9 
 
REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COUNCIL OF HYGIENE AND PUBLIC HEALTH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TOON THE 
 
 SANITARY CONDITION OF THE CITY. 
 
 PUBLISHED, WITH AN INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT, BY ORDER OF THE 
 COUNCIL OF THE CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 443 & 445 BKOADWAY. 
 1866. 
 
riven 
 
 en 
 
 Ekteeed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S65, by 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of 
 
 New York. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Introductory Statement by the Council of the Citizens' Association vii 
 
 FIRST PART. 
 
 II. Minute of Resolutions by tue Council of Hygiene, submitting the 
 
 Report to the Citizens' Association xx 
 
 HI. Copy of Resolution by the Citizens' Association, accepting the Re- 
 tort AND ORDERING IT TO BE PUBLISHED XX 
 
 IV. Special Report of the Executive Committee of the Council : — A 
 
 Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Sanitary Survey of the City xxi 
 
 1. Boundaries and Distribution of the Sanitary Inspection Dis- 
 
 tricts xxii 
 
 2. Instructions to the Sanitary Inspectors xxiv 
 
 3. The System of Daily Records xxvi 
 
 4. Subjects of Inquiry xxvii 
 
 5. Reports on Pestilential Diseases xxviii 
 
 6. Progress of the Survey xxx-xxxv 
 
 V. General Report of the Council: — 
 
 1. Preliminary Statement — Purposes of Sanitary Inquiry xxxvii 
 
 2. Sanitary Necessities of Great Cities x xxviii 
 
 3. The Aggregation of Population in Towns and Cities xxxviii 
 
 4. Avoidable and Preventable Causes of Disease and Death . . . xxxix 
 
 5. Rates of Inevitable Sickness and Mortality xl 
 
 6. Standards of Health ' xli 
 
 f l. The Study of Sickness-rates xlii 
 
 8. Rates of Constant Sickness in the City of New York xliii 
 
 9. The Death-rate in New York xliv 
 
 10. Preventable Causes of Disease xlvii 
 
 11. The Association of the External and the Personal Causes of 
 
 Disease illustrated xlix 
 
 12. Examples of Preventable Diseases and their Causes 1 
 
 13. Specific Causes of Preventable Diseases illustrated by the 
 
 History of Typhus-fever in the City, and by the spread of 
 
 Small-pox from the City to the Country Ivi 
 
 14. Recommendations concerning the Control of Contagions and 
 
 Infections lxi 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 15. The Localizing Causes of Prevailing Diseases lxii 
 
 16. Recommendations by the Council for maintaining a System 
 
 of Sanitary Inspection and Inquiry lxvii 
 
 17. The Tenant-Houses of New York lxviii 
 
 18. Tenant-Houses and their Inhabitants lxix 
 
 19. Statistics of Aggregation in New York compared with those 
 
 of other great Cities lxxi 
 
 20. Observations upon the Sickness and Mortality in Tenant- 
 
 Houses lxxiv 
 
 21. Dwelling Improvements — Examples and Recommendations. . lxxxvi 
 
 22. Sanitary Wants of Private Dwellings, Hotels, and Public 
 
 Conveyances lxxxix 
 
 23. Neglected Privies and Dark Places xci 
 
 24. Special Nuisances xcii 
 
 25. Drainage and Sewerage of the City xcvi 
 
 26. Special Application of Chemistry and other Sciences to San- 
 
 itary Works xcviii 
 
 27. Special Report by Professors John W. Draper and R. O. 
 
 Doremus upon the Hygienic Applications of Chemistry. . . xcix 
 
 28. The Practical Character of Sanitary Works civ 
 
 29. Prevalent Diseases which illustrate the Necessity of Sanitary 
 
 Works cv 
 
 30. Fevers cv 
 
 31. Diarrhoeal Maladies cviii 
 
 32. Small-pox — Vaccination cx 
 
 33. Examples of Sanitary Works and Results cxiii 
 
 34. Prospective View of the Sanitary Necessities of New York. . cxix 
 
 35. Practical Uses of Vital Statistics exxi 
 
 36. Remedial Measures exxv 
 
 37. Cleanliness and the Removal of Nuisances exxviii 
 
 38. Ventilation and the Prevention of Overcrowding exxix 
 
 39. Sanitary Care of Contagious and Pestilential Diseases exxxv - 
 
 40. Conclusions cxiii 
 
 SECOND PART. 
 
 VI. Reports op toe Sanitary Inspectors : — 
 
 1. Catalogue of Inspectors and their Inspection Districts 
 
 2. First Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. Joseph A. Moncll's Report 3 
 8. Second Sanitary Inspection District; Dr. Isaac L. Millspaugh's 
 
 Report 14 
 
 4. Third Sanitary Inspection District [Section A] ; Dr. Hampton 
 
 Harriot's Report 1° 
 
 B. Third Sanitary Inspection District [Section B] ; Dr. B. M. Kccncy's 
 
 Report 88 
 
 6. Fourth Sanitary Inspection District; Dr. E. R. Pulling's Report.. . 48 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 V 
 
 PAGE 
 
 7. Fifth Sanitary Inspection District [Section A] ; Dr. E. B. Warner's 
 
 Report 66 
 
 8. Fifth Sanitary Inspection District [Section B] ; Dr. J. W. Purdy's 
 
 Report 70 
 
 9. Sixth Sanitary Inspection District; Dr. Wm. F. Thorns' Report.. 73 
 
 10. Seventh Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. P. Nolan's Report. ... 85 
 
 11. Eighth Sanitary Inspection District; Dr. J. T. Kennedy's Report 91 
 
 12. Ninth Sanitary Inspection District; Dr. Oscar G. Smith's Report 97 
 
 13. Tenth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. John C. Acheson's Report 110 
 
 14. Eleventh Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. James L. Brown's Re- 
 
 port 116 
 
 15. Twelfth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. F. A. Burrall's Report. 126 
 
 16. Thirteenth Sanitary Inspection District; Dr. Robert Newman's 
 
 Report 142 
 
 17. Fourteenth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. E. W. Derby's Re- 
 
 port 165 
 
 18. Fifteenth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. James Ross's Report. 171 
 
 19. Sixteenth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. Wm. C. Hunter's Re- 
 
 port 182 
 
 20. Seventeenth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. Guido Furman's 
 
 Report 195 
 
 21. Eighteenth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. H. M. Field's Re- 
 
 port 206 
 
 22. Nineteenth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. J. R. Mansfield's 
 
 Report 221 
 
 23. Twentieth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. E. H. Janes's Report 226 
 
 24. Twenty-first Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. James L. Little's 
 
 Report 253 
 
 25. Twenty-second Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. R. L. Parsons's 
 
 Report 268 
 
 26. Twenty-third Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. Ellsworth Eliot's 
 
 Report 282 
 
 27. Twenty-fourth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. Robert Stewart's 
 
 Report 291 
 
 28. Twenty-fifth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. J. Lewis Smith's 
 
 Report 298 
 
 29. Twenty-sixth and Twenth-seventh Sanitary Inspection Districts ; 
 
 Drs. Hadden and Brush's Report 323 
 
 30. Twenty-eighth Sanitary Inspection District ; Dr. L. A. Rodenstein's 
 
 Report 335 
 
 31. Twenty-ninth Sanitary Inspection District; Dr. Joseph O. Far- 
 
 rington's Report 345 
 
 VII. Synopsis of Tenant-House Statistics 849 
 
 Vm. Index 351 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 1. Sanitary and Topographical Map of the City and Island of New York. 
 
 Lithograph, colored. 
 
 2. Engraving from a Photographic View of a Newly-Constructed Fever-Nest 
 
 in the Sixth District facing p. lxxvi 
 
 3. Engraving from a Photographic View of " Gotham Court " (illustrating 
 
 Chapter on Tenant-Houses) lxxx 
 
 4. Floor-Plan of a Fever-Nest near the Central Park lxxxi 
 
 5. Mr. Waterlow's Plan of Healthy Tenant-Dwellings facing p. lxxxvi 
 
 6. A Chart illustrating the Encroachment of Nuisances upon Populous Up- 
 
 Town Districts facing p. xciv 
 
 7. Engraving from a Photographic View of a Fever-Nest in the First Ward. . facing p. 8 
 
 8. Map illustrating the Hydrography, Drainage and Sewerage, and the Medi- 
 
 cal Topography of the Third District. Lithograph, colored. . . . facing p. 21 
 
 9. Chart of a Region of Typhus and Small-pox in the Fifth Ward 31 
 
 10. Sanitary and Social Chart of the Fourth District. Lithograph, colored. ... 43 
 
 11. Ground-Plan of "Gotham Court" — its Drainage and Crowding. 50 
 
 12. Sectional Elevation of the main building in Do 60 
 
 13. Floor-Plan of the domiciles in Do 51 
 
 14. Transverse Sectional Views of Do 63 
 
 15. Chart of a Crowded Mass of Tenant-Houses on Vandc water Street 57 
 
 16. A Sectional View of a Fever-Nest on Pearl Street 78 
 
 17. Ground-Plan of Do 70 
 
 18. An Upper Floor-Plan of Do 79 
 
 19. View of a Public School and an adjacent Slaughter-Pen facing p. 87 
 
 20. Chart of a Region of Fat-melting, Hide-curing, and Slaughter Nuisances in 
 
 the shopping neighborhood of the 7th District 88 
 
 21. Plan and Sectional View of a Fever-nest in the 9th District 103 
 
 22. Floor-Plan of an Improved Tenant-House in the 11th District 122 
 
 23. Map Illustrating the Medical Topography and Drainage of the 15th Ward. 126 
 
 24. Plan and Sectional Views of an Overcrowded Tenant-House in the 12th 
 
 District 136 
 
 25. Diagram of an Insalubrious Quarter in the 13th District 152 
 
 26. An Inside View of a Cattle and Sheep Market in Sixth Street 157 
 
 27. Chart of an Insalubrious Court and a Crowded Square in the 17th Ward. . 160 
 
 28. Market and Slaughter-Pens in the 11th Ward 176 
 
 29. Scene in Rivington Place 178 
 
 30. Tenant-House Cellar Nuisances in the 16th Ward 198 
 
 31. Plan of a Cellar Tenement in the 16th Ward 200 
 
 32. Floor Plan and a Sectional View of a Ventilated Tenant-House 204 
 
 33. Map illustrating the Medical Topography of the 18th District 207 
 
 34. Floor-Plan of a Fever-Nest in Do 217 
 
 35. Plans of Dirt-Catchers and Cleaning Chambers for Sewers 234, 235 
 
 36. Another Plan of Do., and of a Culvert 436 
 
 37. An Isometrical View of a new Fever-Nest in a Crowded Square 289 
 
 38. The Ground-Plan and Chart of Do 239 
 
 39. Four Figures illustrating Cubical Air-Spaces and Ventilation 258 
 
 40. Floor-Plan of an ordinary and unhealthy Tenant-House in the 20th Ward. 259 
 
 41. Floor-Plan of Tenant-House with Through-and-Tlirough Ventilation 261 
 
 42. Floor-Plan of a Tenant-House with Ventilating Shaft 261 
 
 43. Chart of a Region of Nuisances in the 20th Ward 266 
 
 44. Ground-Plan of a Fever-Nest in East 28th Street 275 
 
 45. Diagram of a Perpetual Fever-Nest in the 21st Ward 280 
 
 46. Plot of an Insalubrious District in the 21st Ward 287 
 
 47. A Bird's-eye View of a Rookery at the foot of Murray Hill 289 
 
 48. The Ground-Plan of Do 289 
 
 49. Map of the Sanitary Topography of the 25th District 299 
 
 50. Map of a Pestilential Spot on the margin of the Central Park 816 
 
 51. Descriptive Chart of an Unhealthy Neighborhood near the Central Park.. . 318 
 
 62. Improved Garbage Receptacles, etc., for Tenant-Houses 
 
 63. Map illustrating the Medical Topography of the 20th District facing p. 227 
 
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT 
 
 BY THE 
 
 COUNCIL OF THE CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The Citizens' Association oe New Yoek was organized 
 for purposes of public usefulness. The deep convictions of 
 duty and necessity that led to the preparation of the plans 
 upon which this Association has commenced its efforts, 
 have met with hearty responses from all classes of philan- 
 thropic and learned men whose counsel and aid have been 
 invoked in our voluntary work of municipal reform and 
 public improvement. To its Council of Hygiene and 
 Public Health, and to its Board of Legal Advisers, the 
 Citizens' Association, and the City of New York, have been 
 placed under lasting obligations, for labors in which the 
 greatest professional learning and skill, combined with no- 
 ble and philanthropic purposes, and individual sacrifices 
 of time and personal efforts, have been voluntarily contrib- 
 uted for the single object of promoting the welfare of the 
 community, and benefiting all classes in the city. 
 
viii 
 
 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 
 
 The Council of Hygiene and Public Health now 
 presents to this Association its first General Report upon 
 the Sanitary Condition and Hygienic Wants of New York : 
 and the Centkal Council of the Association has ordered 
 it published and widely circulated, in order that the pub- 
 lic may immediately have access to this valuable source of 
 information and practical suggestion. 
 
 The organization and efforts of the Council of Hy- 
 giene were begun very soon after the general plan of the 
 Citizens' Association was announced. The advice and 
 knowledge of leading hygienists and medical gentlemen of 
 great familiarity with the social and sanitary necessities 
 of the people of this City were sought, and, at the request 
 of the Council of this Association, an effective organiza- 
 tion for Sanitary Inquiry and Advice was instituted. The 
 necessity that exists for the commencement of such volun- 
 tary labors has long been conceded by the managers of be- 
 nevolent institutions in the city, and, from this and other 
 circumstances, the members of this body were fully pre- 
 pared to appreciate the practical value and bearings of 
 such work. They have unhesitatingly acted upon the in- 
 formation and suggestions which their Council of Hygiene 
 has rendered ; and they desire to state that in all its labors, 
 suggestions, and advice, that Council has manifestly been 
 actuated by an earnest and fearless purpose to benefit 
 mankind, and to contribute most directly to the physical 
 and moral welfare of their fellow-citizens. Thus its plans 
 have entirely harmonized with the great objects of the 
 Citizens' Association, and at the same time have furnished 
 
ENTEODUCTOKY STATEMENT. 
 
 ix 
 
 a perfect example of both the utility and the necessity of 
 such voluntary effort. 
 
 The Works of the Council of Hygiene will best per- 
 petuate the history of its organization ; therefore we will 
 simply put on record here the preliminary correspondence, 
 in which, without any purpose of organized effort and co- 
 operation, a large number of physicians, who are distin- 
 guished for learning and experience in hygiene, gave ex- 
 pression to the leading facts upon which the argument for 
 Sanitary Reform is based by this Association. 
 
 %\t Citizens' %mstx&iism of ifefo guru, 
 
 Office, 813 Broadway. 
 
 New Toek, March 2d, 1864. 
 
 To 
 
 VALENTINE MOTT, M. D., ISAAC WOOD, M. D., 
 
 WILLARD PARKER, M. D., CHARLES D. SMITH, M. D., 
 
 JAMES R. WOOD, M. D., E. R. PEASLEE, M. D., 
 
 STEPHEN SMITH, M. D., AUSTIN FLINT, M. D., 
 
 JOHN H. GRISCOM, M. D., FRANK H. HAMILTON, M. D., 
 
 ISAAC E. TAYLOR, M. D., B. FORDYCE BARKER, M. D., 
 
 ELISHA HARRIS, M. D., THADDEUS HALSTED, M. D., 
 
 WM. C. ANDERSON, M. D., JARED LINSLEY, M. D., 
 
 EDWARD DELAFIELD, M. D., J. T. METCALFE, M. D., 
 
 JOSEPH M. SMITH, M. D., GURDON BUCK, M. D., 
 
 JOHN 0. STONE, M. D., WM. N. BLAKEMAN, M. D., 
 
 CHAS. HENSCHEL, M. D., JAMES ANDERSON, M. D. 
 
 Deae Sies: 
 
 Our Association is deeply impressed with the importance of taking active 
 6teps in relation to the Sanitary Condition of our City. 
 
 At a meeting of the Citizens' Association of New York, held on the 29th 
 February, ult., tho undersigned were appointed a Committee to address a Letter 
 to Physicians, for the purpose of obtaining from the Medical Profession the 
 fullest and most reliable information relative to the public health. Will yon, 
 at your earliest convenience, favor us with the desired information ? 
 
 The importance of this subject to all classes can scarcely be over-estimated, 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 
 
 as from the evidence already before this Association it appears that the excess 
 of mortality is needless and alarming. 
 Very respectfully, yours, 
 
 HAMILTON FISH, 
 
 JOHN DAVID WOLFE, 
 
 EDWARD S. J AFFRAY, 
 
 JOHN JACOB ASTOR, Jr., 
 
 JAMES M. BROWN, 
 
 JONATHAN STURGES, 
 
 ROBERT B. ROOSEVELT, 
 
 AUGUST BELMONT, 
 
 CHARLES O'CONOR, 
 
 NATHANIEL SANDS, 
 
 CHARLES A. SECOR, 
 
 MOKRIS KETCHUM, 
 
 Committee appointed at a Meeting 
 of the Citizens' Association of 
 New York, held February 29, 
 1864. 
 
 New Yobk, March 9<A, 1S&1 
 
 To the Committee on Sanitary Inquiry, 
 of the Citizens' Association of New 
 
 &c, ) 
 York. ) 
 
 Gentlemen: 
 
 In replying to your letter of inquiry requesting information concerning 
 the public health of this city, we would briefly state a few leading facts relating 
 to the rate of mortality in this community, and also refer to somo of the con- 
 ditions of insalubrity among us. 
 
 The city of New Vork ought to be one of the most healthy cities in the 
 world, for no other large city is favored with greater natural advantages of lo- 
 cality and climate, and probably no city has a greater influx of a vigorous and 
 healthy population, from the rural districts and from foreign countries. 
 
 But a fearfully high death-bate prevails in this city. This is the sure cri- 
 terion of the public health, and it is the most reliable test of the sanitary con- 
 dition of any populous community. Extensivo observation proves that it is not 
 difficult to stato about what proportion of deaths in great cities may properly 
 bo attributed to preventable diseases, and consequently what may be properly 
 regarded as a necessary and inevitable rate of mortality in such a population. 
 
 Tbo highest medical and statistical authorities of Europe have shown tho 
 propriety and importance of such estimations in vital statistics. 
 
 Tho total number of deaths in tho city of New York, during tho year 1803, 
 according to tho City Inspector's returns, was 25,196 ! This is equal to one 
 death in every thirty-five of tho inhabitants, estimating tho population of tho 
 city last year at 900,000. 
 
 According to Dr. E. M. Snow, tlio distinguished Health Officer of Frovi- 
 
nSTXRODUCTOKY STATEMENT. 
 
 xi 
 
 dence, Rhode Island, the mortality in the following sis neighboring cities, 
 during the year 1863, may he stated as follows : 
 
 New York 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 Boston 
 
 Newark, N. J 
 
 Providence 
 
 Hartford 
 
 It is not for us to state what the rate of mortality in New York should have 
 been, under proper sanitary regulations, the past year, hut we would present a 
 few facts to show the results of improvements in sanitary government of great 
 cities, which, with natural advantages of salubrity far inferior to those of New 
 York, have been rescued from a condition of fearful insalubrity, and rendered 
 far more healthful than our city now is. 
 
 Estimated 
 
 Deaths 
 
 Of Population, 
 
 Population. 
 
 1803. 
 
 one in 
 
 900,000 
 
 25,196 
 
 35.7 
 
 620,000 
 
 14,220 
 
 43.6 
 
 194,000 
 
 4,698 
 
 41.2 
 
 85,000 
 
 1,952 
 
 43.5 
 
 55,000 
 
 1,214 
 
 45.3 
 
 32,000 
 
 583 
 
 54.8 
 
 Previous to establishing a good Sanitary Govern- 
 ment, the annual rate of Mortality was — 
 
 In London 1 in 20 
 
 In Liverpool 1 in 28 
 
 In Philadelphia 1 in 39 
 
 In New York, 
 
 At present 1 in 35 + 
 
 Do., average of last 
 
 ten years 1 in 32£ 
 
 The rate of Mortality in the same Cities, with the 
 present system of Sanitary Government, haa 
 been — 
 
 In London 1 in 45 
 
 In Liverpool 1 in 44 
 
 In Philadelphia 1 in 44 to 1 in 57 
 
 While in the City of New York the death- 
 rate has increased from 1 in 4G!-, [in the year 
 1S10,] to 1 in 35, at the present time. 
 
 Facts like these should arouse the attention of all persons who feci an inter- 
 est in human welfare, or in the prosperity of our city. Yet we would point to 
 the high death-rate that prevails in the city simply as a reliable index to the 
 physical sufferings, the want, the neglect, the sickness, the orphanage and pau- 
 perism, with which such excessive mortality is always associated. 
 
 The fact that any considerable excess of mortality above a proper and in- 
 evitable death-rate, arises from causes that may and should be prevented by 
 sanitary regulations, is now admitted by all intelligent physicians and social 
 economists. 
 
 By means of suitable sanitary regulations, and a faithful and competent ad- 
 ministration of such laws, the rate of mortality in this city ought to be very 
 greatly reduced. The experience of other great cities, and the teachings of 
 sanitary science, warrant the opinion that the present rate of mortality may be 
 reduced fully thirty per cent. Such a reduction would save from 7,000 to 
 10,000 lives in this city during the present year. But the saving of this vast 
 number of precious lives is not the only, nor is it the greatest, benefit that 
 
xii 
 
 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 
 
 would result to the health and welfare of the city by means o suitable sanitary 
 government. 
 
 It is a medical and statistical fact that for every death in a large community 
 there are at least twenty-eight cases of sickness. This would give, in the popu- 
 lation of our city, upwards of two hundred thousand cases of preventable and 
 needless sickness every year ! This conclusion is fully warranted by the statistics 
 of our public charities, and by medical observation, and it is based upon broad 
 inquiries and generalization respecting sickness and mortality in Great Britain, 
 as stated by Dr. Lyon Playfair, a distinguished authority in Hygiene. 
 
 It is a maxim in the medical profession that it is far easier to prevent disease 
 than to cure it, and it certainly is far more economical to do so. And when we 
 remember that the great excess of mortality and of sickness in our city occurs 
 among the poorer classes of the population, and that such excessive unhealthi- 
 ness and mortality is a most prolific source of physical and social want, de- 
 moralization and pauperism, the subject of needed sanitary reforms, in this 
 crowded metropolis, assumes such important bearings and such a vast magnitude 
 as to demand the most serious consideration of all persons who regard the wel- 
 fare of their fellow-beings, or the best interests of the community. 
 
 We need not represent to you the great interest which every other city and 
 town in our country has in the question of health and disease in this great 
 emporium of commerce ; nor need we, as physicians, speak of the official abuses 
 that prevent sanitary improvement and good government. When pestilential 
 diseases visit this city, the impotence of the existing sanitary system is confessed, 
 and the people are panic-stricken, while the interests of commerce suffer by the 
 insensible and certain loss of millions. 
 
 In the final report of the Aldermanic Committee on Public Ilealth, of which 
 Ex-Gov. E. D. Morgan was the Chairman, in the cholera season of 1849, the 
 fact is stated that " New York is destitute of a Sanitary Police worthy tho 
 name." Again, the chief officer of the so-called Sanitary Bureau of the City 
 Government, in his annual report in tho year 1861, asks : " How is this state of 
 things, which marks with shame the great City of Now York, to bo remedied?" 
 And he answers : " Tho power of remedy docs not rest in me, nor in tho depart- 
 ments over wtich I havo the honor to preside." 
 
 Small-pox, and other infectious and loathsomo diseases, are allowed to pro- 
 vail and bo diffused continually in all parts of tho city ; the worst causes of 
 fevers and other fatal maladies are being continually generated in tho crowded 
 habitations of tho poor; while from this, as a radiating centre of disease, tho 
 poisons of death that are so abundant here, are diffused widely throughout tho 
 entire country. 
 
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 
 
 xiii 
 
 We will not extend this statetnent, but would conclude by saying that the 
 eacredness of human life and the inestimable value of health are incentives that 
 can be relied upon to secure the cooperation of all true physicians in your efforts 
 to promote sanitary reforms. 
 
 Eespectfully, yours, 
 
 VALENTINE MOTT, M..D., 1 Gramercy Park. 
 
 WILLARD PARKER, M. D., 37 East 12th Street. 
 
 ISAAC WOOD, M. D., 68 East 11th Street. 
 
 JAMES R. WOOD, M. D., 2 Irving Place. 
 
 JAMES ANDERSON, M. D., 30 University Place. 
 
 JOHN H. GRISCOM, M. D., 42 East 29th' Street. 
 
 WM. C. ANDERSON, M. D., 3 Union Square. 
 
 ISAAC E. TAYLOR, M. D., 13 West 20th Street. 
 
 STEPHEN SMITH, M. D., 55 West 34th Street. 
 
 EDWARD DELAFEELD, M. D., 2 East 17th Street 
 
 ELISHA HARRIS, M. D., 55 West 34th Street. 
 
 JOSEPH M. SMITH, M. D., 11 East 17th Street. 
 
 JOHN 0. STONE, M. D., 27 East 23d Street. 
 
 CHAS. HENSCHEL, M. D., 20 East 14th Street. 
 
 E. R. PEASLEE, M. D., Fifth Avenue Hotel. 
 
 AUSTIN FLINT, M. D., 259 Fourth Avenue. 
 
 FRANK H. HAMILTON, M. D., Bellevue Hosp. Coll. 
 
 CHAS. D. SMITH, M. D., 20 West 19th Street. 
 
 B. FORDYCE BARKER, M. D., 75 Madison Ave. 
 
 THADDECS M. HALSTED, M. D., 42 West 23d Street 
 
 JARED LINSLY, M. D., 22 Lafayette Place. 
 
 J. T. METCALFE, M. D., 34 East 14th Street 
 
 GURDON BUCK, M. D., 121 Tenth Street. 
 
 WM. N. BLAKEMAN, M. D., 113 Tenth Street. 
 
 To Hamilton Fish, Esq., 
 John David Wolfe, Esq., 
 Edward S. Jaitray, Esq., 
 John Jacob Astor, Jr., Esq., 
 August Belmont, Esq., 
 Charles O'Conor, Esq., 
 Robert B. Roosevelt, Esq., 
 Charles A. Secor, Esq., 
 Jonathan Sturges, Esq., 
 Morris Ketchum, Esq., 
 James M. Brown, Esq., 
 Nathaniel Sands, Esq. 
 
 Committee for Sanitary Inquiry, &c. 
 
 Franklin's aphorism that Public Health is Public 
 Wealth, finds ample confirmation in the experience of all 
 populous communities ; and when our Lest medical men 
 assure us that a vast proportion of the sickness in our city 
 
xiv 
 
 EsTEODTJCTOEY STATEMENT. 
 
 is produced by causes that are positively preventable, or 
 that may be removed ; and when they state the fact that 
 the preventable waste of life and health, in the City of 
 New York, may safely be estimated at seven thousand lives, 
 and more than tico hundred thousand cases of sickness every 
 year — shall not every citizen bestir himself to terminate 
 such a waste of the richest physical blessings which the 
 Creator has bestowed upon mankind % " All that a man 
 hath will he give for his life ; " and yet, to society at large, 
 the care and protection of life and health is a cumulative 
 good, which confers benefits that multiply and extend like 
 the good deeds of well-spent days. Sanitary improve- 
 ments directly promote the material advancement of a 
 people, while they bring into operation the most reliable 
 and effectual agencies for social and moral elevation. 
 
 Their ultimate and highest results reach far beyond 
 pecuniary advantage ; they take deep hold upon the noblest 
 sympathies and sentiments of all classes of society; they 
 confer benefits upon all alike. 
 
 The relation of the health and vigorous life of a people 
 to the State, or to commercial prosperity, requires no dis- 
 cussion in this statement. From Plato to the greatest of 
 modem statesmen and economists, the sanitary welfare of a 
 people has justly been deemed an essential element of social 
 and commercial advancement; and so intimately related 
 do we find the sanitary and the social wants of the popula- 
 tion in the City of New York, that, from the outset of re- 
 formatoiy efforts, whether social and political or exclusively 
 moral and religious, sanitary improvement is a work of 
 paramount necessity. "There is," says the Edinburgh 
 
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 
 
 XV 
 
 Review (vol. xci., 1850), "a most fatal connection between 
 physical imcleanness and moral pollution. The condition 
 of a population becomes invariably assimilated to that of 
 their habitations. The indirect effects of sickness are far 
 more hurtful, though less observable, than the direct effects 
 of mortal disease ; it lowers the tone, unstrings the nerves, 
 and brings on physical languor and mental apathy." But 
 beyond the physical, the mental, and the economical losses 
 resulting from prevailing ill-health, there are certain politi- 
 cal and social aspects of the same agencies that ought to 
 be studied by every intelligent citizen. The mobs that 
 held fearful sway in our city during the memorable out- 
 break of violence in the month of July, 1863, were gath- 
 ered in the overcrowded and neglected quarters of the 
 city. As was stated by a leading journalist at that time : 
 " The high brick blocks and closely-packed houses where 
 the mobs originated seemed to be literally hives of sickness 
 and vice. It was wonderful to see, and difficult to believe, 
 that so much misery, disease, and wretchedness can be 
 huddled together and hidden by high walls, unvisited and 
 unthought of, so near our own abodes. Lewd but pale 
 and sickly young women, scarcely decent in their ragged 
 attire, were impudent and scattered everywhere in the 
 crowd. But what numbers of these poorer classes are de- 
 formed! what numbers are made hideous by self-neglect 
 and infirmity ! Alas ! human faces look so hideous with 
 hope and self-respect all gone! And female forms and 
 features are made so frightful by sin, squalor, and debase- 
 ment ! To walk the streets as we walked them, in those 
 hours of conflagration and riot, was like witnessing the 
 
xvi 
 
 INTKODUCTOEY STATEMENT. 
 
 day of judgment, with every wicked thing revealed, every 
 sin and sorrow blazingly glared upon, every hidden abom- 
 ination laid before hell's expectant fire. 
 
 ***##* 
 
 " The elements of popular discord are gathered in those 
 wretchedly-constructed tenant-houses, where poverty, dis- 
 ease, and crime find an abode. Here disease in its most 
 loathsome forms propagates itself. Unholy passions rule 
 in the domestic circle. Every thing, within and without, 
 tends to physical and moral degradation." 
 
 In the Report of the Council of Hygiene will be found 
 a body of evidence bearing upon the subject of Sanitary 
 neglect as producing social degradation, which to read- 
 ers and to legislators can scarcely be of less interest 
 than the definite records and well-sustained conclusions 
 therein contained respecting the existing sanitary condi- 
 tion and wants of the city, the preventable causes of dis- 
 ease, and the physical agencies and works required for the 
 needed hygienic improvements. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that this preliminary labor 
 of the Council of Hygiene and its corps of skilled and in- 
 defatigable Sanitary Inspectors, has been planned and per- 
 formed voluntarily, and by gentlemen whose time and 
 thoughts are burdened by their ordinary professional 
 and official duties; and that none of the means or powers 
 of the municipal government could be used in prosecuting 
 the great work of inquiry and recording, whicli lias, under 
 peculiar disadvantages, but with marked success, been 
 prosecuted by them. 
 
 The Citizens' Association asks the attention of tho 
 
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 
 
 xvii 
 
 people of the City and the State of New York to the facts 
 set forth in this Sanitary Report, and it also asks that the 
 needed works of sanitaey mpkovemekt be immediately 
 begun by competent minds and competent hands. The 
 skilled labors and trustworthy advice of a Voluntary 
 Council of Hygiene, have definitely determined when and 
 how such works of improvement should be commenced. 
 They have shown what is the nature, and what must be 
 the preventive or cure of existing causes of needless sick- 
 ness, mortality, and public peril from removable evils. 
 
 To the physicians who have thus contributed lasting 
 benefits to the public welfare, their own fellow-citizens 
 and society at large are placed under renewed obliga- 
 tions. And in thus requesting and obtaining from the 
 Profession that is ever in the front ranks of all great 
 enterprises for human improvement such labors and 
 such practical results, the Association has simply done 
 what the people in their legislative capacity are in duty 
 bound to do. A popular writer has stated that "The 
 State which founds its legislation on a knowledge of reali- 
 ties, which expects from the physical sciences information 
 respecting human life collectively, considered in all its re- 
 lations, has a right to demand from its physicians a gen- 
 eral insight into the nature and causes of popular dis- 
 eases." * 
 
 The Association cannot close this Introduction without 
 expressing its grateful estimate of the arduous and self- 
 denying labors of the medical gentlemen, the fruit of whose 
 researches is embodied in the Report. An investigation 
 
 * Becker's Epidemics of the Middle Ages ; Babbington's Edition. 
 2 
 
xviii 
 
 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 
 
 so thorough, searching, and extensive, and directed by 
 such genius and energy, has never before been at- 
 tempted in our city or in this country. In pursuing 
 their investigations they have not hesitated to sacrifice 
 personal ease and comfort, and deny themselves many so- 
 cial enjoyments ; they have exposed themselves to repul- 
 sive and nauseous scenes in the abodes of misery and want, 
 and to the infectious localities and homes of disease and 
 death, in order to be able to give an exact and complete 
 survey of the sufferings, perils, and sanitary wants of the 
 inhabitants of the crowded and insalubrious districts, and 
 to secure the application of effective guarantees against 
 future misery and death. 
 
 The Citizens' Association having determined to initiate 
 reformatory movements that shall produce permanently 
 beneficial results, and having taken counsel with able ad- 
 visers, presents to the public this Report of its Council 
 of Hygiene and Public Health, believing that the various 
 questions which are therein examined and elucidated are of 
 vital importance to the sanitary, commercial, and social wel- 
 fare of New York. 
 
 %\t Counril of i\t Citizens' satiation. 
 
 JAME8 BROWN, JOHN DAVID WOLF, 
 
 . ALEX. T. STEWART, WM. E. DODOE, 
 
 JOHN JACOB A8TOR, Jr., ROBERT B. ROOSEVELT, 
 
 EDWARD S. JAFFRAV, JONATHAN 8TTJRGES, 
 
 PETER COOPER, JAMES M. BROWN, 
 
 WASHINGTON R. VERMILYE, EDWIN HOTT, 
 
 NATHANIEL SANDS, HAMILTON FISH, 
 
 J. F. D. LANIER, JOHN C. GREEN, 
 
 CHAS. A SECOR, JAS. BOORMAN JOHNSTON, 
 
 WM. M. VERMILTE, MORRIS KETCH UM. 
 
 New Yoiik, January, 18C6. 
 
REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COUNCIL OF HYGIENE AND PUBLIC HEALTH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Jfirst |§arf: 
 
 INCLUDING THE REPORT FROM THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 AND THE GENERAL REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
Council of Hygiene and Public Health; ) 
 Citizens' Association of New York : \ 
 
 " Resolved, That the General Report of the Council, as prepared by the 
 Secretary, together with the accompanying Reports of the Sanitary Inspec- 
 tors, is hereby approved, and that the same be submitted to the Citizens' 
 Association. 
 
 " Resolved, That the Report of the Executive Committee be accepted by 
 the Council, and that it shall constitute a prebminary section of the General 
 Report. 
 
 " Adopted by the Council, January 9, 1865. 
 
 " JOSEPH M. SMITH, M. D., President. 
 
 " WHLARD PARKER, M. D., Vice-President. 
 
 " ELISHA HARRIS, Secretary." 
 
 " Citizens' Association of New York, 813 Broadway : 
 
 " Resolved, That the Report of the Council of Hygiene and Public Health 
 is hereby accepted, and ordered to be published under the direction of that 
 Council. 
 
 " Adopted by the Association, January 10, 1865. 
 
 "JAMES M. BROWN, Chairman. 
 "ROBERT B. ROOSEVELT, Secretary:' 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE TO THE COUNCIL OF HYGIENE 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 PROGRESS AND PRESENT CONDITION OP SANITARY INQUIRY UNDER 
 ITS DIRECTION. 
 
 The Executive Committee presents to the Council of Hygiene and Public 
 health of the Citizens' Association the following condensed summary of the 
 progress, methods, and present condition of the several departments of sanitary 
 inquiry that have been directed by the Council through this Committee, since 
 the commencement of its work in the spring of 1864. 
 
 The Council having become permanently organized during the month of 
 April, its Executive Committee was directed to prepare and put into operation 
 a system of sanitary inquiry that should extend throughout the entire length 
 and breadth of the city.* This task was required of the Committee as the first 
 step in the initiatory duty of the Council, as an advisary body to the Citizens' 
 Association, and also in view of the demand for sanitary improvements and 
 the protection of the public health in the city. 
 
 To acquire information that should be sufficiently reliable and definite upon 
 the various subjects relating to the sanitary condition of every portion of the 
 city and its population, was, therefore, the first duty of the Council and of its 
 Executive Committee. 
 
 "With tho approbation and support of the Citizens' Association, that had 
 invited this undertaking, a system of sanitary inspection was devised and put into 
 operation as soon as practicable. The special inspection of " fever-nests and 
 insalubrious quarters "t was commenced early in the month of May; but tho 
 ultimate maturing of plans, the districting of the entire city, and tho selection 
 and organization of a competent corps of sanitary inspectors, were not fully ac- 
 complished until tho middle of July. 
 
 • Tho term city, as employed in this and the subsequent reports, will bo understood as referring to 
 tho entire island, however occupied. 
 
 t The term fever-neat having been introduced as being expressive of tho conditions which mark 
 the propagation of typhus and its kindred maladies, it will bo employed as thus signified. 
 
xxii 
 
 REPOKT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 It was the unanimous opinion that the hasis of sanitary reforms mnst he 
 prepared by means of a thorough and systematic sanitary inspection by compe- 
 tent experts. By such inquiry it is that we can learn and properly judge of the 
 existence and nature of the causes of the diseases that are avoidable and pre- 
 ventable. By this means their locality, their origin, the laws that govern their 
 operation, together with the measures best adapted for their removal or pre- 
 vention, must be ascertained. 
 
 This important work of inspection was, of course, intrusted to physicians 
 who had already acquired valuable experience in the service of the public dis- 
 pensaries and medical charities of the city. The following schedule of instruc- 
 tions, assignments, &c, issued to the inspectors, presents a catalogue of their 
 names and the districts in which they labored : 
 
 BOUNDARIES AND DISTRIBUTION OF DISTRICTS 
 
 FOR 
 
 SANITARY INSPECTION UNDER DIRECTION OF THE COUNCIL OF 
 
 HYGIENE. 
 
 FIRST DISTRICT— Comprising part of the First, and the whole of the Third Ward ; and 
 bounded north, by Reade Street ; east, by Broadway ; south and west, by the North 
 River. Assigned to Dr. Joseph A. Monell, 88 Greenwich Street. 
 
 SECOND DISTRICT— Comprising part of the First, and the whole of the Second Ward ; and 
 bounded north, by Peck Slip and Spruce Street ; east and south, by the East River ; 
 west, by Broadway. Assigned to Dr. Isaac L. Millspaugh, 88 Greenwich Street. 
 
 THIRD DISTRICT — Section A— Comprising the Fifth Ward exclusively ; bounded north, 
 by Canal Street ; east, by Broadway ; south, by Reade Street ; west, by the North 
 River. Assigned to Dr. H. Harriot, 81 West Forty-third Street. 
 
 THIRD DISTRICT — Section B— Comprising the southern segment of the Eighth Ward ; 
 bounded north, by Spring Street ; east, by Broadway ; south, by Canal Street ; and 
 west, by the North River. Assigned to Dr. B. M. Keenky, 23 Greenwich Avenue. 
 
 FOURTH DISTRICT— Comprising the Fourth Ward exclusively ; bounded northeaster- 
 ly, by Catharine Street; east, by South Street; southwesterly, by Peck Slip, Ferry 
 Street, Spruce Street, and Chatham. Assigned to Dr. Ezra R. Pulling, and an As- 
 sistant, 813 Broadway. 
 
 FIFTH DISTRICT— Section A — Comprising the northern segment of the Eighth Ward ; 
 bounded north, by Houston Street; east, by Broadway; south, by Spring Street; 
 west, by the North River. Assigned to Dr. Everardcs B. Warner, 104 Macdougal 
 Street 
 
 FIFTH DISTRICT — Section B — Comprising tho southern section of the Ninth Ward ; 
 bounded on the north, by Christopher Street, from the North River to Sixth Avenue ; 
 east, by Sixth Avenue to Houston Street ; south, by Houston Street to tho North 
 River. Assigned to Dr. James W. Purdt, CI Macdougal Street 
 
 SIXTn DISTRICT — Comprising the Sixth Ward exclusively ; bounded north, by Walker 
 and Canal Streets ; south, by Fark Row and Chatham Street ; cast, by Bowery ; wost, 
 by Broadway. Assigned to Dr. Wm. F. Tiioms, 92 Madison Street 
 
REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 xxiii 
 
 SEVENTH DISTRICT— Comprising the Fourteenth Ward; bounded north, by Houston 
 Street ; east, by the Bowery ; south, by Walker and Canal Streets ; west, by Broad- 
 way. Assigned to Dr. P. Nolan, 138 Thompson Street. 
 
 EIGHTH DISTRICT— Comprising the Tenth Ward exclusively ; bounded north, by Riv- 
 ington Street ; southeasterly, by Division Street ; east, by Norfolk Street ; west, by 
 the Bowery. Assigned to Dr. J. T. Kennedy, 40 East Fourth Street. 
 
 NINTH DISTRICT— Comprising the Seventh Ward ; bounded northwesterly, by Division 
 and Grand Streets ; east, by the East River ; southwesterly, by South Street and 
 Catharine Street. Assigned to Dr. Oscar G. Smith, 133 West Nineteenth Street. 
 
 TENTH DISTRICT— Comprising the Thirteenth Ward; bounded north, by Rivington 
 Street ; east, by the East River ; south, by Division and Grand Streets ; west, by Nor- 
 folk Street. Assigned to Dr. John C. Acheson, 89 Ludlow Street. 
 
 ELEVENTH DISTRICT— Comprising a portion of the Ninth Ward ; bounded north, by 
 Fourteenth Street ; east, by Sixth Avenue ; south, by Christopher Street ; west, by 
 the North River. Assigned to Dr. James L. Brown, 211 West Twelfth Street. 
 
 TWELFTH DISTRICT— Comprising the Fifteenth Ward ; bounded north, by Fourteenth 
 Street ; east, by the Bowery ; south, by Houston Street ; west, by Hancock and 
 Bleecker Streets and Sixth Avenue. Assigned to Dr. F. A. Burrall, 22 West Eleventh 
 Street. 
 
 THIRTEENTH DISTRICT— Comprising the western half of the Seventeenth Ward; 
 bounded north, by Fourteenth Street ; east, by First Avenue (including both sides of 
 that Avenue) ; south, by Rivington Street ; west, by the Bowery. Assigned to Dr. 
 Robert Newman, 16 University Place. 
 
 FOURTEENTH DISTRICT— Comprising the eastern half of the Seventeenth Ward; 
 bounded north, by Fourteenth Street ; east, by Avenue B ; south, by Rivington 
 Street; west, by First Avenue. Assigned to Dr. E. W. Derby, 168 East Fortieth 
 Street. 
 
 FIFTEENTH DISTRICT— Comprising the Eleventh Ward ; bounded north, by Fourteenth 
 Street ; east, by the East River ; south, by Rivington Street ; west, by Avenue B and 
 Clinton Street. Assigned to Dr. James Ross, 54 Bank Street. 
 
 SIXTEENTH DISTRICT— Consisting of the southern half of the Sixteenth Ward ; bound- 
 ed north, by Twentieth Street; east, by Sixth Avenue; south, by Fourteenth Street; 
 west, by the North River. Assigned to Dr. W. C. Hunter, 255 Sixth Avenue. 
 
 SEVENTEENTH DISTRICT— Comprising the northern half of the Sixteenth Ward ; 
 bounded north, by Twenty-sixth Street ; east, by Sixth Avenue ; south, by Twentieth 
 Street ; west, by the North River. Assigned to Dr. Guido Furman, 126 West Twen- 
 ty-fifth Street. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH DISTRICT— Consisting of the southern half of the Eighteenth Ward ; 
 bounded north, by Twentieth Street ; east, by the East River ; south, by Fourteenth 
 Street ; west, by the Sixth Avenue. Assigned to Dr. H. M. Field, 37 Seventh Av- 
 enue. 
 
 NINETEENTH DISTRICT— Consisting of the northern half of the Eighteenth Ward ; 
 bounded north, by Twenty-sixth Street ; east, by the East River ; south, by Twentieth 
 Street; west, by Sixth Avenue. Assigned to Dr. J. R. Mansfield, 68 Lexington 
 Avenue. 
 
 TWENTIETH DISTRICT— Comprising the southern half of the Twentieth W^rd ; bound 
 ed north, by Thirty-third Street; east, by Sixth Avenue; south, by Twenty-sixth 
 Street; west, by Hudson River. Assigned to Dr. E. H. Janes, 61 West Twenty-sixth 
 Street. 
 
xxiv 
 
 REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 TWENTY-FIRST DISTRICT— Comprising the northern half of the Twentieth Ward; 
 hounded north, by Fortieth Street ; east, by Sixth Avenue ; south, by Thirty-third 
 Street ; west, by the North River. Assigned to Dr. James L. Little, 268 West For- 
 ty-second Street. 
 
 TWENTY-SECOND DISTRICT— Comprising the southern half of the Twenty-first Ward ; 
 bounded north, by Thirty-third Street ; east, by the East River ; south, by Twenty- 
 sixth Street ; west, by the Sixth Avenue. Assigned to Dr. R. L. Parsons, 263 Fourth 
 Avenue. 
 
 TWENTY-THIRD DISTRICT— Consisting of the Twenty-first Ward, north of Thirty-third 
 Street ; bounded north, by Fortieth Street ; east, by the East River ; south, by Thirty- 
 third Street; west, by Sixth Avenue. Assigned to Dr. Ellsworth Eliot, 48 West 
 Thirty-sixth Street. 
 
 TWENTY-FOURTH DISTRICT— Comprising the southern half of the Twenty-second 
 Ward ; bounded north, by Fiftieth Street ; east, by Sixth Avenue ; south, by Fortieth 
 Street ; west, by the Hudson River. Assigned to Dr. Robert Stewart, 141 West 
 Forty-fifth Street, 
 
 TWENTY-FIFTH DISTRICT— Comprising the northern half of the Twenty-second Ward ; 
 bounded north, by Eighty-sixth Street ; east, by Sixth Avenue ; south, by Fiftieth 
 Street; west, by the Hudson River. Assigned to Dr. J. Lewis Smith, 147 West For- 
 ty-ninth Street. 
 
 TWENTY-SIXTH DISTRICT— Consisting of the southern half of the Nineteenth Ward ; 
 bounded north, by Fifty-ninth Street; east, by the East River; south, by Fortieth 
 Street ; west, by Sixth Avenue. Assigned to Dr. H. Mortimer Brush, 7 West For- 
 ty-sixth Street. 
 
 TWENTY-SEVENTH DISTRICT— Consisting of the northern half of the Nineteenth Ward ; 
 bounded north, by Eighty-sixth Street ; east, by the East River ; south, by Fifty-ninth 
 Street; we3t, by Sixth Avenue. Assigned to Dr. Alexander Hadden, 118 East 
 Fifty-first Street. 
 
 TWENTY-EIGHTH DISTRICT— Comprising the western section of the Twelfth Ward ; 
 bounded north, by Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvel Creek ; east, by Sixth Avenue ; 
 south, by Eighty-sixth Street ; west, by North River. Assigned to Dr. L. A. Ropen- 
 stein, Manhattanville. 
 
 TWENTY-NINTH DISTRICT— Comprising the eastern section of the Twelfth Ward; 
 bounded north, by Harlem River ; east, by the East River ; south, by Eighty-sixth 
 Street; west, by Sixth Avenue. Assigned to Dr. J. 0. Farrinoton, 128 East One 
 Hundred and Twenty-eighth Street, Harlem. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS TO INSPECTORS. 
 
 THE LEADING FOLNTS OF SANITARY INQUIRY. 
 
 u [TnE main object of the inquiries that arc recorded in the Record-book is to procure 
 and preserve accurate information concerning the sanitary condition of every portion of the 
 city. Each inspector is expected to record his observations daily, &c, &c.] * * 
 
 * * mm » « • • 
 
 • »•••*•• • 
 
 "the inquiry will relate to 
 A. 
 
 " 77w Block or Square Wsitcd. — Ita boundaries ; nature of the ground ; drainage, 
 
REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 XXV 
 
 natural and artificial ; nuisances and any sources of insalubrity ; the prevailing character 
 of the population inhabiting the block ; the general condition and uses of the buildings, etc. ; 
 
 B. 
 
 " The Streets, Courts, and Alleys. — The sewerage ; the local drainage ; the pavement ; 
 gutters ; garbage ; cleanliness, etc. ; 
 
 C. 
 
 "the inspection of the house or houses in the block. 
 " The frontage, north, south, etc. ; stories and height of each story ; condition and 
 material of buildings ; dimensions of habitations, and rate of population to area and to air- 
 space ; water supply ; house drainage, whether ample, independent, and in good keeping ; 
 cesspools ; location and character of water closets ; care of garbage, etc. ; ventilation, 
 external and internal ; cellars and basements, and cellar population ; 
 
 D. 
 
 "sickness and mortality. 
 " Inquire concerning the prevalence and character of diseases in house and in neighbor- 
 hood, and state whatever may be ascertained respecting sickness and death-rates. 
 
 * ******* 
 
 " On the first page of the Book of Records it is requested that each inspector draw a 
 map of his district, and on the corners of each square place figures, indicating the number 
 of the street ; also that a red line be drawn through those streets in which sewers exist. 
 
 " The Records of Inspection begin on the second page. On the top of the page should 
 be written distinctly the names of the streets between which lies the belt of squares first 
 to be examined. Underneath should be written the names of the streets intersecting these 
 and forming the different squares, as will be seen in the form of heading which accom- 
 panies these instructions. On the margin should be placed numbers corresponding to the 
 several points to be reported upon, as contained in the printed list. [See Schedule of 
 ' Subjects for Inquiry ; ' * * * * *] 
 
 " The Inspection. — This should be pursued in accordance with the suggestions relating 
 to the scope and leading points of Inquiry, as presented upon the first page of the Record- 
 book. 
 
 " It is recommended that each Inspector begin his examination at one corner of his dis- 
 trict, and inspect a square at a time, the word square being here used, in a general sense, 
 for any collection of houses bounded by three or more streets. This is considered prefer- 
 able to following the line of any single street, and inspecting each side, because each 
 square constitutes in itself a small sanitary district, and should be considered a distinct 
 entity. Having completed the square, take the next one between the same streets, and so 
 on, until the Inspector has reached the limit of his district, or the termination of the 
 streets. Having completed this belt of squares, let him take the next series of squares 
 lying parallel to it, and thu3 proceed until his district is completed. But it will be the 
 duty of the Inspector, whenever he has information of the existence of fever, small-pox, or 
 any special source of pestilence within his district, immediately to make a thorough inspec- 
 tion of the locality, in accordance with the forms provided for the Inspection of Insalubri- 
 ous Quarters, and without delay to render said report to the Council of Hygiene ; but the 
 entry of the regular notes of inspection of such localities should not be made in the Book 
 of Records until such square is reached in its proper place in the series. The proper 
 memoranda of such inspections should be preserved in a separate book or on labelled slips 
 until required for entry in the Record. 
 
 " When the whole or greater part of a square is composed of tenant-houses, it will 
 generally be found that many of them arc alike ; and in such cases, while it will be ncces- 
 
xxvi 
 
 REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 sary to make, at least, a general Inspection of each house, it will be necessary to describe, 
 in detail, the condition of only one or two, stating the fact (which is always to be verified 
 by actual Inspection), that the adjoining houses, for a given distance, present the same 
 general features ; or, if different, state the essential points of difference. When a square 
 or block is composed mainly or entirely of houses occupied by one or two families, the 
 Inspection can generally be made in a very short time, and the record may be brief. 
 
 " Retorts and Requests. — It is expected that each Inspector will be present at the 
 weekly meeting, and that he will present, in writing, a condensed report or summary of the 
 week's labors. It is also expected that each Inspector will write a full report of his whole 
 district as soon as its Inspection shall have been completed, such report to contain a sum- 
 mary of all the points contained in each special report, and at the same time present a 
 concise and faithful account of the sanitary condition of the district. 
 
 " Special and very minute reports should be made of tenements and localities in which 
 fevers and other preventable diseases shall be found to prevail, which need not be entered 
 in full upon the Book of Records, but are to be reported upon separately, and may be 
 referred to by note. 
 
 " The extensive prevalence and diffusion of communicable and preventable diseases in 
 this city render it desirable that each Inspector report such maladies as frequently and as 
 fully as practicable. The Council expects to receive at least four such reports weekly from 
 each Inspector. 
 
 " It is particularly desirable and necessary that each Inspector should so lay out his 
 work, and prosecute his daily inquiries, as to complete the survey of his district within the 
 period specified, and care should be taken not to expend time needlessly on points that are 
 not essential. 
 
 " [For suggestions respecting further details of domiciliary inspection, see the forms for Special 
 Inspection, Reports of Insalubrious Quarters, and Pestilential Diseases]. 
 
 " [Paper for maps, blank forms, and books for reports and records, and any facilities that the Council 
 of Hygiene or the Citizens' Association can supply for tho furtherance of this work, will be furnished 
 upon application at their office, 813 Broadway. 
 
 "Any Inspector who requires the presence or aid of the police in tho prosecution of his inquiry, will 
 obtain snch aid by applying to the Superintendent of Metropolitan Police, or to Captain Lord, at tho 
 Police Headquarters. 
 
 " Insalubrious quarters that urgently demand immediato reform, should bo promptly reported with 
 specific statements, to tho Council of Hygiene. And in the whole courso of these inquiries, tho Inspector 
 will bear in mind that Iho improvement of tho health and condition of tho people, and tho acquisition 
 of accurate knowledge of prevalent diseases and their causes, is tho main object of this unitary survey 
 of tho city.]" * 
 
 SYSTEM OF DAILY RECORDS. 
 Eighth "Ward. — Broadway to Mercer. 
 j» 1st Square. Canal to Grand St. 
 
 £ 1. 
 
 % 2. 
 &c. 
 
 • For this schedule sco next page. 
 
REPOKT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 xxvii 
 
 Tho inspectors were directed to make this inspection, as far as possible, a 
 house-to-house visitation, and so thorough as to leave no cause of unhealthiness 
 and no existing disease undiscovered and uninvestigated. The inquiry "was to 
 proceed systematically, commencing at a given limit of the district and pro- 
 gressing by contiguous squares until the work was completed. The following 
 arrangement of the leading subjects of inquiry was issued for the purposes of 
 facilitating the inspections and insuring uniformity in all the records and reports. 
 Inspectors were, however, directed to develop each head by such subordinate 
 questions as they might deem desirable : 
 
 SUBJECTS FOR SANITARY INQUIRY. 
 
 1. Nature of the ground. 
 
 2. Drainage and sewerage. 
 
 3. Number of houses in the square. 
 
 4. Vacant lots and their sanitary condition. 
 
 5. Courts and alleys. 
 
 6. Rear buildings. 
 
 7. Number of tenant-houses. 
 
 8. Description of a single tenement [of a family]. 
 
 9. Description of a single tenant-house. 
 
 10. Description of a row of tenements. These descriptions should state — 
 
 a. Condition and material of buildings. 
 
 b. Number of stories and their height. 
 
 c. Number of families intended to be accommodated, and space allotted to each. 
 
 d. Water supply and house drainage. 
 
 e. Location and character of water-closets. 
 /. Disposal of garbage and house-slops. 
 
 g. Ventilation, external and internal. 
 
 h. Cellars and basements, and their population, 
 t. Condition of halls and passages. 
 
 j. Frontage on street, court, alley — N., E., S. or W. 
 k. Miscellaneous items. 
 
 I. Statement of sickness and mortality [according to the printed formula for 
 insalubrious quarters]. 
 
 11. Drinking shops, brothels, gambling saloons, etc. 
 
 12. Stores and markets. 
 
 13. Factories, schools, crowded buildings. 
 
 14. Slaughter-houses [describe particularly]. 
 16. Bone and offal nuisances. 
 
 16. Stables, etc. 
 
 IT. Churches and school edifices. 
 
 18. Prevailing character of the population. 
 
 19. Prevailing sickness and mortality. 
 
 20. Sources of preventable disease and mortality. 
 
 21. Condition of streets and pavements. 
 
 22. Miscellaneous information. 
 
 [Each of these subjects to be developed by such subordinate questions as the Inspector deem* 
 
xxviii 
 
 REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 desirable. The special points to which attention is directed under the XOlh head, suffi- 
 ciently illustrates the method of elaborating such questions.] 
 
 To each sanitary inspector a commission of appointment was issued in the 
 following terms: 
 
 Sir: 
 
 Tlie Council op Hygiene and Public Health, reposing special 
 confidence in your skill and ability to pursue sanitary inquiries and make 
 reports thereon, hereby commissions you for such duty, under direction of its 
 Executive Committee. 
 
 (Signed) Joseph M. Smith, M. D., President. 
 
 Elisha Harris, M. D., Secretary. 
 
 The attention of inspectors was especially called to the importance of a 
 thorough and exhaustive inquiry into the condition of insalubrious quarters 
 and localities where pestilential diseases were found to be prevalent, and re- 
 specting the diseases themselves, particularly as relates to fever, infantile mor- 
 tality, small-pox, etc. A form of special reports was accordingly issued to fa- 
 cilitate this branch of inquiry. The following is a partial abstract of the sched- 
 ule of points requiring replies in such reports : 
 
 "REPORT OF PESTILENTIAL DISEASES AND INSALUBRIOUS QUARTERS. 
 
 "Name of the disease reported ■ 
 
 Physician. 
 
 " Dates of the visits and inspection 
 
 "THE PLAN OF INQUIRY. AND RECORD. 
 I. To trace and record the Medical history of the sick person. 
 
 II. To ascertain and record facts relating to the Family and otherpcrsons exposed to the 
 patients and to the causes of the malady. 
 
 III. To report the Sanitary condition of the Domicile. 
 
 IV. To report the Statistics and Sanitary condition of the Population of that domicile. 
 V. To report upon the Sanitary condition of the Locality or Neighborhood and its Popu- 
 lation. 
 
 VI. To preserve and make returns of theso Records. 
 
 VII. To prepare on the spot the necessary outlines or data for the sketching of a Map or 
 
 Descriptive Chart of the Domicile, Block, or Locality." 
 
KEPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 "I. 
 
 1. Name 
 
 [If there are several patients 
 
 here, insert all the names] 
 
 2. Residence, Street and No 
 
 3. Age and Nativity 
 
 b. Period of residence in this city 
 
 4. Social condition ; [married ? unmarried ? 
 
 General condition of family? etc.] 
 
 b. Occupation 
 
 c. Grade of intelligence; [igno- 
 rant, educated, depraved, etc.] 
 
 d. Income and means of subsist- 
 ence 
 
 Date when this patient or place was first seen 
 
 by Inspector 
 
 b. When this case of sickness 
 
 , commenced ? 
 
 History of the case or cases of disease 
 
 b. What the principal cause ? 
 
 c. How and when exposed to do. ? 
 
 d. What relation to do. had this 
 patient'3 personal and domi- 
 ciliary habits ? 
 
 e. What other prediposing causes 
 
 are known ? " 
 
 "H. 
 
 Who, and how many persons, have been and 
 now are exposed to the immediate causes 
 
 of the malady? 
 
 How many cases of this malady have already 
 occurred in this family, or among these 
 
 persons ? 
 
 What has been the constant sickness-rate 
 among the persons over ten years of age 
 
 here during the last six months ? " * 
 
 [And eight other questions.'] 
 
 «m. 
 
 What number of persons in this house? 
 
 b. Pro rata of ground area to 
 
 each occupant ? [in sq. ft. ?] 
 
 c. Average cubical space in the 
 
 apartments to each person? " 
 
 [And thirty-six other questions.'] 
 
 * "State what proportion or percentage, on an average, upon snch testimony as can be obtained, is 
 constantly sick: Jth, jth, or 20 per cent., &c." 
 
XXX 
 
 EEPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 "IV. 
 
 Natural drainage 
 
 Sewerage 
 
 Width and peculiarities of Streets 
 
 b. Width and peculiarities of 
 
 Courts and Alleys 
 
 Special Nuisances in the locality " 
 
 [And twenty-three oilier questions.] 
 
 "APPENDED STATEMENTS. 
 
 u Other Prevalent Diseases in the same Locality. — Particular attention is to be directed to the 
 extent and causes of any other malady that is found to be especially prevalent in the family, the house, 
 block, or district that is being canvassed with reference to the disease that is recorded in the preced- 
 ing pages. After filling out the following registry, relating to Infant mortality, make a brief record 
 of any important facts that may be ascertained respecting the existence of Pulmonary Phthisis, Scrof- 
 ulous diseases — Marasmus, Ophthalmia, etc. — Erysipelas, Peurperal Fever, Still-births, etc, etc. 
 Let the range of such inquiries extend to all diseases that are ascertained to be peculiarly prevalent 
 and fatal in the domicile or the locality reported." 
 
 [The foregoing form of Eecord fills eight pages.] 
 
 These special reports enable us to preserve in permanent form the valuable 
 records they contain, and at the same time they serve as the basis for summary 
 tabulations, specimens of which are herewith submitted for publication in the 
 General Keport. The statistics, distribution, and grouping of such pestilential 
 diseases as typhus, small-pox, and cholera infantum, have been systematically 
 studied, and the practical results of this labor will aid very materially in work- 
 ing out lasting benefits to the community. Yet both the plans and the result 
 thus far attained by them mu st be regarded at present as simply the beginning 
 of a system of Sanitary Inquiry and Sickness Registration that should be ex- 
 tended and sustained in such manner as to reach all those economical and 
 humane results which an enlightened people have a right to expect and demand 
 from sanitary science. 
 
 While making this sanitary survey the Inspectors have constantly endea- 
 vored to render their labors immediately beneficial to the inhabitants of insalu- 
 brious quarters by means of personal counsel during the inspection, also by com- 
 municating information to the Metropolitan Police ; the Inspectors being fur- 
 nished with the following blank-forms for the latter purpose : 
 
 £ht Citijtnfi' SlsBOtiation of Nt_ J3ork. 
 
