CENTENNIAL YEAR. REPORT TO THE SECRETARY. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE SUPERVISING SURGEON-GENERAL M. H. S., Hon. L. J. GAGE, Secretary of the Treasury. SIR: I have the honor to herewith transmit the report of the MarineHospital Service of the United States for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1898, being the twenty-seventh annual report of the Service and the one hundredth year of its existence. In addition to the information pertaining to the fiscal year 1898, the operations of the Service as regards quarantine and public health matters are included to the present date. It had been the intention to include in this report a history of the development of the Service, together with a full description of its present legal status, its functions, and personnel; and the preparation of a complete article had been begun when the exigencies caused by the outbreak of hostilities with Spain and the Service work in connection with yellow fever in the South demanded so close attention to more active duties that the historical summary was necessarily deferred until the next annual report, when it will be equally appropriate. MEDICAL CORPS. One board has been convened during the year for the examination of candidates for admission to the Marine-Hospital Service as assistant surgeons. The number of applications to appear before this board was 32. Thirty applicants presented themselves, of whom 5 attained the required standard. APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS. During the year 6 successful candidates were appointed to the grade of and commissioned assistant surgeons, and one passed assistant surgeon, after examination, was promoted and commissioned as surgeon. RESIGNATION. One assistant surgeon resigned his commission on June 22, 1898. CASUALTIES. During the year ended June 30, 1898, there have been two deaths among the medical officers of the Service. One of these deaths was, although occurring on October 2, 1897, the subject of mention at some length in my last annual report, as the circumstances of his demise, occurring while performing quarantine work and while barely recovered from a long illness, appeared to warrant notice at that time without waiting for the next issue of my annual report to you. I refer to P. A. Surg. W. D. Bratton, who died from injuries sustained by falling into the hold of a vessel which was undergoing disinfection at the quarantine station at Sabine Pass, Tex. The second fatality was that of Asst. Surg. Emil Prochazka, who, on account of tuberculosis of the lungs, had been placed on waiting orders in the spring of 1897. His death occurred from this disease on April 1, 1898. CIRCULAR LETTER ANNOUNCING THE DEATH OF ASST. SURG. EMIL PROCHAZKA. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE SUPERVISING SURGEON-GENERAL M. H. S., Washington, D. C., April 9, 1898. To the Medical Officers of the United States Marine-Hospital Service: Emil Prochazka was born in Manitowoc, Wis., April 9, 1864. His education began in the graded public schools of Manitowoc, where he graduated from the high school in 1880, subsequently entering the State University at Madison, where he pursued a special course for two years, devoting particular attention to higher mathematics, chemistry, and languages. He began the study of medicine in 1882 in the office of Dr. J. S. Pritchard at Manitowoc, entered Rush Medical College the following year, graduating in March, 1885. After graduation he entered private practice in Plymouth, Wis., and continued as a general practitioner in that place until 1890, which year he spent in Europe, doing special work at Prague, Vienna, and other cities. Returning to America in 1891, he resumed the practice of his profession in Beatrice, Nebr., leaving there in August, 1892, to enter the United States Indian Service as physician to the Indian agency at Nez Perces, Idaho. He was commissioned as assistant surgeon in the Marine-Hospital Service April 19, 1893, and assigned to duty at the immigration depot, Ellis Island, N. Y., subsequently serving at United States marine hospitals at Stapleton, Louisville, and Cleveland until September, 1894, when he was assigned to duty at Detroit, Mich., remaining there until September, 1896. During this time, however, he served temporarily at Evansville, Cleveland, Charleston, Cairo, Buffalo, and Chicago. From this time until July 11, 1897, when he was placed on waiting orders, he served at Reedy Island and Delaware Breakwater quarantine stations. In the fall of 1895 he became aware of the existence of a lung trouble, which in June, 1896, was definitely determined to be tuberculosis, but he manfully continued on duty until the spring of 1897, when, being ordered to examination for promotion and feeling assured that he could not pass the required physical examination, he reported the fact to the Bureau, and was, after being physically examined, placed on waiting orders, as already mentioned. The last nine months of his life were spent at health resorts in Colorado and New Mexico. Dr. Prochazka was unmarried, but leaves an aged father and devoted sister to mourn his loss. Assistant Surgeon Prochazka was an officer of more than ordinary professional ability, having