Walter Wyman (August 17, 1848 – November 21, 1911) was an American physician and soldier. He was appointed the third Surgeon General of the United States from 1891 until his death in 1911. Biography Early years Wyman was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He obtained his A.B. degree from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1870 and then graduated in 1873 from the St. Louis Medical College (now Washington University School of Medicine) Career Wyman served as a physician at the city hospital in St. Louis for two years and then engaged in private practice for another year before joining the Marine Hospital Service in 1876 as an Assistant Surgeon. He was promoted to Surgeon the following year, and served successively in the marine hospitals at St. Louis, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and New York City. While he was in charge of the marine hospital in Staten Island, New York, the Hygienic Laboratory (forerunner of the National Institutes of Health) was established there in 1887 by Supervising Surgeon General John B. Hamilton. Wyman had studied in Europe in 1885, and was well acquainted with the bacteriological investigations of Robert Koch and others. He fully supported the creation of the Hygienic Laboratory. In December 1888, Wyman moved to Washington, D.C. as Chief of the Quarantine Division. When Hamilton resigned as Supervising Surgeon General, Wyman was appointed to the position as of June 1, 1891. He was to remain at the helm of the Marine Hospital Service for 20 years. During Wyman's tenure, the Marine Hospital Service significantly expanded its responsibilities, and in 1902 was renamed the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. At that time, Wyman's title was also changed from Supervising Surgeon General to just Surgeon General. As a result of immigration legislation passed on March 3, 1891, shortly before Wyman took office, the Marine Hospital Service was assigned responsibility for the medical inspection of arriving immigrations. The largest immigration depot was Ellis Island in New York, opened in 1892, where service physicians would inspect thousands of arriving immigrants on busy days. The quarantine activities of the service were expanded by legislative acts of 1893 and 1906, and maritime quarantine functions were extended to Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Panama Canal, and the Philippine Islands. The 1902 act, which changed the name of the service, also charged the Surgeon General with convening a conference of state health authorities at least on an annual