Septembek 4, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



291 



briiif^rin^ about the present satisfactory 

 status in San Francisco. The object of 

 that conference was specific, but, as you 

 will note, the law providing for the annual 

 conference gives uo details. We must as- 

 sume, therefore, that the intent of the law 

 is that we shall get together, and we are 

 to decide ourselves as to the matters to be 

 considered. It is evident that the con- 

 ference is advisory in character, without 

 changing in the least the present executive 

 force of this bureau of the Treasury De- 

 partment. 



It seems advisable at the outset, and for 

 a satisfactorj' understanding of one an- 

 other, to give a review of the laws and of 

 the organizations relating to the Public 

 Health and Marine-Hospital Service, and 

 to receive in return an account of the same 

 nature from each state delegate. 



The laws especially relating to the United 

 States Public Health and ilariue-Hospital 

 Service can be found listed in the appendix 

 to the regulations of the service of 1902, 

 and the laws relating to quarantine can be 

 found printed in full in the quarantine 

 regulations of 1903. 



Having thus referred to the laws, I 

 propose now to describe the organization 

 of the Bureau of the Public Health and 

 Marine-Hospital Service. For executive 

 administration, the bureau is divided into 

 six divisions, each presided over by an 

 as.sistant surgeon-general. There is, also, 

 a miscellaneous division, presided over by 

 an a.ssistant surgeon, and the office of the 

 chief clerk. The clerical force numbers 

 about twenty. These divisions are named 

 as follows: 



Division of Marine-Hospitals and Relief. 



Division of Domestic Quarantine. 



Division of Foreign and Insular Quaran- 

 tine and Immigration. 



Division of Sanitary Reports and Sta- 

 tistics. 



Division of Personnel and Accounts. 

 Division of Scientific Research. 

 Miscellaneous Division. 



DIVISION OP MAKIXE-HOSPITALS AND RELIEF. 



To this division are sent all matters re- 

 lating to the marine-hospitals, 22 in num- 

 ber owned by the service, and to the 

 patients, numbering 58,000, treated an- 

 nually in these hospitals and in some 110 

 relief or contract stations. The Purveying 

 Depot, a large building located in New 

 York, is under the direction of this divi- 

 sion, to which are also referred all matters 

 relating to hospital supplies, including 

 subsistence, drugs, hospital furniture, 

 surgical instruments and appliances, plans 

 and specifications for hospital construction, 

 and the conduct of the sanatorium for con- 

 sumptive patients at Fort Stanton, New 

 Mexico, where the service has a sanatory 

 ranch, 56 square miles in area, the build- 

 ings of the fort having been placed in pei-- 

 fect condition, the patients in the sana- 

 torium niunbering about 150. The scheme 

 for this ranch embraces the removal of con- 

 simiptives from our hospitals with a view 

 to their improvement or recovery. Quite 

 a large percentage have recovered, a num- 

 ber leave greatly improved, and all who 

 desire can find employment after leaving 

 in the same high, dry and healthy locality. 

 The hospitals are thus relieved from this 

 contagious disease, and the vessels from 

 which they come are subject to iuspection 

 and disinfection as to their forecastles or 

 other quarters that have been occupied by 

 known consumptive patients. 



DIVISION OF DOMESTIC QUARANTINE. 



To this division are referred all matters 

 relating to the national maritime quaran- 

 tine stations, embracing nineteen complete 

 disinfecting stations and eighteen inspec- 

 tion stations. At the former are hospitals, 

 barracks, disinfecting machinery, steamers 



