of the Con- 
federate States of America, by which we hope to estab- 
lish facts and principles of universal application and 
permanent value. By such an extended study of the 
diseases of armies under all the variations of climate 
and soil, and under all the varied circumstances of toil, 
exposure, and changes of diet, to which the Confeder- 
ate soldiers are subject, we may hope to settle defin- 
itely their true characters and modes of treatment. 
From the complicated nature of the phenomena de- 
manding investigations, as well as from the peculiari- ties of the struggle in which we are now engaged with a 
powerful enemy, who has blockaded our ports and thus 
cut off from us implements and materials of research 
so valuable in modern inquiries in all the departments 
of chemical, physical, physiological, and pathological 
science, many embarrassments have arisen, and will 
continue to arise, and great expenditures of health and 
strength have been and will continue to be necessary in 
the prosecution of these investigations, which have been 
conducted by the author, in addition to the full discharge 
of his duties as surgeon. 
The cases presented in the present report were se- 
lected from more than one thousand cases treated and 
carefully observed by the author; and in addition to 
those treated immediately by himself, in person, sev- 
eral hundred additional cases were examined in the 
various hospitals and camps of the military department 
of Georgia, South Carolina, and conferences held with 
the surgeons and other medical officers. 
The attention of the surgeon-general is respectfully 
d reeled to the colored drawings of the liver, intestines, 
and typhoid deposit in the so-called camp fever. 
It is of the utmost importance to the value and ac- 
curacy of these investigations that the post mortem ex- 
aminations should be extended as far as possible. . . . 
I would still further direct the attention of the sur- 
geon-general to the important fact established by these 
researches, that the disease which has proved most fatal 
to our soldiers in the military district of Georgia and 
South Carolina, has been typhoid fever, and that no 
case of true typhus fever has occurred in this depart- 
ment. . . . The importance of this fact cannot be 
over-estimated in its bearing on treatment. . . . As 
the treatment of typhus and of typhoid fever is differ- 
ent, purgatives being borne well in the former, whilst 
they are destructive in the latter, it is of great moment 
to our army that typhus fever should be recognized 
and investigated. . . . The perfection of such in- 
vestigations will clearly depend in great measure on 
the number of cases subjected to analysis. It is well 
known that fevers arising from animal exhalations are 
dependent on certain circumstances and causes, which 
are far more limited in their operation than those pro- 
ducing the various kinds of climatic fevers. As, there- 
fore, the class of diseases indicated in the order of the 
surgeon-general are necessarily circumscribed within 
narrow limits and dependent upon peculiar circum- 
stances and causes, their full and free investigation will necessitate occasional change on the part of the investi- 
gator. The true character of these diseases, as well as 
the great fact of their uniformity or diversity, of their 
contagion or non-contagion, of their relations to cli- 
mate and soil, as well as the circumstances most favor- 
able to their production or spread, can only be deter- 
mined by an examination of their various phenomena in 
different localities, and by the careful experience and 
testimony of numerous intelligent observers widely 
separated. 
During the past seven years I have been conduct- 
ing investigations similar to those now indicated, upon 
the diseases of the climate of the Southern states, and 
have endeavored not only to determine their true char- 
acters and to illustrate their phenomena, but also to 
investigate their relations to climate, soil, and waters, 
and their relations to well-known poisons. At the com- 
mencement of the present struggle, I volunteered my 
services as a private of cavalry; my medical services 
were immediately required after my enlistment, and 
during a period of six months’ active service 1 was ab'e 
to treat about six hundred cases of disease in one of 
the most unhealthful regions of the Southern Confeder- 
acy, and after entering the medical service as a surgeon, 
I have been engaged up to the present time in the 
investigation of the class of diseases indicated in the 
surgeon-general’s order. The views, therefore, which I 
express in the accompanying manuscript volume, are 
the results of much labor. In conclusion allow me to 
express my high appreciation of the honor conferred, 
and to testify my urgent desire to fulfil the high and 
responsible trust by every means in my power. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
(Signed) Joseph Jones, 
Surgeon P. A. C. S. 
War Department, Surgeon-General’s Office, 
Richmond, Va., July 15, 1863. 
