to the Commissioner of Public Health and indorsed "Official Business, Department of Public Health," or mailed by said department, shall be transported free of postage; and if any person shall make use of such indorsement to avoid the payment of postage in his private letter, package or other matter in the mail, the person so offending shall, upon conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and be subject to the penalty prescribed by the existing law.

SEC. 26. That the Commissioner of Public Health is authorized to appoint for duty not to exceed six sanitary inspectors, at a salary not to exceed $1,800 per annum each, and their necessary actual traveling expenses; at least two of these inspectors shall be experts in quarantine matters, two shall be skilled bacteriologists, and one shall be an expert statistician. The Commissioner of Public Health is authorized to employ one chief clerk at a salary of $1,800; one clerk of class three at $1,400; and one clerk of class two at $1,400; and four clerks at $1,000 each, one messenger at $800, one stenographer at $800, one watchman at $600 per annum,

SEC. 27. That any officer, or person acting as an officer, or agent at any quarantine station, or other person employed to aid in preventing the spread of disease, who shall wilfully violate any quarantine laws of the United Staets, any of the provisions of this act, or any of the rules and regulations made and promulgated as provided for in this act, or any other act of the Congress of the United States providing for and regulating quarantine against disease, or to aid and prevent the spread of any disease within the United States, or any lawful order of his superior officer, or officers, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than $500, or imprisonment for not more than one year or both, in the discretion of the court.

SEC. 28. That when any common carrier or officer, agent, or employe of any common carrier shall wilfully violate any of the quarantine laws of the United States, or the rules and regulations made and promulgated as provided for in this act, or any other act of the Congress of the United States regulating and maintaining a quarantine against disease, and to prevent the spread of disease within the United States, such common carrier, officer, agent, or employe shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall upon conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not more than $500 or imprisonment for not more than two years, or both, in the discretion of the court.

SEC. 29. That any person who shall wilfully violate any rule or regulation made and promulgated by authority of this act, or any other act of the Congress of the United States, providing for a quarantine against disease, and to prevent the spread of any disease within the United States, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than $500 or imprisonment for not more than two years, or both, in the discretion of the court.

SEC. 30. All convictions for the violation of any of the provisions of this act, or any other act of the Congress of the United States, providing for a quarantine against disease, and to prevent the spread of any disease within the United States, shall be tried in the district wherein the offense was committed, and it shall be the duty of the United States District Attorney for such district to appear on behalf of the United Staets, and all trials and proceedings shall be conducted in accordance with the rules and laws governing criminal cases triable in the United States courts.

SEC. 31. That all rules made and promulgated, adopted and published pursuant to the provision of an act entitled "An act granting additional quarantine powers and imposing additional duties upon the Marine Hospital Service," approved Feb. 15, 1893, shall remain in force until the same are annulled, changed, or modified, as provided for by this act, and other acts of Congress providing for quarantine against diseases, and the spread of any disease within the United States.

SEC. 32. That all rules and regulations made and promulgated to enforce the provisions of this act, or any other act of the Congress estimates of the expense necessary to maintain properly ease, and to prevent the spread of any disease within the United States, shall be approved by the President of the United States, and when approved by him shall have all the force and effect of law.

SEC. 33. That the Commission of Public Health shall annually submit to the Secretary of the Treasury, for transmission to Congress, estimates of the expense necessary to maintain properly the Department of Public Health for the ensuing year. That there shall be, and hereby is, appropriated out of the moneys in the Treasury and not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $75,000 for the purpose of this act. The sum of $1,000,000 already appropriated and known as an emergency fund to be expended by the President of the United States or the balance thereof not already

expended, shall be a fund and held and expended at the discretion of the President of the United States in the execution of the provisions of this act.

SEC. 34. Sec. 1, Chapter 19, Supplement to the Revised Statutes, Vol. 1, second edition, revised and continued (page 637) is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

Sec. 1. Be it enacted, etc., That medical officers of the Marine Hospital Service of the United States shall hereafter be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and no person shall be so appointed until after passing a satisfactory examination in the several branches of medicine, surgery and hygiene before a board of medical officers of said service. Said examination shall be conducted according to rules prepared by the Commissioner of Public Health, and approved by the advisory council and the President.

SEC. 35. Sec. 4,796 and 4,082, Revised Statutes of 1878, Chapter 66, laws of 1878, Supplement to Revised Statutes, Vol. 1, second edition, revised and continued: "An act to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases into the United States."

Paragraph 9, chapter 130, laws of 1875, same supplement: "An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year and for other purposes."

Sec. 7, chapter 156, laws of 1875, same supplement: "An act to promote economy and efficiency in the Marine Hospital Service." Chapter 51, laws of 1890, same supplement: "An act to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases from one State to another, and for the punishment of certain offenses."

