Speech #520113641

There is but little danger of the class of people who constitute the cabin passengers of the transatlantic steamers bringing with them. either on their persons or in their clothing. the infection of cholera. It is for this reason that I hold most confidently that the chief and. I may say. the only source of danger of cholera finding a foothold. when inspection is properly performed at quarantine. lies in its introduction by the emigrant classes. Dr. John H. Rauch. who is the secretary of the Illinois State board of health. takes the same view of the subject in an address delivered. at the opening of the national conference of the State boards of health. held in the city of St. Louis. October 13 and 15. 1884: It may be necessary to absolutely prohibit immigration. for a time. at least. from infected countries. Every one of our cholera epidemics has been directly and unmistakably traceable to the arrival of immigrants infected in person or in baggage and household goods. It was the crowded troopship and transport which brought the contagion into France from china and Egypt. It is the crowded pilgrim steamer and passenger vessel which carries it from Bombay and calcutta into Europe and elsewhere. as already instanced. It is the steerage of the immigrant vessel. with its crowdpoison and other conditions favorable to the development of a specific contagion. which we have to fear. And this. Mr.