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Biomedical Research

Bubonic plague first struck the continental United States at San Francisco in March of 1900. The presence of this contagious and often fatal epidemic disease was verified bacteriologically by Dr. Joseph Kinyoun, who had been the first director of the Hygienic Laboratory and now was in charge of the U.S. Quarantine Station at San Francisco. Quarantine measures that were instituted, including fumigation and sterilization, provoked violent criticism and protest in the local community. The Service responded by creating a special plague commission of eminent medical researchers from academia, who went to San Francisco in 1901 and confirmed the existence of plague, by establishing a Plague Laboratory in the city, and by sending Dr. Rupert Blue, who later became Surgeon General (1912-1920), to head the plague control work. Plague was first proclaimed eradicated in 1905 (after 121 cases and 113 deaths), but struck again in 1907 as a result of the San Francisco earthquake. A luncheon by the Citizen's Health Committee of San Francisco in 1908, pictured here, commemorated the completion of the plague control campaign. Its slogan was: "San Francisco is so clean a meal can be eaten in the streets." Dr. Rupert Blue was guest of honor.

c. 1908

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