Victor Vaughan (1851-1929) and the birth of bacteriology in the United States.

Victor Vaughan is well known for his numerous accomplishments and services to science, medicine, and public health. This paper discusses one of Dr Vaughan's earliest and most significant accomplishments: founding the Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Michigan in 1887, the first in the United States. The vision, initiative and planning demonstrated by this episode illustrate the characteristics that enabled Vaughan to have such an accomplished and storied career.