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 immediate 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 inspections are taken in season,
which measures of preventive inspection are proper subjects to be
considered, 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
Dr. E.O. Shakespeare, M.D., of Pennsylvania, as a representative of the
Government of the United States, to proceed, under the directions of the
Secretary of State, to Spain and such other countries in Europe where
the cholera exists, and make investigation of the causes, progress, and
proper prevention and cure of the said diseases, in order that a full
report may be made of them to Congress during the next ensuing session;
and I direct that the reasonable and necessary expenses of travel and
sojourn of the said E.O. Shakespeare in proceeding from Washington to
Spain and elsewhere in Europe as he may find it absolutely necessary to
go in pursuit of the desired information, and in returning to Washington
at the conclusion of his labors, 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 1st day of October, 1885, and of
the Independence of the United States the one hundred and tenth.