SERVICE, UNITED STATES MARINE HOSPITAL. 



schooners sloops, and brigs on the same waters 

 nt _':>' i ; mill the total number of employees on 

 the various classes of these vessels at 43,000. 

 The report alludes to the frequency of steam- 

 boat explosions, and states that ninny lives have 

 been lost for the want of timely aid. The re- 

 port iinlirates, as places in need of hospitals, 

 N. u OrK-ans, Natchez, Memphis, St. Louis, 

 Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, 

 Cleveland, and Detroit, and " some point near 

 the mouth of the Arkansas, Trinity, or a spot 

 near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi ; 

 Evansville, and Parkersburg or Guyandotte." 

 This report was extensively circulated among 

 the various State and national officials, and it 

 is noticeable that hospitals were subsequently 

 built at all the above points, with three excep- 

 tions only. An act was passed March 3, 1837, 

 appropriating $70,000 for the erection of a 

 marine hospital at New Orleans; $15,000 for 

 three sites upon the Mississippi and one on 

 Lake Erie, in the selection of which the Presi- 

 dent was authorized to detail three medical 

 officers of the army ; and $10,000 for the erec- 

 tion of a hospital at Mobile ; and from the 

 first day of April following, the laws whereby 

 twenty cents per month were deducted from 

 the wages of seamen were suspended for one 

 year, and the sum of $150,000 was appropri- 

 ated for their benefit. The Secretary of War 

 detailed for this duty Surgeon B. F. Harney, 

 Assistant Surgeons H. F. Heiskell and John M. 

 Cuyler (of whom only the last named is now 

 living). The Board assembled at Baton Rouge, 

 La., June 18th, and received instructions from 

 Surgeon-General Thomas Lawson, authorizing 

 them to select and purchase sites for the ma- 

 rine hospitals on the shores of the Western wa- 

 ters, and to execute contracts for deeds subject 

 to the approval of the Secretary of War. On 

 November 30, 1837, architect Robert Mills 

 submitted his plans for the new marine hos- 

 pitals to the Secretary of War, and they were 

 transmitted to Congress. The plans, although 

 superior to those on which the hospitals had 

 previously been constructed, were still very 

 defective in the essential particulars of drain- 

 age and ventilation. (They may be seen in 

 print in H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 3, Twenty-fifth 

 Congress, second session.) 



On January 12, 1838, Mr. Smith of Maine, 

 chairman of the Committee on Commerce, 

 speaks of the prevailing distress among sailors 

 owing to the inadequate fund ; he cites the re- 

 ports of several collectors, calls attention to 

 the report of the Army Medical Board, and 

 opposes extending the benefits of the fund to 

 " farmers," but favors extending the tax and 

 the benefits to fishermen. 



The Senate passed a resolution, March 2, 

 1839, directing the Secretary of the Treasury 

 to "report to the Senate at the next session ot 

 Congress whether any change in the system of 

 marine hospitals is expedient, and if so, what; 

 especially if any new hospitals are necessary, 

 and in what manner they ought to be erected, 



if deemed expedient, and how supported." 

 The Hon. Levi Woodbtiry, in answer to this 

 resolution, reported December Hi, 1839. In 

 this report he recommends a ''change in the 

 system," and gives his reasons. He states that 

 the fund is inadequate to meet all ordinary 

 demands upon it, and that a large class of sea- 

 men, not contributors to the fund, are debarred, 

 and occasionally subjected to severe suffer- 

 ing from a want of "change in the system." 

 He suggests that the tax be extended to ail 

 seafaring people, and to extend assistance to 

 many cases of a chronic character. He also 

 recommends that hospitals, " besides those 

 now erecting at Mobile and New Orleans," 

 should be built, one at Detroit or Buffalo, and 

 another at Louisville or Cincinnati. He there- 

 upon refers to the report of an Army Medical 

 Board detailed to select sites for marine hos- 

 pitals upon the Western waters. The Board 

 recommended the construction of hospitals at 

 Cleveland, Wheeling, Louisville, Paducah, Na- 

 poleon, Natchez, and St. Louis. The inhabi- 

 tants of Pittsburgh being desirous that the 

 hospital on the upper Ohio should be at their 

 city instead of Wheeling, a second Board was 

 appointed, composed of Surgeons Mower and 

 Heiskell and Assistant Surgeon Day. This 

 Board reported in favor of the Pittsburgh site, 

 and Congress was compelled to give attention 

 to a running fire of memorials for a period of 

 several months from the advocates of the rival 

 claims of the two cities. 



The report of the Hon. William Wilkins, 

 Secretary of War, in answer to a House resolu- 

 tion at the session of 1844-'45, stated that titles 

 had been perfected for three sites, viz., Cleve- 

 land, Pittsburgh, and Louisville. He doubted 

 that titles could be perfected at Pnducah, Na- 

 poleon, and Natchez, and stated that the site 

 at St. Louis " can not now be obtained." He 

 inclosed plans and estimates for hospitals, but 

 thought that the plans might be improved, and 

 the estimates reduced fifty per cent. Accom- 

 panying this report was a report from Surgeon- 

 General Thomas Lawson, which stated that 

 deeds subject to the approval of the Secretary 

 of War were executed by the proprietors of 

 the hospital sites, and that appropriations had 

 been asked for, but that five years had elapsed 

 before these appropriations were made. (See 

 act of August 29, 1842.) In consequence of 

 this delay the vender at St. Louis canceled the 

 deed, and otherwise disposed of the property. 

 Sites were actually paid for at Louisville, Pitts- 

 burgh, and Cleveland ; but no money having 

 been appropriated for the construction of these 

 hospitals, no progress had been made toward 

 erecting them. 



The following resolutions were passed by 

 the Legislature of the State of Ohio, in relation 

 to the erection of the Cleveland hospital: 



WTtereat, In the fall of 1837 the Board of Army 

 Engineers, under the authority of the United States, 

 located at Cleveland, in this State, the site of a marine 

 hospital, and no appropriation lias as yet been made 



