UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE 355 



and the principal means of commerce and communication over a vast 

 territory. Often a flatboat starting from the upper river would lose 

 its entire crew of five or six men by disease before reaching New Or- 

 leans. During the severe cholera epidemic of 1832 and 1834 the lot of 

 the rivermen was especially severe. 



It became necessary for congress to assist the service work by an- 

 nual appropriations. In 1837 the original Marine Hospital was built 

 in New Orleans and provision was made for purchasing sites for hos- 

 pitals in three inland zones. Along the Mississippi River stations were 

 located at Natchez, Miss. ; Napoleon, Ark., and St. Louis, Mo. On the 

 Ohio, the chosen points were Paducah, Louisville and Pittsburgh. The 

 center for the Lake Erie sailors, was at Cleveland. The first Marine 

 Hospital at Chicago dates from 1848 and was built on land adjacent to 

 old Fort Dearborn. The second hospital, the present one, was author- 

 ized in 1864 and opened for patients in 1873. It occupies a beautiful 

 location on the lake shore five miles north of the harbor. 



The first service establishment on the Pacific Coast, at San Fran- 

 cisco in 1851, was on the contract basis. A hospital was erected three 

 years later, a commodious and well-built structure, doomed to serious 

 injury in the severe earthquake of 1868. The contract system with 

 other hospitals was then resumed and continued until the completion 

 of the present building in 1875. During the Civil .War many marine 

 hospitals in both the north and the south were converted into military 

 hospitals. Those at Boston and Norfolk were used in this capacity in 

 the war of 1812. 



In 1870 congress reorganized the service and Dr. John M. Wood- 

 worth, of Illinois, was appointed supervising surgeon. Within the next 

 three years, the service began to attract considerable attention in for- 

 eign countries. London medical journals bestowed lavish praise on this 

 uniquely American institution. At this time service officers were re- 

 quested by the supervising surgeon to inform themselves fully as to 

 local health regulations and to assist, when requested, in their enforce- 

 ment. 



Upon Dr. Woodwortlrs death in 1879 President Hayes appointed 

 Dr. John B. Hamilton to succeed him. The year before Dr. Wood- 

 worth's death marked the occurrence of a terrible epidemic of yellow 

 fever in the Mississippi Valley. With this freshly in mind, congress 

 added quarantine control to the growing functions of the Marine Hos- 

 pital Service, but failed to make any appropriation for its operation. 

 Then a year later, in 1879, a law was passed creating a National Board 

 of Health to exercise quarantine functions for four years. At the end 

 of that period, the law of 1878 was revived, and national quarantine 

 passed permanently into the hands of the Marine Hospital Service. 

 The entire development of the quarantine service took place under the 

 wise guidance of Dr. Hamilton. 



