Joseph James Kinyoun (November 25, 1860 – February 14, 1919) was an American physician and the founder of the United States' Hygienic Laboratory, the predecessor of the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...
.
His career was nearly ended by his insistence, while serving as head of the
Marine Hospital Service
The Marine Hospital Service was an organization of Marine Hospitals dedicated to the care of ill and disabled seamen in the United States Merchant Marine, the U.S. Coast Guard and other federal beneficiaries. The Marine Hospital Service evolved ...
in San Francisco, on taking vigorous measures to contain the spread of
the bubonic plague. He resigned his position in 1901 after being attacked for his diagnoses, including claims by California Governor
Henry Gage
Henry Tifft Gage (December 25, 1852 – August 28, 1924) was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat. A Republican, Gage was elected to a single term as the 20th governor of California from 1899 to 1903. Gage was also the U.S. Minister t ...
that he and other federal employees had falsified evidence by injecting cadavers with bacilli. He was ultimately proven correct by independent testing and the appearance of further cases.
Kinyoun's later career was spent in private companies and as a professor of bacteriology and pathology at
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...
before becoming a bacteriologist for the District of Columbia Health Department, a position he held until his death. In 1909, Kinyoun served as president of the
American Society for Microbiology
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...
. In 1915, he developed the
Kinyoun stain, a procedure used to
stain
A stain is a discoloration that can be clearly distinguished from the surface, material, or medium it is found upon. They are caused by the chemical or physical interaction of two dissimilar materials. Accidental staining may make materials app ...
acid-fast
Acid-fastness is a physical property of certain bacterial and eukaryotic cells, as well as some sub-cellular structures, specifically their resistance to decolorization by acids during laboratory staining procedures. Once stained as part of a sa ...
bacteria.
Biography
Early life
Joseph James "Joe" Kinyoun was born November 25, 1860, in
East Bend, North Carolina
East Bend is a town in northeastern Yadkin County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 634 at the 2020 census. It is a Piedmont Triad community.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of ...
, the oldest of five children born to Elizabeth Ann Conrad and John Hendricks Kinyoun. His family settled in
Post Oak, Missouri
Post Oak is an unincorporated community in Johnson County, in the U.S. state of Missouri.
The community is located on Missouri Route 13
Route 13 is a highway in Missouri which runs almost the entire north–south length of the state. ...
in 1866 after his house burned down during the Civil War. At the age of 16, he studied medicine with his father, John Hendricks Kinyoun, who was a general practitioner. His family joined a Baptist church.
Kinyoun was educated at
St. Louis Medical College and graduated from
Bellevue Medical College
Bellevue Hospital (officially NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and formerly known as Bellevue Hospital Center) is a hospital in New York City and the oldest public hospital in the United States. One of the largest hospitals in the United States ...
in 1882 with an M.D. degree. He did postdoctoral studies in pathology and bacteriology at the Carnegie Laboratory,
where he became the first bacteriology student and studied
cholera
Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...
. Then he was a visiting scientist in Europe under
Robert Koch
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( ; ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, he i ...
. He was awarded a Ph.D. from
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
in 1896.
Career
Hygienic Laboratory (1887–1896)
On October 4, 1886, Kinyoun began his career in the
Marine Hospital Service
The Marine Hospital Service was an organization of Marine Hospitals dedicated to the care of ill and disabled seamen in the United States Merchant Marine, the U.S. Coast Guard and other federal beneficiaries. The Marine Hospital Service evolved ...
at Staten Island Quarantine Station as an assistant surgeon, taking over the direction of the Laboratory of Hygiene in 1887. When the
Surgeon General
Surgeon general (: surgeons general) is a title used in several Commonwealth countries and most NATO nations to refer either to a senior military medical officer or to a senior uniformed physician commissioned by the government and entrusted with p ...
moved the laboratory from Staten Island to Washington, DC in 1891, he placed 26-year-old Kinyoun in charge of the nation's first federal bacteriology laboratory. His code name during his MHS career was Abutment.
As the director of the Hygienic Laboratory, he researched on a plethora of different infectious diseases and their respective etiology and vaccine treatment while urging necessary hospital protocols and regulations for isolation of infected patients. Cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, and plague were the four main epidemic diseases that the laboratory investigated.
San Francisco Quarantine station (1899–1901)
A
bubonic plague epidemic that had raged through India and East Asia for nearly fifty years had reached the Hawaiian Islands in 1899. Kinyoun had warned in 1895 that the plague would eventually reach the United States and had begun researching the plague in 1896.
In 1899, Surgeon General
Walter Wyman
Walter Wyman (August 17, 1848 – November 21, 1911) was an American physician and soldier. He was appointed the third Surgeon General of the United States from 1891 until his death in 1911.
