Disturbing to some viewers. Narrator the United States Public Health service as it exists today is a product of experience extending over nearly 150 years. A was initially created as Marine Hospital service for the care of sick and disabled seamen. It was activated in an active congress signed by president john adams in 1798. Was originally supported by a tax on american merchant seamen, but this was later abolished. The tax was collected by the treasury department. The Marine Hospital service came under the jurisdiction of that department, where it remains today. The first Marine Hospital in the secondrginia, built in boston, massachusetts. Some medical personnel were utilized by both the union and the confederacy for the care of wounded forces. Frequently happened that medical officers of the early Marine Hospitals were the first diagnose diseases such as cholera. The work of the service became of such increasing importance that congress extended its duties until it became in functio