Quabantine

i 1. The period of forty days. The time during ^hich a widow may remain in her husband's chief " mansionhouse" after his death, and until her dower is assigned her.2 This right was allowed, of dowable lands, by Magna Charta. In most of the States the period has been lengthened, as, to one whole year, or is of indefinite duration. 3 3. The days during which persons arriving from an infected country must wait before they may land.'' The forty days probation by ships coming from infected countries, required by 36 Geo. II (1753), c. 36, and 29 Geo. II, c. 8.5 At present, the period varies with the exigencies of the case. That power to establish quarantine regulations rests with the States, and has not been surrendered to the general government, was settled in the case of Gibbons v. Ogden." The source of the power lies in the general right of a State to provide for the health of its people; and, although the power, when exercised, may, in a, greater or less degree, affect commerce, yet quarantine laws are not enacted for that purpose, but solely for preserving the public health. If they injuriously affect commerce. Congress, under the power to regulate it, may control them. Of necessity, they operate on vessels engaged in commerce, and may produce delay or inconvenience, but they are still lawful when not opposed to the Constitution or any act of Congress.' Beyond what is absolutely necessary for self-preservation, a State cannot establish quarantine regulations which interfere with transportation into or through its territory.^ The act of Congress of April 29, 1878, provides that no vessel or vehicle coming from a foreign port where any contagious or infectious disease may exist, or with infected passengers, merchandise, or animals, shall enter any port of the United States or pass the boundary line between the United States and any foreign country, contrary to the quarantine law of any State, except as prescribed in said act." The system of quarantine laws established by statutes in Louisiana is a rightful exercise of the police 'F. quarantine or -tame, forty days: quarante: L. quadraginta, forty. ■■■ [2 Bl. Com. ia5; 1 Steph. Com. 271. a See 4 Kent, 62; 1 Washb. R. P. 222; 16 Ala. 148; 20 id. 662; 5 Conn. 462^ 2 Mo. 163; 5 T. B. Mon. 561; 7 id. 337. < [2 Bl. Com. 135. »4B1. Com. 161. > 9 Wheat. 203(1824). ' Peete v. Morgan, 19 Wall. 582-83 (1873), Davis, J. 6 Hannibal, &c. R. Co. v. Husen, 95 U. S. 465 (1877). 313. power for the protection of health. While some of the rules may amount to regulations of commerce, though not so designed, they belong to that class which the States may establish until Congress acts in the matter by covering the same ground or forbidding State legislation. The requirement that each vessel passing a quarantine station shall pay a fee for examination as to her sanitary condition and the ports from which she came is a part of all quarantine systems; the fee is a compensation for services rendered to the vessel, not a tonnage tax. Nor does it give a preference for a port of one State over those of another: that provision (section nine of Article one) in the Constitution being a restraint upon the powers of the general government. Since the government was first organized, Congress has passed no law to protect the people against the invasion of contagious or infectious diseases from abroad, notwithstanding that yellow fever and the cholera have at times been epidemic. The reason is, no doubt, that Congress has believed that the power to do this belonged to the States, or that what ought to be done could be more efficiently done by local authorities familiar with the matter. ^ See Commerce; Health; Police, 3.