Research


Administrative History

Chapter 645 of the Laws of 1901 approved necessary expenditures for the manufacture and standardization of tetanus, streptococcus, and diphtheria anti-toxin and for further investigation of serum therapy in tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and kindred diseases. The laboratory established by this expenditure was named the Antitoxin Laboratory; in 1906 it was renamed the State Hygienic Laboratory. In 1913, Governor William Sulzer convened the Special Public Health Commission, the report of which recommended that the State Health Department be provided with a new laboratory, with sufficient land and adequate facilities for routine examinations, analyses, and original research. This recommendation was codified in Chapter 559 of the Laws of 1913, Section 3-a of which created several divisions in the Department of Health and renamed the State Hygienic Laboratory as the Division of Laboratories and Research. Chapter 657 of the Laws of 1913 provided for the acquisition of a farm site for the laboratories of the State Department of Health. Chapter 597 of the Laws of 1984 renamed the Division the Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research.