made excellent use of very superior advantages. Personally he was modest, reserved, and devoted to study and scientific research; honorable in all intercourse with his associates, by whom he was held in high esteem as a man and an officer. Respectfully, yours, WALTER WYMAN, Supervising Surgeon-General M. H. S. Of the two medical officers of the Service reported in my last annual report to be incapacitated from duty on account of tuberculosis one has died during the year, as above narrated, while the other, after returning to duty and so remaining for some months, has again been placed on waiting orders. MEASURES FOR THE RELIEF OF THE LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES OF THE LATE ASST. SURG. JOHN W. BRANHAM. Referring to the comments in my last annual report upon the abovenamed measure, it is gratifying to be enabled to report that during the last session of Congress the bill for the relief of the heirs of Assistant Surgeon Branham passed the House of Representatives and the act authorizing the payment to the heirs the sum of $4,160-the amount of salary and allowances for an assistant surgeon for two years at the date of the death of Dr. Branham-was approved by the President June 15, 1898. The bill passed the Senate May 20, 1896. The circumstances of his death, while in the performance of his duty, are set forth in your letter to the President of the United States, transmitting the bill to him, and stating your opinion that the measure was a meritorious one, of which the following is a copy: TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., June 14, 1898. SIR: Referring to the accompanying act (H. R. 2425) sent to me for examination and with the request that I will state whether I know of any objection to its approval, I have the honor to report that on the 20th of July, 1893, the President of the United States, under section 3, national quarantine act, approved February 15, 1893, detailed Asst. Surg. John W. Branham, United States Marine-Hospital Service, to proceed at once to Brunswick, Ga., where the local quarantine authorities had failed to enforce the quarantine regulations of this Department, and to take charge of the quarantine. He immediately proceeded to Brunswick, and on the 20th of August, 1893, died of yellow fever contracted while in discharge of the duties assigned him. Dr. Branham left a widow with two infant children without means of support. I am of the opinion that the act is a meritorious one and should become a law. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 10918- -2 The following is the act in question: AN ACT for the relief of the legal representatives of John W. Branham, late an assistant surgeon in the United States Marine-Hospital Service. Whereas John W. Branham, late an assistant surgeon in the United States Marine-Hospital Service, contracted yellow fever while performing his duty as assistant surgeon in an infected city, and having died of yellow fever at his post of duty on the twentieth day of August, eighteen hundred and ninety-three: Therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to pay, out of the money not otherwise appropriated, to the legal representatives of John W. Branham the sum of four thousand one hundred and sixty dollars, being the amount of salary and allowances for two years. Approved, June 15, 1898. OFFICERS DETAILED TO REPRESENT THE UNITED STATES MARINEHOSPITAL SERVICE AT MEETINGS OF MEDICAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATIONS. Since the date of my last report the following details have been made: Surg. J. M. Gassaway and P. A. Surg. J. J. Kinyoun to represent the Service at the meeting of the American Medical Association held at Denver, Colo., June 7-10, 1898. Surg. Robert D. Murray and Surg. H. R. Carter to represent the Service at the quarantine conference held at Atlanta, Ga., April 12, 1898. Surg. II. R. Carter to represent the Service at a quarantine conference held at New Orleans, La., April 8, 1898. Surg. Charles E. Banks detailed by the President as delegate to the meeting at Madrid, Spain, of the Ninth International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, held April 10-17, 1898. Surg. Charles E. Banks and P. A. Surg. J. J. Kinyoun to represent the Service at the meeting of the National Pure Food and Drug Congress held at Washington, D. C., March 1, 1898. Surg. H. R. Carter, P. A. Surg. J. II. White, and P. A. Surg. A. C. Smith detailed to represent the Service at the quarantine convention of the South Atlantic and Gulf States held at Mobile, Ala., February 9, 10, and 11, 1898. P. A. Surg. S. D. Brooks to represent the Service at the meeting of the Washington State Medical Society, May, 1898. REPORT OF SURG. J. M. GASSAWAY ON THE FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION, HELD AT DENVER, COLO., JUNE 7-10, 1898. OFFICE OF MEDICAL OFFICER IN COMMAND M. H. S., Port of San Francisco, Cal., August 19, 1898. SIR: I have the honor to report having attended the forty-ninth annual meeting of the American Medical Association at Denver, Colo., on June 7, 8, 9, 10, 1898, in obedience to detail conveyed by Bureau letter P. M. C., May 18, 1898. On the adjournment of the association I rejoined my station, arriving June 14, 1898. |