NATIONAL BOARD OF HEALTH, The, a Federal body, instituted by Act of Con gress, 3 March 1879, to consist of 11 members — one army surgeon, one navy surgeon, one medi cal officer of the marine hospital service, one officer of the Department of Justice and seven physicians from civil life appointed by the President. Industrial development had ren dered all sections of the country interdependent in matters of health, and isolation was no longer possible. At the period of the passage of the Act of Congress there were only State and local systems of quarantine in existence in the United States, and Congress did not re gard them as adequate to meet all the emer gencies that had arisen or that might arise in the prevention of the introduction of contagious and infectious diseases from foreign countries. The Act was designed to establish a complete and effective system of quarantine to the United States. National authority was re quired to secure : (1) International sanitary co-operation; (2) the collection and distribu tion of sanitary information; (3) the prepara tion of maritime sanitary regulations; (4) the enforcement of maritime sanitary inspections in foreign ports; (5) the erection and mainte nance of refuge stations; (6) the aid of State authorities; (7) the organization of quarantine where none exists; (8) the power to add neces sary rules to any deficient quarantine. A fur
ther act (2 June 1879) defined the powers and duties of the Board and transferred to it the quarantine work formerly conducted by the Marine Hospital Service. This Act limited the duration of the Board to four years so that it expired by limitation 2 June 1883. Its work was carried on during 1884 and 1885, when, the appropriation being exhausted, its activities ceased.
The work is now performed by the Bureau of the Public Health Service under the direc tion of the surgeon-general, and as a part of the Treasury Department. Consult Allen, (Rise of the National Board of Health) (1899).