William Whelan

William Whelan (September 1808 – 11 June 1865) was the third Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the United States Department of the Navy.

Biography Whelan was born September 1808, in Philadelphia. Upon his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania in 1828, Dr. Whelan was commissioned a surgeon's mate in the U.S. Navy (25 March 1828). His service included duty in the West Indian Squadron, Naval Hospital, Pensacola, Florida, where he was on duty during the prevalence there of smallpox and yellow fever, at Naval Hospital Chelsea, Massachusetts, and the Navy Yard, Philadelphia. He was promoted passed assistant surgeon in 1834 and was commissioned surgeon on 9 February 1837. and at Memphis, TN, Mound City, IL, and New Bern, NC in the Civil War. The establishment of the Naval Laboratory in Brooklyn, New York. The lab, headed by Surgeon Benjamin F. Bache and Passed Assistant Surgeon Edward R. Squibb, experimented with the production of chloroform and ether anesthesia. Squibb's major contribution was providing the Navy Medical Department with a reliable source of pure pharmaceuticals. In 1857, Dr. Squibb resigned from the Navy and founded the pharmaceutical house that bears his name. Establishment of the first Navy hospital ship, in 1862.