QUARANTINE (from the Fr. quarantaine, a period of 40 days) is a forced from communication with the shore, which ships are compelled to undergo when they are last from some port or country where certain diseases held to be infectious, as yellow fever, plague, or cholera, are or have been raging. Where a quarantine is established, it is a high misdemeanor for any person in the suspected ship to come on shore, or for any one to disembark any merchandise or goods from her. The countries on the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean are those most commonly held to be infectious, and, as a regular arrangement, ships from them have to pass quarantine at Malta, or some French, Italian, or Spanish port. In England, the quarantine laws were, until about 20 years ago, enforced with severity; but now a quarantine is an unusual occurrence, although the power to enact it rests with the crown, and it is occasionally imposed by au order in council. In Mediterranean ports, quarantine ordinarily lasts from 6 to 15 days, though it sometimes extends to a much longer period, during which the passengers are imprisoned in a sort of barrack called a "lazaretto," and the contents of the ship—ani mals, goods, and letters—are fumigated, punctured, sometimes immersed in water, or even acid, and all possible means are adopted to destroy infection.
Quarantine is not of necessity limited to a sea-frontier; and it is enforced—often with absurd rigor—at the frontiers between contiguous states, especially in eastern Europe, to the annoyance of travelers, and to the serious detriment of commerce.
History declares quarantine regulations for maritime intercourse to have been first established by the Venetians in 1127 A.D.: but the practice must have been greatly older on land frontiers; and the precautions of the Jews against leprosy indicate that a species of quarantine was enforced by them. The law for regulating quarantine, when imposed in England, is 6 Geo. IV. c. 78.