View report page

45
Sanitary Act of 1866, has made 2,103 inspections
of ships during the year, and has effected sanitary
improvement in 156 of them. As far as I am
aware, he is the only officer appointed for such a
purpose in the port of London; and, therefore,
practically, there is no sanitary inspection of shipping
in this port, excepting in the narrow strip of
the river on the City side, between Blackfriars
and the Tower. Considering how frequently ships
are defective in their sanitary condition, not merely
in the close and filthy state of the forecastle, where
the crew are lodged, but also in the dirty and
overcrowded berths of the passengers; it is of
great public importance that there should be a
general inspection of shipping throughout the
whole of the port of London. Attention has
already been called to this subject by papers lately
published on the Hygienic condition of our Mercantile
Marine, and among the most emphatic
writers on the subject are the Medical Officer to
Her Majesty's Customs, Dr. Dickson, and the
resident Medical Officer of the hospital-ship,
"Dreadnought," Mr. Harry Leach, as well as one
of the physicians of the ship, Dr. Barnes, all of
whom have exposed the unhealthy state of our
shipping, and have shown that fever exists, to a great
extent, in our coasters, and scurvy in ocean-going
vessels. As regards the latter disease Dr. Barnes
affirms that nearly half of the men received into the