3. These are located near important seaports. At these places seamen depart for, and arrive from their voyages, and are found in the greatest numbers; and here the funds for the support of the marine hospitals are collected, as is the tonnage on ships, viz.: by the collectors of the ports. For this purpose the law authorizes the collectors of customs to demand and receive the sum of twenty cents per month from the wages of every sailor; and every master of a vessel is obliged to render to the collector an accurate account of the number of seamen on board his vessel, and of the time they have been employed by him, since his last entry into any port of the United States. These twenty cents the captain must pay the collector, but he is allowed to deduct it from each seaman’s wages. In this manner the funds for the building, furnishing, and support of the marine hospitals are raised. The collectors of the ports pay them into the United States Treasury, and the Treasurer disburses them to the directors of the hospitals as they are needed. The directors are appointed by the President. They appropriate the funds, and have the general direction and management of the institutions. 4. These provisions are contained in an act entitled, “An act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen,” passed in 1798. Seamen, whether in the merchant service or in the naval service of the United States, were indiscriminately taxed for the support of these hospitals; and both have the same rights, privileges and benefits in them. The money thus collected from seamen is called “hospital money,” and the fund is denominated “the marine hospital fund.” In 1864 there were 24 marine hospitals in the United States. CHAPTER XXXI. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 1. At the first general census, in 1790, there were but little over three millions and a half of inhabitants in the United States, and these mostly settled along the Atlantic seaboard; the country was oppressed with debt, and not recovered from the effects of a desolating war. Its public business, therefore, was comparatively small in amount, and was readily managed by the three Departments, of State, of the Treasury, and of War. The energy of the people, and the great resources at their command, enabled them to surmount all their difficulties in a short time, and the country entered on a career of remarkable prosperity. Its public business kept pace with the general expansion, and new departments were from time to time created, to improve the efficiency of the public service. 2. In 1849 Congress passed a law creating the Department of the Interior, and a Secretary of the Interior, having a seat in the Cabinet, appointed in the same manner, and possessing the same rank, as the other members of the Cabinet, was installed in office. 3. The bureau of the Commissioner of Patents was transferred from the Department of State, and the General Land Office from that of the Treasury.