PORT ECONOMICS
on the Continent as Ducs d’ Albe, consist of clusters of
piles driven into the river or basin bottom, and fastened
together above water level, so forming points of attachment
for mooring ropes.
MEDICAL INSPECTION AND QUARANTINE

The medical inspection service of a port is usually
separate from the ordinary function of a port authority,
and comes under a Medical Officer of Health commissioned
by the Port Sanitary Authority, who boards vessels and
inspects passengers, accommodation and sanitary arrange-
ments. A Quarantine Station will be necessary and this
will come also under the jurisdiction of the Sanitary
Authority.

An important function of the Sanitary Authority is to
supervise the destruction of rats and other vermin. Rats
abound in great numbers on board ship and at all wharves
and port warehouses, and they cause enormous losses of
grain and other foodstuffs. Moreover, they are the trans-
mitters of virulent diseases and may easily produce
epidemics. For this reason, it is essential to take every
means for their destruction—rat-traps, terriers, cats (some
are excellent ratters), and poison, though this last has to be
employed with discretion. Vermin may be exterminated
in a ship’s hold by fumigation. In order to prevent rats,
coming from abroad, passing down the mooring ropes
from a ship to the quay (as they will do in the absence of
deterrent measures), plate guards, i.e. thin circular discs
of metal, are frequently fixed to the ropes so as to present
an impassable barrier.

REPAIRING DOCKS

It is one of the responsibilities of a port authority to
see that a port is adequately equipped with depots for the
repair and overhaul of vessels. For this purpose, in the
majority of cases, dry docks or floating docks are necessary.
Slipways, slipdocks and gridirons may serve for minor

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