REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE OP 1848, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 REMOVAL OF THE QUARANTINE, 
 
 REPORT 
 
 Of the Select Committee appointed by the House of Assembly on the 11th of April, 
 1 848, to examine and report as to whether the Quarantine Establishment in the 
 County of Richmond should be removed from its present location, and as to what local- 
 ity said Quarantine Establishment should be removed. 
 
 The Select Committee appointed pursuant to the resolution adopted by 
 the House of Assembly on the 1 1th day of April, 1848, respectfully report : 
 
 That your Committee, shortly after the adjournment of the Legislature, 
 entered upon the duties imposed upon them by the resolution. The subject 
 is one of great importance, involving as it does, not only the interests of 
 the great body of our citizens connected with the commercial concerns of 
 the State ; but also, what is of far greater importance, the protection of 
 community against the spread of those diseases which are pestilential or 
 infectious in their character, and also, considering that those interests 
 necessarily conflict, it is one of peculiar delicacy and difficulty ; and in 
 order to come to a correct conclusion, your Committee felt justified in giv- 
 ing a large portion of their time to the matter ; they have endeavored to 
 consider it without regard to the wishes of those whose feelings or whose 
 interests would bias them either one way or another. 
 
 The resolution, it will be perceived, contains two branches of inquiry : 
 
 First, Shall the Quarantine Establishment be removed from its present 
 location — and, if so, 
 
 Second. To what locality should it be removed ? 
 
 Your Committee in examining these questions have used their utmost 
 endeavors to procure all the information practicable, not only from per- 
 sonal inspection and examination, but they invited information by notices 
 through the public press for all those who felt an interest in the subject 
 matter to appear before them, and also by direct request to such as were 
 supposed to' possess either peculiar knowledge, skill or experience, to give 
 your Committee the benefit of that knowledge, skill and experience, and 
 the result has been that they have collected a mass of facts and opinions 
 which is appended hereto, and they will now endeavour to set forth, as suc- 
 cinctly as may be, the conclusions of their own minds from such personal 
 inspection and examination, and the evidence produced before them. 
 
 1 
 
2 
 
 As to the first branch of the inquiry — Should the Quarantine Establish- 
 ment be removed from its present location 1 To this we unhesitatingly 
 answer, YES; and for the following reasons: 
 
 The great object of a Quarantine establishment, to use the language of 
 the statute, is " to prevent the spread of pestilential or infectious diseases/' 
 to protect the community, and to guard the public well against those dis- 
 eases which are not indigenous here, but which, coming from other coun- 
 tries, if once permitted to get a foothold in our crowded cities and villages, 
 there finding the necessary aliment to sustain, would carry disease and 
 death with them. The yellow fever and cholera are instances of this class 
 of pestilence ; also diseases of another character, which though they may 
 and frequently do originate here, also come from abroad, yet by prudent 
 measures are arrested and confined within circumscribed limits, and are 
 thus prevented from becoming epidemic. The ship or typhus fevers and 
 smallpox are known examples of this class of pestilence. In short, the 
 great end of a Quarantine, as has been well said, is precautionary. 
 
 As to the propriety or necessity of such an establishment, opinions vary, 
 and learned Doctors have disagreed ; and, it being an admitted fact that 
 " it is hard to decide when Doctors disagree," your Committee content 
 themselves by agreeing with what this State has said time and again 
 through her Legislatures, that a Quarantine is highly necessary. This 
 State while a colony commenced legislating on the subject, and from time 
 to time, down to the year 1846, have passed stringent laws for the preser- 
 vation of the public health, and this, too, notwithstanding strong opposition 
 and earnest remonstrances from those with whose interests such establish- 
 ment comes in conflict ; and indeed since the very able report made to 
 this House by a select committee appointed in 1845, to examine the subject, 
 and whose report will be found in Assembly Document No. 60, for the year 
 1846, it would seem to be no longer an open question, but the paramount 
 necessity and importance of a Quarantine establishment to have been deter- 
 mined on as the settled policy of this State. 
 
 A brief review of the Quarantine laws of this State, and history of its 
 establishment in its present location, if not strictly germane to the matter, 
 may not be out of place, and indeed is necessary to a full understanding 
 of the subject. The first law on the subject was passed by the Colonial 
 Legislature in 1758, and is entitled "An Act to prevent, the bringing in 
 and spread of infectious distempers in the colony," and provides that ves- 
 sels having the smallpox, yellow fever, or other contagious distempers, 
 should not come nearer the city than Bedlow's Island, and should make 
 their Quarantine there ; and heavy penalties were imposed for a violation 
 of the laws. This law was substantially re-enacted in 1784. A physi- 
 cian was to be appointed to inspect suspected vessels, and the penalties 
 imposed were appropriated to the light-house at Sandy Hook. Ano- 
 ther Act was passed in 1796, by which a Health Officer was to be ap- 
 pointed, with seven Commissioner of Health, and the sum of <£2,000 was 
 granted to erect a Lazeretto on [what was then called] Nutten Island, [now 
 Governor's Island,] or other lands more eligible. This Act was amended 
 in 1797, and three Health Commissioners were appointed. Tn 1798 the 
 same law was re-enacted, and the powers and duties of the Commissioners 
 of Health defined. The sum of $1,000, part of the $4,500 granted by the 
 State, to erect a Lazaretto on Governor's Island, was appointed towards 
 
