Parascandola J
National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA.
Med Secoli. 1999;1(1):197-207.
The United States Pulic Health Service traces its origin back to an act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen signed into law on July 16, 1798. This paper discusses the evolution of the system of marine hospitals set up under this law into a federal public health agency that was eventually named the Pulic Health Service in 1912.