 Office, No. 813 Broadway, 1864. 
 
 To (lie Captain of the Sanitary Company, Central Department of Metropolitan Police: 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to inform you that the following complaint is made against 
 an insalubrious place : 
 
 Nature of the Complaint, , 
 
 ncmbbb and street,— 
 
 Disease Prevailing or Threatened, ,, 
 
 M. D., Sanitary Inspector for tilt Council of Hygiene. 
 
KEPOKT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 xxxi 
 
 On Saturday evening of each week the physicians thus engaged convened 
 for mutual counsel, the comparison of results, and for advice from a committee 
 of the Council of Hygiene. Tho following extracts from circulars issued hy the 
 Executive Committee show the nature of the advice given : 
 
 " The Committee advises that tho records and reports of currenjt work of Sanitary 
 Inquiry be fully written up at the close of each week and each month, so as to insure 
 such recording while the facts are yet freshly in mind. And in pursuing a work that 
 promises to be of such great and lasting importance, it is desirable that each physician 
 engaged in it should, in his own field, strive to give the most scientific and thoroughly 
 practical bearings to his hygienic inquiries and study. 
 
 " The Committee requests that the summary or review which each Inspector is ex- 
 pected to present, in writing, at the weekly meeting, comprise a brief statement of the 
 progress and the specially interesting points made in the work. These summary state- 
 ments are designed to interest and profit all who hear them read, and then to guide the 
 Council in its own duties from week to week. 
 
 " It is desirable that each Inspector should observe a systematic method of recording in 
 accordance with the schedule of subjects as numbered, and that each of the subjects for 
 inquiry be expanded, according to the Inspector's views of utility, at each new point of 
 observation. It is especially desired that the rate of crowding in Tenements upon limited 
 areas be accurately noted, and that such crowded and insalubrious quarters be occasionally 
 revisited. 
 
 *********** 
 " What have been the prevailing diseases during the past season, and to what causes 
 and conditions are they in general attributable? 
 
 " 1. Specify particular localities in which small-pox, typhus, typhoid, malarial and 
 exanthematous fevers, cholera infantum, diphtheria, diarrhoeal and puerperal diseases, 
 erysipelas, and kindred affections, have been unusually prevalent, and give in full and 
 minutely the local conditions influencing the rise, progress, and mortality from these 
 diseases. 
 
 " 2. What has been the constant sickness-rate in insalubrious quarters ? 
 
 " 3. Have you found insalubrious quarters where the constant sickness-rate and 
 mortality were slight ; and if so, how do you explain the fact ? 
 
 " 4. Have you found diseases emanating from immigrants ? If so, specify the class of 
 diseases, the extent of their prevalence, the circumstances under which they occur ; with 
 examples of their contagiousness. 
 
 *********** 
 " The Council fully appreciates the fact that the labors which have been undertaken by 
 the gentlemen who are engaged in this work of Sanitary Inquiry, are inspired by noble 
 professional and philanthropic zeal and purposes of public utility, and that these must 
 be the leading incentives to that thoroughness of research which is to be the most essential 
 condition of success in the effort to make these labors contribute to the public welfare and 
 to the progress and usefulness of sanitary science." 
 
 The work of sanitary inspection was prosecuted uninterruptedly until tho 
 month of December (1864), and since that time the Inspectors have carried for- 
 ward specific inspections relating to small-pox, typhus, and tho sickness and 
 death-rates in particular localities. This class of inspections is still in progress, 
 and the results are most instructive and practically important. 
 
xxxii 
 
 REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 Upon the completion of the sanitary survey of the city, the first of Decem- 
 her, each of the Inspectors presented a concise summary of the results of his 
 inquiry. These final reports of the Inspectors are herewith submitted to the 
 Council. They present a well-prepared body of evidence relating to the sani- 
 tary condition of the city and its various classes of population. The Eecord- 
 books containing 'the minutes of the Sanitary Survey, the maps and charts, the 
 rough sketches and statistical reports of insalubrious tenements and quarters, 
 and the special reports upon Pestilential Diseases, have been properly returned 
 and committed to the keeping of the Council of Hygiene. They are of perma- 
 nent value. 
 
 The character and value of the works which have been thus completed by 
 the corps of Sanitary Inspectors, as well as the practical importance and faith- 
 fulness of the labors which the same gentlemen are still pursuing, can scarcely 
 be over-estimated. They are alike honorable to the profession and to civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 While the work of sanitary inspection has been going forward by means of 
 systematic agencies in the city, we have deemed it expedient to institute certain 
 correlative lines of inquiry beyond the limits of our own civic population, with 
 the design to obtain positive information regarding the spread of diseases from 
 the city. For this purpose a circular was issued to physicians in neighboring 
 towns, and in the cities and principal villages of the State of New York. Some 
 of the fruits of this method of inquiry, beyond the city, have been embodied in 
 the form of a chapter for publication in the Report of the Council. 
 
 Several of the charitable and religious missions of the city have rendered aid 
 in some branches of our sanitary inquiry. This cooperation has been invited by 
 a circular from us, containing the following statement regarding the relations 
 which the physical and moral conditions of the community sustain to each 
 other : 
 
 *********** 
 
 " We bear in mind the fact that the purposes and labors of the Sanitary Council, 
 though relating specially to the protection of health and life, are entirely harmonious with 
 the works and purposes of the Missionary, the Instructor, and the intelligent almoners of 
 material and religious charities. 
 
 ***** u The Executive Committee of the Council of Hygiene solicits from 
 all intelligent persons who arc actively engaged in the religious and benevolent missions 
 of the city, such information as may, from day to day, enable the Sanitary Inspectors and 
 the Council to render their work more complete in all that relates to the search of insalu- 
 brious quarters and the causc9 of preventable disease and suffering. Missionaries, and 
 other persons, who are laboring in assigned districts, will find it convenient to communi- 
 cate directly with the physician who may be in charge of the Sanitary Inspection of that 
 particular district. 
 
 The cooperation of all practitioners of medicine in the city has been solicited, 
 and blank forms for partial records of certain prevcntablo kinds of disease have 
 been supplied to nearly a thousand practicing physicians. Tho returns which 
 have thus fur been received from this source, havo abundantly justified tho adop- 
 tion of. the measures pursued by tho Council of Hygiene in its sanitary survey 
 
REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 of the city. Of course it has not yet been practicable, from any such voluntary 
 reports, to obtain statistics upon which to base an estimate of the constant sick- 
 ness-rate of particular classes and localities : it is to the knowledge of prevalent 
 diseases and their causes that such records will contribute most immediately. 
 This has been well illustrated in the instances in which physicians have reported, 
 from private practice, several cases of typhoid fever, dysentery, and diarrhceal 
 disease in the very localities that had previously been reported upon by the 
 Sanitary Inspector as particularly liable to such endemic maladies, in conse- 
 quence of obstructed drainage, exposed sewage, putrefying garbage, etc. 
 
 The Executive Committee has rendered such aid as it could to the Council's 
 Special Committee on Health Laws, and would now report that, in so doing, re- 
 peated editions of the tract entitled " The Value and Necessity of Sanitary Im- 
 provement in Cities " have been put in circulation, all circulars, memorials, and 
 drafts of sanitary laws have been promptly printed, and the final copy resulting 
 from the joint labors of the Board of Legal Advisers and the Committee of the 
 Council has been printed and extensively distributed by the Council. It has 
 been deemed expedient, also, to provide for the illustration of certain sections of 
 the sanitary reports by means of careful surveys, photographing, engraving, 
 etc. This has generously been authorized by the Executive Committee of the 
 Citizens' Association, and the reports of the Sanitary Inspectors bear witness to 
 the practical value of such additional work and expenditure. As neither the 
 means nor the time were available for bringing out full illustrations in the man- 
 ner attempted by the Inspectors, it is thought best to give simply a sufficient 
 number and variety of examples to show many of the aspects of sanitary wants, 
 such as the overcrowding and faulty construction of tenant-houses, the culs-de- 
 sac and hiding-places of Typhus and other infections, and the character and en- 
 croachments of nuisances. The Sanitary Chart of the Fourth District, and the 
 Chart of a Region of Small-Pox and Typhus in the Third District, present ex- 
 amples of what may be mapped out in reference to corresponding conditions in 
 any of the tenant-house districts of the city. For the Sanitary and Topograph- 
 ical Map of the city we are indebted to Egbert L. Viei,e, Esq., President of 
 the Board of Engineers of the Citizens' Association. It is designed to illustrate 
 — 1st. The primitive topography and water-courses of the Island of New York ; 
 2d. The boundaries of the several Sanitary inspection districts ; 3d. The plot of 
 the Streets and Avenues of the city ; 4th. The present altitude or elevation of 
 each intersection of Streets and Avenues above tide-water level ; 5th. The ancient 
 tide-water line, and the portion of the city's area that has been reclaimed be- 
 yond that line — the " made-ground " along the river-sides ; 6th. The present 
 distribution of sewers throughout the city. 
 
 The intelligent and liberal views of the directors of the Citizens' Associa- 
 tion have made it both practicable and desirable to give to the plans and the 
 details of the sanitary work such breadth and efficiency as would best tend to 
 render this service permanently beneficial to the public. This idea has been 
 kept clearly in mind by the Sanitary Inspectors as well as by the Executive 
 Committee of the Council. Being purely a voluntary undertaking, and having 
 no collateral assistance from the so-called Health Department of the Municipal 
 
xxxiv 
 
 REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 Government, the methods of the work connected with this general Survey and 
 Sanitary Inspection of the city have continued to he exclusively independent of 
 any other aid than that which individual citizens, public-spirited physicians, 
 and the chief officer of the Sanitary Company of the Metropolitan Police, have 
 spontaneously given. To the officers of the Police special acknowledgment is 
 due for their uniformly attentive and courteous regard to all communications 
 and requests from the medical gentlemen representing the Council of Hygiene. 
 
 The first complete sanitary survey that has ever been made in the city of 
 New York»is now completed. The task has been executed by physicians. It 
 will be practicable to publish but a synopsis or summary of the work. An ade- 
 quate pecuniary compensation can never be rendered to the laborers ; the con- 
 sciousness of contributing directly and powerfully to the physical and the social 
 welfare of their fellow beings is their richest reward. Familiar with the haunts 
 of fever and other pestilential diseases, the Sanitary Inspectors have fearlessly 
 penetrated the dismal and unwholesome quarters where infectious poisons and 
 deadly maladies menace inhabitants and visitants, and from whence emanate 
 the most dreaded diseases that find their way to the more favored districts of the 
 city. And now, after completing the grand survey, writing np the records 
 of inspections, and presenting final reports thereon, they have entered upon a 
 re-inspection of the fever-nests and small-pox fields that infest the city. The re- 
 sults of the latter effort are not yet sufficiently complete to bo reported upon by. 
 the Council of Hygiene ; but the fact may be stated here that accurate returns 
 of one thousand five hundred cases of small-pox have been already received by 
 the Executive Committee, in accordance with the following blank-form for re- 
 ports : 
 
 STATISTICAL SUMMARY OF CASES OF SMALL-POX. 
 
 Reported by M. D., in the Sanitary Inspection District. 
 
 The street and number of house in which Small-pox is reportcJ. 
 
 Number of cases now in progress here. 
 
 Number of cases that have occurred since October. 
 
 Date of the outbreak of Small-pox in this house. 
 
 Date of the outbreak of Small-pox in this square. 
 
 Dow was the contagion introduced ? And whence ? 
 
 Had this patient (or these patients) been vaccinated ? 
 
 What number of persons in this family remain unprotected by vaccination ? 
 
 What number of persons in this house remain unprotected by vaccination ? 
 
 Population of the house. [By count or estimate.] 
 
 Population of the square. 
 
 Arc articles of clothing, bedding, upholstery, or other portable materials, exposed to 
 the infected air of the sick-room, or to contagion of the patient, and unguardedly removed 
 from that room ? [State any particulars that arc important.] 
 
 Is any manufacture or trade carried on in the family or in the house, by means of 
 which the contagion is liable to be communicated or spread abroad ? [State particularly.] 
 
 State what places of public resort, shopping, manufacture, travel, or residence, in closo 
 
KEPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 proximity to the infected apartment and patient, are particularly exposed or liable to the 
 contagion here ? 
 
 Has competent medical attendance been provided for the patient or patients ? 
 
 Has any officer or agent of the City Government visited the patient or the house ? 
 What official advice and orders have been given ? 
 
 Has any unusual restraint been placed upon ordinary intercourse with the family or 
 the premises ? 
 
 Remarks respecting the Inspector's visit and counsel. 
 
 A form of reports upon typhus corresponding in all respects with the fore- 
 going npon small-pox, is also bringing in important results. The total number 
 of cases of typhus and typhoid fever occurring among charity patients that 
 have been reported and tabulated by the inspectors and the Secretary of the 
 Council since the general survey was begun, to the present, is upwards of 
 sixteen hundred. Another special form of report is bringing in important infor- 
 mation respecting the daily and constant sickness-rate, and the percentage of 
 mortality in overcrowded tenant-houses, neglected quarters, etc. The grand ob- 
 ject of all such inquiry, inspection, and tabulation, is to acquire definite and reli- 
 able information which shall guide to wisely-directed efforts, npon a broader 
 scale, and with more ample means for the diminution and ultimate removal of 
 the preventable causes of disease and mortality. 
 
 The methods of sanitary inquiry and inspection that have been pursued, 
 were adopted as the most available that could be put into operation at the time. 
 Circumstances have determined certain features of this work which at another 
 time, and under different auspices, would be most advantageously pursued in a 
 different manner. The working machinery of a suitable system of sanitary in- 
 quiry and health government in such a city as New York, must be the growth 
 of time. The Citizens' Association requested such information and counsel 
 as physicians and hygienists alone could render ; and it has been the constant 
 aim of your Executive Committee to prepare such plans, and pursue such lines 
 of inquiry, as would lead to the most practical and certain results in the interest 
 of Health, Life, and Social Welfare to all classes of the population of New York. 
 
 Alfred C. Post, M. D., ") 
 Isaac E. Tatlok, M. D., Executive Committee 
 Stephen Smith, M. D., \ of the Council of 
 Joseph M. Smith, M". D., Hygiene. 
 Elisha Harris, M. D., J 
 
 New York, January 9<A, 1865. 
 
REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COUNCIL OF HYGIENE AND PUBLIC HEALTH, 
 
 OF THE 
 
 <£i%its' ^ssodatbn of Jefo gorh, 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 SANITARY CONDITION OF THE CITY. 
 
 In submitting this Report to the Citizens' Association of New 
 York, the Council of Hygiene would state that its chief object will 
 be to exhibit the practical conclusions which are clearly deducible 
 from the accumulated records and reports of the Sanitary Inspectors, 
 who have recently completed an extended hygienic survey and 
 inspection of the city. As mentioned in the special report of the 
 Executive Committee of this Council, herewith presented, the care- 
 fully-recorded observations and inquiries of the Inspectors furnish 
 a vast fund of fresh and most valuable information. And, in view 
 of the practical interest and the pubhc importance of the facts con- 
 tained in the voluminous records and special reports that have 
 been received from the several inspectors, the Council has deemed 
 it a duty to procure from each of them a final report containing a 
 condensed summary of the facts and suggestions that have entered 
 into their cm-rent records during the progress of their labors. 
 These District Reports, thirty in number, are herewith submitted. 
 They constitute a body of evidence that will abundantly corrobo- 
 rate all the statements which will be embodied in this general 
 report by the Council. These reports of the Sanitary Inspectors 
 embrace a great variety of details, statistics, and illustrations that 
 cannot fail to attract the attention of thoughtful readers. The 
 
sxxviii 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 records upon which they are based are altogether too voluminous 
 for publication, but in this General Report the Inspectors' Records, 
 as well as their reports as herewith published, will be employed 
 for guidance and illustration. 
 
 To individuals and to communities health is a priceless boon. 
 It is equally valuable to the poor and to the rich. Its influence 
 extends not only to the social and moral condition and prospects 
 of the individual, but to society at large, and public health becomes 
 a public blessing. In view, therefore, of the fact that in great 
 cities, and particularly in New York, both Life and Health are 
 peculiarly jeoparded by various and very active causes, winch 
 forethought, inquiry, science, art, and good governmental regula- 
 tions may remove or altogether prevent, this Council has cheer- 
 fully accepted the task of instituting a system of voluntary 
 efforts, with the design to observe and point out that class of 
 causes, with reference to practical measures for controlling them. 
 
 The first work in connection with the duty thus undertaken, 
 has been to obtain and accumulate fresh and definite information 
 by means of a carefully devised system of Sanitary inquiry. In 
 its endeavors to accomplish this preliminary work, the Council has 
 not overlooked the relations which health and the safeguards of 
 human life sustain to the social and civic welfare of the community. 
 Hence, in this first step of a public and philanthropic duty, the sys- 
 tem of labor, and all its plans, have related to certain well-defined 
 principles as well as to physical facts and physiological conditions. 
 
 SANITARY NECESSITIES AND EVILS OF CROWDED CITIES. 
 
 The progress of civilization in all countries is marked by the 
 aggregation of a large proportion of their population in cities and 
 commercial towns. However unfavorable to public health and to 
 personal morals this circumstance may be regarded, it is manifestly 
 a fact which we must accept, and duly estimate in all our plans 
 for the physical and the social welfare of society ; for it is an inevit- 
 able tendency of au advancing civilization, with its institutions of 
 science and art, and with its ever augmenting commercial and 
 social necessities, thus to centralize vast populations in cities. The 
 city of New York affords at the present moment a striking illus- 
 tration of this strong tendency ; and not only has it already become 
 
PREVENTABLE CAUSES. 
 
 xxxix 
 
 one of the most populous and densely-crowded cities in the world, 
 but it is plainly its destiny to become at once the most populous 
 and the most overcrowded of the great maritime cities. The evils, 
 therefore, which now imperil health and life in consequence of 
 overcrowding, etc., in this city, will tend to increase as the popu- 
 lation increases. 
 
 In all the problems we may devise for the sanitary or the social 
 welfare of this great metropolis, we must accept and duly estimate 
 the fact that its vast population is already more densely crowded 
 in its domiciles than that of almost any other city ; and that the 
 evils attendant upon overcrowding and the aggregation of vast 
 numbers will be continually augmented as the population increases, 
 unless the resources of Sanitary Science and the beneficent opera- 
 tions of wisely-administered sanitary regulations are interposed. 
 
 Sanitary Science with its practical applications having thus 
 become indispensable to the welfare of populous communities, it 
 may justly claim the attention which is bestowed upon it by the 
 medical profession, and by all other classes that are concerned in 
 the physical or the moral welfare of the community. This science 
 is itself a practical resultant from the study of the necessities of 
 healthful human life ; and like the several departments of physical 
 and physiological knowledge upon which it depends, it deals 
 mainly with the facts which observation, experience, and rational 
 deduction positively confirm. 
 
 The Council is fully convinced that the importance of sanitary 
 knowledge and its practical applications is not properly understood, 
 and that sanitary science is too generally regarded as something 
 new and of uncertain merit. With a view, therefore, of presenting 
 in a practical manner the facts concerned in affecting the public 
 health of New York, the following Report is submitted, with such 
 details of illustration, etc., as seem best adapted to extend the 
 beneficial influences of such knowledge : 
 
 PREVENTABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE AND DEATH. 
 
 In a city like New York the avoidable causes of sickness and 
 mortality are numerous and very active. There is reason for the 
 conclusion that to this class of causes alone should be attributed, 
 nearly one-third of the deaths that have occurred in this city dur- 
 ing the last ten or fifteen years. That is, had the available re- 
 
EEPOET OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 sources of sanitary knowledge, and a wise administration of muni- 
 cipal and domestic regulations based thereon, been kept actively 
 and very generally in operation, the greater part of the avoidable 
 sickness and mortality would have been prevented. The aimual 
 death-rate in a community, considered with reference to its aver- 
 age, or with reference to its variations in a series of successive 
 years, furnishes a sort of barometer of health and the chances of 
 life in such a community. The fact will repeatedly appear in this 
 Report that the chief causes of the excessively high death-rate in 
 the city of New York are definite and jyreventable. 
 
 The distinction between the preventable and the inevitable causes 
 of disease and of death is practically very important as a first step in 
 the consideration of remedial and preventive sanitary measures. 
 Careful observation and study of the facts relating to the leading 
 causes of the worst diseases that afflict mankind, have clearly estab- 
 lished the fact that a very large proportion of such maladies, espe- 
 cially as they prevail in cities, belong to the avoidable or preventable 
 class, and that their principal causes can be described, located, and, 
 to a great extent, or entirely, prevented. Whenever, therefore, in 
 this Report, reference is made to excessive or high death-rates, or 
 to preventable or avoidable disease, these expressions must be un- 
 derstood as referring to the sickness and mortality that are in ex- 
 cess of the proportion or percentage of disease and death which 
 are inevitable, or necessarily incident to the present state of the 
 population that is mentioned, had sanitary regulations and the 
 principles of hygiene been properly regarded. 
 
 Says an eloquent and learned writer upon this subject :* " In 
 certain parts of England and Wales it is found that, with a near 
 approach to certainty, you may predict that from 13 to 17 persons 
 will die annually out of each 1,000 of the population. In certain 
 other parts or districts of the country, we are equally certain that the 
 deaths will exceed 20 in 1,000 ; in a few districts the}' will very nearly 
 approach or even exceed 30 in 1,000 — the variations from year to 
 year being in this case much more considerable than in the first case 
 referred to." That is, we shall find that in whatever community 
 or district the annual death-rate is lowest, there will be compara- 
 tively the least fluctuation ; also that the ratio of inevitable mortali- 
 ty need not exceed 17 deaths annually to the 1,000 persons living. 
 
 • Dr. W. T. Gairdacr'8 Lecture* on Public Health, etc., Edinburgh, 1802. 
 
EEPOKT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 xll 
 
 THE STANDARD OF HEALTH :— SICKNESS-RATE. 
 
 Owing to the absence of accurate statistical observations re- 
 garding the relative amount of sickness, and the length of the 
 periods of illness in our city, our means for determining the ratio 
 of sickness to health are imperfect. In schools and large work- 
 shops, where given numbers of persons are daily assembled for 
 duty, or reported absent from illness, estimates upon a limited scale 
 are occasionably made ; but such statistics are not yet available for 
 general deductions as regards the average sickness-rate in particu- 
 lar classes and at particular ages, much less do they afford a basis 
 that is applicable for the entire population. But we possess two 
 other elements of an estimation of the average or constant sick- 
 ness-rate : one is derived from the statistics of the public medical 
 charities of New York; the other element is derived from the 
 experience of the Mutual Benefit and Friendly Societies of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 As regards the latter element of an estimate of the sickness- 
 rate, we may safely take the results of Dr. Lyon Playfair's study 
 of the question, " "What is the ratio of deaths to the total num- 
 ber of persons sick ? " Dr. Playfair found that in the city of Man- 
 chester there were, in a mixed population at all ages, 11,587 deaths, 
 to 324,041 cases of sickness. This gives one death to twenty-eight 
 cases of sickness, slight accidents being excluded.* This ratio be- 
 ing assumed as a fair average for a civic and manufacturing pop- 
 ulation, we have a basis for estimating the probable sickness in a 
 city like New York ; yet it is plain that the ratio of sickness to 
 mortality, like the ratio of sicknsss to health, is variable, and that 
 its variations in different localities, and in different classes, sexes, 
 ages, and occupations, are widely different. These questions have 
 been elaborately investigated by competent inquirers abroad, with 
 reference to the economical and proper management of various 
 kinds of self-supporting and Mutual Benefit Associations, f 
 
 There are good reasons for the conclusion, that in the city of 
 New York there occur not less than from twenty-five to thirty 
 cases of sickness to every death that takes place ; and that in those 
 
 * See Report of Health of Towns Commission, vol. 1, p. 448, 8vo Ed. 
 
 f See Contributions to Vital Statistics : and A Development of the Rate of Mortality, 
 and the Laws of Sickness, by F. G. Neison. Also the works of Mr. Ansell, Mr. Fin- 
 laison, and Dr. Gairdner's Lectures on Public Health, pp. 311 and 312. 
 
THE STANDARD OF HEALTH. 
 
 sections of the city m which the rate of mortality is greatest, the 
 ratio of the total sickness to the total mortality is much higher 
 than the average ratio and sickness-rate in the city. 
 
 This is a point of great practical importance ; and without at- 
 tempting in this place to present a statistical argument upon the 
 subject, we will only refer to striking illustrations of the fact as 
 presented in some of the records of the Sanitary Inspectors, pub- 
 lished in the second part of this volume. In one of those house-to- 
 house inspections the following facts were elicited : * In two con- 
 tiguous tenant-houses fronting on Pearl Street, it was found that 
 among seventy-four families, and three hundred and forty-nine 
 persons of the ordinary laboring class, there were, upon the day 
 of the inspection, one hundred and fifteen persons sick and diseased 
 with various maladies; and farther, that the death-rate for the 
 preceding twelve months had reached the fearful maximum of one 
 in nineteen of the total population. But it will he observed that 
 while the death-rate was so alarming, the constant sickness-rate 
 was even more excessive ; nearly one third of the population of the 
 two houses being sick on the day of inspection, which was during 
 the healthiest period of the year. 
 
 Illustrations of the law here alluded to can be brought for- 
 ward to an indefinite extent ; the records of sanitary inquiry in 
 the towns and cities of Great Britain abound with evidence upon 
 this subject. In all places, and among all classes, in which there 
 occurs a high rate of mortality, the standard of health is observed 
 to be lowered in a corresponding and much greater degree, the 
 ratio of the numher of persons constantly sick seeming to increase 
 with much greater rapidity than the ratio of mortality. We may 
 state, in conclusion, upon this all-important question of the 
 average or constant sickness-rate of the population of the city of 
 New York : 1st. That the total amount of sickness and disease 
 which exists at any period in this city may, in the absence of 
 actual registration of disease, be justly estimated at from twenty- 
 five to thirty persons sick for every death that occurs in the city. 
 2d. That the average duration of the illness of persons who recover 
 from disease, is from ten to twenty days. 3d. That an excessive 
 sickness-rate is at once a sure index and an active cause of 
 diminished vital endurance, and of a shortened average period of 
 
 * See pages 78 and 79, Second Tart 
 
REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 xliii 
 
 life. 4th. That the ratio or average of inevitable sickness and 
 disease, like the ratio of inevitable or necessary mortality, is to be 
 ascertained in this city by properly studying the physical condi- 
 tions and the history of the sickness and mortality of particular 
 classes, and in particular localities of the city.* 
 
 The total amount of sickness that occurs among the dependent 
 and pauper classes in this city during the year, is known to be 
 very large. For many years the number of such sick and diseased 
 persons appears to have increased more rapidly than the rate of 
 increase of population ; but it is found that the subject of sickness- 
 rates has received no attention from the Health Department of the 
 City Government, and that tbe Records of Medical Charities of the 
 City remain unstudied by any official authority ; consequently no 
 positive deductions have yet been made respecting the ratio of sick- 
 ness to mortality or of disease to health in the population of New 
 York. But so far as trustworthy data have been obtained by the 
 Council of Hygiene, it is found that the sickness-ratios correspond 
 very closely with those which have been obtained by inquiries in 
 Great Britain. In the present state of information upon the sub- 
 ject, therefore, the death-rate is an indispensable aid to correct 
 deductions regarding the sickness-rate in New York, and converse- 
 ly in regard to the standard of health in the community. f It 
 should be borne in mind, however, that whenever the vital statis- 
 tics of the city, and the records of medical institutions, are properly 
 
 * In the Metropolitan Police force, consisting of 2,014 men, carefully selected and pe- 
 culiarly exposed, the standard of health during the year 1864 is thus described by the 
 statistics of sickness and disability. The number of days lost by sickness in the force 
 was, in the aggregate, equal to 67 years of time. This is equal to 3 J per cent, of the total 
 force. That is, 3 J- per cent, of the men were constantly sick (or wounded); 31 died, or 1 
 in 65 ; and the total number of cases of sickness was equal to 28 to each death, allow- 
 ing an average period of illness of 16£ days to each man on the sick list. 
 
 f Says a distinguished British writer on Sanitary improvements : "One of the first 
 great objects of sanitary organization should be to watch the death-rate; to watch it not 
 only over a city or a parish, but in detail; to watch it with due regard to differences of 
 age, sex, place, and circumstance* ; to watch it from month to month, and even from 
 week to week ; to watch it as affected by different diseases, particularly what arc termed 
 epidemic diseases, and such diseases as we have reason to believe to be in a great degree 
 preventable ; and this done, to make known the result from time to time to those who are 
 chiefly concerned in Sanitary evils and their removal, so as effectually to bring home to the 
 dwellers in darkness, ignorance, and disease, the immense significance of the facts taught 
 by these figures." 
 
xliv 
 
 MORTALITY IN NEW YOKE. 
 
 gleaned, arranged, and studied, there will be another and more 
 direct method of determining the constant sickness-rate and the 
 average standard of health in the population. 
 
 MORTALITY IN NEW YORK. 
 
 The total number of deaths reported by the City Inspector, 
 during the year 1863, amounted to 25,196. This was an increase 
 of 3,952 upon the mortality of the previous year. The mortality 
 of the y£ar 1861 was greater by several hundred than in 1863. 
 The death-rate in 1863 was a Httle less than 1 in 35 ; and in 
 1864 there was but slight variation from the ratio of the previous 
 year. But as this estimate is based upon the assumption that the 
 rate of increase of the population since 1860 has been about five 
 per cent, per a?mum, which exceeds the rate of increase during the 
 period from 1850 to 1860, the exact ratio can be accurately 
 determined only after the absolute population of the city has been 
 ascertained. Yet, for the purposes of our present inquiry, it suffices 
 to know that for twenty-five years past the rate of mortality in 
 this city has been increasing, and that it has fluctuated from the 
 ratio of 1 death to every 39 of the population, to as great an 
 increase as 1 death to every 27, and even to every 22£ of the liv- 
 ing ; and that our death-rate invariably keeps above the highest 
 average of other American cities ; it also continues to be higher 
 than that of the largest cities of Great Britain and France. 
 
 The reference which is here made to the rates of mortality in 
 other cities, might be followed up to some very important conclu- 
 sions respecting relative degrees of insalubrity and mortality ; but 
 it must be admitted that the island and city of New York possess 
 such natural advantages of salubrity that the comparison of this 
 with other great cities, American or European, would be unequal, 
 unless these natural advantages are at the same time properly 
 estimated as being in favor of a lower death-rate and a higher 
 average of health in this than in other cities. The fact that the 
 rate of mortality in New York exceeds that of most other great 
 cities, may justly be regarded as positive proof that the mortality 
 in this city is excessive and unnecessary. There is, however, a 
 more direct and satisfactory method of arriving at just deductions 
 respecting both the degree and the local circumstances of the 
 death-rate in New York. We select the following method as the 
 
REPORT OF COUNCIL CF HYGIENE. 
 
 xlv 
 
 one best adapted to throw light upon the question of the death-rate 
 in all its bearings : 
 
 Every citizen must have observed the fact that in certain por- 
 tions of the city there exists an almost universal neglect of Sanitary 
 regulations; the streets, courts, and alleys generally filthy, the 
 gutters obstructed, the house-drainage defective, and the sewerage 
 faulty; while in the tenant-houses of such localities are found 
 numerous cases of typhus, small-pox, and all varieties of pulmo- 
 nary and infantile maladies, which can be perpetuated and rendered 
 fatal by overcrowding, domestic uncleanness, and lack of ventila- 
 tion. In such localities, however great the advantages of natural 
 salubrity may have been, and however well-fed and well-to-do the 
 resident population, sickness is always very prevalent, and diseases 
 are very fatal. On the other hand, there are portions of the city 
 in which the streets have been well paved, and kept clean by 
 private enterprise, or by the influence of the residents ; where the 
 dwellings are kept in a cleanly and not overcrowded condition ; 
 where the local drainage and general sewerage is good, and local 
 nuisances of every kind abated; where, in short, there exists a 
 good observance of Sanitary regulations that have been tacitly 
 adopted and enforced by the local intelligence of the resident pop- 
 ulation. 
 
 For such a comparison, we will- select two districts in which 
 there is the greatest similarity of location and the natural conditions 
 that should conduce to general salubrity of the resident population, 
 and where, as regards the means of subsistence, the habits of indus- 
 try, etc., etc., there are found the most points of analogy; but 
 where, as we have just stated, certain removable causes of dis- 
 ease are absent on the one hand, and abundantly prevalent on 
 the other. For this purpose we look upon the Sanitary and Topo- 
 graphical Map that accompanies this Report, and select the Third 
 Sanitary Inspection District (A), and the Twelfth, which respec- 
 tively comprise the Fifth and the Fifteenth Wards. "We next 
 refer to the Annual Eeport of the City Inspector for the year 
 1863, and find that the total number of deaths in the Fifth Ward 
 was 1,144 ; while the total number in the Fifteenth Ward was 492. 
 Referring to the census of these wards, we find that the population 
 of the former ward, in the year 1860, was 22,265 ; and further, 
 that during the preceding period of ten years, there had been a 
 
xlvi 
 
 MORTALITY IX NEW YOEK. 
 
 decrease of two per cent, in the population of that ward. Estimat- 
 ing the population, in 1863, at 22,265, according to the census re- 
 turns of 1855 — though we know that the population in that ward 
 decreased to two per cent, during the period from 1850 to 1860 — 
 the death-rate is found to he 1 death to 19 living. But there is an 
 allowance to he made for the 373 deaths that occurred in the City 
 Hospital, which is situated within the limits of this district. The 
 actual death-rate in the resident population, therefore, was 1 in 28 + 
 of the living. And now to show that this is not a particularly ex- 
 ceptional district of its kind, the death-rate of the Fourth Ward, 
 which is the Fourth Sanitary District as described upon the Map, 
 may be quoted. The death-rate in that Ward, in 1863, was about 1 
 in 25. In the Fifteenth Ward, in 1863, it was 1 in 60 of the popula- 
 tion. And why does this wide difference in the death-ratios of these 
 neighboring districts exist ? The resident population have just 
 about the same distribution into families with young children ; 
 they dwell in private houses, in hotels and boarding-houses, in 
 about the same proportions in the several districts, with the single 
 exception that modern tenant-houses have encroached but a little 
 way upon the Fifteenth, or healthful district ; yet in the district 
 last mentioned, experience demonstrates that the expectation or 
 chance of human life, counting all ages together, has more than 
 twice, yes, two and a half times the value that can be claimed for 
 the inhabitants of the insalubrious districts previously mentioned. 
 
 This method of illustrating the difference or variations in the 
 rates of mortality might be extended to various other districts, or 
 it might be applied to small localities, as to whole squares, or to 
 particular dwellings and tenant-houses. Let the following suffice : 
 In the Sixth Ward, which is noted for insalubrity, the death-rate, 
 in the year 1863, was 1 in every 21 of the population. But great 
 as the difference is between that local death-rate and the rate of 
 mortality for the whole city, which was about 1 in 35 or 36, or 
 between either of these rates and that of the Fifteenth Ward, there 
 are found to be very marked differences in the rates of mortality 
 in different localities and particular tenant-houses in the Sixth 
 Ward itself. An illustrative instance has already been referred to 
 upon a previous page,* and numerous cases of the kind will bo 
 found in the Reports of the Sanitary Inspectors. 
 
 • Sec page XliL, this Report, and p. 18 and 79, Tart Second. 
 
KEPOKT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 xlvii 
 
 The important question now recurs : What is the necessary or 
 inevitable mortality of the total population of the city ? To this in- 
 quiry we "heed present no other reply than that afforded by the vital 
 statistics of the crowded and busy Fifteenth "Ward. It is entirely 
 practicable to bring the standard of health throughout the city up 
 to the present standard in that ward. Good Sanitary regulations 
 would bring up the health-standard in some wards, the Twenty- 
 first, or Murray Hill district, for example, to a point considerably 
 higher than that of the Fifteenth. The entire city, with a death- 
 rate of 1 in 60, which is the present rate of mortality in a central, 
 crowded, but salubrious ward, the total mortality of the city would 
 be at the rate of but 1Q,6QQ to the million, instead of ranging as it 
 now does from 25,500 to 35,000 deaths to the million of the inhab- 
 tants. And if, for the present, the death-rate in the city were 
 brought down to the standard which, by the agency of Sani- 
 tary works, was speedily reached in London, and which New York 
 enjoyed fifty years ago, under better Sanitary regulations than 
 are now enforced, namely, about 1 death to every 45 of the pop- 
 ulation, it still would be too high a rate of mortality, though it 
 would be a saving of several thousand lives annually upon the pres- 
 ent mortality. 
 
 In conclusion, we may state concerning this subject of standards 
 of sickness and mortality in a city like New York, that however 
 fluctuating and difficult to estimate, they are undoubtedly far 
 higher than they should be in this city, and that both the causes 
 and consequences are of vital importance as relating to economical, 
 social, and moral questions that should receive the earnest atten- 
 tion of every citizen ; for the preventable sickness, and the unneces- 
 sary mortality in our city, stand connected with the chief sources 
 of the pauperism and vices of particular classes that most burden 
 society ; while, at the same time, the same causes of insalubrity 
 operate with increasing pressure, and most unfavorably, upon the 
 individual and the public health and happiness of the more favored 
 classes of the population. 
 
 PREVENTABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE. 
 
 From the facts stated in the preceding pages, it is manifest 
 that the causes of excessive rates of sickness and mortality are 
 abundantly open to observation and study in various districts of 
 
xlviii 
 
 PREVENTABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE. 
 
 this city. "We have seen that a mixed and crowded population 
 inhabiting a ward (the Fifteenth) in the heart of the city, has an 
 annual death-rate of less than two per cent., while in certain other 
 wards of the city, where special and removable sources of insalu- 
 brity exist, the annual death-rate reaches, and even exceeds four per 
 cent, of the resident population. In one case there is but one death 
 in fifty and upward, and in the other there is one death in twenty- 
 four of the inhabitants. These widely marked and sharp contrasts 
 are observed no less in the relative amounts, or rates of sickness, 
 than in the rates of mortality ; and in the study of causes that in- 
 duce and perpetuate the diseases which prevail in the insalubrious 
 quarters, the physician finds the full explanation of such wide 
 difference in the sickness and death-rates of particular localities. 
 
 Though, from the duties of his profession, the physician must 
 give constant attention to the means of curing disease, nevertheless 
 the importance of observing, and, when practicable, controlling the 
 causes that produce sickness and excessive mortality, has ever been 
 regarded as a paramount obligation of the medical adviser. The 
 history of the medical profession in its relation to physical and 
 social improvements in populous communities is full of instructive 
 illustrations of the beneficial results of inquiry into the causes of 
 prevalent and fatal diseases. In great cities, where our dwellings, 
 our offices and warehouses, the articles of our food, the water 
 and beverages we drink, the drainage, occupation and cleansing of 
 the premises about us, and even the quality of the air we breathe, 
 are determined by other persons, or but in small part by ourselves, 
 there exists an incessant demand for watchfulness against the 
 agencies which are detrimental to health or destructive to life. 
 That a necessity for such watchfulness exists throughout the city 
 of New York, is shown by abounding evidence in the Reports of 
 the Sanitary Inspectors in the second part of this volume. 
 
 By referring to the testimony and the Records of the Sanitary 
 Inspectors, it will be observed that particular diseases are described 
 in connection with special conditions of insalubrity. Typhus fever 
 and consumption are found in the overcrowded tenant-houses, and 
 in dark and noisome quarters excluded from sunlight and fresh air. 
 Cholera infantum, dysentery, diarrhocal diseases, and various 
 typhoid maladies are found to prevail in badly drained and 
 neglected streets and alleys, and in cellars, or in damp and filthy 
 
PREVENTABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE. 
 
 xlix 
 
 domiciles surrounded by nuisances and poisonous effluvia. In such 
 localities it has also been observed that scrofulous, rheumatic, and 
 eruptive diseases prevail, and that the average or constant sickness- 
 rate in the families and houses so situated is very high, the pro- 
 portionate number of persons sick, or the total days of sickness, 
 being three, five, or even ten times the ratio of sickness in the 
 localities where better sanitary care prevails. And when the 
 medical observer comes to inquire into the predominant causes of 
 prevailing sickness, he finds that physical and rational evidences 
 combine with overwhelming proof that these specific and remov- 
 able physical conditions both produce and perpetuate such sickness. 
 The chief causes concerned in producing the preventable class of 
 diseases may be enumerated under two heads, as follows : 
 
 1. External conditions of insalubrity. 
 
 2. Personal causes of disease. 
 
 These two classes of causes are often associated and powerfully 
 cooperative, but in this Report our attention will be confined to 
 the external and positively removable sources of sickness and 
 mortality. The worst personal causes of fatal disease not infre- 
 quently result from faulty external conditions, and they are at the 
 same time so intimately associated with the worst moral evils and 
 social misfortunes of the laboring classes. Therefore, in undertaking 
 to discover and describe that class of the material causes of disease 
 and public insalubrity which is removable by means of a Sanitary 
 Police, it has naturally resulted that the subject of personal hygiene 
 and social improvement could not fail to be thoughtfully consid- 
 ered ; and in all the efforts that have been put forth for the re- 
 moval of the merely external gross material sources of insalubrity, 
 it is found that the correlative personal and social causes of preva- 
 lent diseases are the more clearly understood, and the more readily 
 mitigated. Indeed, it may be said, in the words of an eminent 
 writer on sanitary improvement, " the truth is, that, whenever we 
 begin by reforming one thing, we end by reforming a great many 
 more things in our social organization." The Sanitary Inspectors 
 who have completed the survey upon which this Report is based, 
 have not been unmindful of the correlation of the personal and 
 social, and the purely external causes of insalubrity ; and for illus- 
 trations of the manner in which such correlation of causes has been 
 studied, we might refer to the Reports of the Eleventh, Twelfth, 
 4 
 
1 
 
 KEPOKT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 Eighteenth, and Twentieth Inspection Districts. But great and 
 urgent as are the social wants, and the necessity for improvement 
 in personal hahits and self-care, in particular classes, the Council of 
 Hygiene and its corps of assistants have regarded the discovery and 
 removal of external causes of disease, and the suggestion of plans 
 for rescuing and protecting the community from evils that can 
 only be prevented or controlled by intelligent and cooperative 
 efforts, as being the first object of sanitary inquiry. Improve- 
 ment in personal and social conditions will follow close upon gen- 
 eral hygienic provisions, and at the same time much needs to be 
 done to diffuse popular information respecting the laws of health, 
 and to impress all classes in the community with a sacred regard 
 for human life, and for personal purity. The health missionary is 
 always a pioneer to works of social improvement. In great cities 
 the moral aspects of sanitary works are peculiarly important. 
 
 Although the removable causes of sickness and mortality are 
 not exclusively confined to cities, they exist in more aggravated 
 and multiplied forms, and are generally capable of being more 
 definitely reached, and not less certainly removed, than in rural 
 districts. Stagnant waters and undrained lowlands do not more 
 certainly produce malaria or the ague poison, than do the un- 
 ventilated and overcrowded tenant-houses invite and localize the 
 poison of typhus, or the filthy streets, the reeking gutters and 
 garbage boxes, and the untrapped drains and sewers, and the 
 general neglect of domestic cleanliness, induce and intensify the 
 typhoid, diarrhceal, and cholera poisons. Experience has proved 
 that all these sources of disease are removable, and that the preva- 
 lence of such maladies is preventable. And as to the comparative 
 facility and certainty of effecting the prevention of malarial disease 
 by drainage and agriculture, and of removing the chief causes of 
 febrile and wasting maladies, by means of thorough ventilation and 
 civic cleanliness, experience is in favor of the latter. It certainly 
 was a more expensive and difficult work to drain the bogs of Eome 
 and the Pontine marshes, than was the maintenance of the local 
 drainage and cleanliness of the city and its domiciles ; and in the 
 filling and drainage of the Minor Velabrum and the swamps of 
 Lake Curtius, more time and treasure were expended than were re- 
 quired for the maintenance of the complete system of local drainage 
 and cleanliness of the vast Colosseum that subsequently attracted 
 
PREVENTABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE. 
 
 li 
 
 to the same locality, and held for days at a time, the tens of thou- 
 sands of pleasure seekers whose health and lives, but for the means 
 of drainage and purity there provided, would have been fearfully 
 jeoparded.* 
 
 The nature of the marsh malaria may remain undetermined 
 for another generation, yet its causes are now so well understood, 
 that the rustic yeoman and the humblest villager know that fever 
 and ague disappear under the influence of thorough drainage and 
 agriculture, and that these simple agencies are as effective for the 
 prevention of malarial maladies as quinine is specific in their cure. 
 
 The fact has long been established, that typhus fever owes it3 
 origin to overcrowding, uncleanliness, and want of ventilation ; and 
 that, when once the fever poison gains a foothold in domiciles 
 where these evils prevail, its ravages are inevitable. In such 
 localities the deadly poison will be perpetuated, while all classes 
 of people who are exposed therein, peril life and health to them- 
 selves and their families. Typhus is preventable by means of 
 cleanliness and a constant supply of fresh air, but without those 
 agencies its infectious poison is uncontrollable in a populous city 
 bike New York. For fresh illustrations of the persistent adherence 
 of the typhus poison in its primitive haunts in this city, we would 
 call attention to the facts stated in the Sanitary Inspection Reports 
 of the First, 1 Third, 3 Fourth, 3 Sixth, 4 Fourteenth, 4 Fifteenth, 6 and 
 Eighteenth' Districts ; while for an example of the sanative results 
 of cleansing and ventilation where the fever poison had gained a 
 foothold, we may refer to statements made by the Sanitary In- 
 spectors of the Third, and Twenty-first District. 
 
 That the chief causes of that type of continued fever which is 
 denominated typhoid or enteric can readily be controlled and remov- 
 ed by human agency, has been well settled as a medical fact ; and 
 that all the more prevalent kinds of diarrhceal maladies are induced 
 
 * The Colosseum comprised within its walls an area of 249,840 superficial feet; and 
 it was necessary to provide conveniences for 70,000 to 80,000 persons constantly assem- 
 bled to witness the games, etc., and who often remained riveted to the spot for days 
 together. For a description of its system of drainage, see evidence given by Ed. Crcsy, 
 C. E., before the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission, pp. 333-335, First Report, 1847. 
 
 1 See Second Fart, pp. 6, 8, 9. 3 See Second Part, pp. 29-31. ' See Second Part, pp. 
 52, 64, 66, 58, 62. * See Second Part, pp. 78-80. * See Second Part, pp. 168-169. 1 See 
 Second Part, pp. 179-180. ' See Second Part, pp. 216-218. 
 
lii 
 
 KEP0RT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 by causes that are removable, is also a well-established fact. Clean- 
 liness, and the removal or avoidance of all kinds of putrefactive 
 exhalations, together with proper care in the selection of food 
 articles, are the indispensable means of protection from this class 
 of diseases. Surely no intelligent person can deny that these ne- 
 cessary means of health can be provided by municipal authority, 
 especially if such authority is supported by competent sanitary 
 advice. True, in the city of New York the beneficent results of 
 adequate care of the public health are looked for in vain ; but this 
 is only in consequence of the blind neglect of the official authorities 
 of the city and the State to provide a proper system and adminis- 
 tration of sanitary government. Yet, notwithstanding the want 
 of adequate sanitary regulations, this city is blessed with a system 
 of water supply which excels that of any other city of equal pop- 
 ulation upon the globe, and which for years past has exerted a 
 most direct and important influence in protecting the inhabitants 
 from the general prevalence of typhoid infections and diarrhceal 
 diseases. Indeed, the Croton-water, in its universal distribution 
 and abundant supply everywhere throughout the city, tempting to 
 cleanliness of person and premises, preventing the use of water 
 saturated with organic poisons from wells, and of worse poisons from 
 stills, is to be regarded as the chief agency of sanitary protection 
 which the city enjoys. Especially as regards the preventable 
 diseases above mentioned, Croton-water is to-day the only well- 
 administered agency of sanitary protection which the Government 
 provides. But, alone, this agency is insufficient to guard against 
 the incursions of the diseases here named; and, when house drain- 
 age and sewer cleansing are neglected, and when, in crowded courts 
 and in obstructed gutters and cesspools, the filthy ooze and fever- 
 breeding exhalations are kept up by means of waste water and 
 putrefying organic matters, even the rich blessing of abundant 
 water-supply becomes in particular instances a source of disease. 
 Nevertheless, the value of the benefits outweigh the aggregate of 
 the evils from the neglect, even in such instances. 
 
 The preventable diseases already mentioned caused, during the 
 year 1863, a large percentage of the total mortality. The total 
 amount of sickness from these diseases may properly be estimated 
 in accordance with the principles laid down on a previous page. 
 But these are but a few of the diseases which are most invariably 
 
PREVENTABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE. 
 
 liii 
 
 caused by preventable or removable causes. Too commonly 
 they are regarded as inevitable maladies, tbat can only be averted 
 by Providence. The Council of Hygiene expresses tbe rational 
 convictions of the medical profession upon this subject, by stating 
 that the chief causes are within the range and the duty of human 
 control ; and that neither the truths of science nor a true respect 
 for the beneficent Deity and His will, can warrant the opinion that 
 man is irresponsible for the occurrence of evils that can and 
 ought to be prevented by human effort and obedience to the 
 Creator's laws. Perhaps no clearer expression can be given to the 
 truth relating to this subject, than that embodied in a reply of 
 the Prime Minister of Great Britain, when he was urged to pro- 
 cure a royal order for a national fast, etc., in anticipation of an 
 approaching visitation of cholera. In that communication, Lord 
 Palmerston said that " the best course which the people of this 
 country can pursue to deserve that the further progress of the 
 cholera should be stayed, will be to employ the interval that will 
 elapse between the present time and the beginning of next spring 
 in planning and executing measures by which those portions of 
 their towns and cities which are inhabited by the poorest classes, 
 and which, from the nature of things, must most need purification 
 and improvement, may be freed from those causes and sources of 
 contagion which, if allowed to remain, will probably breed pesti- 
 lence and be fruitful in death, in spite of all the prayers and fast- 
 ings of a united but inactive people." * 
 
 The rapid progress of knowledge, the marvellous increase of 
 human power over the elements of nature, by means of the applied 
 sciences, the requirements of humanity, and an advancing civiliza- 
 tion, together with the lessons and the light of past experience in 
 great cities, combine to make plain the duty and the practicability 
 of Sanitary works and regulations which shall redeem the city of 
 New York from the scourge of fever and kindred maladies that 
 now infest its tenant-houses and crowded districts. 
 
 The fevers and diarrhoeal maladies have been mentioned as 
 types of diseases that are produced and perpetuated by preventable 
 causes, but there are still other classes of disease which are scarcely 
 less preventable. One is even more so, viz., small-pox, which, since 
 the discovery of Jenner, may be regarded as wholly preventable. 
 
 * Buckle's History of Civilization in England, vol. ii., page 467. 
 
liv 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 The entire category of the exanthematous diseases may be regard- 
 ed as coming partially under the head of preventable evils ; the 
 excessive mortality that results from them may at least be regarded 
 as being dependent upon removable causes. In reference to this 
 subject, particular attention is invited to the statements which are 
 embodied in the Sanitary Inspection Reports. The fearful mortal- 
 ity which attends the prevalence of scarlatina and measles in the 
 crowded and neglected portions of the city, as well as the thought- 
 less and hazardous exposure of the active sources of these diseases 
 to all classes of susceptible persons, in the hotels, and the public con- 
 veyances and streets of the city, may justly be regarded as a sub- 
 ject demanding public and official attention. A committee of the 
 Council of Hygiene has already prepared a special report upon 
 the points last mentioned.* 
 
 Small-pox is prevailing as an epidemic in New York during 
 the present winter (1865), and so extensive was the epidemic at 
 one period that the corps of Sanitary Inspectors under direction of 
 this Council gathered up the records of fifteen hundred cases of 
 variola and varioloid in the course of a few days. That such an 
 epidemic of small-pox should have occurred in a civilized city in the 
 nineteenth century, and with the decisive experience of two gene- 
 rations from Jenner's great discovery of the protective power of 
 Vaccination well understood and accepted, is of itself an ignoble 
 commentary upon the sanitary neglect and defective intelligence 
 in administration that have rendered such an outbreak of that 
 loathsome malady possible. In a subsequent section, under the 
 head of Remedial Measures, the Council will have occasion to re- 
 fer to the subject of Vaccination. The fact is universally conceded 
 that the means of preventing an epidemic of small-pox are in our 
 hands, and that by a simple and inoffensive proceeding, easy of 
 application and certain in its results, every person in the city may 
 and should be protected from the disease. From the time when 
 Jenner introduced the application of his discovery, in the year 
 1798, and when but two years later its benefits were coufirmed by 
 experience in New York, there has been no lack of testimony to 
 the fact that vaccination affords positive protection. " It was not, 
 
 • See the report of that committee, published by the Council of Hygiene ; also a paper 
 by Dr. Robert Druitt, upon the Eradication of Domestic Pestilence. — Transactions of Oit 
 National Association for Promoting Social Science, 1860. 
 
PREVENTABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE. 
 
 lv 
 
 then, because Jenner's discovery was unappreciated among us that 
 we have failed to enjoy to the full the immunity to be derived 
 from it, but because we had long accustomed ourselves to consid- 
 er that the prevention of disease, even when epidemic, was a mat- 
 ter chiefly of private concern." Left thus to the precarious 
 chances of casual, voluntary, and entirely unorganized methods 
 and occasions for applying this grand preventive against a dread- 
 ful malady, the good work that should have been done has not 
 been, and will not be generally or faithfully done, nor can it 
 be without the aid of an adequate system, authorized or provided 
 for by municipal or State laws. Hence it is not strange that this 
 city has for many years contained a great number of foci of the small- 
 pox virus, and it is not strange that the scourge is now epidemic. 
 In the month of April, 1864, when a member of this Council was 
 preparing plans for a voluntary survey of the sanitary condition 
 of the city, he visited five domiciles in a single hour in which 
 small-pox was prevailing within fifty feet of the largest dry goods 
 jobbing houses on the continent ; and he saw children from whose 
 faces the crusts of the pock had not yet fallen, passing back and 
 forth through the narrow alley leading to their pestilential homes, 
 and gathering unrestrained, and apparently unnoticed, about the 
 entrances to the stores and offices in the vicinity. And upon in- 
 quiry at that time, the fact was ascertained that small-pox had been 
 constantly prevalent throughout that neighborhood for several 
 months, that a succession of tenants, incoming and outgoing, had 
 kept up a supply of fresh victims to the loathsome malady. A 
 chart of the district here referred to, will be found in the second 
 part of this Report [page 31]. From the testimony of the Sani- 
 tary Inspector and persons residing in that district, it appears that 
 the epidemics of these two diseases continued to prevail together, 
 or in succession, in these domiciles for more than a year previous 
 to January, 1865.* 
 
 * At last these epidemics have died out. The two diseases swept like a slow fire 
 throughout the insalubrious quarters, until there was scarcely any susceptible material 
 remaining ; that is, these maladies have apparently burned out, as persons are not liable to 
 immediate reattacks of either of them. By referring to the illustrative chart above men- 
 tioned, it will be seen that one or both of the diseases prevailed during the year in sixty 
 out of the ninety-six houses in six small blocks ; that there was fever in fifty-two of the 
 houses ; small-pox in thirty-four ; and that there were only two domiciles in which the 
 latter disease occurred, that were not also visited by the fever. Such is the history of the 
 
Ivi 
 
 KEPOET OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 The foregoing statement seems to illustrate the manner in 
 which the removable causes of disease and mortality are permitted 
 to exist in this city ; and upon examining the Reports of the Sani- 
 tary Inspectors, the truth regarding sources of disease appears to 
 be, that two classes of such preventable causes are continually active 
 in producing and diffusing diseases throughout the city, and that 
 these two methods of propagating disease are fearfully active and 
 cooperative in particular districts. These strictly preventable 
 agencies of disease are properly designated as — (1) the Specific 
 causes ; (2) the Localizing causes. 
 
 THE SPECIFIC CAUSES OF CERTAIN DISEASES. 
 
 The small-pox virus, always directly contagious, and also in- 
 fectious to a considerable distance beyond the person of the sick, 
 and the typhus poison which is also communicable by personal in- 
 fection, are typical examples of certain specific causes of disease, 
 which, if unguarded, will surely endanger the public health. 
 In the city of New York these specific sources of infection have 
 become so numerous, and so intensified by their increasing preva- 
 lence, that no district or street in the city is free from the peril 
 of exposure to the maladies here mentioned. Within a single 
 block from the elegant mansions of Stuyvesant Square, is a row 
 of tenant-houses in which typhus has been constantly prevailing 
 for more than a year past ; from one of these houses, in which 
 reside twenty families, the Sanitary Inspector reports that he has 
 sent more than twenty patients to the fever hospital during the year 
 18G4, and that at least eighty cases of the fever occurred in that 
 house during the year. Again, in a group of crowded tenant-houses 
 near the corner of Mulberry and Canal streets, typhus has prevailed 
 very fatally, and almost "constantly, the past three years; and during 
 the first two months of the winter of 1865, twenty-three patients 
 and five deaths from that fever were witnessed by the Sanitary Inspec- 
 tor in two of the smaller houses. In another quarter, upon a great 
 thoroughfare, the infection of typhus has for a long time been so 
 virulent aud fatal, that in consequence of the panic it creates among 
 the families which it enters, a perpetual succession of hasty remov- 
 als both of families and fever patients has been kept up during 
 
 favorite haunts of fever, and the other preventable forms of disease. They seek the same 
 habitations, because they are subject to the same localizing causes. 
 
PREVENTABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE. 
 
 Ivii 
 
 the year, and by that means the seventy-four domiciles of that sin- 
 gle rookery have sent out an incessant and widely-distributed cur- 
 rent of the typhus poison to other and distant sections of the city. 
 Illustrations of the evil here referred to have been frequently pre- 
 sented to the attention of the Council. A single instance may 
 properly be given in this place : 
 
 An Inspector reported the following facts that came under his 
 observation : A man residing in the Eleventh Ward was sick with 
 typhus fever, and died ; a few days subsequently a daughter of the 
 deceased, residing in the Seventeenth "Ward, having visited her 
 father while he was sick, was attacked by the same fever, and died. 
 At the same time another daughter, whose residence was in Brook- 
 lyn, became ill with the fever she had contracted in her father's 
 sick-room, and she died; another sister, residing in Avenue A, 
 contracted the same fever while visiting the father and sisters when 
 sick. Another relative, whose residence was in Sixteenth Street, 
 also a son and another daughter of the first deceased patient, resid- 
 ing in Eleventh Street, were attacked with the same fever in con- 
 sequence of their visits to the sick-rooms of the first and the second 
 of the patients here mentioned. The Inspector reports that eight 
 cases of the fever thus sprung from a common centre, and by dis- 
 tribution in as many different localities created as many new cen- 
 tres of infection and danger. Again, in the stated weekly Reports 
 of another Sanitary Inspector, the following statement of facts in- 
 cidentally appears : A young man residing with his parents in 
 Thirty-Second Street, contracted typhus at the bedside of a sick 
 friend in another block ; his father, in turn, contracted the same 
 fever from the son, and died ; and there followed three other cases 
 of fever in the same family. From this family the fever poison 
 was communicated to visitors from a family in another block, in 
 which family there occurred six cases in succession, and two deaths; 
 and during that period the fever was communicated to two neigh- 
 boring families in the same house. In the mean time some of these 
 people, being alarmed at the spread and fatality of the disease, re- 
 moved to another block, and carried the infection of fever with 
 them. Next, the Inspector found the same fever spreading through 
 families in Twenty-eighth Street, and was able to trace its introduc- 
 tion directly to the fountain of infection that has just been men- 
 tioned in Thirty-first Street. Thus, in a period of a few weeks the, 
 
Iviii 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HTGIENE. 
 
 Inspector found that seventeen cases of typhus in five families, and 
 in four distinct localities, resulted from the careless exposure of the 
 fever patients to promiscuous visitors. And all this was hut the 
 beginning of an evil, the records of which are still in progress. 
 
 Though, as will presently he shown, there are causes which 
 localize and give increased virulence to fever and all other zymotic 
 diseases in the city, the facts respecting the careless and unguarded 
 exposure and dissemination of the specific personal sources of in- 
 fectious maladies in the community should no longer be overlooked 
 by the public authorities ; much less should the people be permit- 
 ted to remain uninstructed and unadvised concernina; such sources 
 of danger. The records which have been carefully and systemat- 
 ically made respecting the present epidemic of small-pox are replete 
 with evidence that the utmost neglect of common precautions 
 against the diffusion of small-pox virus has prevailed ; as well as 
 that, until the epidemic had created a panic, the public authorities 
 had made no efforts to arrest the spread of the malady by advising 
 and providing vaccination. Even in the midst of the epidemic the 
 means that are provided are utterly inadequate, and they are un- 
 worthy of a civilized community. Neither the city nor the State 
 has made any provision of trustworthy material and measures for 
 vaccination ; the community remains unadvised regarding the re- 
 quisite precautions to be employed against the direct dissemination 
 of the virus of small-pox, and no sanitary and police surveillance 
 guards against the indiscriminate use of the public hacks, ferry- 
 boats, railway-cars, restaurants, public thoroughfares, clothing 
 manufactories, and crowded dwellings, in which the poison of this 
 loathsome disease continues to be exposed. The facts upon this 
 subject, as recorded and verified by the faithful Sanitary Inspectors, 
 who are still continuing their inquiry under the direction of the 
 Council of Hygiene, are such as should arouse the intelligent in- 
 dignation of the public* 
 
 * As the expediency of publishing details upon the subject here referred to is justly 
 questionable, it may be best to state in general terms that during the past few years there 
 had been an increasing negligence of all reasonable precautions against the exposure of 
 small-pox patients, and their garments and all other materials, which by contact with the 
 sick had become fomitcs of the small-pox virus. Public hacks and railway cars have 
 been freely used by persons in all stages of small-pox ; the clothing of patients who died of 
 that malady have been sold to dealers in old clothes ; and the Sanitary Inspectors furthor 
 
PREVENTABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE. 
 
 lix 
 
 It should have been mentioned that subsequently to the com- 
 pletion of the General Sanitary Survey of the city by the corps of 
 Inspectors, whose reports are appended as a body of evidence in 
 the Second Paet of this volume, the same physicians have been 
 pursuing a systematic course of inspection and inquiry concerning 
 small-pox and fever. The results already attained in this inquiry 
 present overwhelming proof of the fact that both the specific and 
 the general or localizing causes of these two most preventable but 
 fatal maladies have been and still continue to be criminally 
 neglected by the municipal authorities ; and further, that nearly 
 all classes of the community remain in comparative or utter igno- 
 rance of the perils to which they are thus exposed. 
 