3 
 
 repairing the buildings for the reception of the sick on Bedlow's Island, 
 and the remainder of the said sum was appropriated towards erecting a 
 Lazaretto on such place as should thereafter be designated by law : the 
 avails of fines and forfeitures of recognizances under the Act was to be 
 paid to the Commissioners of the Health Officer, to be by them applied 
 towards defraying the expenses of the Health office ; and repealed the former 
 acts on the subject. Whether a Lazaretto was ever built on Governor's 
 Island in pursuance of these laws does not appear, but on the 25th of Febru- 
 ary, 1779, an Act was passed amending the above Act, and providing that 
 the Commissioners of the Health Office should consist of the Health Of- 
 ficer, a physician to be styled the Resident Physician, and one other per- 
 son to be appointed by the Council of Appointment. They were to have 
 the same powers and privileges and to perform the same duties as the 
 Commissioners constituted by the act thereby amended. The Health 
 Officer was required to reside on Staten Island, and the two other Com- 
 missioners in the City of New-York. These Commissioners were autho- 
 rized, with the consent of the Governor, to purchase a tract of land on 
 Staten Island and to erect a hospital thereon, to be known as 11 the Marine 
 Hospital," and such other buildings and improvements as might be neces- 
 sary to carry out the purposes of the act. It also provided for the 
 anchorage ground of vessels subject to Quarantine. This hospital to be 
 in lieu of the Lazaretto established by the act thereby amended, and to be 
 subject to the same regulations and provisions. This law farther provides 
 that if the Commissioners could not agree for the purchase of the tract of 
 land selected, they might enter upon the same and cause a survey and 
 map thereof to be made, and exhibit such survey and map to the Justices 
 of the Supreme Court or any two of them. They were to certify the same 
 and cause them to be filed in the Office of the Clerk of the County where 
 the lands were situated, to remain as a public record. The Justices were 
 then to appoint not less than three, nor more than five, discreet and impar- 
 tial appraisers to appraise the premises. These appraisers were to ascer- 
 tain the value of the premises and the damage which the owner or lessee 
 might sustain by the appropriation of the same. Their valuation and 
 assessment of damages was to be certified under oath to be true and impar- 
 tial — to be acknowledged before a Master in Chancery and filed in the 
 County Clerk's Office : then, upon payment of such valuation and assess- 
 ment, with the costs of appraisement, the people of this State were vested 
 with the fee simple of said lands. Full regulations were prescribed for 
 the government of the institution, and the sum of fifteen thousand dollars 
 was appropriated for the purposes of the act, and the section of the former 
 act making an appropriation for repairing the buildings on Bedlow's Island 
 was repealed. It was under this act the Quarantine was established in 
 its present location. Since then the law has been amended and revised 
 from time to time, but the great principle of the necessity of protecting by 
 law the public health against imported disease was never lost sight of, 
 until, in J 846, the whole law was revised and the present law enacted, 
 upon the recommendation of the Select Committee above alluded to, after 
 a thorough and able examination of the whole subject by them. Expe- 
 rience has shown the wisdom of these enactments and has proved the 
 utility and necessity of a Quarantine. Let us be cautious, then, not to 
 forget what has saved us from pestilence, and take heed that impunity 
 does not render us careless. 
 
4 
 
 Such, then, being the great objects of a Quarantine establishment, and 
 its necessity admitted, the inquiry arises, What are the essential requi- 
 sites of a location to effectuate that object, and this, too, with the least in- 
 jury and inconvenience to our commercial marine, compatible with the 
 great end to be attained ? These requisites may be summed up as follows : 
 First — The Quarantine should be easy of access from sea for vessels of 
 the largest class, as vessels of all sizes are required to perform Quaran- 
 tine. Second — The anchorage ground should be spacious, commodious 
 and safe in all weathers. Third — An important part of the Quarantine 
 is the lazarettc — its hospital and warehouses. The situation of the land 
 should be airy and salubrious, with an abundance of pure water. There 
 should be ample accommodation not only for the sick, but where the con- 
 valescents could be separated, and where the crews and passengers de- 
 tained could be comfortably provided for until their probation was ended, 
 and they could safely be permitted to mix with the community without the 
 fear of infection from their persons or clothes. There should also be con- 
 veniences for vessels to discharge their cargoes. It is frequently desired, 
 and indeed is often the case, that vessels discharge their cargoes and again 
 refit for sea at the Quarantine ground, and it is often necessary that goods 
 are required to be unloaded there in order to be inspected and purified be- 
 fore being admitted into market. Fourth — Its location should be as per- 
 fectly isolated from the surrounding country as possible, that, if necessary, 
 a complete non-intercourse should be enforced, and that the laws might 
 readily be carried out. A Quarantine location combining these requisites 
 would not only effectuate its object as far as it is possible to do so, but the 
 great objection of the serious injury and inconvenience to which it sub- 
 jects our commerce and commercial interests, would in a great measure be 
 obviated. 
 
 How far, then, does the present Quarantine establishment in Richmond 
 county combine their requisites'? 
 
 The present Quarantine establishment is located on the north-eastern 
 shore of Staten Island, and comprises about thirty acres of land, including 
 about five acres belonging to the United States, and used by them for reve- 
 nue purposes connected with the establishment. The cost of the establish- 
 ment has not been ascertained, except so far as appears from appropria- 
 tions made from time to time ; but the value of the property at this time, 
 should the Quarantine be removed, is estimated at from $200,000 to 
 $300,000. The various hospitals and other buildings have been erected 
 at various times, as the exigencies of the establishment required — the last 
 erections being the shantee hospitals, as they are called, near the north and 
 west walls. These have been all built within the last two years, and were 
 rendered necessary by the great tide of immigration which swelled upon 
 our shores during the eventful years of 1846 and 1847, when thousands 
 were driven from their homes in the old world by the famine which pre- 
 vailed, and, bringing with them the germs of disease engendered by want, 
 had to be provided for immediately on their arrival. They crowded our 
 poor-houses and hospitals to overflowing ; the already extensive buildings 
 were found wholly inadequate to provide for those whose payment of the 
 tax gave them a right of admission, and these shantee hospitals were erected 
 to meet the sudden emergency. 
 
