Samuel Freeman Miller

“ The services for which these fees are to be collected are parts of a system of quarantine, provided by the laws of Louisiana for the protection of the state, and especially of New Orleans, an important commercial city, from infectious and contagious diseases which might be brought there by vessels coming through the Gulf of Mexico from all parts of the world, and up the Mississippi river to New Orleans. This system of quarantine differs in no essential respect from similar systems in operation in all important sea-ports all over the world where commerce and civilization prevail. ”

“ A quarantine station, located as this one is under the Louisiana laws, with vigilant officers, can make sure of inspecting every vessel which comes to New Orleans from the great ocean in any direction. Safe and ample arrangements can be made for care and treatment of diseased passengers, and for the comfort of their companions, as well as the cleansing and disinfecting of the vessels. The system of quarantine has here, therefore, as fair a trial of its efficacy as it could have anywhere, and the need of it is as great. ”

“ If ordered to quarantine, after such detention and cleansing process as the quarantine authorities required, she was given a similar certificate, and proceeded on her way. If the condition of any of the passengers was such that they could not be permitted to enter the city, they might be ordered into quarantine, while the vessel proceeded without them. Whether these precautions were judicious or not this court cannot inquire. They are a part of and inherent in every system of quarantine.
If there is a city in the United States which has need of qurantine laws it is New Orleans. ”

“ If there is any merit or success in guarding against these diseases by modes of exclusion, of which the professional opinion of medical men in America is becoming more convinced of late years, the situation of the city of New Orleans for rendering this exclusion effective is one which invites in the strongest manner the effort. ”

“ The danger comes from you, and though it may turn out that in your case there is no danger, yet, as you belong to a class from which all this kind of injury comes, you must pay for the examination which distinguishes you from others of that class.' It seems to us that this is much more clearly a fair charge against the vessel than that of half pilotage, where the pilot's services are declined, and where all the pilot has done is to offer himself. ”

“ And the origin of these diseases is almost invariably attributed to vessels ascending the Mississippi river from the West Indies and South America, where yellow fever is epidemic almost every year, and from European countries, whence our invasions of cholera uniformly come. ”