 The Council of Hygiene has deemed it a duty to make a record 
 of cases illustrating the manner in which small-pox and fevers are 
 spread from this city to other communities ; and, in the course of 
 inquiries upon this subject, very important and startling testimony 
 has been given by medical practitioners in various portions of the 
 State of ISTe w York, and by physicians in various cities and towns that 
 hold daily intercourse with this city. The following instances will 
 serve as illustrations of the truth that has been elicited upon this 
 subject : 
 
 report many instances in which they found persons sick with small-pox in the same close 
 apartment with tailors who were working upon woollen clothing. In other instances where 
 the children of poor shirt-makers were sick with that disease, the new garments and the 
 materials in hand were seen used as covering and wrappers upon the patients ; every- 
 where there appeared to be no restraint upon the ordinary intercourse with families 
 among the tenant-house population where small-pox was prevailing ; and as the result of 
 searching inquiry into the history of more than twelve hundred cases of this dreadful dis- 
 ease during the early part of the winter, 1865, the Inspectors found but two instances in 
 which the infected domiciles had been visited by any officer or employe of the Health 
 department of the city government. In one of those instances the so-called Health War- 
 den stopped at the foot of a stairway forty feet distant from the poor tenant who had the 
 disease, and delivered his orders as follows: "Put pieces of camphor about the clothing 
 of those who are not sick, and occasionally throw some camphor upon the hot stove." 
 In the other case the sanitary officer of the ward called at the entrance of a tenant-house 
 in a densely-crowded district and instructed the poor families whose domiciles were smit- 
 ten with the contagion, that they must not permit any person to know or to mention 
 that there was small-pox there, and that if that injunction of secrecy were not strictly 
 obeyed he would send them all to the pest-house ! 
 
 Facts like these require no comment from this Council. They call for indignation as 
 well as for a renewed effort of the citizens of this metropolis to provide some means for 
 protecting the people against such evils. 
 
lx 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 Dr. Jenks S. Sprague, of Cooperstown, N. T., feports the oc- 
 currence of twenty-six cases of small-pox in that town, comnmni- 
 cated by a merchant who visited the city and put up at a hotel in 
 which small-pox existed, and in which a patient died with the dis- 
 ease a few days previously. Besides the twenty-six cases in Coop- 
 erstown, there were many other persons infected with the disease, 
 which they conveyed from that village into country districts. Dr. 
 Frederick D. Lente, of Cold Spring, Putnam County, writes that 
 " we have had three instances within the last few weeks of small- 
 pox brought to this village by persons from the city of New York;" 
 and he adds, " I think they get it in many instances from the city 
 railway cars." Dr. Lente relates an instance that confirms this 
 opinion. Dr. S. W. Turner, of Chester, Ct., reports three instances 
 of the communication of small-pox from New York to his neigh- 
 borhood. In one instance a Broadway merchant was attacked with 
 the malady, and, returning to his country home, he conveyed it to 
 his family there. Dr. C. C. Gay, of Buffalo, also reports the man- 
 ner in which small-pox spread in that city from a woman who ar- 
 rived in that city by railway from New York with that malady. 
 Dr. C. C. Noble, of Waverly, Tioga County, N, Y., reports the 
 case of a merchant who visited this city and put up at a hotel, and 
 in an apartment in which there had been a patient with small-pox 
 but a day or two previously. The merchant returned home with 
 the same disease ; six other cases and two deaths resulted directly 
 from this source of the contagion. Dr. Jarvis, of Madison County, 
 N. Y., reports a citizen returned from a business visit in this city, 
 sick with small-pox, and that the contagion was directly communi- 
 cated to fifteen other persons in the vicinity of his home, and ulti- 
 mately to many neighborhoods beyond the village in which he re- 
 sided. Again, it is reported by Dr. Stevenson, of "Washington 
 County, N. Y., that a man residing in Hammond Street, New York, 
 being sick with small-pox at its stage of full eruption, took the cars 
 to Albany and to his father's residence in the town of Cambridge, 
 and that the contagion was immediately communicated to his 
 father's family. 
 
 Without delaying to narrate other instances of this kind, the 
 Council beg leave to refer to evidence upon this subject received 
 from Dr. E. M. Snow, the well-known and faithful Ileal th-0 nicer 
 of the city of Providence, E. L In the winter of 1855-'5G small- 
 
PREVENTABLE CATTSES OF DISEASE. 
 
 Ixi 
 
 pox was introduced into that city by a direct importation of the 
 disease from New York, and 130 cases occurred in rapid succession 
 from that one source. From 1856 to 1859 only seven cases of small- 
 pox occurred in that city ; six of those- were known to have been 
 contracted in New York. All classes and ages of the population 
 of Providence had been A r accinated, and consequently the disease 
 did not spread. But during the years 1859-'60-'61 and '62 small-pox 
 continued to arrive from our city, and it spread to some extent each 
 year. Dr. Snow remarks that " small-pox comes to this place (Prov- 
 idence) nearly every year, and usually produces an epidemic of vac- 
 cination, besides causing some extension of its own contagion." 
 
 Though small-pox is the most contagious and most readily com- 
 municated of all infectious maladies, there is abundant testimony 
 to the fact that typhus fever, scarlatina, and some other sources of 
 specific febrile infection, occasionally become the means of spreading 
 their fatal poison to the towns and cities that hold daily communi- 
 cation with New York. At present there is neither any sanitary 
 police surveillance nor any official advice and precaution against 
 the propagation and wide distribution of these and other sources 
 of infection. 
 
 Though it was not to be expected that a purely voluntary sys- 
 tem of investigation, like that which this Council has undertaken, 
 would bring forth immediately, and in a single season, all the facts 
 that need to be set forth upon questions relating to the public 
 health, it is plain that with facts like those here mentioned con- 
 stantly accumulating and continually being verified, the time for 
 reform has come. A great commercial city like New York, by 
 permitting such evils to continue, not only puts in jeopardy the 
 prosperity of trade and the welfare of the citizens, but also becomes 
 guilty of a high crime against society at large. 
 
 In reference to the subject here presented, this Council would 
 recommend : 
 
 First. — That a system of faithful Medical and Sanitary Inspection 
 should le maintained throughout the city, for the purpose of 
 searching out and reporting to a central authority the existence 
 and the sources of fevers, small-pox, and other pestilential dis- 
 eases ; and that, in the absence of a competent hoard of health, 
 such duties of inspection, etc., should le maintained by volun- 
 
Ixii 
 
 KEPOET OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 tary organisation! and, further, that such sanitary inquiry 
 should be accompanied by the needed personal advice, and such 
 other influences as would tend most certainly to diminish the 
 evils thus discovered and reported* 
 Second. — That either by public authority and a competent Bu- 
 reau of Hygiene, or by voluntary and private enterprise, there 
 shotdd be instituted such a system of general Inquiry and Ad- 
 vice concerning the occurrence and spread of contagious and 
 dangerous diseases, as will not only enable ths people of the city 
 of New York to protect themselves against dangers that now 
 exist in their midst, but also more effectually guard against 
 small-pox and fever from external sources, and at the same time 
 intelligently provide adequate measures to prevent the spread of 
 such infectious diseases from this city to other communities. 
 
 THE LOCALIZING CAUSES OF PEE VAILING DISEASES. 
 
 It lias seemed proper in this Report to dwell at some length 
 upon the subject of those specific sources of disease that may most 
 certainly be wholly removed or prevented by means of medical 
 police authority. The next subject which presses itself upou our 
 consideration may be best comprehended by presenting its leading 
 points, under the general head of the Localizing Causes of Pre- 
 vailing Diseases. By this term it is to be understood that there 
 are causes which tend to determine and promote the prevalence of 
 disease in particular localities. 
 
 The daily records of the medical gentlemen who have carried on 
 the work of sanitary inspection in this city are full of testimony to the 
 fact that the prevalence of fever, small-pox, infantile, diarrhceal and 
 pulmonary diseases, together with an excessive sickness and death- 
 rate, is invariably found associated with certain well-defined local 
 
 * A distinguished leader in sanitary improvement in Edinburgh thus sets forth the 
 duty of " organized sanitary inspection, having for its object to ascertain facts and to press 
 home the consequences of them upon the conscience of those chiefly concerned " : 
 
 "Where we cannot legislate we can still teach; where we cannot command we can 
 still warn. And neither the existence nor the absence of power, neither the expediency 
 nor the inexpediency of interference by the authorities, can exempt us from the duty of 
 knowing what is amiss, and diffusing that knowledge far and wide. For this is a case in 
 which, literally and in the most indisputable sense, the people are ' perishing for lack of 
 knowledge.' " 
 
LOCALIZING CAUSES OF PEEV AILING DISEASES. Ixiii 
 
 conditions which are unquestionably the chief causes of such ex- 
 traordinary sickness and mortality. Time would scarcely permit 
 us to review and give illustrations of the voluminous testimony 
 that has been incidentally accumulated upon this subject by the 
 corps of inspectors during the past season. Suffice it to state here 
 that the existing fact thus reported by skilled and faithful physi- 
 cians, simply confirms what reason should have taught every per- 
 son, however uneducated, that filth, overcrowding, bad drainage, 
 excessive humidity, imperfect supply of air and sunlight, neglect 
 of excrementitious and decaying material, and the putrid exhala- 
 tions from sinks, sewers, gutters, and dirty streets, will both pro- 
 duce and perpetuate disease ; and that whatever sickness occurs in 
 such localities will be more virulent and destructive than the same 
 or similar maladies when occurring in places where such conditions 
 do not prevail.* 
 
 * The records of all epidemics of cholera as well as of fevers, and the daily observa- 
 tions of physicians in reference to ordinary maladies, fully corroborate this view of the 
 localizing causes of prevalent diseases. The following brief reference to a few instances 
 will sufficiently illustrate this subject. We quote familiar facts from American records, 
 and should remark that the history of epidemics and nearly all zymotic diseases in Euro- 
 pean towns fully confirms the conclusions which have been derived from medical observa- 
 tions in our American cities : 
 
 (1.) The first epidemic of cholera in the city of New York made its appearance first 
 in the vicinity of Roosevelt and Cherry Streets ; and nearly at the same time it appeared 
 in Reade, Washington, and Duane Streets. The Five Points and the whole region of the 
 Sixth Ward was visited by the epidemic with fearful virulence. " Rotten Row," in Lau- 
 rens between Grand and Broome Streets, became another deadly centre of the malady. 
 The vicinity of Corlears Hook, including portions of the Seventh and Thirteenth Wards, 
 and another district including portions of the Eleventh and the Seventeenth Wards, con- 
 stituted another great centre for the deadly sweep of the cholera. In all these places the 
 local and removable conditions of general insalubrity were abundant. 
 
 (2.) In the cholera epidemic of 1849 it commenced its ravages at a grand centre of 
 corruption and gross insalubrity in Baxter Street. Dr. Wm. P. Buell, the physician of the 
 first established Cholera Hospital, thus describes the locality and the first victims of the 
 disease. " No. 20 Orange Street" (now Baxter) " lies thirty or forty yards in a southeast- 
 erly direction from the ' Five Points.' The entrance to the rear lot is gained by an open- 
 ing scarcely two feet wide, or more than six feet in height, pierced through the front 
 house. Passing through this a distance of forty feet, you reach the rear lot, on which are 
 two old and ruinous tenements : one a prolongation backwards of the front house, and the 
 other standing across it at right angles ; the adjoining house, an extension backwards in 
 the same manner, thus cutting off almost completely the admission of fresh air. The 
 small area that is unbuilt upon is covered with black pools of filthy water. The apart- 
 ment where the first case occurred is a basement or cellar in one of these buildings." * * * 
 " At my first visit, on the 16th of May, five human beings, one man and four women, lay 
 
lxiv 
 
 REPOKT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 One of the Sanitary Inspectors ascertained that the death-rate 
 in his district was as one in twenty-four of the population. A 
 member of the Council accompanied that Inspector through sev- 
 eral of the insalubrious quarters in that district, and found that a 
 very large proportion of the resident population were sick, the per- 
 centage of persons sick ranging from ten to thirty per cent, of all 
 the living. At that time the Inspector was able to point out, upon 
 an area of about one-fourth of a square mile, no less than one hun- 
 dred and fifty tenant-houses in which fever and small-pox was 
 at the time prevailing or had recently prevailed, and where at the 
 same time there existed all the evils just alluded to as the chief 
 
 upon the floor in different stages of cholera. There was nothing under them but mud and 
 filth, and nothing over them but a few rags of the filthiest description. Civilization and 
 a great city could scarcely afford a parallel to the scene." * * * "On the morning 
 of the 20th of May two women were brought to the hospital from the ' Old Brewery.' " 
 
 For 14 days the disease was confined to this filthy locality. Nest the disease ap- 
 peared in a low and filthy quarter in Stanton Street and the Eleventh Ward. Then in the 
 region west of the City Hospital, where typhus and small-pox have swept so fatally the 
 past twelve months. The epidemic had thus gained headway and become fully estab- 
 lished : its march was rapid and deadly. 
 
 As to localizing causes, there was but one opinion to be expressed. The epidemic 
 sought out and lingered longest and most fatally in the very regions where typhus, small- 
 pox, scarlatina, and other preventable diseases then prevailed, and do now most prevail. 
 
 (3.) In Philadelphia the cholera broke out and made some progress in the districts of 
 Moyamensing and Southwark, where the work of cleansing was incomplete. But the citi- 
 zens had anticipated the coming pestilence by the most comprehensive and energetic ef- 
 fort to effectually purge their city of all nuisances and all the known causes that produce 
 or localize disease. 2,970 privies were cleansed ; 340 houses were cleaned by authority ; 
 188 ponds were drained ; 66 rag and bone shops were closed, etc., etc. ; and in all the 
 city removed upwards of 6,000 separate sources of nuisance and disease. Cholera sent 
 but 747 persons to their graves in Philadelphia, while in the city of New York it claimed 
 5,071 dead ! 
 
 (4.) In the city of Boston the epidemic began in Hamilton Street, where 21 cases 
 occurred, and spread through such places as Ann, Cove, Hanover, and Sea Streets. The 
 officer of Internal Health of that city reported that the epidemic " domiciled itself, so to 
 speak, in localities which have in common certain well-defined peculiarities." Crowding 
 and local impurity were the chief peculiarities of those places. In the same localities — 
 particularly in Hanover Street — typhus fever had previously been very prevalent. 
 
 (C.) In (he city of New York the Common Council, acting as the Board of Health, ap- 
 pointed a Sanitary Committee, consisting of nine members of that Board, and by herculean 
 efforts the city was finally cleansed and the pcstilenco stayed. In the final report of that , 
 Committee, ofter declaring that " wc have no Sanitary Police worthy of the name," it is 
 stated that " cholera may agaiu assail us before wc know it ; and it is the dictate of true 
 policy to be prepared in season to meet it, and not cholera alone, but any and every other 
 malady which mav be produced or aggravated by local causes." 
 
LOCALIZING CAUSES OF PREVAILING DISEASES. Ixv 
 
 localizing causes of disease. Over the same ground, in the warm 
 season, swept cholera infantum, and during other periods of the 
 year scarlatina, measles, and almost every kind of domestic pesti- 
 lence prevailed in the same domiciles. Rheumatism, catarrh, 
 consumption, and diseases of the eyes, the shin, and the bowels, 
 are likewise always and most obstinately prevalent in the same 
 localities and the same families. 
 
 The Inspector of the Fourth Sanitary District reports that in a 
 certain tenant-house he found that in a population of 501 persons, 
 in 71 families, there had occurred 20 cases of small-pox during the 
 year, and that there had been six deaths from that disease ; scarla- 
 tina had carried 16 of its young victims to the grave, and typhus 
 had claimed a full share of adult lives. Upon the day of inspec- 
 tion there were found 8 persons sick with the last-named fever, 4 
 of small-pox, 7 of scarlatina, 4 of measles, 27 of marasmus, 12 of 
 consumption, 8 of obstinate diarrhoea ; and the total number of 
 persons seriously ill in that closely-packed tenant-house was, at 
 that time, 116, or about 29 per cent, of its population ! 
 
 The local causes of insalubrity in and about the premises here 
 described, are precisely those described at the commencement of 
 this section. Filthiness, overcrowding, and a want of fresh air and 
 sunlight, have served to localize and aggravate the diseases that 
 have prevailed there ; and at the beginning of summer in the year 
 1851, when the cholera reached our shores, it made its appearance 
 first in the very place that is here described. And it is worthy of 
 remark in this place, that its prevalence upon those premises was 
 promptly arrested by means of thorough cleansing and a thinning 
 out of the population. At the time of last inspection, each inhab- 
 itant had a pro-rata allowance of about fifteen superficial feet of 
 area upon the ground, and but 275 cubic feet of air-space. At 
 the beginning of the year 1865, the degree of overcrowding of that 
 building was even greater by ten per cent, than the rate here re- 
 corded. The various causes of insalubrity that pertain to, or are 
 accumulated about the tenant-houses here reported, are recognized 
 by every intelligent physician as the agencies which not only origi- 
 nally produce many of the diseases that prevail there, but which 
 also fix and insure the prevalence of every kind of fever and con- 
 tagion that chances to be introduced from abroad. This sufficient- 
 ly illustrates the meaning of the term " localizing causes of disease." 
 5 
 
Ixvi EEPOET OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 By turning to the District Reports in the Second Paet of this 
 volume, it will be seen that the Sanitary Inspectors have given 
 peculiar and merited prominence to the local and removable evils 
 that produce or determine the prevalence of disease. Says the 
 Inspector of the Tenth District : " The high rate of sickness and 
 mortality among the people of this district is undoubtedly attribut- 
 able to two general causes, viz. : 1st. Their insalubrious surround- 
 ings, such as filthy streets, deficient sewerage, neglected privies, 
 and ill-ventilated dwellings; and, 2d. The ignorant and careless 
 habits of the people themselves." The Inspector of the Eleventh 
 District reports a series of facts relating to the prevalence of dys- 
 entery, diarrhoea, and typhoid fever, which owed their origin and 
 virulence to an uncovered and neglected sewer. The Inspector of the 
 Thirteenth District reports in detail upon a great number of fever- 
 nests, and insalubrious quarters, in and around all of which he 
 found that the localizing agencies of disease were definite and 
 destructively abundant. In the Eighteenth District, where fever 
 and diarrhoea have been rife, the Inspector found, within a few 
 hundred feet of wealthy and well-kept mansions, there were accu- 
 mulated all the filthy and nameless evils that make a fever-nest, 
 and in the midst of which typhus and domestic pestilence hold sway. 
 Says the Inspector of the Twentieth District : " A very large ma- 
 jority of cases of cholera infantum occurred in rear tenements, from 
 which are excluded the genial rays of sunshine, and where the 
 atmosphere is loaded with the emanations from overflowing privies, 
 filthy cellars, and undrained cess-pools." 
 
 The Inspectors' Reports, like their daily Records, are full of 
 direct testimony upon this subject; and as the reader will find 
 condensed statements relating thereto in the Second Paet of this 
 volume, it is not necessary to quote further from the results of the 
 sanitary survey of the city. To the citizens who have encouraged 
 and sustained its labors, it is proper that this Council should pre- 
 sent not only the general conclusions that have been reached in 
 those labors, but also such illustrations, both of the sanitary evils 
 that now jeopard the public health, and of the agencies by which 
 evils may be removed, as will most effectually aid the works of sani- 
 tary improvement which are immediately required in the city of 
 New York. Hence it has been deomed expedient by the Council 
 to add to the Inspectors' Reports various details of illustrations by 
 
LOCALIZING CAUSES OF PEEV AILING DISEASES. Ixvii 
 
 means of diagrams, etc., prepared from the original surveys made 
 by an architectural and topographical draughtsman who has 
 steadily been employed as an essential aid to the Sanitary Inspec- 
 tion. It has been the constant aim of the Council and its assistants to 
 investigate the causes of insalubrity as they to-day exist in the city ; 
 and if in this Report, and in the body of evidence from the Sani- 
 tary Inspectors, there appears to be a great degree of prominence 
 given to the localizing causes of disease and excessive mortality, it 
 is a prominence that is fully justified by existing facts. Indeed, 
 the actual circumstances and local conditions that now prevail as 
 the chief causes of needless disease and mortality in the city of 
 New York surpass belief, and can in nowise be fully represented 
 by mere description. Such overcrowding and filthiness in exten- 
 sive districts of a great city, such negligence of civic cleanliness 
 and the localizing causes of disease, such an utter disregard of all 
 precautionary inquiry and regulations to guard against the increase 
 and diffusion of specific sources of pestilential maladies, probably 
 do not exist elsewhere in the civilized world. 
 
 The Council would respectfully recommend, in view of the 
 great importance of trustworthy and constant information and 
 skilled advice respecting the local sources and the localizing causes 
 of disease throughout the different sections of the city, that — 
 
 First. — Physicians and all other classes of philanthropic and 
 intelligent citizens should unite in the duty of maintaining a 
 systematic effort to procure such stated and special inspections 
 and reports of insalubrious quarters in the several districts of 
 the city, as will furnish that definite and constantly revised 
 knowledge of prevailing sickness and mortality, and the local- 
 izing conditions of disease, which will best enable the people 
 to devise and apply means for the protection of the public 
 health. 
 
 Second. — That all proper efforts be put forth to procure the estab- 
 lishment, and the successful operation, of an enlightened and 
 efficient system of Sanitary Government and Advice. 
 
 Thlbd. — Tliat until such a system of Government and Advice 
 shall have been established, as well as ever thereafter, physicians 
 and all classes of the people in this city should use all practica- 
 ble means and influences to induce the owners and lessees of 
 
lxviii 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 tenantrhouses and other property to remove and prevent the 
 local causes of insalubrity pertaining thereto. 
 
 THE TENANT-HOUSES OF NEW YORK. 
 
 The sanitary wants and the social evils of this city have he- 
 come fearfully centralized in the densely-crowded tenant-house 
 districts. The most zealous philanthropy and the incessant efforts 
 of religious teachers are striving to interpose such moral and social 
 influences as shall mitigate the evils which for some time past have 
 been rapidly augmenting in connection with the tenant-house sys- 
 tem. The moral and the political dangers which stand connected 
 with this subject are beginning to be appreciated by reflecting 
 minds, but the actual extent and importance of the sanitary wants 
 and physical evils of the tenant-house population as a class are by 
 no means adequately regarded by the more favored classes of the 
 community ; while, with but few exceptions, it is lamentably 
 true that the suffering classes — the tenant population themselves — 
 from the very circumstances that surround them, remain compara- 
 tively unconscious of their own peril and disability, both as re- 
 spects physical conditions and moral influences. 
 
 The officers and physicians of our medical charities have had 
 constant occasion to note the peculiar sanitary wants and the preva- 
 lent diseases of the tenant-house class. The public dispensaries of 
 New York annually provide medical care for about 150,000 per- 
 sons, nearly all — probably more than nine tenths — of whom are 
 inhabitants of tenant-houses ; the various hospitals receive nearly 
 all of their patients from the same class ; while the almshouse and 
 the penitentiary scarcely recognize any other persons than those 
 long familiar with tenant-house life. We thus Bpeak of the inhabi- 
 tants of tenant-houses as constituting a class, and as being allied 
 with the causes of sickness, pauperism, and crime. Circumstances 
 incident to the growth and commerce of the city have nearly blotted 
 out the private residences of the middle classes in the community, 
 and with the loss of that clas3 of domestic homes, the people that 
 have been driven from them to the common tenant-house have be- 
 come assimilated to the poorer class from which the almshouse, 
 the hospital, and the public dispensaries are filled. 
 
 The tenant-houses of this city are unlike the habitations occu- 
 
TENANT-HOUSES OF NEW YORK. Ixix 
 
 pied by the poorer classes in any other city, and principally in the 
 following respects, viz. : 1. That the occupants have less personal 
 interest in and control over the character, cleanliness, and sur- 
 roundings of their domiciles than is usual in other cities. 2. That 
 the rate of crowding, both as regards the allowance of superficial 
 area and of air-space to each person, far exceeds the ordinary degrees 
 of aggregation of the poorer classes in other cities. 3. There is less 
 concern and expenditure for the welfare of the tenants, and at the 
 same time a higher rate of rental for domiciles, than prevails in 
 other cities. 4. There is relatively as well as numerically a vastly 
 larger population dwelling in crowded tenant-houses in New York 
 than in any other great city. 
 
 Not only has the total population of New York been doubled 
 during the last twenty years, but that large portion — always a ma- 
 jority of the whole — that comprises the laboring and poor classes, 
 has become more and more concentrated upon given areas and in 
 particular streets and districts, until a degree of crowding has been 
 attained which by itself has become a subject of sanitary inquiry 
 and public concern. 
 
 At the time the Council completed its Sanitary Survey of the 
 city, December, 1864, there were 495,592 persons in this city resid- 
 ing in tenant-houses and cellars ; the total number of tenant-houses 
 was 15,309, and the average number of families to each of these 
 houses was 7£, including the poor families that take boarders, keep 
 lodgers, etc. To these aggregate numbers the Sanitary Inspec- 
 tors report that another element should be added, viz., all of the 
 smaller habitations, attics, stable-lofts, etc., where poor families are 
 found stowed away, and having too small an allowance of area and 
 air-space. The Inspector of the Fourth District (4th Ward), 
 for example, reports that in addition to the 462 tenant-houses proper 
 in his district, there are 252 other buildings that possess the 
 attributes of tenant-houses, and in a great proportion of which the 
 highest degree of sanitary want prevails. Were all this class 
 of habitations included with the tenant-houses and underground 
 residences it would be found that far more than half the population 
 of the city is to-day inhabiting a class of domiciles which invite and 
 localize the most disabling and fatal kinds of disease. 
 
 Cellar and garrets were once distinguished as the chosen abodes 
 of poverty and disease ; the New York tenant-house is now added 
 
Ixx 
 
 EEPOKT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 to the same list. But there have heen constructed several im- 
 proved dwellings of this class in which the provisions for domestic 
 cleanliness and comfort, the supply of air and sunlight, and the 
 prevailing low sickness and death-rates, afford sufficient evidence 
 that a fair degree of domestic health and comfort may he secured 
 even in a very dense population. That the rate of crowding in 
 particular localities, and even throughout the entire region occupied 
 by tenant-houses is too great, is rendered evident by a simple esti- 
 mation of the facts relating to the subject. If we take into con- 
 sideration only the so-called tenant-houses, that is, houses in which 
 there dwell three or more families who hire their domiciles by a 
 monthly rental, it will be found that these houses, being 15,309 in 
 number, have been built upon about 850 acres of ground, includ- 
 ing all the courts, alleys, and areas pertaining to them, exclusive 
 of the paved streets in front of them. Including a proper pro- 
 rata of the entire area of the public streets, the total superfi- 
 cial area allotted to these 15,309 houses, the 111,000 families, 
 and the 480,368 persons that dwell in them, is about two square 
 miles. That is, the tenant-house population is actually packed 
 upon the house-lots and streets at the rate of 240,000 to the square 
 mile; and it is only because this rate of packing is somewhat 
 diminished by intervening warehouses, factories, private dwellings, 
 and other classes of buildings, that the entire tenant-house pop- 
 ulation is not devastated by the domestic pestilences and infectious 
 epidemics that arise from overcrowding and uncleanness. As now 
 distributed, the tenant-houses of the city are nearly all found 
 within an area of less than four square miles. Even this rate of 
 crowding, including the other classes of population, and other 
 classes of buildings that are interspersed, is so great as to have 
 justly become a subject of momentous importance, and it calls for 
 a thorough sanitary inquiry in regard to existing evils and im- 
 pending dangers. 
 
 Such concentration and packing of a population has probably 
 never been equalled in any city as may be found in particular lo- 
 calities in New York. In some entire districts, as in the Fourth, 
 Sixth, and portions of the Eleventh and the Seventeenth Wards, 
 the density of the population is far greater than in any parish or 
 ward in London or any other European city of winch we have deii- 
 nite knowledge. For example, in the Fourth Ward, the tenant- 
 
TENANT-HODS ES OF NEW YOKE. 
 
 Ixxi 
 
 house and cellar population, as distributed throughout the whole 
 Ward, is all included within an area of about sixty acres, including 
 streets, etc. This gives a population of about 192,000 persons to 
 the square mile. And to this number there remains to be added 
 that portion of the population which is not included in the tenant- 
 house class. At the same time there are twelve acres of the same 
 area occupied by storehouses and factories. The results of our 
 Sanitary Survey in the Fourth Ward show that the tenant-houses 
 and tenant-house population proper, i. e. the class that averages 
 upwards of seven families to the house, are crowded upon a space 
 of less than thirty acres exclusive of streets, or less than forty acres 
 including street areas ; and that this class, which, in that ward, 
 out-numbers 17,611 persons, is now packed at the rate of about 
 290,000 inhabitants to the square mile. In that ward nothing is 
 plainer than the fact that the overcrowding of the population is 
 perilous to public health. 
 
 In the Sixth Ward the total population dwelling in tenant- 
 houses and cellars amounts to 22,897, distributed over an area 
 scarcely exceeding seventy-five acres. While in the Eleventh 
 Ward there are 65,620 persons living in tenant-houses and cellars, 
 and the rate of crowding is increasing throughout that ward with 
 great rapidity; and in the Seventeenth Ward there is an aggregate 
 tenant-house and cellar population of 66,207 distributed over one 
 of the most important districts of the city. 
 
 These facts are introduced simply to show the growth and ne- 
 cessities of the poor and middle class population in Isew York, and 
 also to illustrate the principle and the consequences of the remai'k- 
 able concentration of these classes. If we compare these state- 
 ments with the results of inquiry upon the same questions in the 
 largest cities and most densely-populated districts in England, the 
 rate of overcrowding in New York will become more apparent by 
 the contrast. At the period when the great sanitary reform was 
 begun in Liverpool, it was ascertained that in a particularly over- 
 crowded and very unhealthy parish in that city, the packing of the 
 population was at the rate of 138,224 persons to the square mile ; 
 at the same period there was a portion of the town of Manchester 
 that was populated at the rate of 100,000 to the square mile ; and 
 all London 'metropolis' had 50,000 to the square mile. In a recent 
 
lxxii 
 
 KEPOKT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 report of a royal commission the following statistics are given re- 
 specting the most densely-populated districts of London : 
 
 Districts. Eatc of population to the square mile, 
 
 St. James, 144,008 
 
 Holborn, 148,705 
 
 St. Luke, 151,104 
 
 East London, ..... 175,810 
 
 From the facts given in the preceding pages, and from state- 
 ments embodied in the Second Part of this Report, as well as from 
 the ordinary observations of reflecting citizens, the truth must be 
 obvious that the poorer classes of the population in this city are 
 becoming excessively aggregated, and that their narrow domiciles 
 are becoming perilously overcrowded. To the practical considera- 
 tion and treatment of this source of evil, therefore, citizens and all 
 philanthropic persons must very soon give special attention. The 
 sanitary necessities and the peculiar perils, both public and domes- 
 tic, that stand related to this subject, cannot longer be neglected 
 without seriously jeoparding the health and welfare of the city 
 and working much evil to the State. How most successfully to 
 mitigate the tenant-house evils and the perils of overcrowding, as 
 they now exist, is truly a momentous question, and it is a still 
 greater problem how best to provide suitable domiciles for the rap- 
 idly-increasing population of the city. That the poorer classes in 
 the city must, to a very great extent, now and hereafter, reside in 
 multiple domiciles or tenant-houses, is only too evident and certain. 
 But it would be remarkably anomalous, in this age of progress in 
 the practical applications of science and art, and of enterprise and 
 success in overcoming the obstacles to human welfare, if no reme- 
 dies were found adequate to remedy the evils we now both witness 
 and justly anticipate. The principles of science and the labors of 
 art upon which the hygienic protection of cities depends, are un- 
 questionably adequate to meet any questions or necessities of a 
 purely physical nature that are now pending or that may hereafter 
 arise ; and though Hygienic Works and Sanitary Regulations, 
 adapted to our vast population and to the marvellous rapidity of 
 the city's growth, are yet unknown and unprovided by municipal 
 authority, this Council desires to avow the belief that, by the timely 
 action of the intelligent classes of the people, this city may not only 
 
TENANT-HOUSES IN NEW YORK. 
 
 lxxiii 
 
 be rendered one of the most salubrious of great cities in the world, 
 but that it may and should be for ever kept in such a superior con- 
 dition of salubrity. The physiological, the chemical, and the en- 
 gineering and mechanical questions which stand connected with 
 this subject, are not only sufficiently comprehended and well set- 
 tled to meet any existing necessities of our civic hygiene, but the 
 rate of progress in their practical application and in then- expansion 
 keeps pace with all human wants. 
 
 It is true that the rate of crowding of the population in partic- 
 ular districts of this city is already unparalleled and still increas- 
 ing ; and this renders the necessity of a comprehensive and effec- 
 tive system of Sanitary Government the more urgent ; but there 
 certainly ought to be no insuperable obstacle in the way of pro- 
 viding for an industrious and free people all the fresh air, sunlight, 
 pure water, and wholesome food that human beings require ; and cer- 
 tainly it is as possible as it is necessary for the proper authorities 
 to enforce cleanliness and the observance of general sanitary regula- 
 tions. These are the essential requirements and conditions of 
 domestic hygiene and public health. 
 
 It is true that the tenant-houses of New York are rapidly be- 
 coming the nests of fever infection, and the poisoned abodes of 
 physical decay. It is true that in the tenant-house districts a 
 worse than Spartan fate awaits all children, and that cholera 
 infantum, convulsions, scrofula, and marasmus hover with ghoul- 
 like fiendishness about the dismal and crowded tenant-homes of 
 the great mass of infantile lives in the city. It is true that we 
 find the great body of the former middle class of society rapidly be- 
 coming absorbed into and allied with the poor tenant-houses class, 
 and experiencing the lamentable evils that surround such homes 
 as theirs ; it is true that the tenant-houses of the city as a whole, 
 as well as of particular districts, are becoming rapidly and perilous- 
 ly aggregated ; and it is likewise true that moral, social, and polit- 
 ical evils are fearfully augmenting and ominously threatening in 
 our city, in consequence of all these unfortunate physical condi- 
 tions. But is it not reasonable and true that insomuch as the 
 causes of all these evils have been and are mainly physical — or at 
 least always allied with material agencies which are under human 
 control — in the same degree, and conversely and by redeeming con- 
 ditions mainly of a physical nature, the evils we now deprecate, 
 
lxxiv 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 and the impending perils we now fear, may be and should speedily 
 be averted and effectually prevented ? 
 
 As the whole subject of the sanitary wants of the laboring 
 classes of this great city must ere long become, if it is not already, 
 the most vitally important of all the great social questions and 
 moral necessities that demand the attention of municipal and State 
 authorities, and the efforts of philanthropists and social economists, 
 it has seemed proper thus broadly to state the views which are 
 entertained upon the tenant-house question by the Council of 
 Hygiene. It is the wish of the Council to enunciate plainly and 
 emphatically its views of public duty, as well as those of public 
 necessity in reference to the urgent demand for well-considered, 
 comprehensive, and prompt efforts to remove as completely as pos- 
 sible the physical evils that are now endangering domestic and 
 public health in and near the tenant-house districts ; and at the 
 same time to aid in putting into speedy operation such plans as will 
 most certainly provide comfortable and cleanly homes, that shall 
 be socially and physioally safe, for that rapidly-increasing portion 
 of the inhabitants which at the present time crowd the tenant-houses 
 and cellars of the crowded districts of this city. 
 
 The origin and growth of the evils that now characterize 
 the ordinary tenant-houses of this city have resulted from simple 
 conditions that ought to have been anticipated and provided for, 
 and which may still be met. The report that was made upon the 
 condition of these houses by a special committee of the Legislature, 
 in the year 1857, faithfully describes the growth of the tenant-house 
 system. That committee reported upon this point as follows: 
 
 "The tenant-house is the offspring of municipal neglect, as 
 well as of its primary causes, over-population and destitution. As 
 a city grows in commerce, and demands new localities for traffic 
 and manufacture, the store and workshop encroach upon the dwell- 
 ing house, and dispossess its occupants. *********** 
 As our wharves became crowded with warehouses, and encom- 
 passed by bustle and noise, the wealthier citizens, who peopled old 
 'Knickerbocker' mansions near the bay, transferred their resi- 
 dence to regions beyond the din, compensating for remoteness from 
 their counting-houses by advantages of increased quiet and luxury. 
 Their habitations then passed into the hands, on the ono side, of 
 boarding-housekeepers; on the other, of real estate agents; and 
 
TENANT-HOUSES TN NEW YOKE. 
 
 Ixxv 
 
 here, ia its beginning, the tenant-house became a real blessing to 
 that class of industrious poor whose small earnings limited their 
 expenses, and whose employment in workshops, stores, or about 
 the wharves and thoroughfares, rendered a near residence of much 
 importance. At this period rents were moderate, and a mechanic 
 with family could hire two or more comfortable, and even com- 
 modious apartments, in a house once occupied by wealthy people, 
 for less than half what he is now obliged to pay for narrow and un- 
 healthy quarters. This state of tenantry comforts, however, did 
 not continue long ; for the rapid march of improvement speedily 
 enhanced the value of property in the lower wards of the city, and 
 as this took place, rents rose, and accommodations decreased in the 
 same proportion. * * * * The spacious dwelling-houses then fell 
 before improvements, or languished for a season, as tenaut-houses 
 of the type which is now the prevailing evil of our city ; that is to 
 say, their large rooms were partitioned into several smaller ones, 
 without regard to proper light or ventilation, the rate of rent being 
 lower in proportion to space, or height from the street ; and they 
 soon became filled, from cellar to garret, with a class of tenantry 
 living from hand to mouth, loose in morals, improvident in habits, 
 degraded or squalid as beggary itself. This, in its primary aspects, 
 was the tenant-house system, which has repeated itself in every 
 phase, as it followed the track of population from ward to ward, 
 until it now becomes a distinguishing feature of our social state, 
 the parent of constant disorders, and the nursery of increasing vices. 
 
 " It was soon perceived by astute owners and agents of property, 
 that a greater percentage of profits would be realized by the con- 
 version of houses and blocks into barracks, and dividing their space 
 into the smallest proportions capable of containing human life 
 within four walls. * * * * * * Blocks were rented of real estate 
 owners, or ' purchased on time,' or taken in charge at a percentage, 
 and held for underletting." * 
 
 Such has been the progress of the tenant-house system. Its 
 evils and the perils that surround it are the necessary results of a 
 forgetfulness of the poor, and of an absence of sanitary regulations 
 and advice. That the evils and abuses of the system continue 
 undiminished, is seen on every hand. Not only does filth, over- 
 
 * Report of select committee to examine the condition of tenant-houses in New York. 
 Made to the Legislature, March, 1857. 
 
Ixxvi 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 crowding, lack of privacy and domesticity, lack of ventilation and 
 lighting, and absence of supervision and of sanitary regulation, 
 still characterize the greater number of them : but they are built 
 to a greater height in stories, there are more rear tenant-houses 
 erected back to back with other buildings, correspondingly situated 
 on parallel streets; the courts and alleys are more greedily en- 
 croached upon and narrowed into un ventilated, unlighted, damp, 
 and well-like holes between the many-storied front and rear tene- 
 ments ; and more fever-breeding wynds and culs-de-sac are created 
 as the demand for the humble homes of the laboring poor in- 
 creases.* 
 
 * The engraving upon the opposite page gives a view of a cul-de-sac formed by recent- 
 ly-constructed front and rear tenantrhouses on Park Street, near the City Hall. The en- 
 graving is copied from a photographic view that was taken in the brightest sunlight that 
 locality ever enjoys. 
 
 The following statistics of two houses, front and rear, pertaining to these premises 
 were reported to the Council of Hygiene in the month of January, 1865, in the form pre- 
 scribed for " Special Reports upon the Sickness, Mortality, and Physical Conditions in 
 Crowded Tenant-Houses." 
 
 Street and No. of the House. 
 
 Nos. 37 and 39 Park Street. 
 
 Character and surroundings 
 of the House. 
 
 These tenant-houses are 6 stories in height, with a basement. 
 An immense junk store and a 7 story tenant-house on the 
 south side, extend the entire depth of lots, and thereby 
 entirely shut off ventilation and lighting from that direc- 
 tion. There arc stables at the back of the rear houses. 
 
 No. of Families in the House. 
 
 05. 
 
 No. of Persons in the House. 
 
 307. [With an allowance of 300 cubic feet of air-space.] 
 
 No. of Children in the Ilouse, 
 under 10 years of age. 
 
 42. 
 
 No. of Children that have 
 died during last 6 months. 
 
 6. 
 
 Total No. of Deaths at all 
 ages during last yoar. 
 
 14. 
 
 Total No. of persona now 
 Sick and Diseased. 
 
 77. 
 
 The Katlo and total Sickness 
 In total population. 
 
 1 in 4 constantly sick. 
 
 The Ratio total Mortality In 
 population for the year. 
 
 1 in 22. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Small-pox and typhus have existed for some time in these 
 domiciles. 
 
 The statistics of the next tenant-houses, southward in the same block, a vast junk 
 store intervening as just mentioned, are given as follows by Mr. S. B. Halliday, the faith- 
 ful missionary to tho city poor, and present Superintendent of the Five-Points Houso of 
 Industry : 
 
 • i • "The i 0 t on which this building stands is 48 feet 2 inches wide, by 91 feet 
 
A TENANT HOUSE CUL-DE-SAC. 
 [Photographed l>y Anthony from n House-top in Pearl Street.] 
 
TENANT-HOUSES OF NEW YOKE. 
 
 Ixxvii 
 
 The instances quoted below are not exaggerated examples of the 
 tenant-houses of the city ; on the contrary, they are truthful illus- 
 
 6 inches in depth. There is both a front and rear building. The front building, includ- 
 ing the basement, is eight floors or stoiies. The basement is crowded with families, and 
 there are two groggeries in the front portion? of the next floor, families living back of the 
 shops ; so that families are piled up in this establishment one above the other, eight tiers 
 high. In the front building I found 50 families, with two tenements or sets of apartments 
 unoccupied. In these families were 52 men, 57 women, 30 boys, and 46 girls. The num- 
 ber of children which have died in these families is 38. The number of still-births, 11. 
 The whole number of living children, 76 ; whole number deceased, 49 ; nearly two-thirds 
 as many having died as have survived. In 13 of these families no children had been 
 born, and in 23 families with children no deaths had occurred, so that 49 children have 
 died in the remaining 14 families, an average of almost four deaths to each family. I 
 give the ages of the deceased children : 
 
 of 11 
 
 " 9 
 " 6 
 ii 4 
 
 " 3 
 " 2 
 
 years 
 
 of 17 months 
 " U a 
 a 13 u 
 ii 12 ii 
 " 10 " 
 
 of 5 months 
 
 (( q tt 
 
 0 
 
 ii 2 » 
 ii j (t 
 
 " 3 days 
 
 " 1 " 
 
 11 still-born. 
 
 18 months 
 
 " The families in this building, with few exceptions, are from Ireland, and with as few 
 exceptions, are Catholics. They are as a class possessed of more intelligence than the 
 generality of the Irish people, the great majority being able to both read and write. The 
 ages are as follows : 
 
 25 
 
 of 
 
 i 
 
 year 
 
 2 
 
 of 19 
 
 years 
 
 1 
 
 of 33 
 
 years 
 
 12 
 
 (t 
 
 2 
 
 (i 
 
 4 
 
 ii 
 
 20 
 
 a 
 
 2 
 
 
 34 
 
 
 9 
 
 tt 
 
 3 
 
 (t 
 
 1 
 
 il 
 
 21 
 
 tt 
 
 3 
 
 (C 
 
 35 
 
 k 
 
 6 
 
 it 
 
 4 
 
 t( 
 
 4 
 
 it 
 
 22 
 
 tt 
 
 1 
 
 it 
 
 36 
 
 tt 
 
 5 
 
 tt 
 
 5 
 
 u 
 
 7 
 
 ti 
 
 23 
 
 ii 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 37 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 u 
 
 6 
 
 u 
 
 6 
 
 tt 
 
 24 
 
 ii 
 
 8 
 
 u 
 
 40 
 
 tt 
 
 5 
 
 
 7 
 
 cc 
 
 7 
 
 tt 
 
 25 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 it 
 
 41 
 
 tt 
 
 1 
 
 << 
 
 8 
 
 It 
 
 7 
 
 it 
 
 26 
 
 a 
 
 6 
 
 tt 
 
 45 
 
 tt 
 
 2 
 
 (C 
 
 9 
 
 It 
 
 10 
 
 it 
 
 27 
 
 ii 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 46 
 
 a 
 
 2 
 
 (t 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 
 9 
 
 It 
 
 28 
 
 ii 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 49 
 
 tt 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 11 
 
 II 
 
 2 
 
 tt 
 
 29 
 
 it 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 50 
 
 tt 
 
 3 
 
 u 
 
 It 
 
 « 
 
 17 
 
 it 
 
 30 
 
 ii 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 55 
 
 tt 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 16 
 
 <i 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 31 
 
 ti 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 60 
 
 u 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 18 
 
 II 
 
 2 
 
 tt 
 
 32 
 
 tt 
 
 1 
 
 it 
 
 65 
 
 a 
 
 "In the rear building there were 17 families. In these 17 families there were 16 men, 
 22 women, 18 boys, and 7 girls; in all, 63 persons. 16 of these families are Irish, t»nd 
 one German. The ages were as follows : 
 
 of 
 
 1 year 
 
 2 " 
 
 3 " 
 
 4 " 
 
 5 " 
 
 6 " 
 
 7 " 
 
 8 " 
 
 9 " 
 10 " 
 
 12 " 
 
 13 " 
 
 2 of 14 years 
 
 15 
 16 
 20 
 21 
 22 
 23 
 24 
 25 
 27 
 30 
 32 
 
 1 of 34 years 
 
 36 
 38 
 40 
 41 
 45 
 48 
 49 
 50 
 55 
 60 
 65 
 
lxxviii 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 trations of the predominant evils that at present characterize the 
 tenant-house system. By referring to the evidence given by the 
 Sanitary Inspectors, in the Second Part of the report, the reader 
 will find these evils have in many instances become so excessive 
 as to be the causes of the perpetual prevalence of domestic pesti- 
 lence.** The records of sickness and mortality in particular tenant 
 
 "In two of these families no children had been born. In the other 15 families the 
 children that had died exceed the number living nearly one-third. There were 25 living; 
 and, including one still-birth, there had been 37 deaths of children in the 15 families. 
 The ages of the these children at their decease was as follows : 
 
 of 26 years 
 it 24 » 
 u 18 II 
 
 " 12 " 
 ii ij .< 
 
 ii 10 « 
 
 of 
 
 5 years 
 
 3 " 
 
 2 " 
 18 months 
 16 " 
 15 " 
 14 " 
 10 " 
 
 of 9 months 
 
 " 6 
 
 " 5 
 
 •« 4 
 
 " 2 
 
 " 1 
 
 " 3 weeks 
 
 " 7 days. 
 
 " The average age of these children at death was a fraction over three and one-third 
 years. Not including the sis oldest, the average age of the remainder is a fraction over 
 one year. 
 
 " It is a shocking fact, that more children by one-third should have died than have sur- 
 vived in these families ; yet I have no doubt that a critical examination of facts in regard 
 to the deaths in the families of the five blocks, the census of which was taken by me, 
 would have shown a nearly similar result. The whole number of persons domiciled on 
 this lot was 248." — Monthly Record of the Five-Points House of Industry. 
 
 In Mulberry Street, near Chatham Square, is a " model tenant-house," — so called, but 
 really a human packing house — which in a recent inspection by the Council of Hygiene 
 gave the following statistics : 
 
 Street and No. of the House. 
 
 5, 7, and 9 Mulberry, front and rear. 
 
 Character and surroundings 
 ol t he House. 
 
 The old Baptist Church transformed into a Tenant-house. 
 
 No. of Families In the nousc. 
 
 69. 
 
 No. of PersonB In the House. 
 
 313. [With about 400 cubic feet air-spaco to each.] 
 
 No. of Children in the House, 
 under 10 years of age. 
 
 48. 
 
 No. of Children that have 
 died during tbo Inst year. 
 
 7. 
 
 Total No. of Deaths at all 
 ages during the year. 
 
 Total No. of persons now 
 Sick and DUecuetl. 
 
 15. 
 
 78. 
 
 Tho~Ratlo of total Blcknoss 
 
 In total population. 
 The Katlo total Mortality - in 
 
 population for tbo year. 
 
 1 in 4, constantly sick. 
 
 1 in 20} 
 
 Be mark s. 
 
 Typhus and small-pox have prevailed in this house for sev. 
 cral months past. 
 
 * Sec pages 8, 9, 47-58, 77-79, 136, 177, 216-218, and 238-240. 
 porta of the Sanitary Inspectors. 
 
 Second Part ; Re- 
 
TENANT-HOUSES EST NEW YOKE. 
 
 lxxix 
 
 houses mentioned in preceding pages, sufficiently illustrate the fact 
 that disease and death bear fearful sway among the inhabitants of 
 this class of dwellings. This sad fate of the poorer classes in our 
 city need not continue. It must not be permitted to become worse, 
 nor to be irrevocably perpetuated. It now admits of remedial and 
 preventive treatment. The excessive concentration and overcrowd- 
 ing of the poor and dependent classes in particular districts, and 
 upon very limited areas of the city ; the utter disregard of ventila- 
 tion, and of the most essential conditions for promoting domestic 
 comfort and health in the plans of tenant-house construction ; and 
 — what perhaps is the most essential, and most easily remedied of the 
 sanitary wants of tenant-houses and their occupants — the absence 
 of cleanliness and sanitary care of those houses, and the streets, 
 courts, and alleys about them, are evils that urgently demand 
 public attention. These evils must be remedied, and, as far as 
 possible, they should be prevented T>y faithfully-executed sanitary 
 regulations. 
 
 All the evils connected with the tenant-house system in New 
 York have been steadily increasing for several years past; and 
 although the system itself, as it exists here, is peculiar to this city, 
 there is reason for believing that both the system and all its evils 
 might be effectually controlled by the timely and well-directed 
 efforts of the intelligent and wealthy classes of citizens. It is not 
 the province of the Council of Hygiene to comment upon the faults 
 and the criminal selfishness and indifference of the proprietors and 
 managers of the great mass of tenant-house property as it is now 
 held and managed in this city. Inquiries have revealed the fact 
 that hitherto the plans, construction, and management of these 
 houses have been left almost exclusively to the caprice and inordinate 
 selfishness of men whose sole object has been to make small invest- 
 ments and a borrowed capital pay enormous advances, without re- 
 gard to the poor tenants' welfare, or the public safety. A few 
 worthy citizens and wealthy capitalists have given excellent exam- 
 ples of improved construction and care of such houses, but there 
 is wanted a comprehensive appreciation of the peculiar necessities 
 and perils of the city, and of the real wants, disabilities, and suffer- 
 ings of the poorer classes of the population in consequence of the 
 gross defects, overcrowding, and insalubrity of the miserable abodes 
 of these classes. The limited area of the city, the unparalleled in- 
 
Ixxx 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 crease of population, particularly of the foreign immigrant class, 
 and necessitous conditions that induce the poor to accept such 
 fever-nests and dens of death as avaricious and unscrupulous spec- 
 ulators have constructed solely for purposes of rapid gains, have 
 become matters of public concern.* In view of the fearful indif- 
 ference to some of the prevalent and yet most preventable evils 
 that characterize the plans of construction and interior arrange- 
 ment of tenant-houses, particularly as regards the gross herding of 
 families, the obstruction of ventilation and natural lighting, the 
 crowding of areas, etc., the Council has introduced various exam- 
 ples from accurate surveys that have been made under its own 
 direction, and verified by the Sanitary Inspectors of the districts 
 in which such examples are found. The engraved diagrams and 
 views of some of these examples are presented in this Report, as 
 illustrations of the evils here mentioned, and which, in the Second 
 Part of this Report, are more fully described. The engraving upon 
 
 * Says a writer in the Evening Post: — " The tenant-house has become one of the 
 institutions of this city ; to build and own these barracks is a profitable speculation, in 
 which men of honorable lives and kind hearts embark their means, and do not think 
 themselves disgraced ; yet we are told that the rents demanded are so enormous that from 
 twenty to thirty-five per cent, are not uncommon returns for such ventures. Many of our 
 readers have but a vague notion of what a tenant-house or 'barracks' is. It is com- 
 monly a structure of rough brick, standing upon a lot twenty-five by one hundred feet ; 
 it is from four to six stories high, and is so divided internally as to contain four families 
 on each floor — each family eating, drinking, sleeping, cooking, washing, and fighting in a 
 room eight feet by ten, and a bed-room six feet by ten ; unless, indeed — which very 
 frequently happens, says Mr. Halliday — the family renting these two rooms takes in 
 another' family to board, or sub-lets one room to one or even two other families I 
 
 "Many houses used for this purpose of 'herding' families together, were built for 
 other uses ; more recently, however, others have been built especially for this use. Ono 
 of the" largest of these ' barracks ' has apartments for one hundred and twenty-six fami- 
 lies ! It stands on a lot fifty by two hundred and fifty feet, is entered at the sides from 
 alleys eight feet wide, and, by reason of the vicinity of another barrack of equal height, 
 the rooms arc so darkened that on a cloudy day it is impossible to read or sew in them 
 without artificial light. It has not one room which can in any way be thoroughly ventila- 
 ted. The vaults and sewers which arc to carry off the filth of the one hundred and twenty- 
 six families hare grated openings in the alleys, and door-ways in the cellars, through 
 which the noisome and deadly miasmata penetrate and poison the dank air of the house 
 and the courts. The water closets for the whole vast establishment are a range of stalls 
 without do6rs, and. accessible not only from the building, but even from the street. Com- 
 fort is here out of the question ; common decency has been rendered impossible ; and the 
 horrible brutalities of tho passenger ship arc day after day repeated — but on a larger 
 scale." Sec engraving from a photographic view of the court and barracks here described ; 
 page opposite. 
 
VIEW OF " GOTIIAM COUKT." 
 [Engraved from a Photograph by Anthony."] 
 
TENANT-UOUSES OF NEW YORK. 
 
 lxxxi 
 
 the opposite page presents an illustration of the method of pack- 
 ing the greatest possible number of inhabitants upon the smallest 
 possible space. 
 
 The evils which we have so freely illustrated, are so various 
 and so numerous throughout the city, that each of the Sanitary 
 Inspectors, excepting only the Inspector of the Harlem district, has 
 reported a great number of examples, and notwithstanding the 
 unusually dry and healthful seasons of the past year (1864) such 
 examples of overcrowded, badly planned, and malconstructed 
 tenant-houses have always been reported upon by these physicians 
 as having a direct relation to certain prevailing diseases and an ex- 
 cessive death-rate. It is to be remarked also that all the evils of 
 tenant-house crowding, and its attendant insalubrity, are rapidly 
 encroaching upon the up-town districts, and that they are being 
 thrust into the midst of streets and blocks hitherto occupied by pri- 
 vate residences. Moreover it is to be observed that the dwellings 
 of the middle classes, the artisans, clerks, and persons of moderate 
 means and large families, are yearly becoming more and more 
 embarrassed, narrowed, and insalubrious ; and it may reasonably be 
 feared that unless this important portion of the community puts 
 forth some intelligently directed and combined efforts to procure 
 the construction of dwellings adapted to their necessities, this city 
 may ere long present the strange anomaly, for an American com- 
 munity, of the entire absoiption of the artisan and middle classes 
 into the common herd of the utterly dependent and tenant-house 
 class.* 
 
 * The diagram here presented, furnishes a fresh illustration of the perilous evils to 
 which even the best up-town tenant-houses are exposed. This is the floor plan of a 
 
lxxxii 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 Improved Dwellings and Model Lodging Houses have begun 
 to receive, in England, that practical attention which the wants of 
 great cities demand ; but in New York this subject needs to be 
 more seriously considered than it has been hitherto, and it is man- 
 ifestly necessary that definite and entirely practicable plans for the 
 needed improvements should be suggested, adopted, and fully en- 
 tered upon. The subject is not new, nor does the Council of 
 Hygiene stand alone in thus urging the attention of citizens to it, 
 and asking in the name of humanity, and in the interest of the 
 public safety and an advancing civilization, that action be delayed 
 no longer. The public mind must be aroused to the importance 
 of the questions that stand connected with this subject ; and the 
 Council would take this occasion to refer. to the very comprehen- 
 sive and practical suggestions which have from year to year been 
 put forth upon these questions by the Association for Improving 
 the Condition of the Poor in New York. In the last Annual Ke- 
 port of that most useful society, it is stated that "large masses 
 of the population are debased by the wretched condition in which 
 they are compelled to live. These conditions should he improved ; 
 still, it would be true of many thousands, that if left to the un- 
 controlled indulgence of their reckless, filthy habits, they would 
 convert a palace into a pigsty, and create ' fever-nests' and hot- 
 beds of vice and corruption, under circumstances most favorable to 
 health, comfort, and social elevation. To provide healthfully con- 
 structed houses for this semi-civilized class of tenants is necessary, 
 but that of itself would be insufficient ; neither would mere moral 
 suasion and instruction suffice. The Argus-eyed vigilance of an 
 intelligent and efficient police must be put in requisition to compel 
 the observance of such regulations in respect to cleanliness and the 
 general condition of the tenements and their surroundings, as the 
 preservation of public and private health requires." In a pre- 
 
 rcccntly-constructcd multiple domicile designed for, and now occupied by twelve families 
 on each flat. Situated on Broadway, and another desirable street, near the Central Turk, 
 this unvcntilated and fever-breeding structure will doubtless continue to be filled to its 
 utmost capacity with families of the middle classes who pay well for rents, and wish to 
 live respectably. 
 
 Here arc twelve living-rooms and twenty-one bed-rooms, and only six of the latter 
 have any provision or possibility for the admission of light and air, excepting through 
 the family fitting and living-room ; being utterly dark, close, and unvcntilated. The liv- 
 ing rooms are but 10 by 12 feet; the bed-rooms, 0J by 1 feet! 
 
TENANT-HOUSES EST NEW YOKE. 
 
 Lxxxiii 
 
 vious report, the Executive Board of that Association states em- 
 phatically that " there is not a disinterested individual in the com- 
 munity so insensible to the claims of justice and humanity as to 
 say that such dwellings as thousands of the poor now inhabit 
 should be tolerated. If the owners of property are so utterly reck- 
 less of the comfort, morals, health, and life of others, and of the 
 interests of the community, as to persist, as they have hitherto 
 done, in the letting such houses, despite the knowledge possessed 
 of their deleterious character, the Legislature should interpose for 
 the protection of the occupants." * 
 
 Individual citizens, actuated by philanthropic motives, have 
 already commenced the work of improvement in particular classes 
 of tenements, as suggested by the Association for Improving the 
 
 * In a special report adopted and published by the Board of that Association, in the 
 year 1853, the leading questions connected with the sanitary condition and wants of 
 the laboring classes were ably presented, and the following among other remedial agen- 
 cies were recommended : 
 
 " 1. That the subject presents a forcible appeal to capitalists and owners of real estate, 
 for they can alone engage in the work. Providence has made them to differ from others 
 in wealth, that they may fulfil the obligation of '-doing good to others as they have op- 
 portunity.' Such an opportunity as rarely occurs is here presented. Though it required 
 sacrifices, should not those whose wealth has been chiefly acquired by the toil of the poor, 
 make them for such an object ? But as sacrifices are not demanded, that plea is taken 
 away, and on them is conferred the singular privilege of becoming benefactors to the poor, 
 with pecuniary advantage to themselves. 
 
 " 2. The subject demands legislative intervention. That legal measures should be re- 
 sorted to, and may be legitimately exercised, there can be no doubt. For while the law 
 zealously guards individual liberty, it is not less careful that the liberty guaranteed shall 
 be so used as not to annoy others, or endanger public health. In other words, it recog- 
 nizes no man's right to pollute the atmosphere of a neighborhood by breeding a pestilence 
 in his own domicile. We are dependent upon legislation for supplies of water, construction 
 of sewers, abatement of nuisances, and the inspection of numerous articles of food ; also 
 for the protection of health, property, and life ; while it imperatively forbids under heavy 
 penalties whatever is indirectly incompatible with the security of these important objects. 
 
 " Pure air, light, and water being indispensable to health and life, if tenements are so 
 badly constructed as to preclude a proper supply of these essential elements, the law 
 should interpose for the protection of the sufferers, and either close up such dwellings or 
 cause them to be so remodelled as to be fit for human habitations. Thus, also, in the con- 
 struction of now tenements, a certain amount of superficial area, height of ceiling, facili- 
 ties for heating and ventilation, etc., should be furnished, under suitable penalties for neg- 
 lect, and the number of inmates to each limited by law, if practicable, as is now done on 
 board emigrant ships. No nuisances, moreover, should be allowed, and domiciliary clean- 
 liness rigidly enforced wherever health was endangered by neglect." 
 
lxxxiv 
 
 EEPOET OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 Condition of the Poor ; but there yet appears to he wanting such 
 a plan or scheme of construction, of location, and general effort, as 
 should effectually call out the popular interest, the investments, and 
 the skill that are necessary ; and also to induce the requisite com- 
 bination of conditions to give the needed degree of confidence and 
 success to the efforts that have hitherto been made. The Council 
 of Hygiene does not deem it especially its duty to examine the 
 merits of plans, or discuss questions of economy that govern the 
 application of capital, as regards the dwelling improvements which 
 are so imperatively required in this city. It is believed that the 
 economical aspects of the sanitary question alone should awaken 
 the attention, and secure the cooperation of capitalists, and of all 
 classes of good citizens, in efforts to procure the improvements that 
 are required for the physical welfare of the dependent classes. The 
 adequate supply of fresh air, sunlight, and all needed facilities for 
 insuring domestic cleanliness and home comfort is a sanitary ques- 
 tion ; and viewed in this light, it is a duty to state emphatically 
 that the tenant-houses as a class are shamefully deficient in these 
 essential requisites of health. The Sanitary Inspectors have re- 
 ported upon the few improved tenant-houses found in their respec- 
 tive districts, and diagrams illustrating particular improvements 
 will be found in the Eleventh, Seventeenth, and Twenty-first in- 
 spection reports, as published in the Second Paet of the volume ; 
 but they simply show what improvements may readily be intro- 
 duced into the worst of our tenant-barracks. No example can yet 
 be shown of the successful attainment of all the essential conditions 
 and appliances of healthy homes in a tenant-house on a large scale, 
 or upon single lots and ordinary areas. In view of this fact, the 
 Council has made some inquiry regarding plans that have met 
 with success in Great Britain, where the whole subject of Dwelling 
 Improvements has been carefully considered. In the overcrowded 
 cities of that country the same questions that are most prominently 
 presented in New York, are also under consideration. But there, 
 capital, philanthropic effort, and scientific skill have combined to 
 work out the problems that now command the same combination 
 and same liberality here. The plans and efforts that havg en- 
 listed the minds of Prince Albert, Lord Shaftsbury, and the lead- 
 ing friends of humanity in England, have reached such maturity of 
 results as to satisfy the highest anticipations and promises, both as 
 
TENANT-HOUSES IN NEW YORK. 
 
 lxxxv 
 
 regards the saving of life, health, and public morals, and the actual 
 compensation of the capitalist. So well convinced of this fact was 
 IVIr. Peabody, the well-known American hanker in London, that 
 his munificent gift for the benefit of the London poor has been 
 already largely applied in Model Dwelling Improvements.* 
 
 The following facts appear to have been well established re- 
 garding means by which success has been, and is being attained in 
 the schemes of Dwelling Improvement abroad : 
 
 First. That sanitary knowledge and architectural skill must be 
 combined in the production of the necessary plans of construction. 
 