 At the time the Quarantine was established in its present location, Sta- 
 
5 
 
 ten Island possessed in an eminent degree all the necessary requisites 
 above stated, and it possesses them now. It is peculiarly easy of access 
 from sea for the largest class of vessels. The anchorage ground is 
 good, and the harbor is safe and commodious at all times and in all seasons 
 and weathers, excepting when easterly gales prevail, or winter has filled 
 the bay with ice. At such times vessels have been driven from their 
 moorings, and loss of life and property has ensued. It possesses a climate 
 famed for its salubrity, and fresh water is found in abundance for all pur- 
 poses, and of the purest quality ; and when that location was selected, it 
 possessed every facility and accommodation required, and no place could 
 have been found within the bay and harbor of New- York which at that 
 time combined so many of the essential requisites for an establishment of 
 this kind, and in such perfection. But now, however, it wants that isola- 
 tion and seclusion without which a Quarantine is but a farce. When the 
 institution was placed on Staten Island, the population was sparse ; there 
 were but few inhabitants in the neighborhood, and none but those whose 
 business, either directly or indirectly, was connected with the Quarantine, 
 and these had to give bonds with heavy penalties not to enter the city of 
 New-York during the Quarantine season. Since then, large and prosperous 
 villages have sprung up in the immediate vicinity. Where formerly there 
 was nothing but farms and a few farm buildings, now are the villages of 
 Tompkinsville, New Brighton, Stapleton and Factoryville, teeming with 
 busy life. Where the population was then counted by tens, it can now be 
 estimated by hundreds. The rapid increase of the neighboring city, and 
 the increasing demands of her commerce, have driven hundreds of her 
 citizens to Staten Island and to the suburbs. All the lower wards of the 
 city, where formerly dwelt her merchant princes, have been in a great 
 measure abandoned as residences, and devoted to stores and warehouses, 
 and their residents have been compelled to seek habitations elsewhere. The 
 growth of the upper part of the city is the consequence ; and the nume- 
 rous beautiful villages which now dot the shores of the East and North 
 Rivers and of Staten Island, have sprung up as if by magic, where our 
 merchants, mechanics and others, whose business is in the city, seek rest 
 and refreshment after the toils of the day are over, in the more salubrious 
 air of the country. At that time a few row-boats or periaugers were the 
 only means of conveyance, and afforded ample facilities. From two to 
 five hours was the ordinary time of pafssage from the upper end of Staten 
 Island to Whitehall. Indeed, within a very few years, a single steamboat, 
 making but two trips a day, furnished all the required means of intercourse 
 with that Island ; while now the ferry-boat makes its hourly trip, and is 
 crowded with passengers. Then, the enforcement of the Quarantine laws 
 was comparatively easy ; but now, from the great facility of intercourse, it 
 is impossible. The means of communication are so easy that instances are 
 given where whole ships' crews have been stealthily carried off in the 
 night ; and the passengers by the ship which recently brought the Asiatic 
 Cholera into the harbor, and which created so much alarm throughout the 
 State, becoming tired of the restraints of the Quarantine, eloped en masse 
 — nor was there any power to prevent it. There are no means, from the 
 nearness to the city, of keeping up a sufficient police force, unless, in the 
 language of one of the witnesses, a coast-guard was employed to row around 
 the shipping, and a regiment of soldiers were stationed at the Lazaretto. 
 
6 
 
 Another fruitful source of danger, if received opinions be correct, is the 
 constant visiting the establishment by friends of the patients. It is well 
 known that a great tide of emigration has set upon our shores during 
 the past two or three years, caused by the peculiar circumstances, both 
 social and political, of the Old World, and which with the great induce- 
 ments held out here, must continue to increase until means of transporta- 
 tion fail. This, as a necessary consequence, has brought with it a large 
 amount of disease. The dictates of humanity — the duty of protecting the 
 public health, as well as the legal claim of the emigrant, arising from the 
 fact that he has paid the tax imposed for the purpose — require he should 
 be provided for and taken care of. The Quarantine Hospitals have, in 
 consequence, been crowded to overflowing with diseases highly infectious 
 in their character, propagated by the impure atmosphere of a crowded ship 
 working upon a system already enfeebled by want ; and the epidemic 
 typhus and other diseases of like character, have crammed our hospitals 
 until the returns of the Health Officer show that in a period of about nine 
 months there has been nearly seven thousand admissions, with about a 
 thousand there constantly, and this number is continually increasing. 
 Each of these emigrants have some friend or relative here who have been 
 anxiously looking for their arrival ; the father has sent for his family to 
 come and share his home in the New World ; a sister is looking for her 
 brother; or a child for his parent. The time is anxiously awaited when 
 again they can embrace the well-beloved ones and the long desired. At 
 length the telegraph announces the arrival of the ship — her passengers 
 have battled the famine of the old world and escaped the perils of the sea 
 — they have safely arrived at the " haven where they would be," but ship 
 fever has marked them, or they have been exposed to the smallpox, and 
 instead of being allowed to go to these friends the stern mandate of the law 
 sends them to the Lazaretto for purification or for cure. Is it at all won- 
 derful they should chafe under this restraint, and should break their bonds 
 when the means afforded seem to hold out a constant invitation to do so ? 
 Is it at all surprising that these friends and these relatives should hasten 
 to them when the facilities of getting there are so many % The doors of 
 the Commissioners of Emigration are besieged by applicants for permits, 
 and so great has been the pressure that two days in the week have been 
 set apart on which their friends are allowed to visit the patient without 
 restraint, and on those days they may be seen by hundreds coming and 
 going in the ferry boats to and from the City to the Island, and the extra- 
 ordinary spectacle is presented of an unlimited, unrestrained, and licensed 
 intercourse with an establishment whose greatest aim is to prevent that 
 very intercourse. Now if there is any truth in the theory and any reli- 
 ance to be placed upon the commonly received opinion, that these diseases 
 are highly infectious, and that the infection may be carried in the clothing 
 of those exposed, it would seem to follow that these persons, coming 
 directly from the infected atmosphere cf the Hospital and the side of the 
 sick, must present a fruitful source of contagion; and indeed the alarming 
 extent to which the ship fever prevailed during the years 184b* and 1847 
 may, no doubt, in a great measure, be traced to this source, and that it did 
 not become epidemic, and that the City was not devastated by pestilence, 
 was certainly not owing to any protection afforded by the Quarantine. 
 Nor is there any means of remedying this difficulty. The law has taken 
 
