182 LECTURES. 



ratus that could be placed on the deck of any ship arriving in a very 

 bad condition, and capable of destroying all noxious effluvia escaping 

 from it^ while maintaining as effective a ventilation as circumstances 

 might permit. It was also strongly urged that a steara-tug should 

 be ])rovided at siteh ports capable of meeting all extreme cases at once, 

 of discharging vitiated air with a power that would make the eifect 

 manifest in a few minutes, and also of applying warm, cold, or a fu- 

 migated atmosphere to the whole or any part of the ship. 



Finally, a special provision should be made on the quarantine 

 grounds for the reception and purification of all suspected goods which 

 it might be necessary to land or to destroy. Many were the cases of 

 disease on shore that had been traced to materials or goods thrown 

 overboard. By the action of a heating, fumigating, and ventilating 

 apparatus consuming noxious products, much valuable merchandise 

 mi«-ht soon be restored, and worthless materials consumed without 

 danger. 



By these varied arrangements the sick could be at once conveyed on 

 shore to a proper quarantine establishment in a ventilated tug, mer- 

 chandise purified on board ship or on shore, and the public good 

 secured with the least possible tax on the mercantile interest. It 

 was more peculiarly the province and duty of the merchants them- 

 selves to have their goods so shipped and their vessels so ventilated 

 as to reduce to a minimum the chances of loss by detention at quar- 

 antine, to say nothing of the claims of humanity ; and the public could 

 not look on with apathy, either at the loss of life arising from pre- 

 ventible disease on board ship, or the necessity of incurring extreme 

 expense beyond what was necessary for the most effective quarantine 

 establishment. 



In concluding these remarks. Dr. Reid took occasion to notice the 

 general condition of the life of the sailor at sea, the hardships to which 

 he was so often subjected, the magnitude of the interests involved in 

 the right construction, management, and efficiency of ships, and of 

 the practicability of immense improvement in this department, more 

 especially in the mercantile marine of all nations. The diminution of 

 shipwrecks, and the prevention of loss were not the only objects requi- 

 site. The service should be put on a better footing ; the public should 

 support nautical schools and schools of naval architecture, on the 

 same principle that they recognized the importance of supporting or 

 contributing to the support of other departments of education. It was 

 hard to tell what an extended navy and increased commercial relations 

 might yet accomplish between man and man. And were they to lose 

 sight of the mariner in carrying out such national objects, even if 

 it were possible to attain otherwise the desired result, was he to be 

 neglected, whether he might be the rough sailor before the mast or 

 the accomplished officer, skilled in all that science could apply either 

 in the management of his own ship, or in extending the boundaries 

 of human knowledge? Where had there been recorded, at sea or on 

 shore, any memoir of a man of a more refined sensibility, of more 

 daring intrepidity, or of more heroic devotion, than that which char- 

 acterized Dr. Kane ; the intelligence of whose untimely death had just 

 arrived, and whose name would ever be cherished with admiration, 

 regret, and esteem, on both sides of the Atlantic. 



