Quarantine laws : return to an order of the honourable the House of Commons, dated 18 August 1860, for : abstracts of returns of information on the laws of quarantine which have been obtained by the Board of Trade / Edgar A. Bowring.

  • Bowring, Edgar Alfred, 1826-1911.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Quarantine laws : return to an order of the honourable the House of Commons, dated 18 August 1860, for : abstracts of returns of information on the laws of quarantine which have been obtained by the Board of Trade / Edgar A. Bowring. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    UNITED STATES. Boston. No list of vessels placed in quarantine can be had, as there is no ordinance requiring such United States, a record to be kept. . During the last five years there were admitted into the quarantine or marine hospital on Dear Island 59 cases of smallpox, of which six died; 15 cases of yellow fever, of which four died; and 10 cases of ship or typhus fever, of which two died. No fresh cases of sickness are recorded to have occurred. As to the spreading of disease it is stated, a woman employed to wash clothing on board a vessel infected with yellow fever died. A man, his wife and child went on board the same vessel, and the child was afterwards attacked with the disease. Cholera appeared here first in 1832, again in 1848, and a few cases have occurred every summer since the last date. Smallpox has for the last 20 years been more or less constant in Boston. Yellow fever and ship or typhus fever have only prevailed to a limited extent, and usually among those exposed to actual contagion. Great interest on the subject of quarantine has just been awakened in most of our sea- board cities, and in Boston particularly. New York. The number of vessels, having or having had cases of yellow fever on board, arriving from infected ports at the quarantine station in 1858, amounted to 145. 1856.—The annual report of the marine hospital at quarantine states that, The total number of patients admitted was 1,556, among whom were 269 with true typhus (inde- pendent of numerous cases of simple fever), 177 with yellow fever, and 325 with smallpox. The per-centage of deaths to cases of these diseases was 12. 32, and 8, in the order of enumeration. There were also eight admissions and two deaths from cholera. Typhus is the per- petuated curse of famine and overcrowding; and fresh air, cleanliness, and wholesome aliment are the great prophylactics against typhus and most other diseases. With respect to smallpox, it is remarked that, When the subject of vaccination receives the attention which it deserves, and a sufficiently strict surveillance over infected vessels, passengers and cargoes is enforced by law, the scourge will so nearly disappear from us as to be very seldom seen beyond the limits of the quarantine lazaretto. Between the middle of June and the end of September, 77 vessels with yellow fever on board during the voyage, or on arrival, anchored off the quarantine ground. In some of the vessels the entire crew had suffered, and many deaths had occurred since leaving Havanna or other ports in the south. Many of the stevedores, and others employed in unloading the vessels, were attacked with the fever and died. The disease spread to the shore, attacking first some dwellings on the beach near the hospital, and subsequently extending in different directions. Large quantities of refuse matter, decaying fruits, old bedding, &c, and all such materials as floated, were carried in directions and to localities which were subsequently the lurking places of the pestilence. But it was not by such tidal influences alone that the fomites of infection seemed to be conveyed to the shores, nor was it the fate of those alone to suffer who dwelt by the waterside. In the course of the season the disease was conveyed to the city of New York and to Brooklyn, as well as to other adjacent localities. In all, 538 cases of genuine yellow fever, of which one-third proved fatal, are reported to have occurred during the summer and autumn in and around the quarantine grounds on Staten Island, and other parts along the shore of the port of New York. A large propor- tion of them was traced directly to infected vessels and fomites. Three of the cases occurred among patients convalescent from other diseases in the marine hospital. On the subject of the principal agencies in the spreading of the disease from the infected shipping, Dr. Harris, the physician of the marine hospital, remarks, when speaking of the locality on shore where it first appeared, and remained longest and was most fatal: — *'e There can be no doubt that the most active course of the pestilence in this locality was from the accumulation of infected materials floated from the vessels in quarantine. We have already noticed the extension of the fever to New Jersey by the same agency, and it Is rational to presume that the cases admitted from the upper districts of New York and Brooklyn received the infection from a similar cause. Within the last 26 years, New York has had five serious attacks of cholera. Dr. Walser, Deputy Health Officer of the Quarantine Hospital, remarks : Although cholera appeared in 1849 and 1853 in the surrounding villages, within a short time after its prevalence in the hospital, it would be difficult to trace its origin to the hospital or its patients. Persons labouring under the disease were admitted from New York long before the presence of the epidemic on Staten Island became manifest: neverthe- 568—I. D less,