7 
 
 al! the power to do so from the Health Officers, and the Commissioners of 
 Emigration say that from the dense population surrounding the Establish- 
 ment, the great facility of intercourse, the want of practical means of 
 maintaining a proper police with the present arrangements at the Quaran- 
 tine, beside the great inhumanity of preventing the visits of friends to the 
 patients, render it impracticable if not impossible to enforce a rigid 
 Quarantine. + 
 
 Another objection to the present location was urged upon your Commit- 
 tee with great force, and which is of a serious character as far as the ob- 
 ject of a Quarantine in protecting the public health is concerned, and has 
 only arisen within the past two or three years. It is this : in these emi- 
 grant passenger ships, it is usual upon their arrival to tear down the bunks 
 and to throw them overboard with the beds and other articles which it is 
 supposed may contain infection. These articles are carried by the tide to 
 the shores of Long Island or Staten Island ; here they are collected by the 
 chiffoniers or rag-pickers from New. York, and are brought to the city by 
 cart loads, to be sold, or deposited in the junk-shops, &c. Most of these 
 articles are necessarily infected with disease, and, of course, are not to be 
 permitted within the city. This is a practice of almost daily occurrence,, 
 and it is, by no means, uncommon, that while the vessel is detained at the 
 Quarantine for thirty days, the very articles from which the greatest dan- 
 ger of infection is to be apprehended, and which have been the great cause 
 of compelling the ship to perform Quarantine, are in the city in less than 
 twenty-four hours, and this, too, without any power of molestation or hin- 
 drance. This, too, arises in a great measure from the nearness of the loca- 
 tion to New- York. Were the Quarantine removed to a greater distance, 
 these chiffoniers might easily be prevented from carrying on their nefarious 
 trade, and the same tide which now carries these infected articles, and 
 with them the danger of pestilence and death, to the shore, would then 
 make these out to sea. 
 
 It is to be remarked, too, that this intercourse, frequent as it is, and un- 
 restrained as it is, is directly through the contagion — the track of the ferry 
 boat, as she makes her frequent trips to and fro from the city of New-York, 
 being necessarily through the midst of the fleet of vessels detained at the 
 Quarantine ; and it requires but a breath of wind, as experience has 
 shown, at any time with a congenial atmosphere, to waft the poisonous 
 miasma from the infected ship, and blow the spark of pestilence into a 
 flame. Nor is there, nor can there be, any power to prevent this inter- 
 course, however great the necessity might be. This the experience of the 
 past Summer has fully demonstrated ; for when the Board of Health, with 
 the powers with which the law has clothed them, ample though they be, 
 undertook to prevent this intercourse, and to prescribe the limits of com- 
 munication between the City and portions of Staten Island, its only effect 
 was to prevent the ferry-boat from landing within the infected district, 
 while those who desired to visit the City had but to go a short distance to 
 Stapleton on the one side, or New-Brighton on the other, to find there every 
 facility of communication ; and the evidence shews instances where per- 
 sons spent the night in tending upon those sick with the yellow fever, and 
 yet coming to the City daily. These persons were, it is true, put to some 
 inconvenience and a trifling additional expense by the attempted establish- 
 ment of this cordon, yet the City was in no way protected from the intro- 
 
8 
 
 duction of pestilence. An examination of the evidence will show other 
 facts, equally strong, which prove that the present Quarantine wholly 
 fails to effect the object for which it was intended, and it is from these 
 facts, as well as personal inspection, your Committee unhesitatingly come 
 to the conclusion that the Quarantine in its present location is no Quaran- 
 tine, but, to use the language of one of the witnesses, " is a perfect farce 
 and burlesque that while it is attended with all the evils and open to all 
 the objections of the most rigid Quarantine, the great end of its establish- 
 ment is frustrated, and that so far as its efficiency is concerned in afford- 
 ing protection against the spread of pestilential or infectious diseases, it 
 might as well be placed on the Battery or in the Park as in its present 
 location on Staten Island, and for this reason the establishment should be 
 removed. 
 
 There are other reasons which go strongly to show the absolute neces- 
 sity of its removal. We have before adverted to the fact of the great in- 
 crease of emigration. This increase requires a much larger space than is 
 afforded in its present site. There is not sufficient room for the increased 
 wants of the establishment. Until recently the persons detained there 
 were comparatively limited in number, not to exceed five hundred in a 
 year; and eighty patients in the hospitals at one time was considered a 
 large number. One of the late Health Officers says, that during the years 
 1840, 1811 and 1842, the number of patients varied from eight hundred 
 to one thousand. For such a number the accommodations were ample. 
 The Hospitals were only used for the specific purpose for which each 
 was built, and the Yellow Fever Hospital was never used except for that 
 disease, and was often closed entirely. Then the number of patients were 
 few and the Hospitals were closed from November to April. Now they 
 are kept permanently open and crowded with sick, many laboring under 
 the most malignant form of disease, and many not the legitimate subjects 
 of a quarantine, but pauper emigrants from the City of New- York. At 
 the present time the number has increased to nearly seven thousand in 
 almost nine months, with from seven hundred to one thousand constantly 
 there, and the cry is " still they come " To meet this increasing demand 
 new Hospitals have been erected. First, the North Hospital, as it is call- 
 ed ; then the Shantee Hospitals, as they are termed. But still there is 
 a want of room, and so crowded have they become that, as one of the Phy- 
 sicians tells us, although the Hospital of which he has charge is calculated 
 for only about one hundred and twenty, he has been compelled to crowd in 
 over two hundred. It is true that a portion of them were convalescing pa- 
 tients and well enough to be out during the day, yet all were compelled to 
 sleep within the Hospital, and the natural result was, many suffered from 
 relapse and some died. Another and serious evil of this want of room is, 
 there are no means of separating the sick from the well and convalescent. 
 But all whom the laws require to be detained at Quarantine, or whose 
 payment of the tax gives them the right of admission, are compelled to be 
 mixed up together; and hence we have seen that those whom ordinary 
 disease has spared, have become the helpless prey of the pestilence, and 
 Cholera and Yellow Fever have found their ready victims among the con- 
 valescents of other diseases. For a more full statement of this matter we 
 refer to the communication of the Health Officer and his associates. 
 
