Quarantine
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Quarantine. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the period (originally 40 days) during which a ship coming from a port suspected of contagion, or having a contagious sickness on board, is forbidden intercourse with the place at which she arrives. Quarantine was first introduced at Venice in the 14th century. It is now required to be performed in almost every important country except Great Britain. By act of the United States Congress passed in 1879, National quarantine stations were established; and it is made a misdemeanor punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both, for the master, pilot, or owner of any vessel entering a port of the United States in violation of the act, or regulations framed under it. During the period of quarantine, all the goods, clothing, etc., that might be supposed capable of retaining infection, are subjected to a process of disinfection, which is a most important part of the quarantine system. Quarantine has long been considered ineffective against the introduction of disease, besides being a source of much danger to those who were compulsorily detained under the system. The sanitary ideas of our day favor the safer methods used in England against cholera. The fate of quarantine in the British Islands was determined in 1894 when, in discussion on the Privy Council estimates objection was made to the cost of maintaining the quarantine establishment in the Solent on the ground of its uselessness, and the government promised to abolish the system. As a result the Public Health Act of 1896 was passed, by which yellow fever and the plague are to be dealt with in the same manner as cholera, and regulations made by the Local Government Board will apply equally equally to the three diseases. In the United States, under the law of March 28, 1890, known as the Interstate Quarantine Act, the supervising surgeon-general of the Marine Hospital Service is charged with preparing the rules and regulations, under direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, necessary to prevent the introduction of certain contagious diseases from one State to another. and he has also supervision of the medical inspection of alien immigrants, which, under the law of March 3, 1891 , is conducted by the medical officers of the Marine Hospital Service. Under the act of Feb. 15, 15, 1893, he is charged with the framing of regulations for the prevention of the introduction of contagious diseases and the prevention of their spread; and he is also charged with the conduct of the quarantine service of the United States . He has the direction of laboratories established to investigate the cause of contagious diseases, and publishes each week, under the title of "Public Health Reports," sanitary reports received from all parts of the United States and (through the State Department) from all foreign countries. See BUBONIC PLAGUE; CATTLE- PLAGUE.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
kwor'an-ten, a term originally of forty days, but now of varying length, during which a ship arriving from a port known to be infected with cholera, yellow fever , or other contagious disease is obliged to lie to and refrain from intercourse with the port at which it arrives. The laws differ in various countries. In Great Britain the entire matter is now left to the discretion of local boards of health. In the ports of the United States quarantines are maintained under national authority. Emigrant ships in particular are required to await inspection before landing passengers. The length of time during which ships are held in quarantine varies so greatly according to circumstances that no synopsis of regulations can be given. In San Francisco , for instance, the quarantine officers fumigate every article capable of harboring insects. Funeral wreaths are burned lest they introduce insects harmful to fruit trees. Local boards of health also quarantine households in which contagious diseases appear. The length of time varies locally also with the nature of the disease.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 could already report that quarantine had "long been considered ineffective," with Britain abolishing its Solent establishment under the Public Health Act of 1896 — and for ships that judgement largely held: detaining vessels for a fixed term gave way to inspection, disinfection and surveillance. The Marine Hospital Service whose surgeon-general both accounts describe became the U.S. Public Health Service in 1912, and its quarantine duties passed in 1967 to the Centers for Disease Control, which now runs a score of quarantine stations at airports and land borders rather than harbours. Internationally, the patchwork of national rules the 1910 account complained of was replaced by WHO's International Health Regulations, first adopted in 1969 and thoroughly rewritten in 2005 to require prompt reporting of outbreaks instead of blockades. The word itself then returned with force in 2020, when COVID-19 produced quarantine and isolation orders on a scale neither writer imagined, including immobilised cruise ships that looked very much like Venice in the 14th century.
Written for this edition, 2026.