Confederate States of America, 
Surgeon Joseph Jones, 
Sir : Your letter of the 2d inst. is received, and also 
the first volume of your “ Report on Tetanus and 
Typhoid Fever.” The pressing importance of a vast 
variety of official engagements has so far prevented 
only a brief and desultory investigation of the contents 
of the latter; but even with this, evidences enough are 
discovered to justify the belief that much very valuable 
acquisition to the science and art of medicine is con- 
tained therein. For the zeal, untiring energy, patient and laborious 
industry therein displayed, you are entitled to and are 
hereby tendered the thanks of this department. . . . 
It would be well to visit the hospital in this department 
{Virginia) at once. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
(Signed) S. P. Moore, 
Surgeon-General C. S. A. 
The orders regulating the investigations of Sur- 
geon Joseph Jones were enlarged by the surgeon- 
general of the Confederate army so as to admit him 
into any army, camp, or fortified town within the 
bounds of the Confederate States. His investiga- 
tions were conducted in the army of Northern 
Virginia, in the army of Tennessee, in the great 
hospitals of Richmond, Va., Charlottesville, Staun- 
ton, Gordonsville, and Charleston, S. C., Savan- 
nah, Augusta, Atlanta, and Macon, Ga., and other 
places. He also investigated the nature of the 
diseases which proved so fatal to the Federal 
prisoners, and suggested measures for the relief of 
this unfortunate class of sufferers. He especially 
investigated the condition of Belle Isle, Libby 
Prison, Richmond, and Andersonville, Ga., where 
he camped upon the ground and made a thorough 
investigation of the diseases of these prisoners, 
illustrating his investigations by numerous and 
careful post mortems. The United States gov- 
ernment after the close of the war seized the 
papers of Dr. Jones relating to Andersonville, 
and forced him to attend the trial of Wirz in the 
old capitol building in Washington. Dr. Jones 
established by conclusive evidence that the suffer- 
ing of the Federal prisoners was due to several 
causes, but chiefly to the fact that the government 
of the United States and its representatives stopped 
the exchange of prisoners, and forced the Confed- 
erate government to sustain over two hundred 
thousand prisoners, the Confederate government 
being thus deprived of more than two hundred 
thousand veteran soldiers. 
The investigations of Dr. Jones upon the pris- 
oners confined at Andersonville, Ga., were pub- lished by the United States government, and by 
the United States sanitary commission. 
In 1868, Dr. Jones was elected to the chair of 
chemistry and clinical medicine in the Medical 
Department of the University of Louisiana, and 
became attached to the Charity Hospital, as visit- 
ing physician, serving in this capacity until 1894. 
In April, 1880, he was elected president of the 
Hoard of Health of the State of Louisiana, his terra 
of service expiring in April, 1884. During the 
four years, iBBo-’B4, forty-four hundred and thirty- 
six vessels, more than half of them being ocean 
steamers, were inspected by the officers of the 
board of health at the Mississippi Quarantine sta- 
tion, together with their crews and passengers, and 
during the same period four hundred and seventy- 
nine vessels from ports infected with yellow-fever 
were held in the Mississippi quarantine, disin- 
fected and fumigated. At the Atchafalaya and 
at the Rigolettes quarantine stations an equally 
large amount of work was accomplished, making 
in all about ten thousand vessels and not less than 
one hundred and fifty thousand passengers in- 
spected and disinfected. 
The labors of Dr. Joseph Jones in Louisiana, 
during the years iBBo-’B3, established the fact 
that yellow-fever can be excluded from New 
Orleans and the Mississippi valley by a rigid 
and effective quarantine; that yellow-fever is not 
indigenous to the Mississippi valley ; that quarantine, 
to be effective, must embrace not merely inspec- 
tion and detention, but discharge of infected car- 
goes, thorough ventilation, fumigation and disin- 
fection by the recognized methods of sanitary 
science. After a continuous battle of four years’ 
duration, in which the vast maritime interests of 
the state and the power and influence of the 
wealthiest railroad and steamship companies in the 
southwestern states were marshalled against the 
legally constituted health authorities, the Board of 
Health of the State of Louisiana achieved a mem- 
orable and signal victory on January 21, 1884, in the complete and triumphant vindication of its. 
efforts to exclude foreign pestilence from the Miss- 
issippi valley by the highest tribunal of the state of 
Louisiana. The decision of the supreme court of 
Louisiana is of interest and importance to every 
state and municipal government in the United 
States of America, for the doctrine is hereby 
clearly recognized that the establishment and 
enforcement of quarantine by individual states is 
not a regulation of commerce in violation of the 
provisions of the Federal constitution, but is a 
legitimate exercise of the police powers of the indi- 
vidual states which are inalienable. The supreme 
court of the United States, in the appeal which 
was taken by Morgan’s Louisiana & Texas Rail- 
road and Texas Steamship Company, from the 
decision of the supreme court of Louisiana, sus- 
tained the decision on January 21, 1886, and thus 
the views and actions of Dr. Joseph Jones, in his 
official capacity as president of the board of health, 
are now upheld by the finding of the highest tri- 
bunal of the Republic. 
