43G 



SANITARY SCIENCE. 



(2) Tlmt disease-germs wi>rr degraded ]i:irls of On March 3,1870, after much public discussion 

 animal tissue which divided and subdivided "a- kod oaUid pTMMm, OoagraM created a National 

 live matter alone divide.-*. '' ('!) The physico-chemi- Hoard ol'Ilenllh. The Hoard was composed <>| -, \, n 

 o:il theory. He explained these different theories iiieinl>ers appointed by the President, and < onlirmed 

 ill length* and stated that attention was first called hy the Senate, and one medical ollicer each of the 

 to the' chol,ra-fungus v in 1*1'.'; that Hallier and Army, Navy, and Marine Hospital Service, and one 

 others described tile "cholera micrococcus," in ollicer from tin- Department of Justice. As dclim-d 

 1807, as a granular mass which underwent a variety by the law its duties ".shall In- to obtain information 

 of changes in form, but that no agreement had been upon all mailers allecting the public health, to ad- 

 d bv investigators as to the specilie form, and vise the several department! of the government, the 

 that experiments made by himself in 187:1 failed to executives of the several Stales, ami the commis- 

 tinil microscopic changes in molecular matter. He sionors of the District of Columbia on all questions 

 then submitted the following "conclusions:" submitted by them or whenever, in the opinion of 



the Board, such advice may tend to the preservation 

 and improvement of the public health." It also 

 directed that the Board, with the assistance of the 

 Academy of Science, shall prepare a plan for a 

 national public health organisation after consnlta- 



llowmg 



I. As far u Inquiry has been made as to tlie nature of the 

 ctive principle In infective diseases It Is probable that In a 

 certain number the matter is partlculate or molecular In 

 form. 



II. That In regard to the onuses of septlcxmla, prirmla 



puerperal fever, erysipelas, and hospital pauprene, and those tion with the principal sanitary organizations and 



of cholera, vaccine diseases, the carbuncular diseases of sanitarians of the several States! special attention to 



men and animals, typhoid and relapsing fevers and diph- u . jv( . n ll(( | u . su | lj( . ( ., O f quarantine, both maritime 



^S^S^Sf^S^^^^SS. arC '"< "'}!'. <>'' - "> the%jntaUon. which shonld 



111 That the real nature of these ue8 is gtlll uncertain. 1 e established between State or local systems ol 



quarantine and a national quarantine svstem, and 



Dr. John L. Alice, in a report on the cholera appropriated 850.000 to carry out the purposes of 



epidemic of 1854, made the following year to the the act. An additional act was passed and approved 



sanitary committee of Lancaster County. 1'a., states June 2, 18TH. temporarily suspending the act of 



that microscopical examinations of the rice-water April 29, ls~S, and enlarging the duties of the 



discharges from both the stomach and bowels dis- National Board of Health to cover the provisions 



closed infinite Ixxlii.t (littering in appearance from of that act. The Board having organized, at once 



epithelial cells, and from known physiological and commenced investigations into the causes of dis- 



pathological, hisloncuic, and phytogenic elements, ease, into the sanitary condition of cities, etc., pre- 



( Transactions of the Medical Society of the tiliitc of pared rules and regulations to be observed in case 



Pennsylvania, 1855, vol. v. p. 108.) He is re- of epidemics, established refuge stations at the fol- 



ported to have lately said ( IHSrt) Ihat these " minute lowing points : Ship Island, (Julf of Mexico. Sapelo 



bodies" are identical with the now well-known Sound, (Ja., Norfolk, Va.; appointed a eommissiuii 



comma-bacilli of Koch, but that he does not believe | to visit Havana, and investigate yellow lever in 



they are the cause of cholera, and "so far, no eon- Culm ; secured the presence of an International 



vineing proof of the germ theory of disease, as ap- Sanitary Conference in Washington in 1SS1, and 



plied to liring tissues and lirinij pMMMMMI has been 

 produced. " (Annul* of //-/;/ ne, Aug. 1888, p. 310.) 

 The progress of sanitary science in the United 

 was again stimulated and advanced as a re- 

 sult of the ravages of yellow fever in Memphis, 



stimulated the formation of State Boards of Health. 

 It employed sanitarians and experts in various in- 

 vestigations, and made many valuable contributions 

 to sanitary science. (See Jfi/^irt.t yntional Board 

 ,./ 11,'ilth, Vols. I.-V., 1879-a'!.) The law creating 



Teun., in 1*7* T'.i. Many bills were introduced in the Board is still on the statute book, but the act of 



Congress at that time with a view to preventing June 2, 187U. having expired hy limitation in 1884, 



future epidemics by national sanitary legislation, and no appropriation having" been made for its 



and on April 29, 187S, ' An Act to prevent the in- maintenance, it is now a board only in name. By 



trodiictioii of contagious or infectious diseases in the expiration of said law, that of 'April -Jii. ]sT>, 



the United Slat' DM a law. It provided that was revived, and is now in active operation, having 



no vessel coming from a foreign port where con- 

 tagious or infectious disease may exist, or carrying 

 persons, merchandise, or animals affected with such 

 disease, shall enter any port of the United States, 

 contrary to the quarantine of such State, except in 

 the manner to l>c prescribed by regulations; re- 

 quired consular officers or other a 'jen I- of the govern- 

 ment to immediately notify the surgeon-general of 

 the Marine Hospital Service of the departure of such 

 vessel from an infected |W>rt,and also notify the health 

 officer at port of destination ; required consular 

 officers to make weekly reports of the sanitary con- 

 dition of their respective ports. Rules and regula- 

 tions were to be framed by the surgeon-general, 

 and when approved by the 1'rrsidciil. medical 

 ollicer* of the Marine Hospital Service and custom 

 ollicers were directed to aid in enforcing the same. 

 Weekly almtm.'ts were to be made by the surgeon- 

 peni-ral f consular sanitary reports and other per- 

 tinent information received by him. It provided 

 further, that officers or agents of Stale or municipal 

 quarantine systems, on application, may be author- 

 ized to act as officers or agents of the national 

 quarantine system. No appropriation was made by 



operation, having 



been recently perfected (Aug. 1, IsSS) by addi- 

 tional legislation establishing national quarantine 

 stations at the following points : Chandclcnr Island, 

 (iulf of Mexico, near Key West, coast of (leorgia, 

 entrance Chesapeake Bay, mouth Delaware Bay, 

 San Diego. Cal., San Francisco, Port Townsend, 

 Oregon. It is made a misdemeanor punishable by 

 line or imprisonment, or both for the master, pilot, 

 or owner of any vessel entering a port of the United 

 States in violation of the act or regulations framed 

 under it. 



This chronological history of the progress in sani- 

 tary science in the United' Slates has been neces- 

 sarily very brief, and it will be observed that 

 "quarantine" (which as now conducted is a sani- 

 tary institution) has been included. At the present 

 time, and for ten years past, the "germ theory of 

 disease" has commanded much scientific attention, 

 and given to the subject of sanitary science an ex- 

 hanstless field for research and speculation. (S>c 

 1!\( MI:I\ and CIKM Tn i:<u; Y.) It may here be 

 stated that the theory is that a living germ, micro- 

 scopical in size and of almost infinite self-multipli- 

 cation, invades the human organism and hy its pres- 



Conuress to carry out the provisions of the law, jenee gives ri-e to pathological changes, resulting in 

 though a Public Jlrnlth llnllitin containing a weekly dillerent manifestations of disease depending on the 

 t of consular reports was published by the species that is migrating to the alimentary canal 

 Marine Hospital Service in accordance therewith. , (especially the intestines) in cholera, to the lungs in 



