John Crawford

John Crawford was born in the north of Ireland on May 3, 1746.  He was educated at the College of Dublin and received his M.D. from the University of Leyden. Following that, he was a surgeon with the Dutch East India Company and a physician to Hospital in Barbados, a physician to Dutch Colony in Demerara (now Guyana). He returned to England in 1794 and immigrated to America in 1796.

It was chiefly through his efforts as one of the Founders, that the Baltimore General Dispensary was created, and he also assumed the position of Manager of the Baltimore General Dispensary in 1801. In the first year, 234 patients were treated.

Branching out, he was a Founder of the Bible Society of Baltimore and of the Maryland Penitentiary, still located on Madison Avenue in Baltimore. He was a Lecturer on Natural History, College of Medicine in Maryland in 1812. He was a consulting Physician, Baltimore Hospital, 1812; Orator, Medical and Chirurgical Faculty, 1805.

Dr. Crawford was one of the most enlightened physicians and noblest characters that have ever adorned the profession of this State. In 1790, while residing in Dutch Guyana, he conceived the germ theory of infectious diseases, and in 1807, he wrote a series of striking articles in its advocacy, being probably the first in English-speaking countries to do so. Using vaccine virus sent from London, he introduced vaccination to Baltimore in 1800. He also carried his theory into practice.

Dr. Crawford died at Baltimore, May 9, 1813, and is buried in the Old Westminster Burial Ground, Baltimore, Maryland.