Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly.

  • Jamaica. Central Board of Health
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    70/594 (page 56)
    Qttai'fuif.ine. now and tljoii lia])]et() prevail epidemically—of small pox, and the otlier febrile exantliemata as well as the plague/ Answers—Yes, I do; and would give the late awfid visitation as an instance wortliy of re- cord. Previous to the outbreak, numerous cases of intermittent fever, dysentery, and diarrhoea prevailed in the district of Kingston under mv chari.^e. Jt IS an unhealtliy district, surrounded by grave- yards, &c. and it is inhabited chieiiy by paupers of the lowest order. On tlie subject of the iraposilion of quarantine for cholera, there was evidently some con- cision. There is no doubt that the disease did exist in Cuba tor some months, and that no quarantine -was established here. From the accoimt dven bv persons from Cluirges, there seems little doubt that, at the time alluded to, choivM-a did not there exist. With regard to tlie alledged importation into Port- Royal by means of foul linen, this is disproved by the facts themselves as set forth by Dr. Chamber- lane and l)r Watson, who attended the first cases in Port-Royal. The Board are of opinion that if quar- antine laws are to be enforced, and tliat they are really effective in keeping out the introduction of dis- ease, that vessels arriving from a port in Cuba, during the prevalence of an epidemic in that island, even though it brought a clean bill of health, should have been subjected to detention. As a cruel and unneces- sary act, under the quarantine law% the case of the In- flexible, ship-of-war, may be mentioned ; she left this weeks after the cessation of cholera as an epidemic in Kingston and >Spar.ish-Town, for Demerara ; on her arrival there, she was detained for some two weeks or so, with her decks crowded with troops, while at the very same time, one, or more of the men belong- ing (o the same regiment, and exposed to the same epidemic, had been allowed to land out of the packet. As concerns the importation of cholera, the Board of Health would remark the fact, that during the preva- lence of cholera in Kingston, numbers of persons left in the steamers both for JXe^v- York, and Saint Tho-