SERVICE, UNITED STATES MARINE HOSPITAL. 



788 



which I would recommend in yours, is to confine the 

 Mon to seamen in actual service belonging to u 

 vessel (Am in i>ort. 



I have tin- honor to bo, respectfully, Sir, 

 Your oU'dient Servant, 



ALBERT GALLATIN. 



A reward of $50 having been offered for the 

 best plan tor the hospital at Boston, and only 

 our having been received, that one was ad- 

 jnd^-d tho best, and the author received the 

 money, although tho Secretary considered it 

 necessary to mako certain alterations, as the 

 following letter shows: 



TBKASTTBY DEPARTMENT, ) 

 October llth, 1802. f 



SIR : I enclose the only plan which has been re- 

 ceived for a Marine Hospital at Boston, in consequence 

 of the public advertisement inserted in your news- 

 paper for that purpose. It was transmitted by Asher 

 Benjamin ; and although it is not possessed of any 

 |K merit, yet, unless you have received some other, 

 we should use it with a few trifling alterations. Mr. 

 Benjamin will in that case be entitled to the reward, 

 but he should give some explanation concerning the 

 thickness of walls and partitions, and the precise ab- 

 solute dimensions of the building. If you shall have 

 received any other plan, I will thank you to transmit 

 the same to this Department ; but if none has been 

 received, the enclosed, with tho following alterations 

 in the second floor, may be considered as adopted. 

 Alterations of tho second floor, marked with a pencil 

 on the plan : Let the corner rooms be on the same plan 

 os in the first floor ; that is to say, that at each end of 

 the building, instead of a room 18 by 19. two 9 by 18 

 each, and a passage between ; there will be a room 18 

 by 20, and one 16 by 18. Let the four rooms 9 by 16 

 in the original plan be converted into two rooms 18 

 by 16. Upon a supposition, then, that no other plan 

 has been received by you, I have to request that you 

 will take tho necessary measures to form a contract 

 for the erection of the Marine Hospital in conformity 

 to the enclosed. I presume that the mode adopted for 

 light-houses, that of a public advertisement, will be 

 the most eligible. The building should be brick, the 

 cellar stone ; the whole not to exceed the sum appro- 

 priated, and to be completed within the course of next 

 summer, at farthest by 1st December, 1803. You will 

 bo able to judge of the details necessary to bo inserted 

 in the contract in order to secure the best materials, 

 good workmanship, and a compliance with the in- 

 tended plan. Whenever you shall have received pro- 

 posals, I will thank you to compare them and trans- 

 mit the same, with your opinion thereon, to this of- 

 fice. 



I have the honor to be with respect, Sir, 

 Your obedient Servant, 



ALBERT GALLATIN. 



The " Colombian Centinel " of October 80, 

 1802, contained the advertisement for the 

 erection of the new building. The advertise- 

 ment is very lengthy ; the following is ex- 

 tracted : 



A MARINE HOSPITAL Is to be erected by tho 

 United States in Charlestown, on the North Easterly 

 part of the Land purchased to accommodate the Navy 

 Yard, on such part thereof as shall be hereafter direct- 

 ed. In general, the HOSPITAL is to be one hundred 

 and fourteen feet long and thirty-nine feet wide, to be 

 built with brick, two stories high, and a well stoned 

 o-llar under the whole. [Very complete details fol- 

 low, and the advertisement concludes as follows :] In 

 a transaction of this kind, it is difficult to give a mi- 

 nute detail of all the particulars, which must be 

 embraced by a full execution of the plan. In order 

 therefore to avoid any mistakes or painful questions 

 relative to this business, the plat of the building may 



be seen at the Collector 1 * Offict in Boston at all times, 

 prior to the fint day of December next, ad abto the 

 paper on which the dimensions of the timbers [are 

 stated]. The public attention is invited to this be- 

 mrvolt-nt and important object. Tho>e who t-hull wish 

 to contract for the erection and completion of the hos- 

 pital, with tho appendages, will send their terms in 

 writing, sealed, to the subbcriber. 



(Signed) B. LINCOLN. 



On November 10, 1802, Secretary Gallntin 

 addressed a letter to Collector Lincoln approv- 

 ing the advertisement and the general arrange- 

 ment of the building, but " presumes that until 

 the establishment may be fixed on a more ex- 

 tensive scale than is at present contemplated, 

 the nurses may and would be better accommo- 

 dated on the first or second floor than in the 

 cellar." The President, December 20, 1802, 

 appointed Dr. Charles Jarvis physician of the 

 Charlostown hospital, at a salary of $1,000 per 

 annum, to take effect when the sick should be 

 removed to the new hospital. During the year 

 1803 it was found that the fund was insufficient 

 to meet the demands upon it, and the sick 

 arriving at the smaller ports were furnished 

 transportation to the large seaports whenever 

 able to bear the journey. In this year the 

 President appointed a physician to the hos- 

 pital in New Orleans, as the following shows, 

 which also gives in detail the general princi- 

 ples on which the service was administered : 



TREASURY DEPARTMENT, I 

 April 14, 1S04. f 

 II. B. TRIST, Esq., 



Collector, New Orleans. 



SIR : Tho laws respecting sick and disabled seamen 

 being extended to the port of New Orleans, you are 

 appointed, as other Collectors are, in their respective 

 ports, the Agent for that purpose. 



No instructions as to the mode of collecting the 20 

 cents per month from seamen, and accounting for tho 

 moneys thus received, appear to be necessary, in ad- 

 dition to those you have already received as Collector 

 of Fort Adams, unless it be to remind you that all 

 seamen belonging to vessels of the United States, in- 

 cluding of course those owned in Louisiana, are sub- 

 ject to this tax, those engaged in foreign trade being 

 required to pay it at the time of making entry from 

 each foreign voyage, and those engaged in the coast- 

 ing trade at the time of taking out the enrollment or 

 license; and to observe that, as some doubts may 

 exist whether the Act of May 8d, 1802, still continues 

 operative so far as to make it necessary for tho mas- 

 ters of boats, rafts, and flats going down the Missis- 

 sippi to New Orleans to moke report to the Collector 

 of Natchez of tho number of persons employed on 

 board, and to pay to him the amount of the tax on 

 persons thus employed, it will be proper that you 

 should require such report and p:i\ UK m from tho 

 masters of boats, etc.. coming down the Mississippi in 

 all oases whore it shall not appear MitLsfactonly to 

 you that the tax has been paid previously at Natchez. 

 Tho tax cannot be demanded of seamen belonging 

 to foreign vessels ; but if application is mode for the 

 admission into the Hospital of such seamen, they are 

 to be admitted on the master's paying seventy-five 

 cents per day for each seaman, as provided in the fifth 

 section of the Act of May 3d, 1802. 



Tho fund produced by the tax of 20 cents per month 

 on seamen being much less than would bo necessary 

 to afford relief in all cases, it becomes requisite to pro- 

 vide only for the most urgent and to economize in the 

 expenditures as much as possible. With this view 

 it nas been prescribed to the agents in the several 

 ports of the United States, and you will consider it as 



