health organization, which plan shall be prepared after consultation with the principal sanitary organizations and the sanitarians of the several States of the United States, special attention being given to the subject of quarantine, both maritime and inland, and especially as to regulations which should be established between State or local systems of quarantine and a national quarantine system.

SEC. 4. The sum of fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated to pay the salaries and expenses of said board and to carry out the purposes of this act.

Approved, March 3, 1879.

CHAP. 61.-An act to provide office-rooms for the National Board of Health, and for the publication of its reports and papers, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the National Board of Health is hereby authorized and empowered to procure suitable and sufficient offices in the city of Washington for the transaction of its business, at a rental not to exceed the sum of one thousand eight hundred dollars per annum. And said board is also authorized to pay the sum of two hundred and twenty-five dollars for the rent of building number fourteen hundred and five G street, north west, in the city of Washington, used by the National Board of Health for offices, from the third day of April, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, to the third day of July, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine.

SEC. 2. That the necessary printing of the National Board of Health be done at the Government Printing Office, upon the requisition of the Secretary of the board, in the same manner and subject to the same provisions as other public printing for the several departments of the government: Provided, That the cost of said printing shall not exceed the sum of ten thousand dollars per annum.

SEC. 3. That the National Board of Health is hereby authorized and empowered to have printed and bound ten thousand copies of the report of the Board of Medical Experts created by former act of Congress, which report shall include the report of Doctors Bemiss and Cochran and Engineer Hardee, upon the yellow-fever epidemic of eighteen hundred and seventy-eight; six thousand copies of the same to be furnished the House of Representatives, two thousand copies to the Senate, and the residue to the National Board of Health: Provided, That the cost of publication and binding said report shall not exceed the sum of seven thousand five hundred dollars. And the said board is hereby authorized to pay Doctors Bemiss and Cochran and Engineer Hardee ten dollars per day, for the preparation of their said report, for the period of two months: Provided, That the same shall be completed and submitted to the board within that time.

SEC. 4. That the National Board of Health is hereby authorized and directed to pay to Frank J. Taylor, for services as stenographer to the Board of Medical Experts in reporting evidence of medical men and others touching the causes, introduction, and spread of epidemic diseases within the United States, and for preparing the same for publication, the sum of five hundred and forty dollars, said sum being the amount allowed him by the Committee on Epidemic Diseases.

SEC. 5. That the chief clerk of the National Board of Health shall act as disbursing agent for the board, and shall give bond, conformably to H. Mis. 391-11

section one hundred and seventy six of the Revised Statutes, for the faithful performance of that duty, and for such service he shall receive three hundred dollars per annum, in addition to his salary as chief clerk, and the Board of Health may, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, pay to his secretary such sum, in addition to his pay as a member of the board, as it may deem proper, not exceeding one hundred dollars per month.

SEC. 6. That section three of the act approved June second, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, entitled "An act to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases within the United States", be amended as follows: At the end thereof insert: "And the Board of Health shall have power, when they may deem it necessary with the consent and approval of the Secretary of the Treasury as a means of preventing the importation of contagious or infectious diseases intothe United States, or into one State from another, to erect temporary quarantine buildings and to acquire on behalf of the United States titles to real estate for that purpose, or to rent houses, if there be any suitable, at such points and places as are named in such section".

SEC. 7. That all the money hereinbefore authorized to be expended and all contracts made and liabilities incurred by the National Board of Health shall be paid out of the appropriation of five hundred thousand dollars made in the act of Congress entitled "An act to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases into the United States", approved June second, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine. Approved, July 1, 1879.

2.-QUARANTINE.

CHAP. 11.-An act to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases into the United States.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be unlawful for any merchant ship or vessel from any foreign port where any contagious or infectious disease exists, to enter any port of the United States except in accordance with the provisions of this act, and all rules and regula tions of State boards of health and all rules and regulations made in pursuance of this act; and any such vessel which shall enter, or attempt to enter, a port of the United States, in violation thereof, shall forfeit to the United States a sum, to be awarded in the discretion of the court. not exceeding one thousand dollars, which shall be a lien upon said vessel, to be recovered by proceedings in the proper district courts of the United States. And in all such proceedings the United States district attorney for such district shall appear on behalf of the United States, and all such proceedings shall be conducted in accordance with the rules and laws governing cases of seizure of vessels for violation of the revenue laws of the United States.