In 1870, Dr. Jones visited Europe, examined 
the art galleries, hospitals, and archeological collec- 
tions of London, Paris, Edinburgh, and Liverpool. 
Dr. Jones’s life has been devoted to the original 
investigations and labors in the wards of the civil 
and military hospitals, in the camp and military 
prison, and in the discharge of his professional and 
official duties. The character of his work may be 
gathered from the titles of some of his more im- 
portant writings,—“Abstract of Experiments upon 
the Physical Influences by Living and Inorganic 
Membranes upon Chemical Substances,’’ October 
25, 1854; “Observations on the Kidney and 
Urine in Different Animals,” American Journal 
of the Medical Sciences, 1855; “Digestion of 
Albumen and Flesh, and the Comparative Anat- 
omy and Physiology of the Pancreas,” Medical' 
Examiner, 1856: “Physical, Chemical and Phy- 
siological Investigations upon the Vital Phenom- 
ena, Structure and Offices of the Solids and Fluids- •of Animals,” an inaugural dissertation for the 
degree of M. D., in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 
July, 1856; “Experimental Investigations Insti- 
tuted with a View to Ascertain the Action of 
Saline Solutions of Different Densities upon Liv- 
ing Animals, and also the Reciprocal Action 
Through Dead Animal Membranes upon Serum, 
Water, and Saline Solutions,” ibid., 1856; Inves- 
tigations, Chemical and Physiological, Relative to 
Certain American Vertebrates,” Smithsonian Con- 
tributions to Knowledge, March, 1856; “Case of 
Diabetes Mellitus,” Southern Medical and Surgi- 
cal Journal, 1858; “Suggestions on Medical 
Education,” introductory lecture to the course of 
1859-60, Medical College of Georgia, published 
by the class ; “Observations on Malarial Fever,” 
■Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, June, 
1858; “Observations on the Chemical, Physical, 
and Pathological Phenomena of Malarial Fever,” 
Transactions of the American Medical Associa- 
tion, 1859; “ First Report to the Cotton Planters 
•of Georgia, on the Agricultural Resources of 
Georgia,” Cotton Planters1 Convention, i860; 
“Indigenous Remedies of the Southern Confed- 
eracy Which May Be Employed in the Treatment 
of Malarial Fever,” Southern Medical and Surgical 
Journal, September, 1861; “Sulphate of Quinia 
Administered During Health, the Best Means of 
Preventing Chill and Fever, Bilious Fever, and 
Congestive Fever, in those Exposed to the Un- 
healthful Climate of the Rich Low Lands and 
Swamps of the Southern Confederacy,” ibid., Au- 
gust, 1861 ; “ Quinine as a Prophylactic to Mala- 
rial Fever,” being an appendix to the third report 
on “Typhoid and Malarial Fevers,” delivered to 
the surgeon-general of the late Confederate army, 
August, 1864, Nashville Journal of Medicine and 
Surgery, 1867; “Researches on Spurious Vac- 
cination and the Abnormal Phenomena Accom- 
panying and Following Vaccination in the Con- 
federate army during the Recent American Civil War, ibid., 1867; “Inquiries on Hos- 
pital Gangrene,” New Orleans Medical and Surgi- 
cal Journal, 1869 ; “ Explorations and Researches 
Concerning the Destruction of the Aboriginal 
Inhabitants of America by Various Diseases, as 
Syphilis, Pestilence, Malarial Fever and Small- 
pox,” ibid., 1878; “Observations on the Losses 
of the Confederate Armies from Battle Wounds 
and Disease During the American Civil War, 
1861-’65, with Investigations upon the Number 
and Character of the Diseases Supervening upon 
Gun-shot Wounds,” Richmond and Louisville 
Medical Journal, October, 1869, to June, 1870; 
“ Outlines of Observations on Hospital Gangrene 
as It Manifested Itself in the Confederate Armies- 
During the American Civil War, iß6i-’65,” Tran- 
sactions of the American Medical Association, 
1869; “ Mollities Ossium, Malakostein, Osteo- 
Malacia, Osteo-Sarcosis, Rachitismus Adultorum, 
Rickets, or Softening of the Bones in the Adult,”’ 
