Goldberger, Joseph, 1874-1929

Joseph Goldberger was a physician, medical researcher, and epidemiologist with the United States Public Health Service, 1899-1929.

Joseph Goldberger was born in Hungary but immigrated to New York as a child. He was educated there and later practiced medicine in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., before joining the United States Public Health Service in 1899. During his time with the Public Health Service, Goldberger studied various diseases and discovered the cause of and cure for pellagra.

Joseph Goldberger earned his medical degree at New York City's Bellevue College in 1895. Wanting to play a more dynamic role in medicine, he left his private practice and joined the U.S. Marine Hospital Service as an Assistant Surgeon in 1899. He spent the next fifteen years in the field working to eradicate epidemics of yellow fever, typhoid fever, dengue fever, and typhus in the United States and Central America. In 1914 the Surgeon General selected Goldberger to determine the cause of pellagra. His research successfully demonstrated that the condition was dietary in origin and largely the result of vitamin B deficiency. Controversy followed his conclusions. Much of the medical community was unwilling to concede that pellagra was not a germ-based disease. The means for pellagra's eradication, an improved diet for poor southern farmers, implied a need for social improvement, a theory that many resisted.

Joseph Goldberger earned his medical degree at New York City's Bellevue College in 1895. Wanting to play a more dynamic role in medicine, he left his private practice and joined the U.S. Marine Hospital Service as an Assistant Surgeon in 1899. He spent the next fifteen years in the field working to eradicate epidemics of yellow fever, typhoid fever, dengue fever, and typhus in the United States and Central America. In 1914 the Surgeon General selected Goldberger to determine the cause of pellagra, focusing on South Carolina as his research base. His research successfully demonstrated that the condition was dietary in origin and largely the result of vitamin B deficiency. Controversy followed his conclusions. Much of the medical community was unwilling to concede that pellagra was not a germ-based disease. The means for pellagra's eradication, an improved diet for poor southern farmers, implied a need for social improvement, a theory that many resisted.

Physician and medical researcher.

Goldberger was an alumnus of City College, Class of 1893.