Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/365

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functions of the others are exercised by the Collector of Customs at the place.

Officers and crews of vessels in the service of the Mississippi River Commission are included with those entitled to marine hospital relief. This commission has to do with the engineering and inspection of the Mississippi levees, and the removal of snags and obstructions to shipping. Its concern is to maintain the navigability of the Mississippi and its larger branches.

The Revenue Cutter Service., the Army Engineering Corps, together with keepers and surfmen of the Life-Saving Service, are all beneficiaries, as well as the men of the Light House Service, including light ships. A provision not generally known is that foreign seamen may utilize the Marine Hospital accommodations, if written security is given for the payment of the small fees fixed by the department, by the master of the vessel or the consul of the nation under whose flag the vessel sails. In the year ending June 30, 1911, a total of 52,209 patients were treated at the various relief stations of the service, of whom 15,442 received hospital care. At the Fort Stanton Sanatorium, 322 consumptive patients were under treatment.

A large number of physical examinations of seamen in the various government services are necessary, as of candidates for entrance, for promotion and for retirement. Such examinations are conducted by