Biography
Early years
Wyman was born in St. Louis, ...
transferred Kinyoun to the San Francisco Quarantine station as head of the Marine Hospital Service for the port, with a promotion to the rank of surgeon (equivalent to
lieutenant commander) on August 5. San Francisco, which received ship traffic from Hawaii and a number of other ports where the plague was endemic, was likely to be a key battleground against the spread of the plague.
The federal MHS had an uneasy relationship with state authorities in California, who had clashed with its past enforcement efforts. Wyman ordered Kinyoun to pay no attention to California quarantine officials, which ultimately put Kinyoun at odds with California Governor
Henry Tifft Gage during the
San Francisco plague of 1900–1904.
A Japanese ship, the S.S. ''Nippon Maru'', arriving in
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...
in June 1899, had two plague deaths at sea, and there were two more cases of stowaways found dead in the bay, with postmortem cultures proving they had the plague.
Similar incidents occurred in other ports: in New York in November 1899, the British ship ''J.W. Taylor'' brought three cases of plague from Brazil, but the cases were confined to the ship.
[ The Japanese freighter S.S. ''Nanyo Maru'' arrived in ]Port Townsend, Washington
Port Townsend is a city on the Quimper Peninsula in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The population was 10,148 at the 2020 United States Census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County.
In addition ...
on January 30, 1900, with 3 deaths out of 17 cases of confirmed plague.[
In this atmosphere of grave danger, in January 1900, Kinyoun ordered all ships coming to San Francisco from China, Japan, Australia, and Hawaii to fly yellow flags to warn of possible plague on board.] Many entrepreneurs and sailing men felt that this was bad for business, and unfair to ships that were free of plague. City promoters were confident that plague could not take hold, and they were unhappy with what they saw as Kinyoun's high-handed abuse of authority.
In January 1900, the four-masted steamship S.S. ''Australia'' laid anchor in the Port of San Francisco
The port of San Francisco is a semi-independent organization that oversees the port facilities at San Francisco, California, United States. It is run by a five-member commission, appointed by the mayor subject to confirmation by a majority of the ...
. The ship sailed between Honolulu and San Francisco regularly. Cargo from Honolulu unloaded at a dock near the outfall of Chinatown's sewers may have allowed rats carrying the plague to leave the ship and transmit the infection. However, it is difficult to trace the infection to a single vessel.
Wherever it came from, the disease was soon established in the cramped Chinese ghetto
A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...
neighborhood; a sudden increase in dead rats was observed as local rats became infected. Rumors of the plague's presence abounded in the city, quickly gaining the notice of authorities from MHS stationed on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...
, including Chief Kinyoun.
On February 7, 1900, Wong Chut King, the owner of a lumber yard, died in his bed after suffering for four weeks. In the morning, the body was taken to a Chinese undertaker, where it was examined by San Francisco police surgeon Frank P. Wilson on March 6, 1900. Wilson called for A.P. O'Brien, a city health department official, after finding suspiciously swollen lymph glands. Wilson and O'Brien then summoned Wilfred H. Kellogg, San Francisco's city bacteriologist, and the three men performed an autopsy as night closed. Looking through his microscope, Kellogg thought he saw plague bacilli.[ Late at night, Kellogg ran the suspicious samples of lymph fluid to Angel Island to be tested on animals in Kinyoun's better-equipped laboratory - an operation that would take at least four days.][Shah 2001, p. 120]
On March 11, Kinyoun's lab presented its results. Two guinea pigs and one rat died after being exposed to samples from the first victim, proving the plague was indeed in Chinatown. On March 13, another lab animal, a monkey who was exposed to the plague, died. All the dead animals tested positive for the plague bacteria.
San Francisco authorities initially responded by declaring a quarantine that would have prevented persons of Asian descent from leaving the affected areas, but relaxed the restriction when a Chinese cultural association, claiming that the MHS was violating their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, obtained a temporary restraining order
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable reme ...
blocking the quarantine order from federal District Judge William W. Morrow. Residents of San Francisco's Chinatown
Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
, resentful of being singled out for blame for the plague by authorities, resisted efforts to inspect their homes.
California Governor Henry Gage, a close ally of the Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
and other business interests, joined in the fight. Governor Gage publicly denied the existence of any pestilential outbreak in San Francisco, fearing that any word of the bubonic plague
Bubonic plague is one of three types of Plague (disease), plague caused by the Bacteria, bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and ...
's presence would deeply damage the city's and state's economy.[Chase 2003, pp. 70, 72, 79–81, 85, 115, 119–122] Supportive newspapers, such as the ''Call
Call or Calls may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* Call (poker), a bet matching an opponent's
* Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage
Music and dance
* Call (band), from L ...
'', the ''Chronicle
A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...
