Charles Edward Woodruff

Background

Charles Woodruff was born on 2 October 1860 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of David Stratton and Mary Jane Remster Woodruff.

Education

After graduation from the Central High School, Philadelphia, in 1879, Woodruff attended the United States Naval Academy for three years but did not graduate.

He taught mathematics in the high school at Reading, Pennsylvania, for one year and then entered Jefferson Medical College (now Thomas Jefferson University), where he was given his medical degree in 1886.

Career

Charles Edward Woodruff immediately entered the medical corps of the United States Navy as an assistant surgeon, but after one year he transferred to the army, with the grade of first lieutenant and an assistant surgeon. Routine post duty occupied his time until the Spanish-American War when he went to the Philippine Islands as brigade surgeon under Major-General Wesley Merritt in the first expeditionary force. In 1902 the Philippine insurrection took him back to the Islands, where he served as brigade surgeon of the 4th Brigade. It was during this tour of duty that he collected the material for his first book, "The Effects of Tropical Light on White Men" (1905), in which he held that the deleterious effects of tropical residence upon white men were due to the influence of the actinic or chemical rays of the sun.

The theme of the first book was expanded in "Medical Ethnology" (1915). His most important book is "The Expansion of Races" (1909), called by enthusiastic admirers the most outstanding contribution to the literature of anthropology since Darwin's Origin of Species. It is an absorbingly interesting collection of anthropological and ethnological material, to which he endeavored to give the interpretation. He was the author of over seventy journal articles, mainly on military medicine, but embracing a wide variety of other topics. Noteworthy among these are "An Anthropological Study of the Small Brain of Civilized Man and Its Evolution" and "Evolution of Modern Numerals from Ancient Tally Marks." He contributed the article on medical ethnology to the third edition of "A Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences" (1914), edited by T. L. Stedman. His writings have the quality of holding interest. They are clear and simple in style, and lucid in an argument. They show, however, the lack of that judicial attitude of mind necessary to the research worker in any field.

Despite impaired health, he went again to duty in the Philippine Islands in 1910. Though himself of a pronounced brunette type, he returned in such physical condition that he was retired from active service in 1913 with the grade of lieutenant-colonel. In 1914 he became an associate editor of American Medicine, to which he had for years been a regular contributor.

Achievements

• Woodruff served two terms in the Philippines where he became impressed with the unsuitability of the tropics as a place of residence for white men, a theory which he developed at length in his book "The Effect of Tropical Light on White Men." He wrote also "Expansion of Races," an important book that is a treasure house of anthropological and ethnological facts, and "Medical Ethnology," the last being published not long before his death.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Effects of Tropical Light on White Men 1905
  • Expansion of Races 1909
  • Medical Ethnology 1915

Views

Woodruff believed in the greater resistance of the brunette type to these rays and in their better adaptability to tropical life and advocated the wearing of clothing containing orange or red color for protection. Though his views were supported by a wealth of practical experience and by ingenious argumentation, they have been largely explored by research showing sunlight to be relatively less important than the combination of heat and humidity in the physiological changes caused by a hot climate.

Personality

Woodruff was of distinguished appearance and manner. He was an excellent public speaker and conversationalist, and he had the gift of binding his associates to him with affectionate regard.

Connections

Woodruff was married at Washington, on December 22, 1886, to Stella M. Caulfield. They had two sons.

Father:

David Stratton Woodruff

Mother:

Mary Jane Remster Woodruff

Wife:

Stella M. Caulfield Woodruff

colleague:

Wesley Merritt