Hermann Michael Biggs (1859-1923) was an American pioneer in the field of public health, concentrating on the application of the science of bacteriology to the prevention and control of contagious diseases.

Hermann Biggs was born on Sept. 29, 1859, in the village of Trumansburgh, N. Y. He attended the Trumansburgh and Ithaca academies and entered Cornell University in 1879. Deciding on a medical career, he left Cornell in 1881 to study at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City. He returned to Cornell, however, to receive his degree in 1882. In 1883 Bellevue awarded him a medical degree. During his internship at Bellevue, Biggs developed an interest in microscopic pathology and the new science of bacteriology. In 1884 he visited Germany, a pioneering center of the germ theory of disease, and in 1885 he visited the laboratories of Louis Pasteur in France. Frequent trips to Europe in later years kept him in constant contact with...