Excerpt from Proceedings and Debates of the Third National Quarantine and Sanitary Convention: Held in the City of New York, April 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th, 1859 I accord with your judgment entirely, as to the desirableness of prefacing the forth-coming work with the principal facts and arguments that led to the conception and call of a Quarantine Convention. I should be most happy also to accede to your proposition, and prepare a history of the movement, but the lateness of the hour at which you request has been made previous to the appearance of the work (being nearly through the press), and the pressure for time, owing to other important and prior engagements, forbid my undertaking any thing more than a very brief outline of the circumstances which conceived, and the measures which resulted in the organization Of the first American Congress that ever convened for sanitary reform - the inauguration of a. Movement, that may well be regarded as a feature of the age in which we live, and second to none other that has found favor with an enlightened people. After an experience of eight years as a member of the Board of Health of this crty, and after a careful examination into the character and practical working of the laws of quarantine of our own as well as those of other States, it required no argument to convince me that they were incumbered with seri ous defects, which weakened their influence, and retarded their usefulness. They advocated antiquated and obsolete doctrines they embarrassed com merce, oppressed the merchant, imposed severe restrictions on the healthy, inflicted cruelties on the sick, and when rigidly enforced, became the ready means of disseminating and entailing disease and death. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.