Page:Senate Reports 1892–’93.djvu/792

{| Dr. . As a matter of opinion, almost of information, I should say it had been; I should say oftener than from any other port in the past.
 * width=33.3%|
 * width=33.3%|
 * width=33.3%|9
 * }
 * }

Senator. From any other port or from all ports?

Dr. . Well, I should not hesitate to make the statement that it had been conveyed as often from this port as from all the other ports put together. I think I am safe in that statement.

Senator. Will you tell us what means have been taken in the past, here at the port of departure, to prevent the conveying of contagious diseases to the United States, and whether those methods have been improved upon?

Dr. . I could answer that shortly or I could answer it in detail better. I can give you a written statement.

Senator. That will be better still. We will give the doctor time to make a written statement if that meets the views of the committee. Do you approve of that, Mr. Stump?

Representative. It would be much more satisfactory.

Dr. Burgess submitted the following in answer to the above question:

No person is allowed to go aboard of the vessels referred to without a permit from the sanitary inspector, and no passenger can purchase a ticket or take passage who has not a health certificate from said inspector. This certificate sets forth that he is acclimated to yellow fever, either by a previous attack or by a continuous residence of several years, five or more, in towns and cities habitually subject to it in an epidemic form, or where it usually prevails endemically, and who has passed through at least one severe epidemic; or that he is a native of places frequently visited by it, and that there is practically no danger of his conveying the disease.

In cases of applicants for health certificates in whom the inspector personally knows the above conditions to exist, and that by virtue of them the person enjoys immunity from yellow fever, there is no reason why a certificate to that effect should not be given at once, or, in other words, his health certificate.

But there are numerous cases which present themselves for a certificate, in which the inspector in order to satisfy himself that the conditions required exist, has to adopt methods of investigation to corroborate even the sworn statement of the applicant, and the details are very much as follows:

Applicants for “health certificates” in Havana can for convenience be divided into four classes, viz: Foreigners, Spaniards, foreigners who are natives of places where yellow fever occurs frequently and endemically, and Cubans.

First class; as to foreigners.—Their own statements as to length of time passed continously in places subject to yellow fever, as well as having had the disease, etc., must be supported by the following documentary evidence: Their cedulas (a paper), which give a personal description of them, their age, nativity, profession, and the place where they habitually reside, and passports; also certificate of the consul of their nation, to the effect that to his knowledge they have made correct statements; certificate of some well-known and respectable business house or banking institution that they are reliably