QUARANTINE, the period (originally 40 days) during which a ship coming from a port suspected of contagion, or having a contagious sickness on board, is forbidden intercourse with the place at which she arrives. Quarantine was first introduced at Venice in the 14th century. It is now required to be performed in al most every important country except Great Britain. By act of the United States Congress passed in 1879, Na tional quarantine stations were estab lished; and it is made a misdemeanor punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both, for the master, pilot, or owner of any vessel entering a port of the United States in violation of the act, or regula tions framed under it. During the period of quarantine, all the goods, cloth ing, etc., that might be supposed capa ble of retaining infection, are subjected to a process of disinfection, which is a most important part of the quarantine system.
Quarantine has long been considered ineffective against the introduction of disease, besides being a source of much danger to those who were compulsorily detained under the system. The sani tary ideas of our day favor the safer methods used in England against chol era. The fate of quarantine in the Brit ish Islands was determined in 1894 when, in discussion on the Privy Council esti mates objection was made to the cost of maintaining the quarantine establish ment in the Solent on the ground of its uselessness, and the government prom ised to abolish the system. As a result
the Public Health Act of 1896 was passed, by which yellow fever and the plague are to be dealt with in the same manner as cholera, and regulations made by the Local Government Board will apply equally to the three diseases.
In the United States, under the law of March 28, 1890, known as the Interstate Quarantine Act, the supervising sur geon-general of the Marine Hospital Service is charged with preparing the rules and regulations, under direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, necessary to prevent the introduction of certain contagious diseases from one State to an other, and he has also supervision of the medical inspection of alien immigrants, which, under the law of March 3, 1891, is conducted by the medical officers of the Marine Hospital Service. Under the act of Feb. 15, 1893, he is charged with the framing of regulations for the pre vention of the introduction of contagious diseases and the prevention of their spread; and he is also charged with the conduct of the quarantine service of the United States. He has the direction of laboratories established to investigate the cause of contagious diseases, and pub lishes each week, under the title of "Public Health Reports," sanitary re ports received from all parts of the United States and (through the State Department) from all foreign coun tries. See BUBONIC PLAGUE; CATTLE PLAGUE.