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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 324 



solid foundation and a sound working organization. On what has 

 thus far been done there is every reason for congratulation. This 

 is, however, but the mere beginning of what there should be. More 

 room will soon be needed, more and better boats. A special 

 landing-place must shortly be purchased. An increased equip- 

 ment of microscopes and aquaria will certainly have to be provided. 

 A working library of good size and quality, placed in the labora- 

 tory itself, is absolutely indispensable. The indications point to a 

 large influx of investigators and students, and the trustees foresee 

 the possibility of more applicants than they can accommodate. To 

 meet these new needs and emergencies, more funds are urgently 

 demanded ; and the trustees earnestly appeal to the corporation, 

 and to the supporters of science everywhere, for sympathy and 

 active support, so that they shall be enabled to carry on aggres- 

 sively a work already begun, and proven not only possible but 

 worthy. 



REPORT OF THE HEALTH-OFFICER OF THE PORT 



OF NEW YORK. 



The annual report of the health-officer of the port of New York, 

 Dr. William M. Smith, to the Board of Commissioners of Quaran- 

 tine, contains much valuable statistical and other material. Dur- 

 ing the year i888, 5,291 vessels arrived at New York from foreign 

 ports, and 1,053 irom domestic ports, which are subject to quaran- 

 tine regulations. As compared with 1887, the number from foreign 

 ports was less by 637. Dr. Smith states that the arrivals are 

 diminishing each year, and gives figures to sustain this statement. 

 The number of steerage passengers inspected by the medical 

 officers of the department was 383,595, arriving by more than 

 twenty different lines of vessels ; the North German Lloyds bring- 

 ing the largest number, 52,926. In speaking of this subject of im- 

 migration. Dr. Smith says : " There are few subjects of greater 

 importance for the consideration of maritime quarantine ofScials, 

 and of our municipal health authorities, than the immense immi- 

 gration which has been flooding our country for the past nine 

 years, and which there is reason to believe will continue for years 

 to come. The same political and economic conditions which ex- 

 isted in 1879, when the immigration from the Old World increased 

 from 135,020 in that year, to 327,371 in the year following, have 

 continued to this time, and bid fair to obtain for years to come. 

 Our vast unsettled area of country is likely to continue to invite, 

 and the inexhaustible resources of our mines and forests will stimu- 

 late, an exodus of the surplus population of Europe for a long 

 period in the future. Under these circumstances, it is the duty of 

 health authorities to adopt such measures at ports of entry for im- 

 migrants as will contribute to land them upon our shores in such 

 physical condition that they will add to the material prosperity of 

 the country, instead of taxing its resources and increasing its bur- 

 dens. Those who derive a profit from the transportation of immi- 

 grants, as well as those who come to share the blessings which 

 our country affords, are under obligations to supply all the means 

 and to take all the precautions necessary to secure the health of 

 immigrants, and protect our communities from the diseases, devel- 

 oped or latent, with which they too frequently come hand in hand. 

 Improper or insufficient food, imperfectly ventilated and over- 

 crowded steerages during the voyage, are far too frequent. Dur- 

 ing the early part of the year 1888, the steamer ' Comorin ' arrived 

 with 1,263 immigrants; the ' Cachemere,' with 1,411 ; the ' Bohe- 

 mia,' 1,280; 'Chateau Yquem,' 1,228; ' Alesia,' 1,018; and the 

 ' Cashar,' with 1,520. These poor people were crowded between 

 decks most of the time for two weeks, and some for twenty days. 

 During the cholera epidemic in 1887, among the passengers of the 

 ' Alesia ' there was a larger percentage of deaths among those 

 taken sick during the voyage than among those who suffered from 

 the disease while in quarantine. While the passengers of the 

 steamer ' Britannia ' were detained at quarantine the same year 

 on account of cholera, an epidemic of measles developed among 

 them. The symptoms in most cases were more severe, and the 

 fatality much greater, than is usual in that disease, the percentage 

 of fatal cases being something more than fifteen per cent. There 

 is no cause of death given so frequently by the surgeons of immi- 

 grant passenger- steamers as marasmus. The diagnosis should be 



starvation. The victim is always a child at the breast. The 

 mother, prostrated by seasickness, her vitality depressed by the 

 crowd-poisoned air of the steerage, and exhausted for want of 

 proper food, is unable to supply the child with sufficient nourish- 

 ment. The immigrant mother often ceases entirely, for the time 

 being, to afford her infant its accustomed food. The child is then 

 given the only substitute, the coarse fare of the adult immigrant : 

 indigestion, diarrhoea, and death are often the result." 