 Second. That, however sincere and devoted the philanthropy 
 and zeal that advocates the improvements and procures the coope- 
 ration of capitalists in such improvements, the improved houses 
 must pay a reasonable interest upon the capital invested, or but 
 little progress will be made and but a small amount of relief be af- 
 forded to the classes for whose benefit the efforts are made. 
 
 All this, of course, is so reasonable that no further remarks upon 
 either of the two propositions are required. It now remains to 
 present a single example of the successful combination of all these 
 essential conditions in working out the grand result. For this pur- 
 pose it is believed, from recent reports, that the history and plans 
 
 * One third of the £150,000 given by Mr. Peabody to the London poor has already 
 been expended in model tenant-houses and lands for that purpose. Five blocks of the 
 buildings are completed. The essential features of the first one occupied are thus de- 
 scribed : 
 
 " It is a stately edifice, more than 200 feet long, on Green Man's Lane, containing 
 fifty-seven tenements, all occupied, and nine shops in Commercial Street, Spitalfields. 
 ******* 
 
 "The living-rooms throughout the building average 13 feet by 10 feet, and the bed- 
 rooms 13 feet by 8 feet, while their uniform height is 8 feet. The staircase and corridors 
 are well lit with gas, and the fourth or top floor is occupied by laundries, areas for drying 
 clothes, and as a playground for the children in wet weather, and by bath-rooms. There 
 are lavatories on every floor for ordinary toilet purposes, and a bath can always be ob- 
 tained by the short and simple process of asking the superintendent for the key of the 
 room. In fine weather the enclosed yard is an admirable play-ground for the tenants 
 children, and, a rule excluding all playmates from the outside being rigidly enforced, they 
 are preserved from evil associates and consequent contamination. In the centre of the 
 ground-floor, and dividing the shops pretty equally on either hand, are the offices and 
 dwelling-rooms of the superintendent, an old soldier, whose duty it is to keep the books, 
 receive the weekly rent, and see that the few and simple rules laid down by the trustees 
 are properly observed. A copy of these is supplied to each tenant at the commencement 
 of his term." 
 
lxxxvi 
 
 REPORT OF COEXCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 of Mr. Peabody's Improved Dwellings might properly be brought 
 forward ; but the plan of the first buildings constructed by the 
 trustees of his gift extends over a larger area than would often be 
 adopted in New York : The experience also has been brief. The 
 example we prefer to present is that of Mr. Alderman "Waterlow's 
 " Healthy Dwellings for the Industrial Classes." On the opposite 
 page is shown a diagram of the Floor Plan of the first tenant dwell- 
 ing erected by Mr. Waterlow in Finsbury Square, London. It was 
 designed for and is occupied by the families of industrious men 
 with small means. 
 
 This plan is presented as an illustration of success in the attain- 
 ment of the requisite conditions for healthy homes in a tenant- 
 house. In this house twenty families are accommodated, and can 
 enjoy that -kind of domestic comfort and convenience which is es- 
 sential to physical and social health.* 
 
 * The following is an abstract of the architect's description of the plan here shown : 
 " The general plan may be described as a parallellogram of 56 feet by 44 feet, divided 
 into four sections by a party wall in the centre and the two passages (EE) in the middle 
 of each wing. The two centre sections are set back about 3 feet from the line of frontage, 
 for the purpose of giving space for a balcony of that width on each of the upper floors. 
 Each section comprises one suite of rooms, to which access is obtained from the passages 
 (EE) leading (on all the upper floors) direct from the balcony (G). The balconies are 
 reached by a fireproof staircase having a semi-elliptical form, the entrances to which are 
 shown on the elevation by the two doorways in the centre of the building. This staircase 
 is continued to and gives access to the roof. The larger lettings, consisting of three rooms 
 and a wash-house, occupy the end sections of the building. E D is the entrance door ; B 
 is a living-room, provided with a range having an oven and boiler. Leading out of the liv- 
 ing-room is the wash-house or scullery (A), which contains in every case what may be 
 called the accessories of the dwelling — water cistern, sink, a small fireplace, washing cop- 
 per, dust-shoot, water-closet, &c. It i3 expected that the fireplace in the wash-house will 
 conduce greatly to the comfort of the living-room in the summer time. C is a comforta- 
 ble bed-room having a fireplace ; a capacious cupboard (H) is arranged in the party wall 
 between this room and the entrance lobby, and over the latter is a useful receptacle for 
 the stowage of bulky objects. Passing out toward the front parlor (D) is a scries of 
 shelves having an artificial stone bottom and back, intended by its proximity to the living- 
 room to serve as a cupboard for provisions, &c. D is a spacious handsome parlor, having 
 two windows : the fireplace is placed a little out of the centre of the room, so as to leave 
 a convenient space in which to put an additional lied in cases where this would be required 
 to be used as a bed-room. On the other side of the fireplace is a sideboard and cupboard. 
 
 " The centre sections, comprising the smaller lettings, consist of two rooms and a wash- 
 bousc, tic. The wash-house A nnd the living-room B arc exactly similar to those in the 
 larger letting. The bedroom C can be conveniently converted into a parlor by arranging 
 a set of curtains across the recess at the back of the room, and thus dividing the part 
 where the bed would be placed from the rest of the apartment. WWW represent the 
 
A GOOD PLAN OF HEALTHY DWELLING*. 
 
TENANT-HOUSES EST NEW YOKE. 
 
 lxxxvii 
 
 Fresh air and sunlight in every apartment, a convenient and 
 proper distribution of domestic apartments, a convenient arrange- 
 ment of the domiciles with reference to local drainage and the 
 avoidance of all nuisances, and a plan of arrangement of the re- 
 spective domiciles, and of access thereto, that in a great measure 
 overcomes the tendency to gregarious herding that prevails in or- 
 dinary tenant-houses are attained in this plan. 
 
 Let plans like this be so modified and Americanized as to suit 
 American tastes and preferences, and the value of such domiciles 
 would become sufficiently popular to make them pay even a higher 
 rental than Alderman Waterlow now receives, and which was, for 
 the first year, about nine per cent, upon total investment and lease- 
 hold. Pure air, sunlight, domestic convenience, comfort, and home 
 quietude, can be provided for the industrial and poor classes ; and 
 although such a plan as the one represented in the preceding dia- 
 gram is particularly designed for families that are a grade above 
 the humblest day laborer, it were well that some attention should 
 first be given to those classes that most deserve, and most certainly 
 and speedily repay the efforts that are put forth for their welfare. 
 And it need not be doubted that our own architects and civil en- 
 windows. The plan is the same on each side of the party walls, and every floor or flat is 
 a repetition of the other. Close to the ceilings of all the rooms a ventilator is placed 
 which communicates with air shafts running through the centres of the chimney-staoks. 
 The air is thus constantly rarefied, and a system of natural ventilation is produced. Be- 
 sides this, it will be seen that by setting open the windows a current of external air can 
 be at once passed through every room in the direction of the dotted lines. The lower panes 
 of the windows are filled in with ornamental ground glass, so that no window-blinds are 
 necessary. The windows are constructed on a somewhat novel principle, being made to 
 open outward like ordinary French casements ; but the two lower panes are not made to 
 open, so that the danger of children falling out, as well as the disadvantages of the ordi- 
 nary window sashes, are avoided. All the rooms are 8 ft. 9 in. in height. The other di- 
 mensions arc figured on the plan, and need not be repeated here. Drainage is effected by 
 means of 4-in. stoneware pipes passing from the top of the building down the corners of 
 the wash-houses directly to the common sewer. The dust-shaft carries the dust to covered 
 receptacles at the base of the building, and each shoot is provided with an iron cover so as 
 to prevent the return of dust and effluvia. The dust-shafts are also continued to the top 
 of the building, and act as ventilators to the dust-bins. All the rooms are plastered and 
 papered, and the wash-houses are plastered and colored. Every tenant has his apartments 
 completely to himself, and nothing is used in common except the roof as a drying and 
 recreation ground. By extending the area of the building three or four feet in every direc- 
 tion the size of the rooms could be easily increased, and suites of rooms obtained well 
 adapted to the requirements of any class of the community." A flower-garden and grass- 
 plat occupy the rear yard, neatly kept by the superintendent of the house. 
 
Ixxxviii 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 gineers will succeed in producing plans that shall he found entirely 
 adequate to meet any existing demand for improved dwellings for 
 the poor, and that they will improve and simplify any good Euro- 
 pean models that may he proposed. 
 
 The time for action has come. The evils that characterize the 
 present tenant-house system demand remedies which can he applied 
 only by the wealth and intelligence of citizens, and by the interpo- 
 sition of well-administered sanitary regulations.* The statistics, 
 the thousands of pages of sanitary records by the Medical Inspect- 
 ors, the death and burial records of the City Inspector's Office, and 
 the not less significant records of the criminal calendar, the peni- 
 tentiary, the almshouse, the fever-hospital, and the orphan-asy- 
 lums, might all be quoted and placed in the argument in favor of 
 an enlightened, prompt, and effective effort to improve the dwell- 
 ings of the poor ; but the facts relating to the sanitary bearings of 
 this subject having now been fairly presented, the Council would 
 give a practical direction to deep convictions that are entertained 
 by its members, by recommending : 
 
 First. — That capitalists, architects, and huilders should unite in 
 devising and executing the construction of improved dwellings 
 for the industrial classes in the city. 
 
 * The philanthropic and thoughtful Rector of St. Luke's Hospital, whose life and teach- 
 ings present an instructive example of successful effort for improving the welfare of the 
 poor and suffering classes in New York, in a recent appeal on behalf of the moral interests 
 of those classes, says : " Look at those quarters of your city where the people herd by fif- 
 ties and by hundreds in a house, street after street. Look at them huddled together in 
 narrow rooms, with surroundings and effluvia where a half-hour's stay would sicken you. 
 See places which might rather be stalls or sties than human abodes. Look at the swarms 
 of children in the streets, on the stoops, at the windows, half-naked or in unwashed rags. 
 Sec the crowds of rough, half-grown boys in knots at the corners, quick at all sorts of wick- 
 edness, loud in foulness aud blasphemy, the ready and the worst element of your riots. 
 Mark the looks and the talk of the populace of the dram-shops, and then the exhibitions 
 of godlessncss, drunkenness, and licentiousness on the Lord's day, turning it, I had almost 
 said, into Satan's day. And why do I ask you to look at such a revolting state of things 
 among those thousands of your neighbors ? In the hope that aught which you or I can 
 do will better it ? To propose any scheme for its material improvement ? Alas, no. The 
 evil is too gigantic for any grasp of reform at all conceivable. It calls for legislative in- 
 terference ; and that, could any practicable mode of melioration be shown, would call for 
 more public virtue than exists. This massing of human beings, prolific of those vices and 
 miseries, is profitable to too many pockets. The exorbitant rents of the smallest dens or 
 of the larger tenements swell the gains of landlords, who have the plea for any amount of 
 rapacity that they only meet a demand." — " St. John-Laiul : A Kctro-Prospcctus." Uy 
 Kev. Win. A. Muhlenberg, D. D. 
 
SAXITAKY "WANTS OF PRIVATE DWELLINGS, ETC. lxxxix 
 
 Second. — That effective measures be immediately undertaken to 
 procure the introduction of needed improvements in the ventila- 
 tion^ lighting, and cleanliness of the tenant-houses of the city. 
 
 Third. — That citizens should put forth the requisite efforts to pro- 
 cure the enactment and execution of suitable sanitary laws for 
 the better regidation of tenant-houses, and to enforce the neces- 
 sary care and cleanliness of the same by the owners, lessees, and 
 occupants. 
 
 Foukth. — That a Department of Social Statistics and Dwelling 
 Improvement be maintained in connection with the flan of 
 labors pursued by the Council of Hygiene and the Board of 
 Engineers and Architects of the Citizens' Association of New 
 York, for the purpose of acquiring and imparting needed in- 
 formation relating to the social statistics and improvements in 
 dwellings which sanitary science and the public welfare require, 
 and which will best conduce to the immediate development and 
 execution of successful plans and examples of the dwelling im- 
 provements which are demanded for the physical and the so- 
 cial xvelfare of the industrial classes. 
 
 SANITARY WANTS OF PRIVATE DWELLINGS, HOTELS, PUBLIC HALLS, AND 
 PUBLIC CONVEYANCES. 
 
 An abundant supply of fresh air, at a proper temperature, is 
 the first requisite of health in every place. Whatever else may he 
 neglected in the arrangements for personal comfort, the laws of 
 health render it unjustifiable to allow any failure to supply an 
 abundance of pure fresh air to every apartment or place that is oc- 
 cupied by human beings, whether temporarily or permanently. 
 Great improvement has been made in the ventilation of certain pri- 
 vate residences in this city during the past few years, but there yet 
 prevails a general neglect of the means of ventilation in the hotels, 
 church edifices, schoolrooms, public halls, and railway carriages, 
 Bteamships, and passenger boats, in which millions of persons are 
 every year exposed to the prevalent evils of a vitiated atmosphere. 
 In this Report the Council would mention this subject solely for 
 the purpose of inviting renewed attention to its practical import- 
 ance, and to the duty of providing sanitary regulations relating to 
 air-supply in all public buildings and public conveyances in which 
 large numbers of people are frequently gathered. 
 
xc 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 Observation and experience have abundantly verified the con- 
 clusio7i that for healthy respiration, a person requires a constant 
 supply of fresh air at the rate of ten cubic feet per minute, or six 
 hundred cubic feet every hour ; and it has been decided by the 
 best authority that where large numbers of persons are assembled 
 in the same apartment or building, the rate of air-supply should 
 not be less than about one thousand cubic feet per hour, and 
 that the space allotted to each individual should not be much 
 less than a thousand cubic feet, in ordinary apartments : yet the 
 all-essential point that should be kept in mind in all estimations 
 and plans of ventilation is the amount, certainty, and constancy of 
 the supply of fresh air. However unnecessarily and seriously 
 individuals may deprive themselves of the blessings of a pure and 
 health giving atmosphere in their private dwellings, the necessities 
 of public health and safety, no less than the simple principles of 
 humanity and justice, require that in all public buildings, halls, 
 hotels, school-rooms, etc., and in all public conveyances that 
 are liable to be crowded with a large number of persons, there 
 should be a strict enforcement of sanitary regulations for ventila- 
 tion. The fact must be borne in mind that the worshippers in 
 chapels, the audiences in concert rooms, theatres, and assemblies ; 
 the thousands of children that throng our school-rooms ; and the 
 millions of persons who crowd the railway carriages, ferry-boats, 
 and passenger vessels, are utterly dependent upon the public au- 
 thorities, and the persons who prepare the structures for public use, 
 for the vital air which the laws of life require to be freshly supplied 
 every moment. Especially is it necessary that public authority 
 should be exercised over the ventilation of such places where the 
 allotment of aerial or cubical space to each individual is very limit- 
 ed, as in railway cars, assembly rooms, and school buildings ; and 
 nowhere is the necessity for such a sanitary regulation of air-sup- 
 ply or ventilation more urgent than in the tenant-houses of this 
 city. Considerations of humanity, as well as the necessities of the 
 public health and safety, require that this subject should receive 
 the immediate and most practical attention of competent authori- 
 ties. 
 
 The local or house drainage of the various classes of dwellings 
 in the city demands better regulation; for, in consequence of im- 
 perfections in soil-pipes, stench-traps, sewer connections, etc., par- 
 
SANITARY WANTS OF PRIVATE DWELLINGS, ETC. Xci 
 
 ticularly as regards populous and crowded habitations, such as 
 tenant-houses, boarding-houses, and hotels, a vast number of cases 
 of obstinate diarrhoeal complaints and typhoid fever are induced. 
 Frequent allusions to this subject have been made by the Sanitary 
 Inspectors. 
 
 NEGLECTED PRIVIES AND DARK PLACES. 
 
 The unspeakable filthiness and neglect of the privies pertaining 
 to the tenant-houses demand attention. These necessaries of every 
 domicile are so neglected and filthy in all the crowded districts of 
 the city as to have become prolific sources of obstinate and fatal 
 maladies of a diarrhoeal and febrile character, and they must be 
 reckoned among the most active of localizing causes of prevailing 
 diseases among the poor. The miserable economy that has attach- 
 ed to every tenant-house, court, or cellar a series of midden sinks, 
 frequently without any sewer connection, and seldom with suffi- 
 cient drainage of any kind, should be superseded by suitable water- 
 closet arrangements for constant " flushing " and cleanliness. Re- 
 form in these matters is vitally important to the health of tenant- 
 houses. 
 
 The exclusion of sunlight from the domiciles of the poor is 
 another violation of the laws of health, and it is a wrong against 
 the dependent human beings who inhabit such houses. The nar- 
 row and well-like courts, and the back-to-back rear tenant-houses, 
 that are so numerous in the pauvres fatibourgs of our city, are per- 
 nicious at once to the health and morals of such localities ; they 
 inevitably become haunts of social debasement and vice, as well as 
 of fevers and every bodily disease. 
 
 The immediate and permanently advantageous results of the 
 sanitary improvement of dwelling-houses, particularly of those 
 occupied by the poor, can scarcely be overstated. Says Miss 
 Nightingale, " It is a fact demonstrated by statistics that in the 
 improved dwellings, the mortality has fallen, in certain cases, from 
 25 to 14 per 1,000 ; and that in the common ' lodging-houses,' which 
 have been hot-beds of epidemics, such diseases have almost dis- 
 appeared through the adoption of sanitary measures." The results 
 of the great experiment of improved and well- ventilated dwellings 
 for the industrial classes in London are abundantly decisive of the 
 fact that by means of such an improvement alone, the sickness- 
 
xcii 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 rates and the mortality in the families thus benefited are readily 
 reduced in the striking ratio mentioned by Miss Nightingale. 
 
 For example, the Society for Improving the Condition of the 
 Laboring Classes in London, recently reported that the total pop- 
 ulation of the model lodging or tenant-houses, which it had con- 
 structed, was 2,186, and that the total number of deaths in the 
 same the last year was 45, or but 20£ in the 1,000. This would give 
 but 1 death in 49 of the inhabitants ; and yet upon the same 
 ground, in former years, when the same families occupied the old 
 tenements — unventilated and surrounded by domestic filth — the 
 rate of mortality was more than twice as great. But it is not ne- 
 cessary to dwell upon the details of this subject. The intelligent 
 citizens of New York can, with the blessing of Providence, work 
 out results as great as those which in a single year reduced the 
 mortality fifty per cent, in a particular district of St. Giles, by 
 means of cleansing and ventilation. At the same time there is 
 reason to believe that architects, builders, and the proprietors of 
 the more important of the public buildings, hotels, railway and 
 water conveyances would not be indifferent to practical suggestions 
 for the sanitary improvements that are required at their hands for 
 the public welfare. 
 
 SPECIAL NUISANCES. 
 
 Civilization and refinement, in a city like New York, encoun- 
 ters the same elements of debasement that stand in the way of 
 effectual sanitary reforms ; but all the laws of health and all sani- 
 tary works are justly counted among the most valued agencies of 
 social elevation and refinement, and were there not abundant force 
 in the sanitary reasons for the abatement of needless nuisances, 
 and for the special management of all the necessarily offensive ma- 
 terials and operations which are incident to civic life, we might leave 
 to the pleadings of an offended and refined community, and to the 
 aggrieved senses of a million of people, the argument and the effort 
 to procure the abatement of the gross nuisances that abound in 
 various districts of the city. It is safe to say that wisely admin- 
 istered sanitary regulations would altogether remove and prohibit 
 nearly every source of public nuisance in this city. It is not our 
 purpose to present unnecessary details upon this subject, but sim 
 
SPECIAL NUISANCES. 
 
 xciii 
 
 ply to state what nuisances are to be regarded as injurious to pub- 
 lic health and to individual welfare in our city. They may be 
 enumerated as follows : (1) filthy streets ; (2) neglected garbage 
 and domestic refuse ; (3) obstructed and faulty sewers and drains ; 
 (4) neglected privies and stables ; (5) cattle pens and large stables 
 in the more populous districts; (6) neglected and filthy markets; 
 (7) slaughter-houses and hide and fat depots in close proximity to 
 populous streets ; (8) droves of cattle and swine in crowded streets ; 
 (9) swill-milk stables and their products ; (10) bone-boiling, fat- 
 melting, and their accompaniments within the city limits ; (11) the 
 sulphuretted, ammoniacal, and carburetted gases and offensive 
 exhalations that are needlessly liberated and widely diffused in gas 
 manufacture and purification ; (12) the accumulations of dumping- 
 grounds and manure-yards in vicinity of populous streets ; (13) the 
 present management of refuse and junk materials in the city; (11) 
 the unreasonable overcrowding of tbe city railway cars, and the 
 absence of all sanitary authority, permitting the unguarded transit 
 and public exposure of persons with small-pox and other loath- 
 some maladies in the public conveyances and otherwise in the 
 streets ; (15) the neglect of dead animals in the streets and gutters 
 of the city. 
 
 ]STo section of the city has any security against the encroach- 
 ment or actual presence of these nuisances. A chart of nuisances 
 as they actually existed, and were described by the Sanitary In- 
 spectors, in the autumn of 1861, is presented here, for the purpose 
 of illustrating the fact that even the most favored and wealthy dis- 
 tricts of the city are seriously encroached upon by the most remov- 
 able offensive nuisances. It should be sufficient cause to insure the 
 proper effort to effect the removal and prevention of such nuisances 
 that the Sanitary Inspectors report that all the nuisances we have 
 here mentioned are positive sources of disease, and that they have 
 been and are efficient causes in localizing the prevalence of fatal 
 diseases. The particular character, extent, and insalubrious influ- 
 ence of the nuisances here mapped out, will be found more fully 
 described in the Second Part of this volume. 
 
 The relation of some of these nuisances to the origin and local- 
 ization of diarrhoeal and typhoid diseases in their neighborhood 
 appears to have been Avell established by careful observation and 
 medical inquiry; and there is indubitable evidence that certain 
 
xciv 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 unseen sources of the most fatal kinds of disease lurk in the un- 
 flushed and uncleaned sewers and house drains, when obstructed 
 or neglected, and that there is great danger that the filthy condi- 
 tion, faulty construction and bad management of privy vaults in 
 the crowded districts will not only continue to be among the most 
 distinct and offensive sources of obstinate disease, but that ere 
 long they will become associated with the active and localizing 
 causes of fatal epidemics. Putrescible organic matter, whether of 
 animal or vegetable origin, when left to decay in the midst of a 
 populous neighborhood, will very certainly induce diseases of some 
 sort. It is particularly on this account that the medical and hy- 
 gienic adviser is compelled to enter a protest against all needless 
 herding and stabling of animals in the midst of densely populated 
 streets ; and with yet greater force is this objection urged against 
 all the slaughter-pens and their adjunct nuisances, wherever located 
 in the thickly inhabited portion of the city. 
 
 The 173 slaughter houses in this city are too offensive to health 
 and decency to be longer permitted in their present localities. 
 These establishments are now thrust into the midst of the most 
 crowded districts, and it is to be observed that a loathsome train of 
 dependent nuisances is found grouped in the same neighborhoods. 
 We need not comment upon the offensive and debasing influence 
 of the scenes and processes of the slaughter-pen. The intelligence 
 and refined tastes of the people should enforce the demands of 
 hygiene, and at once devise a practical scheme of abattoirs that 
 shall be adapted to the wants of this populous and growing me- 
 tropolis.* That there is a growing necessity for a faithful in- 
 
 * The great abattoir system of Paris is in effect one of its sanitary institutions. There 
 we sec the business of slaughtering animals not only rendered inoffensive to health and 
 decency, but the process itself so managed as to insure the proper inspection and care of 
 the animals at the lime of slaughter, with reference to the protection of the public health. 
 At the time of Sir Francis Head's visit to the Parisian abattoirs, he states there were 66 
 boucficrics in the abattoir de Monlmarlre alone, and that the number of fat-melting houses 
 within its walls was 48; the number of beef cattle slaughtered every week, 1,300; the 
 number of calves, 650 ; the number of sheep, 3,500. 
 
 The importance of providing by law for the proper sanitary care and supervision of 
 butcheries and shambles is understood by intelligent market-men, and it needs to be un- 
 derstood by the municipal nnd health authorities. Self-protection will ere long compul tho 
 people to ask the intervention of the State to regulate the butcheries and the market sys- 
 tem of this city, if municipal authority and private cnteiprisc do not soon remedy tho 
 existing evils. 
 
ENCROACHMENT OF NUISANCES UPON POPULOUS UPTOWN DISTRICTS. 
 
SPECIAL NUISANCES. 
 
 XCV 
 
 spection of slaughtered animals and other food articles previous 
 to their being offered in market, is testified by the best butchers 
 and market-men in our city. It is known that a large proportion 
 of the animals slaughtered in the city have to endure for days 
 such treatment as seriously deteriorates the quality and health- 
 fulness of their flesh ; and that animals variously diseased and in- 
 jured are daily crowded upon the markets of the city. These cir- 
 cumstances, together with the offensiveness of the nuisances that 
 are incident to slaughter-pens in the populous streets, render it 
 desirable that there should be a thorough reform of the whole 
 system of supplying animal food for our shambles.*' 
 
 It is not necessary to dwell upon the description or the remedy 
 of the various other nuisances that endanger the public health in 
 this city.f The gross filthiness of the streets, courts, and alleys, 
 
 * The Council of Hygiene, as a voluntary organization, is not called upon to give the 
 details relating to the gross impositions and the sources of evil that are inflicted by the 
 existing system of butcheries and markets, or rather the absence of control of the sanitary 
 condition of slaughtered animals and food articles ; nor is this the occasion to describe 
 and recommend the specific improvements that are required. It is known that very im- 
 portant improvements have been made in the methods of slaughter, as well as in the 
 treatment of butcheries, and all that pertains thereto ; and it is well known, moreover, 
 that animals variously diseased, and meats variously injured for use as food, are sold daily 
 to the unsuspecting multitudes who purchase in the established markets of the city, and to 
 still greater numbers who depend upon the thousand minor shambles that are found in all 
 populous districts. Useful information relating to all the questions alluded to in this note, 
 may be gleaned by careful inspection of the physical condition of the animals in the 
 slaughter-pens, and their flesh in the shambles ; or by perusal of Col. Devoe's Market 
 Book, and by conversation with that most intelligent master of his trade ; also in the 
 Reports of the New York Academy of Medicine upon Swill Milk, etc. ; the letters of Prof. 
 J. S. Gamgcc to Sir George Grey, on Diseased Meals, etc. ; also Prof. Gamgee's paper in 
 the Fifth Report of the Medical Officer to the Privy Council, 1863 ; and the paper by Mr. 
 Robert Ceely, in the Sixth Report of the same officer, 18C4, on the Anthrax Fever in ani- 
 mals used for food ; and for notice of various improvements in slaughtering, and the 
 preparation of meats for market, the Lectures on Public Health, by Dr. Mapother, Health 
 Officer of Dublin, may be consulted. 
 
 \ What is known as the gas nuisance throughout the city of New York, is caused 
 mainly by a defect in the means that are employed in the purification of the gas at the 
 gas factories. Upon the causes and the remedy of this gross evil, the Professors of Chem- 
 istry in this Council have made a final report, explaining the cause3 of the nuisance, and 
 showing the feasibility of its prevention. 
 
 The sewer-gas nuisance, and the abominable exhalations from various manufactories, 
 all admit of being remedied. There is abundant evidence that the gaseous emanations from 
 sewers, privies, decaying garbage, and neglected stables, stagnant water, etc., are always 
 productive of diseases which arc particularly fatal to infantile life, and that all great cpi- 
 
XCvi EEPOET OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 the putrefying masses of animal and vegetable matter, together 
 with dead animals, obstructed sewerage and drainage, and poison- 
 ous exhalations from manufactories of various kinds, combine to 
 pollute the atmosphere of the entire city. Yet all of these sources of 
 insalubrity and increased mortality are of the most preventable 
 character, and it is the unanimous opinion of this Council, that no 
 system of Sanitary Government which fails to comprehend and 
 control such evils can be adequate to the demands of an advancing 
 civilization, or equal to the present wants of this city. 
 
 THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF THE CITY. 
 
 The Citizens' Association has wisely intrusted the investigation 
 of questions in engineering and architecture to competent and ex- 
 perienced minds that have been trained to such inquiries; conse- 
 quently it has been deemed necessary by the Council of Hygiene 
 to consider only the strictly hygienic bearings of the facts relating 
 to the drainage and sewerage of the city. All these points have 
 been so ably presented in the Reports of the Sanitary Inspectors 
 of the Third, Fourth, Thirteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-fifth, 
 Twenty-eighth, and Twenty-ninth Districts, that we refer to those 
 Reports in the Second Paet of this volume, for details relating to 
 the subject. The Inspectors have earned well-merited thanks for 
 the careful study they have given to the questions which the Coun- 
 cil prepared on this subject. The pernicious influence of imperfect 
 drainage and neglected or faulty sewerage, and the fatal poisons 
 that are generated by accumulated sewage and putrefying organic 
 materials are no longer merely matters of opinion, but, as will be 
 noticed upon a subsequent page of this Report, they stand related 
 as direct causes of some of the most insidious, obstinate, and fatal 
 diseases that afflict our city. 
 
 The chief features of the drainage and sewerage of this city 
 that concern our sanitary inquiries relate, (1) to the original confor- 
 mation and character of the surface soil of the island on which the 
 city is built; (2) the origin, cause, and outlets of the primitive 
 streams of water ; and, (3) the obstruction or obliteration of those 
 streams ; (4) the plan and construction of the sewers with regard 
 
 demies of fevers, cholera, etc., are localized and rendered peculiarly fatal in places where 
 such nuisances abound. 
 
DKAENAGE AND SEWEKAGE OF THE CITY. 
 
 XCV11 
 
 to free and clear outlet, without nuisance ; and (5) the arrangements 
 for flushing and for preventing the reflux or escape of sewer-gases 
 in the streets, and into dwellings and other buildings; (6) the 
 skilful connection of house-drains with the main sewers ; (7) the 
 thoroughness of drainage and sewerage with reference to the sani- 
 tary influence of a dry atmosphere. All these points have been 
 carefully considered, and valuable observations have been made 
 during the progress of the sanitary survey and inspections. In 
 three of the badly drained districts, noted for their insalubrity, a 
 series of hygrometrical observations was kept up during the warm 
 season. "With regard to practical results from those observations, 
 we need only state in this place that any marked degree of excess 
 of humidity in any locality, as compared with the standard obser- 
 vations at Essex Market, was, without exception, found to be asso- 
 ciated with an excessive constant sickness-rate, and particularly 
 with infantile diseases, and all kinds of contagion and infection. 
 
 While it is recognized that the drainage and sewerage of the 
 city must be treated by skilled engineers, it is the opinion of tbe 
 Council of Hygiene that it is desirable that all questions that are 
 connected therewith should be treated as questions of ' sanitary 
 engineering.' The Health Towns Commission, the Metropolitan 
 Sanitary Commission, the Poor Law Commission's Sanitary In- 
 quiries, in Great Britain, and the National Sanitary Convention 
 at its session in Boston, have presented the subject of the drainage 
 and sewerage of cities, as requiring sanitary treatment. That the 
 economical and commercial questions, as connected with this sub- 
 ject, should be subordinate to hygienic requirements, is confessed 
 by the ablest and most recent writers upon the economic questions 
 of sewerage.* 
 
 * Says Mr. Menzies, in his admirable Treatise on Drainage and Sewerage : " The pres- 
 ervation of health and the saving of human life must be the first consideration ; the cost 
 of drainage, or of utilizing the sewage, the second ; " and he goes on to show that " the least 
 outlay will be incurred, and the greatest return obtained from the most sanitary system." 
 See Treatise on the Sanitary Management and Utilization of Sewage, comprehending de- 
 tails, etc., etc. By Wm. Menzies, Deputy Surveyor of Windsor Forest, London, 18G5. 
 
 The whole subject of the sanitary and economical management of the drainage and 
 sewerage of cities, and the utilization of sewage, is receiving much practical attention in 
 England. Baron Liebig has entered upon a comprehensive investigation of the economical 
 treatment of the subject in London, while the extensive experiments of Alderman Mechi 
 and Mr. Menzies have shown how successfully the most practical economist can aid in 
 
 7 
 
xcviii 
 
 EEPOET OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 That the sewerage and the natural drainage of the city may 
 be thoroughly perfected appears not to admit of a doubt, and 
 there is abundant reason to believe that there needs to be an intel- 
 ligent sanitary inspection, by sanitary engineers, throughout the 
 the entire system of the city sewers, and that the original water- 
 courses should again be permitted to have their deep and free out- 
 lets to tide water, in order to diminish the amount of humidity 
 and decomposition that results from the artificial obstruction and 
 diffusion of those streams. The main question, however, that must 
 receive immediate sanitary consideration, relates to the flushing and 
 cleansing of sewers, and the effectual control of sewer-gases. 
 
 SPECIAL APPLICATIONS OF CHEMISTRY AND OTHER SCIENCES TO 
 SANITARY WORKS. 
 
 In various ways, and at every stage of progress in sanitary im- 
 provements that are required in our city, must the most skilful 
 applications of medical diagnosis, chemistry, and sanitary engineer- 
 ing be invoked. The Council of Hygiene has given a practical 
 expression to this view by recommending the maintenance of a 
 department of Dwelling Improvement, in which the skilled en- 
 gineer and the architect shall aid in working out the most import- 
 ant sanitary and social problems ; and by the union of two of the 
 leading Professors of Chemistry in the works of the Council, the 
 methods of such cooperation of the sciences have been practically 
 illustrated. At an early stage of the sanitary inspection, it became 
 necessary to seek special advice from the Chemical branch of the 
 Council,* and at a later period, a specific report was sought and 
 received from that branch, respecting the proper scope and applica- 
 tions of chemical inquiry in promoting the public health of the 
 city. By vote of the Council, the report is here introduced as a 
 statement of views which should be presented to intelligent 
 citizens. 
 
 promoting sanitary works. For recent and very valuable contributions to the hygienic 
 treatment of this subject, we would refer to a Report on Civic Cleanliness, made to the Na- 
 tional Sanitary Convention at Boston, 1860, by E. L. Viel6, Esq. ; the Essays of Rev. II. 
 Moule, on National Health and Wealth ; Prof. E. A. Parkes' Manual of Practical Hy- 
 giene, London 1864 — article, " Sewerage and Methods of Removing Sewage Matters; " also 
 Dr. C. A. Murchison's Treatise on the Continued Fevers of Great Britain, London, 1862 
 — article, " Prophylactic Treatment." 
 •Sec pages 312, 313, Part Second. 
 
HYGIENIC APPLICATIONS OP CHEMISTRY. Xcix 
 
 REPORT UPON THE HYGIENIC APPLICATIONS OF CHEMISTRY: BY PROF. 
 JOHN W. DRAPER AND PROF. R. OGDEN DOREMUS. 
 
 The Committee to whom was referred the inquiry, "What 
 useful and practicahle investigations and analyses may be made 
 respecting the chemical nature and changes of the soil and atmos- 
 phere of the city, with reference to the public health, and the 
 nuisance of insalubrious emanations from gas factories and the 
 sewers of the city," beg leave to present the following report : 
 
 The experience of large cities has shown that systematic hygi- 
 enic investigations must be directed to the following points : 
 
 I. The water, which is in general, and that which is in certain 
 cases in special use. 
 
 II. The composition of the air as regards the entire locality 
 under investigation, and also in particular localities where the 
 population is dense, the houses badly constructed, or where ema- 
 nations from gas factories, &c, contaminate it. 
 
 III. The quality of the food articles exposed for sale in the 
 public markets or stores, as respects their accidental deteriorations 
 or purposed adulteration. 
 
 IY. The character of the soil on which the city is built, its 
 retention of water, its chemical composition, the dust that may 
 arise from it, or the gases that it may permit to escape into the air. 
 
 The present state of chemistry is such that all these points may 
 be dealt with in an intelligent manner and with great precision. 
 Solutions to the different questions that may be propounded can 
 be given, of so reliable a character as to form a satisfactory basis 
 for the hygienic action of physicians and of the public authorities. 
 
 Indeed, it is only in this way that information of sufficient 
 certainty for such purposes can now be acquired. Hygiene must 
 rest on the basis of chemical investigation. 
 
 The undersigned now propose to offer a few remarks on each 
 of the four topics just designated. These remarks are necessarily 
 of a general kind, and will be directed mainly to the special case 
 of the city of New York. 
 
 I. First, then, as respects its water. This is presented to us in 
 two states : the general city supply of Croton-water, and the special 
 Bupplies derived from wells or springs. 
 
c 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 The impurities of the Croton vary with the seasons of the year, 
 and sometimes rise to such an extent as would excite public as- 
 tonishment if the circumstances were generally known. Nothing 
 need here be said respecting the effect of these impurities upon the 
 public health, but there is reason to believe that our city physicians 
 are very far from realizing the importance of this state of things. 
 
 The undersigned, therefore, recommend that an analysis of the 
 Croton-water should be made, samples being taken once each 
 week, and the investigation continued for one year. Collating the 
 important evidence that would thus be acquired, the Croton Board 
 might be instructed as to the measures it is needful to take to 
 diminish the access of these impurities, or perhaps to exclude them 
 altogether. 
 
 In the next place, as respects wells or springs. Since the intro- 
 duction of the Croton and the development of the sewer system, 
 these have undergone very serious changes. The water they yielded 
 was bad enough in former times ; it is if any thing worse now. As 
 illustrations, it may be mentioned that twenty-five years ago the 
 water which was furnished by the pumps in the vicinity of "Wash- 
 ington Square, though very clear and pellucid to the eye, was 
 overcharged, as was discovered in the Laboratory of the University 
 of New York, with phosphate of lime (bone earth), and an ex- 
 tremely fetid animal matter. These impurities were derived from 
 the human remains that were buried around in what was once the 
 Potter's Field. 
 
 As a more recent instance, it has within a few days been ob- 
 served, in the same laboratory, that water taken from a well in the 
 Twenty-second "Ward, by one of the officers of this Association, 
 contained not less than forty-eight grains of solid matter in the 
 gallon, half of this being putrid organic substance. It is complained 
 of, that the neighbors using it are greatly troubled with diarrhoeal 
 diseases. It would be surprising indeed if they were not.* This 
 sample of water contains ten or twelve times as much solid material 
 as the Croton-water under average circumstances ; and so far sur- 
 passes the waters used in the large towns of America and Europe 
 in its noxious ingredients, that if it is any thing like a fair sample 
 of the well-water of those districts of the city, there can bo no 
 doubt that its use should be prohibited by the public authorities, 
 
 • Sec report of Chemical Analysis of this water, and an account of the diseases arising 
 therefrom, Second Part, pp. 812, 313. 
 
HYGIENIC APPLICATIONS OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 ci 
 
 and means taken for the supply of a sufficiency of Croton in its 
 stead. 
 
 It is therefore recommended, that a general analysis of such 
 water should be made; one such analysis in each instance will 
 probably be sufficient. 
 
 The water that has been used for cleansing purposes should, by 
 appropriate means, either be conserved and disposed of for agri- 
 cultural uses, or delivered into the currents of the East and North 
 Rivers. 
 
 During its passage through the sewers, noxious gases should 
 not be allowed to escape into the streets, through the ventilators, 
 when they can be so readily absorbed by charcoal and other 
 absorbents ; the sewers, moreover, should be so constructed as to 
 convey their contents where they are sure of being removed by the 
 streams which ebb and flow so conveniently on each side of our 
 city, and not as at present ; for the putrescent matter is now deposit- 
 ed in the docks, where pools of decomposing animal and vegetable 
 offal are formed, from which ill-odored and poisonous gases inces- 
 santly bubble up. Nor should the outlets of the sewers be so ex- 
 posed that winds can blow back the noxious emanations. 
 
 In conclusion of this portion of the subject it may be remarked, 
 that there has recently been made a very important improvement 
 in the operations for the chemical analysis of the solid residues of 
 water, by Spectkum Analysis as it is termed. 
 
 II. Second, as respects the air. In a general manner the atmos- 
 phere of a large town is supposed to have a very uniform compo- 
 sition. This opinion, which is commonly entertained by non-medical 
 writers, has been sustained by negative evidence derived from the 
 heretofore imperfect state of gas analysis. But as we have just 
 mentioned in the instance of water, so again in the case of air, 
 great improvements have recently been made, and questions can 
 now be determined which it was impossible to solve some years 
 ago. These improvements indicate that the air of large towns is 
 very different in different localities, not only in houses variously 
 constructed, but in the open street. They enable us to detect and 
 to offer legal evidence of sources of contamination by clearly 
 identifying them. They also, it is to be especially remarked, 
 furnish suggestions respecting the construction and proper venti- 
 lation of dwellings. 
 
cii 
 
 EEPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 Tour Committee, therefore, suggest that systematic examinat ion 
 of air-samples obtained from localities specially determined upon, 
 should be made ; not concealing, however, that these "would un- 
 doubtedly prove to be the most difficult and expensive of the 
 inquiries thus recommended. But the advantages to be derived 
 may doubtless be considered as more than an equivalent, especially 
 if they should suggest, as they very probably would, means for the 
 recognition of the morbific agents generated in " fever-nests " and 
 improved measures for their destruction. 
 
 III. Third, as respects food articles exposed for sale in the 
 public markets or stores. 
 
 These, as is well known, in many cases may undergo sponta- 
 neous deterioration, becoming not only unsuited for their purpose, 
 but absolutely poisonous. Cases of this kind are within the knowl- 
 edge of every physician of experience in the city. 
 
 Again, such food articles are not unfrequently nefariously 
 adulterated by tradesmen. A great deal of attention has of late 
 years been given to both branches of this subject in foreign coun- 
 tries, and a large amount of information acquired both as respects 
 the means to be resorted to for the detection of such deteriorations 
 and also their prevention. The subject, however, necessarily 
 branches into so many details as to be unsuited for more particular 
 consideration here. It is, therefore, perhaps, sufficient to say, that 
 the questions arising in connection with it are all readily dealt 
 with by modern methods of analysis and examination, and that the 
 extent to which such investigations ought to go will be best de- 
 termined as the occasion arises. 
 
 IV. Fourth, as respects the soil. There are many important 
 hygienic questions connected herewith. Among these may be men- 
 tioned the influence of dust material, that in variable qualities is 
 always present in the air, and how far the operation for its abatement 
 by watering the streets in the dry season of the year is justifiable. 
 Not without reason is there a growing prejudice against this oper- 
 ation, from a suspicion that it is attended by consequences disadvan- 
 tageous to the public health. The settlement of this question is 
 not beyond the range of chemistry. It is mainly connected with 
 such examinations t of the constitution of the air as we have pre- 
 viously alluded to. 
 
HYGIENIC APPLICATIONS OF CHEMISTRY. C1U 
 
 The same remark of course applies to the examination and 
 determination of the aerial and vaporous matters that are perpetu- 
 ally escaping, even in the best-paved parts of the city, from the 
 soil. The production of these substances and their nature are 
 largely dependent upon the mechanical condition as well as the 
 chemical composition of the soil in which they are generated. Its 
 mechanical condition, if clayey or plastic, may give rise to their 
 retention ; if sandy or porous, may give facilities for their extrication. 
 Its chemical composition of course determines what they are. The 
 surface-soil or street-dirt necessarily varies very greatly in the 
 different parts of the town, being determined in one place by the 
 non-occurrence of sewers ; in another by the domestic habits of the 
 inhabitants as to cleanliness or the reverse ; in a third by the con- 
 tinual passage of cattle and the dropping of their excrements ; in 
 still another by the prevailing occurrence of certain manufactures, 
 as of gas, leather, and the like. There can be no doubt that these 
 very various modifications of surface-dirt are intimately connected 
 with the public health, and in the hygienic management of the city 
 are alone to be dealt with by a well-ordered arrangement for clean- 
 ing the streets, and by extensions and improvements in the system 
 of sewers, as before referred to. 
 
 Your Committee have not thought it necessary to introduce 
 any detailed or special remarks as regards houses or dwellings. It 
 is well known that public attention elsewhere is strongly directed 
 to this point, more especially with a view of contriving better struc- 
 tures for the laboring classes and the poor. It is very desirable 
 that our places of public resort, as churches, theatres, court-rooms, 
 &c, should have such complete ventilation that each individual 
 present in them should receive his healthful portion of pure air, 
 and yet without incommoding any with draughts. It is evident 
 that such improvements will be, to a large extent, indicated by the 
 solutions that may be obtained of the different questions that have 
 been pointed out in this report : How and under what circum- 
 stances water should be furnished ? what are the best and most 
 available means of ventilation ? what are the most economical and 
 effectual methods of warming ? On a subsequent occasion, if the As- 
 sociation should see fit, we shall offer some remarks on these points, 
 and therefore shall abstain from treating further of them at present. 
 
civ 
 
 KEPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 PRACTICAL CHARACTER OF SANITARY WORKS. 
 
 Sanitary science is exceedingly practical in all it teaches or 
 suggests. It takes cognizance of diseases, mortality, and all dan- 
 gers to health ; and its inquiries as well as its applications descend 
 directly to causes. From the investigation of causes it brings forth 
 remedial suggestions, and projects sanitary works. 
 
 The preceding sections of this Report, together with the accom- 
 panying body of Evidence, relate exclusively to practical questions, 
 and the facts thus collated show at once the necessity and the 
 nature of the sanitary works which the public health of the city re- 
 quires. The preliminary studies and experience, the patient re- 
 search into the nature and origin of diseases, and the practical dis- 
 crimination of their causes, particularly of those that are prevent- 
 able, and the suggestion of needed remedies or preventives, have 
 justly been demanded of the medical profession. Chemistry offers 
 its marvellous resources, while sanitary engineering, and all the 
 improvements and means of the mechanical arts, are able in various 
 ways to promote the practical works that are needed for the pro- 
 tection of the public health. However varied and important may 
 be the resources of sanitary science, and the arts which it subordi- 
 nates to its service, the laws of health are so exceedingly simple 
 that their applications and results are neither difficult nor of 
 doubtful utility. Pure air, suitable food, sunlight, and clothing 
 for the body ; and such peace and hope as give mental repose to 
 the mind, as well as buoyancy to daily life, constitute the element- 
 ary conditions of sanitary welfare. Health is a boon, however, 
 that must be sought and protected, especially in civic life, or it 
 is soon alienated. So definite are the conditions upon which it 
 depends, says one of the ablest teachers of hygiene, that " it is un- 
 doubtedly true that we can, even now, literally choose between 
 health or disease ; not perhaps always individually, for the chains 
 of our civilization and social customs may gall us, or even our fel- 
 low men may deny us health, or the knowledge which leads to 
 health. But as a race, man holds his own destiny, and can choose 
 between good and evil." * 
 
 To supply an abundance of fresh air in all classes of habitations ; 
 to guard against the causes of deterioration or injury of food arti- 
 
 • Prof. E. A. Parkes, Manual of Jlyyiene, p. xvii. 
 
PREVALENT DISEASES. 
 
 CT 
 
 cles ; to shut up, by sanitary regulation, all cellars and unsunlighted 
 dwellings, and to restrain the infections of fever and its needless 
 causes of wasted energies and blighting discontent and unhappiness 
 in the poor man's home, are simple and most practical problems, 
 and it is plain that the physical agencies for accomplishing such 
 beneficent works are entirely within the reach of enlightened 
 citizens. These are Sanitary "Works. 
 
 PREVALENT DISEASES WHICH ILLUSTRATE THE NECESSITY OF SANITARY 
 
 WORKS. 
 
 Fever. — Two thousand and eighty-three persons died of fever in 
 this city during the year 1863. Nine hundred and three of these 
 deaths were caused by scarlet fever, a disease that is fearfully fatal 
 in unventilated and crowded dwellings; eighty-three were from 
 puerperal disease, and all the remainder, excepting two cases, were 
 from typhus, typhoid, and malarial fever poisons, all of which were 
 preventable. The nine hundred and fifty deaths from typhus and 
 typhoid fevers that year represented, probably, more than twelve 
 thousand cases of that most preventable type of disease. During 
 the year 1864, it is known that fevers were still more prevalent. 
 The Sanitary Inspectors during the summer and autumn studied 
 the local history of npward of sixteen hundred cases of typhus, 
 with reference to the localizing causes that existed in particular 
 places. We refer to the Inspectors' Reports for their description 
 of the fever-nests of the city, as seen and canvassed by them. 
 
 Some details upon this subject were presented in preceding 
 pages, and we will here add the following extracts from reports 
 received from the Inspectors since those pages were written. The 
 Sanitary Inspector of the Sixth District submits the records and 
 statistics of 156 houses and premises which at the time of his last 
 visit to them " were in a condition so filthy and neglected as to be 
 unsafe to the people residing therein, and which during the past 
 few months have been visited by typhus, small-pox, and other 
 pestilential diseases." The following examples of those fever- 
 stricken dwellings illustrate the prevailing characteristics of all : 
 " At No. — Mulberry Street, there are 28 families and 135 persons in 
 the premises, front and rear — a lot 25 feet by less than 100 feet. 
 During the past two months 14 cases of typhus fever have occurred in 
 these families, and that during the past six months 7 persons have 
 died there. Further, that fevers and other preventable diseases 
 
cvi 
 
 EEPOET OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 have prevailed there almost continually during the past two years ; 
 the alley, passages, privies, cellars, and surroundings of those 
 houses are and have been very filthy ; the gutters and street, in 
 front of the houses, obstructed by piles of filth and garbage, and that 
 the causes which render the premises insalubrious, are of an en- 
 tirely removable and preventable character. No means have been 
 employed by the municipal government to prevent or dimmish the 
 prevalence of fever in the houses here described." The following 
 figures show the rate of packing in that tenant-house : Pro rata of 
 area upon the entire house-lot to each inhabitant, 16f square feet ; 
 allotment of air-space to each person in the family or living- 
 rooms, 220 cubic feet ; allotment to each person in bed-rooms, 161 
 cubic feet. And further, the rear-house is built back-to-back 
 against another rookery in the rear of Baxter Street, thus com- 
 pletely obstructing external ventilation. Typhus has prevailed in 
 the adjacent tenant-houses throughout the year. 
 
 The Sanitary Inspector of the Fourteenth District (eastern half 
 of Seventeenth "Ward) submits a record of 49 places where typhus 
 prevails, or has recently occurred in his district, under circum- 
 stances similar to the causes that localized the same fever in the 
 places just described in the Sixth District; and from the Fif- 
 teenth District the following condensed report of three fever-nests 
 is submitted: 
 
 
 CO 
 
 9 
 
 > m 
 
 
 V 
 
 3 
 
 o 
 
 8 
 a 
 o 
 
 a a 
 fi^ 
 a 
 
 
 ffl 
 
 « 
 
 H 
 
 if 
 
 a a 
 o 
 
 2 9 
 
 
 © 
 
 ■3 
 
 -~ o 
 
 — 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 -an 
 
 last 
 
 Dei 
 last 
 
 Familiei 
 
 to 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 S 
 * 
 
 ). of Childi 
 lied during 
 
 A 
 
 No. of 
 
 o 
 
 & 
 
 •gap 
 
 to 
 
 H 
 
 8 
 
 40 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 e 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 
 81 
 
 2 
 
 T 
 
 °^ 
 
 to a 
 
 ll 
 
 E-i 
 
 1* 
 
 3 A. 
 
 o 
 
 ■~ c 
 
 c — 
 
 Is 
 
 £ 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 3 a 
 a o 
 
 i a 
 fa 
 
 3 o 
 
 It 
 Ja p. 
 
 Kornarks. 
 
 No. — East 10th rear, 4 stories. 
 No. — East 11th rear, 3 stories. 
 No. — East 4th front and nor. 
 
 10 
 6 
 2T 
 
 1 in I 
 
 I in 24 
 
 1 in 8 
 
 1 in 10 
 
 1 In 8 
 
 1 in 111 
 
 1 Overcrowded, un- 
 Vventtlated, privies 
 1 & court very filthy. 
 ) Here are 4 cases of 
 > typhus, & 1 of - 1 1 i.i 11 
 
 1 ll. >v are 8 csbcs 
 Vof typhus, and '1 of 
 ) Bmall-pox. 
 
 Facts like the foregoing are reported from all the fever-nests 
 that afflict our city ; and in the minutely detailed reports * which 
 the Sanitary Inspectors have made respecting them, there ia con- 
 
 • For abstract of the form of reports, see pp. xxvii-xxx. 
 
PREVALENT DISEASES. 
 
 cvii 
 
 stant and direct testimony confirming the following points: (1) 
 that in many of the tenant-houses of the city there exist such 
 excessive overcrowding, uncleanness, and utter want of ventilation, 
 that typhus is liable to occur at any time ; and when once infected 
 with the virus of that fever, such houses will become sources of 
 domestic pestilence and of danger to the public health ; (2) that 
 the number of localities which are already infected with the fever- 
 poison (including both typhus and typhoid fever) in this city, is 
 believed to be not less than five hundred* and (3) that the total 
 number of insalubrious quarters which are particularly liable to an 
 outbreak or endemic of fever, is not less than about one-fifth the to- 
 tal number of tenant-houses and inhabited cellars, or not less than 
 three thousand houses and places ; (4) lastly, that the causes which 
 have localized fever in five hundred different places in this city, and 
 which threaten its outbreak in thousands of other localities in the 
 various wards, can be removed and prevented only by thorough 
 ventilation of the houses in which the fever exists or is threatened, 
 by cleansing and purifying, by thinning out the badly overcrowded 
 buildings, and by the perpetual vigilance of an intelligently directed 
 Sanitary Police. Such are the works that Sanitary Science pro- 
 poses for the immediate remedy and prevention of the typhus 
 plague that has again deeply rooted itself in our city.f 
 
 * The total number of patients with typhus and typhoid fevers admitted to Bellevue 
 Hospital, and the Fever-Tents on Blackwell's Island, during the year 1864, was 1,209. 
 
 The total number of patients with the same fevers admitted to the hospitals of the 
 Commissioners of Emigration during the year, was 1,130. 
 
 The total number of deaths from these fevers in the city, including those in the hospi- 
 tals, during the year 1863, was 951. 
 
 \ At a recent opening of one of the improved tenant-houses in London (a copy of 
 the plan and description of which we have presented upon pages 86 and 87), the distin- 
 guished sanitarian, Edwin Chadwick, Esq., after inspecting its arrangements for ventila- 
 tion, cleanliness, etc., declared it to be " fever-proof." The following extract from the re- 
 port of an inspection of the tenant-houses erected and improved by the Society for Im- 
 proving the Condition of the Laboring Classes, by Lord Shaftsbury and other gentlemen, 
 shows it is possible to render the homes of the poor secure from fever infection. Tho 
 report states that " in the model-houses in Streatham Street, Bloomsbury, the rooms were 
 found fully occupied," and " the general health of the forty-eight families living in them, 
 excellent." " In the number of years during which this establishment has been open, 
 terrible fevers, that from time to time rage around, have been unknown. The very small 
 number of deaths, of even young children, is remarkable, and shows, in comparison with 
 other places, the extent to which human life might be saved, not only in the metropolis, 
 but also in other large towns. 
 
 " The inspections were extended through numerous other buildings of the society, 
 
cviii 
 
 EEPOET OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 Diaeehceax Maladies. — This class of diseases, including chol- 
 era infantum, cholera, and dysentery, as well as ordinary diar- 
 rhoeas in this city, and in all large towns, is justly regarded as heing 
 almost wholly the result of preventable causes. The total number 
 of deaths from these maladies alone during the year 1863, was 
 2,665, or 10.57 per cent, of the total mortality of the city for that 
 year ; and during the ten years ending in 1859, the total number 
 of deaths from these maladies in the city was 34,957. These sta- 
 tistical facts show what an important class of diseases this is. 
 
 Now upon perusal of the Inspectors' Reports herewith submit- 
 ted, some of the active causes of these troublesome maladies of the 
 bowels will be found well described. For example, the Inspector 
 of the Eleventh District found three severe cases of dysentery in a 
 single house on the corner of Gansevoort and West Streets ; and 
 in the same neighborhood, in a single sparsely-populated square, 
 between Gansevoort and Horatio Streets, he found twenty-nine 
 cases of dysentery occurring within a period of twenty-one days.* 
 In this instance the cause of the malady then prevailing, as well 
 as of enteric fever that had previously swept over the same locality, 
 was found to be simply the uncovered sewer, and the obstructed 
 and noisome sewage of Gansevoort Street, between West Street 
 and the river. Again, in the Twenty-fifth District, adjacent to 
 the Central Park, we have the preventable causes, and local history 
 of the diarrhoeal maladies lucidly explained.f Stagnant water, 
 obstructed drainage, putrefying garbage, decomposing animal mat- 
 ters, putrid exhalations from various sources, deteriorated food 
 articles, and the use of water from wells into which the putrid 
 soakage of filth had percolated, are clearly proven to be the causes 
 of the diarrhoeal diseases of that district. Each of the thirty-one 
 
 both for families and single men, the facts learned being generally of the same satisfac- 
 tory character." 
 
 In a report made at a recent meeting, it was stated that the whole population of this 
 property of the society amounts to 2,186, and in this number, 45 deaths have occurred 
 during the year. This is at the rate of 20i in each 1,000, and the report states that this 
 " is rather in excess of what might have been expected, but still a great improvement on 
 the result in all London." 
 
 * See page 119, Second Part. 
 
 f Sec Second Paiit, pages 312-322. 
 
 The importance of providing by law for the water-supply needed by the inhabitants 
 of poor tenements that are not yet furnished with the Croton, is strikingly set forth in the 
 
PREVALENT DISEASES. 
 
 cix 
 
 Sanitary Inspectors lias from week to week brought forward, in 
 carefully-detailed reports, the same essential facts regarding the 
 causes and the localization of the various diarrhoeal maladies. The 
 causes which have thus been reported, are of the most preventable 
 nature ; and in the opinion of this Council, the duty of speedily 
 removing or controlling such needless sources of peril to an unsus- 
 pecting population, is plainly incumbent upon the government, 
 and upon the intelligent classes who can direct the measures re- 
 quired for the public welfare. 
 
 ~Rot the poor classes alone suffer the fatal consequences of public 
 neglect of the removable causes of this important class of maladies. 
 The epidemic that swept over the vicinity of the royal court in 
 Windsor, in 1858, painfully demonstrated that a Prince Consort, 
 and the humblest tenant in the same region of putrid sewage, 
 must fall victims to the same local poison that insidiously filled the 
 atmosphere.* The death of many valued citizens, and the fatal 
 
 report of this district. The water of another of the sparkling wells in a crowded tenant 
 neighborhood, near the Central Park, has just been analyzed for the Council of Hygiene, 
 by Prof. Draper, with the following results : 
 
 Organic Matter and Volatile Salts, per gallon, lOyfto grains. 
 
 | Phosphate of Lime, Carbonate of Lime, . . .*. ) 
 Fixed Salts -j Sulphate of Lime, Sulphate of Soda, V 14f 0 % " 
 
 ( Chloride of Sodium ) 
 
 Total solid residue, per gallon " 
 
 In all of the numerous families that make use of the water from this well, obstinate 
 and fatal diarrhoeal maladies prevail throughout the year. Is it not plainly the duty of 
 the health authorities to know such facts, and shall the city, through the ignorance of 
 officials, neglect to provide Croton-water for the poor ? 
 
 * For some account of that epidemic, see Dr. Simon's Reports to the Privy Council, 
 1858-'59-'60 ; and Dr. Murchison on Enteric Fever, pages 444-446. 
 
 In the Report of the Privy Council (England), for 1858, is an interesting paper from 
 Dr. Greenhow, on the " Diarrhoea Districts " of England. Dr. Greenhow was commis- 
 sioned in the previous year to inquire into their sanitary condition. The towns selected 
 were, Coventry, Manchester, Salford, Nottingham, Birmingham, Dudley, Leeds, Wolver- 
 hampton, and Merthyr Tydfil. In all of these, Dr. Greenhow found diarrhoea coincident 
 with one or other of these two circumstances — the habitual drinking of impure water, or 
 the tainting of the atmosphere with the products of organic decomposition, especially of 
 human refuse. In other words, in districts which show a high diarrhoeal death-rate, the 
 inhabitants either breathe or drink a large amount of putrefying animal refuse. He traces 
 street by street, showing how diarrhoea, visiting cleanly districts but slightly, is especially 
 grouped around those spots where there is an accumulation of night soil infecting the air 
 in the midst of a dense population, or so placed that the exhalations penetrate into tho 
 houses, or can be but slowly dispersed into the general atmosphere. The comparative 
 immunity of other districts resembling these in all respects save this fascal impurity, is 
 
cx 
 
 KEPOKT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 prevalence of diarrhoeal and enteric diseases in many of the 
 wealthiest streets of New York, might justly awaken a demand for 
 the most comprehensive sanitary inquiry respecting the sewerage, 
 and the special nuisances of the city. 
 
