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The Board of Health, with the assistance of the Academy of Science (which must co-operate with them for that purpose), must report to Congress a full statement of its transactions, together with a plan for a National public health organization, which plan must 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

UNITED STATES NATIONAL BOARD OF the subject of quarantine, both maritime

HEALTH.

and inland, and especially as to regulations which shall be established between

State or local systems of quarantine and a National quarantine system.

The sum of $50,000 was appropriated to pay the salaries and expenses of said Board and to carry out the purposes of the act.

The act of Congress of March 3, 1879, established a National Board of Health, to consist of seven members, to be appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, not more than one of who can be appointed from any one The act of Congress of June 2, 1879, State, with a compensation, during the provides that the National Board of time when actually engaged in the perHealth must co-operate with and, so far formance of their duties, of $10 per diem as it lawfully may, aid State and munieach, and reasonable expenses, and of one cipal boards of health in the execution medical officer of the army, one medical and enforcement of the rules and regulaofficer of the navy, one medical officer of tions of such boards to prevent the introthe United States Marine Hospital Ser-duction of contagious or infectious disvice, and one officer from the Department of Justice, to be detailed by the Seoretaries of the several Departments, and the Attorney-General, respectively; and the officers so detailed receive no additional compensation.

MEETINGS.

Said Board must meet in Washington or elsewhere, from time to time, upon notice from the President of the Board, who is chosen by the members thereof, or upon its own adjournments, and must frame all rules and regulations authorized or required by the authorizing act, and make or cause to be made such special examinations and investigations at any place or places within the United States, or at foreign ports, as they may deem best, to aid in the execution of the act referred to, and the promotion of its objects.

The National Board of Health must obtain information upon all matters affecting the public health; advise the several Departments of the Government, the Executives of the several States, and the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, on all questions submitted by them, or whenever, in the opinion of the Board, such advice may tend to the preservation and improvement of the public health.

eases 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 Board, 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 said Board, 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 must report the facts to the President of the United States, who must, if in his judgment it is necessary and proper, order said Board 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 regulations, when so made and approved by the President, must 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 must 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 diseases exist 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 President, they must be published, and communicated to and enforced by the consular officers of the United States:

Provided, That none of the penalties imposed by law 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.

and said report, if ordered to be printed by Congress, is to be done under the direction of the Board.

The National Board of Health must, 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 disinfection 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.

It is the duty of the State and local It is the duty of the National Board health authorities to take the initiative of Health to obtain information of the in adopting rules and regulations for presanitary condition of foreign ports and venting the spread of contagious diseases. places from which contagious and infec- The National Board of Health has made tious diseases are or may be imported certain recommendations for such rules, into the United States, and to this end which it has printed, and which indicate the consular officers of the United States the minimum amount of precaution to be at such ports and places as shall be des- taken. A State or local authority may ignated by the Board, are required to make more stringent rules than those make to said Board weekly reports of the recommended; and if they are too strinsanitary condition of the ports and places gent, even to absolute non-intercourse, at which they are respectively stationed. the National Board of Health has no The Board of Health must also obtain, power to interfere. It is only when a through all sources accessible, including State or local authority refuses to take State and municipal sanitary authorities even the precaution considered indispenthroughout the United States, weekly re- sable by the National Board of Health ports of the sanitary condition of ports that it can take action legally in the matand places within the United States; and ter. The Board is not expected to do all prepare, publish, and transmit to the the work of prevention, nor to pay for medical officers of the Marine Hospital doing of such work. The State and local Service, to Collectors of Customs, and to boards have to do first all in their respectState and municipal health officers and ive powers, and then the National Board authorities, weekly abstracts of the con- of Health will come in to supplement sular sanitary reports and other pertinent their efforts to aid and co-operate in the information received by said Board; and terms of the law. And it is therefore the must also, as far as it may be able, by duty of State and local authorities to means of the voluntary co-operation of keep the National Board of Health fully State and municipal authorities, of pub-informed on the following points: lic associations and private persons, procure information relating to the climatic and other conditions affecting the public health; and must make to the Secretary of the Treasury an annual report of its operations for transmission to Congress, with such recommendations as it may deem important to the public interests;

1. As to what rules and regulations they have adopted;

2. As to how far they can carry out the rules and regulations; and

3. As to what aid they think it is necessary that the National Board shall furnish in order that proper rules and regulations may be enforced; and with regard

to this request for aid details must be given.

The National Board of Health cannot place money in the hands of a local board to be expended at the discretion of the latter. It must be known what the money is to be used for, whether it is for the hire of inspectors or police, for the purchase of disinfectants, for the erection of sheds, for the purpose of establishing local quarantine, etc.

