[Reprinted from The Medical News, January 7, 1893.] 
OBSTACLES TO A NATIONAL QUARANTINE. 
To the Editor of The Medical News, 
Sir : I have read with interest your leader in the issue 
of December 24th, on National Quarantine, and I would 
like the privilege of a word in reply. The advantages 
of a National quarantine have of late been fully and 
ably stated and seem to be generally conceded. 
In regard to the objections you raise, you admit that, 
with the exception of the alleged Constitutional obstacle, 
“ no one of them is very strong by itself, and each one 
can be overcome if taken singly.” Therefore they can 
be disregarded. As for the Constitutional question, as 
you say, every one admits that Congress can establish 
and control quarantines against foreign countries ; but, if 
I understand you aright, the trouble you anticipate is 
that the State might refuse to abandon its own quaran- 
tine system, and that the State and National quarantines 
might conflict. If you will pardon me for saying so, I 
believe this objection to be wholly imaginary, for two 
reasons. 
First, because if an efficient National quarantine were 
to be established, the local quarantines would doubtless 
pass into “i-qnocuous desuetude,” or out of existence 
altogether^.be&ause*they would have no function to 
the other hand, the National quaran- 
tine should at‘qny time prove to be inefficient, it could 
do no harm to have*il> supplemented by the local organ- 
ization. I fail to see how a local quarantine can make 
the authority of the United States “ practically nil." 2 
It certainly could not admit any person or thing which 
the United States authorities had excluded, and if it 
stopped those which the National quarantine had passed, 
it would appear to be only an additional precaution, or, 
at the worst, an unnecessary one. That the double 
quarantine would present such an obstacle to commerce 
as to materially impede it is a contingency not very 
likely to arise, as it is not probable that a State will take 
measures to destroy the commerce of its own ports. The 
New York Chamber of Commerce is probably as much 
interested in this question as any body of citizens, and it 
has emphatically declared itself for National quarantine. 
Secondly, it is a well-known principle of Constitu- 
tional law that where authority is granted, all powers are 
by implication granted which are necessary to enforce 
that authority; hence, if Congress has the power to estab- 
lish National quarantine, and local quarantine should 
prove to be an obstacle in its way, Congress has implied 
power to annihilate, if necessary, the latter. 
Respectfully yours, J. H. Platt. 
Lakewood, New Jersey.