Smith, Stephen

Smith, Stephen (1823–1922) surgeon, public health pioneer; born in Onondaga County, N.Y. On the staff at Bellevue Hospital from 1851 until 1911, he wrote several textbooks, of which his Handbook of Surgical Operations (1862) was most valuable to Civil War surgeons. The Metropolitan Health Law that he drafted for New York City (1866) served to guide sanitation reforms in cities throughout the U.S.A. An extraordinarily active man, he worked for higher standards in everything from vaccinations to nursing education. He was one of the founders as well as first president of the American Public Health Association (1871).