Report of the committee on the utility of wet docks in connection with quarantines, and the propriety of placing the entire establishment under the jurisdiction of the United States government / Jno. W. Sterling, Alex. H. Stevens, Jno. McNulty, committee.

  • National Quarantine and Sanitary Convention.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the committee on the utility of wet docks in connection with quarantines, and the propriety of placing the entire establishment under the jurisdiction of the United States government / Jno. W. Sterling, Alex. H. Stevens, Jno. McNulty, committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    by the years 1848 and 1853, at which time the Reporter was one of the physicians of this hospital, 35,690 of the above aggregate were admitted, — nearly one half of the whole number in one tenth part of the time. Hence he has had an unusual opportunity of witnessing much of the inconven- ience and suffering, as well as many of the defects of a Quarantine establishment, some of which will be presented in the sequel. In order fully to appreciate the wants of a Quarantine establishment, it is necessary to have been a spectator of some of its woes. In reading the history of Quarantines as they have existed in various parts of the world, as well as legislative and other reports and communications relating thereunto, the paramount and almost exclusive subjects of inquiry have been, How shall we protect our citizens against the invasion of pestilential disease ? How can we lighten the burthens which Quarantines impose upon commerce ? The speeding of the weary voyager and the care of the sick being regarded as of minor importance, too often is the poor squalid immigrant, as he is frequently called, shunned, loathed, and, if sick, even viewed as a culprit. We are not apt to appreciate their miseries, destitute, homeless as they are; fleeing from famine and oppression abroad; long pent up in the hold of an ill-ventilated vessel; their sickness their misfortune, not their fault, The following incident, related by the General Board of Health, in their Report to the British Parliament in 1849, presents but a faint idea of the feelings of many, who when almost touching their desired haven, are arrested at Quarantine. A young unmarried lady, who arrived in a steamer from Hamburg, and was stopped at Quarantine in the Thames, thus writes: It is all very well to say, 'Don't be afraid of the Cholera,' hut those who have seen what I have in the last few days, will feel differ- ently. On arriving at Gravesend, a custom-house officer came alom--