In speaking of contagious diseases among immigrants. Dr. Smith 

 says that small-pox continues to be one of the most frequent, and 

 is by far the most difficult, latent contagion to arrest by maritime 

 quarantines. The incubative period of the disease being fourteen 

 days, and the average passage of steamers from ports of Europe 

 and the British Isles several days less than that time, the disease 

 may be contracted at the port of departure, or in the interior of 

 Europe, and not develop until the imrriigrant reaches some far 

 interior community in this country. To prevent or limit to a pos- 

 sible minimum the importation of this contagion has enlisted more 

 earnest effort, and has been productive of more anxious reflection 

 on the part of the health-officers, than any other subject during the 

 past nine years. He recommends that all persons who have not 

 been vaccinated within six or eight years should be vaccinated 

 within the first two days after they go on board ship. 



The history of the yellow-fever which occurred on the United 

 States Cruiser "Boston" and the United States sloop -of -war 

 " Yantic " is given in considerable detail. In discussing the origin 

 of the fever on these vessels. Dr. Smith says that neither the " Bos- 

 ton " nor the " Yantic " received anything on board from the shore, 

 while at Port au Prince, except meat and fruit. The fruit, consist- 

 ing of bananas and oranges, was taken to the vessels by natives in 

 what is called " bumboats," and sold to those on board. The 

 main decks of the " Boston " and " Yantic " are so low, that com- 

 munication between those on them and the "bumboats" was 

 easy, and doubtless frequent, while the natives were vending their 

 fruit. The wet, dirty, and sun-heated bottoms and timbers of the 

 boats of the natives, exposed, as they must be at all times when at 

 the shores or wharves, to an infected atmosphere as well as to the 

 infected filth of the gutters that drain into the bay, certainly sup- 

 ply all the conditions necessary for the propagation of the infection. 

 It would be rather a matter of surprise than otherwise, if the boats 

 of the natives were not impregnated with the infection of yellow- 

 fever when it prevails at Port au Prince. The history of the 

 disease on the " Boston " and the "Yantic" affords satisfactory 

 evidence to Dr. Smith that the persons who suffered from it con- 

 tracted the infection while at Port au Prince, and that the infection 

 did not infect either vessel ; in other words, that the infection was 

 limited to the individuals who contracted the infection at that port. 



Dr. Smith refers to the disappearance of cholera from Europe 

 and America. The confident prediction, he says, has not been 

 fulfilled, which was frequently made by wiseacres during the win- 

 ter of 1887-88 and until the spring of 1888 was well advanced, in 

 reference to the cholera infection among the passengers of the 

 "Alesia" and " Britannia " in the fall of 1887; to wit, that the 

 germs of the disease had escaped with the baggage when the 

 immigrants were released from quarantine, and would be propa- 

 gated the ensuing summer until the disease developed into epi- 

 demic proportions. The history of this terrible disease since its first 

 advent in Europe in 1829-30 warranted the suspicion that its arrival 

 at our quarantine was the forerunner and herald of a' disastrous 

 'epidemic of cholera throughout our country. There are but few 

 instances in the history of this disease in which it has not become 

 epidemic in a country soon after it appeared at its threshold. He 

 gives the following interesting history of the cholera during recent 

 years : — 



"In 1882 cholera commenced its deadly march from its home in 

 the Ganges. Its first attack was upon Aden on the Red Sea. 

 Early in 1883 it appeared at Damietta in Egypt, and in June of 

 that year reached Cairo, and subsequently extended to most of the 

 cities and towns of Lower Egypt. Those familiar with the history 

 of cholera then confidently predicted its speedy advent in Europe. 

 These predictions were fulfilled early in the ensuing summer. The 

 first victims of the disease in Europe were at Toulon in the early 

 part of June, 1884. It reached Marseilles the 28th of the same 



