Medical and topographical observations upon the Mediterranean : and upon Portugal, Spain, and other countries / by G.R.B. Horner.
- G. R. B. Horner
- Date:
- 1839
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Medical and topographical observations upon the Mediterranean : and upon Portugal, Spain, and other countries / by G.R.B. Horner. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![tercourse with Spain. Vessels from Veglia, from the ports of Dalmatia, asfar down as Ragusa; from the adjacent islands, including the Ionian; from Oran, and all the ports of the Barbary States as far east as Tripoli, are deemed only suspected, provided they bring patents of health, signed by the Spanish consuls ; but if they do not they are considered to be infected. Finally, every vessel which has come from any port on the globe, where the inhabitants at the time of sailing were suffering from any pestilential or contagious disorder, are quarantined, even after its extinction, until the supreme junta has declared the place to be in a state of health. Purifications.—The vexations of quarantine are nothing in com- parison with those of the system of purification practised for ex- pelling all contagious and infectious matter from the vessels, their crews, cargo, and whatever else they conlain thought susceptible of infection. Vessels of unclean patent, and decidedly infected, are sent into Pest Harbour, and there are unladen, have all their scuttles and hatches opened, are washed within and without day after day, and fumigated every four days with a mixture of muriatic acid, oxide of manganese, and muriate of soda, after the following proportions : For Vessels of Muriatic acid. M anganese. Muriate of Soda. From 1 to 50 tons . 3 oz. . I2 OZ. . 2£ oz. 50 to 100 „ . 8 . n . 7^ 101 to 200 „ . 9 3 . 84 201 to 400 „ . 11 . 31 . Ill Moreover the sails are immersed in sea water for 24 hours and then dried, and the same is sometimes done to the clothes of the crew and passengers. ]f the vessel's cargo should consist in great part of things thought susceptible of infection, and if she should have lost by disease any of her crew or other person at t he port of departure, or on her passage, she is alternately washed and fumigated for six days in succession. The clothes of the deceased are, also, first im- mersed for three or four hours and afterwards exposed to fumigation, and the vessel is quarantined five days longer; but if the disease of which the person died should be suspected to have been contagious. an additional term of ten days is made, and the quarantine ex- tended to forty days. After purification, articles unsusceptible can be taken aboard, but those susceptible of infection, as bales of cotton, flax, hemp, and wool, are conveyed to the store-houses, thrown upon the benches between them, and are then untied, have their coverings perforated by hooks, and are rummaged by the hands of the cleansers. After- wards they are exposed to the air for fifteen days, and turned over from side to side to be completely freed of all infectious matter. Goods in bales or boxes suffer a like treatment, grain of every kind is passed through troughs or gutters : and all jars, and other things containing articles deemed susceptible of contagion, are emptied in order to be purified, and also, if required to be perforated with hooks, which appear to be thought the true and infallible tests](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2101954x_0162.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