 Small-Pox. — This is at once the most preventable and the 
 most virulently contagious of all diseases. It is the worst type of 
 a domestic and public pestilence, and for many years past it has 
 been constantly prevalent in various portions of this city. In a 
 previous section of this report we have shown by what agencies 
 this disease is perpetuated and diffused in the city ; * it should now 
 be fully understood that the personal perils and the public evils 
 which result from the official neglect of this disease and its grand 
 preventive, have reached a point that is unequalled in any other 
 city in the civilized world. Yet it is conceded that by means of 
 effectual vaccination, and by proper isolation and disinfection of all 
 existing sources of the malady, small-pox would become extinct. 
 In several Continental countries that loathsome contagion has long 
 been kept almost extinguished by means of vaccination alone, not- 
 withstanding its occasional introduction by immigrants and visit- 
 ors. For example, in Denmark, Sweden, Hanover, and some 
 other States where vaccination has been efficiently enforced, there 
 has been for many years such immunity from small-pox, that 
 in 1,000 deaths from all diseases, there have been but 2 or 3 from 
 that malady; in Hanover, at one period, but 1 case in 5,728; and 
 in a district of Wales, with a population of 11,000, in which 
 thorough vaccination had been effected by house to house visita- 
 tion, there occurred but one death from small-pox during a period 
 of five years, f Not a death from small-pox occurred in the duchy 
 of Baden during a period of five years, and in Copenhagen there 
 was not a death from it in thirteen consecutive years. 
 
 In the United States the first vaccination was performed in the 
 city of New York, in the year 1799, by Dr. Valentine Seaman. 
 The State of Massachusetts soon enacted laws to provide for tho 
 superintendence of vaccination in every town, and for the proper 
 
 found to be so constant, that it seems impossible not to admit the relationship as one of 
 cause and effect ; and medical men affirm that the disease is not only more prevalent, but 
 more unmanageable in the ill-conditioned places. 
 • See pages liv., lv., lviii., and lix. 
 
 \ Sec Report of the Epidemiological Society, on Small-poz and Vaccination. Published 
 by I'arliamcnt, 1853. 
 
PREVALENT DISEASES. 
 
 cxi 
 
 isolation and care of small-pox. The results of that excellent sani- 
 tary law are instructive. In Boston there occurred but 37 deaths 
 frorn small-pox during a period of thirty years ending 1837. That 
 law was repealed 1836, and during the twelve and a half years 
 ending July 1850, there were 679 deaths from small-pox in the 
 same city.* In the cities of Baltimore and Providence an effect- 
 ive system of house to house inquiry and vaccination, and a gen- 
 eral sanitary supervision by medical authorities, for many years 
 purchased almost complete exemption, of the resident population, 
 from small-pox. In the latter city there were but 19 deaths from tins 
 malady in a period of five years, though more than that number 
 of persons sick with the disease arrived from other cities, and tar- 
 ried there in that period; and during more than half that time, 
 viz., for two. years and eight months, there was not a death from 
 it.f In the city of New York, during the sixty years ending 
 January 1, 1864, there were 12,040 deaths from small-pox; and 
 during the last sixteen years of that period, 6,107 persons died of 
 this malady; while during the first sixteen years of the whole 
 period, with an average population greater than one-seventh the 
 average of the last sixteen years, there were but 689 deaths from 
 the same cause. 
 
 From these facts it plainly appears, on the one hand, that any 
 city or community may easily secure an exemption from small- 
 pox, and, on the other hand, that in our own city this loathsome 
 contagion has increased its ravages. For a long time past the 
 weekly mortality from this disease has ranged from 25 to 40 deaths. 
 By referring to the Beports of the Sanitary Inspectors, it is found 
 that a criminal negligence of this dreadful contagion exists through- 
 out the city4 Facts like the following are continually brought to 
 light by the Inspectors : (a) No. — West 27th Street; 3 cases ; the 
 clothing of the first patient was carelessly left in the common hall of 
 the tenant-house ; (b) No. — 33d Street ; child with confluent erup- 
 tion ; in room adjacent to the candy and cigar store, kept by 
 mother ; (c) No. — 6th Avenue ; fancy store on the first floor, and 
 dentist's rooms on floor above ; patient not removed ; {d) Nos. — 
 
 * See Report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts, 1850 ; also a Paper by 
 Dr. Robert Ware. 
 
 \ See Vital Statistics of Providence, Dr. Snow's Reports for 18C8 and 1860. 
 % Sec the Form of Inquiry and Inspection, pages xxiiv., xxxv. 
 
cxii 
 
 EEPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 3d Street ; 9 cases ; shirt-making carried on in one of the families, 
 and no precautions used ; the infected clothing of all the patients 
 was hung out in the open yard; (e) No. — "Willett Street, and No. 
 — Columbia Street — a grocery; 3 cases of small-pox in each 
 house, and business continued without precautions; (f) Nos. — 
 Park Street, 11 cases in families and rooms in which clothing is 
 in process of manufacture for stores in Fulton Street ; no precau- 
 tions ; (g) No. — Pell Street ; 5 cases in families, and rooms where 
 clothing was being made up for wholesale stores ; no precautions ; 
 (h) No. — Jane Street ; patient died of small-pox, the infected 
 clothing was sold to an old clo' man; (i) No. — Avenue — ; 
 3 patients in room adjacent to the mother's store, where daily 
 papers and trinkets are sold, her business continued, and all custom- 
 ers exposed to the contagion ; (J) No. — Bivington Street ; a child 
 covered with small-pox was lying on the tailor's board with the 
 new clothing that the father was making up for a Broadway store ; 
 (k) No. — 17th Street, near Stuyvesant Square ; 3 cases ; their 
 clothing given to a person who took it into a country town, 
 saying she was ' not afraid ' ; (I) No. — Laurens Street ; 4 cases in 
 one domicile, and 1 in another ; the latter is sick in a bed-room 
 adjacent to his store ; the wife alternately attends to husband and to 
 store customers. Thus reads the record of hundreds of cases of 
 this terrible disease visited by our Sanitary Inspectors; and yet 
 with such gross ignorance and recklessness prevailing among the 
 poor in every section of the city, and with a strange and criminal 
 indifference of a great portion of the entire community, no effect- 
 ual measures have yet been officially adopted to control the spread 
 of this most loathsome pestilence.* 
 
 These illustrations, drawn from the most recent and trust- 
 worthy observations, are sufficiently abundant and definite to show 
 that the works which are required for the sanitary improvement of 
 our city are of the most practical character. Neither the problems 
 and works of the civil engineer, the daily transactions of commerce, 
 
 • A faithful superintendent of public health expresses the views of the mcdicul pro- 
 fession on this subject in the following language : " The extensive prevalence, or long- 
 continued existence of small-pox in any civilized community, is a deep disgrace to that 
 community. It is a disgrace to the authorities, if they do not apply the preventive to the 
 fullest extent possible ; it is a disgrace to tho people, if they do not avail themselves of 
 the certain preventive which is offered." Rej)ort on Small-pox in the city of JYovidence, 
 1859. By Dr. E. M. Snow, Superintendent of Health. 
 
EXAMPLES OF SANITARY WORKS AND RESULTS. CXl'ii 
 
 4 
 
 nor the never-faltering labors of the husbandman, are more practical 
 in their plans, or more certain in their results, than are the prob- 
 lems and works which Sanitary Science proposes. None of 
 these are in the least hypothetical or conjectural, nor can the works 
 of sanitary improvement be wrought out by any theoretical ar- 
 rangements in social economy, or by the dead letter of mere statu- 
 tory enactments. Patent and intelligent labor, definite aims, exact 
 statistics, a wise combination of agencies, the cooperation of 
 various departments of knowledge and special skill, are to be invoked 
 and made effective in the prosecution of the various works of sani- 
 tary improvement ; and whenever the citizens of New York enter 
 upon the works of sanitary reform that are needed in this city, the 
 results will be not less definite and satisfactory, than those which 
 follow their best conducted enterprises of commerce, manufacture, 
 or material improvements of any kind. 
 
 EXAMPLES OF SANITARY WORKS AND RESULTS. 
 
 It is a humiliating fact that no complete examples of sanitary 
 renovation can be found in the city of New York. The " Five 
 Points" is still full of perpetual fever-nests, and it is the breeding- 
 place of epidemic diseases. Yet the House of Industry, with 
 its cleanly school-rooms and sunlighted dormitories for 200 redeemed 
 children, has driven the demon of fever from the grim hiding- 
 places of woe in " Cow Bay," and a Mission House, occupying the 
 place of the infamous " Old Brewery," has nearly terminated the 
 sway of pestilence and beastliness in another dismal quarter. In- 
 dividual enterprise and intelligence have developed a few examples 
 of comfortable and decent tenant-houses : the " working-man's 
 home " in Elizabeth Street, and a few respectable cottages for the 
 laboring classes in the Yorkville and Harlem district, have given the 
 best of sanitary results. But not a district nor a street has been re- 
 deemed from its filthiness and its endemic diseases. It is true that 
 many sections present a new and more agreeable aspect than for- 
 merly, and particular blocks are entirely transformed, but there is 
 no thorough reform. Nuisances of every kind are allowed to en- 
 croach upon the most select neighborhoods, new squares along 
 the avenues and streets by the water-sides are being crowded pro- 
 miscuously by lofty tenant-houses and abominable nuisances ; and 
 8 
 
Cxiv REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 even the populated district about the Central Park,* and the poor 
 quarters of Manhattanville, are regions of endemic diseases and 
 perpetual offences against health. 
 
 In Philadelphia, Boston, and New Orleans we have witnessed 
 definite results which show very clearly the economical and moral 
 value of certain general measures of sanitary reform. In the city 
 last named the strong arm of a sanitary police, enforced by mili- 
 tary authority, has for nearly three years rendered that once un- 
 healthy place at once the most cleanly, and one of the most salu- 
 brious ports on the continent. But we must find in the great cities 
 of Europe the parallels of crowding and of sanitary necessities 
 that exist in New York ; and fortunately we find in some of those 
 cities the great problems of sanitary improvement satisfactorily 
 solved. The limits of this Report allow us but to allude to them. 
 Let us first look at a general result of the comprehensive but yet 
 imperfect measures of sanitary improvement in the cities and towns 
 of England. 
 
 In the 24th Annual Report of the Registrar-General of Eng- 
 land (1803), the following significant statement is made : " In 10 
 years, 1840-'9, the mean rate of mortality in London was 2.51 per 
 cent. ; in the subsequent decennium, lS50-'9, it fell to 2.36 per 
 cent. It is still more satisfactory to observe that the rate of mor- 
 tality in each of the last three years, 1859-'61, has been less than the 
 lower of the two rates just mentioned. In I860 the rate was 2.26 ; 
 in 1861 it was 2.32. If the mortality of London were confined 
 permanently within the mean rate of the last 3 years, the effect of 
 that reduction, in the population as it exists at present, would be 
 that more than 4,000 persons would survive annually, whose lives 
 would drop under the mean rate derived from the 20 years, 
 1840-'59. . . . But a higher standard of health than any 
 which the present tables show is possible, and, it is hoped, will be 
 attained." 
 
 This life-saving has been attained by the most practical and 
 faithful labors ; f definite ends were sought, and positive results 
 
 * Sec Reports of Sanitary Inspectors, Twenty-fifth and Twenty-eighth Districts, Sec- 
 ond Part. 
 
 f The practical working and current results of the Metropolitan Sanitary System of 
 London is instructively stated as follows in a paper entitled Ttie Work of the Metropoli- 
 tan Medical Officers of Health, Vicir Success and their Difficidtiei f by Edward Ballard, 
 
EXAMPLES OF SANITARY WORKS AND RESULTS. 
 
 CXV 
 
 have been attained. Testimony upon this subject is abundant and 
 convincing. In an address before the Social Science Association 
 of England, 1860, Mr. Edwin Cbadwick made these very import- 
 ant statements : " In old dwelHngs the death-rate has been re- 
 
 M. D., Medical Officer of Health, and Food Analyst for Islington, etc. It illustrates the 
 working of sanitary measures in London. 
 
 Dr. Ballard states that the medical officers of London receive weekly from the Regis- 
 trar-General schedules of births and deaths in their respeetive districts. To inform them- 
 selves of the presence and locality of sickness, they also have recourse to the admission- 
 books of hospitals and dispensaries, and the books of the medical officers of work-houses, 
 etc. In addition to this, they endeavor to keep informed of the state of health of the 
 better classes through the medium of the neighboring practitioners. Dr. Ballard says : 
 
 " On receiving the mortuary schedules, I make out from them a list of the houses 
 where zymotic diseases of an epidemic character have occurred, and these houses are vis- 
 ited either by the Inspector of Nuisances or by myself, and the conditions of drainage, 
 ventilation, water-supply, crowding, etc., are noted down on a form prepared for the pur- 
 pose. On another form I enter the recommendations for improvements that it is neces- 
 sary should be carried out These recommendations are laid before a com- 
 mittee of the vestry, which sanctions the issue of the requisite orders In 
 
 addition I keep a list of all the streets, courts, and alleys in my parish, in which every 
 week I enter the particular house in which a death has occurred, specifying the character 
 
 of the disease When two deaths are thus found to occur in any house within 
 
 the year, that house is put upon the list for inspection, and at the close of the year a list 
 of streets is made out in which the mortality has been the highest, and especially in which 
 the infant deaths have been most numerous, and these streets are inspected house by 
 
 house in the course of the next year In this way a system has been brought 
 
 into operation which works well and readily. 
 
 . . . . "It will interest the Association to hear what has been effected in this 
 way during the first five years in which this sanitary work has been proceeding. I have 
 
 not the data for the whole Metropolis In 16 districts only (not half of the 
 
 Metropolis) we have 25,410 cesspools abolished, and 65,826 houses newly drained or their 
 drainage amended; in 15 districts only, 34,179 privies amended, mostly by conversion 
 into water-closets, and 5,395 houses supplied with water; in 14 districts only, 14,490 
 yards improved by paving, drainage, or lime-whiting, and 13,926 residences of the poor, 
 at least, cleansed and lime-washed 
 
 " When they consider the other house-amendments effected, the strict watch which 
 the Health Officers have endeavored to keep over the crowding of tenements, and the oc- 
 cupation of cellars and kitchens as sleeping-rooms, the Association w'lll be enabled to 
 form some imperfect idea of the work accomplished in purifying the habitations of the 
 people, especially of the laboring classes in London. . 
 
 . . . . " Every slaughter-house in London has been visited and regularly inspected, 
 provisions for decency, cleanliness, drainage, and ventilation being in each case strictly 
 demanded, and the requirements of the law as to the erection of new slaughter-houses in 
 the neighborhood of dwelling-houses regularly brought under the notice of the justices at 
 quarter-sessions." 
 
 Dr. Ballard further states that efforts have been made to abate the evils of the wretch- 
 ed mode of keeping cows, and purveying unwholesome milk ; regular inspections have 
 
cxvi 
 
 EEPOJRT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 duced from fluctuations of from 30 to 40 per thousand, to fluctua- 
 tions of from 13 to 20, and from 13 to 15 per thousand ; from 28 
 per thousand to 16, from 26 to 17. In particular districts, by one 
 measure alone, by an improved supply of water, and by improved 
 drainage within the houses, abolishing the cesspool and substituting 
 water-closet apparatus, the death-rate has been reduced one-third ; 
 that is to say, it has been made as if each third year there was a 
 jubilee and no deaths and no sickness. I have an instance where 
 in an agricultural district, and with laborers alone, by care, the 
 death-rate has been reduced to less than one-half — within twelve 
 in a thousand. From common lodging-houses, containing a popu- 
 lation of 80,000, by the enforcement through the police of sanitary 
 regulations, typhus and diarrhoea, as epidemics, are banished. In 
 our well-regulated institutions for pauper children, those epidemic 
 visitations which ravage the children of the families of working- 
 men are almost unknown, and the death-rate is reduced to one- 
 third of that prevailing among their children So 
 
 certain will the chief data be found to be when competently exam- 
 ined, as to enable a contractor to contract for the attainment of 
 given sanitary results, and he ought, with the requisite powers, to 
 contract for the attainment of given sanitary ends." 
 
 The great work of sanitary reforms was commenced in the city 
 of London nearly thirty years ago, and it has steadily progressed, 
 in the face of difficulties such as need never be experienced in our 
 own city, until the annual death-rate of that metropolis has been 
 diminished from 50 in 1,000, to less than 24 in 1,000. With the au- 
 
 been made of food offered for sale, large quantities confiscated, and sellers fined ; and 
 that much has been done in the suppression of trade-nuisances. 
 
 " But to all this it may be said, cui bono ? Is public health improved by all this drain- 
 age, house-cleaning, and inspection ? Has it improved ? " 
 
 In reply Dr. Ballard makes the following quotation from the Report of the Registrar- 
 General : "Iu the 10 years, 1840-'9, the mean rate of mortality in London was 2.51 per 
 cent; in the subsequent decennium, 1850-'9, it fell to 2.36 per cent. It is still more 
 satisfactory to observe that the rate of mortality in each of the last three years, 1859— '61, 
 
 has been less than the lower of the two rates just mentioned The effect oi 
 
 that reduction in the population, as it exists at present, would be that more than 4,000 
 persons would survive annually whose lives would drop under the mean rate derived from 
 the 20 years, 1840-59. And if the measures that have been adopted arc not relaxed, 
 the amount of benefit will bo increased." — Transactions of the National Social Science 
 Association, 1802. Also see Notes on recent Sanitary Legislation and Reform in J#n- 
 ■ion. 77/' Edwin Lankester, M. D., Social Science Transactions, 1860. 
 
EXAMPLES OF SANITARY WOEES AND EESUXTS. CXvii 
 
 thority obtained under various local acts, and particularly by the 
 Public Healtb Act of 1848, sanitary improvements were carried on 
 with great effect. Tbe sanitary condition of Liverpool and many 
 other large towns was so completely and so speedily changed that 
 popular opinion and practices become important aids in the reforma- 
 tory works that had been pressed forward by the arm of statutory 
 proceedings. The population of Liverpool, for years prior to 1847, 
 lite the population of the unhealthy districts of New York at the 
 present time, were swept into the grave at the rate of 36 in the 1,000 
 living ; but, under the influence of sanitary works, the death-pres- 
 sure was steadily diminished until at last only 26, or even 24, in 
 the 1,000 die annually. The following figures show how the death- 
 rate and the chances of life have been affected by sanitary improve- 
 ment in three of the most unhealthy cities of Great Britain : * 
 
 Annual deatlts in 10,000 living. Lives saved in 10,000 living. 
 1846. 1859. Annually. 
 
 Liverpool, 384 260 124 
 
 Manchester, 371 271 100 
 
 Glasgow 339 278 61 
 
 Hundreds of illustrations drawn from particular districts and 
 from the smaller cities and great manufacturing towns of England, 
 might be adduced to show how certainly and how speedily sanitary 
 works are followed by a reduction of the death-rate and by an 
 abeyance of fevers and infantile diseases. In Gloucester these 
 works were followed by a reduction of the death-rate from 27.60 to 
 19.71 in 1,000 ; in Berwick, from 28.5 to 21.7; and in Macclesfield, 
 after five years of improvement in house and street regulations, 
 and the construction of improved dwellings for the poor, the fol- 
 lowing results are reported : 
 
 " The decrease of mortality ranged from 12 to 60 per cent. 
 As to sickness, the cases attended by the Union surgeons were 
 from 24 to 29 per cent, less ; and police offences were reduced 24 to 
 55 per cent. 
 
 " Before the operations of the board, the mortality in the borough, 
 in a period of five years, was at the rate of 33 in a thou- 
 sand ; for the last five years it has been 26 in a thousand. The 
 average age of all who died in the first period of five years was 24 
 
 * See Reports by W. T. McGovvan, J. Newlands, Dr. Edwin Lankester, and Dr. W. T. 
 Gairdner, in Social Science Transactions, 1860. 
 
cxviii 
 
 EEPOET OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 years ; in the last five years it has been 27 years. The last year's 
 average is 28£ years. Three years, at least, have already been 
 added to the life of each inhabitant. Deaths of children under 
 one year have decreased 16.3 per cent. ; and those under 5 years, 
 4.6 per cent. The decrease of deaths is chiefly in that class of 
 diseases which are called preventable. Zymotic diseases have de- 
 creased upwards of 27 per cent. These results," say the commit- 
 tee that reports them, " were singularly confined to the localities 
 operated upon." * 
 
 But without quoting further illustrations to show the value and 
 certainty of sanitary improvements in cities, we close this section 
 of our Report by referring to the grand results that flowed immedi- 
 ately from the introduction of rational hygienic reforms into the 
 camps, hospitals, and barracks of armies. Official returns give the 
 following among the statistical results of less than four years reform- 
 atory work. Says Miss Nightingale : " The total mortality at home 
 stations from all diseases, is now actually less than was formerly 
 the mortality from chest diseases alone." f Among the troops in 
 Jamaica, the death-rate from disease has fallen from 260 per 1,000 
 to 20 ; in Trinidad, from 106 to 0 (in 1860) ; in Barbadoes, from 
 58 to 6 ; in St. Lucia, from 122 to 1 ; in British Guiana, from 74 
 to 6 ; in Canada, from 16 to 10 ; in Nova Scotia, from 15 to 7 ; in 
 Newfoundland, from 11 to 4 ; in Bermuda, from 28 to 8 ; in Gib- 
 raltar, from 11 to 7 ; in Malta, from 15 to 10. Similar results, 
 upon a grander scale, have been wrought out in the vast armies of 
 our American republic. The United States Sanitary Commission 
 started in its sacred purpose of life-saving fully determined that in 
 the volunteer forces " the problems of sanitary science were to be 
 wrought out as a national and patriotic work. The death-rates of 
 the Mexican campaign would imperil the national cause, and bring 
 sorrow to every home in the land. Can the average sickness-rate 
 be kept at a minimum point? Can the average death-rate from 
 disease be reduced to a fraction of that which was registered in 
 the Mexican war? This result the Commission believed possible. 
 It was to be accomplished by prevention and by succory \ This 
 
 " Sixth Report of the IacoI Hoard of Health and Improvement Committee, Mucclcs 
 Bold, 1859. 
 
 \ Sec 11 Army Sanitary Administration and its Reform." By Florence- Nightingale. 
 \ North American Review, No. ('('III., April, 180-1, Article, United States Sanitary 
 Commission. 
 
PROSPECTIVE VIEW OF SANTTAKT NECESSITIES. Cxix 
 
 result has been accomplished ; and wherever the Commission has 
 brought its influence and its agencies successfully to bear, the rates 
 of disability and mortality from disease have been less than in any 
 other great army, and far less than in the tenant-house population 
 of the city of New York, notwithstanding the hardships and fear- 
 ful exposures of army life. 
 
 PROSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE SANITARY NECESSITIES OF NEW YORK. 
 USES OF SANITARY AND VITAL STATISTICS. 
 
 The commerce and confluent wealth of the continent have 
 determined the fact that New York shall for many generations be 
 the most populous city in America. With such a destiny before 
 its citizens they would be recreant to their duty and their manhood 
 if they remained indifferent to the sanitary welfare of the vast popu- 
 lation that already crowds this metropolis, and which is rapidly in- 
 creasing to a number that will exceed the millions of London or 
 Paris. In view of this prospective augmention of population, and 
 an increase of crowding as well as of all the physical necessities 
 and sanitary perils that are attendant upon the commerce of such a 
 city, the Council of Hygiene has deemed it a duty to the citizens 
 who have asked for this Report and for the commencement of sani- 
 tary inquiry, to regard the whole subject of sanitary works with 
 reference to the inevitable necessities of the future, as well as of 
 those which are at the present time so urgent. 
 
 In laying out its plan of sanitary inquiry and inspection, there- 
 fore, the Council has regarded the physical evils and the sources of 
 disease that are now prevalent in particular sections of the city 
 and among particular classes of the population, as portending still 
 greater evils in the future and threatening a vastly greater popula- 
 tion. But the investigation of existing wants and of prospective 
 necessities results in discovering the simplest, surest, and most 
 economical remedies for the present as well as the future evils. In 
 most cases the remedies are one and the same : the evils of the 
 existing tenant-house system, and of the overcrowding, filthiness, 
 and neglect of particular localities, may be cited as illustrations. 
 
 The present population of this city is believed to be little less 
 than one million. The greater portion of this mass of inhabitants 
 is crowded upon an area of about 15 square miles, including the 
 
cxx 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 entire areas of streets, and the whole commercial district. This 
 gives a population of nearly 100,000 to the square mile, deducting 
 the area of warehouses. Commerce is rapidly encroaching upon 
 the whole district south of Fourteenth Street, and more than half 
 the population south of that line must, in another generation, seek 
 homes beyond that southern district. But the streets and avenues 
 of all the remaining portion of the city and island are sufficiently 
 wide and well arranged to secure the best external ventilation, 
 and, if properly drained and sewered, and always kept clean, all 
 that immense stretch of the newly-built city of dwellings would 
 be capable of affording healthy homes to a denser population than 
 at present exists in any city in the world ; and we are warranted 
 in the opinion that within a period of less than eighty years, the 
 entire inhabitable portion of this island will actually have a greater 
 population to the square mile than any other city of the civilized 
 world now has. Hence it is manifestly one of the first duties of 
 sanitary inquiry carefully to estimate the hygienic problems that 
 must be practically wrought out in order to give sanitary security 
 to millions of people thus crowded within a narrow field of brick 
 and mortar, and flanked on either river side by mercantile fleets 
 and warehouses. We need not attempt in this Report to bring 
 forward any speculations upon such questions. It is sufficient to 
 know that great necessities which are as inevitable as they are pecu- 
 liar to the insular character and unparalleled commerce of our city, 
 are impending and must be met. To evade the responsibility or 
 falter in the duty of meeting the necessities and avoiding the perils 
 that must soon be upon us, and which even now can be practically 
 appreciated by visiting some of the overcrowded districts, should 
 stamp us as unworthy of citizenslrip in the metropolis of a country 
 like ours. 
 
 As we have said in a former section, the progressive sciences 
 and arts, and the genius of the age, can be trusted to work out 
 any problems which hygiene requires to be practically applied. 
 But the fact needs to be home in mind that while the total popu- 
 lation of New York is so rapidly increasing, the relative propor- 
 tion of the poorer and ignorant classes is advancing by a rapid 
 ratio, for the wealthier classes are as rapidly peopling the entire 
 suburban district over a radius of many miles from tho counting- 
 houses of the city. The facts relating to the ratio of increase and 
 
PROSPECTIVE VIEW OF SANITARY NECESSITIES. CXXI 
 
 the prospective aggregates and location of the population, are so 
 well presented in a communication recently made to us by Dr. 
 Franklin B. Hough, the superintendent of the Census for the State 
 of New York, that we heg leave to present them here : 
 
 " The accompanying table shows the increase and decrease of 
 the population of the city of New York, constructed from the 
 census returns since the year 1790.* The apparent decrease of 
 
 * POPULATION OF NEW TOEK CITY. 
 
 li 90. 1800- 1810. 1814. 1820. 1825. 1830. 1835. 1840. 1845. 1850. 1855. 1860. 
 
 l<t 
 
 2d. 
 
 3d..... 
 4th.... 
 6th .... 
 6th.... 
 5th.... 
 8th.... 
 9th.... 
 10th .... 
 
 nth.... 
 
 12th.... 
 13th ... 
 14th.... 
 15th.... 
 16th.... 
 lTth.... 
 18th.... 
 19th.... 
 20th.... 
 Slat...., 
 S2d 
 
 1835 
 1827 
 1827 
 182T 
 1832 
 1836 
 1837 
 1848 
 1850 
 1851 
 1853 
 1863 
 
 4,320 
 6,167 
 6.449 
 6,935 
 9,148 
 13,076 
 15,394 
 
 7,941 
 8,493 
 7 426 
 10.226 
 14,744 
 11.286 
 12,120 
 9,128 
 4.719 
 10,8'JO 
 
 7,630 
 7,439 
 7,495 
 9,856 
 14,523 
 11,821 
 10.856 
 10,702 
 4,343 
 10,824 
 
 12,085 
 8,214 
 9,201 
 10,736 
 12,421 
 13,309 
 13,C06 
 13,766 
 11,162 
 17,806 
 
 9,929 
 9,315 
 10,801 
 12,240 
 15.093 
 20,061 
 14,192 
 24,21-5 
 10,956 
 23,932 
 
 Total 33,131 60,489 96,373 96,619 123,706 166,086 197,112 268,089 312,710 371,223 516,547 629,810 605,358 
 
 11,331 
 8,213 
 9,599 
 14,705 
 17,722 
 13,670 
 15.373 
 20.729 
 17,333 
 16,*« 
 14,915 
 11,808 
 12,698 
 14,253 
 
 10.380 
 7,549 
 10.834 
 J 1,439 
 18,495 
 14.827 
 21,431 
 28.570 
 20,618 
 20,929 
 26,845 
 24,437 
 17,130 
 17,306 
 
 l'J.L'i.2 
 
 10,629 
 6,394 
 11,681 
 15,770 
 19,159 
 17,198 
 22,982 
 29,073 
 24,795 
 29,026 
 17,053 
 11,652 
 18,617 
 20,235 
 17,755 
 22,723 
 18,619 
 
 12,230 
 6,962 
 11,900 
 21,000 
 20,362 
 19,343 
 25.556 
 30,900 
 30.907 
 20,993 
 27.269 
 13,378 
 22,41 1 
 21,103 
 19,422 
 40,350 
 27,147 
 
 19,754 
 6,665 
 10,355 
 23,250 
 22.6S6 
 24,698 
 32,690 
 34,612 
 40,657 
 23,316 
 43,758 
 10,451 
 2S.246 
 25,196 
 22,564 
 52,882 
 43,766 
 31,546 
 18 465 
 
 13,486 17,373 
 3,249 2,607 
 
 7,919 
 22,895 
 21,617 
 25,562 
 34,422 
 34,052 
 39,982 
 26,378 
 52,979 
 17,656 
 26,597 
 24,754 
 21,046 
 39,823 
 59,548 
 39,415 
 17,866 
 47,055 
 27,914 
 22,605 
 
 3,757 
 21,994 
 22,337 
 26,696 
 39,982 
 39,406 
 44,385 
 29,004 
 59.571 
 27,958 
 32,917 
 28,080 
 27,587 
 45,176 
 72,953 
 67,462 
 28,252 
 67,519 
 49,017 
 61,12* 
 
 Percentage of Increase and Decrease of Population in the several Wards of New York 
 City, between each Census Period since 1790. [Shown in percentages upon totai 
 Population.] 
 
 WAEDS. 
 
 1800. 
 
 1810. 
 
 1S14. 
 
 1820. 
 
 1825. | 1830. 
 
 1835. 
 
 1840. 
 
 1845. 
 
 1850. 
 
 1855. 
 
 1860. 
 
 1st 1 
 
 bl 
 62 
 15 
 47 
 61 
 —14 
 -31 
 
 4 
 
 —12 
 1 
 —3 
 —2 
 5 
 
 —10 
 17 
 
 —8 
 5 
 
 58 
 10 
 23 
 9 
 
 —14 
 
 13 
 19 
 28 
 128 
 65 
 
 —18 
 13 
 17 
 14 
 22 
 51 
 9 
 76 
 —2 
 34 
 
 14 
 —12 
 -11 
 4 
 
 17 
 —32 
 
 12 
 —15 
 
 58 
 —31 
 
 — 8 
 —8 
 14 
 —9 
 8 
 9 
 85 
 87 
 19 
 27 
 
 2 
 
 -15 
 6 
 
 38 
 4 
 
 16 
 7 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 39 
 
 15 
 9 
 3 
 
 83 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 8 
 
 25 
 —88 
 
 61 
 —4 
 
 —13 
 11 
 11 
 28 
 28 
 12 
 81 
 11 
 61 
 
 —22 
 26 
 19 
 16 
 31 
 61 
 
 —32 
 —51 
 —33 
 —1 
 —5 
 4 
 6 
 —1 
 —1 
 13 
 21 
 68 
 —6 
 2 
 7 
 
 —25 
 36 
 25 
 8 
 
 85 
 —20 
 —57 
 —4 
 8 
 4 
 16 
 15 
 11 
 10 
 18 
 74 
 24 
 13 
 14 
 13 
 23 
 45 
 84 
 44 
 76 
 178 
 
 2(1 1 
 
 8d 
 
 4th 
 
 
 5th 
 
 
 6th 
 
 
 7th 
 
 
 8th 
 
 
 9th 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 18th 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 20th 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 21st 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 22d 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total increase in 
 each decennial 
 Period 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 83 
 
 59 
 
 -1 
 
 30 
 
 84 
 
 18 
 
 86 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 89 1 20 
 
 29 
 
 Mean Annual In- 
 crease between 
 
 8.8 
 
 5.9 
 
 -0.2 
 
 6.0 1 6.8 
 
 3.8 
 
 7.2 I 3.4 
 
 3.2 7.8 4.0 
 
 5.8 
 
 
cxxii 
 
 REPOKT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 population in some wards is due, in most instances, to subdivision 
 in the formation of new ones ; still it is apparent that the popula- 
 tion of the lower portion of the island " [city] " is steadily decreas- 
 ing as the demands of commerce crowd upon the area formerly 
 occupied by families. 
 
 " The future rate of increase of New York and its dependen- 
 cies as a great metropolis, may be safely estimated as high as 7 
 per cent, per annum ; although the distribution among wards, and 
 even among counties, depends upon facilities of communications 
 and the demands and location of business. 
 
 " The island of Manhattan, the west end of Long Island, the 
 lower part of Westchester County, the neighboring shores of New 
 Jersey, and the north half of Stat en Island, are destined to receive an 
 aggregate population greater than that of any metropolis now exist- 
 ing, or that shall then be existing in the world. We do not bor- 
 row from imagination ; for taking the last census returns of the 
 city of New York, the city of Brooklyn, a third of Westchester, a 
 third of Queens, and half of Staten Island, as constituting the 
 metropolis, we have the following absolute and comparative num 
 bers : 
 
 Years. 
 
 Aggregate Population. 
 
 Percentage of Increase 
 in Last Decennial Period. 
 
 Annual Percentage of 
 Increase. 
 
 1830 
 
 240,827 
 
 
 
 1840 
 
 392,147 
 
 62.8 
 
 6.28 
 
 1850 
 
 093,658 
 
 76.9 
 
 7.69 
 
 18G0 
 
 1,145,338 
 
 65.1 
 
 6.51 
 
 " While we can foresee nothing that will have a tendency to 
 check the general growth of New York and its dependeniecs as a 
 whole, there are doubtless many things still unknown, which will 
 tend greatly to accelerate its growth in population and wealth." 
 
 " This question," adds Dr. Hough, who is eminently versed in 
 sanitary knowledge and vital statistics, " in view of its vast im- 
 portance, and its sanitary relations and necessities, demands the 
 earnest and thoughtful consideration of every citizen who has a 
 family to be exposed to disease derived from neglect of public hv- 
 
USES OF VITAL STATISTICS. 
 
 CXX111 
 
 giene, or property to be enhanced or reduced, in value by the 
 security or abuse of sanitary laws." 
 
 Here we have a trustworthy and clear statement of the parti- 
 cular laws of increase in population in this city and its suburbs, 
 and is it not the duty of citizens to take wise and forecasting meas- 
 ures to render this the most prosperous and healthful metropolis 
 in the world % Whatever plans of special improvement may be 
 undertaken, their successful prosecution, and the intelligent appli- 
 cation of means to ends, must depend upon definite information. 
 Sanitary and Yital Statistics are, therefore, to be gleaned and 
 studied for this purpose. Not only must the registration of Births, 
 Marriages, and Deaths be faithfully attended to as a public duty, 
 but there must be a more intelligent and practical use made of 
 that class of dry statistics ; and, more than that, there should at 
 once be put into operation a comprehensive system of sanitary 
 inquiry of a much more vital character. Says a very high authority 
 in vital statistics, " "We have still much to learn, both as to parti- 
 cular diseases which cause the excessive mortality of unhealthy 
 places, and the nature of the circumstances by which they are pro- 
 duced. The evils which sap the health and shorten the lives of 
 an unhealthy population, which create paupers and augment the 
 public burdens, are multifarious, and require measures proportion- 
 ably varied for their removal."* The Statistics of Health and 
 Disease must be carefully studied, and the localities, causes, and 
 variations of excessive sickness and death-rates should be con- 
 stantly noted by competent observers, such as the Sanitary Inspec- 
 tors who have voluntarily aided this Council of Hygiene. 
 
 A great variety of subjects constantly demand, not only the 
 surveillance of sanitary inspection, but statistical registration and 
 skilled analysis, f Such labors ought, of course, to be conducted 
 
 * Sec an Essay by Dr. Greenhow, in Transactions of Social Science Association, 1857 ; 
 pages 365, 387. 
 
 \ " A watchful care over the health of the people, and a due regard of matters which 
 concern their health, is certainly one of the most important functions of Government. 
 The fact that the subject of hygiene and State medicine have commenced to attract so 
 much the public attention, is undoubtedly owing to the application of statistics to public 
 health. It is impossible for any nation, or for any Government, to remain indifferent 
 when, in figures which admit of no denial, the national amount of health and happiness, 
 or disease and suffering, is determined." Introduction to Manual of Hygiene. By E. A. 
 Parkcs, M. D., Professor of Hygiene in British Army Medical School, London, 1864. 
 
cxxiv 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 by the Government, and there should be unceasing effort to secure 
 the intelligent action of legislators upon this and all other sanitary 
 questions. The city and the State have a direct and very import- 
 ant interest in the faithful registration and analysis of this class 
 of statistics.* The office and the quarterly reports of the Registrar- 
 General of England, as well as the masterly labors of the medical 
 officer to the Privy Council, have become powerful agencies in 
 working out the most important social and political improvements 
 in that country ; and says a careful observer, " when the effect of 
 all these researches and measures develops itself, it will be seen 
 that even great wars and political earthquakes are really nothing 
 in comparison with these silent social changes." Miss Nightingale, 
 grasping the meaning of truthfully observed facts relating to 
 health, disease, armies, hospitals, and deaths, grouped and focalized 
 those repulsive statistics ; and after braving the pestilence of Scutari, 
 and the fever poisons of the Crimean camps, she pointed her de- 
 ductions directly at the very sources of the chronic evils that had 
 destroyed the flower of the British Army ; and, by another presenta- 
 tion of her statistics, the barriers to sanitary reform and rational 
 administration in the army were quickly swept away. The United 
 States Sanitary Commission began and has carried on its good work 
 in the same way, and for more than three years it has maintained 
 a special bureau of vital statistics, which is regarded as one of the 
 most comprehensive of any department of the kind in the world.f 
 All this has been done in the interest of philanthropy ; what, then, 
 shall deter the citizens of our vast and wealthy metropolis from 
 substituting for the existing Bureau of Registration, which is prac- 
 tically useless as a sanitary and life-saving agency, such a depart- 
 ment of Vital Statistics as will serve the claims of humanity, and 
 become an active agency of social renovation and of economical 
 advantage to the city ? 
 
 • Sec remarks on this subject in a Report on (lie Medical Topography, and Epidemics 
 of Hue State of New York ; by Joseph M. Smitii, M. D. Transactions Am. Medical Asso- 
 sociation, 1860. 
 
 f Sec United States Sanitary Commission Documents Nos. 40 and 46 ; also, A Narra- 
 tive of die Purposes and Works of the United States Sanitary Commission, 1864. 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 CXXV 
 
 REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 In prosecuting our labors as a Council of Inquiry and Advice, 
 the fact has constantly been kept in mind that a definite knowl- 
 edge of the maladies to be treated must precede and guide the 
 rational and successful application of appropriate remedies. The 
 sanitary treatment of removable sources of disease and attendant 
 social evils that endanger our city must necessarily be based upon 
 a comprehensive knowledge of the causes from which such evils 
 arise. Chief among those causes of the preventable disease, mor- 
 tality, and public peril, which this Council and its corps of Sani- 
 tary Inspectors have everywhere encountered in then- inquiries, are 
 to be mentioned — first, the utter inefficiency and unsuitableness of 
 the municipal health organizations, under which the sanitary wants 
 of the city have for years been increasing ; second, the almost 
 universal prevalence of ignorance and apathy among the classes 
 most endangered by their own sanitary wants ; and lastly, the ab- 
 sence of an adequate public appreciation of the vital importance 
 of sanitary improvements, and of competent officers of health. 
 
 The first sanitary agency which municipal government should 
 provide for this city is cleanliness. Yet our Sanitary Inspectors 
 have, throughout the entire period of their labors, reported the 
 prevalence of universal filthiness, the only exceptions being a few 
 streets and places that are daily cleaned by private enterprise. 
 Cleanliness should be enforced in a crowded city like New York at 
 any cost, for by neglecting it the public health is jeopardized, and 
 the social condition of the population becomes debased. Yet it 
 must be borne in mind that an effective sanitary system should ex- 
 tend its functions to other problems than those which relate to 
 cleanliness alone. There needs to be an unremitting inquiry into 
 the circumstances under which particular diseases prevail, or an 
 excessive mortality occurs; comprehensive methods of investiga- 
 tion and improvement must be applied, so as to render the labors 
 of sanitary inspection and research directly tributary to the eleva- 
 tion, intelligence, and self-care of the classes upon whom now fall 
 the heavy burdens of preventable sickness and death ; in short, to 
 employ the necessary means to remove and permanently prevent such 
 needless evils. Hence it becomes one of the very first duties of a 
 municipal sanitary system to acquire definite and detailed informa- 
 
cxxvi 
 
 KErOKT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 tion in regard to the relation of sickness and mortality to particu- 
 lar causes, and to observe the special incidence of those causes and 
 results upon every age and condition in the community. Statistics 
 of disease and of health, of deaths and the removable causes of 
 mortality, should be obtained and analyzed, and practical deductions 
 therefrom should be applied to works of sanitary reform ; the in- 
 salubrious agency of particular trades, manufactories, customs, arti- 
 cles of food, domestic wants, habits, and social conditions, the 
 local evils, special nuisances, and overcrowding of given areas, and 
 lastly, the sanitary history and results of all works of an improv- 
 ing or an injurious nature should be made the subject of official 
 attention and public record. And not only do the general inter- 
 ests of society require that all these elements of hygienic knowl- 
 edge should be constantly accumulating and continually applied 
 to practical ends, but the public health, and all the interests of hu- 
 manity, in a vast and crowded population like that of New York, 
 require that death-rates and sickness-rates, and the prevalence of 
 preventable diseases, should be watched, and that the particular 
 causes of such diseases be unremittingly observed, and their sources 
 controlled or removed. There must he Officers of Health* 
 
 The scope, methods, and appliances of an efficient sanitary sys- 
 tem that shall be found adequate in all respects to meet the wants 
 of the city of New York, ought no longer to be matters of un- 
 certainty or neglect, for upon the prompt and intelligent action of 
 citizens on these questions depends the satisfactory solution of 
 many problems that most vitally concern the physical welfare of 
 the millions who are to inhabit this metropolis— problems that in- 
 timately concern the interests of humanity and the silently opera- 
 
 * The qualifications and duties of Sanitary Officers arc set forth in the following terms 
 by an experienced authority : 
 
 " Health being a condition of life, those only who have studied the laws of life, and 
 the external and internal agencies which influence it, can properly be aware to which of 
 these external or internal agencies should be referred deviations from the condition de- 
 nominated health. Upon a proper discrimination of the causes of disease must ultimately 
 rest the practical usefulness of an officer of health. The officer of health, then, must him- 
 self be thoroughly informed in all the circumstances which aflect the health of ninn, not 
 only in his isolated condition as an individual, but in his social condition, and in his stato 
 of aggregation. He must be intimately acquainted with the habits of the people — moral, 
 social, and physical — and with their various influences on health. The curative physician 
 exerts himself to remedy the results of disease in man as on individual ; it is the business 
 of the preventive physician to avert these results to man in his social and aggregate state." 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 cxxvii 
 
 ting social conditions that affect important interests of the State. 
 The views entertained by the Council of Hygiene in regard to the 
 necessary agencies of sanitary improvement have been incidentally 
 set forth and variously illustrated in other sections of this report. 
 They may be comprehensively defined in the brief words, hygie- 
 nic inspection and inquiry, sanitary regulations, and sanitary 
 works. Such a system would necessarily provide — 
 
 1. That the labors of hygienic inspection and inquiry be system- 
 atic, thorough, and unremitting, and that skilled and thoroughly 
 trained minds be employed in such labors. 
 
 2. That the officers of health should have the full cooperation 
 of police authorities, and that civic cleanliness and the removal and 
 prevention of nuisances, together with a strict obedience to sani- 
 tary regulations, should be enforced by the Metropolitan Police.* 
 
 3. That in the practical operations of the new sanitary system 
 useful information and instruction should be so combined with au- 
 thority as to suggest and directly promote thorough and permanent 
 works of sanitary improvement, and at the same time give a judi- 
 cious direction to public opinion as well as to individual and asso- 
 ciated efforts ; and that various works, much needed for such sani- 
 tary improvement in dwellings, trades, localities, public places, 
 popular practices, and civic conditions — now insalubrious — be im- 
 mediately commenced, and by such means rendered successful and 
 publicly beneficial. 
 
 These, and many other important results, which need to be at- 
 tained by a sanitary government, manifestly require the establish- 
 ment and constant service of an enlightened Board of Health, 
 whose profound knowledge of disease and its causes, and of sani- 
 tary science and its practical applications, will successfully direct 
 the various labors of inquiry and inspection, and wisely administer 
 sanitary regulations and laws. 
 
 Remedial Measures that cannot Safely be Delayed. — In 
 
 * During our sanitary survey of the city, the activity and usefulness of the Metropoli- 
 tan Police in promoting cleanliness and sanitary care in crowded neighborhoods, have re- 
 ceived well-merited encomiums from the Sanitary Inspectors. A statement of some of the 
 results of labor executed by the squad of policemen known as the Sanitary Police Com- 
 pany, will be found tabulated upon a subsequent page. To Captain B. G. Lord, in com- 
 mand of that company, this Council is under obligations for official courtesies and for 
 prompt action upon the information received from the Sanitary Inspectors through tho 
 office of the Citizens' Association. 
 
cxxviii 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 concluding this report it is deemed incumbent upon the Council to 
 call the attention of citizens to the more important sanitary worka 
 which' cannot be longer deferred without imminent peril to the 
 public welfare. Upon the subjects of which special mention is 
 made in this place, the recent sanitary survey and inspectors have 
 thrown sufficient light to show the necessity of immediately insti- 
 tuting reformatory measures, without waiting the development of 
 a complete system of sanitary government. These measures are 
 presented under the following heads : (1.) Cleanliness of the city. 
 (2.) The ventilation of tenant-houses, etc., and the prevention of 
 overcrowding. (3.) The care of contagious and infectious diseases. 
 
 (1.) Cleanliness and the Removal of Nuisances. — There 
 can be no apology for the continuance of the universal filth iness 
 that prevails in the streets and passages of the city. The injuri- 
 ous influence of such uncleanliness upon public health does not 
 admit of doubt. Neglected garbage and filthy garbage-boxes, 
 reeking gutters and unswept pavements, dead animals neglected in 
 the open streets, and the transportation of putrid offal, etc., in the 
 most crowded thoroughfares ; slaughter-pens and their attendant 
 nuisances in populous neighborhoods, and the uncontrolled elimina- 
 tion of all manner of noisome gases from manufactories of various 
 kinds, are offences against health and decency that ought to be 
 wholly abated and prevented. 
 
 The time will undoubtedly come when improved methods and 
 comprehensive considerations of economy will essentially facilitate 
 and cheapen the work of cleaning the city and removing its vari- 
 ous sources of public nuisance ;* but there exists a sanitary neces- 
 
 * Probably the time is not distant when the wants of the agriculturist, and skill of tho 
 economical chemist, with the aid of sanitary inquirers, will greatly aid the processes of 
 civic cleansing. Says Prof. Licbig : " Of all the elements of the fields which, intheir prod- 
 ucts, in the shape of corn and meat, arc carried into the cities, and there consumed, 
 nothing, or as good as nothing, returns to the fields. It is clear that if these elements 
 were collected without loss, and every year restored to the fields, these would then retain 
 the power to furnish to the cities the same quantity of corn and meat ; and it is equally 
 clear that if the fields do not receive back these elements, agriculture must gradually 
 cease. In regard to the utility of the avails of the 1 sewage of towns ' as manures, no 
 farmer, and scarcely an intelligent man has any doubt." Sec Licbig's letter to Alderman 
 Mccbi, Vicli on the Economical Disposition of the Refuse Matter of Cities ; Transactions 
 National Sanitary Convention. Boston: 1800. Also, Licbig's Natural Laws of Husband- 
 ry. D. Appleton Si Co. : 1863. 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES 
 
 cxxrx 
 
 sitxj for at once enforcing civic cleanliness and the proper control 
 of public nuisances, and this necessity is too imperative to permit 
 the delay of such works until the growing demands of agriculture 
 and the improvements in chemical and other arts of utility come 
 in to lighten, or altogether assume the duties of scavenging and 
 cleansing the city. If there is any force in existing laws and mu- 
 nicipal ordinances concerning street-cleaning, and the care of do- 
 mestic and public nuisances, the public health requires that it 
 should be rigorously passed upon the persons whose duty it is to 
 execute such works. It is proper in this place to call attention to 
 a special source of physiological discomfort and of injury to health, 
 which is also a cause of public nuisance in all parts of the city. From 
 one extremity of the city to the other — excepting in the Central 
 Park — no public provision has been made for the physiological 
 calls of nature, which require privacy. This scandalous want is 
 regarded with concern by medical advisers ; but considered simply 
 as a cause of indecency and public nuisance, it should be obviated 
 by suitable municipal care and provision, or by private enterprise, 
 in preparing needed plans and structures. We deem it important, 
 also, to call attention to the preventable nuisances that arise from 
 many of the public and private stables in the city. That many of 
 the stables in the crowded districts act injuriously upon the public 
 health is testified by our Sanitary Inspectors, and yet it is entirely 
 practicable to prevent the principal causes of their offensive and 
 insalubrious character by means of sanitary appliances and regula- 
 tions. The daily employment of the coal tar or the chlorine com- 
 pounds, and proper absorbents, would control the elimination of 
 the offensive gases, and by this means, with enforced cleanliness, a 
 serious and growing evil could at once be abated. 
 
 (2.) Ventilation and the Prevention of Overcrowding. — The 
 excessive crowding, not only of particular localities, but of every 
 district of this city, must be anticipated as an inevitable destiny ; 
 but this fact, instead of portending evil to our physical welfare, 
 may justly be regarded as a circumstance that is favorable to the 
 sanitary interests of the millions who will dwell here in future time, 
 if, in consequence of such anticipations, the hygienic necessities 
 which are incident to such aggregation of a population should 
 likewise be anticipated and provided for as they should be. Viewed 
 in this light, as well as in the light of the existing wants of a vast 
 9 
 
cxxx 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 population, the subject of improved dwelling accommodations is 
 of paramount importance. The successful operations of the pro- 
 posed department of social statistics and dwelling improvement* 
 will tend to promote such works ; yet such are the present necessities 
 of the poorer classes in the city, in respect of healthy dwellings, 
 that there should be no delay, on the part of citizens, in com- 
 mencing such practicable improvements as will prepare healthy 
 domiciles for the hundred thousand of the laboring classes at present 
 dwelling in overcrowded tenant-houses, that have already become 
 the localizing centres of disease. Upon this subject Ave submit 
 two suggestions : 1. Let numerous tenant dwellings be constructed 
 for this and other dependent classes, upon plans that shall be fully ap- 
 proved by practical hygienists. 2. Let proper means be immediate- 
 ly devised and put into practical operation for the introduction of 
 adequate ventilation into the faulty tenant-houses of overcrowded 
 localities. In regard to these improvements it will be borne in 
 mind that the preparation of any considerable number of improved 
 dwellings for the laboring classes will be a gradual work, and that 
 in the absence of sanitary laws against the overcrowding of tenant- 
 houses, as well as against faulty construction, there exists an urgent 
 necessity for the introduction of such alterations as will provide 
 for the admission of sufficient air and sunlight to drive from those 
 crowded habitations the causes of typhus and domestic pestilence. 
 The voluntary efforts of proprietors, prompted by any influence 
 that can be brought to bear, and the enlightened enterprise of 
 public spirited capitalists, need to be enlisted in promoting t this 
 kind of improvement.f "We are not insensible to the fact that it 
 is essential to the ultimate success of any great improvement in 
 tenant dwellings that the improvement itself should be clearly re- 
 munerative. But there now appears to be no doubt, from the re- 
 sults of experience abroad, as well as from the few individual ex- 
 amples that are presented in this city, that improved dwellings can 
 be made to pay a good percentage, and that the stated payment 
 of rents is much more certain than in ordinary tenant-houses. 
 
 * Sec Uccommcndation [Fourth], page lxxxix. 
 
 f An illustration of the practicability and success of individual efforts to secure tlio 
 transformation of fever-breeding tenements into healthy dwellings lias been in progress tho 
 past few years in the city of Edinburgh, under the persistent influence and labor of Dr. 
 Foulis. Sec Dr. Guirdncr's Lectures on Air and Water, Note I. 
 
EEMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 cxxxi 
 
 The importance of at once undertaking, by some practicable 
 means, to secure tbe improvement of ventilation in the class of 
 tenant-houses that have become fever-nests, cannot be overestimated. 
 Upward of five hundred of these crowded abodes are at the pres- 
 ent moment, or have very recently been visited with typhus fever, 
 and a still larger number of the same class of dwellings have been 
 ravaged by small-pox and infantile diseases during the period of 
 our sanitary survey. Besides these, there are between two and 
 three thousand other tenant-houses that are utterly unfit for human 
 habitation unless their ventilation is improved. The work of 
 cleansing, which is required in and about most of this class of ten- 
 ant-houses, should not be deferred for other improvements, but the 
 public safety, and the claims of humanity, require that by some 
 means tbe ignorant inhabitants of all these crowded dwellings 
 should immediately have their stifling domiciles ventilated, and at 
 the same time be compelled to keep them free from local filth. 
 The plans by which this first step shall be taken in the hygienic 
 improvement of the common tenant-houses, ought not to be longer 
 delayed by our citizens. Individual effort can, at least, produce 
 examples of the needed improvements, both in old houses and new, 
 and we already have some instructive European examples of the 
 advantageous results of associated efforts and of municipal en- 
 couragement in promoting this class of improvements.* It is 
 highly desirable that the dwelling improvements here suggested 
 should be commenced by private enterprise rather than longer to 
 postpone them in the hope of reformatory laws, or of corporate 
 powers; and there should be an accurately kept record of the 
 sanitary as well as the pecuniary results of such works of improve- 
 ment, with tbe design to guide and encourage their further prose- 
 cution. 
 
 Considerations of public safety and the future welfare of the city 
 demand that we should look well to the causes that are inducing 
 excessive overcrowding, and sanitary neglect in particular districts 
 of the city, and among particular classes of our population. Com- 
 prehensive plans and practical efforts can avert serious evils that 
 
 * See papers by Henry Roberts, Esq., on the Progress and Present Aspect of the 
 Movement for Improving the Condition of the Laboring Classes ; and, Examples of Efforts 
 to Provide Improved Dwellings for the Working Classes. Transactions of Social Science 
 Association, 1860. 
 
cxxxii 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 are now rapidly increasing, and which will not easily he overcome 
 if longer neglected. The causes which are now herding nearly 
 half a million of the inhabitants of this city in densely packed 
 tenant-houses, that are unnecessarily aggregated upon limited areas, 
 may now he controlled ; and, although this metropolis shall double 
 its population every fifteen or twenty years, as it probably will, its 
 public health may nevertheless be securely guarded if the laws of 
 public hygiene have sway in the distribution and sanitary regula- 
 tion of the inhabitants and their dwellings. The island upon 
 which the city is situated embraces about thirty-five square miles, 
 more than twenty of which are destined to be occupied by the 
 dwellings of its inhabitants.* Upon this very limited insular area 
 it will become the duty of the sanitary authorities of the city and 
 the State to guard the health and safety of a population exceeding 
 three millions of people at a period that some who are now living 
 may yet see. And shall the evils which now prevail in particular 
 districts that have reached the maximum rate of population be per- 
 petuated and entailed upon future generations when the whole 
 city will be thus densly populated ? The present and the future 
 consequences of overcrowding and of the neglect of sanitary regu- 
 lations and forethought concerning the distribution and police of 
 tenant dwellings can be reliably stated and solved as problems in 
 sanitary science. Upon this point it may be proper to present an 
 illustration of the logical and mathematical precision with which a 
 single one of those problems is wrought out, and its results applied. 
 
 Typhus fever, as we have stated in a preceding section, owes 
 its origin to overcrowding, uncleanliness, and want of ventilation ; 
 and it is preventable by means of fresh air and cleansing. This 
 Bimple problem in hygiene has been repeatedly wrought out in tho 
 dwelling improvements of the poorer classes in the great cities of 
 England ; but its scientific solution has been clearly stated in the 
 following terms : " Among the more common sources of typhus 
 
 * " The health of any city depends, in no small degree, upon the distribution of tho 
 inhabitants over an area of sufficient extent to admit of the free ventilation of every 
 dwelling. When such a distribution obtains, and attention is given to personal and do- 
 mestic cleanliness, a population of 200,000, or any greater number, will be as sccuro 
 against the invasion of typhus as are the inmates of a commodious, cleanly, and well- 
 aired privute dwelling." Report of Committee on Public Hygiene, by Joseph M. Smith, 
 M.D. Transaction American Medical Association, 1850, page 237. 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 cxxxm 
 
 fever are the effete matters of the human body, accumulated and 
 long retained in dwelling places. The facility and promptness 
 with which such accumulations take place in the crowded homes 
 of the poor, may be readily explained by calculating the amount 
 of materials excreted from the lungs and shin of a definite number 
 of individuals living in the habitation. . . . The mass of such 
 matters thrown out by the lungs and skin by a family of ten per- 
 sons, within their dwelling, where their average time indoors is 
 twelve hours each day, is 500 lbs. every month, and in one year it 
 is 6,083 lbs. 4 oz. The ejected animal matter alone, would amount 
 in one month to 6 lbs. 3 ounces, and in one year to 76 lbs. . . . 
 If we extend this mode of investigation to a number of families, re- 
 siding in contiguous tenements, we shall obtain results which may 
 forcibly impress the public hygienist. . . . The inhabitants 
 of a densely populated town may be regarded as a single family, 
 living in contiguous or narrowly separated apartments, any one of 
 which may be as certainly and speedily rendered infectious as the 
 cells of a prison." * By experimental researches it is shown that 
 the animal exhalations in crowded and unventilated apartments, 
 are of themselves so poisonous as to destroy life, and that the 
 same poison, when introduced directly into the blood, or long in- 
 haled, though diluted, produces exhaustion and fever, and other 
 marked conditions of disease, f Even the casual observer could 
 
 * See Report on Hygiene, before mentioned (page cxxxiv., note), by Joseph M. Smith, 
 M.D. The concluding remark in the report here referred to, may very appropriately be quoted 
 in this place. The reporter states that : " As in such situations, typhus and other forms of 
 disease unquestionably originate, it follows that the means of preventing the evil is to 
 limit the number of inmates in apartments of given dimensions ; and to provide dwellings 
 with suitable apertures and sufficient spaces around them for ventilation. Such sanitary 
 measures, with attention to personal cleanliness, carried into effect by an efficient police, 
 would put a period to the prevalence of the disorders referred to, and at the same time 
 minister a wholesome rebuke to the mercenary spirit of proprietors and landlords." — Re- 
 port, Ibid., page 246. 
 
 For further practical statements upon the subject of overcrowding and want of venti- 
 lation as the causes of typhus and crowd-poisoning, we would refer to the Reports of the 
 British Poor Law Commissioners ; the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission, of London ; 
 the Reports of Dr. Southwood Smith and Dr. Duncan, on Fever Districts, etc, ; Dr. J. II. 
 Griscom's treatise on the Uses and Abuses of Air ; A Report on Cholera in England, by 
 Drs. Baly and Gull ; and Drs. D. B. Reid and E. Harris on Ventilation in American 
 Dwellings. 
 
 \ For valuable statements upon this subject, see Chapters II. and XVIII. Dr. Win. n. 
 Hammond's Treatise on Hygiene; the testimony of Dr. Guy, and Dr. Southwood Smith, in 
 Report of Health of Towns Commission, vol. I., and the ingenious studies of Thomas 
 
cxxxiv 
 
 KEPOKT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 not fail to notice the outward signs by which this crowd-poison 
 manifests itself in the sallow and spiritless inhabitants of unventi- 
 lated tenant-houses and cellars in our city ; and while this special 
 cause of typhus, and of that vital decay grimly termed " tenant- 
 house rot," is doing its fatal work among the poor, and already ex- 
 tending its fever-infection after the manner of the prison-passages 
 and neglected prisoners of the " Old Bailey," and the " Black As- 
 sizes," the same neglect of ventilation is producing consumption, 
 scrofula, rheumatism, and a multitude of incurable and pauper- 
 izing maladies that result from want of fresh air. The definite 
 knowledge furnished by physiology and animal chemistry, enable 
 the sanitary inquirer to estimate the period in which the lives of 
 the occupants in crowded apartments would become extinct in 
 consequence of the exhaustion of oxygen and the poisoning by 
 carbonic acid and the animal exhalations. 
 
 In many of the tenant-houses our Sanitary Inspectors found 
 the allotment of space and air-supply so small that, but for a pre- 
 carious and scanty ingress of fresh air by crevices and unopened 
 windows, whole families would inevitably perish in periods of from 
 eight to thirty-six hours. In some domiciles with large families, 
 the allotment of air-space is less than two hundred cubic feet to 
 each person, and we know that in 1,487 of the tenant-houses of 
 our city the pro-rata allowance of cubical space to each inhab- 
 itant is less than 400 feet. These houses are perpetual fever-nests, 
 and it is believed that the medical evidence which has been 
 brought forward in this Report should warrant compulsory meas- 
 ures to effect the ventilation of that class of dwellings for the 
 poor and the ignorant, in which fever-poison and the diseases of 
 overcrowding are now generated. If there is neither sanitary 
 regulation nor law that can be applied, still we may, as citizens 
 and philanthropists, do much by voluntary agencies to induce a 
 proper distribution of the population, and to secure the intro- 
 duction of needed improvements in the ventilation and sanitary 
 care of the crowded homes of the poor, and in the school-rooms, 
 public halls, hospitals, asylums, and workshops where there now 
 exist great and needless perils to health. 
 
