BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
OF 
DR. JOHN S. BILLINGS. 
[Reprint from Physicians and Surgeons of America.] JOHN SHAW BILLINGS. BILLINGS, John Shaw, Washington, D. C., 
son of James and Abbie (Shaw) Billings, grand- 
son of Jesse Billings, was born in Switzerland 
county, Indiana, April 12, 1839. Degrees: A. B. 
1857, A. M. i860, Miami University; M. D. i860, 
Medical College of Ohio: LL. D. Edinburgh 1884, 
and Harvard University 1886 ; M. D. Munich 1889 ; 
D. C. L. Oxon. 1889 ; R. C. P. I. and R. C. S. I. 
1892; M. D. Dublin 1892. Resident physician, 
St. John’s hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1858-59; 
resident physician, Commercial Hospital, Cincin- 
nati, i859~’6o; demonstrator of anatomy, Medical 
College of Ohio, 1860-61 ; passed army examin- 
ing board, September, 1861 ; appointed acting 
assistant surgeon, U. S. Army, November, 1861 ; 
commissioned assistant surgeon, April 16, 1862; 
March 13, 1865, brevet lieutenant-colonel, U. S. 
army; July 28, 1866, captain and assistant sur- 
geon, U. S. army; December 2, 1876, major and 
surgeon; promoted, June 16, 1894, to lieutenant- 
colonel and deputy surgeon-general, U. S\ army. 
Served from November, 1861, until 1863, in charge 
of hospitals in Washington, D. C., and West Phil- 
adelphia ; then with the Army of the Potomac, 
being with the Fifth corps at the battles of Chan- 
cellorsville and Gettysburg. From October, 1863, 
to February, 1864, served on hospital duty at 
David’s and Bedloe’s islands in the vicinity of New 
York city; sent on special mission to West Indies ; 
also acted on a board of enrollment, after which, 
became medical inspector to the Army of the Poto- 
mac, and in December, 1864, was ordered to the 
surgeon general’s office, Washington, where he had 
charge of the organization of the Veteran Reserve 
Corps, of matters pertaining to contract physicians, 
and to all property and disbursing accounts until 
1875 ? also °f the library of the surgeon general’s 
office until his appointment, December 28, 1883, 
as curator of the army medical museum and library. 
He is in charge of division of Vital Statistics, 
eleventh census, and medical adviser of the board 
of trustees, Johns Hopkins Hospital. 
Dr. Billings was engaged in the reorganization 
of the United States Marine Hospital Service, in 
1870; was in 1879-82 vice-president of the 
National Board of Health. He is professor of 
hygiene, University of Pennsylvania, director of the Laboratory of Hygiene, University of Pennsyl- 
vania, and also of the University hospital, and is a 
member of a number of scientific societies, among 
which are—1882, Academy of National Sciences of 
Philadelphia; 1871, Philosophical Society of Wash- 
ington, and ex-president; 1880, American Medical 
Association; 1880, American Public Health Asso- 
ciation, and ex-president; 1882, American Social 
Science Association; 1883, American Academy of 
Medicine; 1883, American Association for the 
Advancement of Science ; 1883, National Academy 
of Sciences, and treasurer; 1884, American Statis- 
tical Association, and vice-president, 1889; 1886, 
American Surgical Association; 1887, American 
Philosophical Society, Philadelphia; 1888, Con- 
gress American Physicians and Surgeons, and ex- 
president; 1889-’9X, American member of Council 
of the International Congress of Hygiene; 1890, 
American Academy of Political and Social Scienti- 
fic, Philadelphia; 1893, International Statistical 
Institute* He is also an honorary member of the 
following societies: 1879, Medical Society of the 
County of New York; 1880, Medical Society of 
the State of New York; 1880, Medical and Chirur- 
gical Faculty of Maryland; 1881, Medical Society 
of London; 1881, Clinical Society of London; 
1881, Society of Medical Officers of Health, Lon- 
don; 1882, Soci6t6 Franchise d’Hygi&ne, Paris; 
1882, Medical Society of Sweden; 1882, Medico- 
Chirurgical Society, St. Louis, Mo.; 1883, New 
Hampshire Medical Society; 1883, Statistical 
Society of London; 1883, Connecticut Medical 
Society; 1890, Sanitary Institute, London; 1891, 
Harvard Medical School Association; 1883, Col- 
lege of Physicians of Philadelphia; 1885, Physica- 
lisch Medicinische Gesellschaft, Wurzburg; 1885, 
Gynecological Society of Boston; 1886, British 
Medical Association; 1886, Sociedad Union Fer- 
nandina, Lima; 1887, Association of American 
Physicians; 1887, Royal Medical and Chirurgical 
Society of London; 1888, Epidermiological Soci- 
ety of London; 1888, Der Arztliche Verein in 
Munchen; 1890, Hunterian Society, London; 
1890, Medical Society of Athens; 1891, Medical 
Society of the State of California; 1891, New 
York Academy of Medicine; 1893, Royal Acad- 
emy of Medicine of Belgium. Publications: Reports in the Medical and Sur- 
gical History of the War; On cryptogamic growths 
in cattle diseases, 8vo, 1869; Report on barracks 
and hospitals, “ Circular No. 4,” War Department, 
A. G. O., 1870, p. 527. “ Bibliography of cholera,” 
8vo, 1875. Report on the hygiene of the United 
States Army, “ Circular No. 8,” War Department, 
A. G. O., 4to, 1875. “Medical Education,” being 
lectures before the Johns Hopkins University, Balti- 
more, 1877-78. “ Medical libraries in the United 
States,” 8vo, 1876. Introduction to “A Treatise on 
Hygiene and Public Health,” edited by Albert 
Buck, M. D. (Ziemssen’s Handbook), 1879. 