 Nor can this objection be obviated at the present location ; all the pre- 
 
9 
 
 sent grounds are fully taken up, and from the manner in which the lands 
 surrounding the establishment are owned and held, it certainly would not 
 be expedient, if practicable, to enlarge the boundaries of the Lazaretto of 
 the present Quarantine. Another objection is, there is no proper place 
 for the burial of the dead. A great source of complaint has been that a 
 very offensive effluvia arises from the Quarantine burying-ground, and it 
 was supposed to be caused by the mode of burying the dead. That an ef- 
 fluvia proceeds from the place not only offensive to the smell, but delete- 
 rious to health cannot be doubted, if any reliance is to he placed on the 
 assertions of witnesses who testify to the fact. Nor is this remarkable 
 when we consider the large number who have found their last resting- 
 place there. One cemetery is already rilled and another is rapidly be- 
 coming full. But the cause is not to be found in the method of burial 
 adopted, for every precaution has been taken and every effort made by the 
 excellent officer having charge of the institution, to prevent this cause of 
 complaint. He says, and others concur with him, that it is owing to natural 
 causes ; theground is clayey with a subsoil of soap-stone, and exceedingly 
 porous. Where so many sick are congregated the deaths must be numer- 
 ous especially in the hot months, when pestilential disease mostly prevails, 
 and whatever method may be adopted, or however deep the last resting- 
 place may be, still the effluvia from such a mass of decaying mortality will 
 work its way througli porous soap-stone and poison the air to be breathed 
 by the living. Nor can the objection be obviated by change of place. 
 The Health Officer says : " The whole Quarantine Ground is ill adapted 
 for burial purposes, but the present location is the best that is afforded." 
 " As to a remedy, I can see none feasible. A vault would be liable to still 
 greater objections and it would be impossible to remove the dead to any 
 other place owing to public prejudices ; these are the only alternatives." 
 
 These are some of the objections to the present Quarantine, and the 
 whole may be summed up in the language of a learned writer on the sub- 
 ject. He says : a Quarantine is always oppressive, but the complaints as 
 to the oppressiveness of Quarantine regulation are almost wholly occasion- 
 ed by the want of proper facilities for its performance. Were these af- 
 forded, the burden it imposes would be rendered comparatively light, and 
 -we do not know that many more important services could be rendered the 
 country than by the construction of a proper Quarantine establishment." 
 These remarks apply with peculiar force to the State of New-York, and 
 to the great commercial emporium of the country. 
 
 Your Committee consider that one great cause of present inefficiency 
 of the Quarantine, is the entire alteration made by the act of December, 
 1847, transferring the control of the establishment from the Commissioners 
 of Health to the Commissioners*of Emigration. Previous to the passage 
 of that act, the Marine Hospital, was held by the Commissioners of Health 
 in trust for the people of this State. The Health Officer was, by right of 
 his office, the physician thereof, and the Commissioners of Health (of 
 which he is one) had, in all other respects, the superintendence thereof. 
 They made the rules and orders for its government, employed the mates, 
 nurses and attendants therefor, and provided the bedding, clothing, fuel, 
 provisions, medicine and such other articles as might be requisite. The 
 whole control was given to them, and they were required to report an- 
 nually. But by the act passed in December, 1847, and which will be 
 
10 
 
 found in Chapter 483, of the Session Laws of that year, this control, " ex- 
 cept in regard to the sanitary treatment of the inmates thereof," was 
 transferred from the Commissioners of Health to the Commissioners of 
 Emigration. Under this act, as might have been expected, constant diffi- 
 culties are arising. There is constant difference as to the division of au- 
 thority. Disputes arise as to what is meant by "sanitary treatment," 
 and what control over the establishment this gives to each set of officers. 
 The Health Officer exercises jurisdiction over the Quarantine Anchorage, 
 while the Commissioners of Emigration claim the right of control over the 
 Lazaretto. This creates disputes, and numerous instances are given as 
 to what persons were entitled, under the laws, to admission into the Marine 
 Hospital; as to whom should be guaranteed and whom not; what arti- 
 cles and what provisions or medicines should be furnished ; what attend- 
 ants or nurses employed, and what repairs made. The consequence has 
 been, the discipline is destroyed, the buildings are becoming dilapidated, 
 the sick suffer, the efficiency of the establishment is ruined, and the in- 
 terest of the State is materially injured ; and indeed the institution now 
 presents more the character of a large pauper establishment, badly man- 
 aged, than a Quarantine. In making these remarks, your Committee beg 
 leave to disclaim any intention of impugning the character and efficiency 
 of the officers in charge, or any of them ; on the contrary, it gives them 
 great pleasure to bear their testimony in favor of the high character of the 
 incumbent of the Health Office, for the integrity, ability and impartiality 
 with which he discharges, and the untiring devotion he gives to, the duties 
 of his office, and they believe that it is a great measure owing to his in- 
 flexibility of resolution in carrying out the Health Laws, so far as he was 
 able, that, under Divine Providence, we were spared from the ravages of 
 yellow fever and cholera, during the past season. So, too, of his deputy 
 and subordinates. They are competent and efficient, and zealously and 
 ably do they second their chief in the discharge of his varied duties. Also 
 the Commissioners of Emigration ; they are men of high character, of pure 
 principles, and of strict integrity, and are engaged in a most noble and 
 humane commission, and well do they perform the duties imposed upon 
 them. Nor is it their fault that a conflict exists between them and the 
 Health Commissioners. They have not been disposed, by any arbitrary 
 exercise of authority, to throw obstacles in the way of carrying out the 
 Health laws; on the contrary, they have giyen every assistance in their 
 power, compatible with the law under which they act. But the statutes 
 imposing their several duties and defining their respective powers neces- 
 sarily conflict, and the objects of the institutions are entirely distinct. 
 While the one was created solely to protect the health of the community 
 against the spread of pestilential or infectious disease, the other was es- 
 tablished to provide for the maintenance and support of such persons ar- 
 riving in the port of New-York, who have either paid the commutation 
 required, or given the bond as provided for in the act, as would otherwise 
 become a charge upon any city, county or town of this State, and to use 
 such farther means as would prevent them from becoming a public charge. 
 They also have the same power in relation to children coming under their 
 character, as the Commissioners of the Alms House of the City of New- 
 York have, under the act respecting " apprentices and servants," or, in 
 other words, it is a commission established to protect the several cities^ 
 