 Taylor, Esq., concerning air-poisoning in crowded dwellings. — \M Report of Metropolitan 
 Sanitary Commission. For BOinc results of exact chemical inquiry respecting the con- 
 taminati'il uir of dwellings and cities, sec Papers by Dr. Angus Smith in Quarterly 
 Journal of the Chemical Society, No. 43. 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 exxxv 
 
 (3.) Sanitary Care of Contagious and Pestilential Diseases. — 
 (a.) Upon this subject the Council recommends that sanitary regu- 
 lations he enforced, with heavy penalties, against the owners and 
 drivers of hacks and public vehicles, who are guilty of transport- 
 ing persons with small-pox without notifying the proper sanitary 
 officer of the city, or who shall allow any vehicle that has been so 
 employed to be publicly exposed, or in any way occupied by other 
 persons without official permission. Also, that it be made a pun- 
 ishable offence for any person or thing that is contaminated with 
 small-pox to be unnecessarily exposed, so as in any manner to 
 spread the contagion to other persons, (b.) Vaccination. — In 
 reference to the means of extending and insuring the benefits of 
 the vaccine protection to the greatest number, and to all classes of 
 persons, it is recommended that some properly organized effort be 
 made by the citizens of New York to prevent the neglect of vacci- 
 nation, and at the same time to secure the adoption of a proper su- 
 pervision and care of its practical application. From the period 
 when Jenner perfected his great discovery by devising perfectly 
 reliable methods of applying the vaccine lympb, until the present 
 time, there has been, on the part of vaccinators, so much inatten- 
 tion to the essential conditions of success in so selecting and apply- 
 ing the lymph as to insure its protective operation, that it be- 
 comes highly important to have the supply, the distribution, and 
 the (gratuitous) application of the vaccine vhus committed to some 
 competent supervision." The public Dispensaries of this city have 
 long been our chief and best sources for supplying the vaccine 
 virus, and they are very properly the accepted agencies of its 
 gratuitous application, and did the people of the city and of the 
 State of New York fully understand the extent of the benefit that 
 has been thus conferred by these excellent institutions in this 
 branch only of the services they render to the public, it is believed 
 that adequate means would be voluntarily provided to place their 
 
 * Practical information of the most valuable character relating to the prevailing de- 
 fects, and the essential conditions to protective success in vaccination, has been accumu- 
 lated by Dr. Simon, Mr. Cecly, Mr. Marson, and others in England, and by Dr. J. P. Loines, 
 of New York. As Medical Officer to the Privy Council, Dr. Simon has extended the in- 
 quiry upon this subject to definite results. Of these, the following are most important : 
 (1.) The " very imperfect and insufficient way" in which vaccinations are commonly per- 
 formed. (2.) Imperfect and untrustworthy results following the employment of preserved 
 lymph. — Sec Sixth Report of the Medical Officer to the Privy Council, Appendix, 1863 
 
cxxxvi 
 
 EEPOET OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 vaccine department upon the improved basis which the public "wel- 
 fare requires. But there needs to be a skilled supervision of public 
 vaccination ; and by every moral and persuasive agency, if not by 
 compulsory measures, every person in the community should re- 
 ceive vaccination ; and in a city like New York it is peculiarly 
 necessary that no pains be spared to render this work of protection 
 against small-pox as effective and universal as possible. In addi- 
 tion to the skill and supervision that are required, it is necessary 
 that a system of house-to-house inquiry and advice be established in 
 all the tenant-house districts of the city, so that at least twice in each 
 year all of the poor and ignorant classes shall be fully insured 
 by competent medical authority. But in the opinion of most 
 physicians, and of many of the ablest judicial minds, public vac- 
 cination and the measures for rendering it universal, constitute one 
 of the few obligations in which the duty of the individual and the 
 duty of society or the State are so reciprocal and so absolute, that 
 compulsory regulations requiring it are not inharmonious Avith the 
 spirit of our laws. Whatever views may be entertained upon this 
 question, it is plainly our duty to employ every available voluntary 
 agency to render the benefits of vaccination both universal and in 
 the greatest degree trustworthy, and to employ every means of 
 persuasion and encouragement to all classes in the community to 
 accept the benefits thus offered. Hundreds of persons are killed 
 by small-pox every year in our city in consequence of the neglect 
 of vaccination, and the skilful management of its application. For 
 such deplorable and needless waste of life, the intelligence of the 
 community should be held morally responsible. 
 (e.) Fevers. Not only are the causes which primarily originate the 
 typhus and typhoid fevers entirely preventable, but the various 
 agencies by which the infection from the sick is communicated to 
 other persons and other places may be controlled, and the diffusion 
 of the fever-poison wholly restrained ; the instances related in a 
 previous section of this Report sufficiently illustrate the importance 
 of providing a system of sanitary watchfulness over the domiciles 
 and neighborhoods where typhus fever occurs. Though it is the 
 offspring of overcrowding and want of pure air and pure aliments, 
 its power of infection is a fearful evil in populous neighborhoods. 
 The local causes of the enteric or typhoid fever are also of a re- 
 movable nature, and so unsuspected arc they, often, that the pub- 
 
KEHEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 cxxxvii 
 
 lie welfare requires there should always be competent sanitary care 
 over the prevalence of this fever, in order, as in the case of typhus, 
 to restrain the causes of its further extension, and at the same time 
 mitigate its severity wherever prevailing. It is manifestly neces- 
 sary, therefore, that skillful medical experts should be employed 
 for this and similar services, as we have previously recommended ; 
 and, in addition to this, we deem it important that all physicians 
 and benevolent persons who attend upon families suffering from 
 continued fever, in either form, should be alive to the importance 
 of inculcating proper instructions concerning the removable causes 
 of these maladies, and that they should employ all suitable means 
 to procure the immediate execution of needed sanitary improve- 
 ments wherever they discover the presence or the causes of these 
 forms of fever. From the commencement of the work undertaken 
 by the Sanitary Inspectors they voluntarily assumed this kind of 
 duty ; and while they discovered the prevalence of deplorable 
 ignorance and want respecting both the specific and the localizing 
 causes of fever, they served as the willing and faithful agents of 
 their profession and the Citizens' Association, in imparting needed 
 counsel and restraining the increase and diffusion of fever-poisons. 
 Commissioned or uncommissioned by Government, such services by 
 medical experts should be unceasingly in operation.* 
 
 * The practical value of skilled inquiry and advice respecting the preventable causes 
 of fever and other pestilential diseases has been well illustrated in all the great cities which 
 have a well-organized medical police ; but in. the city of New York the voluntary visits 
 and advice of a few Dispensary physicians, has been the nearest approach to any system 
 of sanitary aid and protection enjoyed by the city, excepting only the temporary plans of 
 medical inspection adopted during the prevalence of cholera, and the more complete meth- 
 ods which have been carried into operation by the Council of Hygiene and its corps of 
 medical assistants. However valuable such voluntary service may have been, the absence 
 of power to enforce any of the advice thus gratuitously given, has rendered much of that 
 counsel of no effect where and when it was most needed. With truth does the Sanitary 
 Inspector of the Twentieth District testify, as the result of experience, that, had the In- 
 spectors been invested with legal authority, they " could easily have instituted a thorough 
 sanitary reform throughout the city." (See Second Part, page 248.) 
 
 With typhus-fever and small-pox in nearly ten thousand domiciles of the poor and the 
 ignorant, where every circumstance favored the localization of infection and the propaga- 
 tion of disease, and where gross nuisances, and criminal negligence of cleanliness, ventila- 
 tion, and medical police, demanded the presence of intelligent authority, the Sanitary In- 
 spectors justly conclude that the work of sanitary improvement should, if possible, be 
 enforced by legal authority ; yet, without the aid of such authority, they have given such 
 counsel and instruction as they could, and have occasionally sought the aid of the Metro- 
 
cxxxviii 
 
 EEPOIiT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 There are various other sources of preventable disease of a 
 specific character, as well as certain causes of general impairment 
 of the public health, that should be subjected to the constant sur- 
 veillance of a competent medical police in our city ; and concern- 
 
 politan Police. The records of many a fever-nest during this survey have shown that the 
 legislative and judicial power of an intelligent Board of Health was as indispensable as the 
 executive authority of the Police. In some instances the incursions of fever into crowded 
 tenements ravaged every family, and not infrequently broke up large families, making 
 fatal victims of the parents, and pauperizing their surviving dependents ; often the fever 
 has swept through the front and rear domiciles of populous tenant-houses, and thence has 
 been widely diffused by the constantly-changing tenants. At the same time the local con- 
 ditions that produce the typhoid or enteric form of fever exist and increase unrestrained 
 by municipal authorities ; yet experience and sanitary science have clearly shown that the 
 causes of fever are as amenable to hygienic regulations and the control of a sanitary police 
 as are the transgressors and enemies of the civil laws to the restraints of those laws. 
 
 Sanitary inspection and the faithful execution of sanitary laws and regulations should, 
 if possible, accompany any effort that may be put forth for instructing the ignorant classes 
 in the duty of self-care against fever and pestilential diseases. We have shown how this 
 duty is performed by the metropolitan officers of health in London (See page cxv) ; and to 
 illustrate the principle upon which such official labors can be organized, the following 
 passage is quoted from a report by Dr. Simon, on the organization and aims of sanitary 
 inspection and inquiry : 
 
 " In order that any Committee, acting for sanitary purposes within the city, shall have 
 reasonable chance of success in its endeavors for the public good, the following means of 
 information will be necessary for use : 
 
 " 1. That an account should be kept, corrected year by year, of every house within the 
 city, as to the area of building, the number of floors, rooms, windows ; as to its ventila- 
 tion ; as to its drainage, water supply, and other facilities for cleanliness ; as to its method 
 of occupation, and number of inhabitants. 
 
 " 2. That from this account there should be made out, at least twice yearly, a list of 
 houses and streets remaining in an objectionable sanitary state ; and a list also of such as 
 may have been remedied to the satisfaction of the committee, since the formation of their 
 last preceding list. 
 
 " 3. That, while trades injurious to health or offensive to their neighborhood, are suffer- 
 ed to continue within the city, there shall be given periodical reports on the condition of 
 such establishments, to the end that they be maintained so as to be least detrimental to 
 the public health. 
 
 " 4. That record of every death registered as occurring in the population of the city 
 should lie before the committee ; and 
 
 " 6. I consider it quite indispensable that they should likewise receive the largest and 
 most accurate returns which can be procured of all sickness occurring among the poorer 
 classes ; and particularly in respect of all epidemic, endemic, and infectious disorders, that 
 the medical practitioners who communicate the fact of illness should likewise report tho 
 existence of any local causes, or other influences of general operation, which have tended 
 to produce, or arc tending to continue, such illness. 
 
 " As I formerly stated by anticipation, so now I repeat from experience, that nothing 
 deserving the name of sanitary administration can exist in the city without accurate pe- 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 cxxxix 
 
 ing some of them it is highly desirable that special investigations 
 should be made, and that hygienic reforms should be suggested 
 and encouraged. Among the more important of these should be 
 mentioned the sanitary regulation of school-rooms and the hours 
 of study ; the diseases which are incident to ignorance and neglect 
 of sanitary knowledge in various trades and industrial occupations, 
 particularly of such as now induce pulmonary consumption ; the 
 defects and misuses of the quarantine or external sanitary system 
 of New York ; the necessity of sanitary care for syphilitic and cer- 
 tain other constitutional diseases among the ignorant classes ; the 
 removable causes of excessive infantile mortality ; the import- 
 ance of improved facilities for bathing and cleanliness in tenant- 
 houses ; and the necessity and means of providing better nursing 
 and care for the sick poor. 
 
 riodical intelligence of all such sickness at least as comes under parochial treatment, or 
 without such reports on the local sanitary conditions and other causes of disease as were 
 desired to accompany that intelligence. No health committee can exist for a month without 
 it ; nor can any officer, having proper respect for his character, consent to be considered 
 responsible for the health of a population whose illnesses he learns only from their post- 
 humous record in the death register. 
 
 " During the recent prevalence of cholera, the health committee established a system 
 of daily reports. What needed to be daily, during a period of pestilence, might fitly be- 
 come a weekly communication at all other times. ***** 
 • * * * * * * * * 
 
 " Accordingly, I have to recommend that any committee which may undertake the ad- 
 ministration of sanitary affairs for the city shall be furnished as completely as possible 
 with information of the nature I have specified. 
 
 " Another element to which I think it necessary to advert, in connection with a future 
 sanitary organization for the city, is this : that some permanent arrangement should be 
 made, by which the maintenance of exterior and interior cleanliness, the enforcement of 
 scavengers' duties, the suppression of nuisances, and the like, should be brought under 
 habitual and systematic surveillance; one by which all breaches of your present or future 
 sanitary regulations may be quickly detected, and may be visited with their appropriate 
 penalties as speedily and as certainly as possible. 
 
 " It is in respect of matters of this sort, and of such only, that I think the services of 
 the police force might usefully be employed. Their want of special education, and their 
 employment in other duties, are circumstances which appear to me quite conclusive for 
 objecting to their utilization as sanitary reporters. But while I entertain the opinion that 
 their employment in the latter direction would be both fruitless and inconvenient, I would 
 submit that their numbers and their diffusion through the city qualify them well to act 
 against all causes of nuisance, as they act against other offenders, both detectively and 
 preventively." — Report on the Sanitary Condition of the City of London, for the year 
 1848-'49. By Joiin Simon, M.D., Officer of Health. 
 
cxl 
 
 REPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 In concluding this Report we would state that many of the 
 subjects to which it relates are of a character so plainly designating 
 them as legitimately requiring the interposition of legislative 
 and police control that it has appeared inexpedient for the Council 
 to enter upon any detailed description of the needed remedial 
 measures. The objects sought by the Council will have been at- 
 tained if its sanitary survey of the city, and its analysis and expo- 
 sition of the hygienic wants of the population, should lead to a 
 more definite and popular appreciation of the value and necessity 
 of sanitary regulations and sanitary works, and to a general regard 
 for the Laws of Health. 
 
 The voluntary labors of inspection and inquiry, upon which 
 this Report is based, were prompted scarcely less by deep convic- 
 tions of the claims of humanity and of society at large, than by 
 the urgent solicitation of the Citizens' Association of New York, 
 for whose consideration it is now submitted. With an obvious 
 necessity for such efforts by voluntary agencies; with an in- 
 creasing prevalence and neglect of the removable sources of disease, 
 particularly of fevers, small-pox, and other fatal maladies ; with 
 the fearful overcrowding and sanitary neglect of the tenant-houses, 
 and the ignorant and dependent classes of the city ; and with the 
 claims of our vast armies, that its brave men should neither en- 
 counter needless dangers from communicable maladies at this chief 
 mart of transportation, nor themselves become the agents and 
 victims of epidemics that so commonly follow in the path of wars ; 
 together with the growing evils of a defective sanitary government 
 of the city, the rapid increase of our population, and a corre- 
 sponding increase of its hygienic necessities and perils, rendered it 
 plainly our duty to respond to the request of our fellow-citizens in 
 as thorough and practical a manner as possible. 
 
 With as little delay as practicable, the Council and its corps of 
 Sanitary Inspectors entered upon the proper hygienic inquiries that 
 should serve as a basis for the advice and cooperation which the 
 Association and the public might justly require. The plan of these 
 inquiries was comprehensive and definite. The methods of the 
 undertaking have consisted in the organization and distribution of 
 labors which, as physicians, we believed to be both practicable and 
 necessary as the basis of sanitary works in this city. Of course, 
 in so short a period, and with other duties pressing upon our time 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 cxli 
 
 and attention, it lias been impossible to present as complete results 
 as the importance of such subjects of inquiry demand ; yet in 
 some of the inspection districts, and upon some of the more urgent- 
 ly important subjects of investigation, we have reached such re- 
 sults as most need to receive the public attention. In some dis- 
 tricts, as in the Third, the Fourth, the Eleventh, the Twelfth, the 
 Eighteenth, the Twentieth, and the Twenty-fifth, it was found practi- 
 cable to give more special completeness to the inquiries concerning 
 the localizing causes of disease, as well as regarding the attendant 
 physical and social wants, than in some of the others ;* but in all 
 of the districts there has been a vast amount of laborious research, 
 of which the evidence cannot be presented in this Report. 
 
 Definite information respecting the nature, the causes, the ex- 
 tent, and the circumstances of preventable disease, excessive mor- 
 tality, social debasement, and pauperism in our midst, cannot fail 
 to produce convictions of public duty ; and it is for this purpose, 
 and not from any willingness to expose the shame of our city or 
 the woes of ignorance and poverty, that we allow many disagreeable 
 details of illustration to enter into this Report. To the physicians 
 who have been engaged in these labors, the ultimate results of their 
 inquiries, and of the sanitary works which they see to be necessary 
 for the redemption of the dependent and suffering classes from 
 pauperizing and fatal burdens, and which, as physicians, they 
 equally well know to be vitally important to the public welfare, 
 seem to be, and they certainly are, too momentous to be postponed 
 for the possible enactment of compulsory laws which may yet be se- 
 
 * It is scarcely necessary to state that, as the primary object of the Sanitary Sur- 
 vey was the acquisition of definite and complete information regarding the hygienic condi- 
 tion of every street and block in the city, the special reports which the Council now sub- 
 mits as a body of evidence by no means convey an adequate idea of the labors performed 
 and the records made by the individual inspectors. Particular success in completing cer- 
 tain branches of sanitary inquiry was, of course, to be attained only in the smaller or the 
 more sparsely-inhabited districts, as for example in the Fourth Ward. In that district the 
 inspector and his assistant were enabled to carry out the purposes of the Council very fully 
 in regard to social statistics, overcrowding, and the aggregation and neglect of tenant- 
 houses, in their relation to life and health. Similarly thorough, though less complete, 
 studies in this and other branches of the inquiry, have been made in several districts, but, 
 for obvious reasons, the social and sanitary chart, which we have caused to be prepared 
 to illustrate a particular branch of inquiry in a single district, may serve as a general illus- 
 tration of the purposes and the thoroughness of the survey. [Sec the Social and Sanitary 
 Chart, in Fourth District Report, Second Part.] 
 
cxlii 
 
 KEPORT OF COUNCIL OF HYGIENE. 
 
 cured under the operation of increased popular intelligence or 
 under the terror of disastrous epidemics. In the spirit of their 
 vocation, as observers and interpreters of the laws of health and dis- 
 ease, they would invoke the intelligence and public concern of their 
 fellow-citizens to serious consideration and action upon the facts 
 submitted in this Report, and would urge that the most needed 
 and practicable plans of voluntary works of sanitary improvement 
 be speedily undertaken, and that earnest and unremitting efforts 
 be made to secure the adoption and success of the sanitary regula- 
 tions, which are necessary for the protection of life and health. 
 Persistent and wisely-directed efforts, the diffusion of popular in- 
 formation, together with the influence of successful examples of 
 sanitary works, and the operation of sanitary regulations in special 
 instances, may eventually give popular success to the duties and 
 the laws of a good sanitary government. 
 
 Earnestly as we would strive to secure the application of ade- 
 quate laws for the improvement and protection of the public 
 health, we would, with equal earnestness, and for the same ends, 
 urge that individual and organized efforts be put forth, for all these 
 agencies must eventually cooperate in giving to the population of 
 this city that protection to life and health which an enlightened 
 people claim to be due to all classes of society. Though now, in 
 the midst of a national struggle against a terrible rebellion, the 
 work of local improvements and the progress of sanitary science 
 need not and must not be wholly interrupted. The mental activity 
 and popular energies that characterize the present period need to 
 be directed to lasting and life-saving works that shall strengthen 
 the present and benefit all future generations. " Peace has its 
 victories as well as war," says one of the most practical philanthro- 
 pists of our day ; " and it also has its unnecessary losses from disease 
 and death ; only the losses of peace are greater than those of war, 
 because they are daily and constant." * 
 
 Whatever may be the circumstances that favor or retard the 
 commencement and progress of sanitary works, it appears to be 
 plainly the duty of enlightened citizens to enter upon comprehen- 
 sive and untiring efforts that shall ultimately overcome the evils 
 which we have described in this Iieport. Come what events there 
 
 * Florence Nightingale : Sanitary Reform under Lord Herbert. 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 cxliii 
 
 may to affect the physical, social, political, or commercial interests 
 of the city, let it be borne in mind that Sanitary Science and its 
 preventive skill are of more value to our fellow beings and to this 
 city than all the curative arts of medicine and surgery ; that the 
 evils which now bear so heavily upon the poorer classes already 
 seriously endanger the sanitary safety of all other classes, and 
 multiply the social perils and public burdens of the city ; that a 
 practical and comprehensive application of sanitary knowledge in 
 specific works of improvement is both necessary and competent to 
 rescue the city from existing evils, and to guard it from the far 
 greater perils that are impending ; that a careful regard for human 
 life and welfare is an unerring index of social advancement ; and 
 that it is an imperative demand of civilization and a duty to hu- 
 manity to seek out and restrain the preventable sources of disease, 
 debasement, and pauperism, which, in the city of New York, are 
 found closely allied. To show by what agencies and to what ex- 
 tent human life and the public health in this city are needlessly 
 and wrongfully endangered, and to point out some of the most 
 important means of sanitary improvement, we submit this Report 
 with the accompaning body of Evidence. 
 
 JOSEPH M. SMITH, M.D., President, 
 
 WILLAED PAEKEK. ED., Vice-President, 
 
 VALENTINE MOTT. M.D., 
 
 EDWAED DELAFIELD, M.D., 
 
 ALONZO CLARK. M.D., 
 
 GUEDON BUCK, M.D., 
 
 JAMES E. WOOD, M.D., 
 
 JAMES ANDEESON, M.D., 
 
 CHAELES HENSCHEL, M.D, 
 
 ALFEED C. POST, M.D., 
 
 ISAAC E. TATLOE, M.D., 
 
 JOHN W. DEAPEE, M l > . 
 
 E. OGDEN DOEEMUS, ED, 
 
 STEPHEN SMITH, M.D., 
 
 HENEY D. BULKLEY, M.D., 
 
 ELISHA HAEEIS, M.D., Secretary, 
 
 Members of the Council. 
 
EVIDENCE. 
 
 REPORTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SANITARY INSPECTORS, 
 i 
 
SANITARY INSPECTORS AND THEIR DISTRICTS. 
 
 FIRST DISTRICT, 
 SECOND DISTRICT, 
 THIRD DISTRICT, (Section A,) 
 THIRD DISTRICT, (Section B,) 
 FOURTH DISTRICT, 
 FIFTH DISTRICT, (Section A,) 
 FLFTH DISTRICT, (Section £,) 
 SIXTH DISTRICT, 
 SEVENTH DISTRICT, 
 EIGHTH DISTRICT, 
 NINTH DISTRICT, 
 TENTH DISTRICT, 
 ELEVENTH DISTRICT, 
 TWELFTH DISTRICT, 
 THIRTEENTH DISTRICT, 
 FOURTEENTH DISTRICT, 
 FHTEENTH DISTRICT, 
 SIXTEENTH DISTRICT, 
 SEVENTEENTH DISTRICT, 
 EIGHTEENTH DISTRICT, 
 NINETEENTH DISTRICT, 
 TWENTIETH DISTRICT, 
 TWENTY-FIRST DISTRICT, 
 TWENTY-SECOND DISTRICT, 
 TWENTY-TniRD DISTRICT, 
 TWENTY-FOURTn DISTRICT, 
 TWENTY FLFTH DISTRICT, 
 TWENTY-SIXTH DISTRICT, 
 TWENTY-SEVENTn DISTRICT, 
 TWENTY-EIGHTH DISTRICT, 
 TWENTY-NINTH DISTRICT, 
 
 Dr. Joseph A. Monell, Sanitai-y Inspector. 
 Dr. Isaac L. Millsfaugii, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. Hampton Harriot, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. B. M. Keeney, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. Ezra R. Pulling, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. Everardus B. Warner, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. James W. Purdy, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. Wm. F. TnoMS, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. P. Nolan, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. J. T. Kennedy, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. Oscar G. Smith, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. JonN C. Acheson, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. James L. Brown, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. F. A. Burrall, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. Robert Newman, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. E. W. Derby, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. James Ross, Sani(a>y Inspector. 
 Dr. W. C. Hunter, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. Guido Furman, Sanitary Inspector 
 Dr. H. M. Field, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. J. R. Mansfield, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. E. II. Janes, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. James L. Little, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. R. L. Parsons, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. Ellsworth Eliot, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. Robert Stewart, Sa/iitary Inspector. 
 Dr. J. Lewis Smith, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. II. Mortimer Brush, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. Alexander Hadden, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. L. A. Rodenstein, Sanitary Inspector. 
 Dr. J. O. Farrinoton, Sanitary Inspector. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIRST SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 JOSEPH A. MONELL, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — This district is bounded north by Reade Street, east by 
 Broadway, south and west by the North River. It comprises part of the 
 First and the whole of the TJiird Ward. 
 
 Topography. — That part of the district lying between Greenwich 
 Street and the North River is nearly level, and is but Uttle elevated 
 above tide-water. The portion east of Greenwich Street rises gradually 
 and uniformly until it reaches the height of 20 to 35 feet above tide-water 
 at the line of Broadway. The former, or level portion, is wholly of made 
 ground, lying almost entirely outside of the original shore-line ; that line 
 very nearly corresponding with Greenwich Street, but at some points 
 reaching further eastwardly. This artificially-formed portion of the dis- 
 trict was mainly filled up with earth taken from the more elevated sec- 
 tions of the island. The portion of the district east of Greenwich Street 
 is composed of natural sandy alluvium, and, from its porosity and eleva- 
 tion, constitutes a favorable basis for the location of human habitations ; 
 but, on the contrary, the artificially-formed, or level portion, from its 
 slight elevation above tide-water, is constantly saturated with moisture, so 
 that cellars and basements of dwellings erected on it are damp and in- 
 salubrious, and at times, during very high tides, wholly untenantable ; 
 while, from its too level character, its drainage is imperfect and its gutters 
 constantly filled with filth. The influence of these topographical condi- 
 tions upon the public health is chiefly evident in two important particulars : 
 Firstly, the dampness of basements and cellars located upon made ground 
 of so moist a nature, is largely productive of rheumatic and other inflam- 
 matory and chronic disorders in those who from necessity or otherwise 
 are forced to occupy them ; and, secondly, in those level streets the 
 accumulation of street filth, garbage, and house-slops, is much more rapid 
 
4 
 
 REPORT OF THE FIEST SANITARY DISTEICT. 
 
 than in those streets where an inclined grade insures good drainage ; and, 
 as a consequence, they emit emanations most intolerable to the senses 
 and very highly deleterious to health. 
 
 Streets. — The streets of this district are quite regular in their 
 arrangement, particularly in its upper half. They are, for the most part, 
 straight and of good width. The exceptions are Morris, Eector, Thames, 
 Carlisle, Cedar, Temple, Edgar Streets, and Trinity Place, which are so 
 narrow as barely to afford space for ordinary vehicles to pass each other. 
 Greenwich, Washington, and West Streets run nearly due north and south, 
 parallel with the North River and with each other. Broadway diverges 
 somewhat from the direction of these streets in a more northeasterly course. 
 The remaining streets, except Trinity Place, College Place, Church Street, 
 and Temple Street, traverse the district at right angles with Broad- 
 way. 
 
 Broadway is paved with the Russ pavement, which is superior to all 
 other kinds in durability and cleanhness, but it has unfortunately become 
 so smooth that it affords an unsafe footing for horses. Battery Place, 
 Fulton, Greenwich, Chambers, and parts of Washington, West, and Reade 
 Streets, and Park Place, are paved with Belgian pavement, which has most 
 of the advantages of the Russ pavement without its slippery character. 
 Cortlandt Street was partly paved witli iron blocks, but these have in 
 part been replaced with Belgian blocks. The remaining streets and 
 alleys of the district are paved with cobble stone, and in several places 
 have been much broken up during the past summer. 
 
 This kind of pavement has two marked disadvantages : In the first 
 place, from its instability it is frequently out of repair, thereby greatly im- 
 peding the passage of heavy loads. In the second place, cobble-stone 
 pavement, from its greater inequality, retains much more street filth and is 
 with more difficulty cleaned than Belgian pavement, and in a proportion- 
 ate degree the atmosphere is rendered impure. This has been the case in 
 a marked degree during the past summer in Morris, Rector, Carlisle 
 Streets and parts of Washington Street, all of which have been much of 
 the time in a very filthy state. Although this is true of all streets 
 where a tenant-house population is found, whatever the kind of pavement, 
 still the difference between the cobble stone and Belgian pavement in 
 the above-mentioned particulars has been too marked to escape the notice 
 of the most casual observer. 
 
 Sewerage. — All the principal streets of the district aro provided 
 with sewcra, except hero and there a short spaco not essential to the. 
 general system. These sewers empty into the river between high and 
 low water. Whilo the street sewerage of the district is thus general, 
 
THE SQUARES. — THE INHABITANTS. 
 
 5 
 
 there are still numerous buildings that have no sewer connections, and 
 many of these are dwellings. The absence of such sewerage is a serious 
 evil, as without it drainage is imperfect, and pure air an impossibility. 
 Waste water and house-slops of all kinds are deposited in the adjacent 
 gutters to corrupt the atmosphere, while the contents of privies accumu- 
 late for months, and add their quota to the effluvia. Several of the most 
 populous tenant-houses along Greenwich, "Washington, and their inter- 
 secting streets, are thus deficient. 
 
 Squares. — The squares of the district number 66, of which about a 
 fourth, including all those lying wholly upon the elevated ground adjacent 
 to Broadway, are in good sanitary condition, one quarter in a mixed 
 sanitary condition. These squares are on the easterly side of Greenwich 
 Street. They are in part located on made or reclaimed ground, and in 
 part on dry, elevated soil, and consist partly of new, and partly of old 
 buildings, many of which are tenant-houses, having all the worst features 
 of their class. The remaining squares are in a bad sanitary condition, 
 and include all those situated on the made ground west of Greenwich 
 Street. The insalubrious condition of these squares is due to their loca- 
 tion on ground reclaimed by " filling in " with all the loose refuse of the 
 city. The basements are damp and badly drained, and the streets are 
 filthy. 
 
 Inhabitants. — The inhabitants of the district are largely of foreign 
 birth. It would be safe to estimate that about one-half are of Irish na- 
 tionality, one-quarter German, and the remainder Americans, Swedes, 
 Danes, &c. Of the resident population, there are but few whose means 
 enable them to live without employment of some kind. In the absence 
 of an accurate census, we conclude that two-thirds are laborers and me- 
 chanics with their families ; the balance are composed of retail shop- 
 keepers, as grocers and dram-shop keepers, clothing merchants, shoe- 
 dealers, butchers, and bakers, and keepers of hotels, sailors and emigrant 
 boarding-houses, and brothels. There are but few of the educated and 
 refined class, and but little ostentatious wealth. On the other hand, the 
 general characteristics are, a medium grade of intelligence and a com- 
 mendable amount of industry, intermixed largely with ignorance, deprav- 
 ity, pauperism, and dissipation of the most abandoned character. Quite 
 a large element of the population here may be termed floating, consisting 
 of travellers, emigrants, sailors, and vagabonds without a habitation and 
 almost without a name. 
 
 An illustration of the incongruous crowding, and the perilous charac- 
 teristics of a large class of the floating population that strangely mingles 
 with the more permanent residents of this lower district of the city, 
 
6 
 
 REPORT OF THE FIRST SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 chanced to be presented upon occasion of a visit of inspection here by a 
 member of the Council of Hygiene, last summer. 
 
 On reaching a certain squalid old tenant-house in "Washington Street, 
 that gentleman remarked : " We shall find the footprints of typhus 
 among the residents of this rookery." Passing from apartment to apart- 
 ment until we reached the upper garret, we found every place crowded 
 with occupants, one room only 5}X 9 feet, and a low ceiling, containing 
 two adults and a daughter of twelve years, and the father working as a 
 shoemaker in the room ; while in the upper garret were found a couple 
 of dark rooms kept by haggard crones, who nightly supplied lodgings to 
 twenty or thirty vagabonds and homeless persons. This wretched hiding- 
 place of men, women, and girls, who in such places become daily more 
 vicious and more wretched, had long been a hot-bed of typhus, seven of 
 the lodgers having been sent to the fever-hospital, while permanent resi- 
 dents in the apartments on lower floors had become infected with the same 
 malady, and some had died. We fully agree in the opinion then ex- 
 pressed by that member of the Council of Hygiene, that a Model Lodging 
 House in the First District has become a sanitary as well as a moral ne- 
 cessity. 
 
 Buildings. — The buildings of this district, of which there are 1,518, 
 present a great diversity of size, style, and character. Here are the 
 dilapidated structures or mouldering ruins of buildings more than a hun- 
 dred years old, side by side with the proudest triumphs of modern archi- 
 tecture. There stands the humble domicile, a single story in height, in the 
 shadow of vast piles that tower grandly toward the heavens ; old family 
 mansions that fifty years ago were the homes of wealth and luxury, are 
 here found in juxtaposition with those abominations of our city, modern 
 built tenant-houses ; the old family residences are themselves now fre- 
 quently converted into tenant-houses. 
 
 Of strictly private residences occupied by a single family, there aro 
 but very few. Boarding-houses for sailors and emigrants, small hotels, 
 and buildings occupied in part for business, and in part by one, two, or 
 three families, but not enumerated as tenant-houses, are somewhat nu- 
 merous. They may be estimated as constituting about one-half of the 
 buildings marked as dwellings. This class of dwellings are mostly of 
 considerable, and some of them of great age. They are still for tho most 
 part in a fair sanitary condition ; their apartments arc usually spacious 
 and airy ; their halls and passages of good width, well lighted and well 
 ventilated. These buildings arc almost never in the rear ; their occupants 
 arc of a class that observe sanitary laws to a crcditablo extent in the 
 care of their domiciles. There arc wanting, however, some of tho con- 
 
TENANT-HOUSES. 
 
 1 
 
 veuiences of modern construction, as, for example, they are not well supplied 
 with water, lavatory conveniences, interior water-closets, baths, ranges, &c. 
 
 Tenant-Houses — Of tenant-houses there are 241 in this district, 24 
 of which are rear buildings. The great majority of these houses are old 
 family residences, many of which were once of the better class. As a 
 rule this class of tenant-houses is in better accordance with hygienic 
 laws than those of modern construction and originally designed as such. 
 They have fewer and larger apartments, higher ceilings, larger dormito- 
 ries, wider and better lighted and ventilated halls, stairways and passages, 
 and their latrines, although less frequently sewered, are further removed 
 to the rear of the domicile. There are exceptions, however, to the rule, as 
 in cases where these old buildings have been repartitioned and cut up into 
 numerous small-sized and ill-ventilated apartments ; and where this is the 
 case they present the very worst features of insalubrity to be found in 
 any class. 
 
 In the construction of many modern tenant-houses, it would appear 
 that hygienic laws and sanitary requirements have been estimated as of 
 only secondary importance, the great problem being how to domicile the 
 greatest number of families on a given area. And in the practical solu- 
 tion of that problem in this district, lies the great overshadowing cause 
 of insalubrity, before which all others combined sink into insignificance. 
 
 The most marked feature of the tenant-houses is the small size of 
 their apartments, whereby ensues overcrowding in each family. The com- 
 mon mode of arranging them is as follows : On a lot of ordinary size, 
 25 X 100 feet, will be erected a front house 25 X 50, and a rear house 25 X 25 
 with a court 25 X 25, and frequently less, in which are usually located 
 hydrant, cesspool, and privy. These houses are commonly five and fre- 
 quently six stories in height above the basement. The principal rooms, 
 of which there are four to each floor, occupy the width of the building, 
 front and rear, with small bedrooms between, one to each main room. 
 This arrangement gives accommodation to four families on each floor, 
 making in a six-story building twenty-four families. Each family aver- 
 ages five members, and frequently more, as it is common for the occu- 
 pants of these houses to take lodgers. In this arrangement each person 
 has a little over 10 square feet of ground area, and 480 cubic feet of air 
 space in the whole house. In the apartments the allowance of air space 
 is 317 cubic feet, and in the dormitories but 89 feet to each person. This 
 is the average, but there are many exceptions where the overcrowding 
 far exceeds this. In addition, the facilities for ventilating these small 
 apartments are often wholly confined to doors and windows, hall-ways 
 and passages are dark and narrow, and the house is often surrounded by 
 
8 
 
 REPORT OF THE FIRST SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 others of greater height, shutting out the cheerful and health-giving influ- 
 ences of sunlight and air. 
 
 The common mode of disposing of garbage and house-slops adds still 
 further to the insalubrious influences by which these dismal abodes are 
 surrounded. Whether cesspools and garbage boxes are provided in the 
 majority of tenant-houses or not, the refuse is thrown into the street, where 
 it emits the most nauseous odors, and contaminates the atmosphere of the 
 locality. In the rear, also, the inevitable but much-abused privy may be 
 found, often at the very door of the house, and in nine cases out of ten 
 in the worst condition possible. The seats and floor are covered with 
 filth, emitting noxious gases. These " necessaries " afford from their condi- 
 tion no comfort, and from their location no feeling of retirement. 
 
 A marked example illustrating many of the above-mentioned features 
 of insalubrity may be seen in Washington Street, near its lower termina- 
 tion, in which a row of the worst class of tenant-houses stands in rear of 
 those of similar character, covering three ordinary-sized lots. One of 
 the front houses is four stories in height, the other two three stories each.* 
 The first floor of one of the latter is used as a stable ; that of the other 
 two is occupied by groggeries of the lowest class. The upper floors of 
 all these buildings are divided into numerous tenements, most of which 
 are small, and deficient in light and ventilation. The rear row consists 
 of three-story buildings, uniform in size and arrangement. The first 
 floor is two feet below the level of the court in front, and from want of 
 proper drainage is subject to more or less flooding during heavy rains. 
 Each floor is divided into six main rooms, with two small bedrooms in 
 rear of each, making fifty-four apartments in the row exclusive of hall- 
 ways. All these apartments are filled to their utmost capacity by the 
 poorest class of tenement population. The space between these front and 
 rear buildings varies from sixteen feet at one end to thirty at the other. 
 Tin's space is occupied by a small stable and numerous rickety sheds, 
 privies, &c, and piles of refuse wood, boards, and broken furniture, leav- 
 ing a clear space of about six feet for passage way. One of the privic3 
 stands immediately in front of the entrance of one of the rear houses, at 
 the distance of six feet. The other is some twelve feet from the door of 
 another house. This court is surrounded by the high walls of ware- 
 houses and other buildings on all sides, and is reached by two narrow 
 passages, one at either extremity of the premises, which passages arc 
 constantly used by children and others for the purposes of a latrine. 
 Throughout all these quarters, apartments, halls, stairways, passages, 
 privies, court, &c, the utmost neglect of all hygienic laws prevails. And 
 
 * Sec engraving from a photographic picture of theac premises on tho next page. 
 
TENANT-HOUSES. — FEVEK-NEST3. 
 
 0 
 
 in addition, the street throughout this whole neighborhood presents habit- 
 ually the vilest condition of filth, and reeks with most offensive odors. 
 Typhus fever and measles were very prevalent here in the early part of 
 summer, several cases of which were fatal. In my weekly reports of 
 " pestilential diseases and insalubrious quarters," I have had frequent 
 occasion to describe the condition of families and diseases in the premises 
 that are here photographed. The successful work of the artist in this 
 picture renders unnecessary any further description of these squalid and 
 pestiferous tenements, and their noisome fronting of dilapidated and 
 overflowing privies, and a dismal, narrow, flooded court. That eruptive 
 fevers, typhus, and physical decay may always be seen here, is certainly 
 not surprising. 
 
 These are some of the characteristics pertaining to tenant-houses 
 as a class, yet there are some laudable exceptions in which exist much 
 neatness, cleanliness, and consequent comfort and good health, and which 
 show that much depends upon the habits of the people in the care of their 
 domiciles, as well as upon their size and location. 
 
 The insalubrity of quarters such as those above described, may be 
 predicated upon general hygienic principles ; but that they are so in fact, is 
 shown by a reference to the special reports " of insalubrious quarters 
 and pestilential diseases," in which it appears that in almost all in- 
 stances of such diseases tenant-houses of the worst class are their 
 favorite haunts. It is gratifying, however, to find that at the present date 
 there is but little disease of a pestilential character prevailing in this dis- 
 trict ; it having disappeared as the result, doubtless, of the free ventila- 
 tion that the summer season enables all to enjoy, whereby typhus and 
 other poisons become too much diluted for further propagation ; and, also, 
 to the early removal of fever patients to the hospitals. Without these 
 beneficent and salutary agencies, those diseases would doubtless have lin- 
 gered in these favorite lurking places ; and as winter approached and pure 
 air became excluded, their poisons would have again become intensified, 
 making those populous human hives the nurseries of pestilence and the very 
 harvest-field of Death ! 
 
 • But it is not in the more acute forms of disease that the poorest class 
 of tenant-houses exhibit their worst effects upon the inmates. "We find it 
 rather in the pale and sickly countenance of their occupants, with lax fibre 
 and general absence of robust health ; we see it also in the pining and 
 wasting of infants, and in the great prevalence of strumous, ophthalmic, 
 and eruptive disorders. All these appearances indicate, unmistakably, 
 the want of those great indispensable necessities of health — pure air and 
 light. In the deadly atmosphere of some low basement, or close unventi- 
 
10 
 
 REPORT OF THE FERST SAKTTARY DISTRICT. 
 
 lated bedroom, or in the wretched squalor of some dilapidated garret, those 
 little ones so numerously born amongst, this class first draw their breath, 
 and in an atmosphere surcharged with poison they battle for life ; but in 
 the unequal strife very few survive, and thus are yearly sacrificed whole 
 hecatombs of living souls. They fall, victims not of necessity, nor of the 
 decrees of inevitable Fate, but of ignorance and avarice, and are lost to 
 parents and friends, to society, and to usefulness in the world. 
 
 Drinking Saloons, Brothels, &c. — The drinking saloons of this dis- 
 trict number 423. Of these about one-half are low groggeries, where the 
 vilest of poisons are dispensed to irreclaimable inebriates ; the remainder 
 are the more respectable, but perhaps in their ultimate effects not less det- 
 rimental establishments attached to hotels, restaurants, and dining-saloons. 
 Of brothels, which are mainly of the lowest class, there are about 40. 
 Many of these are in underground basements along the line of Greenwich 
 Street. There are a few houses of prostitution, of somewhat respectable 
 exterior. Many of these establishments are frequented by large numbers 
 of emigrant runners, bounty brokers, sporting men, and gamblers, and it 
 is probable that gambling is carried on at most of those of a medium 
 character. A few billiard saloons also are found, principally along Green- 
 wich Street. It is also common along this street, and particularly at 
 night, for large numbers of prostitutes to pursue their calling, devoid of 
 all shame, in the public street. 
 
 Stores. — Of stores, it may be said that in some form they constitute 
 the greatest portion of the district. Along the upper and newer portions 
 of the same they are principally wholesale. Along Greenwich, and the 
 lower portion of Washington, they arc mostly retail shops of all kinds. 
 
 Markets. — From Cortlandt to Murray, between Greenwich Street 
 and the river, the markets contain some variety of materials for human food, 
 as produce and commission, provisions, wholesale groceries, fruits, vege- 
 tables, nuts, &c. The Washington is the only regular market in the dis- 
 trict, including its offshoot West Washington Market. Meat stores are 
 somewhat numerous, and many groceries sell most of those articles usually 
 kept in regular markets. 
 
 The condition of Washington Market reflects discredit and positive 
 shame upon cither the city or those who are more immediately concerned in 
 its management. It is very old and much dilapitatcd, its roof is leaky, and 
 its floors warped and broken in places. It appears to be badly drained, 
 as filthy water almost always stands in its surrounding gutters. Street 
 filth and refuse vegetables constantly lie in the streets, and altogether it 
 presents a picture of great untidiness. West Washington Market is also 
 very filthy at times, so much so that it is impossible to get around it with 
 
STABLES. — CHURCHES. SCHOOL-ROOMS. 
 
 11 
 
 any degree of comfort. The vast traffic carried on in this locality may, to 
 a certain extent, excuse the condition of things found here, but the facts 
 are as here represented. There is but a small resident population near 
 the market. 
 
 Stables. — The stables of the district number 25, of which five are 
 public, the remainder private. Many of the latter are located either in 
 the basements or rear courts of dwellings, and are kept in a slovenly con- 
 dition. These, on general principles, are sources of insalubrity, although 
 no sickness that could unmistakably be attributed to their influence alone 
 has been traced. 
 
 Churches. — There are three churches in the district, viz. : Trinity and 
 St. Paul's on Broadway, and St. Peter's in Barclay Street. These are 
 spacious structures, well appointed in all respects. In addition there are 
 two chapels of small dimensions, one at No. 27 Greenwich Street, and a 
 floating chapel at the foot of Carlisle Street. 
 
 Schools. — There are five schools in the district. "Ward school No. 
 29, at 97 and 99 Greenwich Street, with its Primary Department in the 
 rear on Trinity Place. These structures are nearly new, are well pro- 
 vided in all respects for ventilation, warmth, and for speedy escape in 
 case of fire. The various apartments are kept in the best of order. St. 
 Peter's school in the basement of St. Peter's church, attended by 600 to 
 700 children, is not so well adapted for the purpose as the one above 
 mentioned, but is well kept, and the health of the children good. St. 
 Peter's Academy adjoining the church. Primary school No. 37, at 41 
 Robinson Street, with 150 to 200 pupils, and the " Industrial School of the 
 Children's Aid Society," although not originally constructed for schools, 
 are kept in a very cleanly condition, well ventilated, and comfortably 
 warmed, and attention paid to the physical requirements of the pupils. 
 Whatever defects there may be in our schools, their general influence is 
 salutary, not only by the diffusion of knowledge and elevation of morality, 
 but by their direct effects in rescuing hundreds for the time being from 
 the degrading influences that surround them in their wretched homes ; the 
 pupils also carry back to those homes some of the genial influences of the 
 school. 
 
 Park. — The only park in the district is the Battery, the enlargement of 
 which commenced several years ago, but is still incomplete. The walks and 
 lawns of the older portion of it still present some show of order and neat- 
 ness ; but the newer portion is now occupied chiefly by barracks for sol- 
 diers and emigrants. 
 
 Castle Garden. — The hundreds of thousands of emigrants that are 
 yearly landed at Castle Garden, are without doubt the source of consider- 
 
12 
 
 EEPORT OF THE FIRST SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 able disease to the city, especially of typhus fever and small-pox. Yet 
 this " emigrant depot" for the continent has, by its system and care, pre- 
 vented much disease and suffering. 
 
 Piers. — The wharves of this district are built of wood, and arc, 
 too frequently, in a dilapidated condition. They are also the depots of vast 
 accumulations of sewage and street-filth, which, in its decomposition, 
 emits foul gases that pervade these districts, and render them insalu- 
 brious. 
 
 Cemeteries. — There are two cemeteries in the district, viz. : Trinity 
 and St. Paul's ; but these are now comparatively unused as places of 
 interment. 
 
 Nuisances. — The principal nuisances are filthy streets, obstructed 
 gutters, broken and imperfect pavements, garbage-boxes loaded with all 
 manner of refuse, and reeking with putrescible matters, unclean stables, 
 yards, and privies. 
 
 Diseases. — The diseases prevalent in this district the past season, 
 have been principally typhus, measles, diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera 
 morbus, cholera infantum, and marasmus. Typhus fever, in most cases, 
 is imported, although there arc sufficient causes to generate it in certain 
 localities of this part of the city. Diarrhoeal diseases are most prevalent 
 in those insalubrious quarters already described, and at a season when 
 the exciting causes are at their greatest stage of development and activity. 
 Illustrative examples are found in Washington, Greenwich, and "West 
 Streets, and the streets intersecting them, where tenant-houses of the 
 poorer class are located. 
 
 Improvements. — The improvements attributable to the efforts of the 
 public authorities, consist in the removal to hospital of patients suffering 
 from pestilential diseases. Several fever-nests have thus been broken up. 
 There has been, also, an inspection of insalubrious quarters, resulting in 
 numerous instances in temporary improvement ; but as far as my obser- 
 vation cxtonds, in the majority of these cases the improvement is only 
 temporary, and must be so until radical changes arc made in the abodes 
 und in the habits of the large class to which these evils arc chiefly con- 
 fined. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — This district is rapidly undergoing a process 
 of depopulation and transmutation, that will ultimately render it at once 
 Falubrious and almost uninhabited by families. The requirements of 
 trade and commerce arc such that probably in a very few years most of 
 those localities now so crowded with the worst class tenant-houses, will 
 be occupied by new and well-appointed stores and warehouses, whereby 
 the prime cause of insalubrity being removed, tho desired effect follows. 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. — STATISTICS. 
 
 13 
 
 But to give a more pertinent answer to the inquiry in its practical rela- 
 tions : First, all streets should be supplied with sewers, and all dwellings 
 especially should have the proper connections therewith, to insure thor- 
 ough drainage, and the prompt removal of all house-slops, privy con- 
 tents, &c. Streets now paved with cobble-stone pavement should be re- 
 paved with Belgian pavement, and so graded that surface drainage would 
 be thoroughly accomplished. Sidewalks now broken up should be re- 
 flagged. The streets should be swept as often as may be necessary to 
 keep them perfectly clean, while the prohibition of garbage, ashes, gar- 
 bage-boxes, and all slops should be absolute, and should be rigidly en- 
 forced. All rear tenant-houses should be abolished, and all new tenant- 
 houses should be constructed on an improved style, with large, airy, and 
 well-lighted apartments, with hydrants and waste-pipes to each floor, and 
 also conveniences for the inmates of such houses to bathe. All latrines 
 should be well removed to the rear of the domicile, and have the proper 
 sewer connections and hydrant attachment. In short, if the tenements 
 of the poor could be modelled in a measure after those of their more for- 
 tunate wealthy neighbors, and provided with certain essential conven- 
 iences that pertain to the mansions of the rich, there would remain 
 nothing more to be desired to render their quarters tolerably healthful. 
 
 Statistical Recapitulation (1st District). 
 No. of Squares, . . . . . . .64 
 
 - rc M "i ■ • • • 15518 
 
 " Tenant-Houses, j Front, 217 ) < _ ^ 
 
 Rear, 24 
 
 Drinking Shops (all kinds), .... 423 
 
 Brothel3, . . . . . . .40 
 
 Churches, ...... 3 
 
 Chapels, ....... 2 
 
 Schools, ...... 5 
 
 •"MSEW} 25 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OP THE 
 
 SECOND SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 ISAAC L. MILLSPAUGH, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — Northerly by Park Iloiv, Spruce and Ferry Streets and 
 Peck Slip, east and south by the East River, and west by State Street and 
 Broadway. 
 
 TorOGRAPHY. — The surface of the district presents considerable ir- 
 regularity. A portion is made ground, and nearly level, including al- 
 most all that lies between Pearl Street and the East River. Westerly of 
 Pearl Street the ground is natural, and rises gradually, though not uni- 
 formly, until it reaches its highest elevation near Broadway at Pine and 
 Cedar Streets, and again where Ann and Spruce Streets intersect Nassau 
 Street and Park Row. The line of Broad Street exhibits a marked de- 
 pression, and was, as appears from old maps of the city, once a water 
 course. Maiden Lane also exhibits a marked depression of surface that 
 was probably once flanked by hills of considerable height, but which 
 have been removed, furnishing material for filling in the low ground 
 east of Pearl Street. At the upper limit of the district, on Ferry Street, 
 in the vicinity of what was once the " Swamp," is also a consider- 
 able stretch of low ground, once a marsh, reclaimed by filling in with the 
 superfluous materials of the elevated portions. The soil of the district 
 is a sandy alluvium, and therefore favorable to thorough drainage. The 
 unevenness of the surface also contributes to good drainage of the streets 
 and to a free flow of sewage. The level portion of the district cast of 
 Pearl Street has, however, the disadvantage of but slight elevation abovo 
 tide-water, and insufficient inclination for thorough drainage. As a con- 
 sequence, accumulations of surfaco materials occur in streets and gut- 
 ters, and underground apartments arc damp. 
 
FAULTY CONDITION OF STREETS, BUILDINGS, ETC. 
 
 15 
 
 Streets. — The streets of the Second District vary much in width and 
 direction ; some are of great width, as Broad Street and the Slips along 
 the East River ; but the majority are narrow, and several are so contracted 
 as scarcely to allow of the passage of a single vehicle. Most of the streets 
 have the cobble-stone pavement. The exceptions are Park Row, paved with 
 Russ, and much improved by grooving ; Beekman, Fulton, Wall, Beaver, 
 Whitehall, State, and South Streets, and portions of Pearl, William, and 
 Pine Streets, which are paved with Belgian pavement. This kind of pave- 
 ment is peculiarly well adapted to this district on account of the great 
 amount of heavy carting necessary in the transactions of its commercial 
 business. The cobble-stone pavement is especially faulty in this district. 
 The streets paved with it are uneven, and are always unclean owing to 
 the accumulations of refuse. 
 
 Sewerage. — There are but few streets in the district that are not in 
 whole or in part sewered. These sewers empty into the river between 
 high and low water. There is a considerable number of dwellings in 
 the district that have no sewer connections. 
 
 Squares. — There are 99 squares in the district, the larger number of 
 which are not in a bad sanitary condition. They are located upon a dry, 
 sandy soil, well drained, and with sewers in all the surrounding streets. 
 The remaining squares are upon made ground, and have the usual disad- 
 vantages of squares thus located. The squares on either side of White- 
 hall Street, and three or four at the upper extremity of the district, may 
 be regarded as in a mixed sanitary condition, not so much on account of 
 their location, drainage, &c, as because their inhabitants neglect all san- 
 itary precautions. 
 
 Inhabitants. — This district is the least densely populated section of 
 the lower part of the city, and its permanent inhabitants are decreasing 
 from year to year. Old dwellings are constantly giving place to large 
 and costly structures erected for commercial purposes. The Irish nation- 
 ality predominates. About one-half the resident population is of the 
 laboring class ; the remainder is principally composed of keepers of hotels, 
 saloons, boarding-houses, &c. One-half may be estimated as ignorant, 
 the other half of a medium grade of intelligence. 
 
 Buildings. — The buildings of the district number 2,309. Of these 
 31 are rear buildings ; 73 tenant-houses, none of which arc rear buildings ; 
 an equal number are dwellings containing one or two families not 
 enumerated as tenant-houses, nor are they strictly private residences. 
 There are very few private residences. The great majority of buildings 
 in the district arc stores and warehouses. In the lower section they arc 
 principally devoted to the grain, flour, and provision trade ; along tho 
 
16 
 
 REPORT OF THE SECOND SANITARY UISTKICT. 
 
 river and in its more immediate vicinity shipping-offices and supply stores 
 predominate ; through the more central portions a great variety of busi- 
 ness is transacted, mostly on a large scale. 
 
 Sanitary Wants of Commercial Warehouses and Offices. — Of the nearly 
 two thousand buildings that are devoted to mercantile and business pur- 
 poses in this district, only a small minority have adequate ventilation and 
 Lighting in their counting-rooms and most frequented apartments. Al- 
 though it is noticeable that vast improvements in these particulars are 
 effected in most of the more recently-erected stores and offices, there is an 
 imperative hygienic demand for reform in this respect in the older build- 
 ings. We know it is safe to say that hundreds and probably thousands 
 of valuable lives are sacrificed every year in the counting-rooms, banking- 
 houses, stores, and offices of the commercial district of our city in conse- 
 quence of defective ventilation and natural lighting ; and that the health 
 of a hundred thousand business men and their employes suffers seriously 
 from the same causes. In this district, so densely crowded with high 
 buildings, and with its narrow and almost sunless streets thronged by a 
 hundred thousand persons through the day, it is also a matter of prime 
 importance that every nuisance and offence against health be kept abated, 
 that the streets, alleys, gutters, sinks, privies, cellars, and docks be kept 
 scrupulously clean, and that special regard be had to the sewerage, and its 
 trappings against reflux gases, and that all other sources of insalubrious 
 emanations be strictly controlled. In the attic story of many of the bank- 
 ing and other buildings reside the families of the person in charge of the 
 various offices. The sanitary condition under which these families reside 
 is generally favorable. 
 
 Manufacturing operations of various kinds are carried on throughout 
 the district. There are 290 drinking establishments, some of which are 
 groggerics of the lowest class, while the majority are bars of hotels, dining 
 saloons, and restaurants. 
 
 There are two principal markets, viz., Franklin and Fulton, and meat 
 shops at the lower end of the district. Franklin Market is old and has a com- 
 paratively small trade, principally with the shipping. . Fulton Market is 
 the centre of an extensive business as a family market. It is situated on 
 made land, with defective ground and surface drainage ; the buildings are 
 old wooden structures in a dilapidated condition ; the stalls arc small, 
 poorly ventilated, and offensive with the refuse accumulated in and under the 
 worn-out floors ; the gutters in and around the market arc generally obstruct- 
 ed with filth : in a word, the whole establishment in its internal arrangements 
 and condition, and its external appearance and surroundings, is a disgrace 
 to a civilized community. There arc 1G stables in the district, but two of 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. — SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 17 
 
 which are public, many of these are situated in the yards of tenant- 
 houses or in buildings whose upper rooms are occupied by families. 
 Neglect is apparent in the case of many of these establishments, and filth 
 is allowed to accumulate around them. 
 
 Churches, Schools, &c. — There are three churches in the district, 
 viz., St. George's Chapel, at the corner of Beekman and Cliff Streets ; 
 the North Dutch Church, corner of Fulton and William Streets, and the 
 First Methodist, in John Street. These churches are all old structures. 
 There are two schools, both primary. One of these is a brick three-story 
 and basement building, and is attended by 150 children. The three 
 apartments occupied as assembly and recitation-rooms, are warmed by 
 wood fires in stoves, and ventilated by doors and window-sashes. The 
 other school is attended by from 150 to 200 children. None of these 
 edifices are adequately ventilated. 
 
 Diseases. — Owing to the sparseness of the population, there is at no 
 time a great amount of sickness in the district. In a few localities, how- 
 ever, there has been some typhus fever, traceable in most instances to 
 immigrants newly arrived. It made its appearance in tenant-houses, and 
 in two or three instances spread through all the families immediately ex- 
 posed. At one place in Bridge Street, adjoining the Battery, the disease 
 attacked successively every member of the family immediately exposed, 
 but was prevented from spreading further by free ventilation, the charac- 
 ter and location of the domicile permitting that agency to be employed. 
 In another case, in a low, damp basement in Pearl Street, it was arrested 
 by removing the sick to hospital. Some cases of measles were observed 
 in the district during the early part of the summer. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — The preventible causes of sickness among the 
 resident population are here limited to tenant-houses. Though there are 
 but few large tenant-houses constructed for that especial purpose in the 
 district, there are many small and old tenant-houses. The buildings 
 are old and more or less dilapidated ; the apartments are filthy ; the 
 halls, passages, and stairways abound with dirt, and the yards, often 
 unpaved, are the receptacles of house sweepings, ashes, and excrement. 
 Their privies are unscwered, broken, overfull, and utterly unfit for their 
 proper use, while the gutters of the adjacent streets are filled with the 
 most noxious compounds of house-slops, garbage, and ordinary street dirt. 
 Within and around such wretched habitations a pure, invigorating atmos- 
 phere cannot exist, and their occupants are alike strangers to physical 
 robustness and moral purity. 
 
 The most obvious necessity is the erection of tenant-houses, of im- 
 proved style and arrangement, whereby larger apartments, more light, and 
 2 
 
18 
 
 KEPORT OF THE SECOND SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 better ventilation shall be afforded ; water upon each floor, with proper 
 drain, and ample lavatory conveniences would be secured. Water- 
 closets, located well apart from inhabited quarters, should be provided 
 with sewer connections and hydrant attachment, so as to prevent accumu- 
 lation. Where the want of rear space — as so frequently happens in this 
 section of the city — prevents such remote location of water-closets, 
 the most eligible position is underneath the sidewalk, at once secluded, 
 sufficiently convenient of access and of easy sewer connection. 
 
 In the disposal of garbage and house-slops there should be a total 
 abolition of street garbage-boxes, and a strict prohibition of the present 
 universal custom in this part of the city, of throwing slops into the 
 street. 
 
 The streets should be more thoroughly sewered, and those that are 
 badly sewered should be improved by the substitution of sewers of the 
 most approved style. Cobble-stone pavement should also be replaced by 
 the trap-block, or Belgian. Finally, we would suggest that the Council 
 of Hygiene cause a suitable pamphlet or report to be prepared with refer- 
 ence to the hygienic requirements of counting-rooms and offices connected 
 with the mercantile houses of the crowded sections of the city. The 
 commercial classes and the tens of thousands who daily frequent this 
 commercial and shipping district, might properly unite in requesting the 
 owners of mercantile edifices to improve the lighting and ventilation of 
 their offices, etc. ; and the same persons, together with multitudes of 
 business men in all parts of the country who frequently visit and do 
 business in this section of our city, should also join in demanding that its 
 streets, its docks, and its sewers, shall be kept in so cleanly a condition, 
 that the health of the vast population that is daily exposed to emanations 
 therefrom, shall no longer be imperilled by them. Though " Commerce 
 is King " in this particular section of the city, the fact should be kept in 
 mind, that civic salubrity is one of the indispensable safeguards to com- 
 mercial prosperity. 
 
 Statistical Recapitulation (2d District). 
 
 No. of Squares, ...... 09 
 
 " Houses, 2,309 
 
 44 Rear Houses, .... 31 
 
 44 Tenant-Houses, . . ... 73 
 
 44 Dram-shops (all kinds), .... 28G 
 
 44 Stables (mostly private), . . . .16 
 
 44 Churches, ...... 8 
 
 44 Schools, ...... 2 
 
REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 THIRD SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. [Section A.] 
 
 HAMPTON HARRIOT, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — North by Canal Street, east by Broadway, south by 
 Reade Street, west by the North River. This District ( Tliird, Section A) 
 comprises the whole of the Fifth Ward. 
 
 Topography. — For completeness and convenience, the topography 
 of the entire area of the Third District [Sections A and B) will be de- 
 scribed under one head. 
 
