Whereas the Government of His Majesty the King of Italy has extended to
the Government of the United States an invitation to participate in a
sanitary conference to be held at Rome on the 15th day of May, 1885, for
the purpose of devising efficient measures to prevent the invasion of
cholera and to mitigate its disastrous consequences; and
Whereas, by a provision of the act of Congress entitled "An act making
appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, and for other purposes," approved
March 3, 1885, for the suppression of epidemic diseases, the President
of the United States is authorized, in case of threatened or actual
epidemic of cholera or yellow fever, to use certain appropriated sums,
made immediately available, "in aid of State and local boards or
otherwise, in his discretion, in preventing and suppressing the spread
of the same and for maintaining quarantine and maritime inspections at
points of danger;" and
Whereas there is imminent danger of a recurrence of a cholera epidemic
in Europe, which may be brought to our shores unless adequate measures
of international or local quarantine and maritime inspection are taken
in season, which measures of preventive inspection are proper to be
considered by the aforesaid conference, to the end that their efficiency
in divers countries may be secured:
Now, therefore, in virtue of the discretionary authority conferred upon
me by the aforesaid act of Congress, I hereby designate and appoint
Major George M. Sternberg, surgeon in the United States Army, to attend
said conference at Rome as the delegate thereto on the part of the
Government of the United States, under the directions and instructions
of the Secretary of State; and I hereby direct the Secretary of War to
detail the said George M. Sternberg to perform the special service to
which he is thus assigned, with full pay and allowances as on active
service; and I further direct that the reasonable and necessary expenses
of travel and sojourn of the said George M. Sternberg in proceeding from
Washington to Rome, and during his attendance there upon the sessions
of the said conference, and in returning, upon the conclusion thereof,
from Rome to Washington, be adjusted and paid from the appropriation
available under the aforesaid act of March 3, 1885, upon his statement
of account approved by the Secretary of State.
Done at the city of Washington, this 25th day of April, A.D. 1885, and
of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and ninth.