QUARANTINE. In Maritime Law. The space of forty days, or less, during which the crew of a ship or vessel coming from a port or place infected or supposed to be in fected with disease are required to remain on board after their arrival, before they can be permitted to land. It was probably es tablished by the Venetians in 1484. Baker, Quar. 3. In England it is governed by 6 George IV. c. 78, and the Public Health Act of 1875. Ships of war are bound, equally with merchant ships, to respect municipal quarantine regulations.
By act of congress of April 29, 1878, ch. 66, vessels from foreign ports where con tagious and other diseases exist, are for bidden to enter the United States, except ing subject to certain regulations pre scribed.
The object of the quarantine is to ascer tain whether the crew are infected or not. To break the quarantine without legal au thority is a misdemeanor ; 1 Russ. Cr. 133.
Quarantine regulations made by the states are sustainable as the exercise of the police power ; Hannibal & St. J. R. Co. v. Husen, 95 U. S. 465, 24 L. Ed. 527; Minneapolis, St. P. & S. S. M. R. Co. v. Milner, 57 Fed. 276. The detention and disinfection of immi grants by order of a state board of health, with the purpose of preventing infectious disease, is not a regulation of foreign com merce by a state, within the meaning of the constitution; Minneapolis, St. P. & S. S. M. R. Co. v. Milner, 57 Fed. 276.
In cases of insurance of ships, the insurer is responsible when the insurance extends to her being moored in port twenty-four hours in safety, if before the twenty-four hours are expired she is ordered to perform quarantine, and any accident contemplated by the policy occur ; 1 Marsh. Ins. 264. Where a ship was prevented from comply ing with her charter party by quarantine regulations, it was held that this was "re straint of princes or rulers people"; The Progreso, 3 U. S. App. 147, 50 Fed. 835, 2 C. C. A. 45; Clyde C. S. S. Co. v. S. S. Co., 169 Fed. 275, 94 C. C. A. 551. Lay days do not begin to run until a ship is out of quar antine; Maclachlan, Merch. Shipping 598.
An act of congress of February 2, 1903, authorizes the secretary of agriculture to es tablish regulations concerning the exporta tion and transportation of live stock from any place in the United States where he may have reason to believe that pleuropneumonia or other contagious diseases exist, into and through ony state, etc., anti to foreign coun
tries, which regulations have the force of laws ; also, regulations to prevent the intro duction or dissemination of any contagious, infectious or communicable disease of an imals from a foreign country into the United States or from one state, etc., to another ; and to seize, quarantine and dispose of in fected hay, straw, etc.; or meats, hides, or other products.
The act of congress of Feb. 15, 1893, grant ing additional quarantine powers and im posing additional duties upon the marine hospital service, did not contemplate the overthrow of the existing state quarantine systems and the abrogation of the power over the subject of health and quarantine practised by the states, because the enact ment of state laws on those subjects would, in particular instances, affect interstate and foreign commerce; Compagnie Francaise de Navigation IL Vapeur.v. Board of Health, 186 U. S. 380, 22 Sup. Ct. 811, 46 L. Ed. 1209.
An unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce is not imposed by an act (Colo rado) prohibiting the importation of cattle from certain sections between April 1 and November 1, unless first kept for ninety days at some place near the prohibited section, or unless a certificate of freedoin from con tagious disease has been obtained from the state veterinary sanitary board; Reid v. Colorado, 187 U. S. 137, 23 Sup. Ct. 92, 47 L. Ed. 108; nor an act giving the live stock sanitary commission authority to prohibit the importation of cattle into the state on the ground that infectious disease had broken out among the cattle of such other state; Smith v. R. Co., 181 U. S. 248, 21 Sup. Ct. 603, 45 L. Ed. 847; an act au thorizing the governor of a state, when he has reason to believe there is an epidemic infectious disease of sheep in localities out side the state, to investigate the matter, and, if he finds the disease exists, to make a proclamation declaring such localities infect ed and prohibiting the introduction there from of sheep into the state, except under such restrictions as, after consultation with the state sheep inspector, he may deem prop er, is within the police power and is not in violation of the constitution or a regulation of interstate commerce ; Rasmussen v. Idaho, 181 U. S. 198, 21 Sup. Ct. 594, 45 L. Ed. 820, affirming 7 Idaho 1, 59 Pac. 933, 52 L. R. A. 78, 97 Am. St. Rep. 234.