The legal history of epidemics - selected primary sources

(Secondary sources here)

Updated 14 July 2020

Treatises

Girolamo Previdelli, De Peste et ejus privilegiis (Bologna, 1528)

Gianfrancesco Riva di San Nazaro, Tractatus iuridicus de peste (Leipzig, 1598)

Girolamo Gastaldi, Tractatus de avertenda et profliganda peste politico-legalis (Bologna, 1684) [for information, see Mike Widener's post here]

J. A. Paris & J. S. M. Fonblanque, Medical jurisprudence, vol. 1. (London, 1823) (pp. 128 ff.)

W. Cunningham Glen, The Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Acts, 1848 & 1849 : (11 & 12 Vict. cap. 123 ; 12 & 13 Vict. cap. 111) : with practical notes and appendix containing the directions and regulations of the general board of health, with index. 3rd ed. (London, 1849)

Sherston Baker, The laws relating to quarantine of Her Majesty’s dominions at home and abroad, and of the principal foreign states : including the sections of the Public Health Act, 1875, which bear upon measures of prevention (London, 1879)

W.P. Prentice, Police Powers Arising Under the Law of Overruling Necessity (New York, 1894) (chap. VI: Health and Quarantine Laws)

L. L. Boyce, The Health Officers Manual and Public Health Law of the State Of New York (Albany, 1902)

Ernst Freund, Administrative Powers Over Persons and Property, A Comparative Survey (Chicago, 1928) (Chapter XXV: Administrative Powers Under Health Legislation).

Henry Bixby Hemenway, Legal Principles of Public Health Administration (Chicago, 1914)

James A. Tobey, Public Health Law. 3rd ed. (New York, 1947)

Legislation

Police legislation on diseases in Karl Härter, Michael Stolleis (eds.), Repertorium der Policeyordnungen der Frühen Neuzeit, topic "3.1 Seuchen" (German states)

Laws & Statutes: Disease and Public Health in Library of Congress's Herencia collection (Spain, 18th-19th centuries)

Ordonnance de Louis XIV pour les armées navales et arcenaux de marine (1689), p. 196 ff.

Governo generale di sanita del Regno di Sicilia e instruzioni del Lazzeretto della città di Messina (1749)

Prammatica CXXXIII, Istruzioni generali in materia di sanità (Naples, 1751)

Quarantine Act 1753 (26 George II, c. 6) (UK)

Kontagionsmandat (Quarantine Order) of the Lübeck Senate, 1771

An Act permitting Inoculation for the Small-Pox in this Colony (Rhode Island, 1776)

Health Laws of New-York (New York, 1805)

Quarantine Act 1825 (6 George IV, c 78) (UK)

Order in Council on cholera, 20 October 1831, in Board of Health, Report on Cholera, pp. 14 ff. (UK)

Diseases' Prevention Act, 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c. 116), in Toulmin Smith, Practical Proceedings for the Removal of Nuisances and Execution of Drainage Works etc., pp.237 ff. (UK)

Orders in Council on cholera, 1871, in First Report of the Local Government Board, C.516 (1872), pp. 324 ff. (UK)

Epidemic Diseases Act (III of 1897) (India)

Resolution of Government under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 12 August 1898 (Bombay Presidency)

Judicial Decisions

R v Harris, 4 TR 202, 2 Leach 549 (England, KB, 1791)

R v Vantandillo, 4 M&S 73 (England, KB, 1815)

Levy v Costerton, Holt 167, 1 Stark. 212, 4 Camp. 389 (England, Nisi Prius, 1816)

People v Roff, 3 Decisions in Criminal Cases 216 (NY Supreme Ct, 1856)

Jacobson v Massachusetts, 197 US 11 (US, 1905)

Mudie & Co v Strick, 100 LTR 701 (England, KB, 1909)

Treaties

International Sanitary Convention, Venice, 1892

International Sanitary Convention, Paris, 1894

International Sanitary Convention, Paris, 1903

International Sanitary Convention, Paris, 1912

International Sanitary Convention, Paris, 1926

Other

Miquel Parets, A Journal of the Plague Year : The Diary of the Barcelona Tanner Miquel Parets, 1651 (James S. Amelang, ed. & transl., Oxford UP, 1991).

René-Nicolas Dufriche, baron Desgenettes, "Notice sur un livre fort rare de Saint-Nazaire de Ripa, publié en 1522, sur la peste." Journal complémentaire du dictionnaire des sciences médicales, vol. 25 (1826): 149-157.

Arthur T. Holroyd, The quarantine laws : their abuses and inconsistencies : a letter addressed to the Rt. Hon. Sir John Cam Hobhouse, bart. ... London, 1839.

W.N. Spong & [George William] Lyttleton, "The Compulsory Vaccination Act." The Lancet, 24 December 1853, 613.

Alexander F. Vaché, Letters on yellow fever, the cholera, and quarantine: addressed to the Legislature of the state of New York, with an appendix containing correlative correspondence, and an act of the Legislature of the state, relative to the public health,with suggested amendments. New York, 1854.

Edwin M. Snow, Measures proposed for the prevention of Asiatic cholera in the city of Providence: a report to the Board of Aldermen. Providence, R.I., 1865.

Dorman B. Eaton, Sanitary legislation in England and New-York: being a paper read before the Association, December 8, 1872. New York, 1872.

H. Rey, "Les Quarantaines", pt. II. Archives de médecine navale, vol. 22 (1874): 124-136.

R. Thorne Thorne, "On Sea-Borne Cholera: British Measures of Prevention v. European Measures of Restriction." British Medical Journal, 13 August 1887, 339-340.

Protocoles et procès-verbaux de la Conférence sanitaire internationale de Venise, inaugurée le 5 janvier 1892.

Conférence sanitaire internationale de Paris, 10 octobre-3 décembre 1903 :procès-verbaux.

Conférence sanitaire internationale de Paris, 7 février-3 avril 1894 :procès-verbaux.

"The International Sanitary Convention of Paris." The Lancet, 7 April 1894, 898-899.

Research Guide

The National Archives (UK), Public health and epidemics in the 19th and 20th centuries.