r and more disagreeable than Captain Allen ever
dreamed of, were carried on, under the direction of the pilot and a
revenue officer, several times a day. They were attended with a most
inodorous effluvia, and caused such a general concert of sneezing
and coughing, by night as well as by day, that one would have thought
influenza, in its most fearful shape and with giant power, had seized
every man by the throat.

Chapter XXXVI. SANITARY LAWS--MUTINY AND MURDER

Laws for the preservation of the health of a community have been
established among civilized nations in every age. And when these laws
are based on reason and intelligence, they undoubtedly subserve a noble
purpose. But the quarantine laws all over the world, with some rare
exceptions, being the offspring of ignorance and terror, are not only
the climax of absurdity, but act as an incubus on commerce, causing
ruinous delays in mercantile operations, much distress, and unnecessary
expense.

The PLAGUE was formerly universally regarded as a contagious disease,
and to prevent the horrors which attend its introduction in large
cities, the most stringent laws have been enacted for ages. But
the contagiousness of the plague is now doubted by many enlightened
physicians. Whether it be so or not, it never made its appearance in
countries bordering on the North Sea or the Baltic, or on the American
continent. Although many vessels every year, almost every month, arrive
in our principal ports from the Levant, freighted with rags and
other articles, constituting a medium through which this disease, if
contagious, would surely be propagated, yet this dreadful scourge of
cities, in ancient and modern times, has never been brought across the
Atlantic.

The small pox is another disease against the introduction of which
quarantine laws have been established. That it is contagious there is
no question; but by the blessed discovery of vaccination, this disease,
once so dreadful, is robbed of its horrors, and rendered as harmless as
the measles or the whooping cough, insomuch that laws, formerly enacted
in different states to protect the people from the dangers of the small
pox have generally been repealed.

The Asiatic cholera, when it first made its appearance in Europe,
was believed to be contagious. Quarantine laws, of the most stringent
character, were adopted to prevent its introduction into seaports, and
military CORDONS SANITAIRE were drawn around the frontiers