(Note: The following is the first of a series of columns looking at the establishment and growth of doctors, hospitals and the health industry in Georgia and Bulloch County.) In the 1700s, doctors needed to earn the respect, instead of suspicion, of the local populations. This was especially true in the Deep South, where "Fevers" ravaged the populations of large cities unchecked. Savannah's Dr. Louis Falligant wrote in 1876 during the yellow fever epidemic about "the heroic work of our medical fraternity … (battling) the destroyer with fortitude … and endurance."