SEC. 2. All such vessels shall be required to obtain from the consul. vice-consul, or other consular officer of the United States at the port of departure, or from the medical officer, where such officer has been detailed by the President for that purpose, a certificate in duplicate setting forth the sanitary history of said vessel, and that it has in all respects complied with the rules and regulations in such cases prescribed for securing the best sanitary condition of the said vessel, its cargo, passengers, and crew;

and said consular or medical officer is required, before granting such certificate, to be satisfied the matters and things therein stated are true; and for his services in that behalf he shall be entitled to demand and receive such fees as shall by lawful regulation be allowed, to be accounted for as is required in other cases.

That upon the request of the National Board of Health the President is authorized to detail a medical officer to serve in the office of the consul at any foreign port for the purpose of making the inspection and giving the certificates herein before mentioned: Provided, That the number of officers so detailed shall not exceed at any one time six: Provided further, That any vessel sailing from any such port without such certificate of said medical officer, entering any port of the United States, shall forfeit to the United States the sum of five hundred dollars, which shall be a lien on the same to be recovered by proceedings in the proper district court of the United States. And in all such proceedings the United States district attorney for such district shall appear on behalf of the United States, and all such proceedings shall be conducted in accordance with the rules and laws governing cases of seizure of vessels for violation of the revenue laws of the United States.

SEC. 3. That the National Board of Health shall co operate with and, so far as it lawfully may, aid State and municipal boards of health in the execution and enforcement of the rules and regulations of such boards to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases into the United States from foreign countries, and into one State from another; and at such ports and places within the United States as have no quarantine regulations under State authority where such regulations are, in the opinion of the National Board of Health, necessary to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases into the United States from foreign countries, or into one State from another; and at such ports and places within the United States where quarantine regulations exist under the authority of the State, which, in the opinion of the National Board of Health, are not sufficient to prevent the introduction of such diseases into the United States, or into one State from another, the National Board of Health shall report the facts to the President of the United States, who shall, if. in his judgment, it is necessary and proper, order said Board of Health to make such additional rules and regulations as are necessary to prevent the introduction of such diseases into the United States from foreign countries, or into one State from another, which, when so made and approved by the President, shall be promulgated by the National Board of Health and enforced by the sanitary authorities of the States, where the State authorities will undertake to execute and enforce them; but if the State authorities shall fail or refuse to enforce said rules and regulations the President may detail an officer or appoint a proper person for that purpose.

The Board of Health shall make such rules and regulations as are authorized by the laws of the United States and necessary to be observed by vessels at the port of departure and on the voyage where such vessels sail from any foreign port or place at which contagious or infectious disease exists, to any port or place in the United States, to secure the best sanitary condition of such vessel, her cargo, passengers, and crew, and when said rules and regulations have been approved by the Presi dent they shall be published and communicated to, and enforced by,the consular officers of the United States: Provided, That none of the penalties herein imposed shall attach to any vessel or any owner or officer thereof, till the act and the rules and regulations made in pursuance

thereof shall have been officially promulgated for at least ten days in the port from which said vessel sailed.

SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the National Board of Health to obtain information of the sanitary condition of foreign ports and places from which contagious and infectious diseases are or may be imported into the United States, and to this end the consular officers of the United States at such ports and places as shall be designated by the National Board of Health shall make to said Board of Health weekly reports of the sanitary condition of the ports and places at which they are respectively stationed, according to such forms as said Board of Health shall prescribe; and the Board of Health shall also obtain, through all sources accessible, including State and municipal sanitary authorities throughout the United States, weekly reports of the sanitary condition of ports and places within the United States; and shall prepare, publish, and transmit to the medical officers of the Marine Hospital Service, to collectors of customs, and to State and municipal health officers and au thorities, weekly abstracts of the consular sanitary reports and other pertinent information received by said board; and shall also, as far as it may be able, by means of the voluntary co-operation of State and municipal authorities, of public associations and private persons, procure information relating to the climatic and other conditions affecting the public health; and shall make to the Secretary of the Treasury an aunual report of its operations, for transmission to Congress, with such recommendations as it may deem important to the public interests; and said report, if ordered to be printed by Congress, shall be done under the direction of the board.