“Address on State Medicine and Public Hygiene;” 
Trans. Am. Med. Asso., 1880, xxx, 275-291. “Na- 
tional Board of Health and National Quarantine;” 
Trans. Am. Med. Asso., 1880, xxxi. “Our medi- 
cal literature;” the American address at the Inter- 
national Med. Cong., Lond., 1881. “Principles of 
Ventilation and Heating,” 8vo, 1884; 2d ed. 1893. 
‘ ‘ Mortality and Vital Statistics of the United States,” 
2 vols., 4to, 1885. “Hygiene ;” System Pract. Med. 
by Amer. Authors (Pepper’s), Phila., i, 1885, 
p. 173-212. “Memoirs of Joseph Janvier Wood- 
ward ;” read before the Nat. Acad. Sciences, April 
22, 1885. “Medicine in the United States, and its 
relations to cooperative investigation;” read before 
the Brit. Med. Asso., August, 1886, p. 30. “Sci- 
entific men and their duties;” president’s address 
before the Philosophical Society of Washington, 
1886. “On Medical Museums, with special refer- 
ence to the Army Medical Museum at Washington ;” 
president’s address before the Congress of American 
Physicians and Surgeons, 1888, p. 32. “Memoir of 
Spencer Fullerton Baird,” 1823-1887; read before 
the Nat. Acad, of Sciences, 1889, pp. 17. “Index 
Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General’s 
Office, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.,” i88o-’94, 
Roy. 8vo., Vol. I-XIV. “The National Medical 
Dictionary,” 2 vols., 8vo, 1889. “Description of the 
Johns Hopkins hospital,”4to, 1890. “Vital Statis- 
tics of the Jews in the United States,” Census Bulle- 
tin No. 19, 1890. “ Public Health and Municipal 
Government;” address before Am. Acad. Political 
and Social Science at the Art Club, Philadelphia, 
Jan. 14, 1891, published by the academy; 8vo, 23 
pp. “American Inventions and Discoveries in Med- icine, Surgery, and Practical Sanitation;” read at 
celebration of the beginning of the second century 
of the American patent system, held in Washing- 
ton, D. C., April 8-10, 1891. “Social Statistics of 
Cities ” (Census Bulletin No. 100, 1891). “Can the 
reports’ of the sick and the sanitary statements of 
the different armies be arranged according to a 
scheme essentially uniform, for the purpose of gain- 
ing statistics of scientific worth for comparison of 
diseases, wounds, and deaths in times of peace 
and war?” Trans. Internat. Med. Cong., Berlin, 
1890. 
“Ideals of Medical Education :” Address in Medi- 
cine, Yale University, 1871. “The Objects, Plans, 
and Needs of the Laboratory of Hygiene ;” address 
at the opening of the laboratory of hygiene, Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, 1892. “The Health of the 
Survivors of the War” [Forum, xii, 642-658, Jan- 
uary, 1892.] “Medicine as a Career” [Forum, xiv, 
725-734, February, 1893]. “Hygiene : Text-Book 
of the Theory and Practice of Medicine” (Pepper’s), 
Philadelphia, 1893, I, pp. 1 —45, Roy. 8vo. 
And numerous papers in scientific and medical peri- 
odicals : “Municipal sanitation—defects in Amer- 
ican cities” [Forum, 1893, xv, 304-310] . “Effects 
of his occupation upon the physician” [Internat. 
Jour. Ethics, Philadelphia, 1893, iv, 40-48]. 
“Reports on the Vital Statistics of the District of 
Columbia and Baltimore, and of New York city 
and Brooklyn, covering a period of six years end- 
ing May 31, 1890,” Washington, D. C., 1893 
Dr. Billings married, in September, 1862, Miss 
Kate M. Stevens. Their children are Mary Clure, 
Kate Sherman, Jessie Ingram, John Sedgwick, and 
Margaret Jane way.