REPORT
oF
THE SELECT COIMMITTEE
THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
ON THE
SICKNESS AND MORTALITY ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS'
AUGUST 2, 1854.
WASHINGTON:
BBVERLEY TUCKER, SENATE PRINTER.
1854.








33d CONGRESS,               [SENATE.]                      REP. COM.
1st Session.                                             No. 386.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
AUGUST 2, 1854.-Ordered to be printed, and that 5,000 extra copies be printed for the use
of the Senate.
Mr. FISH made the following
R1EPORT:
[To accompany Bill S. 489.3
The Select Committee appointed under an order of the Senate of the United
States, passed on the 7th of December, 1853, "to consider the causes and
the extent of the sickness and mortality prevailing on board the emigrant
ships on the voyage to this country, and whether any, and what, legislation
is needed for the better protection of the health and lives of passengers on
board such vessels "-to whom uere also referred a petition of the American
Medical Association, and a petition of inhabitants of New York —respectfilly report:
Under a full sense of the importance of the matter submitted to their
consideration, as well as with reference to the business interests of the
country as to the cause of humanity at large, the committee have
spared no trouble in collecting informiation from such sources as appeared to them  best entitled to their confidence and respect.  With a
view to the procuration of accurate data upon which to form a correct
judgment in the premises, a circular was prepared containing fourteen
questions relative to the police and sanitary management of emigrant
ships, to which specific answers, based as far as practicable upon experience, were requested.  Copies of this circular were addressed and
sent to members of the medical profession, (whose opportunities of
forming correct opinions on the subject had been furnished by experience, and therefore are entitled to consideration,) merchants, navigators who had been engaged in the passenger trade, persons connected
with the collection of the customs, presidents of benevolent societies
for the relief of indigent emigrants, and others throughout the country
and in the cities at which the landing of foreign passengers has chiefly
taken place.  The answers which have been received to these communications are very numerous, and, in many instances, drawn up
with great ability, particularly those from physicians, who, referring to
the diseases which have caused the suffering on board of passenger
ships, have very properly deemed it necessary to treat of their nature
and the causes which have given rise to them.
In disposing of the information thus brought under their consideration, the committee have deemed it best to adopt the course indicated
by the order under which they were appointed, and to treat the subject
under three distinct heads, to wit:




4                    SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
1st. The diseases on board of emigrant ships, and their causes.
2d. The extent of the sickness and mortality.
3d. The means of prevention.
According to the information laid before the committee, the three
diseases by which passenger ships have been chiefly scourged, aretyphus, or ship fever, as it is called when it takes place at sea, cholera,
and small-pox.
Of the first named of these, typhus or ship fever, it is said that "it
is the product of a miasm as distinct as that of marshes, which produces'intermittent fever; and this miasm is itself as necessary a result of certain prior circumstances as the marsh miasm is the product of marshes.
And further, the means for its prevention are as clear and controllable
in the one case as the other. Thus, if an offensive marsh be thoroughly
drained and dried, its peculiar miasm, and the disease which it caused,
will disappear; and so, by preventing the formation of the miasm of
ship fever, (as easy of accomplishment as the other,) that disease will
in like manner be prevented or avoided."
The circumstances referred to are stated to be:
ist. The confinement of a number of people together in apartments
disproportioned in size to their requirements of wholesome respiration.
2d. The retention in the same apartments of the excretions from
the bodies of individuals thus confined; such as the matter of perspiration, the carbonic acid gas and moisture from the breath, and other
more offensive excretions.  These, acted on by the artificial heat of
the apartment, or even by the natural heat of the bodies alone, will
become decomposed and produce an effluvium which will react poisonously on the persons living in it.
3d. Too great exclusion of pule air.
Some, if not all, of these causes are found to exist on board of every
passenger ship in a greater or less degree, and the consequence has
been the mortality which has taken place of late years, the weakness
and enfeebled condition of emigrants generally at the time of embarkation, operating as a predisposing cause of the evil, by rendering them
less able to resist the impression of the poison existing on board of ship.
It appears to be a peculiarity of this miasm that it attaches itself to
everything that it touches-to clothing, bedding, furniture, and the
walls of apartments-by which it is absorbed, and becomes more
virulent in its action in proportion to the length of time during which it
is permitted to remain.  It is stated, upon the highest authority, that
this poison may last in "fomites" for six months, and even for two or
three years.  Dr. Wilson Phillip, in his standard and elaborate work
on fevers, in his chapter on typhus, says:
" Fomites often retain contagion for a great length of time, and may
convey it any distance.  It is a general opinion that fomites more readily communicate the disease, and convey it in a worse form, than the
sick themselves."  Dr. Cullen says "the effluvium constantly arising
from the living human body, if long retained in the same place without
being diffused in the atmosphere, acquires a singular virulence."  And
Dr. Parr, in his medical dictionary, asserts that "fevers caught by recent infection are mild compared with those which arise from contagion
long pent up, styled fomites."




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                       5
In his examination before a committee of the British House of Commons, Dr. William Gladstone states that " men-of-war were fbrmerly
ballasted with shingles; that this ballast was often not shifted for many
years; that when it was turned out it produced fever in several of the
ships; and that this fever assumed the character of the prevailing fever
of the station, (whatever it might be,) at which the vessel happened to
be at the time."
Cholera.-The second        d named of the diseases by which passenger
ships have been infested, is of Asiatic origin.  It first made its appearance in western Europe, in or about the year 1832, and committed its
fearful ravages without regard to the rank or station of its victims.
What at first appeared. to be but temporary, has, of later years, assumed
the character of a regular disease, to which mankind are subject, in
common with the other maladies that flesh is heir to. In one respect,
it seems to differ from the typhus fever, being generally an epidnic,
which typhus never is. The open air always puts an end to typhus or
ship fever, whereas, cholera is controlled by no such corrective, but
wings its deadly flight over the prairie and the prison-house alike. Although this fearful disorder confines itself to no precise localities, there
appear to be circumstances under which it is peculiarly apt to make
its appearance.  These circumstances have been ascertained to be in
a. great degree similar to those which give rise to typhus fever.  The
poor and vicious, whose vital powers are enfeebled by want of wholesome  nutritious food  and  close confinement, or criminal excess,
are found to be much more liable to its filry than persons who have
good nourishing food in abundance, take regular exercise, and abstain
from indulgences that weaken the general tone of the system, whilst
they add to the nervous excitability of the body.  Dr. Griscom, of
New York, whose opportunities of observation have been very numerous as agent of the board of commissioners of emigration, to whom the
charge of this class of patients is entrusted, thinks that the miasm
of typhus is the direct product of the vitiated excretions of the human
body, pent up within a small space, and made to engender a malaria,
the inhalation of' which, to a certain degree, produces this peculiar disease; whereas cholera, by disabling the system, renders it liable to be
overcome by the choleric poison at an earlier period than that at which
typhus fever makes its appearance.  Your committee do not propose
to discuss this point, as it is not necessary to inquire whether human
life be destroyed directly or indirectly, provided that exemption from
destruction can be procured by the'removal of the exciting causes of
disease and death.  Cholera, it is true, often appears and disappears
without any apparent cause, a fact the reason fbr which is still hidden
from the eye of science, and can only be explained by time and experience.
It is sufficient to know that if the body be kept in a healthy wellbalanced condition, and its functions be not interrupted by any disturbing causes, it may, in the generality of cases, bid defiance to the
assaults of disease, in these or any other forms. It is believed that the
same rules of conduct are necessary for the prevention, so far as practicable, of both of these maladies, with perhaps the exception of those
relating to disinfection; unless, as some suppose, cholera be contagious,
as well as typhus fever. As to the theories, entertained by some, that




6                    -SICKNESS AND MQRTALITY
cholera on ship board arises from the virus of the disease having been
imbibed by the persons or clothing -of passengers, previously to embarcation, or that it is met with in certain zones, through which the
ships pass in reaching the western continent, your committee will only
remark that all that can be done by the owners of passenger ships is
to prevent the existence of any exciting cause of sickness on board of
them, or of any state of things by which it may be nourished and sustained if contracted elsewhere.  In reference to the idea that disease
is caused by passing through certain zones, it is proper to remark, that
the hypothesis appears to be contradicted by the fact, that it frequently
happens that vessels leaving the same port on or about the same day,
and arriving at their point of destination about the same time, are
differently affected by sickness.  If there be anything in the atmosphere
of particular zones or belts, it must be encountered alike by ships sailing probably within a few miles of each other, propelled by the same
winds and standing on the same courses.  Admitting the poison to be
in the air, the natural inference would be that the same cause would.affect all ships within the same limits, similarly situated on the bosom
of the ocean, in the same way; and that sickness would be produced
on board of all alike.  Such, however, appears not to be the case.
The ship Lucy Tholmpson, after a passage of 29 days, arrived at New
York, from Liverpool, on the 11th of September, 1853, with the loss of
40 out of 835 passengers by cholera.  The William Stetson, arrived
on the same day, after a passage of 31 days, with 355 passengers,
having lost none on the passage, and the Great Western arrived on the
day previous, 10th September,ftr after a passage of 31 days, with 832:passengers, no death having occurred on board. On the 19th of September, 1853, the Isaac Webb arrived at New York from Liverpool,
with 773 passengers, 77 having died of cholera, after a passage of 29
days.  On the next day, the Roscius arrived from the same port with
-495 passengers, after a passage of 35 days, 6 days longer than that of
the Isaac Webb, no death having taken place.  On the 21st of September the Leviathan arrived at New  York, from the same port, after
a passage of 35 days, with 559 passengers, and without any deaths on
board, and the Northern Chief, arrived on the same day from the same
port, after a passage of the same, with 626 passengers, and no deaths.
On the 15th of October the Montezuma arrived at New York, firom
Liverpool, in fbrty-one days, with four hundred and four passengers,
and a loss of two; while the Marmion arrived on the same day, after a
passage of twenty-five days, with two hundred and ninety-five passengers, and a loss of thirty-six by cholera.
On the 29th of October the Lady Franklin arrived, after a passage
of fbrty-four days, with seven hundred and forty-one passengers, and
without loss; while the Albert Gallatin, which sailed from  the same
port on the same day with the Lady Franklin, arrived on the 30th, the
day following, after a passage of ibrty-five days, with seven hundred and
fifty-six passengers, lost thirty-eight by cholera.
On the 1st of November the Constitution arrived at New York, from
Liverpool, after a passage of fifty-three days, with six hundred and
seventy-one passengers, and without loss; while the Forest King arrived




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                      7
on the same day, after a passage of forty-eight days, with five hundred
and fifty-eight passengers, and a loss of forty-two by cholera.
The New York arrived at New York, fiom Liverpool, on the 21st of
October, after a passage of forty-three days, with a loss of sixteen out
of four hundred and thirty-four passengers.  The Progress arrived on
the same day, from the same port, after' a passage of forty-five days,
and with a loss of seventeen out of four hundred and twenty-eight p.assengers by cholera; while the William  Nelson, which arrived on the
same day, after a passage of fbrty-six days, with four hundred and
twenty-eight passengers, had not a single death.  The State Rights
also arrived on the same day, after obrty-seven days' passage, with
three hundred and sixty-two passengers, and without a death.
The Washington arrived at New York on the 23d of October, after a
passage of forty-one days, with nine hundred and fifty-two passengers,
and a loss of eighty-one; while the Guy Manneringl arrived on the 25th
of the same month, after thirty-seven days' passage, with seven hundred and eighty-one passengers, and without loss.
These examples might be multiplied almost at pleasure, showing
that vessels which left the same port almost at the same time, and
reached the same point of destination about the same time, and consequently may be supposed to have been in the same latitudes, and subject to the same winds at the same moment, suffered very differently.
If the state of the external air produced the disease, why, your conmittee would ask, were not ships similarly situated affected in the same
manner, and to something like the same extent?  The cases presented
show to the minds of the committee conclusively that the disease on
board of these vessels is to be attributed to some exciting cause which
existed within themselves, and cannot be refirred, with any show of'
reason, to the condition of the atmosphere or the prevalence of certain
winds on the ocean.
Of small pox-the last named of' the three diseases fiom which passenger ships have suffered most extensively-no description is deemed
necessary, as, unfortunately, its peculiar characteristics are but too well
known.  The frightful ravages of this disorder, prior to the discovery
by the great benefactor to his kind, (Jenner,) that the introduction of the
vaccine virus would produce a disease which would disarm small pox
of more than half of its terrors, have left traces in the Old World not to
be effaced and never to be forgotten.  It is sufficient to say that the
rules which apply to the prevention of typhus,or ship fever and cholera.
are, in the main, also applicable in the case of small pox.
The next branch of the subject to which the committee would respectfully call the attention of the Senate is the extent of' the sickness
and mortality on board of emigrant ships.
In prosecuting their inquiries and investigations upon this head, the
committee have been met by many and serious difficulties. The sources
of information to which they looked with most confidence for accurate
details have been the records of the custom-houses at the ports at which
the greater portion of the emigrant ships arrive. Even in that quarter
disappointment has to an important extent attended their labors, although
circulars were addressed to the collectors of the ports of Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and New Orleans, and also




8.SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
to the municipal and local authorities at some of these and other places
and elsewhere.  The gentlemen to whom these circulars were addressed have responded to the call thus made upon them with a promptness and alacrity which do them honor, and lay the committee under
great obligation.  Unfortunately, however, the returns received are not
so full, detailed, and accurate as could have been desired. This deficiency is not to be referred to any.want of care on the part of the officers alluded to, whose reports are in accordance with the requisitions
of the acts of Congress in which their respective duties are defined, but
rather to the peculiar character of the information required by the committee, and to the insufficiency and inaccuracy of the reports made to
the collectors by the masters of vessels.  The requisitions under the
laws for the collection of the revenue having for their object, in the first
place, the ascertainment of the value of the merchandise to be assessed
with a view to the revenue to be collected, the returns relating to the
health of passengers have engaged but a secondary importance.
Generally speaking, the health of those " who go down to the sea in
ships" has been so great, until of late years, that the mortality prevailing on ship board has not excited interest enough to require sufficient
statistics in regard to it to form a part of the regular returns to the
government.  Hence it has occurred that the reports at the various
custom-houses have not been either accurately or uniformly made.
Even at New York, the great commercial emporium of the country,
the list of arrivals furnished by the collector does not always state the
number of deaths, while it omits entirely to notice those who are landed
sick, a point of much importance in connection with the duties of the
committee.  In this respect the return of the health officer of New
York, who holds his appointment under the authority of that State, is
more full and satisfactory. In order to overcome the difficulty that
here presented itself, the dommittee determined to adopt as their guide
the report of the collector, who, being an officer of the federal government, may be considered as more immediately connected with Congress, and at the same time to note the discrepancies between it and
the report of the health officer, adopting such features of the latter as
are not presented in the former.
With this view a table has been prepared, marked C, including the
last four months of the year 1853, during which the sickness and mortality prevailed to the greatest extent, shewing the number of arrivals
at New York of passenger ships, the number of passengers according
to the report of the collector, the number of deaths during the passage
as stated by him, designating the number reported to have arisen from.
cholera, and the number landed sick at New  York, as stated by the
health officer, so as to present at one glance the state of the whole
matter.
It will be seen by table marked A that, according to the annual reports of the Secretary of State to Congress, the whole number of passengers arrived in the United States during the last ten years, say fiom
October 1, 1843, to December 31, 1853, is 2,270,847.  These statements do not give the number of deaths during the passage, nor of those
landed sick.  According to the above authority the number of arrivals
in 1l853 was 400,777.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                      9
The reports of the collectors of the ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and New Orleans show an aggregate
of passengers arrived at those ports during the year 1853 of 370,902,
and of deaths during passage of 2,444, as will be seen on reference to
table marked —, the returns made by the collectors to the Secretary of
State under the act of 1819, and embodied in his annual report to Congress, (Ex. Doc. No. 78, H. R., 1st sess. 33d Cong.,) show the number
of arrivals during the year at those ports to have been 395,325.  In
the reports from Boston and New York the aggregates, as given by the
superintendent of alien passengers at the former, and the health officer
at the latter, do not agree with those of the collectors, but, fbr the reasons already assigned, the committee have thought proper to base their
calculations upon the returns of the collectors, they being officers of the
federal government.
From the above returns it appears that the number of deaths, as well
as the per centage of mortality among the passengers on board of New
York vessels, has been considerably greater than those of vessels trading to Boston and other ports. This might have been, perhaps, expected, for a variety of reasons. New York being the great commercial
emporium of the Union, passengers from every country in Europe have
been induced to regard it as the point to which they should direct their
courses.  Hence the huge structures furnished by the enterprise of
that great metropolis for the transportation of passengers have been
crowded to excess, and, as a necessary consequence, the causes of disease have existed on board of those vessels to a greater extent than on
any other.  In general the per centage of deaths decreases in proportion as the numbers of passengers are less, and it is found that where
passengers have been distributed in smaller numbers, disease and death
have been less prevalent. The table shows that the smallest per centage of deaths has occurred on vessels from ports of Europe other than
those of Liverpool, London, Bremen, Hamburgh, and Havre, which,
being out of the great thoroughfares of commerce, have presented
fewer attractions to the great mass of emigrants. The vessels from
these ports, being less crowded, are more easily ventilated and kept
clean, and present greater facilities for the proper preparation of the
food of the passengers, and for their exercise in good weather.
During the four last months of 1853, 312 vessels arrived at New
York fiom European ports, with 96,950 passengers.  Of these vessels
47 were visited by cholera, and 1,933 passengers died at sea, while
457 were sent to the hospitals on landing, there, in all probability, to
terminate in a short time their miserable existence, making nearly two
per cent. of deaths among the whole number of persons who had embarked for the New World, and nearly two and a half per cent. if those
who were landed sick be included. On board of the 47 vessels attacked
by cholera the number of passengers was 21,857, of whom 1,821 (being
8.48 per cent.) died on the passage, and 284 were landed sick, making
9.68 per cent. of dead and diseased in an average passage of 39 days.
(See annexed table marked C.)
Of the arrivals above mentioned 112 were from Liverpool, with an
average of 435 passengers on each.  Twenty-four of these vessels,
with an average of 577 passengers, or an average excess of 142 pas



10                 A-SICKNESS AN-D MORTALITY
sengers each over the general average of the whole number of vessels,
had cholera on board.
Of twenty vessels which arrived from  London, five had cholera on
board.  The average number of passengers on board the vessels attacked by cholera was 411 each, while that of the whole number was
but 326.
Of fifty-two vessels which arrived from  Bremen, three had cholera
on board. The average of passengers each on board of the whole number of vessels was 201, while the average on board of those attacked
by cholera was 259.
Of twenty-two vessels that arrived from Hamburg, six had cholera.
Of forty-two vessels which arrived fiom Havre, six had cholera. The
average on board of the whole number of ships was 409, while on
board of the six cholera ships the average was 561.
Of sixty-four vessels which arrived from other ports of Europe, three
had cholera on board.  The average of passengers on board of the
whole number of these ships was 148, while that on board of the ships
attacked by cholera was 185.
The average on board of the whole number of vessels (312) that arrived fiom Europe during the four months was 311, while the average
on board of the forty-seven that had cholera was 465. The average
on board, of the vessels which arrived, exclusive of those with cholera',
was 283, showing that the cholera vessels carried an average excess of
182 each over those that were in comparison healthy.
Of the vessels which escaped from cholera, there were thirty-three —
carrying on an average 335 passengers each —on board of which deaths
occurred.  On these vessels, the number of deaths was 112 out of
11,044 passengers.
It appears from the above statement of facts, that the ships on board
of which cholera broke out were those which were most crowded with
passengers, and that the vessels on board of which deaths from other
diseases occurred were the next most crowded, whilst the residue,
which were healthy, had the lowest average of passengers.
These facts speak for themselves, and make any commentary on the
part of the committee unnecessary. In connexion with the above, it
may be stated that nearly twenty-one and one-half per cent. of the
ships from  Liverpool were attacked by cholera; twenty-five per cent.
of those from  London; less than six per cent. of those fiom Bremen;
nearly thirty-three and one-third per cent. of those from  Hamburgh;
upwards of twelve per cent. of those from Havre; and only about four
and one-half per cent. of those from other ports of Europe were visited
by it. From this, it would seem that this frightful malady delights in
pursuing the great thoroughfares of commerce and international intercourse, while, comparatively speaking, it overlooks the bye paths along
which mankind pursue their way in smaller groups.
While medical men all agree that the want of fresh wholesome air
on board of passenger ships is one of the most prominent causes, if not
the most so, of the sad mortality which has prevailed, there seems to
be much diversity of opinion as to the sufficiency of the means of ventilation as prescribed by the laws in existence, as well as the space to
be allotted to each adult passenger. The space at present required by




ON BOARD.EMIGRANT SHIPS.                    i1
the laws of the United States, -is fourteen superficial feet, when the
height, between decks, is not less than six feet; sixteen feet when it is
less than six feet and not less than five feet; or twenty-two feet when
it is less than five feet. As it appears to your committee, the quantity
of wholesome respirable air.to be'secured to the occupant or occupants
of the apartment assigned to them  is the important point to be settled,
space should be calculated with reference to ventilation.  A room c.
ten feet, thoroughly well ventilated, may be occupied with health and
comfort by a given number, when a. room of.twice the size, shut up
and deprived of a current of air, will become unwholesome in the
course of a few hours, from the want of oxygen, and be injurious to the
health of the same amount of occupants.  The atmosphere, when
charged with the effluvia caused by the excretions of the human body,
if inhaled into the lungs, will inevitably produce disease and death.
So, with the same means of ventilation, apartments situated in different
parts of a ship, may, or rather must be unequally ventilated, and some
of them  may be unhealthy while others are perfectly wholesome.
From this it is evident that nogeneral rule can be equally effective, mnd
reach every case, inasmuch as the peculiar conformation and internal
arrangements of each ship must have a. very material influence in ascertaining, with exactness, the extent of the means to be used in effecting a thorough ventilation.  The opinions furnished to the committee,
in regard to space, are in a high degree conflicting, some of them being
in favor of the sufficiency of the provisions contained in the present
laws, while others pronounce them to be totally inadequate.  This antagonism of opinion may, in part at least, be accounted for by the fict
that the interests of those fiom  whom  they emanate are opposed.
Generally speaking, the parties to be accommodated and their friends
deem the present provisions insufficient, while those who are required
to incur the expenses of a. change, with a few exceptions, think differently.  For instance, some of those who have been consulted say that
the present tubular ventilators answer the purpose for which they are
intended, while others insist that they are totallyinadequate, and that
windsails should be used; while others again assert that the noxious
gasses enter into the various openings and corners of the apartments,
and can only be gotten rid of by the use of a powerful forcing apparatus.  Of windsails, some again allege that, in practice, they are useless,
as those of the passengers who happen to come under the influence of
the current of air are rendered uncomfortable by it and tie them up,
and thus render them  totally inoperative. On the respective merits of
these modes of ventilation the committee are not sufficiently informed
to express a judgment.
The committee would, however, state that it appears to them reasonable to suppose that the air which is loaded with the exhalations froma
the human body finds its way into the.holes and recesses formed by the
permanent structure of the ship, the berths, (placed, as they generally
are, transversely, and having small spaces underneath them,) and the
luggage of the passengers.  These recesses cannot, it would seem, be
materially affected by any ordinary current of air passing gently through
the apartment, and can only be reached and cleansed of their contents
by the operation of some appliance which shall cause the volume of




12                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
fresh air to be distributed to every portion of the apartment occupied by
the passengers.  The committee would further remark, in connexion
with this part of the subject, that the transverse position of the berths
alluded to, while, so far as they can see, it can answer no good end,
must contribute very much to increase the number of places inaccessible to ordinary means of ventilation, and thereby tend to render the
sleeping apartments of passengers unwholesome. It would further seem,
that the receiving and discharging ends of the tubular ventilators, being
at about the same elevation, the current of air through them must be of
very moderate velocity, and, notwithstanding the progress of the vessel,
which during light winds is slow, scarcely sufficient to expel from  the
nooks and corners of the hold the noxious gasses, the inhalation of which
produces disease.  Under such circumstances, the committee repeat
the opinion, that nothing short of some powerful agency will be effective
in expelling the foul air, and enabling passengers to inhale a wholesome
and healthtul atmosphere.  In connexion with the subject of ventilation,
the committee would respectfully ask the attention of the Senate to the
occupation of the orlop or lowest deck in ships having three decks,
upon which emigrants are frequently stowed in passenger vessels. Notwithstanding the almost total absence of fresh air or light in these apartments, the desire to derive profit fiom every portion of' the vessel has
appropriated even this to the occupation of passengers.  According to
the statements of persons well informed on the subject, these places,
when occupied by passengers, not only become the depositories of the
most noisome filth, which can neither be reached nor removed, but they
give rise to a stench and effluvium, which, rising to the upper decks,
tend to render them unhealthy.  Some of the persons from whom communications have been received, are of opinion that the orlop deck may
be appropriated to passengers with safety, provided the space allotted
to each be considerably increased; but the almost universal opinion
appears to be, that the use of it for this purpose should be prohibited by
law.  When the form  of the immense structures built fir passenger
ships is considered, it is evident that the apartment alluded to must be
almost entirely deprived of air and light, as it lies next to the kelson;
and is entirely under water, and it appears almost incomprehensible
that human beings should be required to occupy it. The committee have
no hesitation in coinciding in opinion with those who recommend the
prohibition of the use of the orlop deck as a. sleeping apartment, and
have, therefore, inserted in the law herewith reported a provision to that
effect.
With reference to the supply of wholesome air on board of passenger ships, the following remarks of Dr. Griscom, of New York, are so
judicious and practical, and occuy so small a space that the committee
do not hesitate to insert them entire.
" The next point of inquiry will be the extent of cubic area, which
each passenger should be allowed.  Several elements are found pertaining to this calculation. On the principle before laid down,'that
the more active the ventilation of an apartment, the more it may be
crowded with impunity,' it will at once be seen that in the allotment
of space for passengers, the height of; and the freedom  of circulation
of air throughl the steerage should be taken into account. The appliaD0pl~.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                   13
cation of this principle would have a salutary effect upon the owners of
passenger ships, in inducing them to make the steerages of the greatest
possible height, and introduce the most effective means of ventilation,
as thereby they would obtain the privilege of the greater number of
passengers.
" But as in the case of the height of the ceiling, a minimum amount
of free cubic space should be affixed by law. In relation to the question of what this should be, a diversity of opinion exists among well
informed men. It involves the point of the amount of air requisite for
the wholesome respiration of an individual for a given space of time.
The estimates of the amount required for an adult per minute, and
which at the end of that time must be entirely removed to avoid the
risk of reinhalation, vary from four to ten cubic feet. This with the air
at rest and not communicating with the general atmosphere. With a
free communication between the general atmosphere and that of the
apartment, whereby the carbonic acid gas and other exhalations can
be freely diffused abroad, ten cubic feet per minute is probably more
than is needed, but the lower figure given above is, on the other hand,
to small. The famous Black Hole of Calcutta, we are informed,
was about eighteen feet square, and it was probably not over ten feet
high. This gives it an area of 3,240 cubic feet. On the fatal night
which has given it so great notoriety, it was made to contain 146 persons, thus allowing to each only 22 cubic feet, though as each body
excelled an equal bulk of air, it was probably not near so much as that.
At the lowest estimate mentioned above, (4 feet,) before five minutes
elapsed after the door was shut upon them, the haplss victims began
to reinhale their own exhalations, and this process was, of course, repeated, at each similar successive period, until death began to reduce
their numbers.  They were confined there about ten hours, and
although there was an open window on one side, twenty-three only
survived till morning, and they  were in a " high putrid fever,"
(typhus.)
" I allude to this oft quoted case, chiefly for the purpose of showing
those not familiar with this topic, and who may be sufficiently interested
in this subject to read this communication, what are the true principles
upon which a calculation for the allotment of space for emigrant passengers should be based. Any more minute detail in this already too long
paper of the elements of this calculation, would probably be considered
as burdensome. I may state, in concluding this part of the subject,
that a recent examination of the two steerages of one of the largest packets
belonging to this port, New York, (authorized by the present law to
carryover nine hundred,) gave as the cubic feet for each passenger,
not deducting the room occupied by the necessary solid contents of the
bodies of the passengers, for the upper apartment 103 feet, and for the
lower 112 feet. This vessel, on her last homeward voyage, lost one
hundred passengers at sea.
"In my opinion, not less than 250 to 300 cubic feet should be given
to each passenger."
With reference to the cooking arrangements, the information furnished
to the committee is contradictory, but the weight of opinion is clearly in
favor of the food of the passengers being not only furnished, but also




14                  SICKNESS AD MORTALITY
cooked by persons belonging to the vessel. Independently of the fact,
that the food can be better done and more regularly served by an agent
of the ship than by persons entirely ignorant of cookery, and suffering
under sickness and other ailments, not to mention the depression of
mind attendant on leaving  the homes of their nativity forever, this
arrangement has the advantage of placing in the hands of the captain a
very effective method of enforcing good order and cleanliness among
the passengers.  To cook for hundreds of persons, even with the most
ample accommodations, requires regularity and' system, but when every
man becomes his own cook, and prepares his food whenever whim or
inclination may dictate, the proper preparation of the provisions is next
to an impossibility.  The apparatus lor cooking on board of ships of
the largest size, consists of a caboose in the proportion of four feet long
and one and a half feet wide for every two hundred passengers. At
this caboose all the victuals must be cooked between certain hours, as the
fire is put out at a fixed time to ensure the safety of the vessel. In
attempting to effect this, the sick are brought into conflict with the
healthy, and the weak with the strong, and when such is the case, it is
an easy matter to imagine who are the sufferers. The sick, to whom
nutricious food properly prepared is essential, have no chance whatever
in such a contest, and are forced to retire without cooking their food at
all, or after preparing it only in such a manner as to make it the cause of
sickness, and, perhaps, death. Even with the robust and strong the- use
of half cooked food is almost sure to produce indisposition; but when
invalids, laboringunder affections of the stomach and intestines, are
obl'iged to take it, the inevitable consequence is serious if not fatal disease.  So far as cholera is concerned, experience has shown that nothing will produce it, in cases of predisposition that way, sooner than the
consumption of meats. or vegetables improperly cooked. What chance
then, the committee would ask, have these miserable creatures, closely
confined, and breathing a noisome atmosphere, sea-sick, and depressed'
in spirit, and withal required to prepare their own food, from which
they are preventedby the selfish and hard-hearted.
In view of these facts the committee are of opinion not only that the
provisions should be furnished by the ship, as when purchased in; large
quantities by competent judges, they are more likely to be of a good
and uniform quality; but the cooking should also be done by the ship's
cook or his assistants, and the food served out at certain hours of the
day to passengers individually, or to' messes, as may be found most
convenient. In case messes are formed, the distribution' can be made
to caterers appointed by each, who can, in turn, divide the food among
the members of their respective messes. Such an arrangement would
possess the advantage of uniformity and regularity, and prevent all impositions by the strong and healthy upon the feeble and infirm, and, as
a consequence, be the means of avoiding the heart-burnings and iFlfeeling which cannot fail to attend a competition for the use of the fire.
With regard to the rule regulating the distribution of passengers, or
rather the apportionment of them, two modes present themselves by
which the end may be effected. One of these- modes is to graduate
the number to be received by the tonnage of the vessel, by allowing a
passenger for every given number of tons; the other is to allow to each




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     15
passenger a certain number of superficial feet, reference being had to
the height of the apartments. The first of these standards was formerly
in use, but was abandoned on account of the inequality of register tonnage, growing out of the difference of the models according to which
ships are constructed.  It is universally known that the vessels of this
country are modelled very differently from those of Europe generally,
and more especially those of Great Britain. American ships being
built for speed, are usually much sharper than those of the United
Kingdom, which are constructed more with a view to capacity for
cargo than making quick passages.  This difference is said to have
arisen, in- a measure, from- a desire on the part of British ship owners to
avoid the tonnage duty, which is graduated according to measurements
which do not involve the actual capacity for cargo; a vessel of a given
register tonnage, being capable of receiving many more tons of cargo
than the register would indicate. Hence it is evident that a ship built
after the British fashion would have much more space for passengers
between decks than one constructed after the American style, and with
a-view to making quick passages; the former being full -and rounded,
while the latter is sharp, and if the expression may be allowed, lean in
its figure, and of a much greater draught of water in proportion to its
length and breadth of beam. For a practical illustration of what is
here stated- it is only necessary to compare the American clipper-built
ships, now so much in vogue, with the heavy, capacious vessels in use
in the British commercial marine.  To avoid this inequality of operation involved in the law as it formerly stood, the standard of allowance
was changed so as to throw tonnage out of the calculation, and to allot
to- each adult passenger fourteen superficial feet of deck, in cases where
the height between decks is not less than six feet; sixteen feet when
less than six, but more than five in height, and twenty-two feet when
less than five feet in. height. Of the expediency of the above change,
serious doubts have been entertained by very sensible practical men,
as in many instances it has been found mischievous, by allowing ships
to carry enormous crowds of passengers, for whom there was no accommodation consistent with their comfort or health.  Experience
seems to indicate a cormbination of the two modes as the best course, as
by adopting the tonnage feature, the over-crowding of ships will be
prevented, while on the other hand, the ascertainment of the exact
space to be allotted to each passenger will tend much to the promotion
of his comfort and the preservation of his health.
The information laid before the committee in regard to the propriety
of employing regular physicians, and nurses, and hospital assistants on
board of passenger ships, goes to confirm the impressions already entertained by them upon that point.  There are very many reasons why
such an arrangement should exist. Such an officer would be of incalculable service, not only in ascertaining the condition of the vessel, with
regard to the health of the passengers, but in prescribing the best mode
of preventing or overcoming evils connected: with the sanitary administration which none but an experienced eye can detect.  The statements
of such an officer, in regard to deaths happening on board, would, of
course, be of great weight, and frequently prevent erroneous impressions, affecting the commander of the vessel and his officers.  The ob



16                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
servations of an experienced physician, in cases of visitations, by disease, such as have occurred within the last year or two, would be of
great value to the world of medical science, and aid in an essential degree, the cause of philosophy and general knowledge. For these, and
other reasons, the committee are decidedly of opinion that such an arrangement would be desirable; but taking into view the uncertainty of
the number of passengers that may be on board, and other circumstances, they cannot see how it can properly be made the subject of
effective legislation.
As to the propriety of separating the passengers, according to sex,
so far as may be consistent with the union of families, with a view to
the prevention of the shocking immoralities said to be practised on
board of passenger ships, it is believed there can be but one opinion;
but unfortunately, the committee have, in the course of their investigations, been forced to entertain great doubts of the practicability of such
a measure, owing, in part, to the existing mode of constructing vessels.
The entire separation proposed can only be effected, as the committee
think, by the construction of permanent partitions which shall divide
from each other the apartments allotted to the sexes respectively, and
the establishment of separate entrances to these apartments. Now,
it is acknowledged on all hands, that proper ventilation is indispensable
to the well being and health of persons crowded together as these people are on board of these ships. In order to ventilate these vessels
properly throughout the steerage, with the means now used, it is necessary that the current of' fresh air shall be made to pass from one end of
the ship to the other. The permanent partitions intended to divide the
apartments of the different sexes must, of necessity, be constructed
transversely, and cannot fail to prevent the passage of air above alluded
to; a difficulty, which, so far as the committee are aware, can only be
obviated by the erection of slat partitions, which would impair the privacy which is so much desired, at the same time that it would interpose
some obstruction to the free current of air through the steerage.
In the second place, with respect to the separate entrances to the different apartments, it is believed that vessels are uniformly built with
but two hatchways, and that to effect the object proposed, it will be
necessary to introduce a third for the especial purpose. This might
perhaps be done in vessels hereafter built, but as any change in the
law must operate on the vessels now in existence, the question presents
itself-what is to be done with the ships now in the passenger trade?
To this question the committee can find no satisfactory answer, and
therefore would express their fears that, however desirable, the measure
is difficult of attainment by specific legislation. In coming to this conclusion, the committee feel great regret, as they, in common with all
well-thinking persons, view with a feeling amounting to disgust and
horror, the improper intercourse said frequently to exist, not only between passengers of different sexes, but between the crew and female
passengers, whose peculiar situation renders them accessible to the advances of the dissolute and unprincipled.
The committee are, however, happy to believe that the subject is in
a great degree within the power of control by the master of the ship,
-and that an assignment of births in different parts of the vessel can be




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     17
made, separated so as not to interfere with a sufficient ventilation, but
protected against intrusion by a well considered and well enforced system of police on board ship.  The details of such separation and of
such system of police cannot be prescribed by legislation, but must be
left for the present to the captain or master of the ship, on whom devolves a weight of moral responsibility in case of neglect, far greater
than the responsibility arising from the property entrusted to his
charge.
If this intercourse can be prevented, or even abated, it becomes the
absolute duty of every commander of a ship to institute rules to that
effect, which shall be enforced with the utmost strictness; and a failure on his part to do so should be regarded by his employer as a sufficient cause for severe censure, if not dismissal.  Neglect or omission in
this respect involves the ship owner in just censure, as a watchfulness
on his part in regard to the adoption of proper regulations, and of a
proper police on board of his ship, would do much towards effecting an
immediate cure of the evil; while the committee believe, in the construction of ships hereafter to be built, an effectual separation may be
ensured, while a thorough ventilation may at the same time be secured
for each of the separate apartments.
Having thus disposed of the topics presented to their consideration
by the answers to the questions contained in their circular, the committee will now ask attention to a suggestion which had previously engaged their serious consideration, but was forcibly presented to their
notice by the Board of Health of Philadelphia, and which, in their
opinion, is entitled to the greatest and most favorable attention. The
great difficulty of preparing a general law which shall embrace in its
operation a11 of the minute points involved in the management of passenger ships, and effectively place the passenger and ship-owner on
the best possible footing, must present itself to every mind. In the
first place, our country being the general receptacle of emigrants from
almost every country of Europe, it becomes necessary so to legislate
as to avoid coming into conflict with the legislation of the countries
whence these people come, and at the same time protect their interests
and the interests of American citizens at home and abroad.  Great
Britain,* France, the various nations of Germany, the Hanseatic cities,
have all of them  their passenger laws, in which they prescribe the
terms upon those who emigrate from among them  shall be conveyed
across the ocean.  These laws or regulations include not only the
equipment and nautical management of the ships engaged in this trade,
but also prescribe such dietary provisions as to their makers respectively appear essential to the health and comfort of passengers. To
legislate in this country, therefore, so as not to come into conflict with
these foreign enactments on some of the many minute points which
present themselves in the treatment of such a subject, requires an extent and accuracy of information on details difficult to attain, and
would involve a minuteness and variety of legislative enactment suited
* The emigrant passenger act of Great Britain was communicated to the Senate of the
United States, with a message of the President of the United States. at the present session,
and was printed. (See Ex. Doc. No. 58, 1st session, 33d Congress, Senate.)
2




18                  SICKNESS ANID MORTALITY
to the local requirements of each country whence emigrants seek a
home on our shores, and liable to become oppressive whenever a
change of policy suggests a change in those foreign enactments.  It is,
of course, the intention of every law-maker that the laws passed by him
shall be enforced; and to place enactments on the statute book which
cannot be carried into effect, without subjecting those who are governed
by them to difficulty and annoyance from foreign countries, is worse
than useless. That such a state of things at present exists, under the
passenger laws now in force, has been proved by experience; and
those engaged in the transportation of passengers do not hesitate to say
that the laws under which they are acting are in many respects impracticable, unless at great expense and loss to the American shipowner. It is only necessary to allude to one case of the kind by way
of illustration. The acts of Congress require that every passenger ship
shall be furnished with provisions of a certain description to a given amount.
An American ship goes to Bremen or Hamburg and there takes on board
a cargo of passengers. The laws of those cities require that all passenger ships sailing from them with passengers shall be supplied with
a prescribed amount of certain provisions, which are specified. Now,
in order to comply with the regulation of the port whence he sails for
America, the American captain must provide a supply of the articles
required by the local law, and, at the same time, to comply with the
law of his own country, he must be provided with the food called for
by the act of-Congress.  This single case involves a double expense
in the provisions made for the subsistence of passengers. To obviate
this difficulty, it has been the desire of the committee to present a law
which shall, in its general operation, provide for the safety and comfort
of passengers, and, at the same time, leave the management of minute
details in the hands of those whose interest as well as business it is to
be thoroughly acquainted with them. It is utterly impossible for Congress to know what is required in each case to make a ship comfortable and healthy. One ship may be ventilated and made perfectly
wholesome for passengers by a process which in another vessel, and
under different circumstances, would be totally inadequate. It would,.
therefore, be best, in the opinion of the committee, to leave the means
by which ships are made safe and comfortable mainly at the disposal
of their owners, and, at the same time, to make them responsible for
any untoward results that may attend the administration of their own
affairs. It is under this point of view that the suggestion to which
reference has been made assumes a degree of importance which entitles it to the greatest and most favorable consideration of Congress.
In a report on quarantine, presented to both houses of Parliament by
command of her Majesty the Queen of England, published in London in
1849, signed by Lords Carlisle and Ashby, and Edwin Chadwick and
T. Southward Smith, in which the subject is elaborately discussed, the
following remarks occur:
" Nevertheless, the experience of the mercantile navy itself affords
an example of the successful working of a large preventive principle
of jurisprudence; that is to say, the principle of concentrating responsibility on those who have a direct interest in prevention, and who possess the




oN BtOARD E:MIGRANT SHIPS.                  19
best fneans of securing it. We would request attention to those examples
as subjects for international consideration."
The report then goes on to say:
"It is stated that when the system of transportation was first adopted, in some of the earlier voyages, full one-half of those who embarked
were lost; later, on the passage to New South Wales, as in the' Hillsborough,' out of three hundred and six who embarked one hundred
were lost and, in another ship, the' Atlas,' out of one hundred and
seventy-five embarked sixty-one were lost. Yet there were no omissions palpable to common observation, or which could be distinctly
proved as matter of crimination to which responsibility might be attached.  The shippers were, no doubt, honorable men, chargeable with
no conscious designs against the lives of the human beings committed
to their care, and with no unusual omissions; but their thoughts were
directed by their interests, exclusively to profits; they got as much
freight as they could, and they saw no reason why convicts or emigrants should not put up with temporary inconveniences to make room
for cargo.
"By a simple change, (based on the principle of self interest, the
most uniform, general, and when properly directed, really beneficent of
all principles of action,) by the short alteration of the terms of the contract, so as-to apply the motive where alone there was the effectual
means of prevention, by engaging to pay for those landed alive, instead
of paying for all those embarked, these extreme horrors were arrested;
the generation of extensive mortal epidemics was, in a short time, prevented, and clean bills of health might have been given to all the ships
which before would have been entitled to none. From the report of
the select committee on transportation, in the year 1812, it appears that
in one period, namely, from 1795 to 1801, out of three thousand eight
hundred and. thirty-three convicts embarked three hundred and eightyfive died, being nearly one in ten. But since 1801, after the principle
of responsibility began to be applied, out of two thousand three hundred and ninety-eight embarked only fifty-two have died, being one in
forty-six. The improvement has continued up to the present time, when
it amounts only to one and a-half per cent., or even lower than the average mortality of such a class living on shore.  The shippers themselves, without any legislative provisions, or any official supervision or
regulations thereto, appointed medical officers or surgeons, and put the
whole of the convicts under their charge; the shippers attested their
own sense of the propriety, sound policy, and efficiency of the principle, by voluntarily adopting it and applying it to each ship surgeon in
charge, whose remuneration was made dependent upon the number of
passengers landed alive."
The same principle has been adopted in contracts for the transportation oftroops, and found to operate equally well, also to the transportation of pauper emigrants, with a like result; and the authors of the report think the adoption of it will be general in the transportation of passengers, as it puts an end to all the difficulties usually occurring
between the passengers and the officers of the ship, who are, of course,
disposed to remain on the best terms with those whom they carry.
Why, then, the committee would ask, cannot or should not this princi



20                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
pie of self-interest, as universal as the existence of man, be adopted ir
the transportation of passengers generally? As the law stood formerly,
wages could not be demanded in case of shipwreck; and, even now, it
must be made to appear that every effort has been made by the officers
and crew to save the ship, before a claim for wages can be sustained.
Is there any sufficient reason why similar responsibility should not
be thrown upon those who have the entire management of the ship,
and the means of keeping it in proper condition? Should merchandise
be on a better footing than human life? And if there be any propriety
or justice in the old common law maxim, that freight was the mother
of wages, why should not the safe delivery of the passenger at the
port of destination be the foundation of any claim for passage money?
The committee can see none, and have therefore adopted the principle,
and regard it as, perhaps, the most important feature in the bill which
they recommend to be enacted into a law. If they are not very much
mistaken, the change here made in the relation between the shipper
and the passenger will bring about an entirely new era in the history of
passenger ships; as it will be the interest of shippers to land their passengers in safety, so it will be their pleasure to provide their ships with
whatever may be necessary to make them  healthy and comfortable.
Nor will there hereafter be the same carelessness in taking enfeebled,
broken down, or diseased passengers on board, as has heretofore
existed; shippers will be cautious in seeing, at all events, that the individual, of whose life, during the passage, he is to become virtually the
insurer, is not laboring under serious sickness at the time of embarkation. The adoption of this principle will further have a most powerful
influence in creating a rivalry between ships as to which is the cleanest
and healthiest; passengers will always prefer those which have the
reputation of being the nost lucky, or in other words, the cleanest, best
managed, and affording the greatest comfort to those who embark in
them.  Nor will the ventilation, disinfection, &c., of these vessels hereafter require the interference of Congress; each ship master will be as
desirous to have his ship sweet, wholesome, and pleasant in its arrangements as the hotel keeper who desires to attract patronage by the superior neatness, cleanliness, and good order of his establishment. The
owners of steamers on the noble rivers of our country, and stage coaches
on its great thoroughfares, require no legislation in regard to the
spaciousness and airiness of their apartments, or the good driving, and
safety of construction oi the other, simply because self-interest dictates
to them the comfort and security of the travelling public as the best
means to secure custom.  So will it be with the owners of passenger
ships. when left to themselves; and they will provide for the health and
comfort of the poor emigrant as well as of the millionaire, because, in
doing so, they will protect their purses, and protect their own interests.
In concluding their report, the committee think proper to present a
brief outline of what they would recommend, after a careful examination of the subjects submitted to their consideration.
They deem it proper, and therefore recommend, that a space be reserved on the upper deck, and kept clear, for the enjoyment of air and
exercise by the passengers. If this space be not sufficient for the accommodation of all the passengers at once, they may still be divided




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                    21
into squads, and take their exercise in turn at certain hours of each day,
should the weather permit. Nothing is more conducive to the cure of
sea-sickness and the preservation of the strength and good spirits of passengers at sea than the necessity of moving about and becoming interested in what is going on around them. At the same time, the temporary absence of passengers from the sleeping apartments will afford
an opportunity for cleansing them, and removing whatever may be
offensive or injurious to health.
They also recommend a restoration of the limitations which existed
until the year 1848, of two passengers to every five tons register, but
without diminishing the space allowed under the present law to each
passenger, in order to prevent the crowding that now takes place of
vast numbers in any one ship. It is impossible to ventilate properly
an apartment of six or even eight feet in height into which five, six, and
sometimes eight or nine hundred persons are crammed; and it is evident, from the information furnished to the committee, that the greatest
mortality has prevailed where the ships have been most crowded. One
ship from Liverpool for New York, with nine hundred and twenty passengers, lost one hundred in a passage of only thirty-three days.
The committee are of opinion that during the winter the number of
passengers should be limited to one for every three tons, as the inclemency of the weather and consequent necessity of keeping the
hatches closed obstruct ventilation, and prevent the passengers from
taking their exercise in the open air.
The prohibition of passengers on the orlop deck, for the reasons assigned in the preceding part of this report, is earnestly recommended.
An increase of the number of privies, and separate ones for the
females, are recommended; the present allowance of one to every hundred passengers is totally inadequate.  Common decency would seem
to indicate the propriety, or rather necessity, of having separate accommodations for females, whose health and comfort are often destroyed
by the fear of exposure to the brutal remarks of the vulgar and obscene
among the male passengers and the crew.
As the committee believe that it is entirely impossible that hundreds
of people, some of them feeble from sickness, can do their cooking at a
caboose four feet by one and a half in size, they have recommended
that the provisions shall be cooked as well as furnished by the ship.
The reasons for this arrangement are given more in detail in a preceding part of this report.  The Bremen ships, so celebrated for the
general good condition of their passengers, adopt this course, and find
it to work admirably.
With a view to confer upon the captain ample power to maintain
discipline without being subjected, as at present, to vexatious prosecutions, the committee have recommended the adoption and publication
of certain rules throughout the ship, the observance of which is to be
enforced by the master, in case of resistance to his proper orders and
authority; a statement of the facts to be entered at the time on the log,
and signed by the surgeon (if any be on board) and mate, and read to
the offender; this statement, so made, to be available as prima facie
evidence of justification in all suits or complaints brought or made
against him, or against any who aid in carrying out his orders.




