Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/48

34 more liable to become the prey of cholera 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. Cholera, it is true, often appears and disappears without any apparent cause, a fact the reason of 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 is kept in a healthy, well-balanced condition, and its functions are not interrupted by any disturbing causes, it may, in the generality of cases, bid defiance to the assaults of the disease. The theory is entertained by some that cholera on shipboard arises from the virus of the disease having been imbibed by the persons or clothing of passengers previous to embarkation, or that it is met with in certain zones through which the ships pass in reaching the Western Continent. Concerning this it is proper to 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, and of any state of things by which it may be nourished and sustained if contracted elsewhere. 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. Such, however, is not the case. While passengers on Liverpool vessels died by hundreds ships, from the cholera, those from Germany, who had left Hamburg and Bremen at the same time, and arrived in New York about the same period with those from Liverpool, had no sickness on board; for the reason that they were not so crowded, that they were cleaner and healthier when they embarked, and better provided for during the voyage. The German port regulations, which compel the ships to distribute cooked provisions among the emigrants, account for their superiority in respect to health and cleanliness." Among twelve vessels, which arrived at Quebec on or about August 10, 1847, there were two German ships, the bark Amy, from Bremen, with 289 passengers, and the brig Watchful, from Hamburg, with 145 passengers, and one Irish brig, the Trinity, from Limerick, with 86 passengers, upon which there occurred