The New International Encyclopædia/Marine Hospital Service

MARINE HOSPITAL SERVICE. A bureau in the Treasury Department of the United States, charged with the management of marine hospitals and relief stations for the cure of sick and disabled seamen of the American merchant marine. It has also under its supervision the national quarantine stations, the supervision of local quarantines, the investigation and suppression of epidemics and plagues, the collection and dissemination of mortality statistics and sanitary information, the scientific investigation of sanitary problems, and the examination of immigrants under the laws excluding those affected with contagious diseases. At present there are 23 marine hospitals, a sanitarium for consumptive seamen in New Mexico, and 115 relief stations. The Marine Hospital Service of the United States owes its origin to an act of Congress of July 16, 1798. For a long time the service consisted mainly of independent hospitals built as necessity arose and placed under charge of a surgeon appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury. In 1871 the service was reorganized and all the hospitals placed under the charge of a supervising surgeon-general with an office in Washington. In 1902 the staff consisted of a surgeon-general, 29 surgeons, 21 passed assistant surgeons, and 56 assistant surgeons, all commissioned officers, appointed by the President. There were besides 129 acting assistant surgeons appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury. The marine hospitals are located on both the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards, on the Gulf of Mexico, on the Great Lakes, in several of the larger river cities, and in Alaska, while relief stations exist in the new insular possessions. By an act of Congress of July 1, 1902, the official title of the service was changed to the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. Consult the annual reports and public addresses of the Surgeon-General.