Handbook for the ship's medicine chest / by George W. Stoner ; prepared by direction of the Surgeon-General.

  • Stoner, George W.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Handbook for the ship's medicine chest / by George W. Stoner ; prepared by direction of the Surgeon-General. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    95/116 (page 89)
    AI’PEIS' 1 > rx. THE UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH AND MARINE-HOSPITAL SERVICE. The United States Marine-IIospital Service was established by an act of Con- gress approved July Id, 1708. By this act Congress imposed a tax of 20 cents a month on (‘very seaman employed on vessels of the United States engaged in the foreign or coasting trades, and out of the money collected by authority of this act the President of the United States was authorized to furnish tempo- rary relief to sick and disabled seamen. The said act was amended March 2, 1700, extending the operations of the law so as to include the officers and sea- men of the Navy; but in the year 1811 separate hospitals were established for the Navy. Under an act of Congress approved June 20, 1870, the hospital tax was in- creased from 20 to -to cents a month, at which rate it was continued until 1884, when, by an act of Congress, the hospital tax was abolished and the ton- nage tax was made available for the ordinary expenses of the Service (for the cart* and treatment of sick and disabled American seamen). By act of Congress approved July 1, 1002, the name of the Service was changed to that of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service of the United Statt*s. The medical corps of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service consists of the Surgeon-General, surgeons, passed assistant surgeons, acting assistant surgeons, and sanitary inspectors. The Surgeon-General is the head of the Service. He is required by law, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, to supervise all matters connected with the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, including the National Quarantine Service and the medical work in connection with the I mmigrat ion Service. Relief Stations, Beneficiaries, etc. [Extracts from tin* Regulations, Public Health and Marine-IIospital Service, 190.4.] RELIEF STATIONS. Par. 404. A relief station of the Public Health and Marine-IIospital Service is a port or place where an officer of the Service is on duty to extend relief to seamen or where an officer of the customs service is specifically authorized to extend said relief. Par. 4or>. Belief stations shall be divided into the following classes : Class /.- United States marine hospitals. Class II. All other stations under command of a commissioned officer. ('lass III. All stations under charge* of an acting assistant surgeon where there is a contract for the cart* of sick and disabled seamen. ('lass 1) .—All other relief stations not included in the above classes.