American Medical Biographies/Hargis, Robert Bell Smith
Hargis, Robert Bell Smith (1818–1893).
Robert B. S. Hargis of Pensacola, Florida, was born in Hillsborough, North Carolina, June 7, 1818, of Scotch-Irish descent. His early education was received at the University of North Carolina; he studied medicine three years under Dr. J. T. Jordan at Fayetteville in the same state and was graduated from the Medical College of Louisiana (later Tulane University Medical Department) in 1844. For one year Dr. Hargis practised in Mobile, Alabama, but having malaria he moved into a higher country at Mt. Pleasant in the same state. There he remained until 1851 when he settled in Pensacola, Florida, becoming port physician. In 1853 he took yellow fever, at that time prevalent, and went to Milton, Florida, to convalesce, but returned the following year to Pensacola to accept the position of surgeon to the Marine Hospital, which had been established, holding the office until the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. Then he served in the medical corps of the Confederate Army under General Braxton Bragg and subsequently held a commission as surgeon until the end of the war. Settling in Pensacola again in 1865, he associated himself with Dr. J. C. Whiting and established the Pensacola Hospital in 1868. In 1882 he was president of the Florida Medical Association, having previously been president of the board of health of Escambia county. With Dr. William Martin of the United States Navy, Dr. Hargis conducted an investigation of the yellow fever epidemics of 1882 and 1883. Twenty years after the close of the war he was appointed acting assistant surgeon to the United States Marine Hospital, holding the office for the rest of his life. Another honorary office he held for many years was president of the board of medical examiners of the First Judicial District of Florida.
He wrote on yellow fever in the New Orleans Medical News and Hospital Gazette, January, 1859, again on its history and origin, in the proceedings of the American Public Health Association, 1880. He was the author of "Sketches of the History of Quarantine at Pensacola, Florida," National Board of Health Bulletin, 1881; "The Natural History of
Plagues," 1887; "The Topical Application of Oil of Turpentine to Recent Wounds," Philadelphia Medical News, 1888; and a large number of short articles on yellow fever quarantine and public hygiene in a variety of medical journals. He died at Pensacola, November 30, 1893.