[The French maritime health police in the 19th century].

The French law of 1822 created a homogeneous maritime health police all along the French coastline. Noteworthy in many respects, it was however very binding since it included some penalties of an extraordinary harshness as hard labour or even death. It was first disputed by those against the theory of contagion and the maritime and commercial circles, but subsequently it became overtaken by scientific knowledge despite numerous facilities and some important remodelling decrees were decided, one of them in 1876 just before the Pasteur revolution and another in 1896. The aim was then not only to prevent, epidemics (plague, cholera, yellow fever) crossing the borders of the national country, but also to prevent them from spreading out of their original cradles. Later it was the beginning of the sanitary international cooperation with the training of special eastern practitioners who could take sanitary precautions close to the sources of infection.