Medical attendance.
In every such steamship or other vessel there shall be properly built and secured, or divided off from other spaces, two compartments or spaces to be used exclusively as hospitals for such passengers, one for men and the other for women. The hospitals shall be located in a space not below the deck next below the main deck of the vessel. The hospital spaces shall in no case be less than in the proportion of eighteen clear superficial feet for every fifty such passengers who are carried or brought on the vessel, and such hospitals shall be supplied with proper beds, bedding, and utensils, and be kept so supplied throughout the voyage. And every steamship or other vessel carrying or bringing emigrant passengers, or passengers other than cabin passengers, exceeding fifty in number, shall carry a duly qualified and competent surgeon or medical practitioner, who shall be rated as such in the ship's articles, and who shall be provided with surgical instruments, medical comforts, and medicines proper and necessary for diseases and accidents incident to sea-voyages, and for the proper medical treatment of such passengers during the voyage, and with such articles of food and nourishment as may be proper and necessary for preserving the health of infants and young children; and the services of such surgeon or medical practitioner shall be promptly given, in any case of sickness or disease, to any of the passengers, or to any infant or young child of any such passengers, who may need his services. For a violation of either of the provisions of this section the master of the vessel shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars. (Sec. 5.)