Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/50

36 that the disease on board of these vessels must be attributed to some exciting cause pre-existing within them, which could not be connected with the condition of the atmosphere or the prevalence of certain winds on the ocean.

"With regard to small-pox, the third in rank of the diseases which have affected emigrants, its nature and its means of prevention are too well know to require anything more than a single remark, viz., 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 percentage of mortality among the passengers on board of New York vessels has been considerably greater than those of vessels trading to Boston, Philadelphia, and other ports. This is to be accounted for by 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 percentage of deaths is in direct proportion to the number of passengers, that is, it has been found that where passengers have been distributed in smaller numbers disease and death have been less prevalent. The smallest percentage of deaths has occurred on vessels from ports of Europe other than those of Liverpool, London, Bremen, Hamburg, and Havre, which, being off 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 from European ports, with 96,950 passengers. Of these vessels, forty-seven 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