The Board must use all its power to prevent the spread of yellow fever by aiding State and municipal boards of health in their efforts to discover the first cases, to isolate them, and thus stamp out the disease, as well as carry out the usual systems of quarantine.

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WAR DEPARTMENT.

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It is the duty of the Secretary of War to cause all flags, standards, and colors captured from the enemies of the United States to be transmitted to the seat of Government, where they are preserved.

He controls the transportation of troops, munitions of war, equipments, military property and stores throughout the United States.

their certificates of discharge, or when the same have been destroyed without the fault of the soldier, duplicates of such certificates of discharge, on application, satisfactory proof of such loss or destruction first to be furnished; but such duplicate certificate shall not be accepted as a voucher for the payment of any claim against the United States for pay, bounty, or other allowance, or as evidence in any other case.

He is authorized to detail one or more of the employés of the War Department for the purpose of administering the oaths required by law in the settlement of officers' accounts for clothing, camp and garrison equipage, quartermaster's stores, and ordnance, which oaths must be administered without expense to the persons taking them.

It is his duty to make an annual report to Congress, containing a statement of the appropriations of the preceding fiscal year for the War Department, showing the amount appropriated under each specific head; the amount expended under He defines and prescribes the kinds as each head, and the balance which rewell as the amount of supplies to be pur-mained unexpended on the 30th of June chased by the Subsistence and Quartermaster Departments of the army, and the duties and powers thereof respecting such purchases; and it is his duty to prescribe general regulations for the transportation of the articles of supply from the places of purchase to the armies, garrisons, posts, and recruiting places, for the safekeeping of such articles, and for the distribution and timely supply of the same Whenever he invites proposals for any to the regimental quartermasters, and works, or for any materials or labor for other officers to be intrusted therewith; any work, it is his duty to report to Conand to fix and make reasonable allow-gress, at its next session, all bids thereances for the store-rent and storage neces- for, with the names of the bidders. sary for the safe-keeping of all military stores and supplies.

He is authorized to furnish to non-commissioned officers and privates who served in the army of the United States during the Rebellion of 1861, and who have lost

preceding. Also to lay before Congress, at the commencement of each regular session, a statement of all contracts for supplies or services which have been made by him, or under his direction, during the year preceding, and a statement of the expenditure of the moneys appropriated for the contingent expenses of the military establishment.

There must be separate proposals and separate contracts for each work and class of material or labor.

He must cause to be prepared and submitted to Congress, in connection with the reports of examinations and surveys

of rivers and harbors, made by order of | Congress, full statements of all existing facts tending to show to what extent the general commerce of the country will be promoted by the works of improvements contemplated by such examinations and surveys, to the end that public moneys shall not be applied excepting where such improvements shall tend to subserve the general commercial and navigation interests of the United States.

He must lay before Congress, on or before the first Monday in February of each year, an abstract of the returns of the adjutants-general of the several States

of the militia thereof.

It is his duty to organize a board of five members, to consist of three officers of the army and two persons from civil life, to frame regulations for the government of the prisoners confined in the Military Prison at Rock Island, Illinois.

The Secretary of War and the Commissioners must visit said prison semiannually, and as much oftener as may be deemed expedient, for the purposes of examination, inspection, and correction; and they must inquire into all abuses or neglect of duty on the part of the officers or other persons in charge of the same, and make such changes in the general discipline of the prison as they may hold to be essential.

It is his duty to give such directions to the adjutants-general of the militia of the several States as may in his opinion be necessary to produce a uniformity in the returns made by them of the militia, arms, accoutrements, and ammunition.

He may enter into contract, in open market, for bunting of American manufacture, for a period not exceeding one year, and at a price not exceeding that at which an article of equal quality can be imported.

It is his duty to cause and require every contract made by him, or by any officer appointed by him to make contracts, to be reduced to writing, and signed by the contracting parties with their names, a copy of each of which must be filed in the Returns Office of the Department of the Interior, within thirty days, together with all bids, offers, and proposals.

It is his duty to furnish every officer appointed by him with authority to make contracts on behalf of the Government with a printed letter of instructions, setting forth the duties of such officer.

NATIONAL CEMETERIES.

He is authorized to purchase such real estate as in his judgment is suitable and necessary for National Cemeteries.

He is required to cause to be erected at the principal entrance of each National Cemetery a suitable building, to be occupied as a porter's lodge; and to appoint a meritorious and trustworthy superintendent, who must be an honorably discharged disabled soldier, non-commissioned or commissioned officer of the regular or volunteer army, to reside therein, for the purpose of guarding and protecting the cemetery and giving information to persons visiting the same.

List of the Names of the National Cemeteries, the Salary allowed the Superintendent of each, and their Post-Office Address.

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