HARRIS, Elisha, physician, born in Westminster, Vermont, 4 March, 1824; died in Albany, New York, 31 January, 1884. He was graduated at the College of physicians and surgeons of New York in 1849, and entered on the practice of his profession in that city. in 1855 he was appointed superintendent and physician-in-chief of the quarantine hospital on Staten Island. and at that time constructed a floating hospital for the lower quarantine station. During the civil war he was instrumental in the organization of the United States sanitary commission in New York city, and was actively concerned in its work. On the organization of the Metropolitan board of health in 1866 he was made registrar of vital statistics, and also corresponding secretary, and in 1868 he was appointed sanitary superintendent of New York city. While holding this office he made a systematic inspection of tenement houses, and so vigorously enforced the law providing for their ventilation and lighting that he secured, among other reforms, the putting in of nearly 40,000 windows and about 2,000 roof-ventilators during the year 1869. He also organized the first free public vaccination service, and the system of house-to-house visitation. In 1873 he was again made registrar of vital statistics, and held that office until the reorganization of this bureau in 1876. When the New York state board of health was created in 1880, Dr. Harris was appointed one of its members, and then became its secretary, which place he continued to hold until his death. The railway ambulance that has been adopted and used by the Prussian army was invented by him. Dr. Harris was connected with many medical and sanitary associations in the United States, was a delegate in 1876 to the International medical congress of the American public health association, and in 1878 was elected president of that association. He was the author of numerous articles on sanitary topics, and edited several valuable reports on these subjects.