Abstract
IN a recent paper (Ann. Med. Hist., 3 ser., 1, 519; 1939), Dr. Robert A. Lyon, of Cincinnati, points out that before the nineteenth century individual nations or cities tried to check the entrance of disease by the application of quarantine laws at ports and land frontiers. It was not, however, until the early decades of the nineteenth century that international co-operation in health matters was first sought by countries on the Mediterranean. In 1839, Turkey invited representatives of other nations to meet a Sanitary Commission at Constantinople for better co-operation in the enforcement of quarantine regulations. A few years later, Egypt made a similar request, and in 1869 the Egyptian Council at Alexandria undertook the medical supervision of traffic through the Suez Canal. In 1851 the first International Health Convention met in Paris, and since then thirteen similar conventions have been held in different European cities and at Washington for the purpose of formulating regulations concerning the notification of cholera and plague and arrangement of medical inspection of crews and passengers as well as the inspection and disinfection of cargoes.
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Development of International Health Organizations. Nature 145, 217 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/145217a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/145217a0