22                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
Believing that by making the shipper virtually the insurer of the
passenger's life during the passage, will have a most salutary tendency, the committee, for the reasons heretofore assigned at length,
recommend that the ship be made responsible to the extent of the passage money in the event of death during the passage.
A more accurate return of the names and descriptions of passengers
and of the deaths on board is required, and is provided for by the bill
which is reported herewith.
The committee have deemed it proper to annex, in the form of an
appendix, some of the communications addressed to them.  They
would have been most happy to have attached to their report the whole
mass of documents laid before them, as all are valuable, but to have
done so would have been to extend the report to an extreme bulk.
The communications selected, contain all or very nearly all of the
views expressed in those which have been omitted, the principal difference being in the form in which they are set forth.
The committee are under obligations to the Hon. W. L. Marcy, Secretary of State of the United States, for a copy of a very able and
lucid communication from the Hon. A. Dudley Mann, on the subject of
emigration, prepared by the latter, under instructions from Mr. Buchanan, while Secretary of State, which forms a part of the appendix.
This document is entitled to and will be received with respect; it needs
no commendation at the hands of the committee. The following
papers are communicated herewith:
No. 1. Circular of the committee.
No. 2. Communication from the Hon. A. Dudley Mann, to Hon. James
Buchanan.
No. 3. Communication from Samuel Hall, of East Boston.
No. 4. Communication from John H. Griscom, M. D., of New York,
to the Special Committee of the United States Senate.
No. 5. Communication from  Gregory Dillon, esquire, President of
the Irish Emigration Society of New York.
No. 6. Communication from the German Society of New York.
No. 7. Communication from Leopold Bierwirth, esquire in answer
to the circular of the committee.
No. 8. Letter from R. B. Minturn, in answer to circular of the committee, and enclosing letters from Captains Knight and Britton, experienced commanders of passenger ships.
No. 9. Letter from Cyrus Curtis, esquire, one of the commissioners
of emigration of New York.
No. 10. Letter from Messrs. Oelricks and Company.
No. 11. Paper received from Mr. Rucker, late minister from Hamburg to Prussia.
No. 12. Letter from Messrs. Meyer and Slucken, owners of passenger ships.
No. 13. Letter from Adolf Rodewald, esquire.
No. 14. Letter from Captain Wm. Skiddy.
No. 15. Letter from E. D. Hurlbut, esquire.
No. 16. Letter from Dr. Isaac Wood, of New York.
No. 17. Communication from the Board of Health, of Philadelphia.
No. 18. Letters from A. Schumacker, esquire, President of the Ger



ON BOAoRD EMIGRANT: SHIPS.                23
man Society of Baltimore, in one of which a draught of a law to regulate passenger ships, is enclosed.
No. 19. Report of the Board of Trade of Baltimore.
No. 20. Communication of Dr. Cartwright, of New Orleans.
No. 21. Communication from the Mayor of New Orleans.
The committee respectfully recommend the passage of the accompanying bill,




24                          SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
A.
Table showing  the number of passengers arrived  in the United Statesfrom
foreign ports from  October 1, 1843, to December 31, 1853, as reported
annually to Congress by the Secretary of State, under the act of 1819.
Year ending          Males.         Females.       Sex not stated.       Total.
September 30, 1844         48,897          35,867................            84,764
Do.        1845        69,188          49,290            1,406                119,884
Do.        1846       90,973           66,778              897                158,648
Do.        1847      139,166           99,325              989                239,480
Do.        1848      136,128           92,883              472                229,483
Do.        1849      179,253          119,915              442                299,610
Do.        1850      200,903          113,392            1,038                315,333
September 30 to De-        38282           27,107              181                 65,570
cember 31,   1850
Year 1851      245,017          163,745               66               408,828
1852.............................              398,470
1853      236,596         164,181................             400,777
2,720,847
* The report of the Secretary of State to Congress for this year does not give the number
of each sex..




B.
Table showing the number of passengers on vessels arriving at the ports of Boston, New  York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston,
and New  Orleans during  the year 1853, and  the number of deaths: compiled from  the returns made to the committee by the
collectors at those ports.
Boston.                  New York.                  Philadelphia.           Baltimore.            Charleston.*          New Orleans.
1853.           ~                                                             F
Passengers. Deaths. Passengers. Deaths. Landed  Passengers. Deaths. Passengers. Deaths. Passengers. Deaths. Passengers. Deaths.
sick.                                                                                                0
January.....          652       11         4,280       29        50          528         4          212..1...........  5,683              3 
February...          480         1       11,699      129       141          344.......           547........            31......            1,289        16   ~
March......           560         1        9,381        13       67        1,266......             415         1           32......            3,680        24 
April......         2,664         8       23,045        47       96        1,386......-.           134........             2.......        3,775         2   M
May........         3,143         7       34,596        73      137        2,255         6          307         1....................          3,527        12   g
June......          3,657         5       40,009       35       105        3,023         3        1,887         7           28                  4,214       23
July.......         1,602         2       21,276       46        55        1,462         1          532...........................               789         3 
ugust....           4,060         2       34,270........       66        1,774.......         2,172         4           35........             64        1 
September..         3,224       18        28,652      280       107        2,017         7        1,457         2....................            219.......
October.....        1,875       70        21,499      277        80        2,111         4        1,507         3..................               769         6
November...         3,399         2       31,191   1,112        241        1,476.......            655........          420         1        5,194        36    "
December...           731........        16,551      177        75          971         7        1,444        37           50........          8,722      185 
26,047    t127       276,449    2,218    1,220         18,613       32        11,269       55           599         1       37,925      311
* Collector's return professes only to give the number of " emigrant passengers."
b   f The superintendent of alien passengers gives 146 as the amount of deaths on board of " emigrant ships " alone arriving at Boston.  Of these, 80 occurred
on board of the Sagadohock and Lexington, the first of which lost 62 and the latter 18, from Gottenburg; and were caused, as he says,'by improper food with
which the passengers supplied themselves," and also " the use of water put up in old oil casks."
4 The number of deaths here given is taken from the report of the collector. According to the statement of the health officer, who is appointed under the
authority of the State of New York, the number is much greater, being 3,475. The number of those landed sick is from the report of the health officer, as the
collector makes no return of the kind.  The collector of the port of New York, in transmitting his statement, says: " I cannot vouch for the correctness of the
list in regard to the number of deaths, as I am told by the boarding officer at Staten Island that the reports of the masters are often very contradictory and
uncertain. It seems they frequently report to the doctor a much smaller number of deaths than they afterwards admit to the boarding officer; and that even 
the latter is often less than the number reported by passengers."                                                                                                 Ca




26                          SICKNESS AND. MORTALITY
The report of the  Secretary of State to  Congress, under the act of
1819, made in  March, 1854, (Ex. Doc. No. 78, 1st sess., 33d  Congress,) gives the following  as the number of passengers  arriving  at
each  of the  above named ports during the year ending December 31,
1853: Boston, 25,832; New  York, 294,818; Philadelphia, 19,211;
Baltimore, 11,368; Charleston, 1,068; New  Orleans, 43,028.  Total,
395,325.
SUMMARY.
From  collectors' returns to committee.
Passengers.   Deaths.   Landed   From  Secretary
sick.      State's report
to Congress.
Boston.......................           26,047        127.........              25,838
New York...........2..........          276,449      2,218      1,220             294,818
Philadelphia............                18613          32.........              19,211
Baltimore......................          11269          55..........            11,368
Charleston................                  599          1..........              1068
New Orleans..................           37,925        311.........              43,028
370,902      2,444      1,220             395,325




C.
Table showing the number of vessels arriving with passengers at the port of New York from European ports during the last fbur
months of the year 1853, with the number of passengers, deaths, ac.
SEPTEMBER, 1853.
th                             t.8'A         40                                8
0....                                 0'3,.,..,,o.0      3  9e  a                                                                                                                
C)Ca 0                                                       )    02      0
FD --   9   5,                                                                    E5,                                               5.~  a.
0.0'                                     ~..~' 0
_Days.                                                              Days                                                          Days. 1-,I  t3*:"   m                      POa    y Cg                                   sB  g..                                    i2
Liverpool............ 89  15,065   386    39   225   20T    66    1.49    1.93             4   2,309   577    33   225    33    9.74   11.17.................................... 
London.6 1,561 261 3 69 3.1   ~ ) )
London..........6,7 261..............                    19......... 2....         1     9 |.;..................|.......;'"~;~'"~;|-..... —.....    1
Bremen..............  16   3,7483  232    44    49    64    15    1.31    1.2                1      330   330    41    48    12   14.54   18.18              1   258   258    40         1...
Hamburg............  6   1,398   2338   89    16    23    10    1.14    1.86                 1      287   287    40    16         6    5.57    7.66......................................
Havre...............    8,441  430      4......  3........             08.........................................................................................        2
OtherEuropean ports.  19   2,458   129    41.....           8......................................................................................................  -,..................................................     
94  27,672   294    39   290   322    97    1.04    1.89             6   2,926   488    35   289    51    9.87   11.62               1   258   258    40         1.
* This column gives the number of deaths reported by the "health officer," who is the physician appointed by the State authorities to board and inspect vessels on their arrival at quarantine. Although this report is very possibly more accurate than the returns made by the captains to the collector of the port, (given in the preceding column,) the report of the collector, he being
an officer of the United States, and the returns to him being made under an act of Congress, is taken as the basis of all the statements in these tables.
ca cJ Cu o m'ce m, tO




C-Continued.                                                                                                     Z
O0
OCTOBER, 1853.
0........... c 
V0                      0 4S                                              0.                                                            -!      0
~  I           I                           I               -I   l    II l~                              1    1 ~ 
Im   c    -0  ^ ^ 0.....          g     
0     0 22o  ~.M 0 0'C   0  0e                         0!                    -q)
^<^From-     0'd o                                                          te.     0' 0'0              3      3.0.P                   0.)l
0 o.o-                                                                            o0
0vrol.....   0              00,719   434 4 23 20 63.9          0                               213 02    6.51 0.49                  5 2,268   453      45     20    10
L o...  4  1  3 2 9  4 3..  1 3                               0     0..0................. o
B. 0   0      20    49          4         0                                        03 00.3.                                            1         0    47     4
Days.                                                               Days.                                                         Days.
^5
Liverpool............ 27  11,719   434,   44   233   256    63    1.98    2.53               6   3,269   545    40   213    32    6.51    7.49              5 2,268   453    45    20          1
London..............  4   1, 317   329    43.....    13........02......................................
Bremen.............. 10   2,055   205    49          4    16,2.02.03......2...................                                       616   308    47        4      1
Hamburg............5            975   195    44    20    36......   2.05' 2.05    *3           548   183    44    20.              8.65    3.65.....................................
Havre...............  8         8,056   381    41     1    16      5.........02......................................................              1   356   856    48         1..... 
Other European ports. 16   2,113   132    52          2      9      1.01.01......................................................             1   232   232    49         2.....
70  21,229   307    46   260   346    74    1.22    1.57             9   3,817   424    41   233    32    6.10    6.96               9 3,472   386    47    27         2
* The Hamburg sh:p Copernicus is not included in this. She arrived with 207 passengers, after 55 days passage, no death being reported by the collector; but the " health officer" reports
15 deaths from cholera.




C-Continued.
NOVEMBER, 1853.
0o                                                C ue.e                                                                                           o.
0.                                                    o 00,-Ca             0c2                                                         o'                     0                                         CdM      M                                                   -66 I  M ~  ~   ~  ~  ~,0.  g
0      M       O                     8          4-0      M.....~                                                       MO.0    0       0         0  -0.0 ~         0.0..a0'    0        0.0      3       oO -^  0 00"           "'.0..0 3
3  3  5)   So  50     S       S3     a    ~ra 55                                                                      o So    S S               5
J2    Q>                    F4 c3,0^  c5                                                                       o s4 e0
0r 0  5.   0.  00     00~,,,~    S  S    ~
Iz                                                      z -            -             z    z                        z        zz   z
Liverpool............ 28  14,700   527   39'               753   730   130  5.10  5.97  14   8,264   590   4'1   731   101    884   10.09           5   2,309   461   39    22         24
London..............  4   1,624   406   41          100      100    16  6.15  7.16  83  1,282   427   88            100    16    7.80    9.05................................
Bremen.............. 15   2,732   182   46           20       41     8  0.73  1.02   1        236   236   87         15      6    6.36    8.89       8     722   240   43       5.....'
Hamburg.....  7   1,252   179   45         46       54    11  8.67  4.55   2'    426   2183  89            40     7    9.39   11.03        8     280   140   48       6.....
Havre............... 15   6,678   447   89          217      239    26  8.25  8.64   4   2,182   588   40           213    25   10.00   11.11        2   1,180   565   28       4.....
Other European ports. 22   8,958   180   43          70       59    291.772.50   3            555   185   48         56    11   10.01   12.07       3      830   271   38    14.....
91  31,004   340   42    1,206   1,223   220  8.88  4.60  27  12,895   478   41    1,155   166    8.97   10.26    16   5,271  880   40    51                    24?>
DECEMBER, 1853..
Liverpool............       7156    97   83           7       13     9.10.22...................   8   1,415   471   80        7       1
London.............  6   2016    36 84               78       70     9  3.86  4.36   2        774   887   87         63     9    8.14    9.30       1       42    42   42    15         9
Bremen..............       1,930   175   45          27       76    12  1.40  2.03   1*    212   212   40            25......  13.35   13.35         2     8 76   188   48      2       3
Hamburg......        4     961   240    8          9       17     7.9   1.65......................................................    1             210   210   45       9       5
Havre...............  1   4,013   815  85            56       82    29  1.39  2.12   2   1,233   616   30            56    26    4.54    6.65.............................. 1 
Other European ports.   7     969    188   42...     9     6....................................................................................................
57  17,045   299   87        177      267    668 1.56  1.99   5   2,219   445   85           144    85    6.49    8.07       7   2,043   292   89    83         18
* The "Nelson" is not included in the above. She arrived December 15, 1858, after forty-nine days' passage, with 351 passengers. The collector reports no deaths; but the health officer
reports 26 deaths by cholera, and 9 landed sick; also, on the 14th of December, the " Union" arrived, after forty-three days' passage, with 232 passengers. The collector reports no deaths; but
the health officer reports 15 deaths by cholera.
P3




C-Continued. 
Summary of the preceding tables, showing the arrivals, 4c., at the port of New  York fro   different Europeans ports, from September I to December 31, 1853, inclusive.
-                        0    ~ -.              / ~o                                    / -o                         / - I I  I                      ~ 1
-8    I    I-:                    2 -I    3~ C^   "   1   1^                           I.                                         2)3   0 1-   01-      01
2)U C)S     ~     tS.-       4'5e'  -  C    "- )    0:    o )C
FBroem-.. ~                                                 0 t  -4 ]                                                                                                              00  ]1.  9  ~  1..    
C-      I        I     I                                                                                        0:e 1I 
0       0                                                                                       0 a  5 53   1. 9Ca. 6   /     C0  C.                    0       a  
Ca                                                                                              0 V 
-1Z  d  Cd       U                                                    CS Ca  C        C)d                                                Cd)     C;               8 
t se >.0 -                                                  C      Ca 5    3 o                    8 9  u
Liverpool.........  112  48,700    435    3            1,218    1,206   268  2.50  3.03   24   13,.842    577    38           1,169    166      8.44      9.64    13      5,992    461    39-    49       26      >
London............   20    6,524    326   38               178      192      31  2.55  3.05    5    2,056.   411    38           163      25     7.92      9.14      1         42     42    42      15      9      Z
Bremen.............        2  10,460    201    46         100       197.9    1.31            778    25                88      18    11.29    1.62        8     1,972    246   45         2      4
Hamburgh.........   22    4,586    208    42                91      130      28  1.94  2.59    6   1,261    210    41             76      13     6.03      6.90      4       490    122    47       15      5
Havre.............   42  17,182    409    38              274       348      63  1.59  1.95    6    3,365    561    36           269      51     7.98      9.51      3     1,486   495    33         5
Other Europ'n ports.   64    9,498    148    41            72        85      80.76  1.07    3        555    185    48         56      11    10.09    12.07       4     1,062   265    41        16.....    0
312  96,950    311    41       1,933    2,158    457  1.9   2.46  47   21,857    465    39-    1,821    284              8.42     9.68    33    11,044    335    40   112         44
Summary of the preceding table, showing the aggregate arrivals, <^., in the port of New York from European ports, during each 01,the last four months of 1853.
September.........  94    27,672    294    40             290       322      97  1.04  1.89    6    2,926    488    35            289     51      9-. 87    11.62     1       258    258.   40       1......
October...........  70    21,229   807    48              260       846     74   1.22  1.57    9    8,817    424    41           233      82     6.10      6..96      9    3,472    386    47       27      2
November.........  91    31,004    340    42            1,206   1,223    220  3,88  4.60   27  12,895    478    41             1,155    166      8.97    10.26       16    5,271    830    41       51     24
December.........57    17,045    299    38               177       267     66  1.56  1.99    5    2,219    445    85            144      35     6.4~      8.07       7    2,043    292    39       83     18
812    96,950    311    41      1,933    2,158    457  1.99  2.46.  47  21,857    465    39            1,821    284       8.42      9.68.   33  11,044    335    40    112          44
F4  k                                                                                                    hO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Londn.....-;-. 206"~-I'-~l-z-I12`12;553.5    2"-6.41 q-~    1-i                                                                   25 ~/z-~~-  1/-~-/-'  -;~t-    ~-~                42 -~           9




ON -BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                   31
No. 1.
SENATE CHAMBER,
Washington, December 29, 1853.
SIR: A Select Committee, appointed by the Senate of the United
States, to inquire into the causes and the extent of the sickness and
mortality prevailing on board the emigrant ships, have instructed me
to obtain the opinion of gentlemen of experience and of professional
knowledge, both with reference to any deficiency in the provisions of
the existing statutes, and the propriety of further legislation.
In conformity with their direction, I take leave to ask your opinion
as to the adequacy of the existing laws with respect toI. The space allotted to each passenger.
II. The quantity and the quality of the provisions required for each
passenger.
III. The permission allowed to the passengers to furnish their own
provisions for the voyage, instead of making it, in all cases, the duty
of the master to provide them.
IV. Ventilation.
V. The cooking arrangements.
VI. The duty of the master to enforce personal cleanliness, and to
insure the cleanliness of the vessel.
The committee further request your opinion as to the propriety of
amending the existing laws by requiringVII. The employment of a qualified and experienced surgeon.
VIII. The employment of a reasonable number of attendants to
minister to the sick, and to enforce the -observance of cleanliness, both
of the persons of the passengers and of the vessel.
IX. The separation of the sexes; and the prevention of unnecessary
intercourse between the crew and the passengers.
X. A thorough process of disinfecting every vessel, on board of
which disease has once made its appearance.
XI. A report to be made by every vessel bringing emigrant passengers, of the length of voyage, number of passengers, number of deaths,
&c., to be published, and to be returned to the State Department.
XII. In case deaths have occurred during the voyage, an inquest to
be held under the supervision of federal officers, and the verdict to be
published and returned as above.
XIII. A limitation to the number of passengers allowed in any vessel,
in proportion to the tonnage of the vessel.
XIV. A distinction with respect to the number of passengers between
vessels passing within the tropics, and those not so passing.
The committee will also be happy to receive from you any statement
of facts within your knowledge tending to exhibit the extent, or the
causes of the sickness and mortality which have prevailed, or the insufficiency of the provisions of the existing laws, as well as any sug-.
gestions which you may think proper to make in connection therewith,
or with regard to the proper remedy to be applied.




32                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
An early reply, with answers to any or all of the points above suggested, will be esteemed a favor.
Very respectfully,
HAMILTON FISH,
Chairman.
NOTE.-The principal provisions of the existing laws on the subject
will be found in chapter 16, Laws, 2d session 29th Congress, (Feb. 22,
1847;) chapter 41, Laws, 1st session 30th Congress, (May 17, 1848;)
chapter 111, Laws, 2d session 30th Congress, (March 3, 1849,) and
chapter 46, Laws, 2d. session 15th Congress, (March 2, 1819.)
No. 2.
Communication from Hon. A. Dudley Mann, to Hon. James Buchanan.
BREMEN, GERMANY,
September 13, 1847.
SIR: Having visited the ports of western Europe, designated in your
instructions dated June 26, I now proceed to communicate to you all
the information, of a valuable nature, which I have collected, relating
to the subject of emigration.
In conformity with the act of parliament, entitled " an act for regulating the carriage of passengers in merchant vessels" approved August
12, 1842, there appears to be entire uniformity at the ports of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in the rules and regulations observed for the embarcation, and conveyance of emigrant passengers. I deem it important to make a somewhat lengthened abstract
from this enactment, as far as it has a bearing upon voyages to North
America.
Under its provisions, vessels are permitted to carry three persons
(officers and crew included) to every five tons burthen, provided that
there be not more than one person to every ten clear superficial feet of
the space intended for the use of passengers. Two children under the
age of fourteen years are computed as one passenger, and children not
above one year are not taken into the estimate. For every passenger
carried by any vessel beyond this proportion, a penalty of five pounds
is exacted.
The lower deck of vessels is required to be of the thickness of an
inch and a half, and made secure to the hold beams. The height between decks must be six feet: There must not be a greater number
than two tiers of berths the bottom of the lower tier to be six inches
above the deck: The berths to be six feet long and eighteen inches
wide, and one allotted to each passenger.
A supply of food, at the rate of one pound of breadstuffs per diemhalf at least to be bread or biscuit, the remainder may be potatoes, five
pounds of which must be estimated as equal to one pound of bread,
must be issued, not less frequent than twice a week to each passenger,
as likewise three quarts of water to each, daily. Breadstuffs and water




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     33
must be inspected  and  surveyed by  the government emigration
agents, or, in their absence, by the officers of customs, who are also to
enquire into and determine upon the sea-worthiness of vessels ordering
a survey to ascertain their true condition, if necessary.  The length of
a voyage must invariable be computed at seventy days; and a sufficiency of boats are to be taken for any casualty that may occur.
An ample supply of medicines to be provided for the voyage, and
suitable directions prepared for their use; no ardent spirits are permitted to be sold, under a penalty of one hundred pounds.  During the
detention of a vessel, her  assengers must be victualled; and where a
delay exceeds two clear working days, unless where it is occasioned
by wind or weather, the passengers are to receive instead one shilling
per diem, or the contra-ctor may, with their consent, lodge and maintain them. Passengers shall not be landed, except they request it, at
any place other than the port which they sailed for; nor are they compelled to disembark for forty-eight hours after reaching their destination, unless the ship finds it necessary, in continuation of her voyage,
to leave the port before that time elapses.
No person, except the owners or masters of vessels, can act as a
passage broker or dealer, unless duly licensed by magistrates, under a
penalty of ten pounds for every offence; and the same penalty is imposed upon brokers, with a forfeiture of their license, if they resort to
fraudulent means of inducing persons to engage passage.
Where the contract for a passage is not complied with by the shipper,
the party aggrieved may recover, by summary process, before two
justices of the peace, any passage money which he has paid, with a
sum  not exceeding fifty pounds as a remuneration, provided he is not
maintained at the expense of the shipper, and a passage secured fbr
him within a reasonable time.  Parties covenanting for passages must
give written receipts, in a prescribed form, for money received, under
a penalty not exceeding ten pounds, and if a passage broker, a forfeiture of license.
Passengers instituting suit against shippers, for money made recoverable for their benefit, shall not be rendered, on that account, incompetent witnesses in the case.  Their right, by an action at law, for a
breach of contract, is reserved.
Masters of vessels must afford all necessary facilities to the authorized officers for inspecting the ship, and communicating with the passengers, with a view to the proper discharge of their official duties.  A
penalty, not to exceed fifty pounds, may be imposed for the breach of
any of the provisions of the law, other than in the cases where specific
penalties are affixed.
Foreign as well as British ships are included in the provisions
of the act; but it is almost needless for me to remark, that in their
intercourse with the ports of the United States, they all have to be
governed by our legislation, with respect to the number of passengers which they are entitled to carry.  The acts of Congress, approved
February 22 and March 2 of the present year, upon the subject, were
promptly and properly explained, and made sufficiently public, in
Great Britain, by " her majesty's colonial land and emigration coinmissioners'"
3




34                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
By an act of Parliament, "to amend the passengers act, and to make
further provision for the carriage of passengers by sea," approved July
22, 1847, it is provided that the colonial land and emigration commissioners may, in certain cases, substitute other food in lieu of the description required by the la.w of 1842, but they shall not increase the
per diem  allowance; the food so substituted shall be laden on board
the vessel, at the expense of the owner or charterer, and shall be of a
quality to be approved by the emigration officer at the port of clearance; and that in default, the owner, charterer, or master, shall be
liable to a penalty of fifty pounds.
No ship carrying passengers shall be allowed to take, as cargo, any
gunpowder, vitriol, or green hides.
Passengers shall, at all times during the voyage, (weather permitting,) have free access to and from the between decks, by each hatchway situate over the space appropriated to their use; and if the mainhatchway be not one of the hatchways appropriated for such purpose,
or if the natural supply of light and air through it be unduly impeded,
the emigration officer may direct such improvements to be made as will
ensure a sufficiency of light and air for the comfort of the passengers.
Ships proposing to carry passengers shall, when a demand is made
by the emigration officer at the port of clearance, be surveyed by two
or more competent surveyors, duly authorized and approved of, either
by the commissioners of colonial lands and emigration or by the commissioners of customs; and if such surveyors shall report adversely to
her sea-worthiness, she shall not be cleared out until she has been rendered in all respects fit for her intended voyage. This provision " shall
in all respects, and without distinction, be the same for foreign as British ships." And furthermore, a clearance shall not be granted to such
ship until it has been satisfactorily ascertained by the proper authority
that she is manned with a full complement of men; nor shall she be
allowed to proceed on a voyage until she obtains a certificate from the
emigration officer at the port of clearance-or his assistant, or, in the
absence of both, from the officer of the customs-that all the requirements of the present law, as well as of the law of 1842, have been duly
complied with.
If a ship having passengers on board shall put into any port of the
United Kingdom after sailing, she shall replenish her stock of food, water, and medical stores, so as to make up the full quantities of those
articles, of the requisite kind and qualities. In default thereof, the master shall incur a penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds.
In case *ny ship'carrying passengers shall be wrecked or otherwise
destroyed, or shall put into a port or place in a damaged state, or be
prevented otherwise from landing her passengers at their port of destination, she shall provide them with a passage in some other equally
eligible vessel; and if the master should fail, in a reasonable time, to
comply with this requisition, they shall be entitled to recover, by summary process, before any two justices of the peace, from the owners,
charterers, or master of such ship all moneys which' shall have been
paid by or on account of them; together with a further sum, not exceeding five pounds, for each passenger, as shall, in the opinion of the




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     35
two justices, compensate for the loss or inconvenience occasioned by
the delay.
In order to remove the ambiguity of tie act of 1842, respecting the
number of passengers which a vessel may rightfully carry from a port
of Great Britain, it is provided that, in reckoning the proportion of passengers to tonnage, two children under the age of fourteen years shall
be computed as one passenger, and children under one year old shall
not be counted.
Vessels may carry one passenger to every twenty-five tons of their
measurement, without being subjected to the provisions of the acts of
Parliament, relative to passenger ships, except for the refunding, in certain cases, passage money, &c.
The aforegoing epitome will, perhaps, make you sufficiently acquainted with the laws of Great Britain concerning emigration, but I
nevertheless consider it necessary, for the purpose of reference, to furnish you with copies of the original enactments, and accordingly I herewith transmit them. The enforcement of the provisions of these acts
devolves, exclusively, upon the " emigration officers at London, Liverpool, Plymouth, Glasgow, Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Limerick, Sligo,
Donnegal, Londonderry, Waterford, Baltimore, Galway, Newry, and
Tralee, and at all other ports upon the'officers of the customs.'"
It is their duty to procure and give information, when desired, gratuitously, as tu the time of the sailing of ships, the price of passage, the outfits and stores of provision indispensable for a voyage, and the regultaions
to be observed by passengers during the period they are at sea.  The
emigration officers are selected from the lieutenants of the royal navy,
and act under the immediate directions ofthe colonial land and emigration commissioners, by whom they are instructed to urge upon captains
and passengers a faithful observance of the following rules:
All the emigrants to be out of bed by seven o'clock in the morning,
and the children to be regularly washed and dressed. The fires to be
lighted by seven a. m., and to be extinguished by seven p. m., unless
the captain should direct otherwise.  When the emigrants are dressed,
the beds to be rolled up, and, weather permitting, taken on deck. They
are to be well shaken and aired at least twice a week.  The bottom
boards of the berths should, if not fixtures, be removed and dry scrubbed, and taken on deck once or twice a week.  The decks to be swept
before breakfast, and after every meal; including in the first sweeping
the space under the bottom of the berths, the boards of which, if not fixtures, are to be lifted for the purpose. The decks to be also dry holystoned or scraped at nine a. m., and the occupants of each berth are to
see that it be well brushed out, and the space in front made clean. All
emigrants to be in bed by ten o'clock.
A party of six, or more, to be formed from all the adult males, above
fourteen, taken in rotation, with the exception of the overseers, to clean
such parts of the deck as do not belong to any particular berths, and
also the ladders and water-closets, and hospitals, if there be any, and
to be sweepers for the day.  The coppers and cooking utensils to be
cleaned daily.
When the ship undertakes wholly to victual the emigrants, they
should be divided into messes of not less than six nor more than twelve




36                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
adults, and one or two men should be taken in turn to cook daily for
all the messes. When the emigrants victual and cook for themselves,
the overseers should see that each family has its regular turn at the
fire place.
The issues of bread-stuffs, required by the "passengers act" of 1842,
should be made by an officer of the ship in the presence of the overseers. They are intended merely to prevent destitution during the
voyage; and further supplies, consequently, should be put on board by
the passengers themselves if they do not make an arrangement with
the ship to victual them beyond the legal allowance. Water to be
issued also by an officer of the ship. Medicine to be had, when wanted,
by applying to the captain.
Washing days Monday and Friday, or such other days as the captain
may find it more convenient to appoint, with reference to weather and
other circumstances, but no washing or drying of wet clothes to be
suffered between decks on any pretence whatever. On every Sunday,
at half past ten, the passengers will be assembled, and it is expected that
each of them will then appear clean, and put on clean linen and decent
apparel.  The Lord's day is to be as religiously observed as circumstances will admit.  Swearing and all improper language strictly forbidden. No fighting, riotous or quarrelsome behavior allowed.
In cases of disputes, the matter should be at once submitted for the
decison of the captain, whose authority is to be duly respected, and
swords, pistols, and other arms must be placed in his charge. No
gambling permitted.
No passengers allowed to go to the ship's cook-house without a permit from the captain or chief officer, or to be in the forecastle, among
the sailors, on any account; nor are sailors suffered to be in the between
decks amongst the passengers, except on duty.
No spirits or gunpowder allowed to be brought on board. If discovered, they will be taken from the party having them. No smoking
allowed between decks, and no loose hay or straw  permitted to be
taken below.
A lamp to be kept burning all night at the main hatchway, but no
other light after eight o'clock, p. m. No naked light allowed below on
any account.
Since the disease usually called "ship fever" manifested itself, the
emigration officers require passengers, before they proceed to sea, to
submit to a medical examination, and such as are ascertained to be ill
are prevented from departing.  The fever originated from a want of
nourishment in Ireland, last autumn-which numbered its hundreds of
thousands of victims-is the identical malady that has produced such
distressing mortality among the emigrants embarking from the ports of
Great Britain for our shores, and for the British possessions on our continento  This is the unanimous belief of the emigration officers, and
the general one of physicians and others in Ireland.  Its correctness is
corroborated by indisputable facts, one of which it may not be amiss
to relate.  On the 15th of March last, a vessel sailed from Liverpool,
with 296 Irish emigrants from  the county of Roscommon, for Philadelphia. On the 17th of the same month, having in the mean time
encountered a severe gale, in which she lost her foremast, she put into




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                   37
Belfast, where she landed 56 passengers, who were- prostrate with
" ship fever," many of whom subsequently died. On the 17th of April,
after undergoing repairs, she again sailed, but soon losing her main and
mizen masts, entered Londonderry, in a distressed condition. There
24 of her passengers died, and ten were left in the hospital, dangerously sick. The captain, the crew, and a surgeon, who was aboard,
contracted the disease, on which account the voyage could not be resumed until the 20th of July. Starvelings conveyed the distemper,
engendered by destitution, to this vessel, and although the fever is of a
less contagious character than some others, it communicated itself; in a
space so circumscribed as a " between decks," with frightful rapidity
to persons utterly free rom it.
To one travelling like myself, through the populous cities and districts of Ireland, even after the demon of starvation had been checked
in his desolating career, by an abundant importation of supplies from
our ever productive fields, there could be nothing wonderftiul, in view
of the coming winter and the probable return of the melancholy occurrences of the past, that all who could should seek a distant asylum.
There is nothing unnatural in the desire of the unfortunate Irish to
abandon their cheerless and damp cottages, and to crawl inch by inch,
while they have yet a little strength, from the graves which apparently
yawn for their bodies. What will poor humanity, tenacious of life,
not do to avert the blow which death seems to aim?  A case was related to me at Dublin of a young wife, many of whose family and
friends had perished with hunger, which answers the interrogatory in
emphatic language. She had gone aboard the bark which was to convey her across the waters, and the night befbre the morning of sailing
she became a mother. The circumstance was communicated to the
emigration officer of the port, who immediately proposed to carry her
ashore and provide amply for her wants, until she should be restored
to her accustomed health and strength; but she promptly declined the
benevolent offer, remarking, that "she would rather start with the
hope, however delusive it might prove, of arriving soon in America, than
to remain under the positive certainty of a speedy recovery." Infleeing
from famine and its concomitant pestilence all look for relief beyond
the Atlantic, and those who, by patient toil, have accumulated a few
pounds, to plenty and contentment. It has repeatedly occurred, notwithstanding the well intended efforts of the examining physicians,
that persons embarked with the disease when no evidences of its existence could be found upon them, and in consequence have not only
become victims themselves but have rendered their fellow passengers
so likewise. But the fever, in most instances, is, doubtless, conveyed
on ship board by another agency. In all Catholic countries there is an
extraordinary degree of devotion-proceeding from the best impulses
of the human heart-to the memory of the departed; and nowhere,
perhaps, does this sentiment prevail to a greater extent than in Ireland. It is indulged in by all classes and conditions.  The humblest
peasant, so destitute as to be unable to enjoy any other visible remembrance of the lost ones dearest to him, fondly clings to the garments,
however ragged and worthless, worn by them when living. From such
clothing carried by emigrants, as well as that in use by themselves, an




38                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
effluvium has arisen as fatal in its tendencies, to all who came in contact with it, as that proceeding from the bodies of those, suffering by
the disease.
It must not be inferred from the preceding remarks, that I desire to
convey the impression that all, or any considerable number of the emigrating Irish, are in indigent circumstances. On the contrary, I was
assured at every port I visited, by individuals well informed upon the
subject, that in the aggregate those embarking this year compared with
former ones, particularly to the United States, contrasted favorably
both as to respectability and pecuniary substance.  They have been
chiefly small farmers, disheartened at the repeated crop failures, and
agricultural laborers.                      ~
It is estimated upon reliable data, that the sum of one million of dollars, at least, is annually remitted by individuals in the United States,
in drafts and " passage certificates," to their relations in Ireland, to
enable them to reach our Atlantic ports. It was represented to me by
each of the emigra.tion officers with whom I conversed, that impositions'
were constantly practised, occasioning in most instances much distress, by the vendors of passage certificates upon the purchasers and
recipients of them.  The accompanying copy of a letter, marked A,
addressed by Lieut. Forrest, E. O., at Glasgow, to the Colonial Land
and Emigration Commissioners, furnished me by Mr. Walcott, their
secretary, with the passage certificate subjoined to it, will explain the
nature of the grievances to which they are submitted.
Inasmuch as the agreement is made in the United States, the holder
of the certificate is without a remedy for a non-compliance of contract;
but I learn that it is intended to revoke the license of any broker to
whom a certificate is directed and recognized, unless he promptly provides a passage for the - party in whose favor it is drawn. If a similar
punishment were inflicted upon the brokers (to whom it would apply)
in our cities, the evil would be speedily removed.
The following is a tabular statement of the number of emigrants embarking from the ports of the United Kingdom to all countries, between
the 31st of December, 1825, and the 30th of June, 1847, being a period
of twenty-two years and a-half:




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                                       39
Years.           U. States.  N. American Australia and  All  other          Total.
colonies.  NewZealand.   places.
1825................          5,551         8,471            485           114         14'891
1826.................         7,063        12,818            913           116         20 910
1827.............           14,526        12,648            715           114         28, 003
1828...........          12,817        12,084          1,056           135         26,092
1829................          15,678        13,307          2,016           197         31,198
1830.................        24,887        30,574          1,242           204         56,907
1831.................        23,418        58,067          1,561           114         83,160
1832...............         32,872        66,339          3,739           196        103,146
1833................         29,109        28,808          4,098           517         62,532
1834..............          33,074        40,060         2 800            288         76,222
1835.................         26,790        15,573          1,860           325         44,478
1836................         37,774        34,226          3,124           293         75,417
1837...........          36,770        29,884          5 054           326         72,034
1838..................       14,332         4,577        14,021            292         33,222
1839...........          33,536        12,658        15,786            227         62,207
1840................         40,642        32,293        15,850          1,958         90,743
1841..............          45,017        38,164        32,625          2,786        118,592
1842.............           63,852        54,123         8,534          1,835        128,344
1843..................      28,325        23,518         3,478          1,881         57,202
1844................          49,600        22,924         2 229          1,873         76,626
1845.........        58,538        31,803            830        2,330          93,501
1846..............           82,289        43,439         2,347          1,826        129,901
1847 (first six months).    101,767         72,281          2,185         1,950        178,183
Total.............      818,157        698,909       126,548        19,897      1,663,511
It will thus be seen that for the first six months of 1847, the number
destined for the United States exceeded that of last year entire, nearly
twenty per centum.   It is quite certain that the increase for the last six
months will not be in the same ratio, yet I feel persuaded that we shall,
nevertheless, receive  more  than  double  the  number  of persons from
Great Britain in 1847 that we received in 1846.
Formerly, about ninety-five per centum  of the British emigrants, proceeding to the United States, embarked at Liverpool.   The departures
for the first six  months of the  present year show  a dimunition of this
proportion of nearly a third.    This results  from   the  augmentation of
the direct navigation intercourse between the ports of the United States
and those of Ireland.
From  the answers to my numerous  inquiries  upon the subject, I am
of the opinion that of the emigrants who  sailed  from  Great Britian for
the United States, between the first of January last and the thirtieth of
June, 75,000  were  Irish,  10,000  English, 10,000  Scotch, and  6,767
German.
It is a common practice in Ireland for landlords to contribute pecuniary assistance to  their more  worthless  tenants, in order to  get rid of
them, to enable them to.emigrate to Canada; and I was informed at
Limerick that several families had been forwarded in like manner from
that port to the United States.   This custom, as relates to our country,
does  not prevail I am  confident to  any considerable extent, as I could
not hear, after strict inquiry, of its having been adopted elsewhere. Nor
do I believe that vicious persons or notorious paupers are encouraged
by any British functionary connected with the subject of emigration, to,
embark for the United States.  On the contrary, I am  satisfied from  the




40                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
interviews which I had with the secretary to the Board ofthe Colonial
Land and Emigration Commissioners and the emigration officers, that
embarkations of this description would be prevented rather than countenanced.  These officers, without a solitary exception, seem not only
to discharge their duties faithfully to their own government, but they
are actuated also by motives of exalted humanity in protecting intending emigrants to our shores, as far as possible, against fraud and imposition.
I come now to France; and I regret to state that no laws, rules,
or regulations respecting merchant passenger ships exist in this kingdom. France is not an emigrating nation, and those who proceed from
Havre to the United States are almost exclusively Germans and Swiss.
The business of providing passages is conducted by ship-brokers, shipagents, and merchants, who charter vessels for the purpose, or pay
ship-masters a stated amount for the conveyance of each passenger.
No obligation is imposed, except such as may be agreed upon by the
parties contracting, for the provisioning of emigrants. I found it impossible to get a statement, which could be relied upon as authentic, of
the extent of emigration from Havre for any year previous to the commencement of 1843. Since then it has amounted, annually, to the foling number:
1843.                    8,553
1844....................               16,660
1845.                                 23,500
1846.-^......_......,........____.   32,381
1847, first six months.-.- --- ----              16,000
Totals..............   a97,094
The emigration through Havre for the first six months of 1847, consisted of 15,250 Germans, 600 Swiss, and 150 French.
Belgium, like France, has comparatively no emigration of her own,
and the people of no other country than Germany embark at her ports
for the United States. By a decree of King Leopold of March 14,
1843, the " maritime commissioners" is charged with the inspection of
vessels engaged in transporting emigrants, reporting upon their condition, and deciding whether they are sea-worthy or not.  These officers
are also empowered to adopt such measures as they may think necessary to ensure the health and general well-being of passengers during
the voyage. If they have reason to believe that there is an infectious
or other disease aboard a ship, it is their duty to have an examination
made by a naval surgeon in such cases as they suspect, and to prevent those afflicted from embarking. Two passengers only are allowed
to be carried to every five tons measurement of the ship, whatever
may be her destination. Voyages are computed to any port in the
United States, (and must be provided'for accordingly,) to continue for
ninety days. Ships are not permitted to clear until it has been satisfactorily ascertained that they have aboard the quantity (and of good
quality) of stores required by the commissioners, viz: 90 lbs. biscuit,
10 lbs. rice, 10 lbs. flour, 22 lbs. of beans and peas, 16 lbs. salt meat,




