Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/47

Rh wash, 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 afterwards, when the steerage shall be again crowded with sure victims.

"Moreover, the bunks or berths on these vessels are generally constructed of the cheapest kind of boards, often in the rough state, and put together without any nicety the whole arrangement being of the flimsiest character. Nothing of the kind could be better adapted to harboring the fever miasma. At the end of the voyage, the bunks are sometimes taken down without disinfection or even washing, and, with all the filth and miasma adhering to them, stowed away, either as dunnage, amid the return cargo, or in bulk, to be appropriated to their original purpose on the next hitherward voyage. Now, it is evident that the next cargo of emigrants of such a vessel, though it may be composed of ever so healthy and cleanly people, and though the ship may be well supplied with stores, bedding, and other requisites, is yet liable to suffer from the latent seeds of disease, night and day, as the passengers are in contact with the fever-charged bunks. There is more than probability that more or less will be attacked. The pestilence once started, there is no telling where it will stop.

"But even supposing this source of danger to be stopped by the destruction of the old bunks and the substitution of new ones after each voyage, the permanent timber of the vessel, if not disinfected, will still form a repository for the poison, whence its ravages may be renewed.

"The second of the diseases by which passenger-ships have been infested is cholera. The open air generally puts an end to typhus or ship fever, whereas cholera is controlled by no such corrective. 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