The Juan A. Del Regato James Carroll collection

James Carroll (1854-1907) was born in Woolwich, England to James and Harriet (Chiverton) Carroll. James was educated in Wolwich at Albion House Academy until 1869, at which time he emigrated to Canada. In 1874, Carroll moved to the United States and soon after enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army. By 1879, he had been promoted to the rank of corporal and was made a hospital steward, where his interest in the study of medicine began. In 1891, Carroll graduated from the University of Maryland Medical School with a M.D., and completed post-graduate work in pathology from Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1891, and in bacteriology in 1892. He met and became associated with Walter Reed (1851-1902) in 1893 at the Army Medical School, where he reported by order of Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg, as a lieutenant assistant surgeon in the United States Army.

In 1900, James Carroll was appointed to the U.S. Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba to determine the causes of yellow fever. Carroll, along with the other members of the commission, Walter Reed, Jessie Lazear (1866-1900), and Aristides Agramonte (1869-1931), soon proved Carlos J. Finlay's (1833-1915) theory that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitos, and not a bacterial organism. To accomplish this feat, they carried out an experiment with human subjects. Before recruiting volunteers for the experiment, James Carroll himself volunteered to be bitten by a contaminated mosquito that may have caused three prior cases of yellow fever. Within four days, he was extremely ill, suffering a severe attack of the disease, which ended up being the first experimental yellow fever on record. He recovered, but suffered significant damage to his heart.

Carroll's work was published in well-respected medical journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association, and, by a special act of Congress in March of 1907, his military rank was raised from lieutenant surgeon to major. Later that year, on September 16th, Major James Carroll died in Washington D.C. He was survived by his wife, Jennie Carroll, and his seven children James, David, George, Mabel, Carolyn, Ruth, and Ethel.

Source: Del Regato, J.A. (1998). James Carroll: A biography.Annals of Diagnostic Pathology. 2: 335-349.

Juan Angel Del Regato (1909-1999) was a pioneer in the use of radiation therapy to treat cancer. Born in Camaguey, Cuba, he attended medical school at the University of Havana and received a medical degree from the University of Paris.

Del Regato came to the United States in 1939 and worked briefly at the Chicago Tumor Institute and then in private practice. In 1943, he took a position as a radiation oncologist at the Ellis Fischel State Cancer Hospital in Columbia, Missouri. Five years later, he moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado and became the director of the Penrose Cancer Hospital. Later, Del Regato accepted a professorship in radiology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. His honors included, the Gold Medal from the American College of Radiology, the Bruning Huas Prize from the French Academy of Medicine, and the Beclare Medal from the Centre Antoine Beclere in Paris. Del Regato died in 1999 a year after his wife Inez Del Regato and he was survived by his children, John del Regato, Ann Jaeger, and Juanita Peters.

Source: Ravo, N. (1999, June 22). Juan del Regato, 90, an expert in radiation therapy for cancer.The New York Times.