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     41
6 lbs. butter, 2 lbs. salt, six quarts vinegar, and 40 lbs. coal for each
passenger.  Potatoes may be substituted, in part, for biscuit. Each
passenger must be furnished daily with two-thirds of a gallon of good
water; and the vessel must be properly supplied with fresh medicines,
with directions for the taking of them, in cases where they may be
needed.
Previous to the completion of the railway line from  the Rhine to
the Scheld, the number of emigrants sailing from Antwerp to ports in
the United States was very inconsiderable.  The amount of embarkations, annually, for the four years and a half terminating on tle last
day of June, has been as follows:
1843 ---        ---—......... —----             -  2,749
1844.....-..........................-.-...2,961
1845.......-.-......... -........  4,549
1846....................................-  11,402
1847, first six months.-..........   8,900
Tptal................  20,561
Herewith I send you a copy of the Belgium  decree to which I have
made reference.
In Holland, under an ordinance of the King, dated December 28,
1837, the substance of which I transmit in a separate form, all shipowners, ship-brokers, and forwarding merchants located in that kingdom, who wish to forward emigrants, must make a declaration of their
intention to the "supervisors of emigration," who are appointed by
the authorities of the port. Such declaration must be accompanied by
a notarial act, reciting the nature of the obligations imposed on the
person making application, to wit: that he shall make provision for
the proper reception of the emigrants desiring to pass through Holland
at the point at which they enter, and take care that they are well fed
and lodged until they arrive at the port at which they are to embark; that he shall provide a good vessel fbr them, which shall be
well provisioned, and have good medical attendance; that she shall be
in readiness for their immediate reception, with every necessary outfit
for the proposed voyage; that he shall make provision for the maintenance of the emigrants at the port from  which they are to embark, in
the event of unavoidable delay in the sailing of the ship at the time
specified; that in case of sea-damage, shipwreck, or other accident,
either in river, on the coast, or in the European seas, he shall put the emigrants aboard another sea-worthy vessel, suitably fitted out with supplies, so that they may not be an expense to the kingdom; that he
shall, furthermore, execute a general bond, with such sureties as shall
be deemed by the proper authorities good and sufficient, to the amount
of one hundred and fifty guilders (sixty dollars United States currency)
for each person furnished by him  with a passage; that he shall be
held responsible for all expenses, damages, and loss of interest which
may result fioom his negligence or those in his service, and also for any
breach of good conduct of the emigrants in his charge previous to their
departure. The supervisors of emigration are required to see that there




42                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
is a faithful compliance with the engagements entered into by shipbrokers and others in all that relates to the forwarding of emigrants.
They shall also judge of the sea-worthiness of vessels, and ascertain
whether the customary supply of food, water, &c., is aboard. A ship
may carry from a port of Holland to any country whose laws will permit, four passengers for every five lasts of her measurement, (about ten
tons,) and two children, under fifteen years of age, may be counted as
one passenger.
Each passenger must be provided with 50 lbs. bread; 100 lbs. potatoes; 25 lbs. beans and peas; 10 lbs. meal; 30 lbs. rice; 20 lbs.
smoked or salted meat; and a proportionate quantity of butter, vinegar,
and salt, together with a sufficiency of sweet water.  If the voyage is
to extend as far as New Orleans, thirty additional pounds of substantial
food for every passenger must be put on the vessel.  The captain has
charge of the provisions and water, which he must distribute daily, in
equal quantities, among the passengers.  Two hundred pounds of baggage may be taken by an emigrant free of charge.  Such clothing only
as is necessary for use is permitted to remain in the steerage.
Number of emigrants embarking at Rotterdam for the United States,
for the four years and a-half terminating on the thirtieth of June, 1847,
inclusive:
1843.-...                                            1,387
1844..                    -.              2,143
1845.....-..... —-............-.              4,549010
1846..._....................................... 5,010
1847, first six months. -.  4,321
Total.......-...................... 17,410
Number embarking during same time at Amsterdam:
1843 --,_...       261
1844..                                                  220
1845.-.................... -                           582
1847, first six months..................       1,226
Total -.......-........ -..........           2,564
Of the emigrants who embarked the first six months of this year
from  Rotterdam  and Amsterdam, 4,000 were Germans, and the remainder Hollanders.
By a decree of the government of Hamburgh of March 26, 1845, the
business of forwarding emigrants is limited to citizens and inhabitants
of the republic; but masters of foreign vessels may engage passengers,
if citizens will become sureties that their engagements will be complied
with. Contracts may be made by the individuals themselves who undertake to transport emigrants; but if it is preferable to make them
through others, sworn ship-brokers must employed.
The brokers are obliged, before the departure of the passengers, to
designate the persons for whom they have made contracts.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                    43
The broker, or if none has been employed, the contractor must hand
over to the police office before the vessel clears, a statement of all the
emigrants embarking; -their birth-places, respectively, sex, age, occupation, and destination.  The contractor must see that the vessel which
he employs for the purpose is in good condition, and conveniently arranged to ensure comfort to her passengers.  The steerage, which must
be appropriated exclusively to their use, is required to be five feet and
a-half high, and divided into berths six feet long. Berths for four
adults are to be six feet wide, and not more than two tiers shall be permitted one above the other. No merchandise is permitted to be stowed
between the berths of passengers. The contractor must provide a sufficient supply of provisions (if the vessel is proceeding to any port in the
United States) for a voyage of thirteen weeks. Each passenger must
be furnished, weekly, with two pounds beef, one pound bacon, and five
pounds bread, besides dried vegetables such as beans, peas, &c., to the
extent of three and a-half pounds, per week. He must also provide
ninety gallons of water for each passenger, and a box of suitable medicines, to which there shall be free access. Children under the age of
one year are not to be taken into the estimate of passengers; three, between the ages of one and seven years, are to be counted as one adult;
and two between the ages of seven and twelve, as one. The contractor
must produce to the chief of police an insurance policy, in which it must
be stipulated that the company or concern insuring engages to pay all
costs which may accrue to the passengers in the event of accidents to
the vessel, while she is undergoing repairs, (on account of board, &c.,)
and if the vessel shall be so disabled as to prevent her from continuing
the voyage, to provide them with a passage to their port of destination.
Deserters from the army of any of the States of the German confederacy are not permitted to embark, nor are fugitives from justice. Minors residing in the republic can only embark with the consent of their
parents or guardians.
Where a vessel is delayed beyond the time of sailing.agreed upon,
the contractor must pay each passenger a per diem  allowance, (about
twenty two cents,) unless he feeds and lodges him. Each passenger
has a right to demand a certified copy of the contract made by him,
in the German language; and copies of the decree, one of which I
herewith transmit, must be pasted up in conspicious places in every
emigrant ship.
Number of emigrants embarking annually at Hamburg for the United
States, from the 1st of January, 1836, to the 30th of June, 1847, inclusively:
1836. -. -...................... —..27,870
1837....      o..2,177
1838  --- -..-                                    484
1839,.-...-......... —-.-    ---- --------    --.1,415
1839..    _ -_1415
1840..  o*z1,s720
184.2  -......_...... 1,134
1842 ~ -                                          495
1483 ----—.....-... — ---—.........     --—. —56
1844.- - -                       -.1e774
1844.. —.. —...-. —.........-......-..1,3774
189q45..  _._.,RR 0~      ^..~ ~ ~~2,388




44                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
1846............-. - -                         3,971
1847 direct..      -............... 5,317  6575
6 months, via Quebec......                     1,2~8 
Total -.-................ --- 26,759
The Senate of Bremen has, from time to time, passed numerous laws
regulating the embarkation and the carriage of emigrants from the Weser.
On the 12th of May last the different enactments were embodied into
one, and such imperfections as they were believed to contain remedied.
The "government decree" I herewith transmit, making as succinct
an abstract from its provisions, which relate to the United States, as is
necessary to a proper understanding of them.
The right of engaging passengers fbr a vessel intending to sail for a
trans-Atlantic port can be enjoyed only by ship owners, their correspondents, or those at whose disposal a ship is placed by contract for
carrying freight and passengers, or passengers alone. Those who
forward passengers are required not only to be citizens of the city of
Bremen, but also to reside therein and transact business.
Ships are not suffered to be advertised in the public papers of Bremen for passengers, except by their owners, correspondents, the shipbrokers employed by them, and those by whom they have been taken
up or chartered.
Ship-brokers of the city of Bremen may themselves engage passengers, or they may have them  engaged by agents, under contract to
forward at a future period, but upon the express condition that they
shall be turned over, with their consent, however, for conveyance across
the seas, to a person properly authorized to take charge of them, as
before provided for in this enactment. Any one who engages a passenger, or has one engaged by his agent, be it in the territory of the republic or elsewhere, must immediately furnish him with a certificate of
engagement, in which his full name, together with the amount of passage money agreed upon, must be stated.  Emigrants upon their
arrival at the city of Bremen must announce themselves in person at
the police office, those going direct to Vegesack or Breren-Haven to the
authorities at those places. The police officers are required, as far as in
their power lies, to prevent deserters from any army of the German
confederation from embarking.
The 14th section of the decree manifest a spirit of such good faith
towards our country that I consider it proper to insert here a literal
translation of it. It reads thus:
"'Whereas, in the United States of America fears are entertained
that the liberty extended to emigrants to take up their abode there is
subjected to great abuses by persons fleeing from justice on account of
crimes and misdemeanors committed, and those sent thither from European prisons and poor-houses; and, whereas, the friendly intercourse
and extended commercial relations which so happily subsist between this
republic and the United States, give to the Senate a particular cause
for regarding the interests of those States, it is determined that such
persons shall not be received on any vessel that may be expedited




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                    45
from Bremen or its ports; and the police authorities are especially enjoined not to permit any such to embark.
W "When dliscovered they shall be arrested and sent back to the State
they came from."
Ship-owners and others engaged in the pursuit of forwarding emigrants, are prohibited from receiving, as passengers, persons intended
to be embraced in the meaning of the preceeding provision. Should
any such be engaged by ship-brokers, or their agents, ignorantly, as
soon as they are apprized of the fact they must give information to the
director of police. Anyone who expedites a ship for a trans-Atlantic
port must hand to the   inspection of brokers" a complete list of all
the passengers to be dispatched, mentioning the places of their birth,
respectively, as well as age, sex, occupation, and destination. This.
must be accompanied by a declaration that, according to the best of
his knowledge, there is no person, whose name is thereon, who is endeavoring to evade the punishment awaiting him (or her) for any crime
committed, or who has been sent away from any European house of
correction or poor-house, and that he will not allow persons of this description to be received aboard the vessel. Where emigrants have
been engaged by a ship-broker, or his agent, the declaration must be
accompanied by an oath. If, after a list has been made up, emigrants,
whose names are not upon it, apply to the captain for a passage, whether
at the embarkation or elsewhere, producing the proper certificates that
they are entitled to it, he is authorized to append their names to his list,
and make a declaration setting forth the facts of the case, before the
inspection of brokers, or the authority fbr such purpose, at Vegesack or
Bremen-B-ven.
If the captain should receive passengers aboard, other than those on
the copy of the original list, and those added to it in the manner prescribed, he is liable to a fine of one hundred Bremen dollars. The
same fine is imposed upon every legalized carrier of passengers, who
fails to declare, upon oath, that he has taken one or more emigrants
aboard, after the list was completed, without adding their names
properly to it. It is enjoined upon those who may rightfully expedite
vessels, to be careful not to have their passengers at the port of embarkation before their vessels are in a suitable condition to receive them.
In cases of detention beyond the time agreed upon for sailing, the expense of maintaining the emigrants devolves upon the person fbr whom
they were engaged, and if he should fail to make ample provision, he
will be held responsible for any deficiency to the Bremen authorities.
Ships destined for other ports than those of the United States may
carry two passengers to every four tons of her burthen, United States
measurement; children are to be reckoned as adults. Vessels for passengers must be sea-worthy, and in all respects well appointed.
For voyages to the United States they must have a sufficiency of
provisions to supply, for a term of thirteen weeks, each passenger irrespective of age or sex, with 2f pounds pickled beef, 1 pound pickled
pork or X pound bacon, 5 pounds bread, and 8 pound butter, weekly;
to which must be added, for the passage, 34 pounds meal, beans, peas,
peeled barley, rice, plums, and "saur kraut," - bushel of potatoes, 1~
pounds molasses, 1k pound coffee, 4 pound sugar, - pound tea, 2 quarts




46                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
vinegar, besides a sufficient quantity of sago, wine, and medicines for
children and sick persons.  Seventy-five gallons of water mustbe taken
aboard for each passenger when the vessel sails for New Orleans or a
port in Texas, and sixty gallons when she sails for any other port in
the Union.
The quality, as well as the quantity of provisions, taken aboard for
the voyage, must be submitted to the inspection of a person commissioned for the purpose, who must be satisfied that the provisions of the
law have been complied with, and whose certificate to that effect, shall
be obtained before the vessel will be allowed to start on her voyage.
The owner or correspondent of a vessel, which is about to proceed on
a voyage to a trans-Atlantic port, has to prove to the satisfaction of the
inspection of brokers that, in case a misfortune should befall the vessel,
on the way to her port of destination, by which she would be unable
to continue or complete the voyage, he is prepared to reiund. the passage money with an additional sum of eighteen Bremen dollars to each
passenger, in the way of remuneration for incidental expenses during
detention. This must be done by effecting an insurance on the entire
amount, at one of the insurance offices in Bremen, or with other underwriters, the policy to be approved by the inspection of brokers, (a senatorial committee,) and with them deposited for the benefit of all concerned.
Annual amount of emigration through Bremen, to the United States,
for the fifteen years and a half, terminating on the 13th of June, last:
1832...................__           9,792
1833-_......................  8,086
1834..............       13,18
1835  --— ^...-..-   -...........         6,811
1836............                 11,600
1837.__.__.....__..                     14,372
1838. -     -...._._........ 9,312
1839                             -- -------- 12,421
1840 -..-...............  1]2,650
1841......        _                           9,501
1842 -----—........._..         13,563
1843...............  9,844
1844... -............. 19145
1845......,        __.   31,358
1846 -—........... -                        31,607
1847 direct... -....                 15,990. 
6 months, via Quebec..............    5,921  219
Total....235,158
Until this year, no emigrants were forwarded t the United States
from Hamburgh and Bremen via Quebec, but since the first of Ma.y
the number is that which I have respectively stated.
The number of British emigrants proceeding, via Quebec, to the
United States, during the same period, I could not ascertain with any
degree of accuracy, but from  all the information which I collected, I
am of the belief that it amounted to at least 10,000.  The circumstance
of so many emigrants having taken this new route, is altogether attri



ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                          47
butable to the act and its amendment, "6 to regulate the carriage of passengers on merchant ships," passed at the last session of Congress.
Ship-brokers, and their agents had engaged, as usual, in the winter
and early spring months, emigrants, at stipulated prices for passage, for
a subsequent period; but as the provisions of the acts referred to went
so speedily into effect, after their approval, vessels could not be obtained
to sail with passengers to a port in the United Sta;tes, (at anything like
the rates which they previously accepted,) after the publication of the
acts.  The ship-brokers, therefore, in order to secure themselves from
ruinous losses, influenced the emigrants to change their destination, as
originally agreed upon, for Quebec.  Ships under contract, in many
instances, made similar arrangements.  It is scarcely necessary for me
to remark that a vessel may carry a third more passengers, counting
children above the age of one year as adults, to a British port in North
America, than she is entitled to carry to a port in the United States.
The comparative tabular statement below, of emigration  to  the
United States, through the ports of the United Kingdom, France, (Havre,)
Belgium, Holland, and Germany, for the four years and a half; terminating on the 30th of June, will show the annual increase of embarkations for the period embraced:
Years.   United   France.  Belgium.   Holland. Hamburgh. Bremen.   Total.
Kingdom.
1843.......  28,875    8,553    2,749    1,648    1,756   9,844       53,425
1844......  49, 6t0   16,660    2,961    2,363    1,774  19,145       92,503
1845......,58,558   23,500    4,549    4,831    2,398  31,358    125,194
1846.       82,289   32,281   11,402    5,585    3,971  31,617    167,145
1847......  101,767   16,000    8,900    5,547    3,317  15,990    168
Indirect...  10,000....................          1,258. 5,921      168,700
Total...  331,089   96,994   30,561   19,974   14,474  113,875    606,967
The increase of 1844 upon 1843 amounted to.731  per cent.; 1845
upon 1844, 35- per cent.; 1846 upon,1845, 33- per cent.; and the first
half year of 1847 upon the entire year of 1846,' of one per cent.
The emigration, from the beginning of January to the end of June
of this year, Twas composed, as far as an estimate can be correctly made,
of 85,000 Irish; 10,000 English; 10,000 Scotch; 61,000 Germans;
1,547 Dutch; 1,000 Swiss; and  153 French.  Counting  two souls,
with children at the breast, to every five tons burthen of a vessel, the
amount of tonnage employed in moving this emigration fiom Europe to
the United States was 421,750, two-thirds, at the lowest estimate, of
which, from sttements before me, was covered by the American flag.
It is not possible to form  anything like a correct estimate of the
amount of  mnney carried by the emigrants to the United States annually.  In former years I knew several instances where German peasants
embarked with credits, on commercial houses, for sums of $20,000.
From  answers, to repeated inquiries which I have made upon the subject, of persons well informed, I am induced to believe that the amount
taken this year, in the aggregate, per head, was larger than usual,
averaging, at a moderate calculation, $75, and making a sum total
of $12,652,500,




48                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
The emigration from'the ports of Europe, other than those which I
have noticed, is quite inconsiderable; for the first six months of this
year the number could not have exceeded 1,500.
There is but little emigration from the west and north of continental
Europe to any other part of the globe except the United States. The
annual embarkations from  Hamburgh and Antwerp to Brazil, amount
to about 1,000, and.from Bremen and Hamburgh to South Australia, to
an equal number.
From the lists which I was permitted to examine, at the different
ports, I am enabled to state that about ninety-five hundredths of this
year's emigrants are farmers, and agricultural and other laborers.  But
very few mechanics have embarked.
It will be perceived that I have made no mention of the emigration
from the States bordering upon the Baltic.  Until this year it has passed
through Hamburgh; but since April, several hundred persons have
embarked fiom Sweden and Norway, and Denmark.
Having presented to you, in as explicit a manner as I well could in
a dispatch, the general purport of the enactments and decrees of Great
Britain, Belgium, Holland, Hamburgh, and Bremen, respecting emigration, as well as all the information that I succeeded in procuring in connexion with this part of my mission, I might here, with apparent propriety, stop, but I should have the consciousness of not having discharged my whole duty, were I to omit the contribution of my mite
for remedying the existing evils attendant upon immigration into the
United States, as emigration is now conducted in one or more of the
nations of Europe.
The system of Great Britain is exceedingly imperfect.  It is admitted to be so; and I was assured that there was an earnest desire
among statesmen and politicians of all parties to make further improvements upon it than those contained in the act of July as soon as they
knew how.  The subject is assuredly an embarrassing one, but this
yea r's experience renders early actioni ndispensable.
Up to August 12 about one passenger in every six, from Great Bri-'tain, died or was, dangerously ill on their passage to, or after their
arrival in, Canada.
Much hesitation is manifested to adopt a measure that would reduce
the number of emitgrants that a ship is allowed to carry, or compel her
to provision those received aboard properly, lest by raising the price of
passage it may create insurmountable obstacles to many who are disposed to embark.  The object of providing the one pound of bread per
diem for each passenger was to guard against utter destitution.  It
surely never could have been contemplated that an adult should rely
upon so scanty a portion for necessary sustenance from the day of sailing to that of his landing. Yet to what an immense extent has this
been practised in voyages to Quebec, and occasionally in voyages to
ports in the United States.  The indigent Irish unfortunately avail of
this pittance, and arrive out in a condition but little better than that of
starvelings, so emaciated and prostrate that they have to be conveyed
forthwith to hospitals. It would be better that vessels should not be
required to supply the one pound of bread per diem unless they, at the
same time, supply a sufficiency of other suitable food, because this




ON- BOARD EMIGRANT' SnHIPS.49
serves the broker's interior agent as an efficient instrument to decoy
the poor, by deluding them into a belief that they will be abundantly
fed at sea.
It is difficult to, determine with a tolerable degree of accuracy what
number of passengers may be carried to the tonnage, or superficial
mensuration between decks,.in a vessel, with safety to the health of all
aboard.. If only one pound of bread is furnished to each, ten passengers to every hundred tons would be too many. If provided with such
an allowance of food as is supplied by vessels sailing from the Weser
and the Elbe, no sickness would likely be experienced where the emigrants all start entirely free from disease, from two to every four tons.
In corroboration of this view of the matter, I make the fbllowing extract from the report of the board of health of Quebec, dated August
12, -1847:
"The Larch, reported this morning from Sligo, sailedl with 440 passengers, of whom 108I died: on the passage and 150 were sick.  The
Virginius sailed with 496; 158 died on the passage, 186 were sick,
and the remnainder landed feeble and tottering; the captain, mates, and
crew were all sick.  The Black Hole of Calcutta was a mercy, compared to the hold of these vessels. Yet simultaneously, as if in reproof
of those on- whom the blame of all this wretchedness must fall, foreigners — Germans from  Hamburgh and Bremen-are daily arriving; all
healthful, robust, and cheerful."
I a.m, however, disposed. to believe that our act of Congress, approved on the 22d of February last, as construed by the Secretary of
the Treasury in his circular dated May 13, will, in the main, have a
salutary tendency with respect to the space allotted in the steerage to
each passenger.  Fourteen superficial feet of deck, berth included:,
are: to be appropriated to an adult, on such vessels as do not pass
within the tropics; but in cases where they pass within the tropicstwenty superficial feet must be allowed to each.  Under this provision
a: vessel proceedings to NewOileans by way of the Bahama Islands,
that would be entitled: to carry 200 passengers, could only take 140, if
she took the favorite, because less perilous (route) around the Island of
Cuba.  At $30 per head a difference would, consequently, be occasioned: in her receipts, from passengers, of $1,800.  It is clear, to my
mind, that no such result, in the workings of the law, were contemplated at the time of its enaction.  From any European to any United
States port, in well: provisioned and well policed: vessels, a space of
fourteen superficial feet to a passenger is believed to be sufficient to
ensure his accustomed health, if proper attention be paid to personal
cleanliness. I am  the more inclined to this opinion, from  the facts
which have fallen under my observations connected with the colonizationof South Australia. Emigrants embarking at ports on the North
Sea, for Adelaide, are usually out 120 days, and, although much of
this time is passed within the tropics, they nevertheless generally
arrive in excellent condition.
The superintendent: of emigration to Australia, at Bremen, in a letter
of the 11th instant, a copy of which I forward herewith, has obligingly
communicated to me much valuable information. Among other things
he. says:
4




50                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
"In 1844 I commenced the agency on invitation of a member of the"'South Australian Company,' and have now completed eight expeditions of 2,000 persons altogether, and I am now organizing an expedition for November and another for next spring.  I have no doubt the
current will constantly and gradually increase as the accounts are encouraging; but it never will detract from America any great number,
as the price of passage is necessarily double that to America, owitlg to
distance, and also land is much dearer in Australia than in America.
The British government sells land in quarterly auctions, in sections of
80 acres, at the fixed: price of one pound per acre.  *  *  *  *  In
my expeditions I have been less restricted than the new American law
restricts the transportation of passengers, and have in fact placed as
many people aboard as I had room-making the berths in two rows,
placing five persons together in a berth, allowing for each eighteen
inches width, and having two tiers in each row.  A ship of 500 tons
will, with a between decks of eight feet high, admit of twelve berths
in a tier X 4==240 passengers. This is ton measurement, equal to 350.
lasts of Bremen.  A ship of 100 tons more will not carry any more passengers. I have never had any disease on the passage, the births having
always exceeded the deaths; but I have never sent away a vessel
without a physician aboard, as is required by the English law."
There cannot be a question but that our laws "regulating the carriage of passengers in merchant ships," are susceptible of great improvement. I will briefly state the additions required, as they occur
to my mind after much reflection:
1. That the duration of a voyage of passenger merchant ships clearing from any of the ports of Great Britain, or from  the Atlantic ports
of France, Spain, and Portugal, to a port in the United States, shall
be computed at seventy days; that the duration of a voyage of passenger merchant ships, clearing from  any of the ports on the North
sea to a port in the United States, shall be computed at ninety days;
that the duration of a voyage of passenger merchant ships clearing
from other European ports to a port in the United States shall be computed at one hundred days. That for every passenger received aboard
they shall provide a weekly supply (for the term specified, respectively,) of 5.- gallons pure fresh water, 21 lbs. salted beef,.14 lbs. salted
pork, or instead thereof 1 lb. side bacon, 5 lbs. bread, 2 lbs. flour, 1 lb.
beans, l lb. peas, 1 lb. rice, ~ lb. oat-meal or peeled barley, 12 lbs.
potatoes, 4 pint molasses,    lb. sugar, s lb. coffee, --- lb. tea, 1 lb.
butter; salt, pepper, and vinegar in proportion, 4 lbs. coal, besides all
necessary cooking utensils and competent cooks. Also a box of fresh
medicines, and an abundance of arrow-root, sago, castor-oil, and Epsom salts.
2. That every passenger shall be examined by a competent physician at the port at which he embarks, the day before his departure from
the haven in which the vessel is moored, and pronounced free from all
contagious or other distempers; and that he (or she) shall establish, to
the satisfaction of the physician, that he has not been, during the six
months last past, in any hospital or elsewhere under medical treatment,
for the typhus or starveling's fever.
3. That every passenger shall be required to bathe him or:herself




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                       51
carefully one or more times; to be cleanly apparelled throughout; to
have all clothing composed of cotton, flax, or hemp made thoroughly
clean and dry, and that manufactured from other materials well aired,
as well as bedding, trunks, and boxes, before going to sea.
4. That the between decks of every passenger merchant ship shall
be appropriated exclusively for the use of the passengers, none of whom
shall be permitted to stow in it more clothing than is necessary for a
change, from time to time, as they may require.
5. That the bilge water of every passenger ship shall be pumped
out, and the hold made as clean as possible, before she receives emigrants aboard; and that she shall have wind sails down the hatchways
so as to communicate, as occasion may require, a, sufficiency of pure
air,to the between decks.
6. That the captain, or one of his officers, of every passenger ship
shall assemble the passengers on deck daily at 9o'clock, a. in., weather permitting, and call a roll of their names, and all absentees who
plead sickness as a reason fbr non-attendance shall have suitable
medicines administered to them.
7. That no passenger ship shall be permitted to disembark any portion
of her passengers in a port of the United States until the captain has established, to the satisfaction of the proper authority thereat, that no person named in his list is fleeing from punishment for a crime or crimes
committed, or has been discharged from a house of correction, or forwarded or turned out of an alms or poor house.
8. That passenger ships shall effect an insurance on the gross amount
of the passage money which they receive, with the addition of thirtythree and a third per dent. thereon for the benefit of the passengers
in the event of casualities on or in the region of the American coast,
or elsewhere, if they shall prosecuute their voyage to the United
States.
9. That the captain of every passenger ship shall procure, as evidence that he has complied with the obligations imposed previous to
the sailing of the vessel under his command, a certificate from the
authority or authorities whose business it may be to attend to suchmatters, that all requisitions, as far as they could transpire before the
commencement of the voyage, have been scrupulously observed. Such
certificate or certificates shall be duly authenticated under thee consular
seal of the United States at the port at which the vessel clears.
States, whose kindly sentiments for our country influence them to
legislate upon the subject of emigration with an eye to the general wellbeing of the Union, are exceedingly discouraged when they learn that
such persons as have been prevented from embarking at their ports for
ourshores succeed in obtaining passages elsewhere.
It is obviously the true policy of the United States to confine, as
far it can be done justly, the embarkation of emigrants to the ports of
the country in which they resided.  I was assured in England that the
Germans passing through London, Liverpool, and Hull, on their route
to the United States, are, in consequence of their utter ignorance of the
English langunge, the constant dupes of knaves.
In conclusion, I cannot decline stating in the most positive manner,
after diligent inquiry, that no disease. bearing any resemblance to the




~52^     ~     SICKNESS AND MORTALITT:
fever so. prevalent and fatal in Ireland, and in vessels sailing from
Liverpool and Irish ports, has been discovered to exist at either of the
western continental ports of Europe, or in vessels clearing from them
with passengers.
I have the honor to be, sir, with faithful esteem,
Your obedient servant,
A. DUDLEY MANM
No. 3.
Communication of Samuel Hall, of East Boston.
EAST BOSTON, January 5, 1854f
MY DEAR SIR: I notice in this evening's paper that you have been
appointed chairman of the committee appointed by the Senate to inquire.
into the causes and the extent of the sickness and mortality prevailing
on board of the emigrant ships.  This is a very important subject, and
I trust you will excuse me for addressing you, believing, however, that
it will be the wish of the committee to get all the information the public
are in possession of in relation to this matter. It is a well known fact
that for some time past the mortality has been on the increase, and I am
happy to see a move made to remedy the defect, which, in my opinion,
is very easily done if Congress has nerve enough to make a suitable
law and enforce it.
I will give you my opinion what the caused are, and what Ii am
positive will be a remedy:  (The main causes are only two.)  The
first and the greatest cause is in allowing ships to carry passengers on
two decks. You will find, on.examination, that the ships that have:
three decks and carry passengers on two of them, that disease is almost
sure to follow; this is the reason that almost every packet ship has three.
decks and by that means can carry double the amount of passengers;
here lies the greatest difficulty.  The second reason is not allowing
each passenger sufficient deck surface. - I think the present law does
not allow enough. And thirdly and lastly, to have the ships properly.
ventilated.  I am well aware that those people that have built those.
three deck ships will say that the mortality is as great on the upper
between decks as the lower between decks; this may be the case, but
the passengers on the upper between deck have to receive all the
stench from those below, as there is no other way for it to pass off
except out of the hatchways, except by some small ventilators through
the decks, which are, in my opinion, of but little if any use, and most of
the ships do not have them.
I have been a ship and steamboat builder for the past thirty years,
and know the reasons that first induced  merchants to put in the.
third deck, nothing more nor less than to carry steerage passengers,
and here is the great evil. And I did have the honor to be one of the
nine supervising inspectors under the late steamboat law for a short
time, but presume I was removed from my inability to perform the
duties of that office. And while I held that office I was satisfied that.




ON BOARD EMIORANT SHIPS.                    53
the greatest difficulty that we had to contend with was the space to be
allowed for each passenger, especially on board the steamers between
New York and Chagres, and on the Pacific.
I am, with very great respect, your obedient servant,
SAMUEL HALL.
To the Hon.- HAMILTON FISH.
No. 4e
Communication from John H. Griscom, M. D., of New York, to the Special
Committee of the United States Senate.
NEW YoRKEJanuary 14, 1854.
I cheerfully comply with your suggestion, to prepare a statement of
my views of the nature and causes of the diseases and mortality among
emigrants in transitu between Europe and the United States, together
with such alterations of the present laws and additions thereto, as appear to me to be indicated for the prevention of the disasters which we
have recently had so deeply to lament.
No theory is better established in the science of medicine, than that
certain diseases are the direct consequence of particular external circumst'ances. In many instances, modern investigation has reversed
the views formerly entertained. Diseases which were formerly set
down as the "visitation of God," over which man was supposed to
have no control, and which no foresight of his could prevent, are now
known to be of his own production, and either entirely preventible, or
capable of great melioration.
There are some general diseases, the precise nature of whose remote
causes we cannot yet discern, and of which we have no means of prevention-such as small-pox, scarlatina, measles, puerperal fever, &c, —
but even in the case of one of these, we have now an almost certain
shield, and in all of them, an improved knowledge of the laws of hygiene has disarmed them of their terrors in a large degree.
Furthermore, we now know that there are certain conditions and
places in which human beings are wont to live, or to which they are
incidentally subject, which give them a proneness to certain diseases of
specific type, but which are unknown, except under those conditions.
The laws which govern the action of external agencies upon the
human body are now established, in numerous instances, upon as firm
a basis as those of Copernicus or Newton, and a disregard of them
will as certainly prove destructive to health and life as a suspension of
the law of gravity would make "confusion worse confounded" in the
material world.
Probably there never was a class of people, or any circumstances
in which human beings could be placed, in which the truth of these
doctrines was more clearly exhibited, than that class known as emigrants, in their transit from European ports to our own; and theie is
not a fact more shocking to our sensibilities, nor more disgraceful to




54                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
humanity, than the condition of these people, under these circum
stances.
While we have frequent expositions of the sad estate of our poorer
class of city tenantry, and the public is pained with the recital of the
story of their crowded and dilapidated tenements, their packed cellars
and attics, their filthy yards and streets,-too little has been said of the
far more horrible manner in which steerage passengers are crowded
into emigrant ships, of their destitution, the filth in which they are allowed to remain, their deficiency of food and cooking, the absence of
ventilation, and the too frequent disregard by owners and masters, of
the spirit, and even of the letter, of the laws, both of our own and
other countries; the result of which has been an amount of disease and
mortality unprecedented in modern tines, under any similar circumstances. 
There are three Diseases which especially conduce to these results,
viz: typhus ever, cholera, and small-pox.  Of these three, that to which
the emigrant is most prone, is typhus fever, in that frmn commonly
known as ship fiver.
The extraordinary prevalence of this disease at the present time, and
for the past half century, but especially for the past seven or eight
years, is an astounding phenomenon, particularly when it is remembered, that we live in the midst of all the light necessary for its prevention.
My first practical cognizance of the horrible condition in which emigrants are frequently found on shipboard was in 1847, when, as a member of a committee of the New York Academy of' Medicine, I visited
the quarantine establishment to enquire into the medical history of the
typhus fever, then extensively prevailing, and crowding that institution
with patientsA  On that occasion we visited the ship Ceylon, from Liverpool, which had come to anchor a few hours before, with a large cargo
of passengers.  A considerable number had died upon the voyage, and
one hundred and fifteen were then ill with the fever, and were preparing to be removed to the hospital.  Before any had yet left the ship, we
passed through the steerage, making a more or less minute examination
of the place and its inhabitants; but the indescribable filth, the emaciated, half-nude figures, many with the petechial erupture disfiguring
their faces, crouching in the bunks, or strewed over the decks, and cumbering the gangways; broken utensils, and debris of food spread reck*
lessly about, presented a picture of which neither pen norpencil can
convey a full idea.  Some were just rising from their berths for the first
time since leaving Liverpool, having been s'tored to lie there all the voyage, wallowing in their own filth.  It was no wonder to us that with
such total neglect of sanitary supervision, and an entire absence of ventilation, so many of such wretched beings had perished, or were then
ill of fever; it was only surprising that so many had escaped.
Shocking as this case was, it has been frequently surpassed, at least
as far as figures are concerned.  In 1842 the ship Eutawgave one hundred and twenty to the hospital on arrival; in ]837 the Ann Hall sent
in one hundred and fifty-eight; while as far back as the year 1802, one
hundred and eighty-eight were taken fiom the Flora, two hundred and
twenty from the Nancy, and two hundred and fifty-nine from the Pena




ON BOARD EMIGRANT STIPS.                     M5,lope. In 1851 the number of deaths at sea, between Liverpool and New
York, rose to the astounding number of 1879, almost wholly the result
of ship fever.
In addition to this the poisonous influence which has become infused
into those who have escaped death or sickness on ship board, lies dormant for a few days or weeks after debarkation, and sooner or later
developes itself; and brings many of them  to the. hospital, where from
fifteen to twenty per cent. more are added to the list of dead.  Thus
there were treated in the marine hospital, on Staten Island, in 1852,
3,040 cases of ship fever, of whom seventeen per cent. died.  These
were all emigrants; and we must add to these the cases of the same
disease, of the same people, which were treated in the large hospitals
at Flatbush, Ward's Island, and Bellevue, at the city hospital, and at
other places throughout this State and the States immediately adjoining, nearly all of whom arrived at the port of Ne4 York alone.
In considering the hygienic aspects of emigration, we start then with
the remarkable fact, that of those who embark for an Atlantic voyage,
on any one of a certain class of ships, one in every twelve of them but
steps into a coffin; nearly nine per cent. will either never reach the
promised land, or will die soon after.
The general causes, as well as the means of prevention, of this
disease, are so plain, as not to require a medical education for their
comprehension, but may be made clear to ordinary intelligence, and
the vast importance of the subject will justify an allusion to both in the
present communication.
Ship fever, as it is termed from the places of its greatest prevalence,
is the product of a miasm, as distinct as that of marshes, which produces
intermittent fever; and this miasm is itself as necessary a result of certain prior circumstances, as the marsh miasm is the product of marshes.
And further, the means for its prevention are as clear and controllable
~in theone case as in the other.  Thus if an offensive marsh be thoroughly
drained and dried, its peculiar miasm, and the disease which it caused,
will:disappear; and so by preventing the formation of themiasm of
ship fever.(as easy of accomplishment as the other) that disease will in
like manner be prevented, or avoided.
What then are the circumstances which give rise to this miasm of
typhus?  There are certain essentials to its creation,' which I will.enumerate in the order of their importance, beginning with the least:
1st. The confinement of numbers of people together, in apartments
disproportioned in size to their requirements of wholesome respiration.
2d. The retention in the same apartment of the excretions from the
bodies of the individuals thus confined; such as the matter of'perspiration, the carbonic acid gas and moisture from  the breath, and other
more offensive excretions.  These acted on by the artificial heat of the
apartment, or even by the natural heat of the bodies alone, will become
decomposed, and produce an effluvium  which will react poisonously
on the persons living in it.
3d. Too great exclusion of pure air.
As to the first of these causes, the number of persons, and the size of
the apartment necessary to produce this miasm, are merely relative.
A single individual, subjected to these circumstances a sufficient length




66^           H-iI;lCKNESS AND MORTALITY 
of time, may excite typhus fever in:his own person. By shutting one
up in a small room, at the same time excluding the external air, and
allowing the excretions of his body to accumulate around him, typhus
fever will almost certainly appear, sooner or later, according to his constitutional power of resistingthe poison. On the other hand, an apartment
may be ever so crowded, without the least danger from this source,
provided that, from the first, ventilation and cleanliness be thoroughly and
constantly maintained.
In support of these views it were easy to quote abundantly from the
-most authoritative medical writers; but I deem it unnecessary, considering them to be established beyond dispute, and not wishing to lengthen:this communication unnecessarily.
With this brief explanation of the general causes of typhus, the reasons of its prevalence in the steerages of passenger ships are very apparent. In great nebers of them, all the circumstances enumerated
above, as necessary for the creation of this disorder, are found in active
operation.  But to account for the extraordinary amount of it during
the past few years, some other and more particular cause seems necessary. Steerages crowded with careless passengers, and badly ventilated
or not ventilated at all, have been known, before the period alluded to,
to escape its devastations, and it is therefore reasonable to infer the
existence of some specific cause, in addition to the general ones which
have been mentioned.
We find ship fever, within a few years, to have prevailed most frequently and extensively in those vessels which ply between several
ports of Great Britain and this country, and this fact, together with an
examination of the passengers, points unerringly to the famine which
desolated a large section of that kingdom, as the additional cause
alluded to.
This, however, was not a direct, but only an indirect or remote cause
of the evil. The long privation of foodobeibre embarkation, so efflctually reduced both bodily and mental strength, that when once on board
and in a berth, the most powerful inducements were insufficient to get
the passengers out and on deck. Hunger itself would fail to bring them
forth. This very indifference to self-exertion, this irresistible prostration
and indolence, if unchecked by the police of the ship, results in the
rapid accumulation of filth of every possible description, and the speedy
generation of the typhus miasm. Starvation alone, however, never yet
produced typhus, or any other disease; but, in the way pointed out, it
is a most potent predisposing cause, and facilitates the action of the
other necessary circumstances.
In connexion with this branch of the subject, another source of its
developement on board ship demands notice. In the cabins and hovels
-the homes-of these famine-stricken people, typhus fever raged a
long time, and doubtless prevails extensively yet, produced by the
same general and specific causes as have been described. The emigrants leave for the seaboard, and straightway enter into the ships, unpurified and unwashed, reeking with the fever miasm of their dwellings.
Into the crowded and confined steerage they precipitate themselves for
rest and escape from  starvation and death. But they have brought
the enemy with them, though unconsciously; the fatal seeds are but
sown in a fresh soil, and, as if in a hot-bed, they spring up with in



ON BOARD -EMIGRANT.SHIPS.                  567
creased vigor, infecting not only those who introduced them, but others
who have heretofore been free from the infection.  One such case on
board a crowded ship, especially if badly ventilated, may cause the death
of numbers.
Against this source of infection the English government has attempted
a preventive measure, with what success will be hereafter alluded to.
A very important consequence of this overwhelming prostration of.Strength is, that the food with which these people are supplied on board
ship, even if sufficient in quantity, (which is not always,) is very often.so badly cooked as to operate upon them  injuriously rather than otherwise.  So great is the difficulty often, among from 300 to 1,000 people,
of finding a proper time and opportunity for cooking, that it is a common occurence for them to swallow their flour or meal only half-cooked,
or even simply mixed with warm water, if indeed warm water can be had.
The effect of this kind of diet is but to add other evils, such as dysentery and diarrhoea to the typhus miasm, with which the steerage has
become infected, rendering it more virulent, and the debilitated inmates
more susceptible to its influence, while a well-fed person will longer
and more effectually resist it.
For the prevention as well as the cure of typhus, it is necessary that
the physical stamina be well maintained by appropriate food in sufficient quantity. With ordinary strength of body and elasticity of spirit,
few persons can be induced to remain below deck many hours together;
and while the pure air of the ocean directly increases animal vigor, it
is also the surest preventive of typhus. Even the half-starved emigrant would find his energy and spirits revive, if compelled by a rigid
sanitary police to make frequent visits to the ship's deck.
Famine, therefore, though a frequent precedent, and a powerful adjuvant, is only an indirect cause of the fever as we find it on ship board
and in our hospitals; but thus we must continue to be burdened with
it, as long as poverty-stricken emigrants are admitted into the transport
ships in such great numbers, with food so insufficient in quantity and
quality, and with such total absence of sanitary police during the
voyage.
From what has been said, it will be readily inferred that in the prevention of typhus fever pure air possesses great value.  Too much reliance cannot be placed upon it, either for this purpose, or for subduing
the intensity or arresting the progress of the disease. Of its efficacy as
a remedial agent, a striking instance, among many others that might be
mentioned, occurred at the New York Quarantine Hospital, under my
immediate notice, during my connection with the State Emigrant Commission. A new building was erected on the summit of a hill within
the enclosure, into which some forty patients were conveyed from the
ofher over-crowded buildings.  Although these had been kept in as
good condition as possible as respects both cleanliness and ventilation,
though there was no specific mode for the latter, yet the influence of
the fresh atmosphere of the new building upon these patients was most
decided and immediate; a load seemed to be lifted off them, and several who it was feared would die began at once to improve, and rapidly
recovered.  A more remarkable proof still of the curative powers of
pure air occurred in 1837, at Perth Amboy, the details of which will




68                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY'be found in a paper published in the "Transactions of the New York
Academy of Medicine," and which is appended hereto.  (See page-.
It has been a matter of conjecture with some, why typhus fever and
many other infectious disorders are more abundant and fatal in cold
weather than in warm; its increase has been attributed by some to the
low temperature. But the true reason undoubtedly is, that in winter
the external atmosphere is more completely excluded from our dwellings and hospitals by the closing of doors and windows, which in warm
weather are open, and freely permit the ingress and egress of air.
Hence in winter the greater necessity of artifici(l ventilation.  The same
reasoning applies to passenger ships in cold or stormy weather, when
the hatches are kept closed; artificial ventilation, necessary at all
times, is then more abundantly demanded.
Persistence of the Contagion.
There is another fact connected with ships es well as with hospitals
and dwellings, which has'a very important bearing on this subject.
The miasm- which has been spoken of, has the property of attaching
itself to clothing, bedding, furniture, and to the walls, ceilings, and
floors of apartments; it is absorbed by them, and adheres with considerable tenacity, whence it is ever ready, unless thoroughly destroyed
and removed by cleansing and the use of disinfectants, to issue forth,
and like the leaven hid in the meal, to leaven the whole atmosphere of
the apartment with its poisonous influence.  Into a room in which a
case of typhus fever has once existed, even for a short time, it is unsafe
to enter, unless the room, and everything in it, has been first subjected
to a thorough airing and purification..Here then is a constant source
of danger, and which will probably account for many instances of its
devastation on ship-board.  A  vessel in which this disease has once
occurred will have the miasmatic poison clinging to its sides, ceilings,
and floors, whence it is impossible to eradicate it without the most
thorough airing, ablution, and disinfection, such as, I presume, no vessel engaged in the European passenger trade has ever yet received.
In hospitals and dwellings, with hard finished walls and painted wood
work, this fact is often demonstrated;* but in the peculiar structure of
a vessel's inner walls, without plaster, paint, or whitewash, with thousands of crevices and cracks inaccessible to the scrubbing brush or
any other purifying implement, without windows for the free circulation
of air, we see the perfection of a place for the long retention of the poison,
and for its propagation for months after, when the steerage shall be
again crowded with human food for it to fasten and grow upon.
There is abundant authority for the substantive, adhesive, and propagatory character of this infectious principle.  Dr. Rush says this
poison may remain in fomites six mont/s without losing its active properties. Dr. Nathan Smith presents evidence to the same effect, and M.
Gendron, a French physician, states some facts which seem to show
* See a case reported in the transactions of the New York Academy of Medicine hereunto
ppended. (See page-.)