 The topography of this district is somewhat peculiar, consisting of a 
 depressed section of ground, originally swamp land, bordered by high, 
 sandy hills. The original formation of the surface was easily ascer- 
 tained, several maps of that section of the island as originally constituted 
 having been preserved and republished in various works. The accompa- 
 nying map shows the original formation of the surface of the district, 
 and the ground reclaimed from the river, with the relative position of the 
 present streets to the same. The rocky formations, of which the island 
 is principally composed, are here depressed to a depth of from forty to 
 eighty feet below the surface, thus forming a basin, which, where not 
 occupied by high sand-hills, formed deep depressions, filled with more or 
 less soft quagmire. These swamps were indeed so unsubstantial in 
 places as to yield under the weight of the dirt dumped in to make firm 
 ground for building purposes ; necessitating, in some places, the making 
 of new ground to the depth of forty feet. This was ascertained to be the 
 depth of made ground before reaching the remains of the original deposit 
 of mud, at the corner of "Wooster and Grand Streets, where a well was 
 sunk some years ago, an additional depth of thirty feet of the original 
 deposits being passed through before the rock was reached. 
 
20 
 
 REPORT OF THE THIRD SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 SANITARY AND TOPO GRAPHICAL MAP OF THE THIRD INSPECTION 
 
 DISTRICT. 
 
 THE FIFTH, AND A PART OF THE EIGHTH WARD. 
 
 EXPLANATION OF FIGURES, ETC. 
 
 The numbers at the intersections of the streets indicate the present elevation at those 
 points above tide level. 
 
 The wavy line in streets and sections of streets indicates sewers into which the high- 
 tide water flows. • 
 
 The dotted contour lino -• indicates the line of demarcation between the section 
 
 that is drained by sewers through which tide-water flows, and that section of the district 
 in which the bottoms of tho sewcre arc above tide-level. 
 
 The crests of the highest of the original hills arc shown upon the right-hand margin 
 of the Mao. 
 
OLD SWAMPS. — PRESENT DRAINAGE. 
 
 21 
 
 On the map the part unshaded represents the ground reclaimed from the 
 river, heing the greater part of the district outside of Greenwich Street. 
 The surface represented in the marshy shading shows the extent of 
 swampy ground, formerly called the Lispenard Meadows. This ground 
 was very soft and hoggy in its nature, heing overflowed by water at high 
 tides, and until filled in it was almost impassable. The amount of mate- 
 rial required to fill in this swamp, and the enormous expense attending it, 
 induced the authorities of that day to make the grade as low as possible, 
 consistent with mere surface drainage. Portions of it have since been 
 filled in and other parts will probably be soon raised in grade, thereby im- 
 proving the drainage ; but yet leaving a very large surface of low and 
 badly-drained ground, especially near and north of Canal Street. 
 
 This swampy land was intersected by a sluggish stream of water, 
 running from the pond, called the Collect, situated in the present neigh- 
 borhood of Centre and Leonard Streets, and covering several squares of 
 ground. This outlet followed nearly the line of Canal Street from Broad- 
 way, where it was crossed by a stone bridge, to the Hudson River, empty- 
 ing therein. A branch of this stream on the line of West Broadway, 
 drained the meadows in that direction. 
 
 The shaded portion of the map represents the solid ground, which 
 was formerly somewhat irregular and picturesque in appearance, being 
 high and hilly, rising on Broadway and Leonard Street to a height of 
 near one hundred feet above the river. These high grounds have since 
 been much lowered by grading down for building purposes ; and the sur- 
 plus dirt was used for filling in the swamp lands and the section reclaimed 
 from the river. Part of one of the original hills can yet be seen in the 
 grounds of the New York Hospital, which have not yet been reduced to 
 the street grade. The hill that existed in the neighborhood of Broadway 
 and Broome Street was also so high as to be cut down some forty or fifty 
 feet, being below the bottom of some of the wells in the vicinity. The 
 tongue of land between the Lispenard Meadows and the Hudson River 
 was of less elevation, but was also more or less disturbed by the necessary 
 grading of that part of the city. 
 
 Drainage and Sewerage. — The original sewerage of this district 
 had a direct relation to the natural formations of the surface. As the 
 meadows were filled in the original streams were carried through open 
 box sewers, built of timber, following the lines of Canal Street and West 
 Broadway. In the course of time, and from the growth of the city around 
 them, these sewers became so offensive and dangerous that it became ne- 
 cessary to enclose them. This was done by building very large sewers, 
 with comparatively flat bottoms, which remain to this day a continual 
 
22 
 
 REPORT OF THE THIRD SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 source of expense and nuisance. The bottoms of these sewers were laid 
 with flat stones sloping to the centre ; the sides were built of brick, perpen- 
 dicular in direction, and some four feet in height ; and from these side walls 
 a low arch was thrown enclosing the sewer ; the whole being covered with 
 the street and pavement. Owing to this plan of building, the bottoms of 
 these sewers are badly broken and cannot be thoroughly cleaned. All 
 the other sewers of the district are built of brick or tile, being oval in 
 shape and well adapted to their purpose ; some of the smaller branch 
 sewers being of earthen ware, moulded and burnt in sections. The dis- 
 trict is pretty well sewered, and the streets needing it are being rapidly 
 supplied. 
 
 Street Elevations. — On the map I have given in numbers the 
 elevation, in feet, of each street intersection above high-water mark, and 
 have also indicated by wavy lines such streets in which the sewers, if 
 built, would be entered by the tide at high water. This has, from the 
 nature of the case, been arrived at by estimating the depth of the bottom of 
 the sewer from the level of the surface of the street. Officers of the Croton 
 Aqueduct Department, to whom I am indebted for much of the informa- 
 tion contained in this portion of my report, inform me that my calcula- 
 tions are nearly correct. They informed me that in all cases where pos- 
 sible the bottom of each sewer is laid at a depth of thirteen feet below the 
 level of the street. To this there are two exceptions : First. To drain a 
 basin lying behind a ridge of land, it sometimes becomes necessary to 
 build a sewer at a greater depth through the intervening ridge. Second. 
 On approaching the rivers, and where the ground lies too low, as in a large 
 part of the Third District, the sewer cannot be built at so great a depth. 
 I have taken the estimate of thirteen feet as the proper depth of the bot- 
 tom of the sewers, and have represented all the sewers in the streets hav- 
 ing a less elevation above high water-mark, as being reached by the river 
 water at high tide. "When the river is above this level, it is well known 
 that several of these sewers are entirely full of water, and unable to carry 
 off the surface water in case of heavy rains ; and consequently the streets 
 and cellars in such localities are frequently overflowed. On several of 
 these streets it has for the same reason been necessary to place traps, &c, 
 on the sewer connections, to prevent the flow of water back into the houses 
 or cellars. By referring to the map it will be seen that tide-water runs 
 up the sewer in Canal Street as far as Broadway, spreading north through 
 Thompson and Laurens Streets as far as Spring Street, and through the 
 other streets to a somewhat less extent ; also ruuning south through West 
 Broadway as far as Thomas Street, there meeting the tide coming directly 
 from the river. Adding to these facts the flow of tide-water into the 
 
DRAINAGE. — INFLUENCES ON HEALTH. 
 
 23 
 
 branch sewers, and in all the sewers within two to four squares of the 
 river, it will be seen that two-thirds of the sewer surface of this district is 
 reached by salt water. All the sewers of the Third District empty into 
 the slips between the wharfs along the North River, with the single ex- 
 ception of the Canal Street sewer and its connections, which empty at the 
 head of the long pier at the foot of Canal Street, and in deep water. 
 This system of emptying the sewage into the slips is a prolific source 
 of offence to the senses and of disease to the district, and also keeps the 
 city at continual and great expense for the necessary dredging to keep them 
 navigable and prevent their filling up. The Croton Aqueduct Department, 
 however, is desirous of correcting this, by building sewers along the river 
 front, to cut off the present sewers, and carry their discharge to certain 
 points, as at the Battery, &c, where their contents can be at once thrown 
 into free currents of deep water, thus avoiding these difficulties. This sys- 
 tem regards the sewage as of no value, but the time will probably soon 
 arrive when some plan will be desirable to save it and make it valuable. 
 
 Influence of Topographical Characteristics of this District on Health. — 
 The influence of the peculiar formation of this district upon the public 
 health has been marked. Those portions reclaimed from the swamp and 
 river being undesirable for a good class of population, have been conse- 
 quently built upon by an inferior class of buildings, and occupied by people 
 too ignorant or indifferent as to consequences to seek to avoid them. The 
 observations of physicians and sanitary officers, however, have shown 
 that such sections of the city are, in case of epidemic diseases, always the 
 first to be attached, and that they invariably present the greater number 
 and more severe class of cases. During the various epidemics of fevers, 
 cholera, influenza, &c, that have visited this city, these sections have 
 furnished a very large proportion of the patients, and a still larger pro- 
 portion of the fatal cases. During the recent and present prevalence of 
 typhus and typhoid fevers, I have noticed that the number and severity of 
 cases have borne a direct relation to the nature of the ground upon which 
 they occurred. Our hygrometers, which have been in constant use in the 
 worst sections of this district, indicate more than twice the amount of 
 moisture in the atmosphere given by the standard instrument kept at the 
 Eastern Dispensary. Such diseases as cholera infantum, fevers, &c, 
 especially of children, always prevail most extensively in such moist local- 
 ities, not to speak of rheumatism, scrofula, and pulmonary diseases, which 
 arc generally recognized as being specially dependent upon exposure to 
 cold and wet. 
 
 Streets. — The streets of the Third District arc laid out, more or less, 
 at right angles with each other — ruuuiug north and south, or cast and 
 
24 
 
 REPORT OF THE THIRD SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 west. They vary in width from forty to eighty feet, except Canal Street, 
 which is much wider. The greater number of the streets are paved with 
 cobble stones ; and, at the time of this survey, were found in pretty good 
 repair, except West Street and its immediate neighborhood, which is con- 
 siderably lower than the proper grade, and is in very bad order. Those 
 sections of the different streets, however, where there are tenant-houses, 
 are always wet and filthy from garbage and slops that are thrown into the 
 street. Broadway, Washington, Greenwich, and Worth Streets, in their 
 full length, in this district, have been repaved with the trap-block pave- 
 ment ; and portions of Desbrosses, Reade, Duane, North Moore, and Jay 
 Streets, have been similarly paved. It is to be hoped that this kind of 
 pavement will, as soon as possible, replace the cobble-stone pavement, as 
 it lias proved to be not only by far the most durable, but it is much more 
 easily kept clean, and does not accumulate in the interstices such a quan- 
 tity of the foul matters of the streets. The connection of civic cleanli- 
 ness with civic health is too evident to be questioned at this day. Under 
 my own observ ation in this district,* the widening and repaving of various 
 streets have been followed by the most marked improvement in the health 
 of not only those streets, but of the whole immediate neighborhood. It 
 is true that the population of this section was greatly diminished by these 
 improvements, but those that remained have not shown half the propor- 
 tional amount of sickness, although of a class more subject to disease 
 than the original residents. 
 
 Squares. — The number of squares in the Third District is 74. Of 
 these 32 are in a good, 25 in a mixed, and 17 iu a bad condition, as 
 regards sanitary considerations. I report as bad those squares in which, 
 from the character of the soil, buildings, and population, more than the 
 average amount of disease prevails. Those squares arc regarded as mixed 
 in which the same causes prevail to a partial extent, or where, from the en- 
 croachments of business property, or from other causes, the population is 
 mostly removed. All others are regarded as being in a good sanitary state. 
 
 Inhabitants. — The population of the Third District has undergone, 
 and is now undergoing, great and rapid changes. Originally settled by a 
 native-born population, the greater numbers of residents arc now of for- 
 eign birth, or children of foreign parentage. The colored population, 
 formerly so numerous in the Fifth Ward, has almost disappeared, 
 a few scattered tenant-buildings — not more than twenty-five in number — 
 containing all that arc left. The large number of houses of prostitution 
 west of Broadway, for which this district was, not long ago, so notorious, 
 
 • The Inspector has been sixteen years connected with the New York Dispensary, and 
 daily engaged in professional duty in this part of the city. — Editor. 
 
THE INHABITANTS. — TENANT-HOUSES. 
 
 25 
 
 is also rapidly disappearing from this section of the city, their former 
 inhabitants being replaced by foreigners, and they, again, being soon 
 crowded out by the encroachments of mercantile business. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — Nearly all the houses remaining in the district have 
 been altered for tenant-houses, or are now occupied as boarding-houses, 
 or for business purposes. Large tenant-houses, which accommodate more 
 than six or eight families each, are comparatively scarce, there only being 
 about forty of such character. All others reported as tenant-houses, are 
 small in size, the greater number being altered from private residences, 
 or occupied by several families, without alteration. Most of the large 
 tenant-houses are located in the neighborhood of "West Broadway, from 
 Leonard to Thomas Streets, or near Greenwich Street ; the others being 
 scattered throughout the district. 
 
 I have reported 450 houses as being tenant-houses ; being such houses 
 as contained tbree or more families. With the exceptions noted, these 
 were formerly occupied as private residences, or by two or three families ; 
 but, with the changes of population, the greater number of them have 
 been filled with as many families as there are rooms to accommodate 
 them, many of the families having no other sleeping-apartment than that 
 occupied as the kitchen and living-room. In some of these houses the 
 Croton-water and waste-pipes have been introduced, but in most of them 
 the Croton-water is introduced only to the court-yard, or area. In other 
 respects these houses remain as built long ago for private families. As a 
 consequence, ventilation is very imperfect, from the doors between rooms 
 being always closed ; water-closets are too few in number, and filthy, 
 from being used by so many persons ; and the houses become more and 
 more dilapidated, until many of them, in the neighborhoods where busi- 
 ness is encroaching, are in part or entirely unfit for human habitation. 
 
 Number and Classification of the Houses. — Including the 450 
 noted as tenant-houses, there are 1,244 dwelling-houses in the district, 95 
 of them being rear buildings. The larger number of those not noted as 
 tenant-houses are occupied for boarding-houses, there being comparatively 
 few which can properly be reported as private houses. Many of the 
 objections relating .to tenant-houses also apply to the boarding-houses, 
 except that the latter are kept in a more cleanly condition. Still, they 
 are necessarily overcrowded and deficient in most of the accommodations 
 needed for a perfect state of health in the occupants. 
 
 There are also many buildings occupied for stores, offices, &c, in 
 which a family is living who take charge of the building, keep the passages 
 clean, &c, which I have not reported as dwelling-houses. There are 
 also several buildings occupied by fire companies, in which some of tho 
 
26 
 
 REPORT OF THE THIRD SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 members always lodge, which are not included as dwellings. The actual 
 number of the population of the district I made no effort to ascertain, as 
 the time allowed was too limited, and I had none of the necessary facul- 
 ties for such investigation. The figures given in the last United States 
 Census would be very incorrect, as the changes produced since that was 
 taken, by the encroachments of business property, &c, have been very 
 rapid and extensive. There is no doubt, however, that the average num- 
 ber of inhabitants to each house would be high, as would be expected 
 from my statements in regard to the character of the population. From 
 the same reasons, no investigation has been made in regard to the num- 
 ber of people occupying basements and cellars — a subject needing inves- 
 tigation, and which would repay full and careful inquiry. 
 
 Liquor Stores. — There are 341 places in the Third District in which 
 liquor is retailed, including groceries, restaurants, and hotels and dram- 
 shops. Tliis is a very large number in proportion to the population, 
 being one to less than four (1 to 3-65) dwellings. However, it must be 
 remembered that, owing to the situation of the district, large numbers of 
 their patrons are from outside the district. Thus a great many of the 
 liquor-saloons are located along or near the river, and are almost entirely 
 supported by boatmen and persons employed along the docks, &c. ; many 
 other saloons are located on the line of Broadway, Canal Street, and 
 other thoroughfares, which derive a large support from the transient popu- 
 lation and persons employed in the stores in the neighborhood. 
 
 Brothels. — I report 81 as the number of buildings occupied exclu- 
 sively as houses of prostitution in this district. This number is probably 
 below the truth, from the difficulty of ascertaining, with the means at my 
 disposal, which houses were thus occupied. I have also not included in 
 the number a large number of houses occupied only in part for such pur- 
 poses. It is a well-known fact that in many of the tenant-houses of this 
 district such persons occupy suites of apartments interspersed with thoso 
 of the respectable laboring-classes, and frequently difficult to be distin- 
 guished from them, except upon a more searching investigation than this 
 survey could give. During the last few years, a large proportion of tho 
 more notorious brothels have been removed from this .district to the upper 
 parts of the city, the houses being now occupied by tho laboring-classes, 
 or for business purposes. 
 
 Stores and Commercial Warehouses. — Thcro are 283 buildings 
 in this district occupied exclusively for commercial purposes. There arc 
 also 294 small stores, of various kinds, occupying parts of buildings. Of 
 these 29 arc meat and vegetable markets exclusively, there being no largo 
 market-building in the district ; although Clinton Market, at tho foot of 
 
COMMERCE. — NUISANCES, ETC. 
 
 27 
 
 Canal Street, is just north of this southern section (A) of the Third Dis- 
 trict, and "Washington Market, at the foot of Fulton Street, is not far 
 removed, both of them being largely patronized by the residents of this 
 district. There are also 87 groceries, of which nearly all sell liquor, and 
 many deal in meat and vegetables. 
 
 Factories. — There are 151 manufactories and workshops of various 
 kinds in the district, many of them occupying only parts of buildings, 
 used otherwise for trade or residences. 
 
 Of these 6 are sugar-refineries, &c. ; 11 boiler and machine shops ; 26 
 carpenters, joiners, and box manufactories ; 2 large coffee and spice mills ; 
 2 distilleries ; 1 brewery ; 3 oil and lard works ; 12 blacksmith and 
 wheelwright shops ; 2 tobacco and snuff manufactories ; 5 smoking and 
 provision establishments ; 14 artificial flower, feather, and leaf manufac- 
 tories ; and the remaining 67 are manufactories of various kinds, too 
 numerous to be particularized. 
 
 Stables. — There are 108 stables, or ranges of single-stall stables, in 
 this district. Of these 68 contain each less than 5 horses, or 202 horses 
 in the aggregate ; and 40 contain each 5 or more horses, or 383 in the 
 aggregate. These stables are scattered pretty generally over the district, 
 there being few squares without one or more of them. There are certain 
 neighborhoods, however, which contain a large number upon a small 
 area. Such is the neighborhood of Greenwich Street from Desbrosses 
 to Vestry Streets, where 3 squares contain 16 ranges of stables, accom- 
 modating 117 horses. Also, in the neighborhood of West Broadway 
 from Beach to Worth Streets, where 6 squares contain 19 stables, with 
 163 horses. Most of the larger stables are kept in a quite cleanly and 
 comfortable condition, but the greater number of small stables are crowded 
 together, and their surroundings are frequently neglected and uncleanly. 
 In regard to the influence of stables upon the public health, I think that 
 I have, in many cases, traced to their influence (especially when occupied 
 by sick and disabled horses) an earlier invasion and increased prevalence 
 of such diseases as scarlatina and diphtheria. However, further investi- 
 gation and much more extended observation over a larger field, is neces- 
 sary to decisively settle this point. 
 
 Nuisances. — There are no slaughter houses, gas manufactories, or 
 bone and fat-boiling establishments in or near the immediate neighborhood 
 of this district, in any manner or degree influencing its health. Such 
 causes as do produce such influence are connected with the topography, 
 character of the population, and condition of the piers, shps, and sewers, 
 which we have already noted. 
 
 Public Buildings. — Of public buildings there arc but few. There 
 is one Police Station-house on Leonard Street, badly arranged for the 
 
28 
 
 REPORT OF THE THIRD SAJS1TTAKY DISTRICT. 
 
 health of its occupants, hoth as regards its own internal arrangements 
 and its immediate sm - roundings. There is a large hospital with several 
 buildings, known as the New York Hospital, on the square hounded by 
 Broadway, Worth, Church, and Duane Streets. These buildings arc 
 finely situated, both as regards the location of the ground and their in- 
 ternal arrangements for the comfort and health of the inmates. A de- 
 tailed report is unnecessary in this place. There are only two church 
 edifices in this district ; both front on St. John's Park, and both are well 
 located for light and ventilation. There are also two Mission Churches 
 occupying lofts of buildings otherwise used for business purposes ; and a 
 floating chapel for seamen and others at the foot of Laight Street. As 
 regards School Buildings, there is one large Ward School on North Moore 
 and Varick Streets, with an extension running through to West Broadway. 
 This school is of the first class, accommodating nearly two thousand 
 pupils. There are two Public Primary Schools, one occupying a building 
 erected for that purpose on Greenwich Street between Desbrosses and 
 Watts Streets ; the other occupying a building altered from a private resi- 
 dence in Varick Street near Canal. Both these buildings are badly arranged 
 for ventilation and light, having windows, &c, only on front and rear. 
 There is one Primary School fbr colored children on Franklin Street, be- 
 tween West Broadway and Hudson Street, occupying a small two-story 
 building erected for a dwelling-house, and necessarily badly arranged and 
 ventilated for such a purpose. St. John's Episcopal Church has also 
 connected with it a Parish School, occupying a building in the rear of the 
 church. Two Mission and Industrial Schools occupying lofts of stores, 
 badly arranged but occupied only on certain days, complete the list of free 
 schools in the district. There are 19 Hotels in the district, varying in 
 size and capable of accommodating from 25 to 250 lodgers each at one 
 time. Many of these being altered from private houses are badly ven- 
 tilated and miserably arranged for hotel purposes. 
 
 Parks. — The Third District cannot be said to have any public parks. 
 St. John's Park, bounded by Hudson, Laight, Varick, and Beach Streets, 
 is a private square not belonging to the city, and kept closed to all except 
 the occupants of the surrounding houses, &c. This park, however, in 
 connection with the grounds surrounding St. John's Church, and thoso 
 belonging to the New York Hospital, are kept in the cleanest and best 
 manner, and are valuable breathing spots for this section of the city. 
 
 Piers and Surs. — The piers, wharves, &c, fronting the Third 
 District, arc generally in a dilapidated and neglected condition, though u 
 few occupied by steamship lines aro kept in very good order, being en- 
 closed with sheds and gateways. All the piers, however, being built of 
 
FAULTY WHARVES. — FEVER. — SMALL-POX. 
 
 29 
 
 wood, necessarily furnish a large amount of decaying vegetable matter, 
 which is known to be a prolific source of disease. The slips, in conse- 
 quence of receiving the sewage of the district and surrounding parts of 
 the city, are generally foul, and the undoubted source of much sickness. 
 I have seen a number of cases of severe disease, such as fevers, conges- 
 tions of the brain, liver, &c, induced by bathing or getting overboard in 
 the slips of this district. 
 
 Prevailing Diseases. — The prevailing diseases of the Third Dis- 
 trict during the past year have been as follows : Small-pox has prevailed 
 more extensively than for many years back. One centre of this disease was 
 in the neighborhood of West Broadway, Thomas, and Leonard Streets ; 
 and another centre at Greenwich, Watts, and Desbrosses Streets ; with 
 scattering cases over the whole western part of the district. Typhus and 
 typhoid fevers have been prevalent over the whole district, but more 
 particularly in the neighborhood of the lower half of West Broadway, 
 and between Greenwich Street and the Hudson Biver. The remitting 
 fever of children has been as usual almost universal in the tenant- 
 houses of the district, more especially during the Spring and Fall. 
 Diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera morbus, &c, commenced early in 
 the season in the immediate neighborhood of the Hudson Biver, gradu- 
 ally spreading thence over the whole district. These diseases affected 
 nearly every house and family coming under my observation as Visiting 
 Physician for the New York Dispensary. This curious fact of this class 
 of disease, commencing on the western border of the city and thence 
 gradually spreading toward the eastern side, has been noticed in other 
 parts of the city. Scarlatina, erysipelas, and kindred diseases, were 
 prevalent early in the season, but disappeared as warm weather advanced. 
 These diseases were more or less prevalent in tenant-houses in propor- 
 tion to the crowding of their population, cleanliness, &c. The amount of 
 sickness in different houses of the same neighborhood is very various, in 
 some cases being not more than twenty per cent., and in others reaching 
 as high as two hundred per cent, per annum. It is difficult to account for 
 this on a superficial examination, but the character, occupation, temper- 
 ance, cleanliness, &c, of the inhabitants of neighboring houses vary 
 greatly, and are a pretty close indication of the amount and kind of pre- 
 vailing sickness to be found in any particular house. Different houses 
 vary greatly also as to their facilities for ventilation ; the number of in- 
 habitants in basements and on first floors ; the location and care of water- 
 closets, sinks, cesspools, &c. ; their connection with smoking and pro- 
 vision establishments, and other kinds of business locations ; the width, 
 cleanliness, and kind of pavement in the streets ; the proximity of the 
 
30 
 
 EEPOET OF THE THIRD SAXITAKY DISTRICT. 
 
 river ; the character of material and state of repair of the building itself 
 and its accessories ; the arrangement of the rooms, bedrooms, and halls ; 
 and various other causes of interference with health. A thorough inves- 
 tigation into all such particulars would be necessary to arrive at any just 
 or valuable conclusions in regard to the causes of disease and death. A 
 large number of such searching investigations have been made and are 
 now making under the direction of the Council of Hygiene and Public 
 Health of the New York Citizens' Association, and cannot fail to give 
 valuable results when fully tabulated and compared.* 
 
 * The Map or diagram on opposite page has been prepared to illustrate, more distinctly 
 than could be done by words, the intimate connection of one of the small-pox and typhus 
 fever centres of the Third District with the wholesale dry goods section of New York City. 
 The largest wholesale establishments for the sale of dry goods on this side of the Atlantic 
 Ocean are here seen to come in immediate contact with the tenant-houses of the worst class, 
 and which are infested with small-pox and typhus fever. The diagram also shows that two 
 freight depots and the principal passenger depot of the Hudson River Railroad Company 
 are in the same close association with these nests of infection. In the region immediately 
 surrounding that represented on the map are also situated several hotels, and a large num- 
 ber of boarding-houses, whose inmates are thus in danger of personal contact with these 
 diseases at any moment. 
 
 West Broadway, running through the very centre of the district, is traversed by fivo 
 different lines of city railway cars, with an average of five cars passing every minute, and 
 carrying millions of passengers yearly by the very doors of these houses. Broadway, at 
 but a short distance removed, is the principal thoroughfare of the city. Hudson Street 
 on the west is also a leading route for city travel ; and the cross streets of the district are 
 traversed daily by multitudes to reach various lines of steamboats, cars, and steamships, 
 which leave the city opposite this point. 
 
 All this large amount of daily travel passes through a region always containing casc9 
 of typhus fever, and largely infected with small-pox. Is it any cause of surprise that 
 cases of these diseases are here contracted, to be carried to distant sections of the coun- 
 try, there to develop themselves to the surprise and alarm of whole neighborhoods ? It is 
 also well to remember that several large livery stables are located in the immediate neigh- 
 borhood, whose vehicles it is well known are frequently employed to carry persons sufi'er- 
 ing from these diseases to hospital, or to attend at funerals. These vehicles are, perhaps, 
 immediately afterwards driven to the various car and steamboat hues to secure passengers, 
 who are thus exposed in the most dangerous manner to these diseases. Could the intelli- 
 gent community but realize the danger to which they are thus exposed whenever they visit 
 the city, certainly they would insist that some measures should be taken for their safety 
 and that of the large section of the country under the immediate influence of this city. 
 It seems certain at present that the residents of the city cannot or will not protect them- 
 selves. The map illustrates the prevalence of these diseases for only one year, from No- 
 vember 1st, 1863, to November 1st, 1864.* 
 
 • For explanation of the tymhoU employed to designate tho purposes for which each building In 
 the squares Is at present occupied, see remarks at bottom of tho diagram.— Editoil 
 
FOOT-PRINTS OF TYPHUS AND SMALL-POX. 
 
 31 
 
 °s>SS 
 
 H 
 
 
 IST5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ~s is 
 
 I \ 
 
 
 
 
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32 EEPOET OF THE THERD SANITAEY DISTEICT. 
 
 Statistical Recapitulation {3d District). 
 
 Squares, ....... 74 
 
 " In Good Sanitary Condition, ... 32 
 
 " Very Bad " " .... 17 
 
 " Mixed " " ... 25 
 
 No. of Houses, ....... 1,244 
 
 " Tenant, . . 450 
 
 " Rear, ...... 95 
 
 Places where Liquor is Retailed, .... 341 
 
 Brothels, ....... 81 
 
 Buildings occupied for Business Purposes only, . . 283 
 
 Stores occupying only parts of Buildings, . . . 294 
 
 Meat and Vegetable Markets, .... 29 
 
 Groceries, ....... 87 
 
 Manufactories and Workshops, . . . . 151 
 
 Stables, ....... 108 
 
 Horses, ....... 585 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 THIED SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. [Section B.] 
 
 B. M. KEENEY, M. D . , 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — North by Spring Street, east by Broadway, south by 
 Canal Street, west by the North River. This Section [B] of the Third 
 District comprises the southern segment of the Eighth Ward. There are 33 
 squares of buildings embraced in it. 
 
 Topography. — The principal portion of this district consisted origi- 
 nally of swamp and marshy ground. A sand-hill rose gradually from 
 the low meadow line and extended to a point near the corner of Broad- 
 way and Broome, some GO feet above the present grade. Another of a 
 gravelly drift rising in the vicinity of Clark Street, had its greatest 
 elevation north of Spring. The Lispenard Meadow,* for such was the 
 name of the low swampy land, extended hoth north and south of Canal 
 Street, and entering this section a few feet south of Howard Street on 
 Broadway, it took a westerly direction from Mercer ; the line rrn northerly 
 crossing Wooster one-third way from Broome to Spring Streets, thence 
 northwesterly to Laurens ; thence southwesterly to a point a few feet 
 south of the southwest corner of Broome and Thompson ; thence north- 
 west to Sullivan, thence southwesterly to the centre of the square between 
 Sullivan and Varick, Broome and Watts ; thence northwest to the middle 
 of the square between Varick and Hudson, north of Dominick ; thence 
 southwesterly and westerly to the river at Greenwich Street. The shore 
 line ran due north and south just at the westerly edge of Greenwich Street, 
 thereby showing that the two squares, one of which is now the site of 
 Clinton Market, and the other between Greenwich and Wa shing ton 
 
 * See Dr. Harriot's Map of Hue Hard District. 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 EEPOET OF THE THIRD SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Streets, were reclaimed from the river. The meadow was covered more 
 or less by water with the rising of the tide. The outlet of the Collect 
 took its course about the line of Canal Street flowing to the river. A 
 stone bridge at Broadway was once the only means of crossing the stream ; 
 afterwards bridges at Church Street and at other points were built. 
 
 The greater part of these low lands were filled in with the earth from 
 the surrounding hills, while the two squares reclaimed from the river 
 were filled in at a later date, in part by the refuse and rubbish from old 
 buildings, cellars, etc. 
 
 The original level was low. The Avhole surface inclines gently towards 
 Canal Street, with a difference between tide-water elevations of 20 feet 6 
 inches on Broadway, between Canal and Spring (Canal 10 feet 6 inches, 
 Spring 31 feet above tide-water). Besides inclining toward Canal it 
 slopes from Broadway toward Thompson Street, with a difference be- 
 tween the above-mentioned streets of 19 feet on Spring and 3 feet 3 
 inches on Canal Street. From Thompson Street westerly the grade 
 ascends till we reach a line extending from the foot of Sullivan to the 
 corner of Clark and Spring Streets (23 feet 3 inches above tide- water). 
 From this line the inclination of the surface is gradually toward the river 
 4 feet above tide-level. That this district, with more than one-half made- 
 ground, in many places but a few feet from the original swampy land and 
 but 6 feet above tide-water, with several sewers that never more than 
 half empty their contents, should be the locality of a great number of in- 
 salubrious quarters, and the source of pestilential and infectious diseases, 
 would naturally be supposed, and which is confirmed by observations and 
 statistics herewith. 
 
 Streets. — The streets are all narrow, varying from 40 to GO feet, ex- 
 cepting that part of Broome between Broadway and Wooster, which is 
 some 75 feet wide. Canal Street, the southern boundary of this section, 
 some GO feet wide at Broadway, gradually widens to the river. Spring, 
 Broome, and Grand run parallel with each other in a northwesterly direc- 
 tion till they reach Sullivan, then inclining westerly to their terminations. 
 Mercer, Greene, Wooster, Laurens, Thompson, and Sullivan arc parallel 
 to each other, running northeasterly from Canal Street. Clark, Varick, 
 Hudson, Bcnwick, Greenwich, "Washington, and West all run nearly north 
 and south. The narrow streets, like Thompson, through which a double 
 car-track is laid, do not allow room for a wagon to pass a car on cither 
 side next to the walk. Laurens, Wooster, Clark, and Sullivan are in a 
 most filthy condition, giving off' insalubrious emanations on which, per- 
 haps, depend the many cases of fever, cholera infantum, dyscntory, and 
 pulmonary diseases. I have observed that near where other streets cross 
 
ORIGINAL TOPOGRAPHY. — SEWERAGE. 
 
 35 
 
 the above-named streets there is a greater proportionate amount of sick- 
 ness ; and this fact I have shown by special reports of typhus and typhoid 
 fever in Grand and Broome, and dysentery in Spring. 
 
 Pavements. — Broadway, "Washington, and Greenwich are paved with 
 trap-block pavement, all other streets with cobble stones, which in many 
 places are badly in need of repair. Some of the streets, like Sullivan, 
 Thompson, Laurens, and Watts, are higher at the corners than in the cen- 
 tre of the block, allowing the accumulations of slops and waste in the gut- 
 ters along the street, that would otherwise find its way to the sewer. I 
 would recommend in such cases where it is impracticable to raise the 
 grade, that a culvert or drain be made connecting with the sewer. This 
 would, in a measure, do away with such causes of insalubrity as arise 
 from pools of standing water and vegetable decay ; a striking instance 
 of which may have been noticed by thousands of our fellow-citizens during 
 the past summer in Thompson Street, while tbe Seventh Avenue car-track 
 was being laid. The emanations from this source were observable several 
 blocks away, and were attended by a material increase of sickness on that 
 line through my inspection district. 
 
 Sewerage. — The streets are all sewered, excepting Watts, Lam-ens, 
 Clark, Sullivan between Spring and Broome Streets, Grand between 
 Thompson and Sullivan Streets, Spring between Broadway and Greene, 
 Broome between Thompson and Sullivan, Dominick between Clark and 
 Varick Streets. The sewers are of the oval form, excepting the one in 
 Canal Street, which is built with a stone floor sloping toward the centre ; 
 its sides and top are of brick, the top is built in the form of an arch. 
 The Canal Street sewer empties at the head of the pier at the foot of 
 Canal Street, while the Spring Street sewer empties in the bulkhead ; 
 both below ordinary tide-water, but above low-tide level, thus allowing 
 the sewer gas to escape, which, with a westerly wind, is very disagreea- 
 ble to the people of the immediate neighborhood. I would recommend 
 that in locations where the mouth of the sewer cannot be constructed 
 below low-tide level, a covering be built in such a manner as to extend 
 into the water even at low tides, at the same time allowing sufficient 
 room for the free passage of the sewage. This plan would be a remedy 
 against the stench near the mouth of sewers, and would also prevent the 
 sewer gas from being driven back by westerly winds into houses with- 
 out traps. 
 
 An important fact in regard to these sewers is, that the tide entering 
 them at Canal Street, rises in the sewers of Thompson, Laurens, and 
 Wooster Streets, blocking the Thompson Street sewer at the corner of 
 Broome, and resulting in the overflow of the cellars, streets, and walks, in 
 
36 
 
 REPORT OF THE THIRD SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 case of a heavy fall of rain. This forcing back of the sewage by the 
 tide, affecting the drainage, overflowing cesspools and privies, must cer- 
 tainly be considered a great source of insalubrity, and consequent in- 
 crease of sickness and mortality in this section. That the atmosphere is 
 excessively moist, I can affirm from observations made with the hy- 
 grometer at the corner of Broome and Thompson Streets — the average 
 difference between the dry and wet bulbs showing 5ii degrees ; whilo 
 that of the standard hygrometer at the Eastern Dispensary, for the same 
 periods, gave an average of 7^ degrees. The difference (11 degrees) 
 between the average of the two hygrometers, shows the greater pro- 
 portionate amount of moisture at the corner of Broome and Thompson 
 Streets. 
 
 Observations at 66 Grand Street (rear), where typhus fever had 
 raged to some extent, gave an average of 3-^ degrees ; that of the stand- 
 ard during the same time, 6 T 9 7 degrees ; showing excessive humidity by 
 a difference of 3^ degrees at Grand Street, or 45 per cent, more mois- 
 ture than shown by the standard. 
 
 As a remedial measure, I would recommend that the mouths of the 
 sewers be supplied with a tidal trap or floodgate, opening and shutting 
 with the rising and falling of the tide. I am confident that a mechanical 
 arrangement might be devised which would so close the mouths of the 
 sewers as to prevent any reflow of sewage or water, and yet be self- 
 acting, opening whenever the level of the sewage should be above that of 
 the river. 
 
 The tide rising would so close this trap or valve, thus shutting off the 
 great body of water which now ebbs and flows beneath many of the 
 streets of this district. The public health would, no doubt, be materially 
 enhanced by this improvement. 
 
 Sanitary Characteristics of the Several Squares. — Of the 33 
 squares that arc comprised in this section, 7 of them arc in a good, 7 in 
 a mixed, and 19 of them in a bad sanitary condition. The first and 
 principal cause which renders the squares insalubrious, is the deficiency 
 of proper water and waste privileges and drainage, as in those streets 
 without sewers — Clark, Laurens, Watts, and parts of other streets ; im- 
 perfect surface-drainage, as in Thompson, Spring, Sullivan, Wooster, and 
 Broome. In all of these streets the amount of sickness has been greater 
 than in well-drained parts, as my daily reports will show. Privies that 
 arc not connected with sCwcrs, and those left by negligent landlords to 
 overflow, giving off their offensive and unwholesome gases, instances of 
 which were at No. hi Thompson and No. GG Grand, where typhus and 
 typhoid consigned to tlic grave 12 out of 18 cases. 
 
CAUSES OF SICKNESS AND MORTALITY. — THE PEOPLE. 
 
 37 
 
 The second cause can be found in the crowded condition of the tenant- 
 houses, as, for instance, the double-tenement Nos. 44 and 46 Thompson, 
 containing 45 families ; No. 10 Thompson, with 18 families ; No. 475 
 Broome, 17 families; and hundreds of others with an average of more 
 than 6 families. 
 
 The third cause of special insalubrity of family domiciles is the crowded 
 condition of the apartments ; allowing an insufficiency of fresh air, as at 
 No. 59 Thompson, where spotted fever occurred, I found eight people in two 
 small basement rooms ; and in the same court, where typhus raged last 
 spring, eight people were living in one attic room, the roof slanting to the 
 floor, preventing the occupants from standing erect, except in parts of the 
 room. Many other cases I might mention where I have found eight or more 
 persons living and sleeping in one room. It is very common to find a 
 small bedroom where four or five people sleep, perhaps some of them on 
 the floor. 
 
 The fourth cause : The filthy habits of the occupants, in not keeping 
 their persons and apartments clean ; allowing vermin to infest every thing. 
 The disposition of garbage and slops — often being thrown out of a back 
 window or between two houses in close proximity, there undergoing 
 decomposition and generating unhealthy effluvia. 
 
 Fifth cause : The vicious habits of thousands that inhabit this section, 
 and who follow a nightly vocation of assignation, thereby contaminating 
 and spreading widely the syphilitic disease and other maladies. 
 
 The Inhabitants. — The population of this section is made up of 
 various nationalities, and about equally divided into Americans, foreign- 
 ers, and negroes. About one-third of these are of the laboring class, 
 consisting mostly of foreigners and Americans. The majority of the 
 retail stores are kept by the foreigners, who are an industrious and hard- 
 working people. The Americans are mostly of old and respectable fami- 
 lies, living in their own houses, and, with few exceptions, are well to do, 
 while the negroes are a poor, lazy class, gaining their livelihood by pur- 
 suits attended with as little work as possible ; there are, however, many 
 exceptions in which the colored people — the washerwomen especially — 
 work hard for all they have. 
 
 The disreputable class is very large, as 101 brothels in part testify. 
 The prostitutes, however, are not all confined to brothels, hundreds of 
 these vicious women living in the tenant-houses, assuming the guise of 
 respectable people by day and following their vocation at night. This 
 class is composed of nearly all nationalities, not excepting our own ; they 
 lead a miserable existence, turning night into day by their sinful practices 
 and grovelling debaucheries, thus cutting short, as statistics prove, their 
 average period of life. 
 
38 
 
 EEPOET OF THE THIRD SANTTAEY DISTRICT. 
 
 The moral condition of many portions of this section of the city is 
 lamentable ; abounding with thieves, pickpockets, gamblers, and all sorts 
 of bad men and women, who are ready to do any thing for money. The 
 churches are few and small considering the dense population ; a small 
 proportion of the population is of the church-going class. The crowding 
 of people into tenant-houses has a great tendency to moral as well as phys- 
 ical depravity in all portions of my inspection district. 
 
 Buildings. — There are 1,379 buildings of all kinds ; and, deducting 
 the churches and factories, nearly every house is a dwelling. 607 are 
 tenant-houses ; 445 are stores ; 19 markets ; 261 liquor shops ; 101 
 brothels ; 27 factories ; 3 churches ; and 4 school-houses. 
 
 Only 242 are strictly private dwellings, and these are mostly old 
 buildings — built generally of brick, or frame houses with brick fronts. 
 They are generally small in size, being from two to four stories. They 
 are connected with sewers, except in those streets that have no sewers. 
 Some have water in the house, but the greater proportion have a hydrant 
 in the yard or under the front doorway. In those houses not connected 
 with the sewer, the waste is either carried in pails and thrown into the 
 street or allowed to flow through a small trough — in some cases flowing 
 freely over the walk, a source of great inconvenience to passers-by, be- 
 sides increasing the insalubrity of the district. The apartments are small 
 in size, especially the dormitories, allowing only room for bedstead, wash- 
 stand, &c, while the ventilation is entirely insufficient. There are no 
 flues, air usually being admitted only by door and windows ; consequently, 
 in cold weather, the air is breathed over and over again, as in the crowded 
 tenements, depriving the body of its necessary amount of oxygen, and 
 leading to decay and death. The kerosene is used to some extent, but gas 
 and stoves form the principal method of lighting and heating. The 
 water-closets are in the yards, with but few exceptions, and many arc not 
 connected with the sewers. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — The tenant-houses, which form nearly one-half of 
 (he whole number of buildings arc scattered throughout the district, and 
 with the exception of Clinton Market and three squares on Broadway arc to 
 be found in every square. The tenements arc more numerous between 
 Spring and Broome, from Clark to Mercer, and in the eight squares 
 from Sullivan to Greene, from Broome to Canal Streets. In the squaro 
 between Sullivan and Thompson, Spring and Broome, there aro 79 
 houses, 57 of them aro tenements. A greater part of these houses 
 arc old buildings, formerly occupied as private dwellings, but now 
 used without alteration as tenant-houses. The buildings arc mostly brick, 
 varying from two to four stories, except the new buildings which arc all 
 
TENANT-HOUSES. — PACKING. 
 
 39 
 
 from four to six stories high. There are, however, many dilapidated 
 frame houses in the section, several of them with stairs on the outside of 
 the huilding leading to each floor. They vary in size from a small shanty 
 with two families to three story houses with six to eight families. The 
 brick vary more in size than the frame houses ; some accommodating but 
 three families while other double-tenements contain as many as forty-five 
 families. There are many tenements without either water supply or 
 waste privileges, the occupants being compelled to patronize their 
 neighbors ; such is the case at No. — Thompson and No. — "Wooster 
 Streets (rear), two notoriously filthy places, where fever and other dis- 
 eases are always to be found. There is but a small proportion of the 
 houses that have water-pipes leading into them, and those are recently- 
 constructed tenements. Some have water in the rooms, others in the 
 halls, while a larger proportion have water on the first and second floors 
 only. The drainage of a few of the tenements is good, while that of the 
 majority is decidedly insufficient. In many houses that are connected 
 with the sewers, where the drainage would be perfect if kept free and 
 clean, the occupants persist in throwing garbage and rubbish into the 
 water-closets, and so blocking them up as to lead to offensive emanations, 
 disease, and death, as special report of two cases of cholera infantum oc- 
 curring at No. — Varick Street during the stoppage and accumulation of 
 faeces in water-closet, will testify. Man}' houses have a trough that leads 
 to the gutter, through which the slops and garbage are conveyed to the 
 street ; while others have no waste privileges, the occupants throwing 
 their slops out of a door or window, allowing it to stand in stagnant pools, 
 or find its way to the street through the alleys connected therewith ; the 
 " Thompson Street Arch" is a striking instance of the latter class. Very 
 few tenements have water-closets in the house ; they have privies in the 
 yards, which, as a rule, are insufficient for the accommodation of numbers 
 who are crowded into the houses ; many are not connected with the 
 sewers ; are seldom cleaned, being allowed to overflow in some cases, 
 rendering the neighborhood offensive with the insalubrious emanations. 
 The re are but few houses whose occupants have four rooms j there 
 are more who have three rooms ; the greater proportion have only two, 
 while there are hundreds of families who have but one, livin^ 
 and sleeping in the same room. In the buildings in which I have 
 calculated the size of the apartments, I find the area varies from 
 25 to 75 square feet and from 150 to COO cubic feet to each pcr« 
 son. These calculations were made in the apartments in which disease 
 were found, and perhaps are not fair estimates of healthy quarters. 
 Stoves and kerosene are the means of heating and lighting in tenant- 
 
±0 
 
 REPORT OF TIIE THIRD SAXITArT DISTRICT. 
 
 liouses, gas rarely being used. I have found many of the cellars occu- 
 pied by from one to three families. In the basements and cellars there 
 has been a greater proportionate amount of sickness, resulting from the 
 dampness. Rheumatism, pulmonary diseases, and cholera infantum have . 
 most often claimed my attention. The cellars are without ventilation ex- 
 cept by doors. The negroes who inhabit some of the cellars arc fond of 
 excluding the light by placing dark curtains at the windows, thereby add- 
 ing another cause to their already insalubrious quarters. I have often 
 seen people living in basements where the floor was perfectly saturated 
 with water. Another cause of insalubrity is found in the method of clean- 
 ing many of the tenements. Instead of scrubbing and thoroughly wiping, 
 the occupants dash pails of water upon the floors, then sweeping them 
 with a broom ; there remains a greater amount of moisture than is condu- 
 cive to health. 
 
 DRAM-Snors, &c. — There are 261 dram-shops ; 101 brothels, 
 and a large number of small " policy-shops." The latter are a 
 great curse to the people, especially the negro population, who are 
 so infatuated with policy-playing as to sacrifice all other comforts 
 and even spend their last cent in taking a chance. They are so absorbed 
 in this small way of gambling, that if they dream of a number, or even of 
 a person, they will try and ascertain his age, and taking his number of 
 years or the number dreamed of, will risk large amounts, hoping to make 
 a " hit." They seldom win, and the despondency that follows is drowned 
 in the " flowing bowl." The majority of the drinking shops arc low, 
 filthy places, some having disreputable women in attendance. The 
 brothels, with few exceptions, abound with venereal poison and vermin. 
 
 Stores. — There are four hundred and forty-five stores, and nineteen 
 markets. A few are wholesale stores, the larger part of them are along 
 Canal and Spring. Many are groceries which have bars for the sale of 
 liquor, and some have meat and fish-stands attached. They affect the 
 public health by promoting drunkenness, and in summer time by selling 
 both meat and vegetables which have been kept on hand too long for 
 healthy nutrition. Judging from the frequency with which I have found 
 disease (shown by special reports) associated with the grocery and meat 
 business as it is carried on in this section, I infer that the vegetable and 
 animal decomposition constantly going on produces a great deal of the 
 sickness and mortality. 
 
 Factories. — Arc all small, mostly pianoforte and cabinet manufac- 
 tories, employing but few hands ; having no particular effect upon the- 
 public health. 
 
 Staiilks. — There arc eighty stables in the district of my inspection ; 
 
CHOLEKA INFANTUM. ITS CAUSES. 
 
 41 
 
 thirteen of them public or livery, and sixty-eight of them private. That 
 they produce a deleterious effect upon the health of their immediate local- 
 ities I infer from the marked and fatal prevalence of certain peculiar dis- 
 eases in their immediate and most exposed vicinity. Cholera infantum 
 is one of the maladies here referred to. 
 
 Churches and School-Buildings. — There are hut three churches 
 and four school-houses. The confining of young children for several 
 hours a day in these houses is no doubt very injurious to their constitu- 
 tions, inducing, as it may, pulmonary tuberculosis. Three of these 
 school-houses are located in the most insalubrious part of this district. 
 Two of them, No. 64 Grand and No. 61 Thompson, are next to typhus 
 fever-nests. These are peculiarly liable to become agencies for spreading 
 widely any infectious disease. 
 
 Prevailing Diseases. — The prevailing diseases of the past season 
 have been fevers of the typhus, typhoid, remittent and intermittent types, 
 cholera morbus, cholera infantum, scarlatina, dysentery, and diarrhoea. 
 With few exceptions I find them all confined to the locality between 
 Varick and "Wooster Streets from Canal to Spring Streets. By referring 
 to the map of original ground it is seen that this part of the section is 
 nearly all made land filled in on the meadow. It is the lowest of the dis- 
 trict, poorly drained, and deficient in sewers. It is densely populated, 
 nearly all the houses being tenements. The typhus and typhoid fevers 
 have been of a malignant type in two houses, twelve out of eighteen cases 
 proving fatal. Cholera infantum has probably consigned many more to 
 the grave during the past summer than all other diseases in my inspection 
 district. In every case examined I have found it associated with some 
 well-marked source of insalubrity ; vegetable and animal decomposition 
 have been the most prominent causes. The proximity of stables and 
 offensive water-closets have often claimed my attention. In three cases, 
 in private practice, occurring in Tenth and Twelfth Streets, where the 
 children of the neighborhood were all well, the mothers of the three 
 children healthy, having a plentiful supply of good milk, none other than 
 the above-named causes were apparent. During the month of August 
 there were 576 deaths in the city from cholera infantum. 1,776 children 
 died from various causes during the four weeks ending with August 28, 
 1864. How many of those lives may have been saved under proper 
 sanitary rules and regulations I am unable to say. That 50 per cent, 
 die from prevcntible causes in my inspection district I do not doubt. I 
 have found very filthy and insalubrious quarters where sickness was sel- 
 dom known. These quarters were near the river. The increased ven- 
 tilation caused by the high winds sweeping from the river, with better 
 drainage than in many parts of the district, will probably explain the fact. 
 
42 
 
 REPORT OF THE THIRD SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Occasionally I have found typhus fever among immigrants ; it has 
 usually been of a mild type, resulting favorably, and has been but slightly 
 contagious during the past summer months. The same cases would no 
 doubt have infected whole neighborhoods during the cold season, when 
 all the doors and windows are closed, when the poison would be nur- 
 tured, and the inmates enfeebled by an insufficient supply of fresh air. 
 The mortality in the latter case would also be relatively greater. 
 
 The sanitary improvement in my district during the progress of my 
 inspection was plainly visible. Exceedingly filthy places, overflowing 
 cesspools and privies, which were numerous in my first visits, were sud- 
 denly cleaned. Often upon my second visit, with paper and pencil in my 
 hand to sketch the filthy scene, I would find the quarters cleaned and 
 whitewashed, and the air, instead of being laden with disagreeable odors, 
 would be comparatively pure and wholesome. Many of these sudden 
 transitions were from fear or a presumption that my inspection had some 
 official authority ; but the greater part were brought about by explaining 
 to the people the necessity of cleanliness. Pools of filthy water from 
 obstructions at the street corners, and accumulations along the gutters, 
 would quickly disappear, when the people would be convinced of the 
 deleterious effect upon the public health. 
 
 It will be well for the inhabitants of New York City, and especially for 
 those of this section, when there shall be laws not only to compel them 
 to keep their houses and surroundings clean and free from the effluvia re- 
 sulting from vegetable and animal decomposition, but to prevent the over- 
 crowding of tenant-houses, where fatal diseases arc generated, and where 
 death walks stealthily around. In concluding this report I feel warranted 
 in stating that if my labors have not been attended with results which 
 have advanced the cause of science, they have, as I believe, been instru- 
 mental in a marked improvement of the sanitary condition of Section B 
 of the Third Inspection District. 
 
 Statistical Recapitulation. 
 
 Squares, 33 Stores, 445 
 
 " in good sanitary condition, 7 Liquor shops, .... 2C1 
 
 " in mixed " " 7 Moat and vegetablo markets, . 19 
 
 " in very lad, " 19 Brothels, .... 101 
 
 Houses, 1,379 Factories, ... .27 
 
 " private, . . . 242 Churches, .... 8 
 
 " tcnan t, . . . . C07 School houses, .... 4 
 
 " roar .... 207 Stables 80 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FOURTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 EZRA R. PULLING, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — The Fourth District, comprising the Fourth Ward, ii 
 bounded by Chatham, Catharine, and South Street, Peck Slip, Ferry, and 
 Spruce Streets. Its average length and breadth are respectively about 1,900 
 and 1,600 feet. 
 
 ToroGiiAPHY. — Deducting the surface occupied by streets, &c, a 
 superficies remains of about 2,240,000 square feet, or about 8,227 square 
 rods, equal to 896 building lots 25x100 feet. The soil is sandy and 
 porous. About one-fifth of the entire area is artificial, having been 
 filled in at a remote period. It includes a depressed space near its west- 
 ern border, formerly known as Beehnan's Swamp, which contains about 
 100,000 square feet, and still retains its paludal designation among the 
 leather dealers by whose places of business it is now chiefly occupied. 
 
 The northeast and the northwest corners are the most elevated points, 
 each being about thirty-six feet above high-water mark. From the former, 
 the ground slopes rapidly south and west. From the latter, the slope is by 
 a somewhat abrupt declivity, south and cast. The average elevation of the 
 district above high-water mark is about sixteen feet. Its natural drain- 
 age is good, as the ground, except in the vicinity of the river, is generally 
 sloping, the declivity being steepest in those streets which run from 
 Chatham to South. 
 
 The following named streets and parts of streets have no sewers with- 
 in the boundaries of this ward : East Broadway, Henry, Hague, Chest- 
 nut, New Chambers, South, Front, Water, Cherry from Catharine to 
 Roosevelt, Pearl from William to Bowery, Madison from Pearl to Roose- 
 velt, Oliver from Chatham to Madison, Frankfort from Cliff to Bowery. 
 
44 
 
 EEPOET OF THE FOURTH SANITAKY DISTEICT. 
 
 All the sewers empty into the East River below high-water mark ; for 
 ahout one-half their entire length they are swept out by the refluent 
 tide.* 
 
 Of the 714 buildings classed as tenant-houses, less than one-half- Avere 
 found to have a waste-pipe or drain connected directly with the sewer. 
 Where this is wanting, liquid refuse is emptied on the sidewalk or into 
 the street, or in some instances into sinks in the domiciles communicating 
 with a common pipe which discharges its contents into the open gutter to 
 run perhaps hundreds of feet, giving forth the most noisome exhalations, 
 and uniting its fetid streams with numerous others from similar sources, 
 before reaching its subterranean destination. 
 
 Slops from rear buildings of such premises arc usually emptied into 
 a shallow gutter cut in the flagging and extending from the yard, or 
 space between front and rear buildings, to the street. This is often 
 clogged up by semi-fluid filth, so that the alley and those parts of the 
 yard through which it runs are not unfrequcntly overflown and sub- 
 merged to the depth of several inches. 
 
 There are more than four hundred families in this district whose homes 
 can only be reached by wading through a disgusting deposit of filthy refuse. 
 In some instances, a staging of plank, elevated a few inches above the 
 surface, is constructed through the alleys. This affords to the residents 
 the advantage of a dry walk, but in a sanitary point of view its influence 
 is scarcely favorable, since it prevents the removal of the offensive mat- 
 ters beneath. 
 
 I cannot report favorably on the condition of the thoroughfares in my 
 district. Belgian pavement has been laid in Chatham, New Bowery, 
 New Chambers, and South Streets, and in part of Pearl Street. All the 
 other streets have the cobble-stone pavement, which in most instances is 
 in bad condition, and in all is very difficult to keep clean. As a sanitary 
 measure alone, an improved pavement is greatly needed in all these 
 densely-populated streets. It is hardly necessary to add that a thorough 
 cleansing is equally required. 
 
 I have indicated on the large map which accompanies this report, the 
 localities in which accumulations of street-filth were observed at the time 
 of inspection. From this it appears that less than one-third of the 
 entire street surface was in a tolerably cleanly condition, while of the 
 cobble-stone pavement less than one-sixth part was clean. Much of tlio 
 latter, in fact, never is clean, for the filth lodging in the interstices of its 
 
 • Tho original water-line in copied by permission from a new topographical mnp by 
 Gen. E. L. VielA, whose courtesy I Ukc this opportunity to acknowledge. 
 
TENANT AND CKOWDED TIOESES. 
 
 4j 
 
 surface is never wholly removed. Besides, it is often depressed or worn 
 into deep ruts, which furnish receptacles for both solid and fluid matters 
 of the most offensive character. 
 
 I think there is no more efficient means of cleansing such streets 
 than by directing a stream of water over successive portions of their sur- 
 face, thus washing the filthy deposit into the gutters and thence into the 
 sewers. 
 
 Courts and alleys are numerous, the latter generally narrow, averag- 
 ing less than three feet in width, where they form conduits for the drain- 
 age from rear houses ; they are uniformly in bad condition. 
 
 The entire number of buildings in this district is 1,507. 
 
 Classified according to the purposes for which they are used : 
 
 770 are occupied chiefly or wholly as residences. 
 * 682 " " " for business purposes. 
 
 8 are Churches and Schools. 
 47 are Stables. 
 
 Classified according to the material of which they are constructed : 
 1,394 are built of brick, stone, or iron. 
 113 " wood. 
 
 Classified according to position : 
 1,342 front on the street. 
 165 are rear houses. 
 
 Of the 165 rear buildings, 
 108 are Tenant-houses. 
 20 are occupied for business purposes. 
 37 arc Stables. 
 
 Tenant and Crowded Houses.— Under this head I have included : 
 1st. All tenant-houses built as such ; and, 2d. All those used chiefly or 
 wholly as residences in which the occupied space gives a pro rata of less 
 than 800 cubic feet to each inhabitant, without reference to the number 
 of families or the population, or to the original design or construction of 
 the buildings. The total of these is 714, of which 656 are brick and 
 58 arc wood. 
 
 Of these 242 were built as tenant-houses and divided into domiciles. 
 Of these 472 were originally designed for occupancy by a single fam- 
 ily or for business purposes. 
 
 * Many of these have one or more families residing in them. 
 
46 
 
 REPORT OF THE FOURTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 The first class is sub-divided as follows in accordance with the num- 
 ber of domiciles : 
 
 Of those having 2 domiciles there are 8 
 
 (t 
 
 a 
 
 3 " 
 
 tt 
 
 16 
 
 If 
 
 a 
 
 4 " 
 
 tt 
 
 33 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 5 " 
 
 tt 
 
 14 
 
 (( 
 
 tt 
 
 6 " 
 
 a 
 
 44 
 
 (( 
 
 a 
 
 7 " 
 
 a 
 
 15 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 8 " 
 
 a 
 
 28 
 
 tt 
 
 a 
 
 9 M 
 
 a 
 
 11 
 
 tt 
 
 it 
 
 10 " 
 
 tt 
 
 25 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 11 " 
 
 tt 
 
 3 
 
 (i 
 
 tt 
 
 12 " 
 
 tt 
 
 10 
 
 tt 
 
 tt 
 
 13 " 
 
 a 
 
 2 
 
 a 
 
 tt 
 
 14 « 
 
 it 
 
 4 
 
 tt 
 
 u 
 
 15 » 
 
 tt 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 tt 
 
 16 » 
 
 tt 
 
 12 
 
 tt 
 
 it 
 
 17 « 
 
 tt 
 
 1 
 
 li 
 
 tt 
 
 18 " 
 
 ct 
 
 2 
 
 il 
 
 tt 
 
 20 " 
 
 (( 
 
 5 
 
 tt 
 
 20 to 50 " 
 
 a 
 
 6 
 
 tt 
 
 50 to 100 " 
 
 it 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 over 100 " 
 
 tt 
 
 1 
 
 The whole number of domiciles in houses of this class is 2,119. 
 The average number of domiciles in each house of this claos is 
 about 8f. 
 
 Both classes together are subdivided in accordance with the number 
 of families occupying each house at the time of inspection : 
 
 Of those occupied by 1 family there were 24 
 
 (I 
 
 |l 
 
 2 " 
 
 " 66 
 
 (( 
 
 (( 
 
 3 » 
 
 « 75 
 
 (( 
 
 || 
 
 4 « 
 
 " 69 
 
 (( 
 
 (( 
 
 5 » 
 
 " 49 
 
 M 
 
 II 
 
 6 " 
 
 « 80 
 
 (( 
 
 (( 
 
 7 " 
 
 h 42 
 
 (1 
 
 (( 
 
 8 « 
 
 " 40 
 
 II 
 
 (( 
 
 9 " 
 
 it 17 
 
 II 
 
 (( 
 
 10 « 
 
 » 29 
 
 II 
 
 «( 
 
 11 « 
 
 it 4 
 
DESCRIPTION' OF A TENANT-HOUSE. 
 
 47 
 
 Of those occupied by 12 families there were 12 
 
 (« 
 
 " 13 " 
 
 
 2 
 
 it 
 
 u 14 » 
 
 t( 
 
 4 
 
 U 
 
 u 15 « 
 
 tc 
 
 1 
 
 «( • 
 
 « 16 " 
 
 it 
 
 12 
 
 u 
 
 " 17 " 
 
 tt 
 
 1 
 
 (( 
 
 u ig « 
 
 it 
 
 1 
 
 K 
 
 « 19 " 
 
 u 
 
 1 
 
 20 and less than 50 •' 
 
 (C 
 
 6 
 
 50 and less than 100 " 
 
 (( 
 
 1 
 
 
 over 100 " 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 not ascertained " 
 
 tt 
 
 177 
 
 average population 
 
 of this class of houses 
 
 is 
 
 about 28. 
 
 Description op an ordinary Tenant-House. — As an example of an 
 ordinary tenant-house, I select one from James Street for description. It 
 is a brick building five stories high. A door of entrance and a liquor 
 store occupy the front of the first story. Entering a hall 4^ feet wide, we 
 grope our way up a steep stair-case 2^ feet wide, which is perfectly dark, 
 and reach the second-story landing, from which open four doors communi- 
 cating with the same number of domiciles. 
 
