Hugh S. Cumming
Encyclopedia
- For his son, the diplomat, see Hugh S. Cumming, Jr.Hugh S. Cumming, Jr.Hugh Smith Cumming, Jr. was United States diplomat who was United States Ambassador to Indonesia from 1953 to 1957 and then Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 1957 to 1961.-Biography:...
Hugh Smith Cumming (17 August 1869 – 20 December 1948) was an American physician, and soldier. He was appointed the fifth Surgeon General of the United States
Surgeon General of the United States
The Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government...
from 1920 to 1936.
Early life
Cumming was born in Hampton, VirginiaHampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
. He received his undergraduate education at Baltimore City College
Baltimore City College
The Baltimore City College , also referred to as The Castle on the Hill, historically as The College, and most commonly City, is a public high school in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. The City College curriculum includes the International Baccalaureate Programme and emphasizes study in the classics...
and then obtained medical degrees from the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
Department of Medicine in 1893, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity, and the University College of Medicine (in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
) in 1894 (the latter while serving as house doctor at St. Luke's Hospital
St. Luke's Hospital
St. Luke's Hospital may refer to:in Greece* St. Luke's Hospital in Ireland* St. Luke's General Hospital, Kilkenny* St. Luke's Hospital, Rathgar, Dublinin Japan* St. Luke's International Hospitalin Malta* St. Luke's Hospital, Malta...
in Richmond). In 1894, he obtained a commission as an Assistant Surgeon in the Marine Hospital Service, which was to become the Public Health Service and Marine Hospital Service
Marine Hospital Service
The Marine-Hospital Service was an organization of Marine Hospitals dedicated to the care of ill and disabled seamen in the U.S. Merchant Marine, U.S. Coast Guard and other federal beneficiaries....
in 1902 and then the Public Health Service in 1912.
Career
Cumming was assigned to a variety of posts during his early career in the Service, especially quarantineQuarantine
Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
stations in the South and on the West Coast of the United States
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
. He also served on immigration duty at Ellis Island, New York. For 3 years, from February 1906 to February 1909, Cumming was detailed to the office of the United States Consul General in Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, where he was concerned with immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
and quarantinable disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
s. From 1913 to 1919, he was assigned to the Hygienic Laboratory (forerunner of the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
) in Washington, DC. There he was placed in charge of an investigation of the pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
of tidal waters of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
and Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. One of his concerns was the shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
industry, and the potential threat to human health from consuming oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
s grown in waters polluted with sewage
Sewage
Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...
.
During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Cumming was assigned to the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
as a sanitary advisor. He was later ordered to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to study the sanitary
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
conditions of the ports from which troops would embark and to confer with military authorities to take the necessary action to prevent the introduction of disease into the United States by returning troops. He was also a member of the Typhus Fever Commission to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
Surgeon General
On 3 March 1920, Cumming was appointed Surgeon GeneralSurgeon General of the United States
The Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government...
of the United States Public Health Service
United States Public Health Service
The Public Health Service Act of 1944 structured the United States Public Health Service as the primary division of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare , which later became the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The PHS comprises all Agency Divisions of Health and...
. The Public Health Service (PHS) had been given the task in 1919 of providing health care for veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
s, and the Service was still expanding and adjusting to this new responsibility when Cumming took office. In 1922, however, Congress created the Veterans' Bureau, and the responsibility for the health care of veterans was transferred from the PHS to the new Bureau. Another event of Cumming's early tenure was the creation of a national leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
hospital in Carville, Louisiana
Carville, Louisiana
Carville is a neighborhood of St. Gabriel in Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States that is 16 miles south of Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River. Carville is the hometown of political personality James Carville and was named after his grandfather, the postmaster. It is also the location of...
in 1921 when the PHS took control of what had been the Louisiana Leper Home. The facility at Carville became a major center for leprosy treatment and research.
In 1925, Cumming inaugurated a plan for the medical inspection of immigrants abroad in the principal countries of origin. This plan reduced the number of immigrants who were turned back for medical reasons after making the trip to the United States. In the 1920s, the PHS also completed the development of a national maritime quarantine system by acquiring the last two quarantine stations operated by States.
A 1929 law authorized the PHS to establish a Division of Narcotics (the name was later changed to Division of Mental Hygiene) and to construct two hospitals for the treatment of drug addicts. Cumming also expanded the research activities of the Hygienic Laboratory, which in 1930 became the National Institute of Health. Under Cumming, the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is the federal uniformed service of the United States Public Health Service and is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States....
was also authorized to admit dentists, pharmacists, and sanitary engineers, the first expansion of the Regular Corps beyond physicians.
In 1930, the PHS was given the responsibility of providing medical and psychiatric care to Federal prisoners. Under the Social Security Act of 1935, the PHS was authorized to provide grants-in-aid to the States for the development of public health work.
Cumming served as President of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States in 1924 and as President of the American Public Health Association
American Public Health Association
The American Public Health Association is Washington, D.C.-based professional organization for public health professionals in the United States. Founded in 1872 by Dr. Stephen Smith, APHA has more than 30,000 members worldwide...
in 1931. In 1931 Cumming initiated the "The Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in the negro male"
Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment was an infamous clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in poor, rural black men who thought they were receiving free health care from the U.S...
—begun in 1932, continued under Cumming's successors, ended in 1972.
In 1935 Cumming was awarded the Public Welfare Medal
Public Welfare Medal
The Public Welfare Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "in recognition of distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare." It is the most prestigious honor conferred by the Academy...
from the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
. He also served for a period as Chairman of the Permanent Committee of the International Office of Public Health in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.