UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE 357 



was founded just twenty-five years ago as a laboratory of pathology and 

 bacteriology in the old marine hospital at Stapleton, Staten Island. At 

 first all of the work was done by one officer in the intervals of his at- 

 tendance in the hospital wards. After four years the work was trans- 

 ferred to Washington, where it has been ever since, and until 1894 was 

 housed on one floor of the service office building. About this time the 

 advantages began to be realized of using this laboratory as a training 

 school for officers, supplemented with details abroad affording oppor- 

 tunity for visiting the great centers of London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna 

 and other cities. 



Among the earlier subjects taken under consideration were disin- 

 fecting methods as applied to quarantine and epidemic practise. Tbese 

 investigations resulted in the elaboration of a system of disinfecting 

 apparatus, together with disinfecting agents and a method for their 

 application, which now stands unrivaled. This laboratory was prob- 

 ably the first to recommend formaldehyde in place of the older disin- 

 fectants, steam, carbolic acid and sulphur dioxide. The first authorita- 

 tive publication on the use of diphtheria antitoxin was issued by the 

 Marine Hospital Service, and the first diphtheria antitoxin made in the 

 United States was produced in the Hygienic Laboratory. Both resulted 

 from personal instruction received by an officer from Behring and Eoux, 

 who had separately announced their discovery at a meeting of the Inter- 

 national Congress of Medicine at Budapesth. 



In March, 1901, congress appropriated $35,000 for the necessary 

 buildings, and directed the cession of five acres of land from the old 

 naval observatory site by the secretary of the navy for the use of the 

 Hygienic Laboratory. After the legislation of July, 1902, which in- 

 creased the functions of the Marine Hospital Service and changed its 

 name to the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, the scope, or- 



Chicago Marine Hospital. 



