examine cholera. In the end, the National Board of Health lost both funding and support from Congress, which gave the Board's enlarged authorities, and its quarantine stations, to MHS. Issues surrounding the practice of quarantine drove Hamilton's work in public health. It was no coincidence that the Hygienic Laboratory began in an attic at Staten Island's Marine Hospital, near Ellis Island, the single busiest port of entry for immigrants during this period. Earlier on, Hamilton had established a Marine Hospital on Bedloe's Island, future site of the Statue of Liberty. Although MHS would not receive formal authority to issue domestic quarantines until 1893, Hamilton and his staff worked with the Congress to advance incremental changes toward a national policy. Maritime quarantine legislation (Act of August 1, 1888) strengthened the Act of 1878, adding new Federal quarantine stations along the East and West coasts; March 1891 legislation made medical inspection of immigrants part of MHS's duties; and interstate quarantine legislation (Act of March 27, 1890) gave MHS authority to establish quarantines against epidemic cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, and plague. On the request of his successor, Surgeon General Walter Wyman, Hamilton also returned to New York during the 1892 cholera pandemic, to set up a quarantine camp at Sandy Hook (Camp Low). Administrative reforms Hamilton made limited progress with the Congress realizing Woodworth's reform plans to set MHS on sound fiscal and professional moorings. The Shipping Act of June 26, 1884 replaced the hospital tax charged to merchant seamen in favor of financing health services by means of a tonnage tax on foreign ships landing in domestic ports, supplemented by deficiency appropriations. And after Hamilton issued regulations specifying competitive examinations for entrance into a corps of medical officers, the Congress formally authorized the Commissioned Corps with the Act of January 4, 1889. He was not able, however, to win an equal footing for MHS's Commissioned Corps with the salaries and ranks accorded to military medical officers and as a result, resigned his post as Surgeon General on June 1, 1891. Personal life Hamilton was recommissioned as a Surgeon and assigned to Chicago's Marine Hospital. Hamilton led a full professional life, serving as a Professor of Surgery at his alma mater, Rush Medical College, and as editor of the new Journal of the American Medical Association (1893–1898). Hamilton was a companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States