_Quarantine in America_.--Dr. Richard Bayley is the person to whom New
York is chiefly indebted for its quarantine laws. His death was, however,
by contagion. In August, 1801, Doctor Bayley, in the discharge of his duty
as health physician, enjoined the passengers and crew of an Irish emigrant
ship, afflicted with the ship fever, to go on shore to the rooms and tents
appointed for them, leaving their luggage behind. The next morning, on
going to the hospital, he found that both crew and passengers, well, sick,
and dying, were huddled together in one apartment, where they had passed
the night. He inconsiderately entered this room before it had been
properly ventilated, but remained scarcely a moment, being obliged to
retire by a deadly sickness at the stomach, and violent pain in the head,
with which he was suddenly seized. He returned home, retired to bed, and
in the afternoon of the seventh day following, he expired.