Dr. James Lawrence Cabell (August 26, 1813 – August 13, 1889 ) was an American

sanitarian Environmental Health Officers (also known as Public Health Inspectors or Environmental Health Practitioners) are responsible for carrying out measures for protecting public health, including administering and enforcing legislation related to enviro ...

and author.

Life

He was born in

Nelson County, Virginia Nelson County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,775. Its county seat is Lovingston. Nelson County is part of the Charlottesville, VA Metropolitan Statistic ...

, the son of Dr. George Cabell, Jr., and graduated from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

in 1833. He then studied medicine in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and Paris, and became Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the University of Virginia, where he was chairman of the faculty in 1846 and 1847. Cabell was a full professor at the School of Medicine for 52 years (1842-1889) and was an early pioneer of the sanitary preparation of the surgical patient following Lister's principles. He was in charge of the

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

military hospitals during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. When

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...

broke out in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

he was appointed chairman of the National Sanitary Conference and devised a plan that checked the spread of the epidemic. In 1859, he published “The Testimony of Modern Science to the Unity of Mankind”. This work advanced the idea of evolution one year before publication of Darwin's “Origin of Species.” Cabell founded the National Board of Health which in 1880 became the U.S. Public Health Service. From 1879 until his death in

Overton, Virginia Overton is an unincorporated community in Albemarle County, Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Ap ...

, he was president of the

National Board of Health The National Board of Health (NBH) was a short lived institution that operated from 1879 to 1883 in the United States. It was created during the third Session of the 45th Congress, listed as chapter 202 better known as the Public Health Act of 18 ...

Works

He wrote ''The Testimony of Modern Science to the Unity of Mankind'' (New York, 1858).

References

* Edwin Anderson Alderman, ''Library of Southern Literature'', Part 15 (1907, reprinted 2005), p. 66
Google Books

External links

WorldCat pageJames Lawrence Cabell
at

Encyclopedia Virginia Virginia Humanities (VH), formerly the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, is a humanities council whose stated mission is to develop the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of the Commonwealth of Virginia by creating learning opportunities f ...

1813 births 1889 deaths University of Virginia alumni University of Virginia School of Medicine faculty {{US-med-bio-stub