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                      59
that the contagious matter of the disease may remain active in a bed
for two or three years.
Dr. Millan (report on the diseases of London) remarks that the
houses of the poor in London are often so little taken care of, that in
the apartments where contagious fevers have existed, enough of the
contagion remains to infect all the inmates who successively occupy
the same premises; and he mentions some particular houses in which
the fomites of fever were thus preserved for a scries of years.
Further than this, it is believed that this poison increases in power by
a long retention in a room, or in clothing.  Thus, Dr. Wilson Phillip,
in his standard and elaborate work on fevers, in his chapter on typhus,
says: "Fornites often retain contagion for a great length of time, and
may convey it any distance.  It is' a general opinion, that fomites
more readily communicate the disease, and communicate it in a worse
form, than the sick themselves."  The celebrated Dr. Cullen makes a
similar remark, and in addition states that "the effluvia constantly
arising from the living human body, if long retained in the same place
without being diffused in the atmosphere,' acquires a singular virulence."
Dr. Parr, in his medical dictionary,* says: " Fevers caught by recent infection are mild compared with those which arise from contaCgion
long pent up, styled fonmites."
ONCE INFECTED, ALW'AYS INFECTED, UNTIL DISINFECTED, should
therefore be said of every vessel; and it is for the non-application of
the last clause of the sentence, doubtless, that we are in many instances
pained with the reports of death's doings on shipboard, when the remote
causes, before alluded to, do not exist as in 1847, and thereabouts.  It
is thus they are first made into, and thus they are continued to be,
floating "Black Holes," scarcely surpassed by the great original at
Calcutta.
Moreover, the bunks or berths on these vessels are generally constructed of the cheapest kind of boards, often in the rough state, put
together without any nicety, and their whole arrangement of the most
temporary character.  Nothing of the kind could be better adapted for
harboring and retaining the fever miasm. At the end of the voyage they
are sometimes without disinfection, or even washing, taken down, and
with all their filth a.nd miasm  adhering to them, are stowed away
either as dunnage, amid the return cargo, or in bulk, and appropriated
to their original purpose on the next hitherward voyage.  Now it is
evident that the next cargo of' emigrants which such a vessel receives
may be composed of perfectly healthy people; and though they may
be well supplied with stores, and the bedding, clothing, persons, and
habits, be of the cleanest and best character, yet in the ship itself are
the seeds of disease which, night and day, they must be in close contact with, and which, under ordinary circumstances, will, in all probability, attack some of them.  The pestilential wave, once started, will
roll on to engulph one after another of the entrapped and helpless victims who have confided too readily in the purity of the vessel andtheir
own cleanliness atd care.
But even without this additional source of danger, concealed in the
temporary structures alluded to, and supposing all the old lumber to be
* Cited by Prof. J. M. Smith.




60                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
destroyed, and new substituted each voyage, still the permanent timbers of the vessel form a nidus for the poison ot the surest kind, whenec
it may issue and display its powers upon the fresh victims.
Cholera.
Our attention has been recently arrested by the appearance of another
disorder among Atlantic emigrants, which, with swifter foot and deadlier aim than typhus, has decimated them in many vessels.  Cholera is
a-new feature in emigration, as it was in its epidemic form in 1832, an
entirely new disease on the western hemisphere.
A native of Asia, it spread over Europe, and then swept the Amnerican continent, appearing at different intervals since, but until within a
very recent period confining its devastations to the land.  It has now
apparently abandoned the erratic character which it assumed at the
commencement, aid taken up a permanent abode among the habitations of men.  It even tracks him to the water's edge, and enters with
him into the ship, concealing its presence until fiirly launched upon the
deep, beyond the reach of succor, and then, springing forth from its
lurking places with resistless fury, sweeps overboard victims enough to
have appeased the demands of the most sanguinary god that mythology ever invented.
We have now to inquire whether in its nature, its causes, or its progress, it beanrs any resemblance to ship fever, and whether we have any
knowledge of the means of its prevention, or, if started in life, we may
restrict or arrest its progress, as we know we may do with typhus.
In the commencement of this inquiry, we meet with one striking difference between them. Cholera, as it first appeared among us, and is
now occasionally observed, is an epidemic disease, which ship fever
never is. Of the latter, the open air is as complete an extinguisher as
water is of fire, while the former has been known to move onward over
whole communities and countries, heedless of seasons or temperatures,
and laughing to scorn all human efforts fbr its arrest. Its terrific energies seemed to be exhausted only by time.  It did not fbrmerly visit
alone the abodes of wretchedness, the cellars, the crowded courts and
wynds, and mud hovels-though the inhabitants of these suffered in
much larger proportion-but, like the hurricane, it fell upon both rich
and poor.  In time it passed away, and the world fondly hoped that,
~as it was a new visitant, its first visit was its last.  It came a second
time, however, but with modified severity, and although its origin was
yet entirely unknown, the hope of its final disappearance still lingered.
But in this we have been doomed to disappointment.  True it has not
again presented itself as a general epidemic, but we have had it devastating particular localities; we see it here and there sprouting up under
certain conditions and circumstances, and giving too strong evidence
of its being now a permanent addition to the already too long catalogue
of the ills which flesh is heir to.
We have therefore had more frequent and ampler opportunities for
the examination of its characteristics.  What, then, let us enquire, are
the localities in which it is most frequently found? What the circumstances under which it is most apt to appear?  And who the people it
most affects.?




ON- BOARD EMIGRANXT SHIPS.                     01
We answer that its localities are peculiar, its favoring circumstances
easily understood, and its victims almost exclusively of a cert-ain class*
These are all identical with those which are known to be especially prone
to typhus fever. 
There is now no longer any room for doubt, that this disease is very
frequently produced, and is always aggravated, by filth and foul airNumerous instances are recorded of its spontaneous appearance in places
occupied  by people of filthy habits, crowded, badly fed, and ill
ventilated. It cannot be accounted for in these localities, on the same
hypothesis as typhus fever, that is, by the reaction upon the system of
a poisonous miasm, which must firstt be produced, though it may be
upon another theory equally sound.  The typhus miasm is created by
the decomposition of pent up animal secretions, is-of a peculiar character,
and can cause no other disease than typhus; yet it is, I think, demonstrable, that cholera is the result of the action upon the human
system of foul air, defective nourishment, and other vitiated circumstances, similar to those from which typhus eventually springs.  Their
modus operandi in the causation of cholera is probably this, that a more
or less protracted. residence amid these depressing circumstances, results in a highly vitiated state of the system, a peculiar cachexia, fiom
which, under a favoring condition of the general atmosphere, the new
disease is ushered into life, ere a sufficient time has elaped for the creation of the typhus miasmr; as if the formation of this poison was a too
tardy, process, and Providence deemed it necessary to send a swifter
winged messenger of death, in these latter days, to punish his creatures
for their continued violation of the laws given for the preservation of
their health and lives.
The' correctness of this view  of its causation, and the relation of'
these subjects to each other, as cause and effect, as set forth recently
by a distinguished member of the British cabinet, will undoubtedly receive the unanimous assent of the medical profession:
"The Maker of the Universe has established certain laws of nature
for the planet in which we live, and the weal or woe of mankind depends upon the observance or the neglect of those laws.  One of those
laws connects health with the absence of those gaseous exhalations
which proceed from overcrowded human beings, or from decomposing
substances, whether animal or vegetable; and those same laws render
sickness the almost inevitable consequence of exposure to those noxious
influences.  But it has at the same time pleased Providence to place it
within the power of man to make such arrangements as will prevent
or disperse such exhalations, so as to render them  harmless, and it is
the duty of man to attend to those laws of nature, and to exert the faculties which Providence has thus given to man for his welfare.
"The recent visitation of cholera, which has for the moment been
mercifully checked, is an awful warning given to the people of this
realm that they ha.ve too much neglected their duty in this respect, and
that those persons with whom it rested to purify towns and cities, and
to prevent or to remove the causes of disease, have not been sufficiently
active in regard to such matters.  Lord Palmerston would, therefore,
suggest that the best course which the people of this country can pursue to deserve that the further progress of the cholera should be stayed,




02                    SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
will be, to employ the interval that will elapse between the present
time and the beginning of next spring, in planning and executing measures by which those portions of their towns and cities which are inhabited by the poorest classes, and which, from  the nature of things}
must most need purification and improvement, may be freed from those
causes and sources of contagion, which, if allowed'to remain, will infallibly breed pestilence, and be fiuitful in death, in spite of all the
prayers and fastings of an united but inactive nation.  When man- has
done his utmost obr his own safety, then is the time to invoke the blessing of Heaven to give effect to his exertions."
But, on the other hand, granting that it cannot thus be generated de
novo, and that its endemic or sporadic appearance must be the result
of the germinature of seeds which were sown by some former epidemic, (as so)me appear to hold,) there can yet be no reasonable doubt,
that certain soils are more favorable for their germinature, and that the
most favorable are those arial soils, so richly manured by concentrated'
human effluvia and filth.  Without such provocatives and stimuli to
growth, these suppositions seeds would lie dormant, for aught that we
are aware, perhaps as long as the cereal grains found with the mummied bodies of the pyramids.
Again we may be told that there have occurred instances in which
neither of these theories of causation is sufficient to account for all the
circumstances under which it has appeared.  Thus it has been observed to make its appearance on some vessels in a very sudden manner, and, after a few  days continuance, to have as suddenly ceased
and disappeared.  And there has been generally noticed, in these
cases, either a decided change of wind, or some other alteration in the
state of the weather, while its visitations have also been said to be
confined to certain latitudes.
I do not see in these cases sufficient to charge the theory advanced
with insufficiency or inconsistency. In some instances it would indeed
seem as i' the state of the weather exerted a- decided influence both
upon the origination and upon the duration of the attack; but in some
other instances it would appear to have been independent of direct influence from that quarter. In one case we are told the disease attacked
the passengers before the ship left her moorings in the river Mersey
and prevailed so severely as to induce the master to discharge the
whole company and take in another of a better class.  And though
we may admit that there is in the constitution of the general atmosphere something of an occult or mysterious character, which will produce this strange disease, yet the opinion cannot be dismissed or
disregarded, that there must be in the local atmosphere powerful predisposing and supporting causes, otherwise it would not prevail so
uniformly among people of a particular class and character.  Separated as they are only by so narrow  a line as that which divides the
cabins from the steerage, on one side we find total exemption, and on
the other great pioneness to the disease.  It enters the ship by tho
hatchways, and not down the cabin stairs.
The same rules which are required to be observed for the prevention
of typhus, are therefore demanded for the avoidance of cholera, with
perhaps the single exception of that which refers to the destruction of




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                       3
the contagious miasm  which typhus leaves behind it, and with which
it impregnates the furniture and timbers of the vessel.  There is no
evidence of any similar result from the p,:evalence of cholera, though
after the existence of such a disease, in suchl a place as a ship's hold,
it should not be deemed fit to be entered by others, much less suitable
for a crowd of emigrants, without a most thorough cleansing and disinfection.
Another theory by which the existence of cholera on ship board is
accounted for, in the minds of some, is, that it is brought on board by
the emigrants themselves, from infected districts, and sooner or later
breaks out and spreads.  This idea presupposes the existence of a.
cholera virus or miasm, which may hang about a person's clothing or
body, and lie dormant there for several days.  Of this there does not
appear sufficient proof, though the opinion is entertained by many, that
the disease has given some evidence of a contagious character. But
admitting it to be true, still the virus, like that of typhus, must have a
favorable soil to sprout and grow in, and that is furnished in perfection
on board an ordinary emigrant ship; and that it does not infect the
cabin shows that the steerage affords peculiar facilities for its growth
The same remarks will apply to the theory which has been advanced,
of there being zones of atmosphere of a choleraic tendency, which is
exerted upon the vessel as it passes through them.
Small Pox.
With regard to small pox, the third in rank of the diseases which
have afflicted emigrants, its nature and its means of prevention are too
well known to require anything more than a single passing recommendation. 
I believe that this disease appears chiefly on vessels from French or
German ports; and it is due to the passengers thence, as well as to
ourselves, that some understanding should be had between the respective governments, in reference to the rigid inspection of passengers, and
the.enfbrcement of vaccination before embarkation, and the purification
of the vessels in which the disease has occurred, after their arrival
here.
REMARKS ON THE LAW OF 1848, AND PROPOSED AMENDMENTSb
Section 2.  The arrangements for ventilation, as required by this
section, are exceedingly deficient, both in amount and power.  Only
one receiving tube, of twelve inches in diameter, is required for the
supply of air for two hundred persons.  Even under the influence of a
good breeze, this would be insufficient for the healthful change of the
atmosphere of a steerage containing one quarter that number of people,
though they should be of the best character for cleanliness of person
and habits.  Larger tubes, and more of them, are necessary.
Another detective point is, that these. tubes. are not required to terminate below  in such a manner. as to distribute the air in d(ifferent




t>D SU.fRICCKESS AND MORTALITY
directions through the- apartment. A single current is produced' by
them, which cannot he expected. to permeate into the numerous recesses, nor to disperse itself over or between the berths.
The exhausting tubes, as they are generally made, (without an exception, as far as 1 have seen,) are not exhausting tubes.  They will
rather prevent than facilitate an upward current through them.  The
form of cowl, capable of producing the greatest degree of exhaustion
by the action of the wind upon it, has been a matter of much philosophic speculation, and several have been invented, each of which claims,
superiority, and all are effective in a greater or less degree.  But it is
confidently affirmed that the form  usually found on ships rather than
produce, will more often prevent an upward current.
It is, moreover, a question whether an exhausting cowl, even of the
most approved pattern, is necessary.  The greatest amount of foul
air which one could bring up from below would probably afford a very
insignificant amount of relief under the most favorable circurntances,
I would recommend: that there be no exhausting cowls or tubes, as
such, but that all should be used as receiving tubes, and the exhaustion be looked for through the hatches, and that the terminus of each
receiving tube be arranged so as to distribute the air more widely.' Plank shear" ventilators should be required in every vessel hereafter
built, and also in those into which they can now be introduced. These
constitute exhaust openings of much efficiency and continuance.
Another serious objection to this section is its " proviso."  It submits the whole matter of ventilation to the judgment of an inspector of
the customs.  In this there is no guaranty that even the letter of the
law, defective as it is in this respect, will be executed, and less that
its benevolent spirit will be.  The whole question of means of ventilation is thus left to the decision, virtually, of we do not know who-and
most-probably some one ignorant of its first principles.  The means
should be, as far as practicable, strictly defined by law, and what cannot be thus defined submitted to the discretion of an officer thoroughly
informed on the subject.
S      4. Tis section.  T s, in not requiring cooks for the passengers, is
inferior to the English law, which does require them.  It is more important, for obvious reasons, that the United States law should require
them, and also that the cooking be'done for the passengers, and not by
them.  Fuel for cooking is required to be distributed to the passengers
weekly, which pre-supposes the cooking shall be done by the passengers, each for himself —a thing manifestly impracticable for from two
hundred to nine hundred to do at one fire, and improper if it were practicable. That portion of the section should be repealed, and substituted by a requisition for the appointment of a sufficient number of cooks
as a part of the ship's complement, whose exclusive duty it should be
to cook for the passengers the food furnished by the ship, as well as-.
any articles furnished by the passengers themselves, under such regu-:
lations as may be necessary for the preservation of order and discipline.
To a deficient quantity and quality of food is attributable a great
proportion of the sickness and other evils of the steerage.  Good meal,
in sufficient quantity for the demands of appetite, not only does not, if
but half cooked, supply nourishment and strength, by reason of its




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                       65
not being assimilated, but it acts as an irritant upon the intestinal
canal, producing diarrhcea or dysentery, debility and prostration, and
renders the recipient an easier prey to the miasm, which he thus helps
more rapidly to create.  So far as the prevention of' diseases generally
found on shipboard is concerned, there is really more necessity for a
sufficiency of substantial, well-cooked food in the steerage than in the
cabin.  The better housed and conditioned inmates of the latter would
be far less liable to sickness than their neighbors in the steerage, under
a short allowance of food, and chiefly for the reason that they have a
better atmosphere, and less concentration of the emanations from  their
own bodies, which the absence of food will not aggravate as it does in
the steerage.  It is not meant that the steerage passengers require the
epicurean cookery, delicacies, and condiments of the cabin; these
would not add to their strength and healthfulness; but true nourishment, substantial, digestible food, is needed for the effectual support of
the inmates of the steerage, under their more debilitating external circurstances, far more than for the better clothed and better lodged occupants of the cabin, albeit these are accustomed, in general,. to a more
stimulating course of ]ifie.
There should be furnished to the steerage passengers also, at least
three times a week, a fair proportion of fresh animal lood, either in the
shape of meat or soup.  The law requires now but ten pounds of salted
pork for each passenger for the whole voyage.  Thisi is insufficient for
the purposes of health.  It is true that many passengers furnish themselves with ham and other forms of animatl food, but a great many depend wholly upon the ships' stores; and these are they, in general,
who require good nutriment more than the others.
SEC. 8. By this section passengers are permittedc to be carried in
an apartment: which may be less than five feet in height, which is less than
the average height of adult human beings.
I know not whether any vessel with steerage of that dimension only
has ever been engaged in the transportation of' voluntary passengers,
but certainly the country is disgraced by such a permission in its laws.
To say. nothing of the physical oppression to which every man and
woman mustbe subject in such a place, the pathological oppression
must be inexpressible.  The tendency to disease increases rapidly as
the space is diminished; and the increased number of superficial feet
required for each passenger is by no means a compensation for the
diminished altitude, and for this reason: The enanations from  the
lbodies and lungs at first necessarily ascends to the uppermost portion
of the space occupied, and, when the ceiling is fir above the heads,
will pass out of reach of inhalation;  but the nearer the ceiling to the
head, the greater the danger of these effete matters being inspired and
absorbed into the system.  In a, crowded room, Nwhose ceiling is even
as much as two or three feet above the head, the stratum  of foul air
will soon reach so low as to be inhaled. When the ceiling is but seven
feet, a. f:ew inches above the hvead, afLw  Iminutes will suffice to bringl the foul
air within reach of the lungs; i' it be but six feet, the heads of the people
of ordinary height emust 1)b imrnld/aitelbl immersed in their own foul gases.
But at five feet, men, women, andl children must inevitably and continually be steeped, hea.d and shoulders, in a rapidly-accumulating mass of
olr




66                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY.
corruption, which no ventilation can remove, and the horrors of which
can be surpassed by nothing in history but those of the middle passage
of slave ships. It were as impossible to maintain human health in
such a concentration of foul gases as must necessarily arise there, even
with double the number of superficial feet allowed to each passenger,
as in the Grotto del Cane, while the introduction of a case of contagious
or infectious disease would light a flame which could be extinguished
only by a complete evacuation of the place.  The possibility of such a
hold being used for the stowage of passengers should be at once, forever, and totally prohibited.  Even six feet height of steerage, which
is the minimum limit of the British law, (~ 70,) is entirely too small for
such a. purpose, for the reasons stated, which cannot be controverted
or avoided.
What, then, would be a minimum limit to make a steerage fit for the
carriage of passengers?  In answer to this question the impression
will, at first be, that the ceiling should be at least high enough to permit the tallest man to walk erect in any part.  And beyond that, on
the principle of the higher the better, the greatest possible height that
the construction will admit of should be required by law bof all vessels
intended.for the passenger trade.
In connexion with this branch of the subject, another point claims
serious attention. In many of the larger ships, which have three
decks, there are two steerages, one below the other.  Now all the evils
which have been considered in this communication, in connexion with
emigrant vessels, are incidental to the uppermost apartment, which is
directly beneath the main deck, more readily accessible to the air and
light through the hatches and side lights, which latter, in fair weather,
are always open, making it a comparatively cheerful place.  Its proximity to the upper deck also renders the latter much less difficult of
access, and consequently the passengers may more easily and frequently be induced to visit the open air.
But in the lower steerage, the evils of the upper one are doubled in
intensity.  In consequence of its depth, its only light is fiom  the
hatches, which is mostly diffused into the upper apartment before it
reaches below.  The same openings which supply air to the upper,
and which are inadequate for its full measure, are also depended upon,or the supply of air to the lower steerage, and, as in the case of the
light, the upper receives nearly all the benefit, small as it is. In fact,
every sanitary arrangement which may be put in force on board the
ship, is deprived of half its efficacy in the lower steerage, as compared with the upper.
In broad sun-light, with the hatches all open, and the vessels lying
quietly at the wharf, on a recent visit to several of these three-deckers,
which had arrived with large consignments of emigrants, the dirt and
muck on which we trod could be felt but not seen.  At sea, when lights
are not permitted below, and there are many causes to intercept the
few rays of daylight which struggle to descend, the condition of
things cannot be seen, and cleaning is impossible.  Almost perpetual
night reigns in these sub-aqueous abodes.  A residence there of thirty
hours must be enough to sadden and depress the coarsest sensibilities
of its inmates, and produce great proneness to disease, independently




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     67
of the filth and foul air which envelopes them  before they lose sight of
their native shores; but at the end of thirty days, the scene is one
which humanity shudders to dwell upon.
When, therefore, we consider the impracticability of' preserving
cleanliness and purity at such a depth from the surface, it becomes a
serious question whether the second hold should not be prohibted as a
receptacle for passengers.
There is another consideration which adds great weight to the argument for such a prohibition. Not only does the effluvium  from the
bodies and lungs of the inmates of the lower hold, more rapidly accumulate there inconsequence of the greater inaccessibility of air, and
the difficulty, on account of darkness, of removing the filth; but these
emanations, more or less, rapidly find their way into the upper steerage,
where they add to the mass of its festering contents, and render its.
ventilation more and more necessary. It is well kknoln that typhus
fever in one apartment of a dwelling, unless it be well ventilated into
the open air, will poison the atmosphere, and produce the same disease
in another apartment on the same floor. But far more readily will the
miasm  ascend to an apartment above, especially when the communication between them is always open,- as in the case under. consideration.
For these reasons, there can be no hesitation in the recommendation
to prohibit the use of the third deck for the carriage of passengers.
Of the spiace proper to be allotted to each passenger.
From my remarks on the causes of typhus fever, this will readily be
inferred to be one of the most important points of the whole subject
under consideration, especially as in it is involved the question of the
number of passengers each vessel should be allowed to carry.
Two methods of graduating the number of passengers, have been
tried in the laws on this subject.  The first method was by-the tonnage
of the vessel. Under this mode of computation serious evils arose, and
it was abandoned.  It was manifestly an improper, or at best a very
uncertain, mode of defining the proper quantum of space for the passengers, as it was putting them upon almost the same footing, in this
respect, as the inanimate cargo, and there were too many masters
prone to exercise more care in the stowage of the latter, than of the
former.
Next was devised the method of allotting a certain number of supers
ficial feet of deck to each passenger.  This was an improvement, and,
in a majority of vessels, considerably reduced the number of passengers allowed to each, though it is said in' some instances to have
increased it. But it is a more accurate and tangible method of computation, and hence was an advance in the right direction, though it
must yet be regarded as failing in the true principle upon which the
calculation should be made.
To one who should undertake the investigation of this subject for
the first time, it might seem that the object of the law was to obtain
for the passenger merely standing or walking room, and sleeping space,
and that the allotment of air was a matter of secondary consideration,




'68                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
or rather no consideration at all.  This latter might be inferred as the
object of the law, but its numerous omissions would make the inference
a very doubtful one.
The true sanitary principle by which this matter should be regulated,
is not the number of tons burden of the vessel; in other words, the
amount of dry goods, or coal, or iron she can carry, nor the number of
superficial feet of her decks, but the number of cubic f/ct of air of the.apartmeits allotted' to passenge'rs
This is the true standard of sanitary capacity, when considered independently of its means of ventilation; and this, in my jud"gment, should,be the basis of a restrictive law, in the allotment of' numbers.
In the first place, the minimum  height of ceiling should be defined,'and then a certain number of cubic feet of free space be apportioned
to each passenger.  By free space is meant the area of the apartment.not occupied by the masts, bulkheads, casks, chains, beams, &c., all of'-vhich diminish the amount of air in the steerage. The luggage, and even
The bodies of the passengers, occupy a certain cubic space, to the exclusion of' an equal bulk of air, and should be regarded in the calculation.
Having settled this as the principle upon which the capacity of a
vessel should be estimated, the next point of inquiry will be the extent
of cubic area which.each passenger should be allowed.  Several elements are tfound pertaining to this calculation.  On the principle before
laid down, that the more active the ventilation (f an apartment, the more may
it be crowded with impunity, it will at once be seen that, in the allotment
of space for passengers, the height of; and the freedom of circulation of
0air through the steerage, should be taken into account.  The application of this principle would have a salutary ef-ict upon the owners of
passenger ships, in inducing them to make their steerages of the greatest possibie height, and introducing the most effective means of ventilation, as thereby they would obtain the privilege of a greater number
of passengers.
But, as in the case of the height of the ceiling, a minimum  amount
of free cubic space should be-fixed by law. -In relation to the question
of what this should be, a diversity of opinion exists among well-informed
men.  It involves the question of the amount of air requisite ior the
wholesome respiration of an individual for a given space of time.  The
estimates of the amount required for an adult per minute, andcl which, at
the end of that time, must be entirely removed,'to avoid the risk of
reinhalation, vary from  four to ten cubic feet.  Thbis is with the air at
rest, and not communicating with the general atmosphere.  With a free
communication between the general atmosphere, and that of the apartment, whereby the carbonic acid gas, and other exhalations can be
fieely difiused abroad, ten cubic feet per minute is probably more than
is needed, but the lower figure given above is, on the other hand, too
small.  The famous black hole of Calclutt, we are infiormed, was
about eighteen feet square, and it was probably not over ten ieet high.
This giv(s it an area of three thousand two hundred and forty cubic feet.
On th}e futill nigh't which has given it so great notoriety, it was made to
c(ntain one hundred and forty-six persons, thus allowing to each only
twenty-two cubic feet-though as each. body excluded an equal bulk
of air, it was probably not near so much as that.  At the lowest esti



.ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     69
mate mentioned above, (four feet,) before five minutes elapsed, after
the door was shut upon them, the hapless victims began to reinhale
their own exhalations, and this process'was, of course, repeated at each
similar successive period until death began to reduce their number.
They were confined there about ten hours, and although there was an
open window on one side, twenty-three only survived till morning, and
they were in a "high putrid ferver," (typhus.)
I allude to this ofc quoted case chiefly for the purpose of showing
those not familiar with this topic, and who may be sufficiently interested
in this subject to read this communication, what are the true principles
upon which a calculation for the allotment of space for emigrant passengers should be based.  Any more minute detail, in this already too
long paper, of the elements of this calculation would probably be considered'burdensome.  I may state, in concluding this part of the subject, that a recent examination of the two steerages of one of the largest
packets belonging to this port, (authorized by the present law to carry
over nine hundred,) gave as the cubic space for each passenger, not
deducting the room occupied by the necessary solid contents, or the
bodies of the passengers, for the upper apartment 103 feet, and for the
lower 112 feet.  This vessel on her last homeward voyage lost 100
passengers at sea.
In my opinion not less than 250 or 300 cubic feet should be given to
each passenger.
The condition of the passengers at the time of embarkation is a matter of
nuch importance.
By section 41 of the British law now in force, a medical inspection
is required of the passengers, either on shore or on board, before sailing.
There is strong reason to believe that this inspection is so hastily and
superficially conducted, as practically to amount to no protection
against the admission into the ship of persons already infected with
objectionable diseases.  I speak on this point with confidence, having
been an eye-witness of the mode in which the examination is sometimes,
at least, performed in Liverpool.  The inspection I saw was conducted
through the window of a little office, and consisted in nothing but looking at the tongues of the passengers, as they presented themselves in
rapid succession before the examiner, and exhibited their passage
tickets.  There was no certainty even that the person presenting the
ticket was the passenger named on it, and that its real owner was not,
at the moment, laboring under small pox, or typhus fever, in some
other place, and was represented at the examining office by a conniving
friend.
The examination is said now to be conducted chiefly on board ship,
just before sailing, when, amid the excitement and confusion of a crowd,
with their luggage and preparations for sea, it may well be conceived
that a person who knows he will be ordered on shore, should his disease be detected, will employ every artifice to avoid it.
It is manifest that we, on this side of the Atlantic, are more directly
interested in the healthful condition of the hitherward passengers, and
therefore this inspection should be our duty rather than of those whose
shores the emigrant is about to leave. Our institutions, with their
officers and employ6s, and our population, present and prospective;




70                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
are the sufferers by the introduction of diseases into the vessels, and
upon our coasts, and not those which have been left behind.
Besides the inspection of passengers on account of their bodily
diseases, there should be one also with reference to their clothing, and
other personal necessaries for the voyage.  In numerous instances
these people have not only no bedding of any kind, being obliged to
sleep on bare boards, but in greater numbers still, they have no change
of clothing, and what they have on is already reeking with long collected filth.  They step ashore, if so happy as to reach it, in the same
unchanged vesture in which they embarked.  Such total unpreparedness for an Atlantic voyage must necessarily be productive of suffering
and disaster.  In cold or boisterous weather, and at other times, in
order to avoid observation, they are compelled to keep below, much
more than they would had they more decent outfits.  The propriety of requiring a certain amount of preparation for the voyage by
each passenger, is therefore a point of considerable importance in connexion with the prevention of disease; and the duty of inspection, for
all purposes, should be performed by a well qualified surgeon attached
to the ship, who should be; responsible to American as well as British
law. It is on this side of the Atlantic only that the neglect of an
officer's duty, or the violation of a passenger's sanitary rights, can be
properly made known, and evidence of it produced.
The authority given the captain by section fifth of the act of 1848,
to maintain "good discipline and such habits of cleanliness among the
passengers as will tend to the preservation and promotion of health,"
is of the highest importance. It is well understood that the greatest
obstructions to the enforcement of this authority are presented by the
passengers themselves, and it is said that when attempts have been
made to execute the needful measures, difficulties have arisen fiom
their wilful obstinacy and opposition, and that vexatious suits for assault
and battery have been instituted against the masters on arrival.  That
the authority of the captain should be paramount in the enforcement of
regulations for this purpose is indisputable, and he should be protected
against the revengeful disposition of passengers by the admission, in
evidence, as exculpation, of the order or advice of the surgeon given at
the time, of the necessity of the enforcement of sanitary measures.
The foregoing statements and suggestions were prepared prior to
the receipt of your circular of December 29, 1853; and in looking over
the subjects upon which information and opinion are sought, I-find that
most of them, especially the first six, and the tenth and thirteenth, have
been discussed in the preceding pages, although not in the order in
which they are laid down in the circular.  On the other propositions
of the circular, I will therefore add a few words.
With regard to the employment of qualified and experienced surgeons on emigrant ships, I can speak from  considerable observation
obtained by three years of intimate relationship with emigrants arriving at this port, and I have no hesitation in declaring it, what indeed
seems self-evident, a matter of the highest importance. I have been
cognizant of fiequent instances in which the services of a well-qualified
physician were greatly needed and could not be had, and I can readily
understand that they would be continually in demand for the care of




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     71
the steerage, in gross and in detail, in preventing as well as relieving
sickness.
But they should be men of much better stamp, of both moral and
professional character, than a great many whom I have seen employed
for this responsible duty.  Surgeons on emigrant vessels are too often
appointed on the same principle as in a militia corps-merely to fill up
the staff, for which purpose a mechanic or a cook's mate will answer.
Certainly an equal degree of qualification should be required in the
surgeon as in the pilot; the responsibility of the former, as far as the
safety of the passengers is concerned, being as great as that of the
latter, whose vocation is only open to those qualified by a long apprenticeship, and proved by examination.
A similar train of thought arises in considering the eighth proposition of the circular.
The ninth proposition is rather a question of morals than of medicine, but it must forcibly strike every one as of great propriety.
While, I believe, our own laws are silent on the subject of separate
accommodations for the sexes, the English law enforces it; but it is
evident that, to be of real value, the arrangements for such separation
must be maintained when out of reach of' British law, which is, in this
case, when out of sight of British soil. It is here, if anywhere, that
complaints of violation of such a law will be heard, and here should
opportunities for redress and punishment, therefore, be afforded.
Of the eleventh and twelfth propositions I may express my unqualified approval.  Their adoption would lead to many very valuable
statistical results of sanitary, moral, and political character.  The
eleventh proposition, particularly, I regard as valuable, and, indeed,
necessary, should it be determined to require a disinfection of every
vessel upon which ship fever or other infectious disease may have
appeared.
With regard to the last proposition, I have been less familiar, by experience, with the points upon whose merits the question involved in it
should be decided.  It is generally considered that the circumstances
of tropical latitudes are such as not to justify so much crowding as
may be allowed in higher latitudes; but the difference of character
between the passengers within the tropics and those between Europe
and the United States, which we have been considering, is generally
so great as to cause them to be regarded in essentially different aspects
in relation to this question.
I have thus, though I fear too prolixly, frankly given you my views
on this subject, which, from the magnitude of its interests, both pecuniary and humanitarian, is eminently worthy the attention of our country's legislature, to whom  all other nations look for new steps in the
improvement of the condition of the race.
For your efforts to make more clean and safe, for health and life, the
great highway between them and us, and especially should your efforts
be crowned with success, the children of the present and future generations will rise up and call you blessed.
With high regard, very truly and respectfully,
JNO. H. GRISCOM.
Hon. HAMILTON FISHa,
Chairman special committee, U. S. Senate.




72                    SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
Extract from the transactions of the New York Academy of M edicine, rfc-rrecd
to in the foregoing commzunication of Dr. Griscom.
LETTER PFROM MR. PARKER.
PERTH AMBOY, NEW JERSEY,
March 15, 1852.
DEAR SIR: Having read your treatise on the "Uses and Abuses of
Air," I send you an account of what occurred in this place some years
since, and which proves the efficacy of fresh and pure air, not only in
preventing, but curing disease.
In the month of August, 1837, a number of ships, with emigrant passengers, arrived at Perth Amboy, from Liverpool, and other ports, on
board of some of which ship fever prevailed.  There was no hospital or
other accommodations in the town, in which the sick could be placed,
and  no  person could admit them  into private dwellings, fearing
the infection of the fever.  They  could not be left on board the
ships. An arrangement was made to land the sick passengers, and
place them in an open wood, adjacent to a large spring of water, about
a mile and a half from town.  Rough shanties, floored with boards, and
covered with sails, were erected, and thirty-six patients were taken
from on board ship with boats, landed as near the spring as they could
get and carried in wagons to the encampment (as it was called) under
the influence of a hot sun, in the month of August.  Of the thirty-six
first named, twelve were insensible, in the last stage of' f;ever, and not
expected to live twenty-four hours.
The day after landing there was a heavy rain, and the shanties
affording no protection with their "sail" roofs, the sick were found the
next morning wet, and their bedding, such as it was, drenched with
the rain.  It was replaced with such articles as could be collected from
the charity of the inhabitants.  The number of the encampment was
increased by new subjects to the amount of eighty-two in all.
On board the ship, which was cleansed after landing the passengers,
four of the crew were taken with ship fever, and two o'f them died.
Some of the nurses at the encampment were taken sick, but recovered.
Of the whole number of eighty-two passengers removed from the ship,
not one died.  Pure air, good water, and perhaps the rain, (though only
the first thirty-six were affected by it,) seem to have effected the cure.
No report has been made of these circumstances, and I send this from
my recollection, and the information derived from  the physician. Dr.
Charles M. Smith, who still resides here, and to whom  I refer you.
Very respectfully,
JAMES PARKER.
DR. -JOHN H. GrISCOoM.
A few further particulars of Ihis case have since been derived from a
statement of Dr. C. McKnight Smith, the gentleman referred to by
Mr. Parker.
The ship was the Phoebe, with between three and four hundred
passengers; a number of them had died on the passage.  The shanties
spoken of, were two in number, thirty feet long, twenty feet wide,




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                      73
boarded on three sides about four feet up, and over them old sails were
stretched.  Of the twelve who were removed from  the ship in a
state of insensibility, such appeared the hopelessness of their condition,
that the overseer, who is a carpenter, observed,  "Well, Doctor, I
think I shalt have some boxes to make before many hours."  " The
night after their arrival at the encampment," says Dr. Smith, " we had
a violent thunder gust, accompanied by torrents of rain; on visiting
them  the following morning, the clothes of all were saturated with
water; in other words, they had had a thorough ablution; this, doubtless, was a most fortunate circumstance.  The medical treatment was
exceedingly simple, consisting, in the main, of an occasional laxative or
enema, vegetable acids, and bitters; wine was liberally administered,
together with the free use of cold water, buttermilk, and animal
broths."  The four sailors who sickened after the arrival of the vessel
were removed to the room of an ordinary dwelling-house; the medical
treatment in their case was precisely similar, yet two of them  died.
Two of the number suffered from carbuncle while convalescing. The
Dr. adds: "My opinion is, that had the eighty-two treated at the encampment been placed in a common hospital, many of them would
also have fallen victims.  I do not attribute their recovery so much to
the remedies administered, as to the circumstances in which they were
placed; in other words, a good washing to begin with, and an abundance of fresh air."
No. 5.
Communication from Gregory Dillon, esq., president of the Irish Emigrant
Society of Nezo York.
OFFICE IRISH EMIGRANT SOCIETY,
51 Chambers Street, N. Y., January 14, 1854.
DEAR SIR: I have been honored with the receipt of your communication of the 29th ult., in relation to emigrant passengers, which should
have received an instant reply, were it not for a short temporary absence
from the city. 
The subject is a most important one, requiring minute and patient
investigation, and I congratulate the emigrant, and the friends of the
emigrant, that the subject has fallen into such competent and devoted
hands, as I feel persuaded that every justice will be done it from the
queries embraced in your circular, showing your familiarity with all its
features.
1. There is one point which has struck me as requiring prompt remedy.
I refer to double-decked passenger ships, deprived, as they must be, of
proper ventilation, the lower deck consequently infecting the upper
deck with its impure effluvia.
2.  To secure a suffcient space for each passenger without reference to
the tonnage of the ship or the number of persons on board, although
the whole number should be limited to the extent of the tonnage.




74                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
3. A separation of the sexes, and strict prevention of unnecessary
intercourse between the crew and passengers.
Permit me to take the liberty of enclosing to you, herewith, a printed
copy of a letter from an intelligent passenger on board an emigrant ship,
and first published in the Dublin Nation, of December 20, 1853, giving
a graphic description of the sufferings and exposure of those poor people
during the voyage.
I will not annoy you with any further allusions to this subject. But
beg leave to present my own thanks, as I am also authorized to do so
in the name of our society, for your generous zeal and sympathy for
our poor country people.
I am, dear sir, with the highest respect, your most humble servant,
GREGORY DILLON, President.
Hon. HAMILTON FISH,
United States Senator, Washington city, D. (C'
No. 6.
Communication from the German Society of New York.
The great mortality on board of emigrant vessels has occupied fbr
sometime the attention of the directors of the German Society of this
city, in consequence whereof they appointed a committee, to investigate,
as far as possible, this calamity, in order to propose some remedies,
which were to be presented to your honor, in a memorial, as soon as
prepared. While occupied with this investigation, this committee met
with you circular, dated Washington, 29th December, 1853, and the
German Society permits itself to answer the various points as follows:
To point1. Instead of superficial feet, we hold the opinion that a measuremen t
of cubic feet should be adopted, and we place here a space-table, giving
to each passenger as fbllows:
1. In ships which have but one steerage: if the ship has from I to
100 passengers, each passenger to have 100 cubic feet.
From 101 to 120 passengers, each passenger to have     -    -  101
121 to 140      do.       do.       do.       -    - -  102
141 to 160      do.       do.       do.    -     -    -103
161 to 180       do.      do.       do.    -    -    -  104
181 to 200      do.       do.       do      -    -    -105
cubic feet, and, in the above manner, adding for each additional twenty
passengers one cubic foot to every passenger on board.
2. In ships which have two steerages-that is, upper and lower:
(a.) If the lower steerage has from
1 to 100 passengers, each passenger to have -    -  150 cubic feet.
101 to 120    do.        d         do. do.     - -  152   do.
121 to 140    do.       do.        do.       -    -  154   do.
141 to 160    do.        do.       do.       -    -  156   do.
161 to 180    do.        do.       do.            -  158   do.
181 to 200    do. do.    do.                 -    -  160   do.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                    75
And, in the above manner, giving to each passenger on board additional two cubic feet for every twenty additional passengers.
(b.) If the upper steerage has from1 to 100 passengers, each passenger to have -    -  110 cubic feet.
101 to 120    do.       do.       do.       -    -  111k  do.
121 to 140    do.       do.       do.       -       113   do.
1.41 to 160    do.      do.       do        -    -  114   do.
161 to 180    do.       do,       do.       -    -  116   do.
181 to 200    do..       do. d.            117-  do.
And, in the above manner, giving each passenger on board an additional one-and-a-half cubic feet for every twenty additional passengers.
In no instance should a ship with a single steerage carry more than
five hundred passengers, and ships with two steera.ges should never be
allowed to carry more than two hundred passengers in the lower steerage and more than four hundred in the upper steerage.  This space
we presume to be sufficient to make the berths six feet long and twentyone inches wide for each passenger, instead of eighteen inches wide, as
provided in chapter xvi, section 3, passed 22d February, 1847.
II. Chapter xli, section 4, passed May 17, 1848, does, to all appearance, not provide sufficiently for this point; the following might be an
improvement: 25 lbs. of navy bread, 10 lbs. of rice, 5 lbs. of oatmeal,
5 lbs. of wheat flour, 10 lbs. of peas and beans, 40 lbs. of potatoes,
I pint of vinegar, 60 gallons of fresh water, 15 lbs. of salt pork, free
of bone; A lb. of black tea, 2 lbs. of butter, 1 gallon of molasses, salt
at discretion, all to be of good quality, and a sufficient supply of fuel
for cooking; but at places, etc., etc., as the paragraph proceeds now.
III. To this point we would reply, we have found by inquiries
during the last years, that passengers are best served and taken care
of where the captain provides the food, ready prepared and cooked, for
the passengers; however, in case the captain furnishes the food ready
cooked, there should always be on board one camboose or cooking
range, the dimensions of which to be six feet long and two feet wide,
for the special use of such steerage passengers who desire to cook such
little articles of provisions as they have brought with themselves for
their comfort. We have often heard bitter complaints, in cases where
the passengers were obliged to cook their own victuals, that on account
of the insufficient cooking conveniences for the great number of passengers on board, they were deprived for days in succession of warm
or freshly cooked food; and it really deserves particular inquiry and
recommendation, that, in every instance, the ship should provide the
meals ready prepared, and the master should be placed under proper
regulations how and what to give for each meal.
IV. Chapter xli, section 2, provides for this; it might be added, yet,
however, that in case a ship carries more than three hundred passengers, the steerage should have at least three ventilators or hatchways.
V. Chapter xli, section 3, does not provide sufficiently for this point;
it might be amended so as to state distinctly, that, in case the passengers are to prepare their victuals themselves, every two hundred
passengers shall have one camboose or cooking range, the dimensions




76                    SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
of which shall bs six feet long (and two feet wide; however, we recommend again strongly our answer to point III.
VI. Chapter xli, section 5, provides for this sufficiently, and it is only
necessary to have this law  properly enforced; we would recommend
yet, that the cleaning  of the steerage by disinfecting agents should be
particularly adopted, and the use of water in scrubbing the steerage
entirely abolished, as this causes much damp and unhealthy atmosphere,
producing many colds and other sicknesses.
VII. Touches a want which has been felt most keenly on board all
emigrant vessels, and in no instance should a ship be allowed to carry
more than one hundred passengers, without' having an experienced
graduated surgeon on board.
VIII. Each one hundred passengers should have one female nurse
to attend the sick and see that proper cleanliness is observed by the
steerage passengers, for much complaint has heretofore existed against
the brutal language and behaviour of the crew towards the sick.
IX. The separation of the sexes, in so fir as it concerns unmarried
adults, is one of the most necessary points your honorable body
should provide for, especially as it is one of such easy accomplishment;
and in no instance should any of the crew  have access to the female
department, unless it be in company with the captain or first mate;
and in case there are more than one female nurse on board, then at
least one nurse should sleep in, and take charge of, this apartment.  It
might be well to state here, that it shall be voluntary fbr single females
to enter this so arranged apartment, or remain with their friends or
families in the general steerage; so that, by this clause, families or
friends could not be separated against their will.
X. This is already partly answered in point VI.
XI and XII. The captain of each vessel bringing emigrants should
be obliged to make out a separate and correct manifest of' such passengers xho have died on board his ship during the voyage, stating the
full name, age, last place of residence, and day of death, also the kind
of disease; this should be accompanied by a certificate for each death,
signed by captain, first mate, surgeon, and at least five of the male
passengers, being twenty-one years of age.
XIII. This point is already answered by point I.
XIV. It is our opinion that vessels passing the tropics should give
passengers fifty per cent. more room  than those given as stated in
point I.
We permit ourselves to suggest further:
Chapter XII, section 7, provides that an inspector from the customs
shall visit each passenger vessel and report in writing to the collector,
if the laws regarding emigrant passengers have been complied with;
this law should be more strictly enforced, and we would most humbly
suggest, that in all the principal ports of the United States, where passengers arrive, a separate special inspector be appointed, who speaks
both the English and German languages, whose office it is to visit, at
arrival, and befbre discharge of passengers, each emigrant passenger
vessel, and there inquire of the passengers if, and how far, the various
laws of the United States have been complied with, and, in case complaints are made, to accept the same from  the passengers under oath,




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                        77
on board, upon which he is to make his immediate report to the collector of the customs and the commissioners of emigration. This would, no
doubt, procure fbr the passengers betier accommodations-health on
arrival in a foreign land, and render them more fit to look at once for
proper employment; while under the present system  they have too
often filled our hospitals and formed pitiful, wretched, and haggard
looking beggars in the streets; anc, it must not be overlooked, that not
only the mortality consists of those who die on ship-board; no! we
must also regard those thousands who arrive here emaciated, sick,
and helpless, a.nd shortly after die in our hospitals.
By a proper observance of such amended laws, we would properly
cause an advance in the price of passage; this, however, would make
no loss to either the passenger or this country; for the first would gain
more in the preservation of his health than the value of a few dollars,
and the last would, in all probability, get just as many of the valuable
industrious class of poor emigrants, and no doubt avoid the arrival of
paupers, who never could earn anything for themselves in their own
country, and help here only to fill our poorhouses and abodes of idleness and drunkenness.
We would also suggest that a small apartment should be arranged
for a hospital on board all ships which carry more than one hundred
passengeis, where such sick p.ssengers could be administered to who
need quietude and the pirticular attention of the surgeon.  Sick mem-:bers of families who prefer to remain with their families should not be
obliged to enter the hospital.  All the separations in the steerage could
be made by slats of wood, so as not to hinder the free circulation of air
through the steerage.
R. A. WITTHAUS, Chairman,}
AUG. MOLLMOMY,                      Committee.
HERM. ROSESS.                     )
Approved:
JOHN C. ZIMiMERMANN, Sen.,
Pcsidcnlt'f the German Societly.
Hon. HAMILTON FISH,
C/iirnman i'f he- Select Commmticce, Jfc.
NEW YORK, Januart 11, 1854.
No. 7.
COMMUNICATION FROM LEOPOLD BIERrWTH, ESQ., IN ANSWER                  TO THE
CIRTCULAR OF THE COMMITTEE.
Answers to queries of the Emigrant Cnmmitce of the Senate of the Uited
States.
The space allotted to each passenger by existing laws appears to me
large enougtl in large vessels of one thousand tons and upwards, assumning that in them the betveen decks are much higher than in smaller
vessels.  The fturteen or sixteen superficial fcet in a vessel of one




78                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
thousand five hundred tons may contain fifty per cent. more cubic fbet
than in a vessel of one hundred and fifty tons. It might be well to
state the place allotted to each passenger in cubic feet, and not in superficial feet. I do not see the necessity of such a distinction with
respect to the number of passengers as suggested in query XIV; but
I think vessels should not be allowed to carry as many passengers-in
proportion to their capacity-in the winter months as in the summer
months; in other words, from November to March, inclusive, the room
allotted to each passenger should be larger than from April to October.
The quantity of provisions required by existing laws appears to me
sufficient, nor would I find fault with the quality, provided the law
were complied with strictly and in good faith; but that will not be the
case, and cannot be expected, so long as passengers are permitted to
furnish their own provisions, and have to cook them themselves. I am
clearly of opinion that suSfering on the passage from deficient and indigestible food, resulting in disease and death, will not cease until passenger vessels are obliged by law to provide food for all the people on
board, and to cook said food and serve it out at stated periods of' the
day.
The existing laws respecting ventilation are deemed sufficient, if
fairly complied with.  In connexion herewith, it might be enacted that
passenger vessels shall carry nothing on deck but what may be absolutely necessary for their safety, so as to leave the largest possible
room to the passengers for exercise.
Personal cleanliness of the passengers and crew, and cleanliness of
the ship, cannot be too rigidly enforced. I would have every passenger go through a bath and clean linen put on before embarkation.
A qualjied and experienced surgeon would be a great comfort, but too
costly a luxury on board of an emigrant ship; and, satisfied that most of the
surgeons generally employed, and who may be procured for a moderate
compensation, will do more harm than good, I would rather have none.
Most ship-captains are competent to treat common cases of sickness at
sea; and it is a rare thing that among so great a number of passengers
as are collected on board of every emigrant vessel, there should not be
one acquainted with the healing art, whose services might be made
available in urgent cases.  Much more essential than a surgeon appears to me the employment of a number of attendants to minister to
the sick, to distribute the food at meal times, and to enforce the observance of cleanliness.  And I would urge the enactment of a law by
which every emigrant vessel should have a steerage steward and a
steerage stewardess for every twenty-five passengers on board.
The demoralizing tendency of the existing system is self-evident. A
change effecting the separation of the sexes would be highly desirable;
Its practicability is proved by the British convict ships.
The report of the particulars of the voyage might be interesting;
but its practical use may be questioned, unless the report be made to
some public officer, to whom the passenger may resort for redress of
grievances. I am satisfied the condition of steerage passengers at sea
would be greatly improved, if, at the place of landing, they were to
find a public authority to whom  they could complain of violations of
the passenger laws, with the certainty of obtaining immediate satisfac



ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     79
tion. As it is, the passengers may be, and often are, shamefully
abused with impunity, because they have no means of obtaining redress without tedious and expensive proceedings. The ill-used emigrant applies to the consul of his nation, or to some society established
for his protection; but it is utterly out of their power to follow up every
abuse and outrage, nor has the poor plaintiff the means to await the
slow decision of court. What is wanted is a tribunal, with power to
decide, without lawyers and jury, and to enforce immediate compliance with its decrees. If such a tribunal existed, solely for the purpose of trying cases arising under the passenger laws-if the emigrant
could find it at once on landing, and at all times ready to listen to his
complaints, and to give immediate effect to its decisions, it would; in
great measure, render further legislation respecting the carriage of
steerage passengers superfluous-the existing laws would almost prove
sufficient.
The present state of things is, in a modified form, a repetition of
what was witnessed in 1847-'48, when (as mentioned in a report of
the Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York) the number of persons who perished by ship fever at sea, and in the various
emigrant hospitals in American ports, was estimated to exceed 20,000.
There is also a remarkable analogy between that period and the present in the high price of bread-stuffs and all other articles of human
food; and this confirms me in the opinion expressed years ago, and
adhered to ever since, that the mortality at sea is mainly, if not entirely, owing to the want or insufficiency of wholesome nourishment
during the passage.  The subject at that time attracted the attention of
the New York Chamber of Commerce, and a committee of that body,, whom the matter was referred, (a copy of whose report is annexed,) arrived at the conclusion that the main causes of the many
deaths at sea were " want of food and want of pure air in the between-decks."-(Extract from the report referred to above.)
Subsequent legislation has been, to a considerable degree, efflctual in
remedying the -latter, but the want of food on the passage still continues;
and, until it be made the duty of the ship to provide wholesome and
sufficient food for the passengers, to cook said food, and serve it out
at stated periods of the day, so long as passengers are allowed to
furnish their own provisions, and are obliged to cook them as best they
may, there will always be more or less suffering and sickness and
deaths on board of emigrant vessels from Europe.
Respectfully, &c.,
LEOPOLD BIERWIRTH.
NEW YoaK, Janua2tr  12, 1854.