Paragraph 5, chapter 195, passed July 16, 1892.

Paragraph 3, chapter 211, passed March 3, 1893.
Paragraph 6, chapter 174, passed July 31, 1894.

Chapter 300: An act amendatory to the aforesaid, passed Aug. 18, 1894.

Paragraph 9, chapter 177, passed March 2, 1895.

Chapter 114, Supplement of the Revised Statutes, Vol. 2, laws of 1893: "An act granting additional quarantine powers and imposing additional duties upon the Marine Hospital Service,” and all other acts, or parts of acts, inconsistent herewith, or repugnant to the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed.

SEC. 36. This act shall take effect and be in force sixty days after its passage, within which time the Commissioner of Public Health and Assistant Commissioner of Public Health may be appointed. -Journal of the American Medical Association.

THE SHIP ISLAND QUARANTINE.

From the "Times-Democrat," Nov. 7, 1897.

So much has been printed from various sources about the National quarantine station at Ship Island in connection with the present epidemic of yellow fever on the Gulf coast that I believe the public will be interested in a statement from the officer in charge of the station. I have refrained from appearing in the matter to any extent until very recently, partly because I hoped an honest investigation of the subject would be made by some of the many local people who are interested in the health of the coast, and partly because I have been waiting to see some definite charge tending to connect the epidemic directly with this station. There is no one in the United States more interested than I am in tracing the epidemic to its source, but I do protest against the many vague and extravagant charges which have been made by newspapers and individuals who have no knowledge of the facts and no evidence to support their outrageous statements, and particularly I wish to call the attention of both public and health officers to the fact that nothing is gained, but all lost, by accepting a false theory of the origin of the fever and failing to find the real source of danger. It is of the utmost importance not to lose the true scent altogether by stopping to bark; and little or nothing has been done so far except to bark at Ship Island, with an occasional yelp at Mobile.

At the very beginning of the present excitement the Secretary of the Mississippi State Board of Health came out in an interview, which was given to the newspapers generally, in which he expressed the opinion that the epidemic would be traced to Ship Island, but said that there was no present proof. I have seen nothing from Dr. Hunter on the subject since, and believe he has never discovered the evidence he sought. Indeed, he acknowledged that the quarantine was well isolated, claiming the credit, however, for the State Board of Health.

The Times-Democrat took up this interview in a leading article and added an array of extraordinary charges, which I take occasion here to pronounce absolutely baseless, severally and in full. It is not necessary to take up these charges individually. The TimesDemocrat gave no source of information, nor evidence, nor spe

cific instances which could be traced up. It has not since published any evidence in support of its charges.

The latest and most conspicuous attacks on the station have come from Dr. C. P. Wilkinson, resident physician of the Mississippi River Quarantine Station, and Dr. John B. Hamilton, of Chicago. Both are alike remarkable for their lack of correct information of the actual situation at Ship Island, and for the lack of any effort to obtain information.

Dr. Wilkinson's article is an attempt to establish, by a process of inductive reasoning a question of present fact which he knows nothing of directly and does not even pretend to know. He begins by telling how yellow fever slipped into Fort Barrancas, Fla., one year. Good. Let him be careful it does not escape past his own quarantine some time. The president of a local Board of Health not far away thinks he can prove it did so this year.

He says yellow fever was undeniably traced from Ship Island to Biloxi in 1886. I dispute this absolutely. There was an active and bitter discussion as to the character of the fever that year, but no evidence was ever brought forward to connect it, whatever it vas, with Ship Island. All the evidence which I have heard or seen tended to show that the first cases occurred in some oyster openers who had just arrived from some place, I think, in Louisiana.

Dr. Wilkinson then proceeds with some historical matters which have since been very much lighted up by a letter from Surgeon H. R. Carter in The Times-Democrat of Oct. 26. He touches upon the great storm of 1893, and compares the Chandeleur Quarantine Station, built on a heap of sand in the open Gulf, with the Mississippi River Station, situated many miles up the river. Finally he arrives at the abrupt statement, "From Ship Island Quarantine Station has come to the Southern country this visitation of yellow iever."

How does he attempt to establish this?

Argument 1. Dr. John Guiteras has said that the present yellow fever invasion came from Cuba. Several vessels have come from Ergo: yellow fever reached the

Cuba to Ship Island this season.

coast from Cuba through Ship Island.

But did no vessels reach New Orleans from Cuba this year; and does not the ergo apply there as well? Does Dr. Wilkinson mean to say that the ten vessels cited by him are the only ones from Cuba to the Gulf coast this season, and that none came through any port except Ship Island?