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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