BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

DR. JOSEPH JONES.

[Reprint from Physicians and Surgeons ok America.J 1

JOSEPH JONES

JONES, Joseph, New Orleans, La., bornSeptember 6, 1833, in Liberty county, Ga., is theson of Rev. Charles Colcock (D. D.) and Mary(Jones) Jones; and grandson of Captain JosephJones (maternal), who commanded the LibertyIndependent Troop in the War of 1812; andgreat-grandson of Major John Jones (paternal),aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Lachlan Mcln-tosh, who fell before the British lines aroundSavannah during the assault of October, 1779.His father, the Rev. Charles C. Jones, was aPresbyterian divine, the author of the “History ofthe Church of God;” of a catechism for the in-struction of the Negroes of the United States, andof many elaborate reports extending over a seriesof years and detailing his labors among the blacksof Liberty county.

Joseph Jones acquired his early education underprivate tutors; in 1845, entered the University ofSouth Carolina, Columbia; in 1850, matriculatedin Princeton College, N. J., from which institu-tion he was graduated with distinguished honors in1853, and received therefrom the degree of A. M.,in 1853. He then entered the University ofPennsylvania, Department of Medicine, and wasgraduated M. D., in 1855. He was the firstprivate student of Prof. Joseph Leidy, M. D., andenjoyed the personal friendship of Prof. SamuelJackson, M. D., Hugh L. Hodge, M. D., and ofProf. George B. Wood. The honorary degree ofLL. D., was conferred upon Dr. Jones by theboard of trustees of the University of GeorgiaJune 17, 1892.

Dr. Jones commenced the practice of medicine inSavannah, Ga., in 1855, in which year he was electedprofessor of chemistry in the Savannah Medical Col-lege, continuing in that chair until 1858, when hewas elected professor of natural philosophy and nat-ural theology in the University of Georgia, Athens.In 1859, he was elected to the chair of chemistryin the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, whichposition he held until interrupted by active service

in the War of the Rebellion, which commenced in1861, and terminated with the surrender of theConfederate armies under Gen. Joseph E. John-ston, in May, 1865. During this war, Dr. Joneswas for six months, 1861, in the cavalry service,and for the remainder of the time, served in theConfederate army as full surgeon with the rank ofmajor. His most important duties were assignedby Samuel Preston Moore, surgeon-general of theConfederate army, as will be seen by the followingorders 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 asthat now presented appeared to be necessary, for I amunacquainted with the report of a single case of thisdisease, where a careful and full record was kept of thepulse, respiration, temperature, nervous and muscularphenomena, and physical and chemical changes of theurine throughout the course of the disease.

I hope that results worthy the consideration of thesurgeon-general have been established by this laboriousinvestigation. It appears to be not unphilosophical todraw 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 calledscience in medicine, it must be intimately connectedwith, if not absolutely dependent upon, the fixed char-acter of disease.

The surgeon-general will please excuse the libertywhich I take in calling his attention to the followingconclusions, which I have attempted to establish fromthe results of the investigation of this case. The es-sential phenomena of inflammation were absent. Thephenomena were exaggerated manifestations of ner-vous and muscular action, rather than results of struc-tural alterations. The increased actions in the nervousand muscular systems were attended by corresponding

changes in the materials composing these structures,thus rendering it probable that the two were intimatelyconnected and even dependent on each other, in therelation of cause and effect.

The phenomena, during the active stages of tetanuspoint to a change in the electric conditions and relationsof the nerves and muscles. In the discussion of thelast proposition I have endeavored to present a clearand concise view of the remarkable investigations andtheory of the German philosopher, Dubois-Reymond,who, by a series of experiments of wonderful delicacy,accuracy, and variety, has established the important factthat both nerves and muscles have their own electricalcurrents, which vary in direction and character with thevarious muscular and nervous actions, and has clearlyestablished that the nervous and muscular forces areeither electricity or some medication of this force.

I have also presented the theory of Ue-La-Rive,which embraces that of Dubois-Reymond, extends andperfects it, and is also based upon the experiments andphysiological labors of Matteuci, Humboldt, Nottili,Marianni, and others. This discussion will be foundat the close of the manuscript.

I am now engaged on the investigation of the typhoidfever of the camp. The investigation has been andwill be pursued in a manner similar to that followed inthis case of tetanus. In the course of three months Ihope to complete a manuscript volume of several hun-dred pages on this disease, which will be transmitted tothe 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 myattention to intermittent, remittent, and congestive, orpernicious, fevers, which will be investigated and treatedin a similar manner.

