[PUBLIC—No. 105.]

AN ACT to prevent the introduction of infectious or contagious diseases into the United States, and to establish a National Board of Health.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be established a National Board of Health to consist of seven members, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, not more than one of whom shall be appointed from any one State, whose compensation, during the time when actually engaged in the performance of their duties under this act, shall be ten dollars per diem each and reasonable expenses, and of one medical officer of the Army, one medical officer of the Navy, one medical officer of the Marine Hospital Service, and one officer from the Department of Justice, to be detailed by the Secretaries of the several Departments and the Attorney General, respectively, and the officers so detailed shall receive no compensation. Said board shall meet in Washington within thirty days after the passage of this act and in Washington or elsewhere from time to time upon notice from the president of the board, who is to be chosen by the members thereof, or upon its own adjournments, and shall frame all rules and regulations authorized or required by this act, and shall 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 this act and the promotion of its objects.

SEC. 2. The duties of the National Board of Health shall be to obtain information upon all matters affecting the public health, to 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.

SEC. 3. That the Board of Health with the assistance of the Academy of Science, which is hereby requested and directed to cooperate with them for that purpose, shall report to Congress at its next session a full statement of its transactions, together with a plan for a national public 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.

Department of State.

A true copy.

Sevellon A. Brown,

Chief Clerk.