11 
 
 counties and towns of this State, against the evils of foreign pauperism. 
 Thus it will be perceived, the objects of the two commissions are not only 
 distinct, but are entirely incompatible with each other, and if the efficiency 
 of both is impaired, which we believe it is, materially, and if a collision of 
 authority take place, the fault is in the attempt to combine two inconsis- 
 tent objects, and not in the officers deputed to carry out the laws ; and 
 but for this unnatural combination, many of the objections to the present 
 Quarantine would not have existed ; but the mischief has been done, and 
 there is now no remedy but a removal of the establishment from its pre- 
 sent location. 
 
 We have thus far considered the question only in relation to the effi- 
 ciency of the Quarantine in its present location, in effectuating the great 
 object of its institution in affording protection against the spread of infec- 
 tious or pestilental diseases, and have arrived at the conclusion, that public 
 policy requires its removal. We now propose to consider it in respect to 
 its local effect upon Staten Island, and the complaints made by the resi- 
 dents there in relation to it. That its present location exerts a baneful in- 
 fluence, that it has been, and is, a most serious drawback upon the pros- 
 perity of the place, and that the complaints made by those residing there 
 are not unfounded, cannot be disputed or denied. 
 
 From the great concentration of disease there, it must necessarily be 
 dangerous to the health of the population, where that population is dense; 
 and this is the most serious ground of complaint. The inhabitants there 
 are daily and hourly exposed to infection; instances, numerous, are given 
 of the spread of that most loathsome scourge, the smallpox, from the vici- 
 nity of the Quarantine Lazaretto. One person received the infection from 
 being on board the same ferry-boat when a person sick with the disease 
 was being conveyed from the city to the Quarantine Hospital. Other 
 cases are stated when it was conveyed by social or business intercourse 
 with persons connected with the establishment. Others had taken it from 
 contact in places of amusement with persons who had been exposed, and 
 one instance is given where the contagion was communicated in church. 
 The deleterious effect of the vicinity of the establishment upon the health 
 of the inhabitants has been fearfully proved by the experience of the past 
 season. Tn the month of August last, a number of vessels arrived, in- 
 fected with that scourge of the South, yellow-fever. The infected vessels 
 were anchored within the prescribed limits, and the sick were taken to 
 Hospitals, the ferry-boats were forbidden to land, and all intercourse was 
 prohibited, and as far as possible prevented, yet in a few days the disease 
 appeared among the boatman and others employed in the Quarantine Dock. 
 Next, those employed at the steamboat dock adjoining were seized ; gra- 
 dually, but surely, the pestilence marched on its deadly mission for nine 
 days, when it reached its extreme southern limit, a distance of about one 
 and a quarter miles from its starting point, attacking almost all who came 
 within the infected limits, and in the short space of about a month, one 
 hundred and fifty (exclusive of those within the Quarantine enclosure) 
 were attacked, and out of these over thirty fell victims to the dread vomito. 
 All business was stopped, and those who were able fled, affrighted, from 
 the scourge ; and but for this, no doubt, the ravages of the pestilence would 
 have been much greater. Nor can it be said it was owing to any fault 
 of theirs, nor to their own imprudence ; they had not exposed them- 
 
12 
 
 selves to it, nor did the infection come from the Hospital, but the poisonous 
 mia«ma was blown from the ships to the shore, and all were seized who 
 came within the polluted atmosphere. Within the Quarantine enclosure, 
 too, its effects were most revolting to humanity. At the time, numbers 
 were convalescent and almost ready to be discharged, yet, when the dis- 
 ease appeared, non-intercourse was declared, and an embargo was laid. 
 Those who were there were compelled to remain, the well with the sick, 
 and numerous were the victims to the scourge from this cause. So, too, 
 of the cholera. The statement of the Health Officer gives a list of twenty- 
 seven persons sent there with other complaints, and those not infectious, 
 who caught them on the arrival of the disease, were tabooed and compell- 
 ed to remain. They now moulder in the Quarantine Cemetery, a fearful 
 argument against the unholy alliance of a pauper establishment with a 
 Health Department. Nor has the past season alone furnished cause of 
 complaint on this ground, for the very first season the Quarantine was lo- 
 cated there, some twenty-five of the inhabitants sickened with yellow-fever, 
 and it proved fatal in every case with but one exception, and every sea- 
 son, from that time to the present, when yellow. fever has been there it has 
 prevailed to a greater or less extent without the Quarantine walls. 
 
 Not only is the health of the inhabitants endangered but the prosperity 
 of the place is injured, the value of their property depreciated, and their 
 business in a great measure ruined. There are other causes of complaint 
 detailed by the witnesses, and which will be found in their evidence here- 
 with submitted, which occasion continual annoyance and discomfort to the 
 residents, and renders the enjoyment of life and property uncomfortable. 
 In tne language of one of the witnesses, " It produces an interference with 
 the full enjoyment of their natural rights which no other portion of the 
 people of the State are subjected to, and which cries aloud to the proper 
 authorities for redress.'' In short it is an undoubted nuisance where it is, 
 and of such a character that it has frequently caused the interference of 
 the Grand Inquest of the county. 
 