80                    SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
No. 7.
Communizcation from Mr. Bierwirih, of New York.
Next to the miserable state of health in which so many emigrants
embark, the great causes of the deplorable condition in which they arrive
in our ports areWant of sufficient and wholesome nourishment during the passage,
and want of pure air in the between decks or steerage, where emigrant
passengers are generally located.
The Chamber of Commnerce is doubtless aware that emigrants from
Great Britain and Ireland can claim  from  the ship that carries them
nothing in the shape of food, except one pound of bread and three
quarters of a gallon of water each per day; and it is a well-known fact,
that even this they cannot always obtain-that the law  is shamefully
violated-that vessels leave Liverpool without providing the required
quantity of bread.  But all nourishment, beyond bread and water,
must be furnished by the emigrants themselves, and it is their business
to get it cooked as best they may.  The consequences of this arrangement to the poor, careless, improvident people are self-evident; many
of them embark without any provisions of their own, and very few, if
any, with a sufficient supply; many have not the means to buy food,
and those who have, deceive themselves as to the duration of the
voyage; and hence it is doubtless true that not one of all the emigrant
ships from British and Irish ports has a sufficient supply of proper food
for all on board.  But supposing there are some among the cargo of
passengers well-provisioned for the voyage, what are the means' at
their disposal for having their food properly cooked?  It has already
been stated that they must do their own cooking. What are the arrangements of which they may avail themselves for the purpose?  Your
committee will describe them, as found on board of the very largest
and best of ships engaged in the conveyance of emigrant passengers,
leaving the Chamber to imagine what they must be on board of the
fleet of vessels of' an inferior class.
On the upper deck of the ship there are two small cook-rooms about
five feet deep and four feet wide, called the steerage galley.  Within
is a grate corresponding with the width of the room, over which grate
is fastened an iron bar, and on this there are two iron hooks, to which
the emigrant hangs his pot or kettle (if he have one) when he wants to
cook.  These are all the arrangements for preparing meals for several
hundreds of passengers!  The result is, that, except when they have
nothing to cook, or are sick. (which is too often, unfortunately, the case,)
there is constant fighting for room near the caboose, and not one of the
passengers can be sure of getting his food well cooked.
Thus then the consequences of the existing arrangements are not
only an absolute want of sufficient and wholesome food, but also the
impossibility of properly preparing what little there may be; and, with
this fact before us, it cannot surprise us to see the emigrant, greatly eneebledd already whetl going on board, either die on the passage, or
arrive here with scarcely a spark of life in him.  Your committee




OX BOALID EMIGRANT SH-IPS.                          81
therelfore, xvith a view of reImoving one of the great. ca usps of the evil
complaitled of, would  urge the ern:ctment of a l:law reqluiring vessels
ringlitg emigranrt passentgers fiom  Europe to our porlts, not only to
provide fi,odl fr them, but also I to c()ok id S      d, anid st rv-e it (Jout for
them at stated(  periods of the day.
The objectiont to such a law urged l)V a portion of our shipping intCrest is this: that it would, or might subject the vessel, or cptain and
owners' thereof; to vexallitus) law-sulits on  the part of the passengers,
complaining as well yof qu            s u ality s  f fiod thus filnlished; hut
Ihis complaint cani be antic p:lted  by;  clear acnd explicit statement
befire coanm ncing the vr(voyage, setting fbrth the nllitue an.n (qu:intity
offood the ship agrees to tlrnish, and the hours of serving the. meals
each day.  It is the object and clelar intention of the proposed law that
a suflicient quantity  of whorlesome food, properly  cooked, shall be
ser:vedl out every day to every passenger on bhoard, and if this >e comIliel wvith, there can be no causte fir reasonable co.mpllaints.  And your
committee wroultl U ther remark, tha, t such comfpl;l:ints are not heard of
on the part of' passengers in vessels   coming fiom  Bremen, tHailmbulrg,
nnd other continental  p,')ts, where the system recommended by your
committee has been il operation lor a number of years,   t the satisfaction oifall cotlcerned.''he Bremen regulatiions as  to tthe quAntity of
foo;l required. on board Ipssenger vessels —: copy of vhich cal easily
be ptrcured- -might serve ais a guide in tiraming the la.w. 
It is also objected th:it said law  would diminish emrigration, tbecause
it would increase the cost of' the voyage.  This objection is deemed
futile.  No vessel should leave a European  port wilthout a sufficient
supply of fioo  for all on board, andl if this be the rule, it ct c    mntak e a
diftterence in the cost of the necessary provisions, whether the vessel
provide for all, or each pnssenger (do so foir hiimself.  If a difference
exists, it must be clearly in fiavor of the ship, ina:smuchl as she can buy
the articl-'s required in large lquantities from the wihlesale dealer's, and
thereby procure them  cheaperi than the emigrant, who has to.go for his
cmrnl11 wants to the retail store.
Your committee now come to the last great cause of su fferingn amoLn
etigrant passengers, namely, the want of pure air in the betwcen-decks,
or steerage.
The nature of the atmosph!ere in the steerage of an emigrant ship can
readily be imagined, without a. minute ((e scriplion.  We lave o(ly to
consider that the room is rarely mnore than six feet high, has no other
aperture for the admission of fiesh air than the hatches, which, during
night and badt  weather, are geierally closel, is crol(wd-d xwiih passe'ngets,t of whom the greater plortioin arte strangers  to the vii tue of cleanliness, and manv of them  down Nwith seal-sickness or other equally
loathsome diseases.  WhIat, with thec miasmin  o(  a. damp  hold, the
excretions and exh-alations ifromn the btio.des of the individu;ils thus confined,;rnd thle emanalrtions fiom  other a-nd  timre- ofiensive mlatter, an
atmosphere is created wnich must act like poison onl those who have to
breathe it.'lo remedy tlis evil, th1e p:eamhble  and resolutions ofier(ed to the
Cha;-mb.er, recommend tihe (nll eiltn1.t of a linw  66 (requiring all vessels
ngar iged il the coilveylance of emigrilan t passengers, to have the  neccs




82                    SICKNESS AND M1ORTALITY
sary arrangements for cooking under deck, with a view of thereby pro(UIcingl ventilation and disinfection;  and also requiring such vessels to
introduce "air pipes," ir the purpose of supplying the vacuum that
necessarily will be occasioned by the action of fire employed in the process of cooking.
-It is readily admitted that fire is one of the most effective agents that
can be employed in controlling ventilation; but its introduction below
deck, into the midst of the passengers, suggests so many serious objections, that your committee cannot agree to recommend the plan to your
favorable consideration.  Apart from smoke and steam, which it would
be very difficult, if not impossible, to prevent from spreading below
deck, to the great inconvenience of passengers, the danger attendingthe
plan is deemed so great, that shipmasters positivelyrefuse encountering
it, and the; board of underwriters, to whom the question was submitted,
whether it -would affect the marine risks of vessels having the arrangement for cooking below deck, reply, that after a full discus.ion of the
subjectiitwas unanimously resolved: 
"That, in the opinion of this board, the lhazard would be greatly enhanced."
But your committee are willing to believe it does not rcquire the
assistance of a. dangerous agent to insure at all times during the voyage
a full supply of fresh air in the between-decks, or steerage; that it can
be obtained by means of iron tubes and other contrivances. This belief
does not rest on theory alone, but also on experience.  The plan which
your committee wish to recommend, was introduced several years ago:
by Capt. Jos. C. Delano, with highly satisfactory results. It has since
been improved by Capt. E. Knight, and is now in operation on board
of several of the, Liverpool and London packet-ships.  It is extremely
simple.
Four or six iron tubes, projecting above deck, so as to be under the
immediate action of the wind, are led down into the between-decks.
One-halfor one-third of the number are for receiving fresh air, the
others fir discharging the impure air; the former have receiving caps,
the latter exhausting caps.  These tubes can be applied to any vessel,
small or large, and. they alhways  act in proportion to the strength of the
wind, and hence are most efficient when most needed'-say in stormy
weather, when hatches are closed.
In addition to these air pipes, all vessels engaged in the conveyance
of emigrants should be required to have substantial houses built over
the hatches used by the passengers. These houses should have a door
each side, to open about twelve inches from the deck, that one may be
kept open all weather.
With these arrangements, a sufficient supply of fresh air in the between-decks can no doubt be insured, and your committee would earnestly recommend the adoption of a iaw requiring the same to be generally introduced.
It is proper to add, that to such a law there would be no objection
on the part of' our shipping interest; on the contrary, your committee
have the satisfaction to state tha.t. our principal ship-owners are desirous to have the law  passed, and have already communicated their
~wishes and vieaws to Washington.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                       83,
Indeptellently of the measures suggested, others mright be adopted
with salutary effect, but your committee deem it inexpedient to embrace
them in the proposals for legislative action, because it would be difficult to enfbrce laws concerning the sane.
Thus it would no doubt be desirable to have an officer on board of
every emigrant ship, whose sole business it should be to enforce cleanliness on the part of the passengers, and to see to it that no offensive
matter be suffered.to remain in the between-decks, or steerage. Disinfecting agents should be freely used; and, among these, Le Doyen's
disinfecting liquid may be recommended.  It has been tried with great
success in the institutions under the control of the commissioners of
emigration, and the superintending physician of one of them writes:
"It certainly possesses the power of destroying offensive odors effectually, and without leaving any smell of its own."  As auxiliaries to
the air pipe, canvas windsails might be used in moderate weather; and
it is also suggested that a simple fan-wheel or blower, placed betn een
decks, with a flexible canvas cylinder leading fron it to deck, If properly used, would aid greatly in changing the [(pis:oous atmosphere of
the steerage.
In conclusion, your committee would urge on the Chamber of Commerce the expediency of asking the government of the United States,
at Washington, promptly to call the attention of the governments in
Europe, more particularly the one of Great Britain and Ireland, to the
important subject under'consideration, so that the proposed laws, if
enacted, may be met by corresponding regulations in the ports of
Europe.
CHiAS. AUG. DAVIS, Chairman, n 
LEOPOLD  BIERWIRTH,                   Committee.
NEW YO6R, M.arch 7, 1848.
No. 8.
Letter from R.R B. M/inturn, in answer to the circular of the committee, and
enclosing letters Jfom  Captains Knight and Brittan, experienced commandcrs qf passcnger ships.
NEVW o YORK, Jan'tuar 9, 1854.
MY DEAR SIR: I have thought that I could best answer the inquiries
in your circular by sending you the opinions   two of our most experienced captains, which you wiill find enclosed, addressed to me. They
are both men of excellent judgment, -and thoroughly informed on the:
subject.
They think that cleanliness is the greatest preservation of health to
the emigrants, but it is very difficult to enforce it; and I think their
suggestion of aiding them in this respect by the authorities is very judicious.
Yours, very truly,
IL B: MINTURN.
Ho01. HiAMILTON  F1TSH.




84                      SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
NEW  Yo   Jla, Ja'uary 6, 1854.
SIR::I  answer to the circular from the Hnn. Hamilton Fish, which
you hliniedl us yester(lay, we will t ike up lih  queries in the order in
which they are proposed, and very briefly give you our views.  And
here allow us to).say that we are obliged to confi;rm  il every respect
to the late act of the British Par liament for regulating the carrying of
pilssengers bolth to an(d Irom Great Briilin, and any act passed by our
government conflicting in any respect with the British act will be of no
service to us, a ndl m'iy 1do us great injury.
Isi. The sp:ce allotted to each passenger.  Our laws allow us to
carry an adluLt to every fourteen superficial feet measured on deck,
while the British a.ct allows one adult to be carried to every twelve
superticial ftet.  WVe can carry passengers according to our laws very
coin fortbi ly.
2d. The qunt;ty and quality of provisions, &c.  These are provided.by   thie English act, and are sulficient in lquantity, and pass a
lig'id inspection fiom  the emigration agents there befire being put on
boa rd.
3:1. In answer to the third query, we would say that the master
should in all cases provide for the p'issengers.
4th. Ventilation.  The more ihe beltter.  The ships now  in the European trde are very Well ventilated.
5.h. Cooking arrangements.  Are sufficient at present as ordered by
the English act.
6th. Cleanlliess, &c.  This is all important.  At present we lave
no leg:rl  power whatever to enfirce sanitary  regulttions.   Power
should be given to commanders of ships to enforce obe(lience to necessary regultitions for daily cleanliness. We think this could be the most
easily accomplished by giving them  power to stop the supplies of provisions and water to such p)ersons who rflused, to comply with such
regulations.
7th. Surgeons.  These are required by the English  act for every
ship carrying lover five hundred p:lssengers, and, in our opinion, is as it
should le.
8th. Employment of attendants for the passengers, &c.  One passenger steward anlt two p -ssenger:ooks are required by the iEglish
act, and are sufficient, with the surgeon a-nd ordinary ship's officers, to
look after the paissengers.
9th. Sep Irallion of sexes, &e. This is also provided for by the Englishl
act, and is carried out as filr as possible without( sep rating meembers
of the sa.m-e flimily.  The crew are never allowed between decks at
all, except on ship's duty.
();h.  Disinfictingo.  T'his we always tdo at sea every t(ly, as fir as
possible, using for the purpose chloride of lime, (lisinfecting fluid, and
the smnke ot tar and sulphur.
] lth. WR-poit of vessels on arrival, &c.  This is always gvecn to the
heaflth officer, who bonrdls us at qtariintine oii arrival.
]2th. Inq(uest by fe(leral officers.  Impracticable.
]3lh. Litnitrllion of the number of' the pissengers in proportion to thef
registeret   totinage  of vessels.  This would be unjust ad( injurious to
reigrants, as the registered tonnagai   of a vessel is no indelx out ter real




ON- BOAflD EMIGRA'T SHIPS.                        85
tcp'icity.  The actual spnace on board is the only correct rule for deterininlig the number otf passengers a ship is entitled to carly.  By the
rule of tonnage, a clipper ship would be allowed double the number
that sthe would be enlitled to under the present regulation, or would be
able:to accommodite plrop erly.
14thl. Distinction   in respect to vessels passing between the tropics.
This wouldI Ie proper, and is also proyvided  ior in the English act.
More room should be given in warm climates than in coldo
Yolurs, respectfilly,
HALE  S. KNIGHT, S/i-p N5wzc World.
JOHN  BRITTON, S/tip Constiation.
ROBERT B. MTXTUaN, Esq.
No. 9.
LetnerJi'cm C'yrus Curtis, csq., cne rf thc Commissincrs (f EmigraVtion(f
New York.
NE w  YouIm, IJan. ary 20, 1854.
SFIr: I have the honor to acknoNwledge your flivor of the 29th ultimo,
cont lining a. series of'questions touching our present emigration laws.
in order. to correct certain abuses that exist under our own laws,
something  at least ma y be lelarned of England, who  is somewhat in
adva.nce of us, a.nd whose laws are, if possible, too stringent-so much
so as to check emigiration in sorne cases.
I am not aware that I can give you any  new  informniton  on this
subject, but beg herewith to transmit such as.1 have collected in answer
to your interrogatories.
With great respect, I remain your obedient servant,
CYRUS CURTIS.
O1101 r HAMILTON FISH,
TUuitcd States Scnnlac.
I. Quite sufficient.  See a;swer XIII.
IL Inasmuch as epidiemic diseases have been almost entirely banished firom our navy, and the exemption of sai(ors and mrineties from
these diseases may, in a. great measure, be attributed o o the quantiy
and quality of their food, it might be well to adopt the diet list: o our
navy, as established by Congress in 1842, or the following table, which
is a mod-ification thereof; and which, as it excludes liquors and embraces potatoes, an almost indispensable article    of diet with most
emnigrants, may be considlered preterable.
Tie English law provides that each steerage passenger shall be proviled with a contraclt ticket, st pulating the (luantity ot provision that
each passenger shall be served by the. master.




86                      SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
P ounds.                  Ounces.           f a pin
of a pint,
4~1             14..-.               I _
Table~full diet.  ~ "~              ~    ~     -  ~~~                    ~
e I   I        ~sdc        g.....Oi  4 1.bm    C.
Sunday..........                            14.....1  1........l
Monday.....     1...         1.        14   I       I
Tuesday....  1......              14                 2........
Wednesday.......... 1........ 14             I -2
Thursday...............   4.....Friday.............. 1                 2   2
Weekly quantity.. 4   2          1 2  1       9    7 2'   3    4   4  i 1
Oatrneal.and  Indian meal are omitted, -from  their tendency, if used
habitually, to iriduce daiarrhcea and dysentery. Vinegar and pickles are
anti-scorbutic.
III. No passengers should be allowed to provide fo'r themaselves;
but in all cases it should be the duty of the master of the vessel to furnish the provisions.
IV. A. sufficient supply of fresh air is, of all sanitary matters, of the
most importance.  To a deficiency of this supply  is              also attributable
the vast mortality among emigrants while crossing the Atlantic, and
even during shorter transits, such as was exemplified  on board of a
ship crossing from  Ireland to Liverpool, when, on the 2d December,
1848, seventy-three individuals perished.  Hence the question, how
is a sufficient supply of pure air to be furnished on ship-board? is the
most important of the series.
V. The cooking apptratus and arrangements should be sufficiently
ample to cook the meals of all the passengers at regular periods.  The
passengers should not be per mitted to cook their own victuals.
VI. Thorough subordination should be maintained by strict discipline,
and the porwer of the master should be absolute.  Personal cleanliness,
as well as that of the vesel, should be rigidly enforced; and, if practicable, an hospital for the sick should be located apart from the dormitories of the healthy passengers.
VII. The laws of England require the owners of ships to furnish
medicine, and every ship having on board 100 persons or upwards to
be provided witl ai surgeon.  The like requisition for American vessels
is equally important.  English surgeons are generally qualified to discharge the duties of physicians.
VIII. Nurses and other attendants on the sick might be selected and
appointed from among the most intelligent emrigrants by the master of
the vessel, who would be willing to render their services fbr a small
pecuniary consideration or perquisites.
IX. Children of both sexes, of~ ten years old an-d under, might be permitted to remrain with their, or under the care and supervision of the
mother; but we ha.ve reason to believe that chastity, as well as decency,
requires a separation of the males from the females.
X. There is no process of disinfection so thorough as cleanliness and
I~ -de PYVIV ~~V LC ~IL~hr~I~L~~ICI ~-L ~*CU~~~LIIVV~rA.Ve~d ~~~' ~r~*~r* Z7)




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                        87
free ventilation.  To destroy noxious odours, Le Doyen's DiseIfectant
is to be preferred to others, for the reason that it instantaneously destroys offinsive smells without substituting any peculiar odour of its own.
Chloride of lime produces an effluvium not only very disagreeable, but
pungent, irritating the eyes and air passages, and often producing a
distressing cough; so with sulphur.  Whitewash purifies ior the time
being, by absorbing the noxious vapor, or miasma; but the lime retains as well as absorbs them, and will continue to retain them fbr
months and years, and may also evolve them  and reproduce disease
under a confined and exalted temperature.  Boiled linseed oil,,when
brushed warm  into the planks and floors, mrakes a very good coating,
which prevents, to a very great extent, the absorption, by the pores of
the wood, of poisonous exhalations.  It facilitates also the cleaning of
the floors, which, after its application, assume an oaken color, and
diminishes the dampness which is apt to remain a long time between
decks after washing or scrubbing.  It is, however, next to an impossibility to disinfect a foul ship so that disease will not recur in it at some
future period.  Fumigation is of very little utility, excepting so far as
it invites a fresh current of air.  Some few  years since it was found
necessary to let water into the United States ship Ohio, by scuttling her,
in order to eradicate the yellow fever.  In most cases, cleanliness and
ventilation will speedily extinguish an epidemic.
XI. This should never be neglected.
XII. Let that be made the duty of the surgeon, setting fbrth the cause
of death, whether by disease, injury, neglect, or from other cause.
XIII. It would be preferable to limit the number of passengers
a.ccording to the space they are to occupy, instead of the tonnage of
the vessel; and if there be three decks to the ship, the lower one should
never be occupied by them.  Every adult passenger should be allowed
to sleep alone, or, at all events, no more than t-wo should be allowed to
occupy the same berth.
XIV. With proper ventilation, the present space allowed is ample
anywvhere and for any voyage.
No. 10.
Letter jfom iMes.isrs. O elricis    Co.
NEwa  YORK, January 20, 1854.
SI t   In reply to the inquiries as to the adequacy of the existing laws
with reference to emigrant vessels, contained in your circular letter of
December 29, we beg leave herewith to lay before you our views  on
the subject.
1. We consider the'space of fourteen superficial feet, now allotted to
each passenger, to be sufficient in vessels of one passenger deck, but
would recommend an increase of space in vessels of; two passenger
decks; because, in the first place, the ventilation of the lower decks
in vessels of this class must necessarily be imperfect; and, in the second
place, these vessels now carry too many passengers in proportion to
the space of the ulpper deck, which, in fine weather, would interfere




88                    SSICKXESS AND MORTALITY
with their comfeort andl health, bv restricting the room  necessary for
exercise and the ernjyment oft fi'esh;ir.
2 and 3. We have no doubt th-lt the enactment of a law  nmaking it
the duty of the master of the vessel, in all cases, to fiurnish lthe provisions and p1rovide for their cooking, would be found( highly bent ficial,
andl deem this subject of great importance, inasmuch as it would not
only contribute, probably in a greater degree thrn allo()st any other
measure, to the health al(nd comfitot of passengers, but w ould beal sides,
by increasing the cost. of transpolting thetn, alct as a bar to the immigration of those worthless paupers who only lill our almshouses anm[
penitentiaric s; w hilst, on the other side, it w\ould ten(l to attract to our
shores many of the betteir class.  This system  has, nmany years ago,
beeen iadopted by the city of Bremen, and eri'orced on all emnigrant slips
leaving its port. From our own experience, we know that it has worked
well, and should consider a perusal of the Bremen regulations, which
can be furnished by our friend the Hon. R. Scllleiden, worthy of: the
attention of the honorable commiltee, in case it should see fit to adopt
tiny measutres of' that lind.
4 and 5. On the subjects of ventilation and cooking arrang-ements,
we have not sufficient dlata on whlich to form an opinion as to t heI adequacy of existing  re glllations,
6. The master should be responisible f)r cleanliness of the vessel,
but the enobrcement of' personal cletanliness, however desirable, would,
we fe-ar, meet with too many obstacles on the part of the passengers
themselves, and give rise to many cormplaints of tyrannical and brutal
treatment.
7. The difliculty in determining the competency of a surgeon, and in
obtaining one  of requisite txperience, woul  be a serious objection to a
law requiring their employment.  It would, howeve.r, be well to oblige
every passenger ship to be providled with a. suitable Inedicilne chest,
containing such simple remedies fir contagious diseases. as could be
applied   ilth safet  by an inexperiencedl persono
8. In cases of sickness the master could employ some of the passengers as attendants.
9.- Separation of the sexes would be advisable, but such separation
should not be enlot.rced on members of one titmily.  The crew should
be entirely excluded f'romr the a npartment allottedl  o the fr -males.
10. Thorough disinfecting of every vessel on!oard of' which a contagious disease has made its appeara-nce, would be adtvisableo
11 and 12. Thec provisions of these  paragra.phs we also consider
quite desirable.
13 and 14.'We would suggest a limitatiorn of the number of p. ssengers allowed to every vessel, to two for every ive tons regster, and an
increase of space when a  vessel p[asses within the tropics.
The recent mortality ron boa.rd1 of' emigrant vessels vas., we believe,
mainly the natural developmefnt of disease contracted before etmbarkation, and not owing to want of attention on the part of' the. master or
his sub-ordinates.
We rem:in, with respect, sir, your obedient servants,
OELRICHS & CO.
Hon. HAMILTON FISH,
SCIuZlc Chlnamer, T1Vashiwg:on




ON BOARD EMIGRAN.T SiirPS.                        80D
No. 11I
Padper rcceiLcd fromi Mr.  Rucaker, late Mzinrister from lHamburg to Pruss'a.
The recent alarmingn mortality on l)oardl emigrannt vessels from Europe -calls for the alteition of the legisil lire.  It thas ibeen stated tlht
during lhe month of November lnst, 28 of the vwhole lunuber, of emigrant ships which arrived at New York Itad cholera o)n board, andl that
of 13,762 passengers, no less tha.n l,141'died by this disease, and between tour and five thousalnd. were afflicted with it. luring thlepassage.
This dreadlfil amount of sufibl ing andl death may have been the consequence of some special epilenmic, extendinlg over certain latitutles of
the Atlantic, breaking cut among the pass(engers whTen the ship enters
these regions.  Yet, if such an epidemic existed -on the ocean, it would
equally have infiected other pa(ss( nger vessels and steatumoats running
on the same course.  This, however, do(s not appear to  have'been the
case, as only emigrant ships oifer such awxihl sct nes of mortaltvy, and
even amnong them  several hiave arrived during lthe saln  period from
lEurope in an entirely healthy condition.  Besiles, although the mortality has b)een in the present year Llmore thitn ordinlarily fttal, the report:
of the commissioners of emigration at New York show the number of
diseased immigrants to be relgularly excessively lrrge a(t certain times
of the year; their hospital;  are crowded annnud3lly (luring the winter
season with numbers of' newly arrivedl emigrants aftected by typhus
fever, and the severest fi ms of disease contracted on ship-boat-d~
Great distress seems, more or less, to mnllk every approach of the
winter season.  T'he commissioners attri ute his e sbad state of health
chiefly to the feeblle condition of' a large number of' the passengers,
arising from  the privation they suffer dlu ing the sea voyage.  It has
also been stated that some emin'rlant vessels are known to be constantly
infected  with typhus fever, so that this tfightful disease breaks out regularlv on every successive v)oyage among   their unhappy passengers.
)One of the physicians of the mrarine hospitall assured us that, whenever
thle..i aival of certain  such vessels was announced to him, he could
always know  beforehand, with certainty, that it would. brilng hiim  a
large number of cases of: that kind.
Such a state of things requires a close investegation, and impresses
the duty of providinig, as far as possible, for this helpless class,of persons who, seeking a home in this country, are entitled to the protection.
of her laws.  W\ae are glad to see that lhe Senate of the United States
has already, on the motion of the Hon. Ha-milton Fish, appointed
a select committee to consider thie causes of the sickness and{ mortality
prevailing on board the emigrant ships, and whether any, and what,
tiurther legislation is needed fir the better protection of the health and
lives of pa.ssengers on board such vessels.
It may be.of interest to conmare the present stlte of the legislation
of the United States, in this respect, to the provisions madle. by other
States.  We select. fin, this purpose the legi-lation of Germany, from
whence, during the last year, the greatest amolunt of passengers have
come to this conuntry.  Among the'Ge-rman States, Bremen and Hamburg are the principal ports fur the shipping oft  enigrants; the laws of




90                    SICKNESS A)D MORTALITY
these two States relating to the carriage of passengers have been considered as providing best for the )rotection of the emigrants, and have,
for this reason, been taken as a, model by the rest of Germany.  The
principal objects of these laws are the following, viz:
1. To admit to this sort of business only such persons who, by their
character, offer a' certain guaranty for their respectability; at Bremen,
only those w.ho have the full merchants' rights are allowed to carry
passengers in merchants' vessels. Besides, they must deposite with the
board of control the sum  of $5,000, as a security for the strict compliance with the provisions of the laws, and they must have been approved by the board of control.
2. The regulations as to the space required for each passenger on
the vessels are, for those ships that are destined to go to the United
States, the same as have been enacted there; for other countries, there
shall be allowed to each passenger 12 superficial feet of the passengers' deck, while the American act of May 17, 1848, requires 14 feet
on the lower de( k, and 30 feet on the orlop-deck; if the height of the
decks is less than 6 feet, it requires 16 fet; if it is less than 5 feet, it
requires 22 feet.  The American laws allot, as we see hereby, even a,
larger space than the GOerman laws, which deem it more essential to
provide, in other respects, efficaciously for the comfort and material
welfare of the passengers, as we intend to show hereafter, than to give
them  a. still larger space.  It is impossible to accommodate emigrants
equally spaciously, as may be done with cabin passengers, who pay
three times the amount of passage-money; and we should think that,
with proper regard for ventilation and purification of the air by fumigating, as the German laws prescribe, the present allowance of spacee
is quite sufficient.
The German laws are much more explicit and careful in regard to
the general condition of' the vessels, which, perhaps, is of much greater
importance.  It is epecially enacted that the passengers deck must
be unoccupied by goods, and that no goods shall be stowed between
the berths of the passengers.  The berths are to be dry and comfortable, 6 feet long by 18 inches broad; there shall be no more than two
tiers, and the under berths shall be at least 4 inches above the deck;
the height between the decks must be at least 6 feet, and the deck covering shall be at least one inch and a half thick.  Several other points
are also provided by the German laws, which contribute materially to
the comfort and health of the passengers, relating to the ventilation and
cleanliness, to the cooking, to the amount of fuel; and it is, for instance,
especially enacted that two lanterns between the passengers' deck are
to be kept burning frrn dusk till day-light.
3. The principal care of the German legislation refers to a proper
supply of food, and it will be seen from the accompanying table, conparing the amount required by the laws of the different countries, how
much better, in this respect, the laws provide for the passenger at Brmen and  Ham.burg than in other parts.




The following supply offood is required for each passenger on vessels going                                to the ports ofthe United Statesfrom  the below-mentioned
ports, (the diffrent zeights being  reduced to pounds of Bremen weight:)
pi                      5                          s                                               -                        -   -
Articles.               -      i United States                         L     Bremen,  Hamburg,   Havre.      u Antwerp.      Roeterdam           London.
of America.
t____       ______...................              i        _    _J                                                 __..._____.    _-_                         _
Meat....'....Non.....                                                 ou*-                            4 *.None....    32h pounds.    311 pounds. 1  14 pds. ham.   ds.am....None.-..... one...
Salt pork...................................   9 pounds.  13-...do....  12...do....................10 pounds...............
Bread...                                   13...do.........do...    62....do             40 pounds         45  ounds         15...do...   221 pounds.
Butter............................................                       4........d....  4..do........
Water.....................................    6  gallons.                 67  gallons.    60 galls..........................                                            gallons.
Flour, peas and beans,rice, vegetables.....  36 pounds.                   35  pounds.    44 pounds.            5 pounds.        40 pounds.        40 pounds.        72 pounds. 
A further supply of the same articles, in case a                                                            j:  
corresponding quantity ofpotatoes may not!   
be had at reasonable prices...do....   10....do...         1... do....   40....do....  20..do.                26....do............... 
Molasses........d.......o....................                                   do...... I.od...........do....                                              4' pounds.
Coffee and tea..............................................  3...do....    2.........................................
Vinegar.......................         pint.         2 quarts.         2 quarts.        i 1  quarts.       1    urts             quarts. 2...............
Sago, wine, sugar, salt, medicines.......................                 Suffcient.        Sufficit..        2 pds. salt.      2 pds. salt.    2 pds. salt.    41pds sugar. 
Solid food, in Bremen pounds................64  pounds.  1551 pounds.  161 7-10 pds.   131' pounds                               05.  90 1-6 pds.    122 6-7 pds. 
-OBSERVATIONS.                                                                                           0)'r
OBSERVATIONS.
Bremaen.-Children above one year of age count for one whole persou.
Haraburzg.-Children under eight years of age count for one-half person.
Havre.-Children under five years of age do not count.
Arntwerp.-Children under eig ht years of age count for one-half; under twelve years for three-quarters.
Rotterdam.i-Children from one to twelve years of age count for two-thirds.
London.-Children under fourteen years of age count for one-half.




9.3                    SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
B  t, as the m)st important diffierence between the lrws of tile German States and those of the United States ard1( other countries is to be
oht}erved, tlhalt. t Bremen and Himburg the ship-owner is in' all cases
responsible flor the prescribedl supply of fotod fior each passenger, evean
when it should have been agreed by contract that the p:issengers should
provide tfr themselves.  This is certainly a most wise and necessary.
regulation;, for, whenever the palssengers are left to providle'br themselves, -as is generally the case in all other ports, experience has too
frequently showrn th-it the provisiins prove to b)e wretchedlly bad and
insufficient.  The poo)r emigrant is but to,0 itclined to rely on the hope
that his fellow-plassengers wilt not let ]him st;rve, and the consequeilce
is, frequently, that all of them suffei firom faimine.  The Utlite-d States
laws provide that any passenger mnay, with the consent of'the captain,
Burnish for himself an equivaletit for the articles of ftod(l re(luired, anti
that the captain shall furnish comfortable fiodl to such p)assengers when
their own supply, without waste or neglect on their part, should prove
insufficient.  But this precisely does not protect the emigrant against
the consequences of his own want of prudence.  He may have supplied himself scantily or with had provisions on account of his poverty
or of his ignorance; a id if then his provisions on a long p)nssage cone
to fail, the is without the means of gCtting,(   fibither food, land the captain
imy even let him die firom st:arvation, as he is not bound to help him,
when he can prove that the deficiency was caused by the improvidence of the passenger.
4. Another point on which the German  legislation  appears to offer
mrore security, is in re ard to the control over the vessels that leave
with emigrants.  No such vessel is allowed to sail, before a public officer
hIas been on b)ard to examine strictly the co(ndition oft tile vessel, and
the ssupply -and qualily of the fo(1; ihe American lavw also enacts that
an inspector of the customs is to examine the vessels, and report wheth er
c.artain provisions of the act have been ccomplied w-ith; but thiis exlinination does not extend to those sections of the act which prescribe the
victualling, so that this most important part is under no ptublic control,
and the master or owner of the vessel is only answerablee to the passengers
who shall have been suffering fromn insufficiency of food.  Besides, the
German laws oblige the owner or consignee of passenger vessels to insure the whole amount of the passage-money, and, moreover, twenty
doilars for each passenger, for the benefit of the passengers, in case the
vessel sholtd meet with some accident, and be prevelte(l friom reaching the port of' destination. -These sums are either to be insured at
some respectable insurance office, or to be deposited with the governmlnt, and are also engageda as a pledge fbr the compliance with the
regulations of the laws.  nl order to protect the passeiigers from contagious diseases, it is strictly fbrbidden at Bremen, as well as at Hlamburg, to take on board any person afectted with such a diseaseo
By the above remarks about the  taws which regulate the transportation of emigrants a;t the German ports, it will be seen that the legislation at these places is particul;lly anxious to provide for the proteclion
and comfoit of these people.  The beneficial eflects of these laws have
also been mnlifested by the generally more hea.lthy condition o' vessels
arriving-from German. ports, ceompared with the frequently very distressed




ON BOARD EMIGRAXT SHIPS.                          C3
condilion of vessels from Belgian, French, -pd English ports.  Among
the above stated vessels that arrived rccetily  wilh so tmany deaths at
New York, (only three German vessels occur.  Also, the reports of the
*comntlssioners of' emigration  att New\ Yu( k show, that althoulgh the
German immigration exceeded the Irish in the last year, lv far a greater
lumber of Irish fell to the charge of their hospii.als —the Irish rnumbering
64,21 1, or 5.1 per cent. of thc whole amuontt of Irisht immigrants; whereas
friom Germany only- 2,613 patients were adlnitted, making 2.2 per cent.
ofthe. German itrmigration.  This is still a. large proportion, but it has:t) ble borne ini  e in mind  that nre lhan one-r'o.urth of thle German emigrants
arrive by the way of Liverpool, H1  vre, Rutterdlam, and Antwerp.
No. 12.
Lettcr Irom., Messrs. Mlecyer and Stucken, ou-ners of passegecr shij).
NEW YORK, Jlnzur/ 12, 1854.
tIR: In reply to your circular of December 29, we beg leave to.submit the following ainswers to yo'ur q(uestions:
1. The space, fourteen feet, allotted to each p'ssenger, is, we think,
a full and   tir iallowance, pro)vided vessels  ile not -llowed  to take
passengers at the rate of one to thirty feet on second between-deck, or
orlop-deck.
11. As to tie quantity of provisions retuired for each passesger, we
refer to the Bretnen law, ~ 20; and as to quality, to same law,   24;
said law has proved itset' the best existitn, indl ample in every case.
-il. Passengers should, in no case, be allowed to provide  obr:themselves.
iV. Ventilation.  The existing laws, if properly enforced, and the
taking of p:,ssengers on lower bet ween-deck, (orlop-deck,) is prohiblitedp
are quite suflicient.
V. -Cookiingr arrangements.  If the vessel furnishes provisionrs, all
meals should be giveil at stated hlous, and prepared by the ship's cook:
any otner system is defective.
VI.'T'h,  laws should give the master more power over the passengers, to enblrce cleanliness.
VII. The employment of a sturgo-l or doctor wouldl be desirable, and
would greatly relieve the captain, still it wouild bIe unijust nd(l onerous
to exact it of every vessel.  As it would prove too expensive fior small
vessels, it might  be exacted, properly, with vessels carryincg over 300
p:Issengers.
Vlll. No attendants are required.  We (oubt the p:acticability of
thes'sime; land from whatourcaptains tell us, we are inclitned to think that
it is l-tter to let p Issengers aid one another.  A mong 1,500 people there
are ever sotie vwilo, in consideration of' stnall fiavors ftorim the captain,
ire, not only willing, but glad to be emp1tloyed, and make ihlellselves
Use'ul.  A.lvw entltrcittg a (quanltity oi alttndants woull be onerous,
tan( proilul'tive of' new evils.
IX. 1'ile sep.tration of sexes, antd prevention of unnecessary intcr



94                    SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
touise between the crew  and passengers.  The separation of sexes
wvou1ld, we think, not easily be submitted to by families, and if enforced,
would not have the desired effect; if illicit intercourse is sought, it can
ever be attained on board ship, where so many are crowded together;'no law to prevent it could do much good.
X. Process of disinfecting vessel.  Under existing laws, where a
vessel can carry passengers on several decks, none can be found; the
best remedy is, that no vessel is allowed to carry more passengers than
will admit of the between-decks being cleared entirely of passengers,
cleaned thoroughly, and fumigated with closed hatches.
XI. A. report is regularly made by every vessel arriving here with
passengers; three copies, one for the custom house, one for the mayor's
office, and one for the commissioners of emigration; a fourth report, for
the State Department, would be a little extra trouble, and if' publishedr
would, we think, have a beneficial influence on captains.
XII. As to inquests being held and verdict published, in ca0ses of
death. We hardly think the results would justify the delay and expense
incurred; a special form of oath, to be taken by the captain and mate,
as to every death, its cause, and that it was not from want or neglect,
and such published with list of deaths, would be simpler, and if anything were wrong and worth complaint, it would soon become known.
XIII. As to limitation of passengers in proportion to tonnage.,-We
deem the existing law, 14 feet to each passenger, on first between-deck,
quite ample room, provided vessels are prohibited carrying passengers
on the lower between-deck, called orlop-deck.
XIV. No distinction in number of passengers for vessels passing the
tropics seems necessary, if passengers are not carried on more than one
between-deck.
The above are our simple, short answers to your enquiries; but we
would beg leave to submit to your consideration a few remarks which
may explain them more fully, and show our reasons for them.
We think proper laws in the United States, on the subject of emigration, can do a very great deal toward improving the condition of emigrants on the passage; we fear, however, that legislation on this side
of the ocean can, alone, never achieve its object; it should be aided by
corresponding laws abroad.
So far as we are able to see, hear, or judge, we find the laws of
Bremen the best and most effective.  We enclose a copy thereof,
which, however, as you require an early reply, we have not had time
to translate.
The Belgian law is said to be very strict, but it allows passengers
to furnish their own provisions, we believe.
The Hamburg law  has been mucl improved, and remodelled a:ter
the plan of the Bremen law.
The British law has been greatly improved, and has one good point.
in stipulating more boats, or a given number of boats for each vessel.
The French law seems most defective.
Of all vessels arriving with passengers, we believe an inpartial report of the commissioners of emigration here will prove that Bremen
vessels, from Bremen deliver their passengers in the most satisfactory
manner; the same with Hamburg vessels fi'om lHamburg and Bremen.




