Dr. Salmon was born in Troy, New York, and received his M.D. (1899) from Albany Medical College. In 1903, Dr. Salmon joined the U.S. Public Health Service and studied mental illness in immigrants. In 1915, Dr. Salmon became Medical Director for the National Committee on Hygiene. From 1915–22, he surveyed mental institutions in over 30 states, advocating for improved care for the insane. He was on staff at the Rockefeller Foundation (1915–21).
In 1917, Dr. Salmon went to England to study how war casualties were managed, and after the war, he became active in advocating for the federal care and rehabilitation of veterans who had serious mental conditions. In early 1917, Dr. Salmon, along with Dr. Pearce Bailey, a New York neurologist who later worked in the Army Surgeon General’s office, and Dr. Stewart Paton of Princeton, N.J., headed the preparation of a neuropsychiatric service plan for the Army. When the United States entered the war, Dr. Salmon was named senior psychiatrist for the Army overseas.
During WWI, Dr. Salmon served as Chief Consultant in Psychiatry to the U.S. Army in Europe and as a Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. After the war ended in 1918, Dr. Salmon returned to the United States with much concern for the continued care of veterans with psychiatric conditions. In 1919, the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service invited Dr. Salmon and four other outstanding neuropsychiatrists to develop a plan for hospitalized veterans who were diagnosed as mental and neurosis cases. The final report recommended special veterans hospitals.
Dr. Salmon contributed to the psychiatric literature based on his research and experiences and left his imprint on the practice of military psychiatry. His memory lives on through the annual Salmon Lecture and Medal sponsored by the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Salmon died in a sailing accident in 1927.
Dr. Salmon was President of the American Psychiatric Association (1923–24).