'' and the ''Bulletin
Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to:
Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals)
* ''Bulletin'' (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper
* ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008)
** Bulletin De ...
'', echoed and elaborated on Gage's denials, attacking Kinyoun personally.
One newspaper claimed, without any factual basis, that Kinyoun had released his laboratory monkeys into San Francisco. Death threats were made against him, requiring him to travel with bodyguards under an assumed name.
The clash between Gage and federal authorities intensified. U.S. Surgeon General
The surgeon general of the United States is the operational head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. T ...
Walter Wyman
Walter Wyman (August 17, 1848 – November 21, 1911) was an American physician and soldier. He was appointed the third Surgeon General of the United States from 1891 until his death in 1911.
Biography
Early years
Wyman was born in St. Louis, ...
instructed Kinyoun to place Chinatown under a second quarantine, as well as blocking all East Asians
East Asian people (also East Asians) are the people from East Asia, which consists of China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. The total population of all countries within this region is estimated to be 1.677 billion and 21% ...
from entering state borders. Wyman also instructed Kinyoun to inoculate all persons of Asian heritage in Chinatown, using an experimental vaccine
A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifi ...
developed by Waldemar Haffkine
Waldemar Mordechai Wolff Haffkine , born Vladimir Aronovich (Markus-Volf) Khavkin (; 15 March 1860 – 26 October 1930) was a Russian-French bacteriologist known for his pioneering work in vaccines.
Haffkine was educated at the Imperial Novo ...
, one known to have severe side effects.
Kinyoun privately argued against the harshest public health measures, warning Wyman that a quarantine might be unconstitutional, and urged California to concentrate its plague control efforts on killing rats rather than imposing quarantine and isolation, but nonetheless carried out Wyman's orders. On May 15, Kinyoun, with Board of Health support, declared an epidemic. The local press claimed that the epidemic was a hoax that Kinyoun had invented to increase his agency's funding.
Gage responded to the declaration by urging California's other elected officials, as well as party leaders and delegates to the Republican National Convention, to put pressure on President William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...
to reverse the MHS's plague eradication measures and to remove Kinyoun from his position. Behind the scenes, Gage sent a special commission to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, consisting of Southern Pacific, newspaper and shipping lawyers, to negotiate a settlement with the MHS, whereby the federal government would remove Kinyoun from San Francisco with the promise that the state would secretly cooperate with the MHS in stamping out the plague epidemic.[ Wyman agreed to this proposal, forever damaging his relationship with Kinyoun, who was reassigned to Detroit immediately after the meeting.]
Before Kinyoun left for Detroit in May 1901 he had to face one final tribulation: the claim by a deaf-mute fisherman who claimed that Kinyoun, who had vaccinated him, had ordered riflemen to shoot him. Kinyoun initially attempted to avoid arrest by hiding out at an Army post, but turned himself in. He was ultimately exonerated when testimony showed that soldiers pursuing an escaped prisoner had fired warning shots at the fisherman, who was suspected of aiding the escapee, and that Kinyoun had actually intervened to defend him.
Despite the secret agreement for Kinyoun's removal, Gage went back on his promise of assisting federal authorities and continued to obstruct their study and quarantine efforts.
Between 1901 and 1902, the plague outbreak continued to worsen. In a 1901 address to both houses of the California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...
, Gage accused federal authorities, particularly Kinyoun, of injecting plague bacteria into cadavers
A cadaver, often known as a corpse, is a dead human body. Cadavers are used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a liv ...
. In response to what he said to be massive scaremongering by the MHS, Gage pushed a censorship bill to gag any media reports of plague infection. The bill failed in the California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...
, yet other laws to gag reports amongst the medical community were enacted and $100,000 was allocated to a public campaign led by Gage to deny the plague's existence. In his final speech to the California State Legislature in early January 1903, Gage blamed the federal government, in particular, Kinyoun, the MHS, and the San Francisco Board of Health for damaging the state's economy.[
]
Later career
Although his colleagues in the MHS and the medical community supported him and urged him not to retire, Kinyoun believed he had no alternative and resigned on May 1, 1902. Two months later, Congress expanded the MHS, renaming it the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service (later the Public Health Service), and formalized and expanded the Hygienic Laboratory into three new divisions with numerous additional personnel. Kinyoun had drafted this statute. Kinyoun had also been an active supporter of a bill to establish federal regulation of biological products such as serums and vaccines. Congress passed that bill the same day as Kinyoun's bill to expand the MHS.
