(1) The commissioner shall select suitable localities for establishing quarantine stations, and may erect necessary temporary buildings for the disinfection of passengers, baggage, cargo and other matter believed to convey the contagious principle of cholera, yellow fever, smallpox and other epidemic diseases, and may enforce the transshipment of passengers as the commissioner may deem necessary.
(2) The commissioner shall assign to the charge of each station a competent physician and necessary assistants, who shall receive such compensation as the commissioner may deem reasonable and just.