156  United  States  Public  Health  Service.  {Am•A^•1p^Jf^• 
matters  pertaining  to  the  public  health  wherever  made.  In  the  field 
it  is  represented  by  the  Hygienic  Laboratory  with  its  four  divisions, 
the  plague  laboratory  in  San  Francisco,  the  leprosy  investigation 
station  in  Hawaii,  the  pellagra  investigation  station  at  Savannah, 
Ga.,  the  station  at  Wilmington,  N.  C,  for  the  investigation  of  the 
parasites  of  man,  and  by  officers  engaged  in  investigations  of  typhoid 
fever,  Rocky  Mountain  spotted  fever,  poliomyelitis,  etc.,  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  country,  and  sanitary  surveys  of  navigable  waters 
wherever  conducted. 
In  the  Division  of  Marine  Hospitals  and  Relief  are  administered 
all  matters  connected  with  the  care  and  treatment  of  seamen  and 
recruiting  for  the  several  bureaus  of  the  department. 
To-day  the  Public  Health  Service  has  a  corps  of  approximately 
450  medical  officers,  50  pharmacists,  and  a  total  personnel  of 
about  2,000. 
In  the  public  health  law  of  July  1,  1902,  provision  is  made  for 
annual  conferences  between  the  Public  Health  Sendee  and  state 
boards  and  departments  of  health.  Provision  is  also  made  for  special 
conferences  with  all  or  a  part  of  the  state  health  organizations,  and 
upon  the  application  of  not  less  than  five  state  health  authorities,  a 
special  conference  must  be  called.  In  effect,  there  is  thus  provided 
an  advisory  council  on  administrative  matters,  which  in  its  devel- 
opment will  insure  cooperation  and  be  an  arbiter  on  vexed  sanitary 
questions,  and  in  which  each  state  is  entitled  to  representation. 
In  the  same  law  Congress  also  provided  for  an  advisory  board 
for  consultation  relative  to  investigations  to  be  inaugurated  and 
the  methods  of  making  them  in  the  Hygienic  Laboratory.  By  this 
means  the  service  is  brought  in  touch  with  the  great  scientific  labora- 
tories, and  may  avail  itself  of  advice  from  the  highest  sources. 
Congress  has  thus  made  provision  for  councils  in  respect  to  both 
administrative  and  scientific  matters.  Their  utilization  in  the  highest 
degree  is  one  of  the  most  important  means  of  development  of  public- 
health  organization  and  public-health  work. 
The  necessity  for  more  ana1  more  extensive  Federal  supervision 
over  international  traffic  was  made  apparent  by  repeated  epidemics. 
The  first  permanent  quarantine  law,  passed  April  29,  1878,  was  a 
result  of  the  widespread  and  severe  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  during 
the  previous  year.  The  passage  of  the  law  of  February  15,  1893, 
was  intimately  associated  with  the  outbreak  of  cholera  in  Europe  in 
1892,  and  the  quarantine  act  of  June  19,  1906,  followed  the  epidemic 