After leaving government service, Kinyoun went to work for H. K. Mulford Company
The H. K. Mulford Company was a pharmaceutical company founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in the late 1880s by Henry K. Mulford after his purchase of the Old Simes drugstore at 18th and Market Streets. The company was pu ...
in Glenolden, Pennsylvania (now part of Merck & Co.), then as a professor of bacteriology and pathology at George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...
before becoming a bacteriologist for the District of Columbia Health Department, a position he held until his death. He also worked with colleagues at the MHS and other agencies on a variety of public health problems, especially water quality, bacillary dysentery, and hookworm disease in poor Southern children. His interest in disease prevention led him to advocate reforms on public health issues as basic sanitation and hygiene, tuberculosis control, water safety, meat safety, bread quality, and milk sanitation.
Kinyoun was active in many national professional societies, serving as Vice President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine nd Hygieneduring its first full year in 1904 and as First Vice President of the American Public Health Association in 1906. In 1909, Kinyoun served as president of the American Society for Microbiology
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...
, which he had helped form more than a decade earlier; he devoted his presidential address to the future of immunology and the still-novel concept of natural and acquired immunity. He took part in many other professional societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
and the Association of American Physicians
The Association of American Physicians (AAP) is an honorary medical society founded in 1885 by the Canadian physician Sir William Osler and six other distinguished physicians of his era for "the advancement of scientific and practical medicine ...
.
In 1915, he developed the Kinyoun stain, a procedure used to stain
A stain is a discoloration that can be clearly distinguished from the surface, material, or medium it is found upon. They are caused by the chemical or physical interaction of two dissimilar materials. Accidental staining may make materials app ...
acid-fast
Acid-fastness is a physical property of certain bacterial and eukaryotic cells, as well as some sub-cellular structures, specifically their resistance to decolorization by acids during laboratory staining procedures. Once stained as part of a sa ...
bacteria. It was a variation of a method developed by Robert Koch
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( ; ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, he i ...
in 1882. He developed a safer, more reliable, and widely used smallpox vaccination technique, the "Kinyoun method," which featured rapid rolling of the needle parallel to the skin surface, and "Kinyoun portable bed disinfectors" for bedding, clothing, dressings, and for killing lice.
Personal life
James and Susan Elizabeth "Lizzie" Perry married in 1883. His wife was active in groups such as the Committee of Women of the National Tuberculosis Congress and the Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defense
The Council of National Defense was a United States organization formed during World War I to coordinate resources and industry in support of the war effort, including the coordination of transportation, industrial and farm production, financial s ...
during the First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.
The couple had at least five children: Bettie Kinyoun; Joseph Perry Kinyoun; Alice Kinyoun Houts; Conrad Kinyoun; and John Nathan Kinyoun. After his first child, Bettie died at the age of 3 from contracting diphtheria
Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacteria, bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild Course (medicine), clinical course, but in some outbreaks, the mortality rate approaches 10%. Signs a ...
, he poured himself into his work and even set up a public diphtheria laboratory at Georgetown Medical School.
In 1917, Kinyoun joined the Army as an expert epidemiologist assigned to North and South Carolina assigned to investigate statewide typhoid epidemics. During his service he was diagnosed with lymphosarcoma. Joseph Kinyoun died on February 14, 1919, in Washington, DC. A collection of his papers is held at the National Library of Medicine.
Recognition
In 1899, Kinyoun was decorated "in recognition of scientific services," by Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
as an Officer of the Order of the Liberator
The Order of the Liberator was the highest distinction of Venezuela and was appointed for services to the country, outstanding merit and benefits made to the community. For Venezuelans the order ranks first in the order of precedence from other o ...
.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. NIAID's mis ...
' Joseph J. Kinyoun Memorial Lecture is named in his honor.
See also
*Biologics Control Act
The Biologics Control Act of 1902, also known as the Virus-Toxin Law, was the first law that implemented federal regulations of biological products such as vaccines in the United States. It was enacted in response to two incidents involving the ...
*Kinyoun stain
The Kinyoun method or Kinyoun stain (cold method), developed by Joseph J. Kinyoun, is a procedure used to stain acid-fast species of the bacterial genus ''Mycobacterium''. It is a variation of a method developed by Robert Koch in 1882. Certain spe ...
*List of Liberty ships (Je–L)
These lists of Liberty ships are sortable lists, allowing ships to be looked up by hull number. Liberty ships were a type of mass-produced cargo ship built to meet inexpensively the United States's World War II maritime transport needs.
* List of ...
References
External links
*
*
PBS American Experience: Plague at the Golden Gate
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinyoun, Joseph J.
1860 births
1919 deaths
People from Johnson County, Texas
People from East Bend, North Carolina
American microbiologists
American bacteriologists
New York University Grossman School of Medicine alumni
20th-century American physicians
Directors of the National Institutes of Health
Cleveland administration personnel
Benjamin Harrison administration personnel
Marine Hospital Service personnel
McKinley administration personnel