Any suggestions with reference to the method andobjects of the investigations which the surgeon-generalmay think proper to offer, will be carefully consideredand 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 thisclass of disease, and you are directed to make a thor-ough investigation. Besides the mere satisfaction, in ascientific point of view, the results are likely to be ofthe 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 thesurgeon-general’s office, Richmond, Va., February 17,1863.

Since the receipt of this order I have devoted all thetime not absolutely demanded for the discharge of myduties as surgeon, to the investigation of the class ofdiseases indicated, and this volume contains the resultsof my labors. In the prosecution of these investiga-tions the inductive method has been followed. Thephenomena and individual facts have been observedand recorded, and general principles established by theanalysis, comparison, classification, and combination ofthe facts and phenomena.

If the surgeon-general will furnish an order suf-ficiently definite and liberal, the present report will bepreliminary 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 andpermanent value. By such an extended study of thediseases of armies under all the variations of climateand 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 apowerful enemy, who has blockaded our ports and thuscut off from us implements and materials of researchso valuable in modern inquiries in all the departmentsof chemical, physical, physiological, and pathologicalscience, many embarrassments have arisen, and willcontinue to arise, and great expenditures of health andstrengthhave been and will continue to be necessary inthe prosecution of these investigations, which have beenconducted by the author, in addition to the full dischargeof his duties as surgeon.

The cases presented in the present report were se-lected from more than one thousand cases treated andcarefully observed by the author; and in addition tothose treated immediately by himself, in person, sev-eral hundred additional cases were examined in thevarious hospitals and camps of the military departmentof Georgia, South Carolina, and conferences held withthe surgeons and other medical officers.

The attention of the surgeon-general is respectfullyd 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 theseresearches, that the disease which has proved most fatalto our soldiers in the military district of Georgia andSouth Carolina, has been typhoid fever, and that nocase of true typhus fever has occurred in this depart-ment. . . . The importance of this fact cannot beover-estimated in its bearing on treatment. . . . Asthe treatment of typhus and of typhoid fever is differ-ent, purgatives being borne well in the former, whilstthey are destructive in the latter, it is of great momentto our army that typhus fever should be recognizedand investigated. . . . The perfection of such in-vestigations will clearly depend in great measure onthe number of cases subjected to analysis. It is wellknown that fevers arising from animal exhalations aredependenton certain circumstances and causes, whichare 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 thesurgeon-general are necessarily circumscribed withinnarrow 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 asthe great fact of their uniformity or diversity, of theircontagion 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 indifferent localities, and by the careful experience andtestimony of numerous intelligent observers widelyseparated.

During the past seven years I have been conduct-ing investigations similar to those now indicated, uponthe diseases of the climate of the Southern states, andhave endeavored not only to determine their true char-acters and to illustrate their phenomena, but also toinvestigate their relations to climate, soil, and waters,and their relations to well-known poisons. At the com-mencement of the present struggle, I volunteered myservices as a private of cavalry; my medical serviceswere immediately required after my enlistment, andduring a period of six months’ active service 1 was ab'eto treat about six hundred cases of disease in one ofthe 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 theinvestigation of the class of diseases indicated in thesurgeon-general’s order. The views, therefore, which Iexpress in the accompanying manuscript volume, arethe results of much labor. In conclusion allow me toexpress my high appreciation of the honor conferred,and to testify my urgent desire to fulfil the high andresponsible trust by every means in my power.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,(Signed) Joseph Jones,

Surgeon P. A. C. S.

Confederate States of America,War Department, Surgeon-General’s Office,

Richmond, Va., July 15, 1863.Surgeon Joseph Jones,

Sir : Your letter of the 2d inst. is received, and alsothe first volume of your “ Report on Tetanus andTyphoid Fever.” The pressing importance of a vastvariety of official engagements has so far preventedonly a brief and desultory investigation of the contentsof the latter; but even with this, evidences enough arediscovered to justify the belief that much very valuableacquisition to the science and art of medicine is con-tained therein.

