Editing Robert Bell Smith Hargis

'''Robert Bell Smith Hargis''' ([[1818]]-[[1893]]) was a prominent Pensacola physician in the nineteenth century who, with Dr. [[J. C. Whiting]], established the early [[Pensacola Hospital]] in [[1868]] and published several pieces about [[yellow fever]].

Born [[June 7]], [[1818]] in Hillsborough, North Carolina, he attended the University of North Carolina and then the Medical College of Louisiana, graduating in 1844. He practiced medicine in [[Mobile]] for one year, but a bout with malaria forced him to move to higher ground at Mt. Pleasant. He came to Pensacola in [[1851]] and became the [[port]] physician. He contracted [[yellow fever]] in [[1853]] and spent a year convalescing in [[Milton]]. In [[1854]] he returned to Pensacola and became a surgeon at the [[Marine Hospital]].

During the [[Civil War]], Hargis served in the [[Confederate]] medical corps under General [[Braxton Bragg]] and later received a surgeon's commission, which he held until the end of the war. Returning to Pensacola in [[1865]], he worked with Dr. [[J. C. Whiting]], and the two established the [[Pensacola Hospital]] in [[1868]].

He was president of the [[Escambia County Board of Health]] and became president of the Florida Medical Association in 1882. He was also president of the board of medical examiners for the [[First Judicial Circuit Court of Florida]]. Hargis wrote a number of papers documenting [[yellow fever]] epidemics, treatments and public hygiene. His final position was assistant surgeon at the [[United States Marine Hospital]].

He died on [[November 30]], [[1983]]. 

==References==
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*Howard Atwood Kelly. ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=GPssAAAAYAAJ A cyclopedia of American medical biography: comprising the lives of eminent deceased physicians and surgeons from 1610 to 1910]''. W.B. Saunders company, 1920.
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[[Category:Physicians|Hargis, Robert]]