ON3 BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS,                       95
We think it will be found that American and British ships from Bremnen
deliver passengers more satisfactorily than from any other port, while
Bremen vessels from other ports seldom give the same satisfaction as
when from Bremen direct.  We shall, at first, mention a case of a  vessel just arriyed from Hiavre, which will account for it:
A proper report from the commissioners of emigration here will, we
think, prove that the per centage of mortality is greatest on large vessels carrying from  600 to 900 passengers; at least we have lately
noticed.that, while Bremen vessels showed but one, two, and three per
cent. mortality, and this mostly infiants or aged people, vessels bringing
from  600 to 900 passengers showed from eight to ten per cent, mortality.  The largest passenger ships have four decks.
1. The upper deck, removable, of strong latting-work, called flush
spar deck.
2. The usual deck, caulked water-tight, as every vessel must have it.
3. Lower deck, usual with most vesssels, seldom caulked, and mostly
removable, (between-deck.)
4. Lowest deck, or second lower deck, (orlop-deck,) much resembling
deck 3, (2d between-deck.)
The deck No. I is needed where so many passengers are carried to
enable the crew to have room to work the vessel; it affords shelter to deck
2, or regular deck, and leaves that sufficiently ventilated without any
other preparation, but it more or. less hinders bad air escaping lower
decks.
Deck No. 2, or regular cldeck, is fitted with first class and secnnd
class cabins, and the latter is generally large in some; vessels, 200
second class passengers are carried.
Deck No. 3 is the first between decks, with vessels that have no
flush-spar deck of latting; is easily well ventilated, but suffers more or
less from shelter of spar deck.
Deck No. 4, 2d between-deck, or orlop-deck, is damp, close, and dark,
so that a light must be kept burning all day, and its effluvia rise into the
upper parts of the vessel.  It has another drawback: it is deep downs
and people reluctantly climb from it to air and light.
We attribute the greater mortality on board large vessels (taking
from 600 to 900 passengers) to their arrangements, and the taking passengers.on three decks.  The upper deck, or deck No. 2, and first between-deck, or deck No. 3, could be kept healthy, we believe.  If no
passengers were allowed on deck No. 4, or orlop-deck, (the effluvia arising
therefrom, especially in case of infectious complaints, cannot possibly
be without disastrous effect to people on the upper decks,) much
would be gained.  We further attribute the greater mortality to want
of proper food anid nourishment.
Passengers providing themselves get cheated in every way —-quantity,
quality, and price.  The consequence is, that the poorer lay in not
only extreme small stock, but also a defective stock, and trust to the
good nature of those better off, or to chances to appropriate to themselves what does not belong to them, and, lastly, rely on the master
if the vessel saving them  fiom  starvation, bu;t, after all, suffering fot
want of proper nourishment.
W.len passengers provide for themselves, they form  in sets or corn



.9G             -S'C1SIXCKESS AND MOIlTALITY
panics, each in turn c'oking fIor the s-t or company.  The cook's galley
is ever -)esvet; tthose whl) have mnanis resott to, b;ibry, those without
Inmeas. resort to force; and serious b:oils, we believe even mFurder,. have
cnsued.
It is natural that if a vessel furnishes p:'ovisions, the capta.in or consignee canr ilay in stores, wh:oles;ale, chleaper and of batter (.uality than
passenLgers can il retail; perfect strangers. in port ol shipment, the
captain,: owner, or consignee, will, under proper law for liiability, see
to buy of responsible dealers.  The single passenger buys retail, and,
unacqul.intet - ith saea-voyage, hllardly knows wh:t to b)uy, and buys
of unkn'own andt fireluently dishonest retailers.  The sick and helpless
are under this syste:nm at a, great (lisa(lvantage.
I1 stormy  tweather,. owing to an arraingement of the cook's galley,
passengers tnmy, tir d( i,vs together, ie unable to cook a.t a1ll.
If the vessel furnishes stores, and these are measured out in rations
-to cook, the neals t)r all 1passengers can be prepared in twro or three
kettles, aind served at stated hours; the kettles can, as we know they
are in Bremen vessels, be so arrmarged, that even in the worst of' weather,
warm and il  properly cookedl a.ppropriate meals can be furnished.  The
defect of imll)lrop)er or d fiient nourishment is easily cured.
Nosuflicienit controol  or guarantee fir qtlality rand lqu(lanity of stores
can be.attained, except the ssame be subjected  to rigid  inspection
before, and at the time of, shipping them.
\Ve b3lieve a law prohibiting the taking of passengers on orlop-deck,
enforcing proper ventilation, as now  prescribed bl y law, and making
tnlster, owner, andcl vessel lialtle  f;r provisions, definingf same, their
quantity, and that they be soutlln and healthy, would at once abolish the
greatest evils existing.  The law  should also lrovi(le lhat no. ship.carries more passengers than will admit of thoroughly cleaning and
fLniiglting between decks.
We have at this moment three Bremen vessels to our acddress ~.The
captains tell us t.hat, weather permitting, they order at timres- all passengers.on (leck; have the 1between-deck thoroughly cleaned; fumigate with tar, and closed down\ the hatches   tr an hour, thalt the f'umigation may pierce well.  They then air the between-deck, andl again
iumig-lte under closetl hatches with juniper berries; ventilate  afterwards before they allow passengers to go below.  Owing to such precautions, we believe, it is that one of these vessels, tor which the
complement of p'assengers were wailing at Bremerhavwfn, and while so
waitiing on shore, lost fiteen of their number by cholera., 1ilha  not a single
case of serious illness on the whole passage, and no symptoms of
cholera.  Sea-sickness weakens, makes lazy and iIndifltrent, so that
even the most energetic ca-ptains complain that they aree unable to enforce cleanliness unless;aidedl by law; and thrells to t reat as mulineers
such as will not o)bey are olten necessary.  Mlany passengers have to
bd br!ouuh.ht on (leck by ma;in force.
Thef German society, land reporters for European Germaln papers,
collect fi-om emimgrants inlirmanrtioil, and reports a1rc stelt to Gelman
Iie\wspl)pers stating (riy of' sailing an(l dav of arriv;ol of vessels, with
sholt remarks a.boutt \welthiher, treatllment, and I(ol lurishiment on the. passage.  Thlese are published, and serve emigrants as a guide to> what




ON BOARD EMIGRANT. SHIPS.                      97
vessels and captains are preferable.  Similar publications, by the State
Department, would undoubtedly have a good effect.  The information
could be collected and forwarded by the health officer or commissioner,of emigration.
We generally find captains complain most about sickness, &c., on
passage, when such has been very rough, keeping passengers below
deck and confined.  This, and the comparative small mortality on
vessels passing tropics, leads us to think that on such voyages no reduction in the number of passengers is required, provided vessels are
prohibited carrying passengers on deck four, (second or orlop deck.)
The better weather allows more ventilation; passengers are more on
deck in open air, take more exercise, and are, in  consequence,
healthier.
We would finally submit to your consideration the case above referred to.
The Bremnen ship, Louisiana, arrived to our care from Havre within
the last few days.  Her owners, the largest ship-owners in Bremen,
never insuring their vessels at all, and employing their vessels mainly
between the United States and Bremen, are of course desirous they
should bear a good name with emigrants.  They consequently take
extreme good care to have the best of captains, furnish vessels complete, and have everything in the best order and quality.
They are very severe upon their captains when complaints are made
by passengers.
The said ship Louisiana, having gone to Havre with grain, there
took a round charter for passengers to New York; vessel to take what.American law allows; charterers to furnish stores, medicines, &c.
The vessel has but two decks-the usual upper deck, and one lower
deck.  The charterer insisted on captain building a second lower deck
to enable vessel to carlv more passengers.  The captain remonstrated,
stating, his owners would not, even for their own profit, allow it, much
less for profit of others, to detriment of passengers.  It was proven that
all American vessels did it, and he was, under the charter and custom
of the port, forced to do for others what his owners never did nor would
do for themselves.
As medicines, some castor oil and Epsom salts were handed h-im;
asking for more, he was answered that that was enough, emigrants required no more, &c., and to that effect.  Application to United States
consul proved unavailing, the consul stating that he knew of no laws
which enabled him to interfere.
The captain, knowing his owners, did his duty, and the emigrants
have not suffered by the recklessness and hard heartedness of the charterers; but, in one hundred similar cases, not one captain or owner will
do what is needed.
Nothing can save the poor emigrant but a general law, making captain of vessel and owner liable tor sufficient supply of provisions and
medicines, to the extent that they are prevented from chartering vessels
to parties who furnish all stores themselves, and inefficiently.
Without such law, resistance will ever be unavailable.  Charterers
make a profit on stores, and prefer vessels that let them  make this
profit.  The emigrant will be at the mercy of unprincipled, hardhearte t
7




98                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
speculators, who, living in Europe, cannot be reached by American
laws, while captains who do not submit to their terms get no freights.
Steam vessels, whether screw  or paddle steamers, we should say,
need not and ought not to be as much restricted as sailing vessels. We
are, however, unable to give any direct information; we do not, however, doubt that, ere long, steamer lines will be arranged to carry emigrants.
We would respectfully submit for your consideration, that any law
entailing increased expense to the ship-owner, while reducing number
of passengers in a vessel, would prove more or less onerous, and react
disadvantageously on the emigrant.
The profits, especially for large vessels, we believe, are such that they
can affird to dispense with carrying passengers on orlop-deck, (second
between-deck,) and provide satisfactorily for passengers without increasing the price of passage beyond  what passage and stores now
cost the emigrant.
The profits of smaller vessels, we believe, are hardly of a -nature to
bear reduction without injury or extra expense to emigrant.
Trusting our remarks and replies to your inquiries may prove of interest, and not be deemed inappropriate,
We are, sir, very respectfully,
Your most obedient servants,
MEYER & STUCKEN.
Hon. HAMILTON Fisi-i, U. S. Sienator,,Chairman Select Committee on Emigration, Waishington, D. C.
No. 13.
Letter from Adolf' todewald, Esq.
NEW YORmK, January 20, 1854.
SIR: In answer to your circular, dated December 19, 1853, respecting the causes of "the sickness and mortality prevailing on board
the emigrant ships," the undersigned begs leave to state:'That the experience gained by him, as merchant, and occasionally consignee of
passenger-ships-as member, and, for a, term, president, of " The German Society of the city of New York," and, in the latter capacity, for
a year, one of the Commissioners of Emigration of this city —has enabled
him  to form a decided opinion, with regard to the principal causes of
the sickness and mortality on board. the passenger vessels.  And these
a.reThe insufficiency, or the poor quality, or the imperfect cooking, (and
sometimes all colmbined,) of the provisions.
And it is, further, the decided opinion of the undersigned that the best.
remedy for these evils would be found in an enactment, making it, in
all cases, the duty of the vessel, and the vessel only, to furnish a sufficiency and a good quality of provisions, and also to be responsible for
the proper cooking and distribution of the same.
Inexperience, or poverty, or pa.rsimony —and often these combined



ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                        99
render the passenger quite incompetent to attend to  providing the
requisite stores.  Such a permission is fraught with the most pernicious
consequences to himself; and ought, therefore, never to be given.
The very perfect regulations existing at the ports of Hamburg and'
Bremen to that effect might serve as a, guide in framing similar enactments here, and deserve, also, in other respects, the consideration of
your committee.
Another main cause of the sickness and moral      moality a ng passengers
may, no doubt, be traced to the insufficiency of space in the between
decks, rendering the supply of pure air, the proper cleanliness, and,.
under the present state of things, frequently, the access to the cooking
arrangements, difficult, and in bad weather, almost impossible.
A  sweeping reduction of the present legal number of' passengers
would, of course, afford a ready remedy for tis evil.   But your committee will be aware that such a measure would certainly raise the
cost of transportation, and, consequently, to a corresponding degree,
the price of passage, and would thereby, to a certain extent, check the
emigration from  Europe, bearing with peculiar hardship upon those
classes of the l.aboring poor in Europe to whom emigration is of the'
greatest benefit, by keeping them there in their hopelessness and misery.
Besides, such a check to the emigration might seriously affect, not only
the interest of the ship-owner, but commerce generally, and, in its wider
consequences, many important interests connected with the settlement
and improvement of the lands in the United States.
The undersigned, in view of these manifold interests, does, therefore,
not consider it advisable to reduce the present legal number of passengers per vessel, in a general way, but would rather recommend some
amendment to the present law, to prevent an overcrowding in particular instances, by adding to the acts at present in force, the proviso that
the number of passengers shall not exceed the former rates of two passengers for five tons, and also some stipulation as to room on deck for
air and exercise.
The satisfactory state of things on board of several passenger ships,
and especially of many German vessels, proves that, with proper attention to wholesome diet, cleanliness, and ventilation, as well as the use
of disinfecting agents, the present number of passengers on b)ard is not
incompatible with the maintenance of health.
Many of these preventive means cannot well be regulated by law.
The owner, and still. more the captain, can only provide for and enforce
them; and with carelessness and neglect on their part; the best. regulations for these very important matters would fail.
To teach, however, those duties to the careless and negligent shipowner and captain, by the all-powerful motive of self-interest, the undersigned would beg leave to suggest the propriety of' some enactrnent
to the efiect that flo every passenger dying on the passage, (excepting,
perhaps, cases of accident,) the passaoge money, ori tbetter, perhapsa certain sum, shoul  d be paid over by the conIsiotce to t1at institution,
at the port of arn ival, taking charge of' the sick and destitute immigrants.
The above views and suggestions embriace the mot.s in your circular
from No. I. to VI.
As to No. VII., respeLcting  the employment of' a. surgeoni the under



100                   SICKNESS AND MORTALiTY
-signed believes that, notwithstanding all regulations to that effect, the
vessels generally would, after all, be provided with inxperienced and
incompetent young men, who might do more harm  than good, and
thereiore considers such an enactment inexpedient.
Nos. VIII, IX, X, cannot effectually be regulated by law.
Nos. XI, XII, would seem quite advisable regulations.
No. XIII. The expediency of engrafting this limitation on the present
law has been mentioned above.
No. XIV. Such a distinction would, at the firstglance, seem advisablealthough the undersigned is not able to arrive at any decided opinion
on that point —inasmuch as generally, though the heated atmosphere of
the tropics may be more detrimental to the health of the passengers,
still, on the other hand, the fine weather and smooth sea, more generally
prevailing in those latitudes, will allow of better ventilation and more
exercise on deck.
In the anxious hope that your committee rnay arrive at such results,
in their report to the Senate, as would induce Congress, in behalf of
sul-ering humanity, soon to pass enactmenLts by which the dreadful
state of things on board of many of the passenger vessels may be efftctually remedied or prevented, the undersigned has the honor to remain,
With the greatest respect, your very obedient servant,
ADOLF RODEWALD.
Hon. HAMrILTON FISH, U. S. Senate,
Chairran of Gommitlee on Enaigrant rMhips.
No. 14.
Letter Jfrom (Cptain Williaam,Skiddy.
NEW YORK, Jatuary 14, 1854.
SiRa: In answer to the inquiries in your circular of December 29,
1.853, as to the adequacy of the existing laws with respect to passengers, I reter you to the English passenger act of June 30, 1852, which
embraces all the inquiries contained in your circular.  This act is
strictly enfbrced by the English government, ana all American vessels
are obliged to conifoi  not only to the act but to many impositions
from inspectors appointed by the commissioner   sand we must be subject t() this so long as our government permils the law of a tforeign
country to regulate our ships.  After leaving port, however, the mraster has not sufficient power or authority, either over his crew or passengers, to carry out these regulations.
ThLe g'Creat cause, therefobre, of the filthy, beastly, degrading condition
of paassengers and their berths, is the want of adequate power in the
master to establish a competeint police.  Under the present navigation
laws of the United States, the matter cannot be remedied.  The idea
of imposing fines on sailors ibr disobedience and refuising duty, is impracticable.  They are almost always in debt to the ship.  The sa.me
reason or rule will apply to passengers who have scarcely a second
shbit.




ON BOARD EM.IGRANTX SHIPS.                     101
The master must have more power, or our merchant marine, like the
navy, must gradually decline from its former superiority. Even now, I
doubt whether one large packet ship could be manned in this port in
ten days with American seamen.  I regret to acknowledge this, but
think it proper the committee should be informed of the fact.
I remain your obedient servant,
WM. SKIDDY.
Hon. H. FIsH,
United States Senate, FY'ashington.
No. 15.
Letter fiom E.. ) Iurlbut, Esq.
84 SOUTH STItEET, NEW YORK, F'bruayT 1, 1854.
SiI.: According to your request, I submit the following fbr your
consideration.  With respect toQuestion. 1. The space allotted to each soul on board " three-deck
ships," should be as follows:  On lower "between-decks," thirty
superficial feet; on upper "between-decks," twenty-four superficial
feet; in deck-houses and poops, twenty feet; on " two-deck ships,"
twenty-four superficial feet to each; and in deck-houses and poops,
twenty feet.
Question 2. The quantity, kind, and quality ofprovisions allowed at
present is sufficient, when properly taken care of, and properly administered.
Question 3. Permission should not be granted to passengers to furnish or have charge of their own provisions.
Question. 4. The present ventilation is all that is required. (When
the number of passengers is limited as in article 1 above, more ventilation would not be required.) The present ventilation often endangers
the lives of the passengers and cargo, by being unexpectedly exposed
to the breaking in of the sea; side ventilation is and will be more or
less controlled arid improperly used by passengers occupying such
part of the ship, and I consider it decidedly unslafe.
Question 5. The cooking department is sufficient, but badly mranaged.
Question. 6. It should be the duty of the captain to enforce personal
cleanliness, and a law is required to protect him in doing so.
Question 7. All vessels should be compelled by law to carry a surgeon, to be recommended or approved by a board of surgeons.
Question 8. Persons employed to administer to the sick and enfbrce
cleanliness, other than the captain and officers and others interested,
would be unnecessary, and in most cases would want one or more to
take care of them.
Question 9. The separation of the sexes should be in three divisions, as
follows: 1st. The married and their children. 2d. Unmarried males.
And 3d. Unmarried females.  To prevent unnecessary intercourse be



102                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
tween the passengers and crew, legislation is necessary to protect the
captain in a rigid discipline.
Question 10. A thorough process of disinfecting every vessel where
disease has made its appearance is very important, but more necessary
to fumigate and keep the vessel cleansed before disease is contracted.
Question 11. The law on this subject is sufficient.
Question 12. Any law on this subject would be violated. Most deaths
occur in the severest weather, and in most cases it would be impracticable to hold an inquest.
Question 13. A  law  regulating the number of passengers by the
space allotted to each would be sufficient.
Question 14. All vessels passing between the tropics should be permitted to carry the same number of passengers as those passing north
of the tropics.
I would remark, in reference to question 1, that the space allotted as
I have named, would limit the number of passengers, so as in most
cases to insure health and comfort; and without this limitation, all laws
would be ineffictive. In reference to question; 2 I would recommend
that all provisions, except potatoes, should be packed in tight casks.
The present mode of packing bread, meal, &c., is in bags, where from
exposure it becomes soured and moulded, and thereby unfit for use.
In regard to questions 3 and 5, I would recommend the same law that
exists in Bremen, (Germany,) in relation to quantity, kind, and quality
of provision, and a suitable number of cooks to be employed by the
passenger agents, said cooks to have the entire charge of the provisions,
to cook and deal out.  In this way the present cooking department
would be sufficient, less fuel would be required, and it would add
greatly to tlhe health itnd comfort of the passengers.  It frequently
happens, that many passengers on board ship are unable to cook for
themselves fiom  one week to another, and for the want of properly
cooked food become diseased and die.  It also frequently happens, that
many cook and eat to e xcess, cand, having no exercise, become diseased;
this would showx the necessity of having a proper cook to prepare the
food and deal it out judiciously.
It is very necessary to have the vessels ventilated, fumigated, and
cleansed, before disease is contracted; in many cases under my notice,
cholera, dysentery, and ship fiver, have been checked by proceeding
to sea.  When the weather at the commencement of a voyage has
been fair, the ship ventilated and cleaned, discipline and order being
established, disease has disappeared; but when the voyage commences
with gales of wiind, and the officers have as much as they can do to
attend to the ship, and this continues a fevw days, it is then we see, as
in recent cases, the effbets of sea sickness on previous excess and
neglect; and disease makes quick work.
Yours, respectfully,
E. D. HURLBUT.
Hon. HAMILTON FISH,
United tiate St nate, I'Fashinglon.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS*                     103
No, 16.
Leter from Dr. Isaac Wood, of New York.
NEW YORK, January 10, 1854.
DEAR SIR: I received the circular of your committee a few days
since, but pressing engagements have prevented my giving it proper
attention.  I fear but little value can attach to any suggestion I can
make.  Permit me to express my gratification that efforts are making
to better the condition of those arriving here in our emigrant vessels.
On referring to the laws on the subject, it; appears to me not so much
is wanting in the laws already existing as in a strict adherence to their
several provisions.  The space required by law  for each passenger
appears to me very limited-little more than the superfice of a grave.
If; however, due regard be paid to ventilation, it may, in a great measure, do away with the objection.  A great evil arises from the passengers occupying this space too much of the passage-in some instances, the whole passage.  Bei;lg on a committee of the New York
Academy of Medicine a few years since, to visit the several hospitals
in our city and at quarantine, &c., we visited one of the ships which
had just arrived, on board of which thirty or more had died during the
passage.  There I learned an old man had lain in his berth the whole
time since the vessel left port.  Whilst on board of this vessel, another
one passed us up to the city, on board of which no sickness had made
its appearance.  I know not what the diffeence of discipline of these
ships was.  The one (English) sick, the other (American) well; but I
have learned from the emigrants that in some of the vessels the master
makes it a rule that all shall go on deck every day, whilst the decks
and berths are being cleaned.  If any are unable, they are carried on
deck.  I have an Irishman now  livinga' with me who says the captain
appointed twenty of the emigrants, directly after sailing, to attend to
such duty.  In this vessel they had no sickness.  Some masters let
them do as they please.  Hence they remain in their berths until they
sicken in their own filth. This might be greatly remedied by requiring
every vessel to employ a qualified and experienced surgeon, who shall
have a suitable number of attendants to take charge of the sick and enenforce his orders.  In this respect there is lamentable, culpable neglect or deficiency. Persons are taken on board as doctors who have
been nothing but apothecaries, never professed anything else; and'some,
as I have been assured, having no knowledge of medicine whatever.
Why should the owners of ships, who are ftttening on the proceeds of
these voyages, require the poor emigrant to put his health and life in
the hands of one less skilled than their own family physician? In the
hands of one they would not trust to treat any domestic animal they
valued, is a crying evil.
To show the need of attendants, I would again allude to the visit
above named.  I saw one family so sick that not one was able to bring
the others a cup of water-fiather, mother, and two or three children.
After passing through the vessel, and as I was ascending to the upper
deck, I cast mly eyes behind, when the emaciated father gave such an
imploring look that I could not stand it.  I immediately returned to




104                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
the sick deck, borrowed a cup, threaded my way through the narrow
passage to the forward hatch, and obtained a supply of water.  On
presenting the cup, it was taken with trembling hands by the famished
parent, and such was his gratitude that he implored blessings on his
benefactor for some time before he would moisten his parched mouth.
On inquiring of an Irish girl now  living in my family, and who came
over in the Manhattan with eight hundred passengers, and was twentyone weeks on the passage, what this poor family would have done had
they been at sea, she replied, if none of the passengers brought themr  a
drink they must do without it.  A well educated, regular, and experienced physician and surgeon should be attached to every vessel that
crosses the ocean; to every emigrant vessel there should be in addition
a suitable number of attendants for the sick.
With respect to the supplies, I think the captain or owners should in
all cases be required to provide them.  Those required by the law appear scanty but good.  The captain providing, the surgeon rmight be
entrusted with directing (under the law) the quality and quantity —one
person on ship-board, as on the land, requiring much more than another.
The cooking arrangements are too small.  The emigrants say the strong
make the weak give way until they are served.  The appointment of
physician and attendants might greatly help this difficulty.  To show
how very necessary good air and diet are, I would again allude to the
official visit to our hospitals, where such immense numbers of fever
cases arrived, that to provide for them, several private buildings in different parts of our island were hired, and even tents erected in the
open air.  I was then informed by the physician to our largest establishment, that those treated in the open air generally did well, or the
best, and that the treatment was little more than nutriment.  Every
morning he had a large quantity of veiry weak milk punch provided,
and gave them liberally to drink.  Little or no medicine was required.
The poor creatures on ship-board having, perhaps, but a short supply
of food of their own, and that frequently of poor quality, and being
obliged to cook it themselves or go without, must sufer extremely.
Ordinary sea-sickness would disable many during a whole voyage from
cooking a meal; hence they become debilitated to such a degree, that
when pestilence makes its appearance, they must almost necessarily
sicken.  In fact, it is almost.a. wonder that any survive under such
circumstances.
With respect to separating the sexes, there can be but one opinion.
The frailty of human nature; the bounden duty to protect the weak,
the innocent, confiding " weaker vessel," imperatively demands that
all practicable guards should be adopted against the demoralizing effects
of indiscriminate association of the sexes in such confined quarters ais
the hold of a ship.
In vessels where pestilence has made its appearance, the ordinary
disinfecting agents should be used.  My opinion, however, is, that far
greater benefit would be derived. fiom  turning all on deck, venttilating
the hold, washing the persons, clothing, bedding, berths, rooms, &c.,
than from all other agents which could be used.
I will again mention a fact. About twenty-seven years ago, typhus,
ship, or prison-fever, for they are the same, prevailed to an awful cde



ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                      105
gree in our largest prison and pauper establishments, carrying off the
officers and physicians in a five-fild proportion to that of the prisoners
and paupers.  The disease got into the lying-in department, and committed dreadful ravages.  Women would be confined, have easy and
natural labors, be comfortable twenty-four or forty-eight hours, and the
next twenty-four or forty-eight hours be a corpse.  The late Dr. Joseph
Baily, Joseph M?. Smith, and myself, were appointed a committee by
our common council, to visit the establishment and advise what means
should be' adopted to arrest the calamity.  We advised the. immediate
removal of the prisoners, cleansing the building, clothing, bedding, &c.,
and predicted that in two weeks no new  cases would appear.  The
prediction proved true to the letter.  Five only of those which were
removed died, and two only from  fever alone.  They were put in an
unfinished building, with large and airy apartments, the doors and
windows not yet affixed.
A report of every. vessel, as to length of voyage, number of passengers, deaths, &c., would be very useiul, as matter for reference tor statistical and other purposes, and, I think, ought to be required.  In all
our prisons a coroner's inquest is required in all cases of death, even
where there is a regularly appointed and qualified physician, and I
know not why a master of a vessel, and his so-called doctor, shouldnot be as strictly watched.  They have quite as much power at sea,
and quite as great opportunity for neglect of duty.
I think there should be a limitation of passengers allowed in any
vessel, in proportion to the tonnage of the vessel, and also a distinction
with respect to the number of passengers between vessels passing
within the tropics and those not so passing, but do not ieel prepared
to express any very definite ideas on the subject.  I hope much good
may result from your labors on this subject.  I fear great abuses have
existed under the present system.
Very respectfully, yours,
SAA.C  WOOD,,M. D.
Hon. HAMILTON FISH,
Chairman of the Select Comzmnittee on Passenger Vessels.
P. S.-I embrace this opportunity of expressing to you my grateful
feelings for your distinguished attention to the medical profession at the
late annual convention of the National Medical Association.
1. W.
No. 17.
Communication from the Board of Health of Philadelphia.
HEALTH OFFICE, PHILADELPHIIA, February 16, 1854.
SIR: The board of health of this city, have received, through the
collector of the port, a copy of your circular letter of December 29,
1853, and have given the subject a careful consideration. It has often,
heretofore, been before them, and on this occasion they have, through
their committees, aided by the experienced counsels of their solicitor,
J. A. Phillips, esq., and of a highly respectable and intelligent ship



106                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
master, long and extensively engaged in the transportation of emigrant
passengers, made a thorough examination into our own acts of Congress,
and the acts uf Parliament of Great Britain, and into the comparative
workings of both sets of laws, and they are of opinion, that the British
law of 1852, known as the passengers' act, does, more thoroughly than
do our own, provide for tie due regulation of the subject-matter of the
present inquiry, that its provisions are generally more stringent than
our own, and that, inasmuch as American vessels engaged in the passenger trade with Great Britain are obliged to obey the-laws of both
countries, it would be sound policy not only to adopt such provisions
of their laws as are improvements on our own, but, so fabJ as practicable, to make arrangements with that and other governments, (by appointing commissioners, or otherwise,) to make all international legislation on the subject conform, as nearly as circumstances will permit.
And, in answer to the several queries in your letter, they beg leave
to say:
1. In respect to the allowance of deck room, we do better than the
British in this, that we count as adults all persons over one year old,
while they count two children, under fourteen years of age, as one
adult  and also in this, that part of the allotted space in their vessels
on the passenger deck is taken off, fore and aft, for hospitals.  Still this
board is of opinion that the deck-room is insufficient, and having some
time ago carefully examined into the matter, they arrived at the conclusion that the space should be increased from 14 to 20 feet in a vessel 6 feet high between decks, and not passing between the tropics, and
should receive a proportionate increase when the height between decks
is less, or the vessel passes between the tropics, as in the California
ships. The board cannot too earnestly impress this upon the attention
of your committee, from its being abundantly manifest that a great proportion of the mortality on ship-board arises from the want ef sufficient
air and ventilation.
2. In section 4 of the act of Congress of May 17, 1848, there is a
provision giving the passenger an option to commute his rations, and
this is destructive of the effect intended to be produced by the first
clause of the same section. No such option exists in the British law,
and there should be none in our own. In Great Britain there is no
compulsory allowance of animal food, but a better allowance of provisions otherwise, and their government agents or inspectors always see
that they are of the best quality.
3. The master should always be obliged to furnish the provisions,
and the passengers should not have the option.  The practice of allow
ing emigrant passengers to find their own provisions is a bad one, and
ought to be everywhere abolished.
4. Ventilation is reasonably well provided for by act of Congress,
but can be improved by conforming to the British laws, which are
more effectual.
5. Here again the British law is better than our own: the size of the
caboose, or cooking range, as prescribed by section 3 of' our act of
Congress, is utterly insufficient for the number of persons therein assigned to it.
6. This is a very important matter, and there ought to be enactments




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     107
plainly and clearly defining the duties and powers of the officers in that
respect.  It is apprehended that section 5 of the act of 1848 is not
sufficiently definite, and a recent case in the district court of the United
States for' this district, where the mate of the ship Saranac was mulcted
in damages for a compulsory enforcement on board ship, might lead one
to think that the enactments on this subject should be placed beyond
doubt or cavil.
7. The employment of a qualified and experienced surgeon should
be obligatory.
8. So, also, of' the assistants referred to in this query.  The British
statute provides for the appointment of passengers, stewards, and cooks;
and there ought also to be one additional man for every 100 passengers
to enforce cleanliness on the decks.
9. This is sufficiently provided for in the British law, and should be
incorporated into our own, with this addition, that no one of the crew
should be permitted to go below unless by express command or permission of the master or first officer.
10. We have no provision in our law; there is sufficient in the
British, which ought to be adopted by us.
11. This is sufficiently provided for by existing laws, a.nd should remain unaltered.
12. It would be impracticable to hold the inquest, by reason of the
impossibility of keeping the body, and the presence of the ship's surgeon would render it unnecessary.  The existing provisions about reporting the deaths are believed to be sufficient.
13. It is thought that the different modes of computing tonnage here
and in Great Britain, and the different models of vessels built here, as
regards the qualities of sailing or stowage, would not render a limitation of the passengers in proportion to the tonnage of any practical
value. A full allowance of deck room, with due regard to height between decks, will furnish a more reliable guide..14. Vessels passing between the tropics should allow not less than
five feet additional for every passenger.
The foregoing embrace the answers to your specific interrogatories.
The board beg leave to commend to your especial attention a very important and interesting publication from the British General Board of
Health, entitled " Report on Quarantine, presented to both Houses of
Parliament, by command of her Majesty," published in London in
1849, signed by Lords Carlisle and Ashley, and Edwin Chadwick and
T. Southwood Smith, in which the above subject is elaborately investigated and discussed, and the suggestions are generally sensible, judicious, and practical.  Without going into details, one part of it may be
adverted to as being of especial importance and interest.
It appears that, towards the close of the last century, Britislh convicts
were transported by contract at so much per head for every one shipped
on board. Under this system, the contractors paid no attention to tood,
cleanliness, or other comforts of the unfortunate passengers, and even
over-crowded their already confined space with whatever freight they
could obtain.  The consequence was, on all occasions, a frightitl mortality from typhus fever, caused by filth, foul air, and other privations.
"In some of the earlier voyages, full one-half of those who embatrked




108                   SICKNESS AND MOR'rALITY
were lost., Later, on the passage to New  South Wales, as in the'Hillsborough,' out of 306 who embarked, 100 were lost; and in another ship, the   Atlas,' out of 175 embarked, 61 were lost.  Yet there
were no omissions palpable to common observation, or which could be
distinctly proved as matters of crimination, to which responsibility
might be attached.  The shippers were no doubt honorable men,
chargeable with no conscious design against the lives of the human
beings committed to their care, and with no unusual omissions;'but
their thoughts were directed by their interests exclusively, and they
saw no reason why convicts or emigrants should not put up with temporary inconveniences to make room for cargo."
This evil was, in the year 1801, effectually remedied, by paying the
contractor still per capita, but making his pay contingent for such oxly
as were safely landed at their port of destination.  The change was
almost incredible.  By a report from a select committee, it appeared
that, from 1795 to 180-1, out of 3,833 convicts embarked, 385 died,
being one in ten  and after 1801, (when the change was made that put
the responsibility on the shippers,) out of 2,398 embarked, only 52 had
died, being one in 46; and, subsequently, the average mortality dwindied down to only 1- per cent., being lower than the average mortalitv of the same class of persons on shore.  The shippers themselves,
vithout any legislative enactments or any supervision, appointed competent medical men to see to the health and comfort of the passengers,
and otherwise took such measures as entirely averted the fearful mortality that had before that. time more than decimated the unfortunate
beings committed to their charge.
The suggestion, therefore, deserves consideration at the hands of your
committee, whether this principle might not be advantageously applied
to passenger-ships arriving at or departing from any port of the United
States, to wit: to make the payment of the passage-money depend
upon the arrival of the passenger at his place of destination; and in
case of payment being made in advance, and  the passenger dying on
the voyage, to authorize the surviving husband or witi, parent or child,
or other near relative, to recover the money back in admiralty by summary process, death by casualties alone excepted.  This would effectually guard the emigrant against the privations and impositions to
which he is in many cases subject, in consequence of the competition
among those engaged in the business of transporting passengers, (bringing down the price of the passage to the lowest figure,) and would
make it the interest of.the shipper to take care and keep his passengers
in good health, and disarm infectious diseases of their sting.
There is an excellent provision in the British law which we might
advantageously adopt, and that is, the necessity of the master giving
each passenger his contract ticket, containing a recital of his duties toswards the passengers, and the penalties for neglect or dereliction. This
should be well printed on a good card, and kept by the passenger.
The British form will be found on schedule H of their passenger law
of 1852, and is always furnished to those who ]eave their ports.
By and on behalf of the board of health.
J. G. ELEINA, Presideit.
RI[CHARD  GARDEINER, 1U Serary.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     109
No. 18.
LAttersfrom Ao Schumacker, Esq., President of the Germani Society of Baltinore, in one of which is a draught of a law, 4c.
BALTIMORE, April 12, 1854.
I received lately your circular of the 29th of January, as chairman
of a committee appointed by the Senate of the United States to inquire
into the causes and extent of'the sickness and mortality on board of
emigrant ships.
It is a subject with which my offices-as president of the German
Beneficial Society of Maryland, and consul general of the Hanseatic
republics of Bremen and Hamburg —have lmade me familiar, and I
shall be happy to contribute in removing existing evils, and ameliorating the circumstances of mny countrymen seeking a new home..My views regarding amendments and additions to the present passenger laws have already been fully stated in a memorial addressed to
the formner chairman of your committee, the H,)n. Senator Davis, a
copy of which I subjoin, and I may therefore limit myself to a partial
reply to your several interrogatories:
I. The space allotted to each passenger, of fourteen clear superficial
square feet under deck, is, in my judgment, ample.  I would recon-.mend, however, that in all cases a certain space should also be left
free on the main deck of the vessel-not less than five square feet for
each passenger. I believe that many vessels have their decks so much
encumbered by cabins, steerages, houses for the crew, &c., that there
is actually not room for one half of the passengers to be on deck at the
same time.
H. The quantity of provisions required for each passenger by the.act approved May 17, 1848, is, in my opinion, not adequate, and I
would recommend an assimilation of the regulations in this respect to
those adopted at H-amburg, Bremen, and Antwerp, which prescribe
about one hundred and fifty pounds of solid food for each passenger.
I would also recommend the enactment of a law requiring the captain
to have all provisions intended for the use of the passengers inspected,
and to bring proof of their having been found of good, sound quality.
A. certificate to that effect, with a list enumerating the quantity of each
article taken on board, and what portion has been left over, should be
delivered to the collector at the port of entry.
Il. It is decidedly preferable that all provisions should be furnished
by the captain, and served in a cooked state.  It is unsafe to rely
on the prudence of the passengers in providing the necessary stores,
and making a proper distribution of them on a, voyage of such unequal
duration, varying from three weeks to as many months, and fiequently
prolonged beyond their calculations.  Nor is it advisable to let the passengers prepare their own meals, which rwould cause a continued contest near the cooking apartments, and deeat the ends of equal justice
to the weaker parties. Our European emigrants are not yet sufficiently
versed in the art of self-government, and will be best cared for when
placed under the guardianship of a captain held resp6nsible for their
safe and comfortable conveyance.




110                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
IV. Ventilation, if solely dependent on the two ventilators prescribed
in the law approved May 17, ]848, is imperfect.  All vessels should
be provided with ports in the stern or cabin, to be kept open when the
weather will in any way permit it.  Small ports in the side of the ship
are also valuable auxiliaries for keeping the air pure.
VI. It is not expedient to make the captain responsible fbr the personal cleanliness of the passengers, and he should only be held accountable for the cleanliness of the vessel.
VII. The employment of a surgeon is of questionable utility. I doubt
whether properly qualified persons could be procured for several hundred emigrant ships; and it is to be apprehended that, in a majority of
cases, the place would be filled by young inexperienced hands. I
believe that it will be safer to leave the administration of all medical
and surgical advice and aid to the captain, who has always more or
less experience in the treatment of accidents and maladies incident to
sea voyages, and who is thus generally more competent to give relief
to his passengers, and even in cases of emergency, than young surgeons
and physicians who have never been on salt water.  The law would
moreover give an undue advantage to the largest class of ships, and go
far towards excluding small vessels from  participating occasionally in
the passenger business, as the expense of' engaging a surgeon for a.
single voyage would be too onerous.
VIII. It is unnecessary to pass special laws in this respect. Nurses
and attendants can always be found among the passengers if wanted;
and it would be injurious to compel their being previously engaged at
the port of' embarkation at an additional and perhaps unnecessary expense.
IX. Arrangements for the separation of the sexes will be difficult,
and attended with inconveniences.  It might be tried, as proposed in
my fbrmer memorial, by berthing all the unmarried male passengers
over a certain age in the fbrepart of the ship, but this would frequently
interfere with the ventilation of the vessel, and I am not prepared to
pa.ss a. decided opinion as to the expediency of the measure.  I would
not advocate special laws to prevent intercourse between the crew and
the passengers, as it wouldl be next to impossible to maintain them,
and the police of the ship ought, in my opinion, to be left to the officers.
XI. A report as proposed may be useful, and would not give much
trouble.
XII. An inquest to be held subsequent to the arrival in port is, in my
opinion, not important, and would cause an expenditure of' time and
money, which I should be unwilling to incur.
XIII. A limitation of the number of passengers in proportion t o the
tonnage, I consider highly desirable beyond any other reform. I would
recommend a restoration of the former law, fixing the number of passengers allowed to be carried to two for five register tons, (children
below the age of one year not to be counted;) and, also, that only a
small portion of the passengers be permitted to be lod.ged otherwise
than in the apartment immediately below  the main deck.  In fact it
would be advisable to prohibit altogether the carrying of passengers on
the lower, or orlop-deck, in vessels having three decks.
XVI. A distinction between the number of passengers allowed to




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                    1.ll
vessels passing within the tropics, and those not so passing, is not
deemed requisite; and any restriction should, at all events, be confined
to the summer months.
I would further recommend that the law regarding the construction
of separate berths for each passenger be repealed.  It is too inconvenient to be enforced, and I have good reason for believing that, in
many instances, if not generally, the partitions between the berths are
taken down by the passengers almost immediately after coming on
board, and only put up again when the ship is near entering her port
of destination.
The English passenger laws prescribe that each passenger ship
shall be provided with a certain number of boats, life-boats, life-b,uoys,
privies, &c., and that a separate compartment be assigned and fitted
up as a hospital.  I do not wish to dispute the usefulness, to a certain
extent, of these regulations, but would remark that care must be taken
not to enhance the price of passage by too many laws.  I believe that,
as respects the German ports, the manner and extent of the outfit mray
be left to the authorities there, so long as the latter will continue to
exercise the same strict supervision as heretofore.  I am not aware
that complaints have ever been made here of passengers having been
put on short allowance, even after unusually protracted voyages. On
the contrary, I believe that too free an indulgence in the substantial
and plentiful fare offlred on board, and to which the emigrants from
the interior of Germany are not accustomed, is frequently a cause of
sickness.
The most effectual measure for insuring good treatment and close
attention to the health of the passengers would, perhaps, be a law
empowering the visiting physician at the port of entry to send any sick
passenger, so willing, to one of the city infirmaries, there to be boarded
and cured at the vessel's expense.
A law prohibiting passenger ships from carrying. gunpowder, vitriol,
guano, green hides, or any other article liable to endanger the health
or lives of the passengers, might also be of service.
All the regulations stated above, or others in furtherance of the same
object, should only be applicable to passenger ships, or vessels carrying beyond a certain number of passengers; and I would recommend
that alimited number, say 25 or 30 passengers, should be allowed to
be transported without restriction of any kind.
The penalties for transgressions of the several passenger laws should
be revised. I think that, the substitution of smaller fines, to be rigidly
exacted, would better attain the object sought after than the present
heavy penalties, amounting in some cases to confiscation of the vessel,
as the very severity of the law often prevents its being made operative.
I hold myself in readiness to give you any further information ion my
power, and avail myself of this opportunity to assure you of my regardl
A. SHUMACKER,
President of the German Society in Mitryland.
Hon. HAMILTON FisH,
Chairman of Committee on Commerce, Washington City.




