786 



SERVICE, UNITED STATES MARINE HOSPITAL. 



for admission as well as for the government of the 

 house ; and with you rests the admission or rejection 

 of charges in their amount, and therefore the regulation 

 of the expenses and the Checking of abuses. I pre- 

 sume that in practice it will always be found eligible 

 to give to the Physician such share of the control over 

 the house, its subordinate affairs, and other details, as 

 will secure obedience to his directions and is the usage 

 in other hospitals. But I am apt to think that General 

 Lincoln delegated more than was necessary to the at- 

 tending Physician. If so, it is in your power to cor- 

 rect the evils whenever you please. 

 I am, respectfully, 



i our obedient servant, 



ALBEKT GALLATIN. 



Shortly after this letter was written, Dr. 

 Benjamin Waterhouse was removed on account 

 of certain irregularities in his accounts, and Dr. 

 David Townsend appointed physician to the 

 marine hospital at Charlestown, which office 

 he retained for a period of twenty years. 



In the year 1811 a committee was appointed 

 in the House to consider the propriety of cre- 

 ating a separate hospital establishment for the 

 sick among the officers, seamen, and marines of 

 the navy ; and the Secretary of the Navy (Paul 

 Hamilton), in a report dated February 22, 1811, 

 stated that, although the sum of $55,649.29 

 had been paid into the Treasury on account of 

 hospital money since the enactment of the law, 

 yet " no navy officer, and but very few seamen, 

 had received any benefit from it " ; that, among 

 the few seamen sent to the hospitals, " three 

 out of five deserted as soon as they got in a 

 convalescent state." He recommended that 

 the sum collected from the navy be separated 

 from that collected from the merchant service, 

 and stated that if this were made law, " six 

 capacious hospitals would soon be established, 

 in which all the sick of the navy might be 

 comfortably nursed ; all the wives of seamen 

 killed in action might be supported ; all the 

 children supported and educated ; and young 

 men just entering the service as midshipmen 

 might acquire the invaluable knowledge of the 

 theory of navigation, lunar observations, and 

 naval tactics, without costing the public a sin- 

 gle cent." He also recommended that the bal- 

 ances due to deserters and deceased seamen, and 

 mulcts of pay by sentences of courts-martial 

 and stoppages of grog, be credited to the naval 

 hospital fund; and that the subordinate officers 

 of the hospital be appointed "from among 

 those disabled seamen in the service who 

 would gladly serve without any addition to 

 their pensions, excepting merely their board, 

 the cost of which to the establishment would 

 be very inconsiderable." The commandants 

 of the navy-yards he recommended to be gov- 

 ernors of the hospitals, the wives of seamen 

 killed in battle to be nurses, attendants, and 

 laundresses, and their children, together with 

 the pensioners and convalescents, to work in 

 the gardens ; the person in charge of the hos- 

 pital to be acquainted with navigation, and act 

 as teacher to the children and midshipmen ; 

 the latter class to have $10 per month deducted 

 from their pay while studying navigation. 



This report, which is more remarkable for its 

 spirit of philanthropy than for anything else, 

 was, we are assured by Surgeon William P. C. 

 Barton, entirely due to the data furnished the 

 Secretary by himself, and was chiefly " written 

 during a tempestuous voyage from Norfolk to 

 New York in the sloop of war Hornet, then 

 commanded by Captain Lawrence." (Barton, 

 "Plans for Marine Hospitals," Philadelphia, 

 1814, p. x.) The idea of schools was evidently 

 borrowed from the Greenwich Hospital, and 

 the asylum plan from the Chelsea Hospital 

 (England) for the support of aged and decrepit 

 pensioners. On the receipt of this report, a 

 law was passed (February 26, 1811) creating 

 the naval hospital establishment, and separat- 

 ing the naval fund, which was to be disbursed 

 under the direction of the Secretaries of the 

 Treasury, Navy, and War, who were appointed 

 commissioners for naval hospitals. 



During the war with Great Britain, the 

 hospitals at Boston and Norfolk were crowded 

 to their utmost capacity. The records of the 

 former are still extant, and show that large 

 numbers were admitted from returned ships 

 affected with inveterate scurvy. The prison- 

 ers from the captured British frigate Guer- 

 riere, and the exchanged men of the Chesa- 

 peake returned from captivity, were treated 

 at that hospital. The following table shows 

 by years the number of American seamen 

 registered as having received "protections" 

 from 1796 to 1812 : 



YEARS. 



Number. I YEARS. 



4,849 

 9,021 

 7,081 

 6,514 

 8,390 

 6,917 



Number. 



1805 10,722 



1806 9,900 



1807 7.937 



1808 1,121 



1809 9,170 



1810 B,G68 



1811 4.828 



1812 8,252 



1796. 

 1797. 

 1798. 

 1799. 

 1800. 

 1801. 

 1802. 



1808 10,72* 



1804 6,822 



No naval hospital having been built, a 

 resolution of inquiry was adopted by the 

 House of Representatives, December 22, 181 T; 

 and, in reply thereto, the Secretary of the 

 Navy (B. W. Crowninshield) reported on Janu- 

 ary 15, 1818, that the commissioners "met in 

 the early part of the year 1812 and had surveys 

 made of several sites in Washington City, but 

 that the subsequent events of the war stopped 

 all further proceedings, until after the peace." 

 He also presented the report of the commis- 

 sioners, W. H. Crawford, J. C. Calhoun, and 

 B. W. Crowninshield, dated January 14, 1818, 

 which advocated the repeal of the separation 

 act. 



On February 28, 1818, part of the marine 

 hospital at Boston was destroyed by fire, the 

 southwest wing and part of the center or main 

 building being burned from basement to roof. 

 The cause was reported officially to have been 

 a defective chimney. In this year Secretary 

 Crawford recommended an addition of 100 per 

 cent, to the fund. A controversy arose be- 



* "American State Papers," Class IV., " Commerce and 

 Navigation," vol. ii. 



