Joseph Goldberger was born on July 16, 1874 in Giralt, Hungary, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His parents were sheep herders, whose flock was decimated by sickness. The Goldbergers withtheir six children, including Joseph, the youngest, emigrated to the United States in 1883. Here the Goldbergers ran a small grocery store on Pitt Street on New York City's Lower East Side and had three more children.
A product of New York's public schools, Joseph Goldberger entered The City College of New York with hopes of a career in engineering. However, in 1892 Goldberger heard a lecture at Bellevue by physiologist Dr. Austin Flint, Jr. that changed his plans. Perhaps entranced by the intricacies of the human body's structure, Goldberger transferred to medical school and earned an M.D. from Bellevue in 1895.
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Bellvue Hospital Staff In 1892 Goldberger heard a lecture at Bellevue by physiologist Dr. Austin Flint, Jr. that changed his plans. Goldberger transferred to medical school and earned an M.D. from Bellevue in 1895. Photos: Dr. Joseph Goldberger and Bellevue Hospital Staff, reproduced with permission of the Southern Historical Collection, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Joseph Goldberger Image Removed Dr. Joseph Goldberger was a product of New York's public school. He entered The City College of New York with hopes of a career in engineering. However, in 1892 Goldberger attended a lecture at Bellevue by physiologist Dr. Austin Flint, Jr. that changed his plans. Perhaps intrigued by the intricacies of the human body's structure, Goldberger transferred to medical school and earned an M.D. from Bellevue in 1895.
The Bright Young Dr. Goldberger
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Bored and intellectually restless in private practice in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the young, shy physician joined the United States Marine Hospital Service, (later the U.S. Public Health Service or PHS) in 1899 at the beginning rank of Assistant Surgeon earning an annual salary of $1,600. Ironically, the immigrant from central Europe began his public health service career inspecting immigrants in the port of New York. However, it was not long before his epidemiological skills earned Goldberger the reputation of a tenacious and clever epidemic fighter.
Between 1902 and 1906, Goldberger heroically battled epidemic diseases. He fought yellow fever in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Mississippi, and Louisiana, contracting the disease himself His efforts earned him a promotion to the rank of Passed Assistant Surgeon in 1904 and later, an introduction to Mary Farrar, grandniece of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In 1906, the immigrant Jewish physician from New York's Lower East Side married the daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent Episcopalian attorney from New Orleans over the religious objections of both families.
The young couple from different traditions found common ground in their belief in science, especially medical science as the instrument of improving mankind's lot through relieving suffering. Now assigned to the Hygienic Laboratory in Washington, Joseph Goldberger studied typhoid fever. He was soon sent to Texas after an outbreak of dengue fever. Once again, Goldberger contracted what he studied. The same thing happened a third time when he battled typhus in Mexico.
Goldberger made several important epidemiological discoveries during this period of his career. In 1909, he published his research on Shamberg's disease, an ailment characterized by continuous itching and elaborate skin eruptions similar to those of smallpox. An acarine mite, which infested wheat and secluded itself in the straw mattresses common among poor city-dwellers, proved to be the culprit.
Goldberger also collaborated with Dr. John F. Anderson to show that "Brill's Disease" was identical to typhus. He and Anderson also made major breakthroughs in understanding the transmission of typhus and measles. Goldberger was fighting an outbreak of diphtheria in Detroit in 1914 when the surgeon general asked him to turn his attention towards the study of pellagra.
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Dr. Joseph Goldberger Image Added Dr. Joseph Goldberger was a product of New York's public school. He entered The City College of New York with hopes of a career in engineering. However, in 1892 Goldberger attended a lecture at Bellevue by physiologist Dr. Austin Flint, Jr. that changed his plans. Perhaps intrigued by the intricacies of the human body's structure, Goldberger transferred to medical school and earned an M.D. from Bellevue in 1895.
