Report of the Commissioner of Health, Kingston, Jamaica / [James Scott].

  • Scott, James.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Commissioner of Health, Kingston, Jamaica / [James Scott]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    be proper for the Centrjil Board of Henlth or Quarantine Board to consider if, under any existing Law, regulations coidd not be tbrnied, and some restrictions placed upon tliis class of vessels, taking cargo or sailing in ballast from inti?ctcd to uninfected ports, or entering sucli ports for any purpose \\ licitever; and I then stated I was unprepared to offer any suggestions on the sub- ject. • ^ 11. If at present, no power be vested in the above Boards, it might not be undesirable for the Government to pass a Law, enacting thiit every vessel, of whatever description, on being re- ported by the Health Otticer of any port where she may arrive, as having sailed ii-ora a port in the Island where an infectious and contagious disease, like Smnll-pox is prevailing, shall be re- quired to anchor at a certain distance from and to have no com- munication with the shore—if laden, to have her whole cargo fjmii- gated before being discharged—andthatthc cal)Inaiid hold of the vessel should be subjected to tlie same process, being tlioroughly cleansed, disinfected and limewaslied. The crew not to be al- lowed to go ashore, hnt to be rerpiired by the Health Officer to remain on board for sucli a period of time as the Law may di- rect. 12. If such proceeding should l)f- regai'di'd ;!slik(dy to cause an interruption to mercantile opei-ations, 1 cannot 1)ut think that the question of the safety of t he po[Mdation is of paramount impoi't- ance, considered relatively wiili tliat wliicli concents the inte- rests of a few individuals, the utuKjst amount of injury, if any, done to whom might l)e, a sligiit int 'rruption to business, through delay in the landing of goods. 13. Feeling satisfied, fioui i xpeiience, of the possibility of dangerous contagious and infectious diseases being thus brought from any of the distant paiisliesto lvingst(jn, by means of vessels arriving from outports, I liaA e tliniiglit it my duty to bring tlie matter again before tlie Board, seeing that this City, having a dense and increasing })opulation, A\itli dwellings, ill-constructed, badly ventilated, and overcrowded, is less prepared than any other place in the Island to withstand the consequences of an invasion of such diseases. 14. Whilst on the subject of contagious and infectious diseases, and referring to the measures that sliould be employed to guard the community from them, I would ask the attention of the Board to the remarks I made on the subject in a former Report, some of the siiggesfijus contained in which might not be niiworthy o' the consideration of the Government, affording as I tliiid^ they do, grounds for Legislative action, not the least