Figure 36.—Brig. Gen. George M. Sternberg, The Surgeon General of the Army for 9 years, 1893-1902, turned the thought of the Museum toward bacteriology.
The Surgeon General. The new Surgeon General was outstanding among American bacteriologists. Working independently, he had discovered the pneumococcus responsible for pneumonia in 1881, the same year in which, earlier, Louis Pasteur had described the same microorganism. In 1882, Sternberg had photographed for the first time the tubercle bacillus, discovered in the same year by Robert Koch. Ten years later, in 1892, he had published "A Manual of Bacteriology," the first American textbook on the subject. He came into the Office of the Surgeon General bearing the reputation of being the Army Medical Corps' first man in scientific attainment.
Within less than a month after taking office, the new Surgeon General secured authority of the War Department for the long-deferred Army Medical School set forth in General Orders No. 51, A.G.O., dated 24 June 1893. "By direction of the Secretary of War," the Orders read, "upon the recommendation of the Surgeon General of the Army, an Army Medical School will be established in the city of Washington for the purpose of instructing approved candi-
