788 



SEEVICE, UNITED STATES MARINE HOSPITAL. 



the hospital, and that the hospital money col- 

 lected in the port should be paid to them to 

 defray the expenses of the establishment, . . . 

 and to make up the deficiency a tonnage duty 

 should be imposed by the State Legislature, to 

 which the assent of Congress should be asked 

 and granted, not to exceed ten cents per ton." 

 But the memorialists affirmed that they had 

 not had the benefit of the contract; the lot 

 was paid for by the Secretary, but no building 

 erected ; and they further stated that they had 

 expended since 1804 $50,000 more than they 

 received. They therefore asked that they be 

 released from the contract, or that an appro- 

 priation be made for $15,000, with interest 

 thereon from 1804 to the date of the petition, 

 for the erection of a marine hospital. The site 

 procured was purchased November 14, 1816, of 

 Mrs. Drayton of Hempstead, for $5,500. The 

 committee to whom the petition was referred 

 reported favorably upon this claim, and a bill 

 was introduced authorizing the erection of a 

 hospital ; but the act was not finally passed 

 until May 20, 1830. 



The report of Secretary Richard Rush, Jan- 

 uary 29, 1827, shows his adherence to the rules 

 laid down by his predecessor, but he made no 

 recommendations. The new Boston marine 

 hospital was finally located at Chelsea in 1827, 

 and ten acres of ground were purchased of Dr. 

 Shurtleff. The building was finished in Octo- 

 ber, 1827, at a cost of $25,000. It was a rough 

 stone building, 150 by 50 feet, two stories 

 above the basement, with wings for physician's 

 and steward's quarters. Like the majority of 

 the buildings constructed at that time, no pro- 

 vision was made for ventilation except at the 

 doors and windows, and it had no bath-room. 

 Dr. David Townsend, whose appointment in 

 1809 as physician to the Charlestown hospital 

 we have noticed, died in April, 1829, and was 

 succeeded by Dr. Charles H. Stedman. Dr. 

 Townsend was born in 1753, had seen extensive 

 service in the Revolutionary army, in which he 

 served continuously from the commencement 

 of the war, and always with distinction, and at 

 the time of his death had spent fifty-five con- 

 secutive years in the active practice of his pro- 

 fession. In his declining years, his son, Dr. 

 Solomon D. Townsend, who had served in the 

 navy during the war of 1812, was on duty with 

 him as assistant surgeon. 



In a report to Congress made February 27, 

 1830, by Secretary S. D. Ingham. it is stated 

 that no tax had been collected from seamen in 

 the lake-ports up to that time, but that in- 

 structions had been given to insure its collec- 

 tion from that time forward. 



On June 8, 1834, Mr. Harper, chairman of 

 the Committee on Commerce, reported a bill 

 for the establishment of a marine hospital at 

 Portland, Me., but action was postponed. On 

 January 18, 1836, a memorial was presented 

 from the physicians of Portland, warmly urg- 

 ing the passage of the bill for the erection of 

 a marine hospital, and they state that the ac- 



commodation then provided for the use of sea- 

 men at that place was " in connection with 

 the almshouse, infirmary, and house of correc- 

 tion." 



On February 13, 1836, Secretary Levi "Wood- 

 bury reported to Congress the inadequacy of 

 the hospital fund to meet the necessities of the 

 helpless and improvident class for whose bene- 

 fit the law was designed. There were at this 

 time only three marine hospitals, viz., Chelsea, 

 Norfolk, and Charleston, S. C. The last was 

 ^managed under a contract with the city author- 

 ities, and the general condition of the service 

 was far from satisfactory ; it could scarcely be 

 otherwise when so large a proportion of the 

 beneficiaries of the fund were furnished ac- 

 commodations in the almshouses, to which they 

 might have been admitted without any pay- 

 ment of dues whatever. 



An editorial in the Boston " Medical and 

 Surgical Journal," July 20, 1836, speaks of the 

 hospital dues of twenty cents per month as 

 " disgraceful to the Government of the United 

 States," and says that "even in this unrigh- 

 teous, oppressive mode of sustaining marine, 

 hospitals there are not half enough of them."' 

 The same writer also says of the new marine 

 hospital at Chelsea, that it is " a libel on mod- 

 ern architecture ; six wards are obviously re- 

 quired where there is but one " ; and says the 

 medical officer should be given a house by 

 himself; that he is " boxed up in one end of 

 the hospital ; his family must not only bo an- 

 noyed, but the patients are under restraints 

 to which they ought not to be subjected." It 

 also suggests constructing extensive piazzas 

 " entirely round the building," and protests 

 against the low compensation of the surgeon. 

 Nevertheless, it strongly recommends students 

 to avail themselves of the privileges of the in- 

 stitution. The Secretary of the Treasury rec- 

 ognized the crying evils of the service, and re- 

 ports, in answer to a Senate resolution, a rec- 

 ommendation for a hospital at Holmes's Hole, 

 Mass. He recommends that the customs offi- 

 cers be made by law the directors of the hos- 

 pital. 



On April 1, 1836, a resolution was received 

 in the House of Representatives which had 

 been passed by the General Assembly of the 

 State of Ohio, February 26, 1835, "that the 

 establishment of Western commercial hospitals 

 be recommended to the favorable considera- 

 tion of Congress; and that his Excellency the 

 Governor be requested to forward a copy of 

 the report of the Medical Convention of Ohio 

 upon that subject, together with this resolu- 

 tion, to each of our Senators and Representa- 

 tives in Congress." The report transmitted 

 was written by Dr. Drake of Cincinnati, and 

 gave the credit for the origination of the move- 

 ment to Dr. Cornelius Campbell of St. Louis. 

 The number of steamboats engaged in the navi- 

 gation of the Mississippi River was estimated 

 at 250, and the number of flatboats at 6,000; 

 the number of steamboats on the lakes at 35 ; 



