Board of Health

Corporate body

Board of Health

1851-1959

The Board of Health, 1851-1959, was established on May 8, 1851 by an act of the 1851 Legislature to serve as the policy-making authority for public health measures in Hawaii. The board’s function was to make rules and regulations relating to the prevention and treatment of the causes and conditions of malignant disease and other danger to public health.

The initial duties and powers of the Board of Health were established by the ordinance of 1851, by which the Board acquired powers for the inspection of houses and other places for nuisances, the enforcement of port quarantine, and the selection of gravesites. The law also required physicians, masters of vessels and families to report instances of malignant disease. In 1859 the Board acquired the power to license physicians and to establish and supervise public hospitals on each of the islands.
The responsibilities of the Board continued to expand during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1862 it was required to establish hospitals for the treatment of leprous patients, and an insane asylum. In 1896 the legislature assigned to it the registration of births, deaths and marriages. Between 1896 and 1951, the Board established a number of bureaus for the specialized treatment of certain communicable diseases. These included the bureaus of epidemiology, venereal disease, leprosy, cancer control, tuberculosis, maternal and child health (relating to rheumatic fever and infantile paralysis), mental health, and laboratories.
The bureaus provided specialized staff, including bacteriological and chemical analysis staff, pathologists, educational staff and, in the Territorial hospital, a psychiatrist, for the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, for the inspection and testing of food, milk, water and drugs, and for public instruction in hygiene and other preventive measures.
In 1925 the law redefined the role of the President. It provided that he act as the Executive Officer of the Board, with full power to appoint staff, to enforce public health regulations and to enforce the directions of the Board, subject to the ratification of the Board at its regular meetings.
In 1951, the Board of Health integrated the specialized services of the bureaus into three overarching Divisions in order to coordinate, systematize and make uniform their services. The Divisions were Local Health Services, Preventive Medicine, and Sanitation.

Hawaii Revised Statutes (ss. 26-13, 321-11).
Revised Laws of 1915 (c. 64)
Penal Code of 1869 (c. 59, ss. 4-6)
Session Laws of 1851 (pp. 12-15); 1854 (pp. 28, 29); 1862 (p. 62); 1876 (c. 11 s. 2); 1888 (c. 17 s. 3); 1893-94 (c. 18 s. 1); 1896 (c. 64 s. 87); 1911 (c. 132 s. 2); 1925 (c. 34 s. 1); 1943 (c. 43 s. 1); 1951 (c. 292 s. 1); 1959, 2nd Sp. S. (c. 1)

2021-08-31, Carol Kellett: added Dept of Institutions as successor agency; edited previous Dept of Health successor agency.
2021-09-08, Carol Kellett: updated Maintaining repository.