SEC. 5. That the National Board of Health shall from time to time issue to the consular officers of the United States and to the medical officers serving at any foreign port, and otherwise make publicly known, the rules and regulations made by it and approved by the President, to be used and complied with by vessels in foreign ports for securing the best sanitary condition of such vessels, their cargoes, passengers, and crews, before their departure for any port in the United States, and in the course of the voyage; and all such other rules and regulations as shall be observed in the inspection of the same on the arrival thereof at any quarantine station at the port of destination, and for the disinfec tion and isolation of the same, and the treatment of cargo and persons on board, so as to prevent the introduction of cholera, yellow fever, or other contagious or infectious diseases; and it shall not be lawful for any vessel to enter said port to discharge its cargo or land its passengers except upon a certificate of the health officer at such quarantine station, certifying that said rules and regulations have in all respects been observed and complied with, as well on his part as on the part of the said vessel and its master, in respect to the same and to its cargo. passengers and crew; and the master of every such vessel shall pro duce and deliver to the collector of customs at said port of entry, to gether with the other papers of the vessel, the said certificates required to be obtained at the port of departure, and the certificate herein required to be obtained from the health officer at the port of entry.

SEC. 6. That to pay the necessary expenses of placing vessels in proper sanitary condition, to be incurred under the provisions of this act, the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he hereby is, authorized and required to make the necessary rules and regulations fixing the amount of fees to be paid by vessels for such service, and the manner of collecting the

same.

SEC. 7. That the President is authorized, when requested by the National Board of Health, and when the same can be done without prejudice to the public service, to detail officers from the several departments of the government, for temporary duty, to act under the direction of said board, to carry out the provisions of this act; and such officers shall receive no additional compensation except for actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of such duties.

SEC. 8. That to meet the expenses to be incurred in carrying out the provisions of this act, the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, to be disbursed under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury on estimates to be made by the National Board of Health, and to be approved by him. Said National Board of Health shall as often as quarterly make a full statement of its operations and expenditures. under this act to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall report the same to Congress.

SEC. 9. That so much of the act entitled "An act to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases into the United States", approved April twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, as requires consular officers or other representatives of the United States at foreign ports to report the sanitary condition of and the departure of vessels from such ports to the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine Hospital Service; and so much of said act as requires the Surgeon-General of the Marine Hospital Service to frame rules and regulations, and to execute said act, and to give notice to Federal and State officers of the approach of infected vessels, and furnish said officers with weekly abstracts of consular sanitary reports, and all other acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

SEC. 10. This act shall not continue in force for a longer period than four years from the date of its approval.

Approved, June 2, 1879.

3.-HOSPITALS, &c.*

(Revised Statutes, Title XIX, chap. 1.)

SEC. 4801. The President is authorized to receive donations of rea or personal property, in the name of the United States, for the erection or support of hospitals for sick and disabled seamen.

SEC. 4802. The Secretary of the Treasury shall, from time to time, appoint a surgeon to act as supervising surgeon of marine-hospital service, who shall, under the direction of the Secretary, supervise all matters connected with the marine-hospital service, and with the disbursement of the fund for the relief of sick and disabled seamen. He shall be entitled to a salary of not more than two thousand dollars a year, and to his necessary traveling expenses. And he shall make monthly reports to the Secretary of the Treasury.

*See secs. 3689, 3692, 4545, 4585–4587, and 4610.

The term seamen within the meaning of the Act of March 3, 1875, providing for the assessment of hospital tax includes captains, supercargos, medical officers, pursers, clerks, mates, pilots, engineers, quartermasters, gunners, boatswains, sailmakers, carpenters, watchmen, firemen, coal-heavers or stokers, oilers, water-tenders, stewards, cooks, bakers, butchers, pantrymen, boys, storekeepers, deck-hands, second-class deck-hands or roustabouts. lightermen, and all persons employed on board. (Treasury Decision, 2167.)