BILLINGS, JOHN SHAW (1839-1913), American sur geon and librarian, was born in Switzerland county, Ind., on April 12, 1839. He graduated at Miami university in 1857 and at the Medical College of Ohio in 186o. During the Civil War he served as a surgeon in the field and in hospitals from 1861 to 1864 when he entered the surgeon-general's office in Washington. In this position he had charge of the Army medical museum and library, and developed the latter into one of the largest medical libraries in the world, for which he prepared an unusually valuable index catalogue. In 1896 upon the consolidation of the Astor and Lenox libraries and the Tilden Trust into the New York Public library, he became its first director and displayed marked e:onstructive capacity in this position until his death which occurred in New York city on March 1, 1913. Among his published works are Mortality and Vitality Statistics of the United States (1885); National Medical Dictionary (1889); Some Library Problems of Tomorrow (19o2); and Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem (19o3).