 But it is said the persons who now make these complaints have settled 
 there since the Quarantine was located there. That they went there 
 voluntarily, knowing of the existence of the nuisance, and that now they 
 have no right to complain. To this there are several answers. First, 
 the establishment was placed there against the wishes of the people 
 and contrary to their earnest remonstrances. It was stoutly opposed 
 at the time by the Representative from that County, but the State 
 in selecting this location for their quarantine exercised their right of 
 eminent domain. They took the land needed for their public pur- 
 poses contrary to the wishes of the owner, only paying him for it what 
 appraisers, appointed by themselves, adjudged it to be worth, and now 
 those people have mostly passed away, yet their descendants and suc- 
 cessors have succeeded to the rights of the original owners, and are 
 now here asking for relief from a nuisance which has become intole- 
 rable. To this relief it is believed they are legally entitled. The law 
 says that, that which was a nuisance at its commencement to the oc- 
 cupiers of houses in the neighborhood, will not be less a nuisance to suc- 
 ceeding occupiers of the same houses, though they may have come into 
 the neighborhood after the nuisance was established there ; carrying 
 on an offensive trade is a continual injury to the occupation of houses 
 
13 
 
 adjoining, and every succeeding occupier will have all the rights of oc- 
 cupation, and may complain of their infraction, though these rights 
 may have been frequently infringed in the time of his predecessor, and 
 though he takes the house knowing of the existence of the nui-ance and 
 volenti non fit injuria — we may answer he might have taken the house 
 knowing the nuisance to be wrongful and relying on his right to abate 
 it; nor can it be presumed he calculated on the continuance oi that 
 which is wrongful." 
 
 But there is another answer to this objection : If the argument is 
 sound that because they have gone there knowing of the existence of 
 this nuisance, and therefore have no right to complain, and that the 
 State has a prescriptive right to continue it, then we say these per- 
 sons may answer and insist the establishment shall be kept strictly for 
 the purpose for which it was instituted, and that the nuisance to which 
 they are compelled to submit shall not be increased. They may 
 say, You selected this place as your Quarantine location, but you 
 have converted it into a large pauper establishment, which you have 
 no right to do, and to which we object. We must submit to stand be- 
 tween you and the yellow fever, and we may be compelled to be the 
 Pest House of the State, but you have no right to convert the place into 
 a charnel house and make it the Potter's Field for all Europe. The 
 law has said, "that if a person carry on a noxious trade, though in a 
 place where it was anciently established, in a manner more noxious 
 than before, he is liable for the annoyance he causes his neighbors ad- 
 ditional to that which he can justify by proscription or pre-occupation." 
 In the opinion of your Committee, this common-sense rule, as well as 
 rule of law, applies with great force to the present case ; that the Qua- 
 rantine Establishment has become not only more dangerous to the health 
 of the neighborhood, but the offensive effluvia and disgusting exhibi- 
 tions complained of. The greater amount of disease concentrated 
 there has not only rendered the establishment more noxious than here- 
 tofore, but has rendered it in a much greater degree a continual source 
 of annoyance and discomfort, and the enjoyment of life and property 
 more uncomfortable ; and that for these reasons the residents there 
 have good cause of complaint and have good right to ask to be relieved 
 from this annoyance and discomfort. 
 
 It may well be doubted, however, how far the State is justified in 
 setting up this technical and hard rule of right, if right there is, against 
 the equitable demands of a portion of her citizens. It has been often 
 said, and well said, that the state never pleads the statute of limitations 
 against a just claim, nor does she ever enforce a strict legal right against 
 natural justice and equity ; and we trust it will equally be held she will 
 never insist on the continuance of a nuisance when her only claim to 
 do so is founded on the right of preoccupation or prescription. If this 
 had been held a valid reason, the City Alms House would still have 
 been located in the Park; gun-powder magazines would still be found 
 in the heart of your City, and the Lazaretto would have continued on 
 Governor's Island. But laws require a moral force, without which 
 there is no authority; and when the advancing tide of population ren- 
 dered their location improper, however judicious was the original se- 
 lection, they were compelled to give way ; popular opinion or popular 
 
14 
 
 prejudice, demanded they should retire, and in accordance therewith 
 we have seen the location of such establishments changed from time 
 to time. Apply the same rule to Staten Island, and the Quarantine will 
 be removed. 
 
 For the reasons therefore, 
 
 First, That the Quarantine establishment in its present location 
 wholly fails to effect its object, and cannot be made efficient for the pur- 
 poses for which it was instituted : 
 
 Second, Because it is injurious to the health and fatal to the prospe- 
 rity of Staten Tsland, and the complaints urged against its continuance 
 there are well founded. 
 
 Your Committee are of the opinion that the location should be 
 changed, and respectfully recommend its removal. 
 
 As to the second branch of the inquiry embraced in the Resolution : 
 "To what locality should the Quarantine establishment be removed 1 ?" 
 
 As a general answer, we would say the present location is too near 
 the city of New-York; it should be removed to a greater distance, and 
 should be carried as far as possible — as the interests and convenience 
 of Commerce will permit — ^compatible with the objects of the institu- 
 tion. Several places have been proposed as affording a suitable loca- 
 tion, all of which your Committee have visited and inspected as directed 
 by the Resolution under which they were appointed. 
 
 Coney Island, Ward's Point, Prince's Bay, Sandy Hook and Rob- 
 bin's Reef, were proposed and each had their advocates. The annexed 
 Diagram of the Bay and Harbor of New-York, will give a general 
 idea of the situation of the different proposed locations, with the dis- 
 tance from the city. 
 
 Coney Island is in the County of Kings and is owned by the town 
 of Gravesend. It is a sand beach and is used only as a fishing station 
 and as a watering place for sea-bathing, for which purpose it is much 
 frequented in the summer season. All the persons examined, with but 
 one or two exceptions, concur that this would not be a proper location, 
 the land does not afford the necessary facilities for a Lazaretto ; nor is 
 the harbor what is required, it is too much exposed, there is not suffi- 
 cient depth of water; it is not considered by those conversant with 
 such matters as a safe anchorage, and the pilots all say it is too much 
 of an open roadstead. 
 
