29th Congress, 
Ist Session. 
Doc. No. 182. 
Ho. of Reps. 
SURGEONS ON PACKET SHIPS. 
RESOLUTION 
RELATIVE 
To the safety of emigrants on hoard of packet ships, fyc. 
April 6, 1846. 
Read, and referred to the Committee on Commerce. 
Resolved, That the Committee on Commerce be directed to take into 
their immediate consideration the annexed statement of Dr. Richard Fra- 
ser respecting the frequent occurrence of smallpox and other contagious 
diseases on board emigrant packet shipsytmd his suggestions in regard to 
the measures proper to be adopted for the safety of emigrants and passen- 
gers on board such ships and the inhabitants of the cities where they 
arrive; and that the committee report by bill or otherwise. 
.Report on the ship Hotiinguer, Captain Ira Bursley, which sailed from 
Liverpool on the 6th day of May, 1845, by Richard Fraser, surgeon. 
Having been requested by Mrs. Maury, of Liverpool, and the other 
cabin passengers, as well as Captain Bursley, to draw up a statement of 
facts which ©ccurred on the Hottinguer during her voyage from Liverpool 
to New York, and to subjoin therewith my own private opinions, I now 
beg most respectfully to lay before them the following details : 
The Hottinguer sailed from Liverpool on the 6th of May, 1845, havyig 
on board 397 steerage passengers, a crew of 22 sailors with 4 officers of 
the ship, and 6 cabin passengers. Of the steerage passengers one-eighth 
were infants ; a very small proportion of these, as well as of the adults, 
had undergone vaccination. On the eighth day after departure, two chil- 
dren were seized with the smallpox, which quickly developed itself in 
the most virulent form. Of course, this infection had been imbibed pre- 
viously to coming on board. Their respective ages were five and seven ; 
neither of these children had been vaccinated. These cases both termi- 
nated fatally. It is impossible to describe the dismay which prevailed 
throughout the ship; nor was this dismay unfounded, because, notwith- 
standing every precaution that might be taken, the probability was that, 
had the voyage been prolonged another week, many would have fallen 
victims to the disease. In justice to Captain Bursley, I wish to state 
that he most cordially adopted every suggestion that I made to him both 
Ritchie & Heiss, primers. 2 
Doc. No. 182. 
for the comfort of the patients and for the safety of the ship- The bodies 
were thrown overboard the instant that life had ceased ; their beds, bed- 
clothes, and linen were also thrown into the sea, and their berths purified 
with burnt tar. But, notwithstanding these precautions, even now (two 
days after landing) seven of the steerage passengers have been attacked 
with the smallpox; and Mrs. Maury herself, the instigator of the present 
report, has been a sufferer from varioloid. These cases have been under 
my own care since landing; how many more may have broken out it 
would be impossible to state. Mrs. Maury’s son, a boy of fourteen, has 
also had a slight attack of varioloid. 0- 
Were this a solitary case, less importance would of course attach to it; 
but I have made the subject a matter of inquiry, and find that it is of con- 
stant and daily recurrence in all the emigrant vessels upon the Atlantic. 
I attribute the yearly visitation of this deplorable malady, the small- 
pox, in the cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other ports, in 
a great measure to the landing of emigrants from vessels in which the 
disease has been raging. No quarantine examination can be efficient in 
this case, because smallpox will lurk in the system many days before it 
appears externally, or before the patient even feels himself indisposed. 
It is customary for the American emigrant ships to carry a full comple- 
ment of passengers without a surgeon on board; neither is the health of 
the passengers ever inquired into ; still less is it considered requisite that 
they should be vaccinated. 
From these circumstances, I am led to the following suggestions; 
Ist. That every emigrant ship be compelled to carry a surgeon, who 
shall examine into the supply of medicines necessary for the cure of the 
most probable kinds of disease which may occur. 
2d. That every passenger immediately after coming on board be submitted 
to vaccination, although he may have previously gone through this opera- 
tion, because vaccination produces no personal inconvenience, and because 
it has been found that it invariably modifies, though it does not always 
prevent, the varioloid and smallpox. Mrs. Maury and her son had each 
of them been twice vaccinated. The patients under vaccination would 
suffer no more at sea than they would on land. 
3d. That a small surgery be allotted to the use of the surgeon, where 
he may receive his patients in private. This is urged for manifest reasons 
of propriety. 
4th. That no emigrant, laboring under any infectious or contagious dis- 
ease, be allowed to sail in any vessel, because, where so large a number of 
persons is congregated together, and confined for a length of time, it is 
probable that disease of some description will break out; the risk and 
fatality attending it depending on the malignity of its nature, the means 
available for cure, and the length of the voyage. 
There will be no difficulty in procuring surgeons for these vessels at a 
trifling expense, because many young practitioners would gladly avail 
themselves, for a very small remuneration, of the opportunities thus offered 
to improve their knowledge and experience, and thus also they would be 
enabled to proceed to Europe for the purpose of enlarging their acquaint- 
ance there with professional men, and practise while the vessel remained 
in port. 
New York, June 8, 1845. 
RICHARD FRASER. Doc. No. 182. 
Dr. Richard Fraser, now of New York, the author of the above report, 
was accidentally a passenger on board the Hottinguer; and, when the small- 
pox broke out, he announced himself a surgeon, and volunteered, from 
motives of charity, to take charge of the ship. Dr. Fraser was educated 
in the medical schools of Edinburgh, and had previously practised in 
Glasgow.