1887

Establishment of Marine Hospital on Staten Island, a hygienic laboratory set up and directed by Joseph James Kinyoun, that evolved into National Institutes of Health. It was reorganized via 1902 congressional act under director Milton Rosenau as “Public Health and Marine Hospital Service,” with Walter Wyman designated “Surgeon General” rather than Supervising Surgeon. 1902 act added Division of Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Zoology to existing Hygienic Laboratory, renamed the Division of Pathology and Bacteriology (Harden, 9ff.). The latter focused on infectious diseases, with successes re typhoid fever, identification of tularemia, and undulant fever (22). Act of 1912 shortened name to Public Health Service and authorized research on noncontagious diseases (e.g., pellagra) and water pollution (38). During WWI, Hygienic Laboratory isolated organisms from epidemic meningitis, developed tetanus antitoxin and antityphoid vaccine, and “identified shaving brushes used by troops as the source of some cases of tetanus and anthrax” (41). In 1918, congressional act created Division of Venereal Diseases that permitted PHS funding for outside work on venereal diseases and for social science research leading to better educational measures re VD = first federal grants since National Board of Health funded investigation of yellow fever in 1880s (41-42).