As soon as a ship makes its appearance, it is compelled to go to anchor outside this cordon, until an officer of the quarantine establishment can go on board to examine it. Should it come direct from an unsuspected Russian port, it is allowed to proceed immediately into the inner harbour. Should it, however, have passed the Bosphorus, it must first remain fourteen days at anchor in the roadstead without daring to enter even the quarantine harbour. A g^ard is then put on board the ship, and it is left what is called in observance for the stated period. If after the lapse of this time no sickness appears, the ship is allowed to run into the quarantine harbour, and can now receive or unload goods, and, under certain restrictions, hold communication with the shore. The passengers can also procure lodgings in the buildings set apart for the purpose, and pass the rest of their forty days in rather a more convenient manner than on board sliip.
The goods imported by sea are divided into two classes — namely, suspected and unsuspected. To the latter belong sugar, coffee, corn, fruit, wood, &c. (that is, unless the coverings in which they are wrapped may render them suspected) ; and these ar3 conveyed into a particular warehouse, with one gate towards the sea and another towards the land. As soon as the ship's jDeople have retired, and the smallest morsel oi any thing belonging to them left behind has been carefully burnt, the gates towards the sea are closed, the opposite ones opened, and the merchants are permitted to send for the goods.
For the goods regarded as suspected, especially cotton, there are many and tedious modes of purification. The tlilck bales of cotton must be entirely unpacked, picked to pieces, an-d spread in thin layers over horizontal gratings. They are then fumigated for twelve hours with chlorine, and exposed for the same time to the fresh air.
As this business of unpacking and purifying the cotton is considered excessively dangerous, it is only performed by those who are considered as already lost to society — namely, those sentenced to transportation to Siberia. They are called in Odessa mortus, or in the plural morfusse, from the Latin mortuus, because they are regarded as destined to fall a prey to the plague (though the truth is, they are seldom attacked by it) ; and it is a melancholy spectacle to watch them through the gratings, clothed from head to foot in black leather, heavily ironed, and pursuing their dangerous and sometimes fatal occupation.
The shipment of goods from the land is accompanied by just as many formahties. The goods are brought out in boats kept for the purpose to about halfway towards the ship. The people from the shore then retire, and the plague soldiers come on board the boat, and hoist the yellow plague-flag as a signal to those on board the ship. After they have re'tired, the boat must be swept out and ex^^osed to the fumes of burning sulphur, before it can be again used. It is wonderful that all this should not have been fatal to the trade of Odessa. What a benefit would the English confer on mankind if they could prove that the plague is not really infectious !
Communication with persons in quarantine is carried on in a pleasant little garden, planted with acacia-trees, through which runs a long arcade, with a threefold separation ; on each side a trellis of wood, and in the middle a grating of iron wire, which not even a letter could be passed through. Many little divisions or boxes are formed in these arcades, in which matters requiring privacy may be discussed. The garden, like the streets, rejoices in a twofold appellation, and is called indifferently " il Parlatorio,^^ or " Rasgovorui" the latter word signifying a dialogue.
It is amusing enough to ramble about this garden, and see on one side the pure, rejoicing in their innocence, strolling up and down, waiting for their friends the unhappy suspected, who, on the other side of the grating, are whiling away their tedious imprisonment as well as they can. Every little grated chamber is occupied by persons, with their faces pressed against the wooden trelhs, conversing confidentially, and pouring out their hearts to each other at four yards' distance. Some are talking loud, and scolding at a real or imagined injury, while the object of their reproaches sits tranquilly, at a safe distance, behind the railing ; sometimes a lover is watching his mistress, imprisoned for four weeks behind the grating; or a mother maybe seen holding up her children, who vainly stretch their Uttle arms towards the plague side, which contains their father.