Report from the select committee appointed to consider the validity of the doctrine of contagion in the plague.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee on Contagion in Plague.
- Date:
- 1819
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report from the select committee appointed to consider the validity of the doctrine of contagion in the plague. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![(Co py.)—Enclosure. SIR, The Hague, 3 April ] 819. IN couipliance with Lord Castlereagh's desire, communicated to me in your letter of the 16th ult. I have made inquiry respecting the Quarantine Regulations established in the United Netherlands, and find that the follovving is the system now practised in this regard : No vessels whatever of any nation arriving in these ports are subjected to quarantine, excepting such alone as come from the coast of Barbary. These latter are immediately vi- sited, and carefully inspected by a medical person, who reports thereon to the Marine Depart- ment at the Hague, which department determines, from the nature of the report, to what extent quarantine shall be enforced in the particular case. The vessel in the interim re- mains under the surveillance of a guard-ship. I have obtained from the Minister of Marine printed copies of the several laws and ordi- nances of the kingdom, relating to this subject; but as these have been delivered to me in the Dutch language (they being not extant in any other j, I have taken measures to get translations thereof, which I shall transmit to the Foreign Office. This, however, cannot be immediately effected, as they are rather voluminous. The Minister of Marine has likewise informed me, that a commission has been appointed by the King of the Netherlands, to inquire into the subject of the Quarantine Laws, to report thereon, and to suggest any furthei' regulations that may be considered necessary. I have, &c. (Signed) J. GAMBIER. J. Planta, Esq. &c. &c. &c. Appendix, N° 3. SIR, THE Commissioners having received an order from the Select Committee of the Honour- able the House of Commons, respecting the Contagion of the Plague, datea' tlie nth instant, directing that there be laid before that Committee, An Account of all cases of absolute Plague in any Lazarette in this kingdom, from 1619 to the present time; I have it in command to transmit to you an Abstract of the Reports received from the Collectors and Controllers of this Revenue at the Quarantine Ports on this subject; and to signify the request of this Board, that the Lords Commissioneio of His Majesty's Treasury will, agreeably to their Lordships standing order, be pleased to be the means of the same being presented to the before-mentioned Committee. I am. Sir, Custom House, London, Your most obedient and very humble Servant, 29th March 1819. D. CURLING, in the Secretary's absence. S. R. Lushington, Esq. &c. &c. &c. Enclosure in N* 3. ABSTRACT of the Reports received from the Collectors and Comptrollers at Rochester, Portsmouth, Falmouth, Milford, Bristol, Liverpool and Hull, in retutrn to the Board's Order of Inquiry, on an Order of the Select Committee of the Honourable House of Commons, respecting the Contagion of the Plague. Rochester.—^The books and records at this port do not go farther back than the year 1716. A proclamation relative to Quarantine appears to have been issued on the 25th August 1720, and the first regular Quarantine establishment appointed at that time, al- though in a letter in 1722, allusion is made to the former Quarantine in 1709, when sheds were erected for airing goods at Hoo Fort. In the year 1721, permission was granted to air goods on the decks of the importing ships, or in hired craft; and this practice seems to have continued until the year 1755, when the first floating lazarette was established at Standgate Creek. There is not any record of a case of absolute Plague in an}' lazarette at this port having occurred, from the earliest period that can be traced to the present lime; but tire following cases of strong suspicion, as to the cargoes of the ships being contagious, appear to have occurred :— In 1721, the ships Turkey Merchant, and Bristol, with their cargoe;j, were taken from Standgate Creek out to sea, and burnt, in pursuance of an Order in Ctouncil, dated the 28th July 1721. In 1792, a chest of goods burnt, imported in the St. George,'* from Zante- In 1800, the ships Aurora, Mentor, and Lark, from Mogadore, were destroyed, with their cargoes, pursuant to an Order in Council of the 7th .lanuary 1800 (grounded upon a representation of the committee, consisting of His Majesty's physician and others), great suspicion being entertained of the same being infected with the Plague. The master of the Lark died at Mogadore, where the disease was raging at the time the vessels sailed; and it was reported, that nearly all the persons who assisted in loading the ships, also died of the plague.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24749527_0103.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