112                   SICKNErSS AND MORTALITY
BALTIMORE, April 8, 1847.
SIP: The attention of the undersigned has been directed to an act of
the last Congress, entitled' An act to regulate the carriage of passengers in merchant vessels," and to your circular addressed to collectors
tnd other officers of the customs, giving directions regarding its strict
observance, &c.
This act, though manifestly intended for the benefit of the passengers, is believed by us to contain several objectionable features, calculated to prove injurious, and to check the emigration tothis country.
The old law, now in force, restricts the number of passengers which
each vessel is allowed to take to two for five tons, register measurement, and we believe that ample accommodations can be furnished to
that number, particularly by larger vessels having their cabins on the
upper-deck, such as are now  generally employed in the trade with
Europe.  Our character as officers of the German Beneficial Society
and consuls general, afflrds us a good opportunity to judge of this
matter, as it brings us into daily contact with our newly arrived countrymen, asking our advice and assistance, and we are not aware that
complaints have ever been made to us about want of room on board a ship.
The above act, changing the law so as to.assign a certain number of
superficial square feet to each passenger, has its orgin in an abuse by
which the space intended to be set aside for the exclusive use of the
passengers had partly been appropriated to other purposes, and filled
with stores and merchandise, thus confining the passengers to a much
narrower space than the law designed to give them.  This has chiefly
occurred on board of vessels arriving at N'ew York from  Liverpool,
whence large quantities of bulky articles, such as,salt, coal, and iron,
are usually shipped, while the goods exported from Bremen, Hamburg,
and Antwerp, are less voluminous.  It is a rare circumstance that more
freight is offered at the last named ports than can conveniently be
stored in the lower hold, and there is thus no inducement to encroach
on the room between deck which ought to be allotted to the passengers.  Fourteen clear superficial square feet on the lower-deck, or
platfbrm, for each passenger, is, in our opinion, an over-ample allowance, and will reduce the number which each vessel is permitted to
take under the old law by at least one-third, in some cases by one-half.
We doubt whether the framers of the new  law have contemplated so
great a reduction, and it would be quite inappropriate to go yet further
and require an additional space for the berths.  Though the act admits
of that interpretation, we have construed it differently, viz: that the
space occupied by the berths shall be included in the fourteen clear
superficial feet allotted to each passenger, and we are confident that
our views are shared by the public in general and ship-owners in
Europe.  The latter will have acted in accordance with their construction of the act, and, if yours should be adhered to, all. vessels departing prior to the promulgation of your circular, and arriving after
the 31st of May next, will incur the penalty of forfeiture.  The last
nlamed date, when the law is to take effect here, is even too near for a
sufficient promulgation of the original act as approved on the second of
March~ The latter has probably not reached the north of Europe till
early this month, perhaps not betbre the 15th, and vessels leaving the




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                    1.13
Elbe or Weser at that time, are not considered due here before the end
of May or early in June, sixty days being an ordinary passage.  We
should, therefore, strongly recommend that the time when the law is
to go into operation, as regards vessels from  the north of Europe, be
fixed at least one month later.
The regulation prescribing the dimensions of the.berths is unsuitable
in our opinion.  Six feet by eighteen inches is too little for a grown
person, and inconveniently large for children.  As the ship does not
furnish bedding for steerage passengers, the latter -would be put to an
extra expense by having matrasses expressly made to suit the narrow
size of the berths, and to obviate this, many would, no doubt, prefer
sleeping on their own bedding spread on the floor of the ship.  The
law, if carried into effect to the letter, would be absolutely onerous for
passengers wishing to leave here for Europe.  Room is more valuable
on that voyage than to this country, and the price of passage would be
enhanced accordingly.  If there is a ground to protect emigrants from
Europe by laws conducive to their safety and health, as a class of
people totally unacquainted with the sea, a majority of whom have
never seen a large vessel, we can perceive none which should induce this government to become their guardian, and interfere with
their liberties, when wishing to return to the land of their an.cestors.
The voyage is generally made in the summer season; if a dozen or
more passengers offer, a hut is frequently erected on deck;' a smaller
number, say four or six, can usually be lodged in the large boat,
where they are even placed more comfortably than below, and if
this arrangement suits the convenience of all parties, government
ought not to interfere. In numerous instances, our German captains
have been induced to take persons wishing to return for a trifling
compensation.  The German Society has often paid the passage for
individuals, who would otherwise become a charge to the  public;
we could even cite cases where entire families have been sent back,
all which cannot. be done in future if the regulations of the new passage-law are rigidly enforced.
We would also respectfully bring to your notice, that if a difference is to be made as regards vessels passing within the tropics,
limiting them  to a smaller number of passengers, such restrictions
should be confined to the summer months.  The great body of the
emigrants annually going to New  Orleans and'Galveston, leave
Europe late in fall or very early in spring, at a season when they
are even less exposed to the heat of the sun than their countrymen
arriving at our northern ports in July and August.  Vessels bound
to the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico generally go south of Cuba,
thus entering the tropics.  The voyage over the Bahama banks, though
shorter, is more perilous, and it would be injudicious to oblige captains
to steer that course in order to avoid the penalty of the law.
In conclusion we would beg leave to state, that the transportation of
passengers from the Elbe and the Weser is under the direct supervision
of the authorities there, who permit no vessels to take emigrants till
after rigid inspection of the arragement for the accommodations, stores,
etc.  It is also clearly the policy of ship-owners to see all passengers
8




11 4                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
treated well, and thus establish' a good reputation for their vessels and.
captains, who are always enjoined to give satisfiction.
f' any modification of the passenger laws should be concluded upon;
we would thank you to give us the earliest information for transmission
to Germany.
A. SCHUMACHER,
President of the German Sociely, Sfc.
T. L. BRA.UNS,
Vice President (f the Ge rman Society, (4
Hon R. J. WALKER,
SecreCary (f the Treasury, Washling'ton.
Whereas, the existing laws to regulate the carriage of passengers in
merchant vessels have proved  dCefctive and inadequate in certain respects, be it therefore enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the
following amendments and additional regulations shall take effIct fiom
the -, and that so much of the acts approved February 22, 1847, and
May 17, 1848, as are not in conformity with the present act, are hereby
repealed.
SEC. 1. No master of any vessel owned in whole, or in part, by a
citizen of the United States of America, or by a citizen of any foreign
country, shall take on board such vessel, at any foreign port or place,
with intent of carrying the same to a port in the United States, a greater
number of passengers that in the proportion of two passengers to every
five tons of'the registered tonnage of such ship, of which number not
more than in the proportion of one-fourth, and not exceeding one hundred and fifty passengers, shall be placed or lodged otherwise than on
the deck or platform immediately below  the main-deck of such ship.
It shall in all cases be computed that two children, each being under
the age of eight years, shall be equal to one passenger, and that children under the age of one year shall not be included in the computation of
the number of passengers. All laws and regulations, in regard to the
clear unencumbered space to be allotted to each passenger, shall remain
in force.
SEC. 2. In every passenger ship the beams supporting the passenger decks shall form part of the permanent structure of the ship.  They
shall be of adequate strength, and shall be firmly secured to the ship.
The passenger decks shall be at least one inch and a half in thickness,
and shall be laid and firmly fastened upon the beams continuously from
side to side ofthe compartment in which the passengers ar:.- berthed,
or substantially secured to, the beams at least six inches clear above tlhe
bottom thereof:
SEC. 3. In every passenger ship all the unmarried mal le passengers,
of the age of fourteen years and upwards, shall be berthed in the lbrepart of the ship in a compartment divided off fromr the space approprated to the other passengers by a substantial and well-secured bulkhead, or in separate rooms, if the ship be divided into compartments
and fitted with enclosed berths.  The berth8s shall be securely con



ON BOARD EMIGRANT  SHIP$S                        lt5stlrcted, and of dimensions of not less than after the rate of six feet inlength and eighteen inches in width, for each adult passenger.  Not
more than two passengers, unless members of tle: same frmily, shall:
be placed in the same berth, nor in case shall persons of different sexes
above the age of fourteen, unless husbaind and wife, be permitted to
occupy the same berth.  No berths in a passenger  ship, occupied by
passengers during the voyage, shall be taken down until fbrty-eight
hours after the arrival of such ship at the port of final discharge, unless
all the passengers shall have voluntarily quitted the ship before the expiration of that time.  Not less than two lanterns shall be kept burning
in the between decks from sunset to sunrise.
SEC. 4. In every passenger ship a space shall be properly dividedoff'and set apart for an hospital, not less, in ships carrying as many as;
one hundred passengers, than fifty-six clear superficial feet, with four
bed-berths erected therein, and properly supplied with bedding; nor
less, in vessels carrying three hundred or more passengers, than one
hundred and twelve clear superfical feet, with at least six bed-berths,
supplied as iforesaid.
SEC. 5. Every passenger ship shall be provided with at least two
privies for the use of the pssengers, and with two additional privies
bor every one hundred and fifty passengers on board, the entire number
not required to exceed ten; such privies shall be placed on each side
of the ship, and be kept in a serviceable condition throughout the voyage.
SEC. 6. Every passenger ship shall carry a number of boats in a
sea-worthy  condition, according to the ibllowing scale, that is to say'
two boats fbr every ship of one hundred tons and upwards; three boats
for every ship of two hundred tons.and upwards, if the number of passengers shall exceed fifty; four boats lor every ship of five hundred
tons and upwards, if the number of' passengers shall exceed two hundred; five boats for every ship of eight hundred tons and upwards, if
the number of passengers shall exceed three hundred; six boats for
every ship of twelve hundred tons and upwards, if the number of passengers shall exceed four hundred and filty.
One of such boats shall, in all cases, be a, long-boat, and one shall be
a properly fitted life-boat, which shall be kept properly suspended at
the quarter or stern of the ship; ca.nd each of such boats shall be of a
suitable size, poperly supplietd with all requisites, and kept clear at all
times for immediate use at sea.  There shall likewise be on board of
each passenger ship two' properly fittedl life-buoys, kept ready at all
times ior immediate use, and also a fire-cngine in proper rworkingt order,
or other apparatus for extinguishing fire.
SEC. 7. No passenge r hi si  shall have on boa-rd ars cargo, gunpowder, vitriol,       grano, en hides, or any other article, whether as cargo
or ballast, which  by reason of its nature or quantity, sh<all be likely to
endanger the health or'lives of the passengers or the safety of' the
ship.
SEC.. Each passenger ship shall have on board, folr the use of the
passengers, at the time of leaving the last port, well secured under
deck btir each passenger, at lea st twenty poundsl of salt beef; ten
pounds of salt pork, both to be ftee of bone and of good quality; thirty



116                   SICIKNESS AND MORTALITY
five pounds of bread or biscuit, equal to good navy bread; ten pounds
of rice; ten pounds ofoatmeal; ten pounds of wheat flour; ten pounds
of peas and beans; thirty-five pounds of potatoes; one quart of vinegar; sixty gallons of' fresh water, and a sufficient supply of fuel for
cooking.  At places where either rice, oatmeal, wheat flour, or peas
and beans cannot be procured of good quality and on reasonable terms,
the quantity of' either or any of the other last named articles may be
increased and substituted therefbr, and in case potatoes cannot be procured on reasonable terms, one pound of either of said articles may be
substituted in lieu of live pounds of potatoes,  The captains of such
vessels shall deliver to each passenger about one-tenth part of the
aforesaid provisions weekly, commencing ftiot  the day of sailing, and
daily at least three quarts of water, which latter shall be carried in
tanks or in casks, to be sweet and tight, ot a sufficient strength, and
properly charred inside, not made of fir or soft wood staves, nor capable of severally containing more than three hundred gallons each.  He
shall also deliver sufficient fuel fbr cooking, and if the passengers on
board of anysuch vessel in which the provisions,water, and fuel herein
required as aoiresaid, shall not have been provided as afobresaid, shall
at any time be put on short allowance, the master or owner of any
such vessel shall pay to each and every passenger the sum of three
dollars for each and every day he or they may have been on such short
allowance, to be recovered in the circuit or district courts of the United
States: provided, nevertheless, that nothing herein contained shall prevent any passenger, with the consent of the captain, from  fihrnishing
for himself the articles-of food herein specified; and if put on board in
good order, it shall fully satisfy the provisions of this act as far as
regards food; and provided further, that any passenger may also, with.
the consent of' the captain, fuirnish for himself an equivalent fbr the
articles of' food required in other and different articles, and if without
waste or neglect on the part of the passenger, or an inevitable accident they prove insufficient, and thel captain shall furnish comfortable
food to such passengers during the residue of the voyage, this in regard
to food, shall also be a compliance with the terms of this act.  But in.
all cases the provisions so furnished shall be under the sole control and
in keeping of the captain, who shall be responsible in the same manLner
as if all articles had been procured by him.
SEC. 9. The owner or charterer of any passenger ship shall provide
for the use of the passengers a medicine chest, containing a supply of
medicines, instrurments, and other things proper and necessary fbr
diseases and accidents incident to sea-voyages, and for the medical
treatment of' the passengers during the voyage, including an adequate.
supply of disinflectin' g fluid or agent, together.with printed or written
directions for the use of the same respectively.  No charge shall be
made to any passenger fbr such medical or surgical treatment.
SEC. 10. No person shall in any passenger ship during the voyage
directly or indirectly sell, or cause to be sold, any spirits or strong waters, on pain of beinig  ined fbr every such offence not more than one
hundred dollars nor less than twenty five dollars.
Sirc. 11. Any transgression of the several laws and regulations con



ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS,                     117
tained in sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9, shall subject the captain or
owner of the vessel to a fine of five hundred dollars.
BALTIMORE, July 22, 1852.
In accordance with your permission, I hand you herewith a statement embodying my views of the changes and additions which it
would be desirable to be made in the existing passenger laws now
under revision.  The three principal causes of sickness and death are,
crowded ships, want of cleanliness, and inappropriate food, and it becomes the duty of all fiiends of' humanity to devise measures for the
removal of these evils. The act to regulate the carriage of passengers
in merchant vessels, approved February 22, 1847, had this object in
view  by allotting a fixed, unencumbered space to each passenger, but
its benefit was in a great measure lost by the repeal of the act approved
March 2, 1819, which made the number of passengers each vessel was
permitted to carry dependant upon her tonnage, and limited the same
to two passengers for every five tons register.  The abolishment of
this restriction has led to the erection of extra cabins and compartments, by which vessels are now entitled to carry even a much larger
number of passengers than under the old law, and instances could be
cited that ships of a particular construction, measuring less than 1,200
tons, are permitted   to take over 800 passengers, or nearly double the
number than under the old acto Though ways and means have thus
been found to accommodate such a mass of human beings at night, assigning to each person a space of 14 clear superficial ieet and a separate berth, no proportionate room can be given to them during the daytime.  On the contrary, the space on the main deck is to such an extent
encroached upon by the additional cabins and houses, that fiequently
not one-fiurth of' the numbelr of passengers on board can be on the
upper deck at one time without being in the way of the crew, and the
rest of the passengers are compelled to remain in the foul atmosphere
below. This circumstance renders it also extremely difficult to preserve the requisite cleanliness in the always crowded between deck,
and has no doubt often engendered diseases.  Additional regulations,
regarding the quantities of provisions and water which each passenger
ship shall carry, are almost superfluous, as the laws and regulations on
that head, in all the principal ports of Europe, are very explicit, and
prescribe a much larger stock of' stores than the laws of the United
States; in proof of which, I beg to refer you to the enclosed list of
outfits at Bremen, Hamburg, I-Havre, Antwerp, Rotterdam and London,
contrasted with the scanty list prescribed by the act of May 17, 1848.
No instance has ever come under my cognizance of' passenger ships
arriving from Germany short of provisions, even after unusually long
passages.  On the other hand, I consider it of vital importance, that
the law should enact an obligation on the captain to issue all provisions
in a cooked state, and to prohibit all passengers firom being the keepers
of such provisions as they may bring with them.  The want of warm,
nourishing food has, in many cases, been destructive to the health of
the passengers, and it is dangerous to rely on their prudence a.d judg



1118                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
ment in the preservation and proper division of their stock of provision
on a voya.ge sometimes extendling over two months.  Other additions
to the existing passenger laws might, perhaps, be suggested, but I am
almost afraid that too much legislation would prove injurious.  The
last English passenger law  is entirely too complicated and too onesided, and if rigidly enforced it must check emigration fiomn Great Britain.
If you want any other information on the subject, which I canr give
you, I shall. do so with pleasure, and meantime I remain, with true
regard,                           Your obedient servant,
A. SCHUMACHER,
President (f the German. Bcneficial Society in Maryland.
Hon. SENATOR DAVIS,
Washington, D. C.
No. 19.
Report of the Board of T(rade of' Baltimore.
OFFICE OF THE BOtARD OF TRADE,
Baltimore,.March 13, 1854.
DEAR SIR: At the last regular monthly meeting of this board, held
<i) the 6th instant, the annexed report was adopted, and a copy ordered
to be forwarded to you.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
GEO. L. PORTER,
Secrctvry.
Hotn. HAMILTON FISH,
Ch/airman,  c., U. S. Senate.
The Commnittee on Commerce of the Board of Trade of B3altimore
respectfully report:
That they havre carefilly considered the questions proposed by the
Honorable Hamilton F ish chirmran of the committee of the Senate of
the United. States on the subiject oof sickness, &c,, on board of' emigrant:ships.
That they coincide genertaly with the answers already given to the
questions in full, by other parties iromn this city, and consiler it unnecessary, thereafore to reiterate replies in detail.
That in the judgmnent of this committee the laws now in force, with
the additional provisions mentioned below, are sufficient for the protection of passengers on board of emigrant ships.
First. That no vessel of three decks be allowed to transport passengers on the orlop or lowest decke
Second. That at least one hundred and fifty pounds of solid provisions should be required to be placed on board for each passenger, on
a voyage from Europe to the United States, and a/proportionate quantity for other voyages.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                       319
Third. That all provisions should be required to be furnished and
cooked by the vessel.
Fourth. That the fines for violations of the passenger laws should be
more moderate and rigidly enforced.
Fifth. That the laws on this subject, of this country and those from
which the emigrants sail, should be assimilated, as the diverse requirements of the laws of various countries interpose obstacles to free
emigration.
THOS. WHITRIDGE,
Chlairman of' the Committee.
No. 20.
Commrunication of Dr. Cartwright, of New Orleans.
Some general remarks on the subjects embraced in the circular issued by a select committee of the United States Senate, (Hon. Hamilton Fish, chairman,) inqcuiring into the propriety of further legislation in regard to
emigrant ships,  c., by SAMUEL CARTWVRIGHT, M. D., New Orleans.
CANAL STREET, NEW ORLEANS,
March 4, 1854.
The greater number of emigrants are in humble life.  Few of them
know anything of ships, or of  the precautions necessary to insure a safe
and comlbrtable passage.  They seldom can gain the requisite information in regard to the fitness of a ship:for the conveyance of passengers,
not knowing whom  to apply to among the disinterested possessing the
requisite knowledge.
Hence, unprincipled masters and owners are not slow to take advantage of their ignorance, by offerig them  a cheap passage, enticing
them on board of vessels rejected by the insurance companies as unseaworthy, and. unfit for carrying cargoes of valuable goods.
The destruction of life by shipwrecks and disease has been most appalling among the emigrants who have been enticed on board the wornout vessels engaged in the Canadian timber trade —seventeen  being
shipwrecked in a single season in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and more
than 700 lives lost.
The voyage to Quebec  owing to the contrary winds and rough
weather in that inhospitable climate-is apt to be much longer than to
any other part of America.  So safe, agreeable, and expeditious is a
voyage from Europe to the southern portion of this republic, in autumn
andl the beginning of wrinter, that the wealthy natives, in returning home
from  Paris and other places in Europe —which many of' them  frequently visit-generally prefer taking passage on board the safe and
substantial No. 1 ships annually visiting our southern ports for cargoes
of cotton.
Thi  voyage, so far from  b'ing dangerous or sickly, is most agreeable and healthy.  Yet emigrants, to save a few  dollars, not knowing
that our southern ports are always free from  yellow fever and other




120                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
malignant diseases in November and December, when the cotton ships
arrive, are apt to be enticed on board the worn-out Canadian timber
ships, where storms, disease, and all the discomforts of an angry ocean
await them.
So full of danger is a voyage from Europe to Canada, even in the
first-class vessels, that the wealthy and cautious English prefer reaching the British provinces by the way of New York or Boston, as not
only safer, but more expeditious. Policy and humanity both require
that the price of passage should be made as cheap as possible to the
emigrants, consistent with their health, comfort, and security.  An unnecessary quantity of expensive provisions, the employment of a surgeon on board of every passage ship, with regular nurses, cooks, and
attendants, and too strict a limitation of the numbers admitted to embark, would be objected to by passengers and shippers, as involving
so much expense as to prevent a very large portion of' worthy people
from ever reaching these free shores.
On the other hand, the crowding of' too many together, or the want
of a sufficient supply of food and water of good quality, is attended
with such serious consequences as imperiously to require additional
legislative regulations to prevent their recurrence.  Legislation could
do much good in prohibiting all ships not perfectly sea-worthy from
carrying any passengers; also, all those less than 5~ feet between
decks.  It is believed that the price of' a passage in a sea-worthy vessel, with a plenty of water and food of' good quality, and sufficient
space for each emigrant, need not be raised but little, if any, above the
present rates; provided that wholesome rules and regulations be prescribed by law to insure order, comfort, and economy.
The first on the list to be, the absolute prohibition of ardent spirits
or fermented drinks in any form, either among the passengers or crew
of any ship authorized to carry emigrants.  Large numbers of Ameri'
can ships are now, and have, for many years, been sent to sea on long
voyages, on board of which ardent spirits have been strictly prohibited.
Where coffee and cocoa are dealt to the crew in place of the usual grog
allowance, there is so much more safety, that life and property are insured on easier terms than on any other vessels.  This fact outweighs
all objections heretofore made against the disuse of grog.  When seamen are employed on a ship, they sign an agreement to conduct themselves in an orderly, faithful, and careful manner, and to be at all times
diligent in their respective duties and stations; also, to be obedient to
the lawful commands of the master in every thing relating to the ship,
in the line of their respective duties and stations.
The master has no right to order the cook (who in technical langUage
is a seaman) aloft to furl the sails, or to put the mate to scrubbing; because it would be out of the line of the prescribed duties and stations
of each.  It is only when the ship is in peril that the master becomes
an unlimited despot; he can then order anything to be done by any
person on board, within the line of his duty or not. He can even comnpel the passengers, whether in the cabin or the steerage, to toil by
night or by day at any species of drudgery work to secure the general
safety.
A law requiring, as a, preliminary, all emigrant passengers to sign a




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     121
written agreement, binding themselves to behave in an orderly and becoming manner, and to be obedient to the lawful commands of the master in all things appertaining to their duties and stations as passengers,
would be most desirable, if coupled with a provision, distinctly enumerating and defining the duties appertaining to the several classes of
passengers.  This would be much better than the present law, requiring masters to post the rules of the ship in some conspicuous part of
the vessel. It would be better for Congress to make the rules; and
among those rules should be certain hours devoted to repose and to particular exercises, viz: dusting their wearing- apparel; washing their
persons and dry-rubbing their several apartments; airing their bedclothing, and cleansing their hammocks or berths, and the surrounding
walls from  all impurities.  Twice a week a general washing of all
soiled garments and bed-clothing admitting of no other method of purification.  Also, to act as nurses for the sick; to assist in cooking for
them when required to do so; to take medicine, when sick, from the
hands of a surgeon, if one be on board; and, moreover, to permit their
children, during certain hours in the dlay, to be under the control and
authority of any person that might be selected, who was willing and
competent to give them instruction.
It is believed that the school-master abroad on the sea could be of
infinite service to the emigrants, both to adults and children.  Even
without being familiar with their language, he could impart much useful information to them, by the black-board and maps; giving them
useful lessons regarding the extent and geography of the great republic
so soon to be the home of themselves and their children forever. Maany
young physicians, for the sake of visiting Europe and seeing the world,
would, no doubt, be willing to act in the double capacity of surgeon
and instructor to the emigrants on any good ship giving them a. free
passage to Europe and back, or for a small compensation.
There are questions constantly arising, in this great and growing
country, which the wisest legislators the world ever produced find much
difficulty in meeting, when unaided by those who have made the
specialities with which they are often connected the subject of their
particular study.
Much of the British legislation on new questions oftener comes, in its
incipient stage, from  the humble studio of the savan than from the
palace of the earl.
The new questions springing up at every step in the progress of the
British empire over the eastern continent, have been and still are referred to unpretending scientific men, to gather all the facts, and to
make a full investigation of everything connected with them, as a preparatory process to legislation.
In addition to similar questions, growing out of the expansion of our
republican empire westward, others have arisen in regard to the best
legislative measures to promote the safety, health and comfort of the
noblest varieties of the human race, the Celts and the Teutons, in their
transit from the despotisms of Europe to the beloved land of their
dreams, where the people in peace and plenty reign.
God has made the ocean healthy, and if it prove otherwise, it is in
consequence of man's tyranny, ignorance, or avarice, pursuing the




122                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
emigrants on their passage hither, requiring the interposition of republican legislation to correct the evil.  The iegislation, however, to effect
so desirable an object, should be founded on a knowledge of the causes
endangering life and producing disease and discom.fort at sea.
The peculiar knowledge o' the several professions, as well as that
taught by the experience and observation of practical men, should all
be brought into requisition. But more especially the discoveries of those
who, like Dowler and Avequin, of this city, have spent the most of
their lives in gathering materials for enriching science by following
nature into every hidden retreat, should not be permitted to remain
unknown in musty manuscripts, when their publication would throw
much light on many subjects connected with the new questions which
our country's rapid growth is bringing forward for legislative action.
Avequin, for instance, on the sugar question.
Pure science, pursued for the love of science, does not pay; and
newly discovered truths, conflicting with the errors and prejudices of
the day, are generally too unpopular to bear publication, except at the
expense of those who have spent their lives and wasted their means in
their discovery.
Such, for instance, as the truth announced by Dowler, and demonstrated from the geological formlation of the soil, (containing five sepa-.
rate cyprus forests, each superimposed above the other,) that New
Orleans stands on ground upwards of one hundred thousand years old,
and also other facts proving that it is one of the healthiest locations for
a great city in the world.  So far are the facts establishing the great
age of the world from standing in conflict with the truths of the Bible,
as some suppose, they rather serve to restore the true sense of certain
Hebrew  words, of which we have lost the meaning.  As the word
translated  days," for instance, evidently means vast cycles of time.
Natural history is a revelation of God's works and will, and is well
calculated to correct the verbal errors that have crept into the Sacred
Writings, and to restore their true reading.
Great Britain rewards her scientific men with what our government
very properly regards as empty honors, and has prohibited by law.
Titles of nobility, as the prefix of the word "sir" to the name of
those vwho have enriched science with valuable discoveries, however
empty and illegal here, are valuable there in leading to patronage and
privileges which could not otherwise be enjoyed.  Our patent laws
only apply as means of encouragement to the arts and subjects connected. with mechanical inventions.
The encouragement thus held out covers only a part of the field
occupied by our men of genius.  But as far as it extends it has done
wonders.  It has given us the steamboat and the electric telegraph,
and many other things contributing to place the United States above
all nations in useful inventions.  It behind other nations in the higher
walks of science, it is because our scientific men have no proper
encouragement, either from the people or the government, and every
step they take in purely scientific investigations is a step to poverty,
and acts as a disqualifying circumstance in gaining a livelihood or
obtaining any office in the gift of the government.
Those occupied in laborious scientific investigations have no time or




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                       123
inclination to electioneer and to seek for patronage.  The great chemists, Liebig and Dumas, quote Avequin's discoveries in regard to Louisiana sugar. But he is old and poor —almost unknown in New Orleans,
where he has resided for a third of a century.
Dowler was unanimously recommended by the city council of New
Orleans, as eminently qualified for almost any office in the gift of the
federal government.  Yet he got none. And when vacancies occurred
in the gift of the city council, the very council which unanimously
recommended him, some one always steped in before him  and got
every lucrative office while he was at his studies.
But for this neglect of mten of original genius in the higher walks of
science the country would not be deprived of their services on the
springing up of new quwestions, requiring not only more learning and
experience, but an original mode of thinking, to combine their new relalions, and to disentantgle them from old errors.
One of the greatest nuisances of a political life consists in. the interminable swarms of importunate, and often undeserving, office-seekers,
besetting the pathways of every politician or person in authority, who
has any office in his gift, or influence with those who have it to bestow.
A provision rigidly observed of giving the preterence in appointments
to office, other circumnstalnces being nearly equal, to those only who in
aits, in arms, or in science have conferred some public benefit on their
country, it is believed, would not only abate the above-mentioned nuisance, but do more in kindling a spirit of invincibility in war, and in
arousing the energies of men of genius in peace, than the British custom of confxerring orders of nobility.
American legislators have not the same advantage that the English
and Frenclh Iave in being able to command the individual knowledge
of all the savans of the land on any matter connected with their duties
as legislators.  They must possess the knowledge within themselves,
or letislate in the dark.
No one. body of men can know evervlhing. The subjects embraced in
the circular emanating from the committeeof the United States Senate,
inquiring into the causes of the sickness and mortality prevailing on
board tie e-migrant ships, and the insufficiency of' existing laws, cover
a wide field, much of which none but the medical profession has ever
explored or can explorie, and they not thoroughly, having themselves to
depend ior much of their knowledge on the scattered observations and
manuscripts of those devotees who pursue science not for gain, but for
loveo
That the special devotees of science-those laboring for the public good, and the politicians of the same order-should be the only
classes of people whom hard labor brings to want in this country is a
deiect iii our institutions calling for sonme appropriate remedy.
A. remedy for thiat defect would not only be the surest way to gather
in all the information that can be had, or that can be extorted from
nature on the subjects embraced in the honorable committee's circular,
but would soon place. America foremost in science among the nations
of the earth.




124                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
Naval Hygiene, by Samuel A. Cartwright, M. D., of New Orleans, late of
Natchez.
I. " The space allotted to each passenger."  The existing laws seem
to be def6ctive on this lead, leaving a wide margin for different interpretations.  They estimate the space allotted to each passenger in
superficial feet instead of cubic feet.  They require fourteen clear
superficial feet of deck on the lower deck or platform, but do not prescribe the height.  Two or more tiers of' berths may be superimposed
ever so closely, even to suffocation, without violating the letter of the
law-provided the lower tier be six inches from  the floor or deck.
The British laws place the limitation at ten superficial feet of deck to.
each passenger.  They prescribe the height at not less than five and a
half feet, interdict the erection of more than two tiers of berths,, and
forbid any ship from carrying passengers at all which is less than five
and a half feet between decks.  Whereas, our laws not only admit
ships less than five and a half feet to carry passengers, but do not
interdict, in express terms, the erection of a second tier of berths.
Passengers are allowed to be carried in the orlop deck by giving each
thirty superficial feet.  More depends on the situation of the chambers
occupied by the passengers, and the facility of keeping them dry, and
of admitting air and light, than upon the amount of space allotted to
each, or the number of passengers to the ton.  Hence it is impossible
to define the exact number that any apartment of given dimensions
may safely contain, without a special examination of the apartment
itself; its situation, the cargo, and all the circumstances connected with
it, which had better be left to the physician of the port or some other
officer.  Mere science prescribing rules drawn from general principles,
without taking into consideration all the attending circumstances, might
suffocate with heat, and smother with their own exhalations an hundred
in a chamber fully as capacious as another differently situated, containing twice the number, who, so tar from  being suffocated from the
want of air, might have too much of it in the shape of piercing cold
winds blowing through their apartment. Although the exact space on
ship-board, necessary for each passenger, cannot be determined a priori,
yet the requisite dimensions of the berths and standees can be determined with much more accuracy.  They are not large enough under
the present laws.  They are required to be not less than six feet long
by eighteen inches wide.  This does not give room enough to a, common
sized man, and cramps and confines a large one in too small a space.
The berths should be sufficiently long to enable their occupants to
stretch out their limbs at full length; otherwise the unfortunate passengers, not not being able to turn over or extend their limbs, would
become the subjects of that disease, very common at sea, vulgarly
calledfJlse-fut, which is an aoedma or celular infiltration from torpor
of the vinous and lymphatic circulation, caused by confining the body
in too small a space, not admitting of a full and free extension of the
limbs. The berths, and also the temporary ones, called standees,
should, therefore, be not less than six feet three inches long and twentyone inches wide.  Six and a half by two would be still better.  A few
of the latter size, at least, should be required for the accommodation of




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                     125
large men, while those intended for mother and child should not be less
than three feet wide.
II. " The quantity and quality of the provisions allowed for each
passenger."
As to quantity, the allowance under the present laws, both of the
United States and Great Britain, is deficient.  A healthy man requires
a pound and a half of flarinaceous or amylaceous food, and half a
pound of animal food per day, or 14 pounds per week. Our laws require
only ten pounds for each passenger per week; of' which only one
pound consists of animal food.  The British omit animal food entirely
in the allowance to emigrants, but require 11k pounds of vegetable diet
to each per week, besides two ounces of tea, viz: bread 2k lbs.,
rice 2 lbs., oat-meal 5 lbs., flour and sugar, of each 1 lb.  The American allowance consists of bread 2  I]bs., potatoes 3k lbs., oat-meal,
flour, peas or beans, and salted pork, of each 1 lb.; and sugar and
molasses, of each - lb.  The weekly rations of soldiers seldom contain
less than 14 pounds per week, of which 1.0k pounds generally consist
of farinaceous and arnylaceous substances, and 3k pounds of animal
food. The minimum rations on our southern plantations, for each individual per week, weighs 15k pounds, of which 3k pounds consist of
salted pork, and 12 pounds of Indian corn meal, besides an indefinite
quantity of vegetables, as potatoes, beans, peas, pumpkins, turnips, and
many other things, including fruits, which are cultivated in their own
or the kitchen garden, and are not estimated in the allowance at all.
Indeed few of them are satisfied with 3k pounds of salted mess pork
per week, and many get 5 pounds.  Napoleon was well aware that
health, energy and courage depended on a good diet.  The soldiers
under him were allowed 250 grammes (about half a pound) of meat
per day and one and a half pounds of bread.  What is called half diet
in a well-regulated hospital, is about equal in quantity to that required
to be furnished to emigrant passengers by the laws of the United States
and Great Britain, and which the emigration companies seldom exceed
in laying in their ship stores.  Unfortunately for the emigrants, their
diet is not only deficient in quantity but is sadly deficient in quality.
Provisions deteriorate or spoil on ship board much sooner than on
shore..The inferior qualities are the soonest damaged.  Metals also
oxidize with more speed on ships than on land.  This is not owing to
the greater humidity of the open air at sea, which is about the same as
the air on land, but to the greater humidity of the air contained in the
ship itself. The air of a ship is much more moist, and somewhat
hotter, than the external atmosphere.  Some chambers are hotter and
more moist than others.  The one called the hold, for instance, is more
humid by ten degrees tha.n the outward air, and from three to four degrees warmer. From not paying attention to these facts, confirmed'by
the scientific observation of the surgeon of the frigate: Herminie, in
1838 and 1839, having an equipage of upwards of 500 men, belonging
to-the French expedition against Vera Cruz, the stores of provisions
soon became corrupted and deteriorated in quality from being deposited
in: improper places, exposed to a hot, damp, stagnant air. Oat- meal,
flour, bread, potatoes, &c., soon become musty or mouldy if deposited
in the hold or other close places between decks.




126                   SICKNESS ANDP MitORTALTY
Provisions are not only soon deteriorated in quality by heat and
moisture, but also if exposed to human emanations in a concentrated
form, as they always are when deposited in the steerage of a crowded
emigrant ship.  No one can eat with the same relish in the wards of a
hospital as in the pure air.  The food partaken of in such places is so
deteriorated in quality, by its coming in contact with the effete matter
contained in the air thrown off by the sick, that it is digested with great
difficulty,' and is apt to cause vomiting or diarrhoea; hence the intelligent physician always hastens his patient out of the wards of the hospital or sick-room  when th, appetite begins to return.  Seguin has
found by experiment, that 18 grs. per minute are thrown off' from   the
body in the form of what is called insensible perspiration, 7 grs. by the
lungs and 11 grs. by the skin.  The insensible perspiration consists of
organized matter, already so altered in its properties as to be unfit for
further purposes in the animal. economy.  When confined in a close,
damp, hot atmosphere, it speedily corrupts and becomes fungoid; fuingoid matter consists of living organisms.  The practice of depositing
provisions in such an atmosphere, or even bringing them  into it after
they are cooked, greatly tends to deteriorate their quality; it is like
mixing good flour with that from the damaged fingoid grain- called sick
wheat.  That scurvy, cholera, dysentery, ship fever, and. other pesti
lences are mostly caused by eating food deteriorated in quality, drinking bad water, and breathing an atmosphere loaded with the moisture
of human exhalations, there can be no doubt.  When it is considered:
that every adult individual throws into the air around him about twopounds of effete matter per day, the importance of free ventilation will
be perceived, as it is impossible to breathe or to eat in such an atmosphere without admitting the re-entrance of this cast-off'matter into thehuman body again through the lungs and the stomach.
The articles furnished as provisions for the passengers and crews of
ships should be selected firom those which are wholesome and nutritious,
and, at the same time, the least liable to be damaged by moisture.
Bread made fiom flour, three parts wheat and one part rye, does not
spoil. as soon as that made from the flour of wheat alone.  The preparation of cabbages, called saur-kraut, is an excellent anti-scorbutic, and'
would form a good addition to the allowance of salted beef or pork.
Pickled beets, a valuable and cheap. article, also sugar, tea, and coflte,
should constitute a part of the provision stores.  They keep better than
most other things.  Mustard, pepper, and horse-raddish root, are excellent condiments.  Ant anti-scorbutic wine and syrup a.re prepared
from the horse-raddish-the cochleariaz arot-natica. The allowance of sugar
is too small; besides, few ships are ever supplied with the right kindl
of sugar.  The maple-sugar of the north and the cane-sugar of Louisianae are greatly to be preferred to the West. India sugar.  As to
maple-sugar, its healthfulness is inferred from observation of its effects..
But in regard to the Louisiana sugar, its superiority to the cane-sugar
of tropical climates is not only infered from  observation, of its effects,
but is demonstrated by the new science of occular chemistry, as, also,
by the usual method of chemical tests.  In a hot, climate, as that of the
West Indies, the cane-juice speedily begins to decompose, and before it
can be manufhctured into sugar, an unhealthy product of fermentationa




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                      127
is formed, known as uncrystallizable sugar, which, mixing with the
good, gives the whole mass a disagreeable nauseating odor. The sugar
made in a tropical climate always contains a portion of' the abovementioned unhealthy substance, called lcvogyrate sugar, from its rotating
the plain of polarization of polarized light to the left, when subjected to
the test of polarized light.  Whereas good sugar rotates to the right
and is hence called dextrogyrate. In the cool frosty weather of November and December, when the sugar of Louisiana is made, the weather
being cold, like the March weather when the maple-sugar is made,
prevents fermentation, and consequently prevents the formation of that
unhealthy product above mentioned, universally present in all raw'
sugars of tropical climates-which even the process of double refining
cannot entirely eradicate-as proved, by the best double refined loaf
being found to contain it.  The process of refining destroys the aroma
on which the virtues of cane-sugar, as an antidote for the narcotic
properties of tea and coffee, depend. Being not only better, but cheaper
than loaf or the clayed sugar of Havana.  The American articles
should be selected in preference to all other kinds for use on ship bomad.
It crystallizes in coarse hard grains, and feels, whlen rubbed in the hand,
very much like coarse salt, whereas impure sugar has a soft unctuous
feel and a disagreeable odor.  Good sugar is not only anti-scorbutic,
but possesses within itself all the necessary elements for the nutrition
of the human body.  In M. Homberg's ship, sugar alone saved the
crew after the provisions failed.  (See. Dictionaire Des Sceances Medicales, vol. 53, page 149.)  Mixed with water it forms an agreeable
beverage. It does not spoil like oat-meal, potatoes, and such things,
but the longer it is kept the better it gets.  In this it resembles good
pork put up with solar salt immediately after the hogs are killed and
the blood well drained off:
If the weather be warm, or the salt contains those impurities called
slack and bittern by the salt-boilers, the pork, in a long voyage in a hot
climate, will corrupt and produce the scurvy.  Irish pork, which is
always packed in solar salt, is improved by a voyage to the East Ilrdies and back, whereas pork packed with Liverpool salt, or any other,
however pretty and white in appearance, that is made by boiling, is
sure to become sour and unhealthy at sea, as it is also very apt to do
in the summer season on southern plantations, causing'  much sickness
among the negroes.  This is owing to the slack or bittern it contains,
substances as unhealthy in salt as levogyrate is in dextrogyrate sugar.
There is no sufficient reason why ships should not be supplied with
preserved meats and. desiccated vegetables put up in boxes, canisters,
and glass jars, hermetrically sealed.  Their lhigh price has heretofore
prevented them from coming into more general use.
The desiccated cabbages, carrots, and green peas of Masson, and the
potatoes and turnips of (Gannel, were in 1852 reported on favorably by
two boards of navy officers, appointed to examine into such alimentary
substances, and of their adaptability to the navy.  The price of some
of them  is very little beyond that of crude articles.  The prepa
ration of such substances on a large scale, for the supply of ships, is
demanded by the progress of the age.  Mr. Boland has an extensive
e.stablishment in Texas for preparing preserved meat out of good fresh




128                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
beef.  The practicability of preserving- fresh meats for an indefinite
period is no longer a matter of doubt. For more than a century gooseliver pie, cooked in Paris, has been a favorite dish in New Orleans. If
the members of the boards appointed in 1851 and 1852 by the Secretary of the Navy, the Hon. William A. Graham, to inquire into the
"4 important discovery" (set forth in S. Doc. 1, 1852, p. 485, of the President's message,) in regard to the questions of preserving peas, beans,
sprouts, carrots, turnips, &c., in a fresh state for months and years, and
the practicability of embalming fresh meats, had convened in New Orleans and called for dinner at a French restaurat, they would have had
all those questions satisfactorily settled by the time they had finished
their meal.  Such articles are daily served at all the principal restaurats in the French part of the city, at a price not exceeding the usual
hotel rates for the same species of substances just fiom the vegetable
market and the butcher's stall.  In regard to the question, whether the
United States could afford to purchase such articles for common use as
diet in the navy, the boards of naval officers above mentioned could
easily have satisfied themselves by visiting almost any French settlement in Louisiana, where they would have found them on the tables of
many of those who consider themselves too poor to send their children
to school, and believe that a knowledge of the English language is an
accomplishment like that of Italian, which none but the -wealthy
can afford to incur the expense of acquiring. By examining the gardens and surrounding fields in the French settlements, they would have
discovered many of the articles which the inhabitants prefer importing
from  France, already prepared for table use, than going into the hot
sun gathering and preparing them with their own hands.  The vegetables are cheap, but the preserved meats are dear. It would be cheaper,
however, to purchase a small supply of them for use at sea than to depend upon coops of live poultry.  Poultry, pigs, &c., when taken to
sea, become sickly, and are not good to eat.  The same thing happens
to boat chickens, as they are called, brought to New Orleans from the
States on the Ohio river.  The bread baked in London and sold in this
country under the name of Cracknell biscuit, at the high price of $1 25
per box of three pounds and three-quarters each, could, no doubt, be
manufactured on a large scale in the northwestern wheat-growing States
at a price so reduced as to admit of its general use at sea., and ~xould
form a most excellent substitute for other bread, which is so apt to spoil
or become mouldy.
The quantity of water required by law to be distributed to each passenger, per day, is only three quarts.  A gallon and a half would not be
too much.  What is worse is its general impurity.  It may be laid
down as a very useful, practical, general rule, that any water whatever, which will not mix readily with soap, however clear and
free fronm  any unpleasant taste, is unfit for use on ship-board;
also any which has an unpleasant taste, however well it may mix
with soap.  As ships cannot always be supplied with good water,
they should be supplied with a little pure sand and charcoal, for the
purpose of having all hard or bad-tasted water filtered through these
substances previously to its being used by the passengers and crew.
Ift should also be cooled with ice.  Cold causes the unhealthy organic
matter contained in water to be deposited.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                      129
The supply of vinegar-a pint a week-required by law  for each
~emigrant, is more than necessary.  Too much vinegar is unhealthy.
A gill would be sufficient.  In place of the other three gills, a quarter of
an ounce of citric acid, in chrystals, could be allowed. The citric
acid, or concentrated lemon-juice, mixed with sugar and water, in the
proportion of twenty grains to a pint, and flavored by a bit of lemon
peel or a drop of the oil of lemon, makes a very pleasant and healthy
lemonade.  Half an ounce in a gill and three quarters of water, makes
a solution of the average strength cf fresh lemon-juice.  With a few
grains of salt-petre and- a little vinegar, the citric acid forms a most
efficacious and agreeable remedy fbr scurvy.  It is also used in forming the neutral mixture and effervescing draft in the treatment of fever.
It has no other advantages over lemon juice than uniformity of strength
and not being liable, like the juice, to spoil.
III. "The permission allowed to the passengers to furnish their own
provisions for the voyage, instead of making it, in all cases, the duty of
the master to provide them."
The furnishing of proper supplies of provisions for a. sea voyage,
whether for one individual or a thousand, requires a great deal of
knowledge and experience of a peculiar kind, unobtainable anywhere
else than at sea and in the great seaports.  Even in those places it
requires a well-disciplined mind to gather it.  The bare statement of
this truth is sufficient to show that the emigrants, vho are mostly illiterate people, and know little or nothing about ships or nautical affairs,
are not competent to furnish themselves with the necessary provisions
for the voyage.  What is necessary for all is necessary for each.  So
far from  passengers being permitted to furnish themselves with their
own provisions, it is very doubtful whether the officers on ship-board
called storekeepers, (who generally make the purchases,) or the master, or the agents of tln  shipping companies, should be permitted to
furnish the supplies for their own ships. But the American and British
governments distrust their fitness so far as to prescribe rules to govern
and direct them  to a certain extent.  Thus, they are required to take
on board..certain. specified quantities o' provisions, of many varieties,
expressly named.  But the question is, whether it would not be better
to deprive them of the permission to purchase the required provisions
where they please, governed only by their own judgment of their quality?  It would be probably better to give the whole business of supplying ships in foreign ports to the consul, and at home to agents appointed by the government.  Each ship would then be supplied with
all necessary articles in the provision line, approaching much nearer to
the same quality than they now do.  At present, the quality depends
upon the ship's storekeeper, master, or agent, and the merchant futnishing the supplies.  It must, therefore, greatly vary.  But if the consul, or some trustworthy agent of the government, had to select the supplies, there -would not only be more uniformity, but the quality would
be better and the price less.  Large purchases can generally be made
on better terms than small ones.  The agent or consul, residing constantly in the same place, would have a better opportunity of knowing
where and of whom the best quality of' provisions couldl be obtained
than a comparative stranger.  The master or agent, however, of every
9




