Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-02-28
MARINE BO,PITAL.
The Patients Sub.Let TO the
City at One Dollar Per
Head Per Day.
How the Hospital Find is Raised
and DiSbursed--The Rights
Of Every Seaman.
Memphis Entitled to a Separate
Hospital.
One Hundred and Z lightly Thousand
Dollars 10 the Credit OF Ten.
nessee AT Washington.

neSsee AT wasn't nktQns
There are few people perhaps ia this
city who know that Memphis has a Ma
rine Hospital sustained and regulated by
the national central government. Yet
such is the fact, at least the government
has an arrangement whereby all the Off
GERS, w~atchmen, fremen, cooks, pantry
men, walters, cabin boys, chambermaids
deck hands, roustabouts, lightermen and
other employees Of steamboats, plying 10
Western wsters, as well as vessels Of the
United States engaged in the foreign
trade, which includes all engaged in
trade on the sea coast as we'll as inland,
but not vessels employed in fisheries or
as cansl boats, shall befurnished medical
attention and hospital accommodations
at all points where there is a customs
officer.
It is provided by Federal laws that the
sun Of forty cents per month shall be
assessed as hospital dues and collected
from all officers and seamen engaged or
employed as above described during the
time they are employed, without regard
to whether the vessel was in active SER
vice or in port. Fifty.three such vessels
ply to and frsm Memphis, and their mas
ters regularly collect the dues and turn
them over to General W. j. Smith, the
custom house officer at this port. Every
officer. seaman or employe is liable to
this tax whether he or she work an hour
or q month, and it is invariably deducted
from their wages. to be accounted for in
the regular settlements required by law.
A LEDGER reporter was courteously
permitted to examine the books Of the
customs officer at this port Saturday
aud found that tie total collections of
hospital dues for the year 1875 amounted
to s 1891 80. We ascertaiEed also that
permits to enter the hospital can, 10 case
Of sickness, be granted to any who pay
dues, upon order Of the customs officer,
with the proper physicians certificate
One permit is only good for two months,
and the patient to be readmiteed must
return to the vessel upon which he was
employed and receive a certificate Of
such employment BY the master Of the
vessel. he may then reapply and be
admitted for another tern.
The government patients at Memphis
are let out by contract to the city at one
dollar per day. and placed in the city
hospital. which has been in charge Of
DR.. Gus Thornton for the last seven
years. We find that during the year
1876 be treated 205 patients Of the gov
eminent, and that their time in the hos
pitSl averaged a fraction over nineteen
days each.
The government has q special contract
fot smallpox cases witt the county at
one dollar and fifty cents per day. The
reports Of last year show hat only
about seventy dollars we're expended by
the government at the county penthouse,
The disease did not prevail in this sec
ton Of the country in 1876, and it is
likely that this report is far below the
average.
A law was passed by Congress which
was approved July l6, 1898, providing
for the relief of sick and disabled sea.
men, and has been amended frequently
since down to June 3. 1870. The super.
vising surgeon at present and for some
years past is aud has been Surgeon Gen.
ersl John NJ. Woodwork. The regula
tionG are similar to other departments
aud relate mostly to the duties Of off
GERS Of the service. The department il
not a large one, although it is indispen-
Sible, especially for the benefit Of Amer
lean seamen who 20 abroad, where hos
pitfalls have been established, and a regu
lar corps Of officers and employees ap
pear on the pay rolls. Each State il
the Union is credited at Washington witt
the hospital dues collected by the custom
officers within its borders. Tennessee ha
. credit in the Treasury Department o
one hundred and eighty thousand dollart
It has not been the policy Of the govern
ment to increase the number OF marin
hospitals, but the necessity for one Of
the great Mississippi river at o poin
above New Orleans nearer than Cairo o
St. Louis, has suggested tbstif The fact
we're properly presented Congress nigh
make an appropriation sufficient to es
tabliSh q separate aud independent bo;
pital at Memphis. The collections o
hospital dues are smaller than formerl,
at this point, owing to the general falling
OF Of business, but is likely to ~increas
again. We understand that after tn
custon-house question is disposed Q
Colonel Casey Young, our Represents
tive In Congress, proposes to snply for
snAlb appropriation to build such a -