 Ward's Point is on the southerly point of Staten Island,, and so far 
 as accommodations for a lazaretto are concerned has every requisite 
 needed; it is peculiarly well adapted for such a purpose, but it is too 
 far out of the track of vessels coming in from sea, and a Quarantine 
 located there would cause an unreasonable detention or loss of time, 
 especially for that class of vessels which are required merely to be 
 boarded by the Health Officer for examination. Moreover the channel 
 is said to be intricate, narrow and difficult to navigate, with not suffi- 
 cient space for vessels to lie at anchor. 
 
 Seguine's Point and Prince's Bay are also on Staten Island, but 
 a short distance from Ward's Point. The same remarks would apply 
 to this location as to Ward's Point. The interests and convenience of 
 our commerce would forbid the selection of either Ward's Point or Se- 
 guine's Point and Prince's Bay as the Quarantine Station, unless the 
 
15 
 
 "inconvenience of access from sea could be obviated by a boarding sta- 
 tion at Sandy Hook. 
 
 Sandy Hook is within the territorial limits of New-Jersey, but is oc- 
 cupied by the United States' government as a light-house station, and 
 also as a military station for the defence of the harbor. Sandy Hook 
 has all the natural requisites for a quarantine station in as much per- 
 fection as could, perhaps, be found after leaving the present location, 
 and is peculiarly adapted for the purpose. If this should be selected 
 as the proper location, about a mile south of the light-house would pro- 
 bably be the site chosen. Here we find a large and thrifty growth of 
 cedars, from which it takes its name, covering, it is said, about six hun- 
 dred acres. The character of the soil is a white sand with a light turf, 
 not, however, so sandy but that it is capable of cultivation, as the gar- 
 den at the light-house shows. The soil is dry, the situation is airy, and 
 the climate salubrious, and it is believed a quantity of pure water can 
 readily be obtained sufficient for all the purposes of the establishment ; 
 there is ample room, where not only the different diseases can be clas- 
 sified and kept separate, but the well and convalescent can be accom- 
 modated apart from the sick, and out of danger from contagion. It is, 
 moreover, perfectly isolated and secluded. The police of the establish- 
 ment could be maintained with ease, and the observance of the Health 
 laws enforced without difficulty, while it is so far distant from the city 
 that the intercourse can readily be governed and entirely prohibited, 
 when the presence of pestilence, or any other necessity, renders that in- 
 tercourse improper; yet it is not so far removed from the business marts 
 as to occasion any greater inconvenience to the commercial interests 
 than such an establishment must necessarily create. Indeed, so far as 
 mere distance is concerned, when we compare the increased means and 
 facility of transportation now, with what it was when the Quarantine 
 was placed in its present location, Sandy Hook is not so far from the 
 city of New- York at the present time as the north end of Staten Island 
 was at the. time it was selected by the State for a Lazaretto. Beside, 
 the location and position of Sandy Hook is such that population can 
 never centre there, and its selection for the object proposed may well 
 be considered as a location, "not for a day merely, but for all time." 
 The anchorage ground is good, and the harbor is commodious and am- 
 ple ; it would seem, indeed, as though Nature had intended it for this 
 purpose, so eminently does it appear to be fitted for a Quarantine 
 station. 
 
 There are, however, some objections to this location. Vessels of an 
 easy draft of water would, in coming from sea, be compelled to alter 
 their course and go through what is called the " main ship-channel," 
 around the point of the Hook, to receive the visit of the Boarding Offi- 
 cer, instead of coming up direct through " swash channel," as it is 
 termed ; or in other words, would be required to go out of the way, 
 and thus be longer delayed. The detention thus caused would some- 
 times amount to six hours. This objection, however, only applies to 
 vessels of the smaller size, as vessels of heavy draft are now compelled 
 to take this circuitous route, as there is not sufficient depth of water to 
 permit their passage in a more direct course. Another and more seri- 
 ous objection to Sandy Hook is, that it is not within this State, it being, 
 
16 
 
 as before said, within the territorial limits of New- Jersey. That State 
 has ceded jurisdiction to the United States, to be used for military or 
 public purposes, the State of New-Jersey retaining authority for the 
 execution of civil and criminal process, but the establishment of Qua- 
 rantine there, it is believed, would in no way interfere with the purposes 
 for which the cession was made. It would be necessary, however, to 
 obtain the consent of the National Government and that of our sister 
 State for this purpose. The harbor is exposed to gales from the West, 
 as it is said, but to answer this is the admitted fact that westerly gales 
 do not prevail to any extent during the summer months, which is, 
 strictly, the Quarantine season. Moreover, whatever location may be 
 selected, it would of course be necessary to make the proper erections, 
 by building wharves, or otherwise, for the safety of vessels detained 
 there, and these, it is believed, could be as readily made at Sandy 
 Hook, and no more would be required there than at any other spot 
 within the bay and harbor of New-York. 
 
 Another plan which has been submitted contemplates artificial erec- 
 tions on Robbins' Reef and the adjacent flats. This plan is fully de- 
 tailed in the communication of Major Richard Delafield, of the U. S. 
 corps of Engineers, herewith submitted, and is deserving, and should 
 receive, coming from the high source it does, the most serious conside- 
 ration. It presents a plan for a perfect Quarantine System, and more 
 complete than can, perhaps, be found in the world. It does away with 
 the objections to Quarantine on account of inconvenience, and while it 
 would fully effectuate the object intended, it would afford all the facili- 
 ties to our commerce which can be, consistent with the object. There 
 are, however, objections to this plan which are serious, and, perhaps, 
 insurmountable. Your Committee, however, submit it for the conside- 
 tion of the Legislature. 
 
 In presenting these various locations, we do not feel authorized in 
 recommending, positively, any one of them in particular : but we pre- 
 sent them all, remarking that in our judgment, Sandy Hook is, all things 
 considered, the most suitable location for the Quarantine Establishment of 
 the State. 
 
 All the communications received and testimony taken by the Com- 
 mittee in this matter, are herewith submitted. 
 
 WESSELL S. SMITH, ) 
 (Signed.) ALEX. STEWART, S Committee, 
 
 GURDON NOWLEN, ) 
 
 izx Hthrts 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST