YELLOW FEVER PROPHYLAXIS IN NEW ORLEANS 35 



III— The Public Health and Marine Hospital Service 



Organisation. 



On August the 4th, at a meeting at which the Mayor, the Presi- 

 dent of the Orleans Parish Medical Society, and the representatives 

 of all commercial bodies in the City were present, it was decided to 

 ask the United States Government to take control of the Yellow 

 Fever situation. Accordingly messages were immediately trans- 

 mitted by the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans, 

 to the President of the United States, asking the Federal Government 

 to assume control of the health situation and pledging the hearty 

 co-operation of the State and City Government, the State and City 

 Health Boards, the Parish Medical Society, and of the merchants and 

 people generally. The request was gladly complied with and Dr. 

 White, who represented the Public Health and Marine Hospital 

 Service, and who had, from the commencement of the outbreak, been 

 watching and co-operating with the local organisations on behalf of the 

 Federal Government, took complete charge from August 7th, and in the 

 course of a few days, having collected a staff of twenty trained Marine 

 Hospital Service Surgeons, promptly set to work to strengthen 

 the organisations and increase the stringency of the Anti- Yellow 

 Fever measures. 



Functions of the United States Public Health and Marine 

 Hospital Service. 

 In view of the great services which this body rendered the cause 

 of public health in 1905, a few remarks upon its history and function 

 are not without interest at this stage. The Service was constituted 

 in 1798 for the purpose of the care of disabled sailors at ports in the 

 United States. In 1875 under the able guidance of Surgeon- 

 General Woodworth, the Marine Hospital Service expanded its 

 functions and took an active share in quarantine and local health 

 administration. Shortly afterwards the Service became the authority 

 upon quarantine administration, and the services which it rendered 

 to commerce on account of its wise reforms began to be widely 

 appreciated. In 1878 it organised the first medical expedition to 

 gather information upon Yellow Fever, and thus set an example 

 which, has been a feature of this useful service. In the same year 

 national quarantine was established, and the Marine Hospital Service 



D 