130                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
ship should have the privilege of purchasing where he pleased any additional provisions of any kind he might see proper.  So, also, the passengers should have the same privilege of supplying themselves with
anything extra, they might choose-intoxicating drinks alone excepted.
Much unnecessary expense is incurred from the spoiling of provisions
on ship-board.  This often arises from  that measure of prudence, requiring more to be taken on board than will be probably needed during*
the voyage, in order to have a sufficient supply in case of accidental
detention from  calms or other causes.  The surplus quantity, having
made one voyage, is generally damaged before it makes two-the damagedJ articles being a total loss.  Such losses could be avoided by
taking on board no surplus of the usual articles entering into the allowance, but- to guard against accidents by a supply of preserved meats
and dessicated vegetables, to be used only in cases of scarcity and necessity.  Such provisions, not being liable to spoil, would always be
ready Ior use in subsequent voyages.  in the navy, a large amount of
provisions, in the public storehouses and on ship-board, is annually
spoiled and thrown into the sea, or condemned in consequence of having
been kept too long in reserve to meet any unforseen scarcity.  Medicines are also apt to spoil.  Fortunately, there is one medicine, the
best one, too, for the usual complaints at sea, which never spoils or is
found wanting.  That medicine is sea water.  It is both emetic, aperient, and tonic, according to the dose.  Sea-sickness cured by it rarely
troubles the patient again.  It is the best remedy for the constipation,
so common at sea, caused by the rocking of the vessel, diminishing or
suspending peristaltic motion of the bowels.  The rocking chair, so
much more in use in this country than in any other, has the same effect,
(hence standees have very properly been substituted for hammocks.)
More than  a hundred  years ago, Dr. Richard Russel highly recommended sea water as an internal remedy for a multitude of diseases,
in a work entitled " De usu aquce marince."  Two thousand three hundred years ago its virtues were extolled in Grecian verse:
Mare oblujt omnia, hominuim mala.
Euripides' Iphigen. in Taur., V..11F3.
CANAL STREET, NEW ORLEANS,'February 27, 1854.
Navia Hygiene, by Samuel A.( Cartwrig'ht, 3. D., New Orleans.
1V. "Ventilation."  A  house, or booby-hatch, over each passageway leading to the apartments allotted to the passengers, with doors
and windows in it, to be left open for ventilation, is required by law in
the construction of all emigrant vessels.  Also, two ventilators in every
apariment containing one hundred persons. In addition to the usual
ventilators, a ventilating stove, on the principle'of that of Wuettig,
would be very useitl for ventilating and drying the atmosphere of the
hold and other dark, damp chambers.  In order that'the animal and
other exhalations should be conducted ofF as fast as formed, the newly
discovered ventilators, having tops closed above and open at the sides,
made of iron and passing through the decks down in the apartmnent to
be ventilated, promise to be of great service.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                      131
The ventilators called wind sails, made of canvass, fastened around
strong hooks, to keep them from collapsing, and having a broad mouth,
kept open by ropes attached to the rigging, with the other extremity
opening into the chamber below, have so greatly contributed to preserve
health on board of the ships which have used them, that they are now
adopted in the United States navy.
V. "The  Cooking  Arrangements."  The camboose, or cooking
range, should be on deck and under cover.  None but experts should
be permitted to cook.  There could be no objection to one or more
passengers assisting and acting under the direction of the regular cook,
if their services were needed.  In the Dutch ships, lhe camboose is
between decks near the centre of g avity.  Rough weather does not so
much interrupt the culinary processes when carried on in the central
part of the vessel. The cooking fire, also, serves to expel dampness,
but owing to the danger of accidents by fire and to the annoyance of
the smoke, the cooking had better be performed elsewhere.
VI. "The duty of the master to enforce personal cleanliness, and to
insure the cleanliness of the vessel."  It would be utterly impracticable
to enforce personal cleanliness without conferring on the master a
power equivalent to that possessed by a colonel over his regiment,
unless some plain and specific laws be enacted to embrace the subject.
The decks of a ship may be ever so clean and yet the vessel fbul, if
its contents, including the passengers, their clothing and bed clothing,
be not also clean. The masters of vessels report, that so great is the
aversion of many emigrants to wash themselves or their clothes, or
even to come on deck a sufficient time for the steerage to be cleansed,
that actual force has often to be used with ropes, or other means, to
hoist them  on deck.  Not unlfiequentlv they meet force by force, believing that the mastes no authority to compel them to leave their
room, or to get out oLeir berths.  Hence fights and disturbances
often ensue between the passengers on the one hand, and the crew on
the other, in executing the orders of the master to cleanse that part of
the ship occupied by the emigrants.  The accumulation of a large
number of individuals, for days and weeks together, in a small space,
is known to corrupt the air and to generate an'artificial malignity.'Unless the master has the power, by voluntary agreement or by law,
expressly confirred on him, to disperse the crowd thus cofi ed in a
small space, to make them exercise and air themselves, he cot prevent the generat.tion of an (artificial anrc an unhetlthy atmospere in
their chambers.  Transport and other troops, when kept in motion, are
always more healthy than w hen permitted to rermain too long in their
hammocks or standees.  The greater the number and the smaller the
space the greater is the necessity for exercise. If they only have
room to turn round, or to march in lock-step, it is better than to be still.
Men, like water, generate corruptioln whenl still, but dissipate. it, as fast
as generated, whein in motion.  Pestilence does not( afflict soldiers on
the march, but onily in crnmps or barracks. Emigrants wuldr b' much
healthier if they -were compelled to come on deck a nd promet'nade- in
regular ordier, as soldiers on the rmarch~hilolding one another up if the
seha be rough.  The s:ea-sick. sho1uld be handed over, if' there be no
surgeo   n oboard, to: t he care of soe ol d, d)1 creet iet and fiithmful sailor



132                    SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
tie best substitute for a surgeon on such an occasion; the patient, after
going through a course of sea water and afterwards promenading the
deck in the fresh air, supported by one or two of the crew, or some
fiiendly arm, to keep him from falling, will soon be well.  So great is
the disinclination of young sailors and mariners to drink sea water, and
after it operates to stir about in the open air, they would be apt, like
-many of the passengers, to be afflicted with sea-sickness during the
whole voyage, and perhaps subsequent ones, unless they were compelled to take the medicine, and after a short time to lea-ve their hammocks and cxeicise in. the open air.  After sea-sickness has abated,
there still remains so much disinclination to motion as to require the
stimulus of cormpulsion to induce the patient to continue the exercise,
until the mza d mezer leave him entirely, or it will return wlith more or
less violence.  Exercise in the open air, besides being a preventative
and curative remedy for sea-sickness, is healthy and beneficial for all,
in good weather or bad.  The top-gallanL men, exposed to all kinds of
weather, are the most healthy portion of the ci ew;  their duties often
requiring nearly every muscle of their bodies to be called into action~
Clinging to or balancing on a rope, gives more exercise than on a wide
and secure surface, as it calls into play a. greater number of'  muscles
to maintain the position.  So, also, walking erect and in regular order,
gives more than twice the exercise of the same amount of walking in
a crooked, slovenly manner.  In the latter case only a tfe-vw musclesthose absolutely necessary for progression —are called into action,
while in the fiormer more than twice the number are thilrown into tension
to hold the: head and trunk erect, expan(d the chest, and give precision
and regularity to the movements.  Thei povwer, therefoe, to enfbrce
exercise of any description, as that oif wxalking, would be apt to faill
short of the object for which it vwas contlr    uniess  t could enforce
the manner in which the prescribed exercise           b'to be taken.'Walking
in a doubled up, slovenly manner, without expanding the chest, instead
of being a health-ful exercise, is almost the same thing as no exercise
at all, because it brings so few muscles e into action.
A regular inspection of thle emigrats, twice a week, at least, would
greatly tend to promote health and cleanliness. But it would be wort-h
nothing unless there was some express- power conierred con the masster
to hav. lthose punisheld, in some way;  who did not bear inspection.
This'er rigl nit be conierred directly by law, or indi.ectl by bythe
emigri ts voluntarily consenting to colcede to the master the power,
by signing an agreement to that eftect, previously to coming on board.
The scarcity of fhresh water, and the dificulty of dryn     lthing   washed
in sea water, are unfavorable to cleanliness at sea.  The chloride of
calcium contained in sea water.is  n extrcmely eldiquescent salt, and
attracts moisture with so much aviitiy that there is much difculty in
drying clothing washed in water containing it.  What is worse, the
clothing, after being dried, becomes damp again or1 eing wtrt a litle
while.  This inconvenience  can, in somre  gdgree, be overrcome by
adding to the sea water a little soda, wvich  decomposes  the chloride
and disposes the articles washed in it to dry with more iaciliLy, bes, e
preventing them friom becoming i damp again aiter being put nl.  The
soda also favors the dissolution of the soap.  Every ship ought to be




ON  o0AtRD EMIGLANT S-P8s.                  133
provided with a sufficient supplyo  There is nothing better in naval
hygiene to dissipate ennui, and to dispel the sad affections incident to
a monotonous sea voyage, than gayety. Gayety is the natural remedy
for sadness.  The emigrants should be encouraged to enjoy themselves
on deck with music and dancing-under a power, however, to enforce
order and decorum as strict a.s that over soldiers on parade; otherwise
such amusements would become a nuisance.
NEWT  OREANS, February 27, 1854.
Naval Hygieue, by Samuel A. Carlwrright,  M. D., New Orleans.
VII. " The employment of a qualified and experienced surgeon. "
This would greatly add to the expense, and be of no avail to the larger
portion of the emigrants, unless the ships were better constructed to
accommodate that class of passengers, and the whole were under something similar to military regulations, and could be made to take medicine and foliow advice.  The writer was once a passenger on board a
ship having a well qualified and an experienced surgeon, and a great
number of emigrants closely packed in narrow berths, in three rows,
one above another, in a dark, damp, ill-ventilated apartment, abounding in filth of the most disgusting kind. At length an epidemic broke
out among them.  The efforts of tlie surgeon to save them were most
praiseworthy, but were rendered abortive by the noxious vapors that
his patients were compelled to oreath, and by their own ignorance and
obstina.cy in refusing to take medicine or listen to advice until it was
too late. Ever and anon some one was plunged into the sea, sewed
up in a hammock with stones at his feet. If near the moment of dissolution the unfortunate emigrant had consented to take anything in the
shape of medicine, th-e medicine was unjustly blamred by the survivors
with causing the death. The writer being called on for advice, urgently
recommended the removal of the sick and the well upon the spardeck into the open air.  The measure, as soon as carried into effect,
checked, the epidemic and no more deaths occurred.  The prevention
of disease and the preservation of life at sea, depend less upon the medicine chest than upon fresh air, cleanliness, and good accommodations.
The atmosphere of the ocean is purer than that of -ihe land.  If the
ship, crew, and passengers be clean, the provisions of sounf quality
and the water good, there wilil be nothing wanting to preserve health
but plenty of exercise, free ventilation, dry rubbing of every apartment
of the vessel, brushing and airing the clothing, together with gayety
and cbeerfulness —provided the ship be not overcrowded, and no contagious disease be admitted on board, or any person from the infected
atmosphere of a foul jail or hospital. So often has observation dec-lared
that a ship, which takes on board a passenger immediately from a jail,
hospital, or other sickly, crowded place, is apt to be infected with a
mortal malady, after being two or three weeks at sea, that more good
could be done by a stringent law preventing such passengers, or their
clothing and bed clothing, fiomn  being taken on board until after a
thorough washing and ventilation, than by requiring the presence of a




134                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
qualified and experienced surgeon.  The object in view of that learned
body, the American Medical Association, in appointing a committee to
memorialize Congress in favor of a law requiring every emigrant ship
to have a surgeon on board, was most praiseworthy. It was dictated
by a knowledge of the great mortality among emigrants from ship
fever and the intractable nature of that malady.  It was thought that
if well-read physicians, under the name of surgeons, were to be always
present on emigrant shils to watch the rise and progress of that pestilence called ship fever, that some one or other of them might hit upon
a more successful practice in the treatment of that terrible disease.
The association-well knew the risk that physicians would run in making their bed in the nest of pestilence, but were nobly willing to sacrifice a portion of their own numbers for the public good.
One important fact, however, was overlooked-that ship fever is an
artificial pestilence, scorning physic, and that the United States Congress is the best doctor for. it.  Already has our system of government,
guided by the light of medical science, smote the jail fever, and banished it from America.  It has also lmade such a thorough sweep of
that immense class of disgusting, artificial ailments, usually denominated surgical, that no professed surgeon, throughout the length and
breadth of the United States and territories, except in a few crowded,
ill-governed cities, can gain a livelihood by the practice of surgery
proper, if he depends upon his own neighborhood alone to supply him
with patients.  Yet, in ill-governed Europe, every neighborhood-even
those unable to support a physician-has one or more surgeons, more
or less overrun with practice.  Accidental injuries form  but a small
portion of surgical diseases.  America has her due proportion of
wounds and bruises from accidents; but her institutions have been the
balm of Gilead for those putrifying sores, and other offensive, crippling
ailments, denominated surgical. Equal laws ajpd light taxes have dried
up the fountain of surgical maladies, and left the surgeon proper without a vocation on this side of the Atlantic.  The fountain that fed them
was an impoverished state of the blood, caused by a deficiency of food,
fuel, clothing, fresh air, and the comforts of life.  Ship fever can be
banished from  the ocean by the same means that jail fever, and the
whole host of surgical diseases, were cast out of the United States of
America. No art was a match for the pestilence generated in the dark,
dank, crowded cells of filthy, unventilated jails-the inmates eating
unwholem me food, drinking impure water, and re-breathing the foul
emanations of their own bodies.  No art can cope with a similar pestilence, generated from  similar causes, on ship-board.  Medicine is a
branch of the natural sciences, operating by natural means. Artificial
diseases, as ship fever, and those pestilences which sweep off the poor
and destitute in crowded, ill-ventilated cities, are not obedient to natural means.  The true method is to banish them, by destroying their
artificial causes.  As soon as a generous public dififsed the comforts
of life among the seventy thousand destitute emigrant population of
New Orleans, last summer, the pestilence, wAhich was sweeping into
eternity three hundred a day, immediately began to disappear, before
frost, or any change in the weather-its artificial fabric being broken
down by the beneficent hand of the American people.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                    135
In striking down the artificial causes of ship fever, the physicians of
the Medical Association can render important aid to the ship-builder,
the masters and owners of vessels, and to the governing authorities,
and thereby greatly promote the interests of humanity.  They can
demonstrate that man requires a certain amount of oxygen, and if he
does not get it, he sickens and dies in the presence of the ablest physicians of the land; that there is no medicine of sufficient virtue to enable mankind to do without wholesome food, drink, and fresh air.
The practice of building ships, even those of our navy, so constructed
that the higher officers and cabin passengers have state rooms and
saloons unnecessarily capacious,-ostentatiously so,-at the expense of
the space that rightfully belongs to the crew and to the emigrant passengers, is at war with the first principles of hygiene, as it evidently is
with the first principles of republicanism.  It is, moreover, muzzling
the ox that treadeth out the corn. So far from this practice, in the construction of sailing and steam ships, going out of use, it seems to be
daily coming more and more in vogue.  Unless arrested in the navy,
that arm of our'national defence will soon be deprived of American:seamen altogether, as none will be found willing to be housed worse
than dogs in a kennel, and not fed so well, that the officers and favorite
passengers may live in palaces and fare sumptuously.
The practice of crowding seamen into narrow, dark, damp cells,
excluded from the fresh air, is already causing loud cries to come up
to Congress for more marine hospitals in every direction.  Hospitals
are nothing but anti-republican sores on the body politic.  The true
policy of our government is to remove the necessity for such institutions. All Louisiana, including every city, town, village, and parish
in the State, does not send more than one hundred and fifty patients of
her native people to the great Charity Hospital of New Orleans per
annum; whereas the vi ous wretched governments of Europe crowd
its wards with from t elve to fifteen thousand patients annually.
Thus proving that our happy country has little or no use for such pestiferous establishments, which despotism and oppression have made the
only homes of countless multitudes of the laboring classes; where a
large proportion of themn are born, and about a third of them die.
It is in the mission of every representative sent up to the State capitols and to the federal government so to legislate as to avoid doing
anything which has a tendency to drive any portion of their constituents into the hard necessity of seeking such homes.
The medical profession will not assent to any measures creating the
necessity for hospitals, by depriving seamen on ship-board of the space
necessary for healthy existence, to make room for gaudy saloons. Nor
ought it to consent to be made the scape-goat for the sins of avaricious
ship-masters and emigration companies, by sending surgeons on board
their over-crowded ships, to bear all the blame of that excessive mortality produced by want of proper food, good water, and fresh air,
which no skill in medicine and surgery can prevent, and no power but
that of Congress can remove.
VIII. " The employment of a reasonable number of attendants to
minister to the sick, and to enforce the observance of cleanliness, both
of the persons of the passengers and of the vessel."-I-t is believed that




136                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
persons specially employed: for such purposes would be unnecessary,
and would add greatly to the cost of passage; so much so as to prevent
a majority of those wishing to emigrate, from ever reaching the asylum
of the oppressed.  Congress, once inveigled into a course of legislation
having the effect of arresting emigration by increasing the cost of passage, would soon be besieged with petitions to pay the additional
expense incurred by the employment of surgeons, nurses, and supernumerary attendants, required by the laws.  This would add to the
profits, without correcting the evils, caused by the greedy avarice of
certain unprincipled men engaged in the business of transporting erriigrants.  It would be better for the United States to increase the navy,
and to give the emigrants a free passage in our vessels of war-selecting husband, wife, and children, and single persons of good character;
rejecting the vicious tenants of prisons, and the sickly, disabled paupers
of poor-houses and hospitals.  There is no necessity of employing regular nurses on ship-board.  The object in view would be better accomplished, and with less expense, by conferring authorityon the master
of every vessel, to select nurses for the sick from among the emigrants
themselves.  When thus pressed into service, they might be allowed a
fair compensation, or each, in his turn, to act as nurse without pay.
Unless the proposed regular nurses were polyglots, or conversant with
the languages and various dialects spoken by the emigrants, they would
be unsuitable attendants for the sick-not being able, even, to understand that dialect of the English spoken by the emigrants from  Cornwall.  Nor could menials or petty officers enforce the observance of
cleanliness, which is more than the master of the vessel can do, unless
aided by some plain and express law of the United States, giving him
the requisite authority.
Naval H ygiene, by Sanmuel A. Cartwright, _. D., New Orleans.
XI.; A report to be made by every vessel bringing emigrant passengers of the -length of the voyage, number of passengers, number of
deaths, &c., to be published, and to be returned to the State Department."-Such reports, to be usefhl for statistical purposes, should be
accompanied with provisions to insure accuracy in their details.  The
British have a regulation of the kind, but it is so loosely carried into
effect, that the ages, and even the sex, a.re not always given.
XII. "' In case deaths have occurred during the voyage, an inquest
to be held under the supervision of federal officers, and the verdict to
be published, and returned as above."-The utility of such an inquest
is not perceived, unless in cases of doubt or suspicion.
XII. "A. limitation of the number of passengers allowed in every
vessel, in proportion to the tonnage of the vessel." — T.he present limitation, two to every five tons; the British regulation is three. to every five
tons, including the crew.  Our laws admit fewer to the ton than the
British, when interpreted by tonnage; but there is more diflerence
between the two countries than appears on the fiTce of the laws. The
former computes the tonnage by taking half the breadth of' the ship for




ON-BOARD EMI.GANT SHIPS.                      137
the depth, which, in deep vessels, falls greatly short of the actual tonnage-while the latter estimates it by guaging the ship as a cask is
measured.  The American tonnage, in deep vessels, often exceeds the
actual, or British tonnage, fifty per cent, or more.  In very shallow
vessels, however, it is even less than the British.  But that no safe rule
can be deduced from  the mere tonnage of a vessel is proved by the
fact, that ships, which bring to the port of New  Orleans three or four
hundred emigrants each, have not room, on their return trip, for a single
passenger; the master himself often' giving up his apartment, and
sleeping on a bale of cotton, to make the more room  fbr the freight,
which fills the whole ship.  The standees, or temporary berths, are
removed, and the steerage, cabin, and every vacant place, is packed as
full as it can hold with cotton bales.
CANAL STREET, NEW ORLEANS, Feb'ruary 27, 1854.
Naval Hygiene, by Samuel A. Cartwright, M.D., M. New Orleans
IX. "The separation of the sexes, and the prevention of unnecessary
intercourse between the crew and the passengers." —It would be inexpedient, if not:mpracticable, to separate the sexes by dividing fiamilies.
The mother with a number of children requires the presence of the
father to assist in taking care of them.  Or if either parent were permitted to take the children in his or her apartment, the question would
arise in regard to the e ag  at which rmankind cease to be children and
become adults.  As the time varies greatly, according to the sex and
constitution, much difficulty would arise in applying any general rules
to the subject  The difficulty could be overcome by allotting the central portion of the apartirment to families, and one extremity to unmarried
females, and the other to the single men.  Any improper intercourse
between the crew and the passengers, or the passengers.themselves,
should, of course, be prevented as far as order, system, and authority,
can prevent evil.  But there seems to be no sufficient reason why the
crew  should be prohibited, by law, from  partaking in the amusements
of the passengers, when off duty, if invited by them  to do so, or of
holding conversation with them, on the condition that order and decorum:
be strictly observed. The room on ship board for exercise is sufficiently
contracted without making it more so by restricting different parties to
special localities in the unoccupied space.  It is not in conformity with
the spirit of our institutions to make diferences in degrees when nature
and education have made none.  The rude and uneducated would not
relish the society of the refined and polished, nor would the latter seek
the companionship of the former.. But there is no good reason why
legislative power should, be invoked to cut up each of those tws:o great
natural divisions of society into artificial orders, making distinctions
where none properly exists. It is true that sailors have a specific character, but this is a consequence of their mode of life   l Their seeming
rudeness is caused by their being habituated to live apart from  the
company and conversation of the gentler and more amiable sex.  Like
other men, they would exchange rudeness for gentleness and delicacy




138                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
in the presence of virtuous women, rather than be punished by being
deprived of the pleasure of their company.  It is the women, and not
Congress, who should give the law on this subject. The idea that seamen would be more unmanageable if permitted to enjoy any privileges
not inconsistent with their duties, is not of American origin.  Though
rude, American sailors, at least, are not ferocious, but humane, chivalric, and generous.  Though little sensible to their own evils, they are
not so to others.  In ship-wrecks, and other casualties at sea, they
perish themselves sooner than let a woman drown, or relax an effortto
save the ship and passengers. They make it a point of honor to be the
last to leave a ship in flames or going to pieces on the rocks.  They
are never disobedient to orders when the tempest howls and danger
threatens.  It is not from fear of punishment that they are true to their
profession under such appalling circumstances, but from a deeper principal radicated in that moral virtue which none know so well as the
American mother how to instil into the human heart.  The great
medical author, Mosely, in his work on  Tropical Climates, (third
edition, page 49,) gives an instance of the display of that principle in
an American seaman captured during the revolutionary war by the
British frigate Pallas, and ordered to serve the enemy against his own
flag.. No torture or iear of punishment could induce him to obey such
orders. He jumped overboard, a shark seized him, and tore the flesh
from both legs, taking off a foot at the ankle.  When dying he was
rescued from the monster, and told the good Dr. Moseley, who hastened
to his assistance, that he " was happy in laying down a life he could
not employ against his country's enemies." Any legislative action imposing unnecessary restrictions upon such men, as cutting them off, as
proposed, from any intercourse the passengers might be willing or
desirous to hold with them, would be inexpedient.  It was Moseley's
intercourse with such men that made him exclaim: (p. 154,) "Every
man in North America is by nature a general."  It was intercourse
with such men that made him  (although an enemy to republicanism,
but a deeper enemy to despotic cruelty) see, confess, and record a
great truth, in the year 1780, which is not even yet clearly seen and
acknowledged by all of our representatives in Congress, viz: " That
eztinguishing European tyranny in the western hemisphere is a debt which
North America owes to the world." —(Moseley on Tropical Climates,
page 153.)  Intercourse with such men would lead to the prompt payment of that portion of the debt that North America owes to the world,
which has been past due ever since the Spanish authorities in Cuba shot
down like dogs, without a trial, fifty-one gallant Americans, for no other
crime than presuming to imitate the example of Lafayette, among whom
were no less than five worthy and noble members of the medical profession.
CANAL STREET, NEW ORLEANS, February 27, 1855.
Naval Hygiene, by Samuel A. Cartwright, M. D., New Orleans.
X. "A thorough process of disinfecting every vessel on board of
which disease has once made its appearance." —There is no better pro



ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                    139
cess of disinfecting a vessel than that of soap and water, dry rubbing,
and free ventilation.  Any other is a delusion.
Three orders of substances infect the air of a ship, either dissolved or
mixed in it: first, gasses which can be demonstrated by the eudiometer
and other means, as the carbonic acid gas, for instance.
Secondly, substances which are inappreciable by instruments or chemical agents, but are cognizable to the senses, as various odors.
Thirdly, such that neither the senses nor chemical tests or instruments can detect, and are known only by their effects.
Disinfecting agents can destroy the carbonic acid and other appreciable gasses contained in the atmosphere of a room, and may also mitigate
or remove unpleasant odors, but they cannot be relied upon to disinfect
a vessel from those more frequent causes of disease which neither the
senses nor chemical agency can detect in the atiosphere.  Being unknown, the substances having the power to neutralize them are also
unknown.
Nothing but a removal of the atmosphere by free ventilation,.nd a
thorough scouring and dry rubbing of the unhealthy apartment, can be
depended upon. Filling the air with foreign matters called disinfecting
agents often does more harm than good, as it adds other impurities to
the atmosphere.
Lime and its preparations, the chloride of lime, and many other
substances, can destroy some noxious gasses, and arrest the process of
putrefa.ction and fermentation, but it is much safer to remove the putrescent and fermenting materials from which the mephitic vapors and
bad odors arise.
Even in the case of carbonic acid gas, the best known, and the easiest
to be neutralized by chemical or disinfecting agents, ventilation, washing, and scrubbing are more effective than any other measures in destroying it.
It is very apt to form in the hold of a ship, being heavier than the
atmosphere, it circulates with difficulty, and attaches itself to the sides
of the vessel, and into angles and crevices.
Lime and ventilation and heating the apartments are all useful in
attenuating it, but swabs wet in fresh water, followed by dry rubbing,
are necessary to its total destruction.
Dry rubbing is not only one of the best means to remove noxious
gasses, but is the best to remove their causes, and also to dry the
atmosphere of an apartment.
Cook and Vancouver were very partial to dry rubbing.  The usual
practice of constantly inundating the decks and different apartments of a
ship with sea water, and occasionally sprinkling them with chloride of
lime, greatly tends to add to the humidity of the atmosphere within the
vessel.
Neither of the celebrated navigators just mentioned was favorable to
the common practice of frequent wetting and washing the decks with
sea water, but preferred sand and dry rubbing.  They put in practice
the principles laid down by Dr. Rouppe. In his treatise on the diseases
of seafaring men Rouppe says: "Et quoties primum purgatur tabulatum,
madidatur, qulod tamen melius esset ope radularum purgare, sicco manete
tabulato."




140                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
Truly it is better to keep the decks dry arid cleanse them  by dry
rubbing than to wet them as often as they are cleansed.
Vancouver, tom. 1, pp. 30, 31, says, " Le soin de ne pas laver trop
souvent l'interieur du vaisseau 6taient'pr6cautions indispensables, et
quil en r6sultait les effets le plus salutaires procu la sant6 de l'rquipage."
But Stavorinus, of Bavaria, has met the question of the best means
of disinfecting any vessel on board of which disease has made its appearance, and has practically solved it.
The moment any disease of an epidemic or contagious kind showed
itself on ship-board, he had all the apartments of the ship cleansed
and purified without employing water, or the so-called disinfecting
agents, because experience in feormer voyages, he informs us, had
proved to him  that I/imidity. was the chief agent by which the air becomes vitiated, and that its removal restores health.  Humidity is the
vehicle by which emanations from the body and foreign matters are di
fused thr ough the atmosphere.
It is likewise essentialto putrefaction and fermentation. Its removal
drie, up the sources from which noxious vapors arise, by stopping thle
putrefactive and fermen tative processes.
Apart from the unhealthy atoms to which it gives wings, humidity
with cold induces great inaction of the vascular system, giving rise to
scorbutic ailments, colds, influenzas, rheumatism, glandular engorgements, and adynamic fevers; united with heat it causes bilious, remittent, and yellow  fever, dysentery, diarrhlea, colics, dropsies, &c.  In
both cases it relaxes the skin, suppresses the cutaneous and pulmonary
exhalations, and increases the secretion'of the mucous surfaces.
H-ence, pulmony catarrhs, oedema of the lungs, dysnoce rheums,
and sore throats are so prevalent when the air is charged with too much
moisture.  The humidity oft the atmlosphere in ships, as a cause of
disease, has not attractec sufficient attention in this republic, which has
the largest mercantile navy in the world. In proof of which, it is only
necessary to turn to the Navigation Laws, (Regulations of.Passenger
Vessels, 2589,) where it is made the duty of the captain to have the
decks occupied by the passengers cleansed with the chloride of lime,
a diliquescent salt in its impure state, attracting moisture and thereby
breeding cholera and other ailments. When ever so pure, it soon becomes impure by exposure, and keeps the decks damp instead of drying them.  Owing to the fact thlat excess of moisture in the atmosphere
benefits some constitutions of a lean and arid fibre, its injurious effects
upon the majority have, in a great measure, been overlooked; aL least,
so far, that no efficient measures have been adopted to prevent its excess in our shipping, but, on the contrary, custonis and habits have
been carelessly fallen into, and laws enacted which tend greatly to in-j
crease it.
The amount of humidity in the atmosphere is not a supposition, as it
was in ancient times, but can be accurately weighed and measured. In
early times it was one of the ifur great principles of the doctrine of
man, to the excess or deficiency of any one or more of which, the
ancients not only referred the origin of diseases, but also the different
temperaments.  Although wrong in theory respecting heat, cold, dry



ON BOARD EMICRANT SHIPS.                      141
ness, and moisture, they were practically right in their inferences touching the effects of their excess or deficiency.
Our countryman, Prof. Espey, has paid great attention to the subject
of atmospheric humidity.  The writer spent a whole summer, almost
talone, with that distinguished meteorologist, from  wNhom he could not
fail to learn that humidity is closely connected with hygienic measures,
particularly those relating to disinfecting houses on land and vessels at
sea in which disease has made its appearance.  That excess of moisture in the atmosphere has a powerful effect upon the human frame,
rests not upon conjecture, but upon well observed facts.
Observations, however, until analyzed and arranged in connexion
with others, have very little practical utility.  Every one has observed
the effects of moisture on curly-haired persons, and that in a humid
atmosphere the strings of instruments, formed of animal tissues, stretch
so much as often to break.
Delicate persons -feel more languid and have less appetite and thirst
in damp weather, nor is their digestion so good.  The mucous surfaces
become embarrassed with superabundant msucosities, causing invalids
to haulk and spil more than when in a dry air.  Their hearing, taste,
and smell are also less acute; their motions are slower, and there is a
want of that agility which a dry, bracing atmosphere gives. The
passions partake of the general atomy of the body.  Even children
nave observed that deaths mostly occur in stormy, rainy weather, withaut knowing tLhat humidity, by rela-xing the hold of the vital principle
on the human organization, is the cause of that sad phenomenon being
connected with a weeping sky.
The effects of humidity on the animal frame is also made apparent
by anatomists using it to separate the fibres and tissues of the dead
subject tfom one another in their demonstrations.
The causes of excessive humidity on ship-board are well worthy of
investigaLion. The humidity varies in different apartments of' the vessel. Peron, a surgeon on a French corvette, made repeated experiments wVith a hygrometer, land accurately measured the amount of
moisture in different parts of the vessel.  The hold was.1.2  more
moist ha.n the air of' the surrounding ocean.  Hence it was inferred
that the leakage water, the want of ventilation, and the fact that sea
water contains a portion of diliquescent salts, were the causes of the
excessive humidity.  Ventilation and keepingl the leakage water as low
as possible by pumping, removing the diliquescent salts by swabbing
with fresh water, and afterwards by dry rubbing, are plainly pointed
out as the best mneasures to guard against the excessive moisture in that
part of the ship.  He also found that the apartments in which the
greatest number of persons were collected, were much more moist
tthan those of' the same size which contained a smaller number.
Human exhalations therefore may beset down as another source of'
mioisture.  He also verified the preceding observations, made by Dr.
Rouppe, that want of ventilation increased both the temperature and
the humidity of the air in which a number of men were confined.
Rouppe, ff'Madeiia, had the hatches closed on 180 soldiers asleep
in their hammocks; the heat of the atmosphere rose fiom  770 to
85~ in a short time, and so much aqueous vapor accumulated that




142                   SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
everything in the apartment was dripping with moisture.  The sol
diers' sleep became disturbed; they sighed deeply, and appeared greatly
distressed.
He then let in the air; the moisture was soon diminished, and they
slept calmly.  This experiment was repeated several nights in succession with similar effects.
P6ron found, by the hygrometer, that the dryest part of a ship-ofwar is what the French call the saint-barbe, which we call the gun
room.  This room is never cleansed by washing, but only by dry rubbing.
As its humidity was very little greater than the external air, he inferred that dry rubbing greatly tends to remove moisture.  It has also
been observed that men in motion do not vitiate the air with moisture
so much as when still.
These observations were made a long time ago, and have been repeatedly confirmed.  Yet it does not appear that any other than a few
celebrated and successful navigators have turned them  to practical
account in preventing disease and in disinfecting vessels.
Chemistry, soon afterwards, began to make great progress, and all
eyes were turned to that science, hoping that some disinfecting agent
would be discovered to neutralize or destroy the miasm supposed to be
the causes of a large class of the most fatal diseases. One after another
has sprung into notice-been tried and failed-scarcely leaving time
to regard the true knowledge already gained as worthy of any attention in the race that all seem to be running after some newly-discovered
disinfecting agent of the chemical laboratory.
Chemistry has made great progress, but it has not yet discovered
any gas, except oxygen and its combinations, which will support animal
life when respired.  All cause death, if void of oxygen, as soon as
breathed.
As oxygen is the only substance which is respirable at all, it would
seem that it is the only one that gives any promise as a disinfecting
agent.  Atmospheric air contains about twenty per cent. of this gas,
neither more nor less, whether on land or sea.  Sickly places or
healthy, the constitution of the air is chemically the same; but it
is more absolutely pure, as it contains variable quantities of other
matters and gasses.  Many substances, however, abstract it fiomr the
atmosphere.  Water has this effect.  Oxygen has a very powerful
attraction for most substances, and combining with them, oxydises
them. An excess of oxygen, thrown into the air, might combine with
those noxious matters which cause disease, and neutralize them.
The disinfecting agents generally in use rather tend to pollute than
to purify the air we breath.
It would be no difficult matter to add an excess of oxygen to the air
in the hold of a ship, or any other part of the vessel, by heating peroxide of manganese or chlorate of potass in a. suitable apparatus,
taking care to have the articles pure, or carbonic acid gas would be
disengaged.
The surest way to disinfect a ship and to prevent it from becoming
infected, would seem to be to subject the emigrants, by law or voluntary agreement, to the authority of the master of the vessel as hflly'as
soldiers of a regiment are to their commanding officers.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                    143
Such heterogeneous materials cannot be reduced to order, united,
and made subservient in preventing and removing the causes of disease occurring at sea, unless subject to the same control in coming to
this country as they would be after they get here, if called into the
field to defend it.  A regiment is the type of military organization. Its
economy and management applies equally to hospitals and to ships, or
to large armies.
If the emigrants were allowed the same wages per diem that the soldiers of continental Europe generally receive, it would better reconcile
them to the bridle.
At three cents a day the wages of each during the voyage would
seldom exceed a dollar and a half; and the price of the passage could
be raised accordingly. It is suggested that, on coming on board, all the
adult males should be required to sign a bond agreeing to work at certain regular hours in cleaning and dry rubbing the vessel. This would
be the most effectual way to render the air of every part of the vessel
dry and healthy. It would likewise be beneficial to the laborers themselves-being removed from the steerage there would be more room
"for the women and children.
Only that portion of them who were required to perform the manual
labor should be entitled to draw wages. But if impracticable or difficult to be enforced, during a state of health, it should nevertheless be
insisted upon, if disease made its appearance, as a measure absolutely
necessary to disinfect the ship. It should be borne in mind that the
fourteenth day after sailing is the most common time for disease to explode on a foul or over-crowded vessel. It generally requires this space
of time for preparation of some kin4 leading to the development of disease.
CANAL STREET, NEW OIRLEANS, February 27 1.854.
Naval Hygiene, by Samuel A. Cartwright, M. D., New Orleans,
XIV. "A distinction with respect to the number of passengers between
vessels passing within the tropics and those not so passing." —Formerly
there was a distinction, but the law has been repealed. No sufficient
reason is perceived for its re-enactment.  The rarefaction of the air
produced by heat no doubt led to it, and led to error from not being
viewed in connexion with other facts. The truth is, that a ship sailing
within the tropics can, with safety, carry more passengers than in the
temperate or figid zones.  The reason is, that the cold compels the
passengers to shut themselves up when sailing in high latitudes; unless
the apartments containing them be capacious, an artificial, unhealthy
atmosphere is soon generated.  Whereas, within the tropics every
room in the vessel is thrown wide open, and this free ventilation prevents the air from  being polluted fiom the breath and perspiration.
Ships are going out from this port of New Orleans almost every week
so excessively crowded, to Chalgres and other places within the tropics,
that the passengers could not fail to suffer, both from  discomfort and
disease, if sailing in, a high latitude, cold enough to require them to




144                  SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
keep within their several apartments. They have, however, generally
a healthy and pleasant voyage, nowithstanding their numbers, because
every part of the ship is open, and the most of the passengers, instead
of confining themselves to their berthsV, or to close rooms, as those sailing in a cold climate are conmpelled to do, come up on the spar-deck
to enjoy the refreshing breeze-nearly always stirring in the open sea
within the tropics —protected from the rays of the sun and the dews at
night by ant awning. Many prefer sleeping on deck. Thus more space
is always left for those vho may choose to remain between decks.
The sea-air within the tropics is equally pure as that in extra tropical
regions. Near shore it is less unhealthy than coasting in cold climates.
The cold land winds (so unhealthy) extend much further into the sea
than any winds charged with unhealthy vapors from localities near or
within the tropics. When yellow fever is prevailing in New Orleans,
boats and ships at anchor beiore it, or onL the opposite shore, less than
a mile distant, are but rarely infected with the disease; thus proving
that the causes producing such afections are not capable of being
transmitted by the winds to any great distance.  Many persons unnecessarily suffer in hot climates fiom tight-fitting garments. The thinner
a garmen.t is the hotter it wiill be if it presses closely to the surface of
-the body instead of being loose and in folds.  The looser and the
more folds or plaits a garment has the greater will be the surface for
facilitating the cooling  process by evaporation.  Oil and oleagineous
substances so useful in protecting the human system against the cold
of the frigid zone vwhen taken internally, are equally useful in protecting it against the heat of the torrid when applied externally.  The
original natives of hot climates, as Dr. James Johnson has well remarked, have a cutaneous surface of a more oily nature than those of
high latitude.  They are also in the habit, which Dr. Johnson says is
universal in the east, of makuing it more so by artificial means, as inunction with various oils —that of the cocoa being preferred.  The use of
spices and acrid substances as condiments, so far from being injurious,
are very -useful in preserving health in hot climates.  Without them
acid drinks and fruits are unhealthy, causing too much perspiration
and disordering the bowels.  Many customs attributed to ignorance
and superstition are founded in the laws of nature.  The practice of
using highly seasoned food, so commron in the torrid zone, is one of
them. Miosely has observed lthat the perspiration in the West Indies
is stronger and more acrid than that proceeding from the body of the
same individual in England.  Hence he infers that a hot climate tends
to rob the body of its acrid matter more than a cold one, and requires
replenishing by a free use of peppers and other spices.  Oat-meal,
barley, and such things which figure so conspicuously in the out-fit of
ships, and so well relished when made into porridge at the north, become so insipid and disgusting to the appetite in the tropics, as often
to cause nause a and vomiting. It is not by re-enacting the repealed
Iaw making a distinction between vessels passing within the tropics
and those not so passing that health can be preserved, but by ascertaining and observing those irrepealable laws which nature has already
made.
NEW ORLEANS, }Februlary 27, 1854.




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                    145
No. 21.
Conmmnication from the Mayor of New Orleans.
MAYORALTY OF NEW  ORLEANS,
January 25, 1854.
SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 29th ultimo, in which, on behalf of a select committee
of the United States Senate, appointed to consider the causes and the'
extent of the sickness and mortality prevailing on board emigrant ships
on the voyage to this country, you desire to obtain a list of all the vessels containing emigrant passengers which have arrived at the port of
New Orleans during the year 1853, with a designation of the ports
whence they sailed, the nationality of the vessel, the number of passengers, the number of deaths, &c. And I have also to acknowledge
the receipt of your circular of the same date, making various inquiries,
with reference to the adequacy of existing laws relative to the transportation of emigrants, and desiring my opinion in regard to the propriety of amending these statutes in some important particulars.
In answer to your first communication, I beg leave to transmit herewith
a detailed list of all the vessels that have arrived at this port from abroad
with emigrants during the year 1853; giving the date of arrival, the,
names of the vessels, the port from whence they sailed, the number of
passengers, the nationality of the vessels, and the number of deaths that
have occurred during the voyage.  The result furnishes an aggregate
of 37,855 emigrants arrived within the year, the mortality among
whom only amounted to 311, or 0.8216 per cent.  The proportion, as
you will perceive, is very small, and will, no doubt, compare favorably with the other Atlantic cities. It proves, furthermore, that the
southern passage is, on the whole, healthier for emigrants than the northern, for the obvious reason that the milder temperature induces the
passenger to expose himself much more in the open air, and thus to
avoid the consequences of being constantly cooped up in a narrow
space and an impure atmosphere, where ventilation at best is considered a matter of secondary importance.  The average length of the
voyages from the ports specified in the accompanying list was from
forty-five to fifty days.
In response to your second communication, I shall proceed to consider the inquiries which you propose separately.
1. The space allotted to each passenger.
In this respect I am of the opinion that the existing laws should be
so far changed as to increase the space. There is no doubt in my mind
that much of the sickness on board of emigrant vessels is to be ascribed to the crowded manner in which passengers are huddled together, and if the room  now  allowed were enlarged to the extent of
one-fourth, I feel persuaded that the change would be attended with
beneficial results.
2. The quantity and the quality of provisions required for each passenger.
In this respect I am  not aware of any deficiency in the existing
statutes. It is quite true that the change of diet on board of vessels is
10




146                 SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
apt to produce disease among persons who, unaccustomed at home to
salt meats, have to satisfy their appetites to a great extent on such food.
But I do not well see how this is to be remedied, and the only suggestion I may add is to provide for the strict enforcement of the law,:so as to afford to the emigrant the requisite amount of provisions which
he is entitled to.
3. The permission allowed to the passengers to furnish their own
provisions for the voyage, instead of making it, in all cases, the duty of
the master to provide them.
I am decidedly of opinion that it should be made the duty of the
captain to furnish the requisite provisions in all cases. By allowing
the passengers to provide for their own wants, they frequently embark
utterly destitute of all means, and with scarcely a sufficiency of provisions to last half the voyage.  The stores which they lay in, more-,over, are often bad and tainted, and of necessity are calculated to engender disease; whereas if; in every instance, the master was compelled
to give the required amount of good and wholesome food, one material
cause of sickness would be done away with.
4. Ventilation.
5. The cooking arrangements.
In both of these respects I should think that the existing laws, if
adequately enforced, would answer all purposes.
6. The duty of the master to enforce personal cleanliness and to
insure the cleanliness of the vessel.
The captain should, in every instance, be clothed with the most
ample authority to enforce cleanliness. It is notorious that a large portion of the emigrants are not of the most cleanly habits, and that if
allowed to remain undisturbed, they will permit dirt and filth to accumulate in the hold to an extent dangerous to the health of all the inmates.  The only remedy is to enforce cleanliness and to grant plenary
power to shipmasters to carry it into effect.
There can be no question in regard to the propriety of amending the
existing laws in conformity with the requirements and suggestions contained in your circular of the 29th December.  The employment of a
qualified and experienced surgeon would in itself be a vast improvement, and would certainly be the means of saving many lives. So,
also, the limitation to the number of passengers agreeably to the
opinion which I expressed in answer to inquiry No. 1.
In addition to this I believe that when disease breaks out on board
of an emigrant vessel, provision should be made to separate the sick
and to keep them as much apart as possible. There can be no doubt
that the constant contact between the indisposed and those in a healthy
condition, even when the disease is not of a contagious character, is
prejudicial, and any means by which a seclusion can be brought about,
would prove to be an amelioration.
During the course of my experience, I have ascertained that much
of the sickness on board of emigrant vessels was due to the reckless
and inhuman manner in which passengers are not unfrequently shipped
from  the other side. It is too often the case that emigrants are taken
on board already sick and enfeebled, or partially indisposed, and the
change of diet and air frequently brings on disease in a worse shape,




ON BOARD EMIGRANT SHIPS.                   147
terminating in death. Their own lives are thus made to pay the forfeit
of this gross neglect, whilst those of their fellow-passengers become
endangered from contact, and thus we see vessels severely afflicted
with disease and death, which, but for the grasping conduct of shipping
brokers abroad, would have been kept entirely free from sickness.
I have endeavored to lay before you all the information in my power
in response to your inquiries, and I shall be most happy to furnish you,
at all times, with such further facts as you may desire.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,
G. D. CROSSMAN, Mayor.
Hon. HAMILTON FISH,
Chairman, U. S. Senate, Washington.