For the zeal, untiring energy, patient and laboriousindustry therein displayed, you are entitled to and arehereby 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 himinto any army, camp, or fortified town within thebounds of the Confederate States. His investiga-tions were conducted in the army of NorthernVirginia, in the army of Tennessee, in the greathospitals of Richmond, Va., Charlottesville, Staun-ton, Gordonsville, and Charleston, S. C., Savan-nah, Augusta, Atlanta, and Macon, Ga., and otherplaces. He also investigated the nature of thediseases which proved so fatal to the Federalprisoners, and suggested measures for the relief ofthis unfortunate class of sufferers. He especiallyinvestigated the condition of Belle Isle, LibbyPrison, Richmond, and Andersonville, Ga., wherehe camped upon the ground and made a thoroughinvestigation of the diseases of these prisoners,illustrating his investigations by numerous andcareful post mortems. The United States gov-ernment after the close of the war seized thepapers of Dr. Jones relating to Andersonville,and forced him to attend the trial of Wirz in theold capitol building in Washington. Dr. Jonesestablished by conclusive evidence that the suffer-ing of the Federal prisoners was due to severalcauses, but chiefly to the fact that the governmentof the United States and its representatives stoppedthe exchange of prisoners, and forced the Confed-erate government to sustain over two hundredthousand prisoners, the Confederate governmentbeing thus deprived of more than two hundredthousand veteran soldiers.

The investigations of Dr. Jones upon the pris-oners confined at Andersonville, Ga., were pub-

lished by the United States government, and bythe United States sanitary commission.

In 1868, Dr. Jones was elected to the chair ofchemistry and clinical medicine in the MedicalDepartment of the University of Louisiana, andbecame attached to the Charity Hospital, as visit-ing physician, serving in this capacity until 1894.

In April, 1880, he was elected president of theHoard of Health of the State of Louisiana, his terraof service expiring in April, 1884. During thefour years, iBBo-’B4, forty-four hundred and thirty-six vessels, more than half of them being oceansteamers, were inspected by the officers of theboard of health at the Mississippi Quarantine sta-tion, together with their crews and passengers, andduring the same period four hundred and seventy-nine vessels from ports infected with yellow-feverwere held in the Mississippi quarantine, disin-fected and fumigated. At the Atchafalaya andat the Rigolettes quarantine stations an equallylarge amount of work was accomplished, makingin all about ten thousand vessels and not less thanone hundred and fifty thousand passengers in-spected and disinfected.

The labors of Dr. Joseph Jones in Louisiana,during the years iBBo-’B3, established the factthat yellow-fever can be excluded from NewOrleans and the Mississippi valley by a rigidand effective quarantine; that yellow-fever is notindigenous 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 sanitaryscience. After a continuous battle of four years’duration, in which the vast maritime interests ofthe state and the power and influence of thewealthiest railroad and steamship companies in thesouthwestern states were marshalled against thelegally constituted health authorities, the Board ofHealth 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 ofLouisiana. The decision of the supreme court ofLouisiana is of interest and importance to everystate and municipal government in the UnitedStates of America, for the doctrine is herebyclearly recognized that the establishment andenforcement of quarantine by individual states isnot a regulation of commerce in violation of theprovisions of the Federal constitution, but is alegitimate exercise of the police powers of the indi-vidual states which are inalienable. The supremecourt of the United States, in the appeal whichwas taken by Morgan’s Louisiana & Texas Rail-road and Texas Steamship Company, from thedecision of the supreme court of Louisiana, sus-tained the decision on January 21, 1886, and thusthe views and actions of Dr. Joseph Jones, in hisofficial 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, examinedthe art galleries, hospitals, and archeological collec-tions of London, Paris, Edinburgh, and Liverpool.

Dr. Jones’s life has been devoted to the originalinvestigations and labors in the wards of the civiland military hospitals, in the camp and militaryprison, and in the discharge of his professional andofficial duties. The character of his work may begathered from the titles of some of his more im-portant writings,—“Abstract of Experiments uponthe Physical Influences by Living and InorganicMembranes upon Chemical Substances,’’ October25, 1854; “Observations on the Kidney andUrine in Different Animals,” American Journalof the Medical Sciences, 1855; “Digestion ofAlbumen 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 thedegree 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 ofSaline Solutions of Different Densities upon Liv-ing Animals, and also the Reciprocal ActionThrough Dead Animal Membranes upon Serum,Water, and Saline Solutions,” ibid., 1856; Inves-tigations, Chemical and Physiological, Relative toCertain American Vertebrates,” Smithsonian Con-tributions to Knowledge , March, 1856; “Case ofDiabetes Mellitus,” Southern Medical and Surgi-cal Journal , 1858; “Suggestions on MedicalEducation,” introductory lecture to the course of1859-60, 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 ofGeorgia,” Cotton Planters 1 Convention, i860;“Indigenous Remedies of the Southern Confed-eracy Which May Be Employed in the Treatmentof Malarial Fever,” Southern Medical and SurgicalJournal, September, 1861; “Sulphate of QuiniaAdministered During Health, the Best Means ofPreventing Chill and Fever, Bilious Fever, andCongestive Fever, in those Exposed to the Un-healthful Climate of the Rich Low Lands andSwamps of the Southern Confederacy,” ibid., Au-gust, 1861 ;

“ Quinine as a Prophylactic to Mala-rial Fever,” being an appendix to the third reporton “Typhoid and Malarial Fevers,” delivered tothe surgeon-general of the late Confederate army,August, 1864, Nashville Journal of Medicine andSurgery , 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 ResearchesConcerning the Destruction of the AboriginalInhabitants of America by Various Diseases, asSyphilis, Pestilence, Malarial Fever and Small-pox,” ibid., 1878; “Observations on the Lossesof the Confederate Armies from Battle Woundsand Disease During the American Civil War,1861-’65, with Investigations upon the Number

and Character of the Diseases Supervening uponGun-shot Wounds,” Richmond and LouisvilleMedical Journal, October, 1869, to June, 1870;“ Outlines of Observations on Hospital Gangreneas 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 Clinicsand Charity Hospital,” 1869; “Clinical Memo-randa, Diseases of the Heart, Liver, Kid-neys, and Malarial Fever and Dropsy as aSymptom of Various Diseases,” iSyo-’yi ;

Contributions to the Natural Llistory of SpecificYellow-fever,” New Orleans Medical and SurgicalJournal, January, 1874, et seq. ; “A Table of theComparative Pathology of Malarial and YellowFevers,” Transactions of the Louisiana StateMedical Society, 1879; “Medico-Legal EvidenceRelating to the Detection of Human Blood. Pre-senting the Alterations Characteristic of MalarialFever, on the Clothing of a Man Accused of theMurder 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 Casesof Gangrene, also Analyses of Blood and Urine,and Post-mortem Examinations in Hospital Gan-grene, Pyaemia, Small-pox, Dysentery, MalarialFever, etc.,” Sanitary Memoirs of the UnittdStates Sanitary Commission, New York; “Inves-tigations upon the Diseases of the Federal Prison-ers Confined in Camp Sumter, Andersonville,Georgia,” ibid.-, “Observations on Koch'sLymph,” New Orleans, 1891; “Official Re-port,” United Confederate Veterans, June, 1890;“ Brief Report of the Proceedings of the UnitedConfederate Veterans, and Especially of the Vet-eran Confederate Surgeons,” July 2, 1890; and“Official Correspondence,great work, embracing the chief labors of the lifeof 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 variousdiseases, i855-’93.

That Dr. Jones has felt a lively interest, andbeen an earnest student of American archeology,appears from the fact that he was the author of•• Explorations of the Aboriginal Remains inTennessee,” while his collection of archeologicalremains contains specimens from Mexico andPeru.

In 1869, Dr. Jones took an active part in thefoundation of the Southern Historical Societ} - ,

was elected its first secretary and treasurer, andwrote its constitution and plan of action. He isa member of the American Medical Association,1 859 —’95 ; of the Academy of Natural Sciences,Philadelphia; vice-president of the NumismaticSociety of Pennsylvania; honorary member of theAmerican Antiquarian Society; honorary memberof the Historical Society of Georgia; honoraryfellow of the Virginia Medical Society; honoraiymember of the Physicians and Surgeons of Phila-delphia; member of the Louisiana Medical So-

ciety; visiting physician to the New OrleansCharity Hospital, 1870^94; president of theLouisiana Medical Society, 1885-86; presidentof 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 Veteransby Gen. John B. Gordon, in 1889.

Dr. Jones married, first, October 26, 1858, MissCaroline S. Davis, of Augusta, Ga., who died in1868; married, second, June 21, 1870, MissSusan Rayner, daughter of Rev. Leonidas Polk,bishop of Louisiana, and lieutenant-general in theConfederate States army. Dr. Jones has six sur-viving children : Charles Colcock, Hamilton Polk,Caroline, Mary Cuthbert, Frances Devereux, andLaura Maxwell. His eldest son, Dr. StanhopeJones, died in 1894, leaving three children.