ibid., 1869; “Memoranda of University Clinics 
and Charity Hospital,” 1869; “Clinical Memo- 
randa, Diseases of the Heart, Liver, Kid- 
neys, and Malarial Fever and Dropsy as a 
Symptom of Various Diseases,” iSyo-’yi ; 
Contributions to the Natural Llistory of Specific 
Yellow-fever,” New Orleans Medical and Surgical 
Journal, January, 1874, et seq. ; “A Table of the 
Comparative Pathology of Malarial and Yellow 
Fevers,” Transactions of the Louisiana State 
Medical Society, 1879; “Medico-Legal Evidence 
Relating to the Detection of Human Blood. Pre- 
senting the Alterations Characteristic of Malarial 
Fever, on the Clothing of a Man Accused of the 
Murder of Narcisse Arrieux, October 26, 1876;”' 
“Observations on the African Yaws and on Lep- 
rosy, in Insular and Central America,” New Or- 
leans Medical and Surgical Journal, 1877 ; “ Ex- 
plorations of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennes- 
see,” Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 
October, 1876; “Investigations upon the Nature, 
Causes, and Treatment of Hospital Gangrene as It Prevailed in the Confederate Armies, iß6i-’65,” 
illustrated with colored plates; “ Numerous Cases 
of Gangrene, also Analyses of Blood and Urine, 
and Post-mortem Examinations in Hospital Gan- 
grene, Pyaemia, Small-pox, Dysentery, Malarial 
Fever, etc.,” Sanitary Memoirs of the Unittd 
States Sanitary Commission, New York; “Inves- 
tigations upon the Diseases of the Federal Prison- 
ers Confined in Camp Sumter, Andersonville, 
Georgia,” ibid.-, “Observations on Koch's 
Lymph,” New Orleans, 1891; “Official Re- 
port,” United Confederate Veterans, June, 1890; 
“ Brief Report of the Proceedings of the United 
Confederate Veterans, and Especially of the Vet- 
eran Confederate Surgeons,” July 2, 1890; and 
“Official Correspondence, 
great work, embracing the chief labors of the life 
of Dr. Joseph Jones, in which he is still engaged, 
is his “ Medical and Surgical Memoirs,” contain- 
ing investigations on the geographical distribution, 
causes, nature, relations, and treatment of various 
diseases, i855-’93. 
That Dr. Jones has felt a lively interest, and 
been an earnest student of American archeology, 
appears from the fact that he was the author of 
•• Explorations of the Aboriginal Remains in 
Tennessee,” while his collection of archeological 
remains contains specimens from Mexico and 
Peru. 
In 1869, Dr. Jones took an active part in the 
foundation of the Southern Historical Societ}-, 
was elected its first secretary and treasurer, and 
wrote its constitution and plan of action. He is 
a member of the American Medical Association, 
1859—’95 ; of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 
Philadelphia; vice-president of the Numismatic 
Society of Pennsylvania; honorary member of the 
American Antiquarian Society; honorary member 
of the Historical Society of Georgia; honorary 
fellow of the Virginia Medical Society; honoraiy 
member of the Physicians and Surgeons of Phila- 
delphia; member of the Louisiana Medical So- ciety; visiting physician to the New Orleans 
Charity Hospital, 1870^94; president of the 
Louisiana Medical Society, 1885-86; president 
of the Board of Health of Louisiana, iBBo-’B4; 
president of XIV Section, Public and Interna- 
tional Hygiene, Ninth International Medical Con- 
gress, Washington, D. C., 1887; appointed sur- 
geon-general of the United Confederate Veterans 
by Gen. John B. Gordon, in 1889. 
Dr. Jones married, first, October 26, 1858, Miss 
Caroline S. Davis, of Augusta, Ga., who died in 
1868; married, second, June 21, 1870, Miss 
Susan Rayner, daughter of Rev. Leonidas Polk, 
bishop of Louisiana, and lieutenant-general in the 
Confederate States army. Dr. Jones has six sur- 
viving children : Charles Colcock, Hamilton Polk, 
Caroline, Mary Cuthbert, Frances Devereux, and 
Laura Maxwell. His eldest son, Dr. Stanhope 
Jones, died in 1894, leaving three children.