 Calling at the first of these we enter a room 14 X 12 feet with ceiling 
 8 feet high, having on one side two moderate-sized windows. The small 
 fire-place is closet), and a stove exhausts rapidly the scanty atmospheric 
 supply which finds its way into the apartment through crevices of the 
 door and windows. We observe that a pungent odor of coal-gas pervades 
 the apartment. 
 
 Opening into this room is another, having an area of 9x12 feet, with 
 the same height of ceiHng as the former. It has no other opening than 
 the door of communication, and of course possesses no means whatever 
 of efficient ventilation. Looking into this Ave sec two beds beside a quan- 
 tity of bedding on the floor between them, indicating that this is the dor- 
 mitory of half a dozen persons. A sickening and stifling odor, most 
 offensive to the unaccustomed senses, pervades this apartment and poisons 
 the atmosphere inhaled by the residents. 
 
 The simple fact that this is the abode of six persons might be a suffi- 
 cient explanation of the latter phenomenon ; but when Ave recollect that they 
 belong to a class Avho attribute most of their physical ills to a cause, tho 
 exact reverse of that to which they arc generally due, viz., to exposure 
 to the external atmosphere, and Avhose sanitary creed teaches them 
 to exclude it from their apartments as far as possible, avc can only 
 
48 
 
 EEPOET OF THE FOUETH SANITAEY DISTEICT. 
 
 wonder that the mcphitic gases generated and concentrated in these 
 abodes do not destroy health and life even more speedily than they ap- 
 pear to do. 
 
 We find in this domicile a pro rata of about 370 cubic feet to each 
 occupant. At the time of visit, the mother and two small children are 
 the only members of the family present. The latter we find to be types 
 of a class. Although they have no form of active disease pres- 
 ent, they are strumous, debilitated, and lacking in muscular develop- 
 ment. We notice that the conjunctiva is inflamed, and learn without 
 surprise that every member of the family has been affected with ophthal- 
 mia. The mucous membrane of the eyes as well as of the air-passages 
 resents the constant irritation of smoke and dust. 
 
 The remaining domiciles are counterparts of the first as to arrange- 
 ment and condition, and almost so as regards their occupants. The halls 
 are practically destitute of ventilation. The occasional opening of the 
 door of entrance below, or of those of the domiciles above, scarcely has 
 any favorable influence on the condition of the atmosphere. From the 
 latter sources, indeed, the halls are constantly filled with noisome and 
 fetid exhalations. Their floors are washed occasionally though rarely, 
 but the walls frequently remain for years without white-washing or 
 cleansing. Wherever the hand comes in contact with them they impart 
 a sticky or pasty sensation ; and when scraped, an actual deposit of filth is 
 brought away. 
 
 Pursuing our investigations, we next examine the rear of the 
 premises : 
 
 Through a narrow alley, we enter a small court-yard which the lofty 
 buildings in front and rear keep in almost perpetual shade. Entering it 
 from the street on a sunny day the atmosphere seems like that of a well. 
 The yard, which is about 25 feet square, is filled with recently-washed 
 clothiug suspended to dry. In the centre of this space arc the privies 
 used by the population of both front and rear-houses. Their presence is 
 quite as perceptible to the smell as to the sight. 
 
 Making our way through this enclosure, and descending four or five 
 steps, we find ourselves in the basement of the rear-building. We enter 
 a room whose low ceiling is blackened with smoke, and its Avails dis- 
 colored witli damp. In front, opening on a narrow area covered with 
 green mould, two small windows, their tops scarcely level with the court- 
 yard, affoid at noonday a twilight-illumination to the apartment. 
 Through their broken panes they admit the damp air laden with effluvia 
 which constitutes the vital atmosphere inhaled by all who are immured 
 in tlii.s dismal abode. 
 
TENANT-HOUSE IN GOTHAM COTJET. 
 
 49 
 
 A door at the back of this room communicates with another which is 
 entirely dark, and has but this one opening. Both rooms together have 
 an area about eighteen feet square, and these apartments are the home 
 of six persons. The father of the family, a day laborer, is absent. The 
 mother, a wrinkled crone at thirty, sits rocking in her arms an infant 
 whose pasty and pallid features tell that decay and death are usurping 
 the place of health and life. Two older children are in the street, which 
 is their only playground, and the only place where they can go to breathe 
 an atmosphere that is even comparatively pure. A fourth child, emaciated 
 to a skeleton, and with that ghastly and unearthly look which marasmus 
 impresses on its victims, has reared its feeble frame on a rickety chair 
 against the window sill, and is striving to get a glimpse at the smiling 
 heavens whose light is so seldom permitted to gladden its longing eyes. 
 Its youth has battled nobly against the terribly morbid and devitalizing 
 agents which have oppressed its childish life — the poisonous air, the 
 darkness, and the damp ; but the battle is nearly over, it is easy to decide 
 where the victory will be. 
 . My district contains one tenant-house which has become rather noto- 
 rious in consequence of having been the subject of several special reports, 
 one of which I made about three years since. As this establishment is 
 very extensive, and possesses some peculiar characteristics, and as the 
 description of these premises and their population which I gave in that 
 report is equally applicable now, I quote from it here : * 
 
 " The building known as No. — and No. — Cherry Street forms a part 
 of what has heretofore been known as ' Gotham Court.' As measured, it 
 is 34 feet 4 inches wide in front and rear, is 234 feet long and 5 stories high. 
 On the north it is contiguous to a large tenant-house fronting on Roose- 
 velt Street. On the west an alley 9 feet wide separates it from a similar 
 structure forming a part of the ' Court.' On the east another alley, 7 
 feet wide, divides it from the rear of a number of houses on Roosevelt 
 Street. 
 
 " In the basement of this building are the privies, through which the 
 Croton-water is permitted to run for a short time occasionally ; but this is 
 evidently insufficient to cleanse them, for their emanations render the first 
 story exceedingly offensive, and may be perceived as a distinct odor as 
 high as the third floor. 
 
 " The contents of the privies are discharged into subterranean drains 
 or sewers, which run through each alley and communicate with the exter- 
 
 * The Inspector of the Fourtli District prepared the special report here referred to wben 
 he was Visiting Physician to the New York City Dispensary in the same district in the 
 year 1859-60— Editor. 
 
 4 
 
50 » REPORT OF THE FOURTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
A HUMAN PACKING-HOUSE. 
 
 51 
 
 ill 
 
 " GOTO AM COUKT."-GEOUND FLAN AND SURROUNDINGS. 
 
52 
 
 REPORT OF THE FOURTH SAKTTARY DISTRICT. 
 
 nal atmosphere by a series of grated openings, through which feted exha- 
 lations are continually arising. These openings receive the drainage of 
 the buildings, besides the refuse matter which is not too bulky to pass 
 through the gratings, a bordering of disgusting filth frequently surround- 
 ing them. 
 
 " This structure contains twelve principal divisions, each having a 
 common staircase communicating with 10 domiciles, making 120 tene- 
 ments in all. Each tenement consists of two rooms, the largest of which 
 is 14 feet 8 inches long, 9 feet 6 inches wide, and 8 feet 4 inches high. 
 The smaller, having the same length and height, is 8 feet 6 inches wide. 
 The two apartments together contain 1,955^ cubic feet. Each room has 
 one small Avindow. The doors leading from the landings are contiguous 
 to the wall in which these windows are situated, so that it is impossible 
 for a current of air to pass through the rooms under any circumstances. 
 
 " At the time of visit 49 of the tenements were either vacant or the 
 occupants absent. In the remaining 71 there were reported as residing 
 504 persons, averaging a little more than 7 persons to each occupied 
 domicile. The entire amount of space in the rooms occupied is 138,840 
 cubic feet, which would be equal to a single room 118 feet square, and 
 about 10 feet high, giving each individual an average of about 275 cubic 
 feet, equal to a closet 5 feet square and 11 feet high. It must be recol- 
 lected that the above total space contains not only its 504 inhabitants, 
 but their furniture, bedding, and household utensils, besides no small por- 
 tion of their excretions, as is painfully evident to every one who, in these 
 regions, has the misfortune to possess an acute sense of smell. Of the 
 entire number of tenements, four only were found in a condition ap- 
 proaching cleanliness. It need scarcely be said that the entire establish- 
 ment swarms with vermin. 
 
 " In seven of the tenements tailoring was carried on. In five out of 
 seven the articles manufactured were for the use of the army. In two 
 of these rooms patients were found sick of contagious diseases. One was 
 a case of typhus fever, the other of measles. 
 
 "It was admitted that 19 persons were unvaccinatcd. These were 
 chiefly children, but it is probable that a much larger number arc unpro- 
 tected from variola, for in several instances those who asserted that the 
 operation had been successfully performed, failed, on examination, to ex- 
 hibit a vaccine scar. 
 
 " The average length of time that the residents have occupied tho 
 premises is reported to be about two years and eight months. There havo 
 been 138 births, including 12 still-born, in these families during their term 
 of residence in the building. Of these only 77 arc now living, showing an 
 
54 
 
 EEPORT OF THE FOUKTH SAHTTAET DISTRICT. 
 
 infant mortality of over 44 per cent, in two years and eight months ; but 
 as by far the greater number of these deaths occur during the first year, it 
 may be safely assumed that 30 per cent, of those born here do not survive 
 a twelvemonth. The total number of deaths reported as occurring in the 
 families now occupying the premises during their term of residence there, 
 is 98, or about 19£ per cent, of the population for that period. 
 
 " Of the 504 inmates, 146, or about 29 per cent., were found to be suf- 
 fering from diseases of a more or less serious character, among which 
 were four cases of small-pox (three of them unvaccinated) , eight cases of 
 typhus fever, seven cases of scarlatina, and four of measles in the eruptive 
 stage, twenty-seven cases of infantile marasmus, twelve cases of phthisis 
 pulmonalis, five cases of dysentery, three cases of chronic diarrhoea, and 
 a large number of slight cases of diarrhoea and of cutaneous eruptions. 
 
 " It is difficult to form a satisfactory estimate of the comparative fre- 
 quency of the different diseases heretofore prevailing, the inmates being, 
 in a great proportion of cases, ignorant of their character. It is, of course, 
 equally difficult to arrive at the causes of death, but it is pretty well ascer- 
 tained that at least twenty cases of small-pox occurred during the past 
 year, of which six were fatal. Scarlatina is assigned as the cause of six- 
 teen deaths occurring during the above period. Typhus fever undoubt- 
 edly claimed numerous victims, as it has been quite prevalent. To the 
 unaccustomed eye it is a sad and striking spectacle to witness the atten- 
 uated forms, the sunken eyes, the pinched and withered faces of the little 
 patients, young in years but old in suffering, who are the prey of infan- 
 tile marasmus. A glance is sufficient to designate this as one of the 
 ghostly janitors, ever ready to open wide the gate which leads to early 
 death. 
 
 "A description of these premises would be incomplete without, at 
 least, a passing notice of two establishments occupying the front por- 
 tion of the first story. One is termed a grocery, the other a liquor store. 
 Both arc apparently pretty well patronized. At the former are retailed a 
 variety of articles of food, including partially-decayed vegetables, rather 
 suspicious looking solids, bearing respectively the names of butter and 
 cheese, and a decidedly suspicious fluid bearing the name of milk. Beer 
 and alcoholic compounds are also dispensed. At the adjoining shop the 
 staple commodities are those indescribable compounds of sundry known 
 and unknown ingredients, which arc sold as ' pure imported wines and 
 liquors.' I believe from what I could ascertain that these liquors arc used 
 to a considerable extent by almost every family on the premises, a fact, in- 
 deed, which might bo expected, for in such apartments as they occupy the 
 poisonous air begets a deadly lassitude, and generates an inordinate desiro 
 
SUB MA RINE DWELLINGS. 
 
 55 
 
 for stimulants. To the effect of these unwholesome viands and poisonous 
 beverages may probably be traced much of the diarrhoea which prevails 
 here even at this season, and which is vastly increased in amount during 
 the summer months. 
 
 " On the whole, perhaps, this section of Gotham Court presents about 
 an average specimen of tenantrhouses in the lower part of the city in 
 respect to salubrity. There are some which are more roomy, have better 
 means of ventilation, and are kept cleaner ; but there are many which are 
 in far worse condition, and exhibit a much higher rate of mortality than 
 this." 
 
 The number of inhabited basements and cellars is 224, occupied by 
 268 families, or about 1,400 persons. Their depth below the "curb" or 
 street level varies from 2 to 8 feet, averaging about 4^ feet. 
 
 are below high-water mark. 
 " less than 10 feet above high-water mark. 
 " from 10 to 20 « " 
 " " 20 to 30 " " 
 " over 30 " " 
 
 In the sub-tidal basements 19 families, or 110 persons, live heneath the 
 level of the sea. 
 
 This submarine region is not only excessively damp but is liable to 
 sudden inroads from the domains of Neptune. At high tide the water 
 often wells up through the floors, submerging them to a considerable depth. 
 The constant repetition of this aquatic episode in domestic life, has led to 
 the abandonment, as residences, of several of these basements, the number 
 now occupied being much smaller than it was formerly. 
 
 They are all damp, those in the least elevated localities, of course, 
 being most so. In very many cases the vaults of privies are situated on 
 the same or a higher level, and their contents frequently ooze through 
 walls into the occupied apartments beside them. Fully one-fourth of these 
 subterranean domiciles arc pervaded by a most offensive odor from this 
 source, and rendered exceedingly unwholesome as human habitations. 
 These are the places in which we most frequently meet with typhoid fever 
 and dysentery during the summer months. I estimate the amount of 
 sickness of all kinds affecting the residents of basements and cellars com- 
 pared with that occurring among an equal number of the inhabitants of 
 floors above ground, as being about in the ratio of 3 to 2. 
 
 Privies. — Of the privies in this district less than 30 per cent, arc con- 
 nected with drains or sewers. About 15 per cent, arc situated in houses 
 
 The floors of 16 
 « 91 
 " 84 
 « 28 
 " 5 
 
56 
 
 .REPORT OF THE FOURTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 occupied as dwellings, generally in the basement. At least 10 per cent, 
 were found in a very offensive condition. The proximity of the latter to 
 the fever localities is shown by the large map. There is a section of my 
 district embracing at least nine blocks, in every part of which the pecu- 
 liar odor arising from privies is always distinctly perceptible during the 
 summer months. From this region fever is never absent. I refer to 
 typhus and typhoid, for intermittent and remittent fever do not prevail in 
 this neighborhood even in the low tract adjoining the river. Such a gen- 
 tle fiend as paludal miasma flies affrighted from the terrific phantoms of 
 disease that reign supreme in this domain of pestilence. 
 
 Rents. — In regular tenant-houses the rent of each domicile at present 
 averages $9 per month, or $108 per year ; the entire rent of each of these 
 houses thus averaging $950 per annum. 
 
 Excessive Crowding of Mouses upon Lots. — In some cases front and 
 rear buildings are situated on lots less than 80 feet deep. They are gen- 
 erally crowded into the smallest possible space, and are constructed in the 
 cheapest manner. 
 
 They are, in many instances, owned by large capitalists, by whom 
 they are farmed out to a class of factors who make this their especial 
 business.* These men pay to the owners of the property a sum which is 
 
 * The diagram on the opposite page represents an area eighty yards long and fifty yards 
 wide, including the cul-de-sac at the termination of Cliff Street. It illustrates the prox- 
 imity to crowded habitations of offensive and dangerous nuisances, often observed in the 
 lower part of the city. The diagram presents an accurate ground plan of each tenant- 
 house which it embraces. Within this space are 20 dwellings occupied by 111 families, 
 and having a population of 538 persons. A soap-and-candlc factory, a tannery, and five 
 stables, in which are kept not less than 30 horses, are also wholly or partially included 
 within its limits. 
 
 A, B, C, D, E, are tenant-houses fronting on Vandewater Street. An alley four feet 
 wide running through C forms the sole communication with the five tenant-houses F, G, 
 H, I, J, which open into the small court R, in which stands their common privy, f, situ- 
 ated within three feet of the hall door of one of the houses, which is constantly pervaded 
 by its noisome odor ; c, d, c, are privies situated immediately under the windows of the 
 houses F, G, II ; a and b are privies belonging to the tenant-houses A and B ; K, L, M, 
 N, are tenant-houses standing back to back with two of those in the court above 
 mentioned and with three stables to which access is had from Vandewater Street. The 
 position of two stables fronting on Cliff Street will also be observed. The soap-and- 
 candlc factory, whose frontage is shown in the cut, is a very extensivo one, and its emana- 
 tions vitiate the atmosphere for a considerable space around. 
 
 T, T, T, represent a scries of tan vats, in the rear of a leather factory on Frankfort 
 Street, which generally contain a largo number of green hides in a very offensive condi- 
 tion. The peculiar stench from this source is usually quite perceptible through the entiro 
 area shown in the engraving. 
 
 This locality lies on the borders of a former marsh known as " Bookman's Swamp." The 
 
CROWDED AREAS AND AN INSALUBRIOUS QUARTER. 
 
58 
 
 REPORT OF THE FOURTH SAMTARY DISTRICT. 
 
 considered a fair return on the capital invested, and rely for their profits 
 (which are often enormous) on the additional amount which they can ex- 
 tort from the wretched tenants whose homes frequently hecome almost 
 untenantable for want of repairs, which the ; ' agent" deems it to his inter- 
 est to withhold. These men contrive to absorb most of the scanty surplus 
 which remains to the tenants after paying for their miserable food, shelter, 
 and raiment. They are, in many instances, proprietors of low groceries, 
 liquor stores, and "policy shops" connected with such premises — the 
 same individual often being the actual owner of a large number. Many 
 of the wretched population are held by these men in a state of abject de- 
 pendence and vassalage little short of absolute slavery. 
 
 These are the men whose influence, purchased by corrupt politicians, 
 secures their election to the municipal ofiices which they disgrace. Hold- 
 ing in their grasp the votes of their dependents, and by their combined 
 action being thus enabled to elect whom they please, their power is almost 
 supreme. In the past they have controlled our health organization, and 
 made it what it is. In the future they propose to perpetuate it. Confi- 
 dent in the system which secures their political strength, they set at de- 
 fience the wishes and opinions of all who take an intelligent interest in 
 the welfare of our city. 
 
 Overcrowding, the source of the greatest sanitary and social evils, 
 6teadily increases in the Fourth District. Within the last ten years the 
 extension of Bowery and Chambers Street through the most densely-pop- 
 ulated portions of this district, has thrown into thoroughfares a large sec- 
 tion formerly occupied principally by tenant-houses. During the same 
 period, another large section has been devoted to business purposes ; but, 
 although these combined causes have reduced by fully one-third the inhab- 
 ited area, yet the population remains about the same as before. Good 
 hygienic conditions cannot be obtained until the present system of packing 
 is broken up and the pro rata of cubic space to the individual at least 
 doubled. The removal of one-half of the present population of the district 
 will be a necessary preliminary to any complete system of sanitary reform. 
 The establishment of suitable residences for the poor, if not accom- 
 plished by private enterprise, should become a subject of municipal and 
 legislative action. 
 
 appearance of every inhabitant of this region indicates a low and vitiated condition 
 of the system, rendering it specially susceptible to adynamic forms of fever, which, during 
 epidemic visitations, have on several occasions spread with terrific rapidity through the en- 
 tire quarter. Typhus fever has prevailed during the past year to a considerable extent in 
 some of these houses, while small-pox has been rife in the tcnantrhouscs on Vandcwatcr 
 Street. It has been observed that scarlatina is especially malignant and fatal here. 
 
HOMES FOR THE POOK. — MARKETS. — FOOD. 
 
 59 
 
 A tract equal in extent to Central Park, occupied by dwellings 
 designed for their homes, -which should possess the indispensable hygienic 
 conditions of sufficient air-space, and light, good ventilation and drain- 
 age, and placed under such police regulations as should secure the exclu- 
 sion or prompt suppression of all nuisances, would be an inestimable boon 
 to this class, and a greater benefit to the entire community than even the 
 splendid ornament to our city above named. Simply as an investment 
 of funds there is no doubt that such an enterprise would pay, but its ben- 
 efits could not be measured by any standard of pecuniary profit. It 
 would be the proudest work of which our imperial city could boast, and 
 thousands of her sons thus rescued from degradation and wretchedness 
 would, in future years, " rise up and call her blessed." 
 
 Vacant Lots, &c. — There are but few vacant lots in this district, 
 and on most of them buildings are now in process of construction. 
 There are fifteen coal yards. As far as I am aware, none of them exer- 
 cise any unfavorable influence on the public health beyond that caused by 
 the great amount of dust which at times arises from them, to be inhaled 
 by the neighboring residents. 
 
 The only place of sepulture is the " Jews' Burying Ground," a very 
 ancient cemetery, which of late years has been much reduced in size 
 by the extension of the Bowery. It now has a frontage on the latter 
 street. Its present area is about 5,000 square feet. 
 
 Liquor Stores. — The number of liquor stores and drinking places is 
 446 ; which is one to every 8 families, or one to every 49 persons. 329 
 are located in houses otherwise occupied as residences ; 28 are reputed to 
 be brothels ; 5 or 6 are " sailors' dance-houses." The number of places 
 where articles of food are sold is 134, or one to every 27 families, or 
 164 persons. 
 
 Food and Markets. — The quality of the food sold at the corner gro- 
 ceries and butchers' shops in this neighborhood deserves a more extended 
 notice than it can receive here. A casual examination shows much of it 
 to be unfit for human sustenance. Unwholesome meat, particularly slunk 
 veal, is constantly vended and consumed. Piles of pickled herrings are 
 exposed to the air till the mass approaches a condition of putridity ; and 
 this slimy food, with wilted and decayed vegetables, sausages not above 
 suspicion, and horrible pics, composed of stale and unripe fruits, whose 
 digestion no human stomach can accomplish, all find ready purchasers. 
 
 These decaying animal and vegetable remains are daily entombed in 
 the protuberant stomachs of thousands of children, whose pallid, expres- 
 sionless faces and shrunken limbs are the familiar attributes of chi'dhood 
 in these localities. They constitute the food of thousands of prematurely- 
 
60 REPORT OF THE FOURTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 aged men and women, who seek relief from the poisonous effects of such 
 viands in the more poisonous stimulants which are vended side by side 
 with them. The latter are almost universally used by the population of 
 this district, and, it need scarcely be said, are adulterated to the greatest 
 possible extent. Narcotic poisons take the place of the more expensive 
 alcohol, while mineral acids are often used to give pungency to the bev- 
 erage. Nor are the other articles of drink sold to the denizens of this 
 quarter more pure or less injurious than the solid food. Milk preserves 
 little more of its original qualities than the color and the name. The 
 " fresh-ground coffee " used here has never been fanned by the breezes of 
 "Araby the blest." It is innocent of the slightest association with 
 swamps of Java or Brazilian plains. It may be interesting to some 
 portions of the public to know something of its history previous to its 
 assuming its status and title as a beverage. It runs somewhat in this 
 wise : That professional chiffonier, the New York ragpicker, derives the 
 emoluments of his calling from several distinct sources. The products 
 extracted from the dubious mines in which he delves, viz., the gutter, the 
 garbage-box, the ash-barrel, &c, are various, having only this in com- 
 mon, that they are all extremely filthy. Thus the textile contents of his 
 bag and basket go to the paper mill and shoddy factory. Bones find their 
 destiny in saponaceous and fertilizing compounds ; metallic articles are 
 transferred to the junk shop ; and even bits of coal find their appropriate 
 uses. But there still remains a residuum which his professional genius 
 has contrived to make a source of profit. This consists of fragments of 
 bread and other farinacious food, decaying potatoes, cabbages, &c, inter- 
 spersed with lifeless cats, rats, and puppies, thus introduced to a post 
 mortem fellowship. I shall not stop to trace the occasional metamorpho- 
 sis of the latter into the familiar sausage, but proceed to state that much 
 of the above miscellaneous collection is supplied to certain sailors' board- 
 ing-houses, and enters into the composition of bread puddings, and of a 
 sort of '"long-shore lobscouse" which Jack loves "not wisely but too 
 well." 
 
 There is, however, a debris of material too thoroughly saturated with 
 street-mire to be considered savory, even in the above compound ; but this 
 is by no means destined to be wasted. It is sold to the manufacturers of 
 cheap coffee. It is dessicated, partially carbonized, mingled with a small 
 proportion of chickory, &c, ground, and is ready to fulfil its destiny. 
 
 Some of my professional brethren who have a down-town practice, 
 when belated in the vicinity of Chatham Street, may possibly have sought 
 refreshment in the popular form of " coffee and cakes," at some of tho 
 numerous night saloons in that neighborhood, and thus havo had an op- 
 
FOUNTAINS OF DISEASE. — FETEES. 
 
 01 
 
 portunity to test the merits of the above-described beverage. If so, the 
 uproar into which the digestive organs were subsequently thrown, doubt- 
 less left a lasting impression on the memory. 
 
 Junk Shops and Pestilence. — I have noted about 80 junk shops 
 and second-hand stores in this district. They not unfrequently become 
 sources whence infectious disease is disseminated. The articles of wear- 
 ing apparel exposed for sale at stores of this class are occasionally brought 
 from the most pestilental localities. 
 
 It too often happens that on the recovery, removal, or death of a 
 patient ill of small-pox or typhus fever, all the clothing used about his 
 person is disposed of to the first itinerant dealer that calls, and thus finds 
 its way, saturated with contagion, to these establishments. Through 
 these reprehensible practices variolous disease is doubtless spread far and 
 wide. Nor is the business of first-class clothing houses carried on with- 
 out occasionally endangering the health of those who patronize them. In 
 localities where smail-pox prevailed I found, in some instances within a 
 few feet of the patients, tailors at work for our best clothing establish- 
 ments. 
 
 Such infected vestments — worse than the tunic of the Centaur — bring 
 disease and death not only to the wearer but to many others. The occu- 
 pant of the crowded tenant-house procures from such a source a coat or a 
 blanket, and soon a loathsome pest attacks the young and unprotected 
 members of his family, and ultimately spreads through the entire quarter, 
 destroying life after life and endangering the health of a large commu- 
 nity. Small-pox, suddenly breaking out in some secluded rural district, 
 often owes its unsuspected origin to the above causes. In the remote 
 solitude of the ocean the seaman opens the chest in which he has depos- 
 ited such obnoxious apparel, and from this Pandora's box scatters the 
 seeds of pestilence among his comrades, which, ripening, shall spread its 
 germs to distant ports. 
 
 Stables. — There are 47 stables in this district. About one-fourth of 
 the number are large, designed for from 10 to 20 horses each. The re- 
 mainder arc small, many of them being mere shanties in the rear of 
 tenement or other buildings, and completely destitute of any means of 
 drainage. The manure is cither allowed to remain on the floors, or is 
 deposited in receptacles beneath, whence it is removed at intervals. 
 
 The noxious gases arising from these places contribute in no small 
 degree toward vitiating the atmosphere of the crowded tenements by 
 which they are usually surrounded. 
 
 A reference to the large map accompanying this report will show that 
 many of the localities where the existence of typhus or typhoid fovcr is 
 
62 
 
 REPORT OF THE FOURTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 indicated are in the immediate vicinity of stables, the emanations from 
 which appear to be predisposing if not exciting causes of several forms 
 of zymotic disease. 
 
 Influence of Stables upon Diseases. — Of 44 cases of erysipelas oc- 
 curing during the past year no less than 31 were adjacent to or within 
 twenty-five feet of stables. At No. 10 Street, which is con- 
 tiguous to one of the largest stables in this district, four cases of this affec- 
 tion occurred. The rear of No. 27 Street adjoins a stable, and is 
 
 within twenty feet of another. In this house, which is occupied by five 
 families, there were three cases of erysipelas. The rear of No. 22 Cherry 
 Street, which contains sixteen families, is separated from a large stable 
 by a vacant lot, into which runs much of the fluid part of the manure. 
 In this house five cases of the above disease were reported during the 
 year. 
 
 Zymotic affections of the throat and lungs appear to be very prevalent 
 in those localities where the litter of stables is undergoing fermentation. 
 One of my colleagues has already stated to the Council his beUef that 
 gaseous emanations from these sources are conducive to the spread of 
 diphtheria ; and, while my own observations tend to confirm his theory, I 
 believe it to be equally true of an insidious and very fatal form of 
 pneumonia. I am not prepared to assert that these diseases are spon- 
 taneously generated under the influence of these causes, but I do not 
 doubt that by their continued action the mucous membrane of the air- 
 passages is brought into a condition which renders it highly receptive of 
 morbid influences. Indeed, it may be said that zymotic diseases of all 
 kinds appear to be exceedingly rife in this region ; but I have found it 
 difficult to obtain full and reliable reports of all the pestilential diseases 
 that prevail here. Agents, lessees, and occupants of premises where they 
 occur, are interested in concealing the existence of prevalent maladies, and 
 generally the record of diseases can be ascertained only by searching 
 inquiry. In many instances, too, patients sick of contagious maladies 
 arc removed to hospital, thus rendering it impossible without recourse to 
 hospital records to form a correct estimate of the mortality from this 
 cause. In several cases families have been broken up by the successive 
 or simultaneous attack of their members by typhus. This occurred at 
 No. 11 Jacob Street, at Nos. 34 and 38 Cherry Street, at No. 3 Van- 
 dewater Street, and at some other places, at each of which places entire 
 families were known to have had fever, but concerning whom no other 
 data could be found. 
 
 Accompanying this report is a list of 19 cases of small-pox and 46 
 cases of typhus and typhoid fever that have recently occurred in tene- 
 
CHILDREN DIE OF FEVEES. 
 
 G3 
 
 ments I have visited in this district, of "which complete or partial his- 
 tories have heen obtained. This list gives the name, age, and residence 
 of each patient, and the date of attack. It embraces less than one-third 
 of the entire number of cases of the above diseases which have occurred 
 in my district during the year. 
 
 From this table it appears that of the small-pox patients, 
 
 2 resided in basement, 
 
 3 " " 1st story, 
 8 " " 2d " 
 
 2 " " 3d " 
 2 " " 4th " 
 2 " " 5th " 
 Of the typhus and typhoid fever patients,* 
 5 resided in basement, 
 13 " " 1st story, 
 20 " " 2d " 
 7 " " 3d " • 
 1 " « 4th " 
 
 Typhus always appears to diminish during the summer months when 
 the heat forces the inhabitants to throw open their windows, and to use 
 such means of ventilation as are at their command ; yet at no time during 
 the past year has this district been entirely free from it. Here those 
 zymoses which depend for their origin on animal effluvia perpetually pre- 
 vail. Diarrhoea and dysentery are prevalent at all times, though pecu- 
 liarly so during the summer and autumn. This may be attributed in part 
 to the use of putrescent and indigestible food ; but the toxemia resulting 
 from the absorption of concentrated aerial poisons predisposes the system 
 to take on this as well as kindred morbid affections from the slightest ex- 
 citing causes. 
 
 Pulmonary Phthisis. — Under the prostrating agencies ever at work in 
 the abodes of the poor, pulmonary consumption is developed with fearful 
 rapidity ; nor to such depressing influences alone are due its wide-spread 
 
 * Of the typhus and typhoid fever patients whose age was ascertained, it was less than 
 twelve years in about sixty per cent, of the cases. It will thus be seen that an exceedingly 
 large proportion of children arc attacked by these maladies. I think it shows conclusively 
 the activity and virulence of the causes that produce these diseases that they seize so many 
 persons at the outset of life, who, were the febrifacient poison jnore diluted and conse- 
 quently slower in its action, would not become the subjects of these morbid agencies until 
 a far later period. It must be remarked, however, that the cases here reported constitute 
 but a small proportion of the total number of fever cases that have occurred in this dis- 
 trict during the year. 
 
64: 
 
 REPORT OF THE FOURTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 ravages. The dust and smoke which constantly pervade their apartments 
 keep the delicate tissues of the air-passages in a state of perpetual irrita- 
 tion, which disposes them to take on disease from causes which would 
 otherwise be harmless or inert. 
 
 Infantile Disease and Mortality. — But it is on the tender and 
 susceptible frames of infants that the effects of these influences are most 
 speedily and strikingly manifested. Like the fabled vampires, marasmus 
 and its kindred diseases here hover about the pillow of childhood, sipping 
 from the dewy springs of life till life itself is gone. On the walls of these 
 living tombs Death hastens to inscribe the names of more than half of 
 those whose hapless fate it is to be born within their dismal precincts. 
 
 The evils attendant upon a residence in crowded localities are not al- 
 ways manifested in distinct forms of disease. There is a tenant-house 
 cachexy well known to such medical men as have a practical acquaintance 
 with these abodes ; nor does it affect alone the physical condition of their 
 inmates. It has its moral prototype in an ochlesis of vice — a contagious 
 depravity, to whose mab'gn influence the youthful survivors of the terrible 
 physical evils to which their infancy is exposed, are sure to succumb. 
 
 As pertinent to this subject I quote a paragraph or two from my re- 
 port on " Gotham Court," before mentioned : 
 
 " We often find in persons of less than middle age who have long oc- 
 cupied such confined and filthy premises, a morbid condition of the sys- 
 tem unknown elsewhere. The eye becomes bleared, the senses blunted, 
 the limbs shrunken and tremulous, the secretions exceedingly offensive. 
 
 " There is a state of premature decay. In this condition of life the 
 ties of nature seem to be unloosed. Maternal instisct and filial affection 
 seem to participate in the general decay of soul and body. A kind Provi- 
 dence, whose hand is visible even here, mercifully provides that the almost 
 inevitable decay and death which man's criminal neglect entails on the 
 offspring of the unfortunates who dwell in these dreary mansions, shall 
 elicit comparatively feeble pangs of parental anguish. 
 
 " To the physical and moral degradation, the blight of these miserable 
 abodes, where decay reigns supreme over habitation and inhabitant alike, 
 may be plainly traced much of the immorality and crime which prevail 
 among us. The established truth, that, as the corporeal frame deterio- 
 rates, man's spiritual nature is liable also to degenerate, receives its apt 
 illustration here." 
 
 The Tenant-H&usc Rot. — The state of physical, mental, and moral 
 decline to which I have adverted, is so well recognized and its causes so 
 well understood, that it has received a name, less elegant than expressive ; 
 it is called the Tenant-House Rot. 
 
" TENANT-HOUSE EOT." — MOBS. CEEME. 
 
 65 
 
 Under such influences are reared to-day a large proportion of the 
 future citizens of New York, who will control its social and political des- 
 tinies. Under such influences have been reared a large class, already so 
 numerous as at times to seriously disturb the public peace and to endanger 
 the safety of our social and political fabric. 
 
 The terrible elements of society we saw brought to the surface during 
 a great popular outbreak, are equally in existence at the present moment ; 
 nay, more, they are increasing year by year. The tocsin which next 
 summons them from their dark and noisome haunts may be the prelude to 
 a scene of universal pillage, slaughter, and destruction. We must reap 
 that which we sow. Pestilence and crime are fungi of hideous growth, 
 which spring up side by side from such pollution as we allow to rankle 
 in our midst. 
 
 5 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIFTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. [Section A.] 
 
 E. B. WARNER, M. D ., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries . — North by West Houston Street, south by Spring Street, 
 east by Broadway, west by the Hudson River. 
 
 Topography. — The natural water-sheds of the original or primitive 
 formation of the surface in this portion of the city, can he readily traced 
 at the present time. The main feature of the topography of the district 
 consisted in two hills ; the principal one, known as Richmond Hill, had 
 its highest elevation ahout Varick Street, its descent in a westerly direc- 
 tion was toward the river, and in an easterly direction toward Thomp- 
 son Street. The highest elevation of the other hill was ahout Wooster 
 Street, with a descent also toward Thompson Street, forming in this way 
 a ravine in the neighborhood of Thompson Street, and draining the hills, 
 and carrying the water into what was then known as the Collect. This 
 gives us the key to the natural drainage of the district ; the portion lying 
 between Broadway and Thompson Street, and Macdougal and Thompson 
 Streets, is at the present time drained by a sewer which extends through 
 Thompson to Canal Street ; thence by the Canal Street sewer to the river. 
 The remaining portion of the district, which extends from Macdougal 
 Street to the western limit, has a natural inclination toward the river, 
 thus forming an excellent water-shed in that direction. The sewerage of 
 this district might therefore be maintained with little expense and labor 
 in a very perfect condition. The projectors of the sewers have apparently 
 followed the inclinations indicated by the natural conformation of the dis- 
 trict. A noticeable defect is seen in the culverts, which are not free from 
 the more Bolid portions of the refuse carried into them after heavy rains. 
 The remedy consists in the removal of the overflow stone and the free use 
 
THE INHABITANTS . — THEIR DWELLINGS. 
 
 67 
 
 of the Croton-water, so that the culvert aud sewer may he thoroughly 
 washed out each day. In this manner one of the most fruitful sources of 
 malarious and enteric diseases in the city would he removed. 
 
 Streets. — The streets have an average width of about 35 feet, and 
 they run at right angles with each other ; they are all paved with cob- 
 ble stones, with the exception of Broadway and Greenwich Street ; the 
 curbs and gutters generally are in good condition, and the surface well 
 drained. All the streets of this district are furnished with sewers with 
 the exception of a small portion of West Houston Street ; and such of the 
 outlets as empty into the Hudson River are below high-water mark. 
 
 Squares. — The number of squares in the district is 33 ; the majority 
 of them are in a mixed sanitary condition ; the great majority of the in- 
 habitants are cartmen, mechanics, and laborers. 
 
 Inhabitants. — It is less thickly populated toward Broadway, but 
 more so from Macdougal Street to the river ; that portion of the district 
 west of Varick Street is the most densely settled. There are a few ne- 
 groes, but the Irish and Germans comprise the larger part. 
 
 Buildings. — By reference to the accompanying tabular statement, the 
 entire number of dwellings in the district is 1,503. 
 
 Of these 1,170 are brick dwellings, front. 
 " 122 are frame dwellings, front. 
 " 147 are brick dwellings, rear. 
 " 64 are frame dwellings, rear. 
 
 There are, therefore, 1,292 front dwellings, and 211 rear dwellings. 
 
 There are 120 liquor stores, and 78 groceries in which liquor is sold 
 in this district. Most of the dwellings date from a period antecedent to 
 the introduction of the Croton-water. The more modern improvements 
 have generally been added with supply of water. 
 
 A large number of so-called private dwellings are occupied by keepers 
 of brothels and assignation houses. There are 108 in the district. These 
 dwellings are generally in a cleanly condition both externally and internally.* 
 
 A very large proportion of the dwellings belong to the class desig- 
 nated " tenant-houses." These tenements are universally unclean and 
 offensive with the emanations from the decomposing refuse which sur- 
 round and permeate the apartments of the poor. To the want of proper 
 facilities for cleanliness are added the objectionable personal habits of the 
 people themselves. "We refer here to that portion bounded by West 
 Houston and Charlton Streets, and by Varick and Greenwich Streets. 
 
 * The explanation is that these establishments in this district are of the most re- 
 spectable class, being in the vicinity of the great hotels and the places of public amusement. 
 
68 
 
 REPORT OF THE FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 There are many of the worst class of tenant-houses in this district. 
 The contractors and proprietors have evidently had but one object in view, 
 viz., to obtain the largest amount of income with the least possible ex- 
 penditure. As these dwellings were designed for a very poor class of the 
 population, this end could only be accomplished by covering the lots 
 of ground with the largest p«ssible buildings, and divide them into 
 the largest number of rooms. We generally find a front and a rear 
 building, separated by a narrow common court ; the rear building 
 is reached by a narrow and filthy alley-way. The halls and stairways 
 of these buildings are generally narrowed as much as possible, without 
 being sufficiently lighted by windows, and are consequently badly ven- 
 tilated. Indeed, no air circulates here, except what enters at the open 
 door below, and frequently it escapes only through the open hatchway 
 above. On each floor of many of these houses are four families, each 
 family confined to a common room 11 X 14, having an average of about 
 6 persons to a family. In each building of 5 stories, therefore, there 
 is an average of 20 families of 120 persons. The sleeping apartments 
 are generally much smaller than the common sitting-room, very often 
 having no window, or a window that opens into the hall ; the sleeping 
 room is about 8 X 10 feet. Very many who occupy this class of houses arc 
 of careless and filthy habits, taking no concern for the general comfort or 
 neatness of their apartments ; sleeping and eating together in their ill- 
 ventilated and crowded apartments ; disposing of their slops and garbage 
 so as to save themselves from personal exertion, as much as possible, 
 with very few facilities to aid them ; employing their ill-trained, ill- 
 conditioned children in these household labors of carrying water and 
 slops through, the dark passage-ways, and up and down rickety stairs. It 
 is but fair to presume, that as the masses are improved in their education, 
 and their general intelligence brought into play, more rapid advances will 
 be made in the diffusion and thorough comprehension of the benefits of 
 sanitary science. 
 
 It is patent to every sanitary observer that the chief difficulty lies with 
 the poorer classes of the foreign population, and this generally disap- 
 pears in the second or third generation. 
 
 Diseases. — There has been small-pox in the square bounded by 
 Spring, Prince, Thompson, and Sullivan Streets ; about twenty cases 
 occurring during the months of September and October. At the present 
 time there are twelve cases, some of which aro very severe. This disease 
 also made its appearance about three months since in the square bounded 
 by Varick, Hudson, King, and Charlton Streets ; I have reported twelve 
 cnBcs from this locality, and learn that it is still prevalent in this portion 
 
PREVALENT DISEASES. — PREVENTION. 
 
 69 
 
 of the district. Its most probable source was an emigrant family which 
 occupied apartments in the rear of No. 74 King Street. Sickness broke 
 out among the members shortly after their coming from shipboard. They 
 were all removed to Ward's Island, sutFering, it was stated, with typhus fever. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — So long as the authorities do not regulate the 
 dwellings of the laboring classes by compulsory laws, binding equally the 
 proprietors and tenants to the observance of proper internal and external 
 domiciliary arrangements, so long will the sanitary advantages which 
 nature has lavished upon this metropolis be entirely nullified. They 
 should enforce a proper system of tenant-house construction, and not 
 permit the poorer classes to be subjected to the caprice and avarice of the 
 landlords. And it is equally important that the occupants of these houses 
 should not be allowed to vitiate sanitary regulations, by negligence or 
 gross carelessness. The authorities should also enforce the proper clean- 
 ing of the public thoroughfares, and the by-ways and alleys, lanes, &c, 
 and the daily removal of all the garbage. These two reforms are the 
 great essentials of civic healthfulness. 
 
 Statistical Recapitulation of Buildings (5th District). 
 
 STEEETS. 
 
 Front Brick Dwellings. 
 
 Front Frame Dwell- 
 ings. 
 
 Eear Brick Dwellings. 
 
 Eear Frame Dwellings. 
 
 Liquor Stores. 
 
 Grocery and Liquors. 
 
 Miscellaneous Stores. 
 
 Houses of Assignation 
 and Prostitution. 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 d 
 QQ 
 
 Oyster Saloons, Fish 
 and Meat Markets. 
 
 Factories. 
 
 Churches. 
 
 Junk Shops. 
 
 Spring Street, .... 
 
 86 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 9 
 
 56 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Prince Street, .... 
 
 85 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 26 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 W. Houston Street, 
 
 100 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 28 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 Vandam Street, . . . 
 
 78 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Charlton Street, . . . 
 
 105 
 
 8 
 
 29 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 0 
 
 "3 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 40 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 39 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 35 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 10 
 
 31 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Greene Street, .... 
 
 28 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 34 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Wooster Street, . . . 
 
 50 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Laurens Street,. . . . 
 
 no 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Thompson Street,.. 
 
 64 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 27 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 Sullivan Street,.. . . 
 
 50 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 Macdougal Street,. 
 
 47 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 31 
 
 it 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 Congress Street, . . . 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 14 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 76 
 
 19 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 26 
 
 0 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Hudson Street,. . . . 
 
 70 
 
 13 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 56 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Greenwich Street, . . 
 
 59 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 19 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 Washington Street, 
 
 44 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 
 25 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 19 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 Total, ..." 
 
 1170 
 
 122 
 
 147 
 
 64 
 
 120 
 
 78 
 
 381 
 
 108 
 
 167 
 
 40 
 
 64 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OP THE 
 
 FIFTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. [Section B.] 
 
 J. W. PTJRDY, M . D . . 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Bound ahies . — North by Christopher Street, east by Sixth Avenue, south 
 by Houston Street, west by the North River. 
 
 Topography. — This district is level, and so far as can be ascertained 
 there is very little made ground ; the soil is sandy or gravelly. 
 
 Streets. — The streets are very irregular in their course, but approxi- 
 mate north and south, east and •west. They arc about 30 feet in width, 
 and are paved with cobble stone, except Sixth Avenue, Bleecker Street, 
 and Greenwich Street, -which are Belgian. The surface of the streets is 
 generally irregular or uneven, especially in "West Street. The gutters, as 
 a rule, are in good order, though in some places they are broken, leaving 
 holes in which water, often slimy, stands until evaporated or washed away 
 by the next rain. 
 
 Sewers. — This -district is pretty thoroughly sewered, every street but 
 one having a sewer in some portion of it ; their outlets are above low 
 tide. 
 
 Squares. — There are forty-two squares in the district, divided as to 
 their sanitary condition about equally into good, bad, and mixed. 
 
 Inhabitants . — A large proportion of the inhabitants of the district 
 arc of the laboring classes, the remainder are storekeepers, clerks, and 
 merchants. 
 
 Buildings. — The total number of buildings in the district is 1,574, of 
 which number 1,14G aro private dwellings, and 185 arc tenant-houses ; 
 there arc 47G stores and 12 saloons ; G3 manufactories of various kinds ; 
 4 slaughter houses, and 8 churches. 
 
 Private Residences. — The private residences arc generally old- 
 
TENANT-HOUSES, ETC. 
 
 Tl 
 
 fashioned two and three story houses, with good water supply ; the sinks 
 are generally in the yard, and for the most part they are connected with 
 the street sewer. The material used in the construction of 16 is wood, 
 and of 1,130 brick. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — The tenant-houses are, with few exceptions, old 
 buildings, originally private dwellings, in which are now crowded from 
 four to six families, averaging five persons each. The greater number 
 have water in the yard, court, or alley ; the sinks in nine-tenths are in the 
 yard, and in a filthy condition ; the garbage and slops are deposited in the 
 street. Ventilation is principally by doors and windows, generally poor 
 and inadequate. The apartments are heated by stoves, which are often left 
 with the covers off, and emit large quantities of gas. But few of the cel- 
 lars are occupied in the district, but in those few the occupants have suf- 
 fered from rheumatism aud ophthalmia, diarrhoea, dysentery, and typhoid 
 fever. They are dark, damp, close, and offensive. There are a few ex- 
 ceptions to this rule, as follows : — One in the rear of No. 9 Carmine 
 Street, a four-story house, with large airy rooms, plenty of light, good ven- 
 tilation, a large court in front, and a fire escape. The whole building, 
 court, and passages are kept clean and in good order. A second is on the 
 corner of Houston and Greenwich Streets ; this is a large house, covering 
 three lots. The material of which the tenant-houses are built is as fol- 
 lows : — 143 are of brick, and 42 of wood. 
 
 Liquor Stores. — There are 81 liquor stores, groceries with bars 
 attached, saloons, &c, in this district. A few are kept in good order, 
 and are quiet ; but by far the larger number are small, dark sinks of vice 
 and iniquity. In Greenwich, Washington, and West Streets are found 
 the examples of this latter class in full perfection. 
 
 Stores. — There are 476 buildings for stores of different kinds. The 
 small groceries rank first in insalubrity ; the majority of them are filled 
 or surrounded with decaying vegetables or fruits, which are thrown out 
 into the gutters or packed in between barrels and boxes, and there lie in 
 sunshine or rain to rot. The probability is that many of our cases of 
 diarrhoea and dysentery, with their consequences, may be traced to this 
 cause. 
 
 Factories. — For the manufacture of pianofortes, carriages, furniture, 
 castings, guns, muskets, &c, &c, there are 63 factories. 
 
 Slaugiiter-iiouses, &c, &c. — There are 4 slaughter-houses, 2 
 livery stables, and 160 private stables. The slaughter-houses are all 
 kept in good order, the offal is carried away, and the gutters cleaned im 
 mediately, and there is no complaint made by the neighbors. 
 
 Staules. — These structures arc built of brick and wood ; the latter 
 
72 
 
 REPORT OF THE FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 are mostly iu a dilapidated, tumble-down condition, and very filthy. 
 Many of those built of brick are kept clean. 
 
 Churches, &c, &c. — There are 8 churches, 1 dispensary, 2 banks, 
 1 asylum or home, and 2 public schools. 
 
 Piers, Docks, &c. — The. piers, 4 in number, are in very fair condition ; 
 the basins need dredging, for at low water they are nearly bare, and in 
 warm weather emit a most intolerable stench from the reeking slime, the 
 dead animals, entrails, &c, which collect in them, and undergo putrefac- 
 tion during the summer. 
 
 Disease. — The prevailing diseases during the past season have been 
 typhoid fever, dysentery, diarrhoea, scarlet fever, measles, and a few cases 
 of variola. There are many insalubrious quarters where the prevalence 
 of pestilential diseases was to have been anticipated, but the season passed 
 without their appearance to any great extent. 
 
 Statistical Recapitulation of Buildings {5th District). 
 Total number of dwelling-houses in the district, 1,331. 
 One hundred and eighty-five tenant-houses, of which 42 are wood, 
 143 brick. 
 
 Four hundred and seventy-six stores. 
 Eighty-one rum shops 
 
 There are one hundred and sixty stables and two livery. 
 Four slaughter-houses, one on Jay Street, one on Cornelia Street, twe 
 on Barrow Street. 
 Eight churches. 
 Two public schools. 
 One Dispensary (Northern). 
 One Home (St. Luke's). 
 Two banks. 
 One insurance office. 
 Sixty-three factories. 
 Twelve markets. 
 
 One hundred and twenty-five rear houses. 
 
 One hundred and fifty-seven wooden houses. 
 
 Fourteen hundred and seventeen brick houses. 
 
 The total number of buildings of all descriptions, 1,574. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SIXTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 WILLIAM F. THOMS, M.D. 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — North by Walker and Canal Streets, east by the Bow- 
 ery, south by Chatham Street and Park Bow, west by Broadway. TJiis 
 district comprises the Sixth Ward. 
 
 STATISTICS OF DISTRICT. 
 
 Whole nnmber 
 of buildings. 
 
 Dwellings. 
 
 1 
 
 Liquor Stores. 
 
 Brothels. 
 
 Stores. 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 1 
 
 <0 
 
 □ 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 Public Schools. 
 
 Dispensary. 
 
 P 
 
 I 
 
 Asylums. 
 
 Prison. 
 
 Eailroad Depot. 
 
 Parks. 
 
 Vacant Lots. 
 
 1380 
 
 182 
 
 43 
 
 40G 
 
 29 
 
 528 
 
 in 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 
 STATISTICS OF TENANT-HOUSES 
 
 BASEMENTS, 
 
 AND 
 
 CELLARS. 
 
 
 Tenant-houses. 
 
 Bear Tenant-houses. 
 
 Number of Tenements without Fire- 
 escape. 
 
 Number of Tenant-houses not connect- 
 ed with any sewer. 
 
 Number of Tenements in good Sanitary 
 condition. 
 
 Number of Tenements in faulty San- 
 itary condition. 
 
 Number of Families in Tenant-houses. 
 
 Average number of Families to each 
 Tenant-house. 
 
 Tenement Population. 
 
 Tenement Population with less than 
 300 cubic feet of air. 
 
 Minimum average cubical space to each 
 person in a house on "Worth Street 
 
 1 Average age of Tenement Population. 
 
 Cellar Population. 
 
 Average cubical space to Cellar Popula- 
 tion. 
 
 609 
 
 154 
 
 302 
 
 302 
 
 24 
 
 585 
 
 4400 
 
 n 
 
 23,000 
 
 2720 
 
 CUBIC FEET. 
 
 122 
 
 YEARS- 
 
 23 
 
 496 
 
 FEET. 
 
 615 
 
74 
 
 EEPORT OF THE SIXTH SAXITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 STATISTICS OF DISEASE. [Incomplete.] 
 
 Statistics of Disease on record since the commencement of this year, 18G4 (for ten 
 months), occurring in streets and parts of streets in tJds District.* 
 
 STREETS. 
 
 Typhus Fever. 
 
 Typhoid Fever. 
 
 Fever. 
 
 Variola. 
 
 V 
 
 ■P 
 
 3 
 
 Scarlatina. 
 
 Erysipelas. 
 
 57 
 
 2 
 
 35 
 
 17 
 
 20 
 
 6 
 
 G 
 
 40 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 ' 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 ' i 
 
 4 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 1 
 
 ' i 
 
 ' 1 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 l 
 
 5 
 
 ' i 
 
 
 1 
 
 ' i 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 2 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 3 
 
 
 ' i 
 
 
 
 Mulberry Street, 
 Baxter Street, . , 
 Park Street, . . . 
 Bayard Street,. . 
 Pearl Street, . . , 
 Leonard Street, , 
 Mott Street, . . . 
 Elm Street, 
 Worth Street, . . 
 Franklin Street,. 
 Canal Street, . . . 
 Centre Street, . , 
 Mission Place,. . 
 Doyer Street,. . . 
 
 STATISTICS OF MORTALITY. 
 
 AUGUST. 
 
 143 
 
 JUNE. 
 
 53 
 
 1054 
 
 AUGUST. 
 
 129 
 
 NOV. 
 
 G8 
 
 928 
 
 AUGUST. 
 
 12G 
 
 JUNE. 
 
 Gl 
 
 1 1 1 I 
 
 AUGUST. 
 
 177 
 
 Statistics of the Ratio of Deaths to the 1,000 of the Population. 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the Sixth Ward, in the year 1800 86 
 
 Population to one death in the Sixth Ward, in the year 1860 28 J 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the month of August, in the year 1800 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the month of June, in the year 1800 2 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the Sixth Ward, in the year 1861 40 
 
 Population to one death in the Sixth Ward, in the year 18G1 28 J 
 
 * From the New York Dispensary and the Ucllcvuc Hospital Records. Thi* is but. 
 a small percentage of the total number of cases of these diseases in this district 
 
STATISTICS OF MORTALITY. — MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY. 75 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the month of August, in the year 1861 5 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the month of November, in the year 1861 2£ 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the Sixth Ward, in the year 1862 36 
 
 Population to one death in the Sixth Ward, in the year 1862 28£ 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the month of August, in the year 1862 4-j- 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the month of June, in the year 1862 2-£ 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the Sixth Ward, in the year 1863 43 
 
 Population to one death in the Sixth Ward, in the year 1863 24 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the Sixth Ward, in the month of August, in the year 1863 . 6£ 
 
 Standard ratio of deaths to 1,000 in healthy population 17 
 
 Population to one death, standard 54 
 
 Ratio of deaths per 1,000 in the United States 23 
 
 Population to one death in the United States 45 
 
 Geology. — The geology of the Sixth District consists mainly of what 
 is known as diluvium. It is a compound of houlders, gravel, sand, and 
 silicious clay. 
 
 Topography. — A high hill was graded down between where Worth 
 and Canal Streets now intersect Broadway. Its height was from twenty- 
 five to thirty feet above the present level. 
 
 On this hill, near where Franklin Street is located, on the east side of 
 Broadway, stood a reservoir, built before the Revolution, for supplying 
 the city with water. 
 
 Collect. — The largest pond on Manhattan Island was located upon 
 that part of the city which is now included between Baxter and Elm 
 Streets, and between Duane and Canal Streets, in the middle of which 
 section Centre Street now passes. 
 
 The Halls of Justice, a prison of Egyptian architecture, vulgarly 
 called the " Tombs," stands near what was once the middle of the Collect. 
 The place and appearance of this pond are still in the memory of some 
 venerable citizens of New York. Its peculiar topographical features, the 
 high hill rising abruptly from its sides, the groves upon its borders, the 
 depth and purity of its waters, arc things much spoken of in the histori- 
 cal records of New York. 
 
 The water of this little lake was of great depth and of unusual purity. 
 One of its principal fountains, afterwards well known as the " Tea-water 
 Spring," supplied ten or twelve thousand inhabitants with water for 
 their favorite beverage. 
 
 A sparkling brook carried off its water into the East River, whilo 
 towards the North River stretched a marsh covering a large extent of 
 land, through which streamlets from this pond made their way. 
 
 For more than a hundred years after the settlement of the island by 
 
76 
 
 REPORT OF THE SIXTII SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Europeans, fish were abundant in this pond, and were caught by nets 
 during all that period. Several plans were presented for the permanent 
 reflation of the locality. Among others was one proposition to make a 
 dock, or basin, in the deep water of the Collect, as a harbor for shipping, 
 and to communicate with both the North and East Rivers, by means of a 
 canal forty feet in width. It was concluded, however, not to construct a 
 basin, but to fill in the Collect, the question of a canal being still left un- 
 settled. 
 
 About the year 1800 the work of filling in the Collect was commenced, 
 and continued about ten years. The long time occupied in this labor oc- 
 casioned a serious inconvenience to the neighborhood ; and the pond, in 
 place of its originally beautiful appearance, became a nuisance. Dead 
 animals, together with every species of rubbish and offal, were thrown into 
 it, and occasioned an insufferable stench. This, however, was remedied. 
 
 At the great undertaking of filling up this pond, a curious fact occurred. 
 The specific gravity of the sand and gravel of the lull was so much 
 greater than that of the mud and sediment of the pond, that in gravitating to 
 the hard bottom it pushed up in its centre several islands of this sediment, 
 which were raised some 8 or 10 feet above the level of the water ; and 
 this becoming dry and cracked open, salt was discovered to be present in 
 great abundance. The pond was drained by a canal which extended down 
 Canal Street, and entered the North River at the foot of that street. The 
 old stone bridge on Broadway passed over this canal. For a number of 
 years a ditch ran through Centre Street, but this also was filled up, and 
 all traces of the Collect were obliterated. 
 
 Streets. — The streets parallel with the long axis of the island are 
 variously from 36 to GO feet in width. The streets intersecting these are 
 narrower, and in a equally bad sanitary condition. Most of them are 
 paved with cobble stone, and, with few exceptions, are in a very filthy 
 condition summer and winter ; domestic garbage and filth of every kind 
 being thrown into the streets, covering their surface, filling the gutters, 
 obstructing the sewer culverts, and sending forth perennial emanations 
 which must generate pestiferous diseases. 
 
 Oarhagc. — In winter the filth and garbage, etc., accumulate in tho 
 streets, to the depth sometimes of two or three feet. The garbage boxes 
 arc a perpetual source of nuisance in the streets, filth and offal being 
 thrown all around them, pools of filthy water in many instances remain- 
 ing in the gutters, and having their source in tho garbage boxes. 
 
 The streets have been cleaned occasionally this summer ; but unless a 
 system is adopted whereby tho inhabitants will be prevented from 
 throwing filth and garbage into the streets, cleanliness is impossible. 
 
THE INHABITANTS AND THEIR HOMES. 77 
 
 Sewerage. — The streets of this district are generally sewered, but 
 most of the sewers are faulty in construction. 
 
 The outlet to those in the upper part of the district is through the Canal 
 Street sewer, which empties into the North River at the foot of that street. 
 The mouth of the sewer is uncovered at low water. The outlet to those 
 in the lower and Chatham Street side of the district, is through the 
 Roosevelt Street sewer, the mouth of which is also uncovered at low water. 
 The culverts at the corners of the streets are often choked up on account 
 of the large amount of filth and garbage thrown into the gutters, and 
 which is carried down into the sewers. The culvert at the corner of 
 Bayard and Baxter Streets is frequently in this condition, and the accu- 
 mulated filthy water is sometimes allowed to stand several days before an 
 outlet is cleared for it. Typhus fever, diarrhoea, and cholera infantum 
 are the constantly-prevailing diseases in this pestilential locality. 
 
 The Squares. — There are 43 squares, 14 of which are tolerably 
 good, 15 in a very bad, and 14 in a mixed and faulty sanitary condition. 
 7 of them are parts of squares, 6 of them triangles, covered with solid 
 blocks. The " Tombs " and the New Haven Railroad Depot each oc- 
 cupy a square between Centre and Ehn Streets. 
 
 Inhabitants. — Two-thirds of the population is composed of the lowest 
 grades of the laboring poor, and of vicious classes ; the remaining third 
 is made up of better classes of people who live upon wages. This dis- 
 trict has the most exclusively foreign population of any portion of the 
 city, the American population being estimated at less than five per cent, of 
 the whole. The Irish constitute seventy-four per cent. The remaining 
 twenty-six per cent, is made up mainly of German Jews, Italians, etc. 
 The German Jews devote themselves to their favorite occupation of old 
 clothing, and seem to have made Baxter Street then- headquarters. Many 
 of the Irish keep junk shops, liquor stores, groceries, etc., etc. The 
 Italians are ragpickers, organ grinders, etc., etc. 
 
 Tenant-Hoeses. — Many of the tenant-houses are located over what 
 was once the " Collect ; " two-thirds of them are very old wooden struc- 
 tures. Some are quite small, containing from 4 to 8 families in as many 
 rooms ; others comparatively large, containing from 12 to 15 families. 
 This class of houses is occupied by the lowest grade of inhabitants ; many 
 of them are used as lodging-houses, and as many as thirty persons are 
 sometimes packed into one small room. There is one house of this char- 
 acter in Baxter Street, from which a very large number of patients has 
 been sent to the fever hospital, and among which the mortality is very 
 great. About a third of the number of buildings consist of the better 
 class of brick tenant-houses, and contain from 10 to 50 families each. 
 
78 
 
 REPORT OF TIIE SIXTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 The pro rata of ground-area to each occupant, in many instances, is 
 less than 15 square feet, and the cubical space in the apartments to each 
 occupant is less than 300 feet ; and one-half of the tenant-house popula- 
 tion have less than 500 cubic feet of air to each person.* 
 
 The external and internal ventilation, in many instances, is very im- 
 perfect, front and rear buildings being within 8 or 10 feet of each other. 
 Stores, schools, and churches are built the whole length of the lot, ob- 
 structing the circulation of air between rows of front and rear houses ; 
 tenant-houses surround entirely, or very nearly, small courts ; and in many 
 instances the rear buildings of the blocks upon parallel streets are built 
 closely back-to-back, thereby utterly excluding external ventilation. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 3 
 
 TT 
 
 I {ft! 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 TT 
 
 
 
 i 
 1 
 
 
 I 1" 
 
 Jjrrl 
 
 |i — 
 
 
 
 —1 
 
 i n 
 
 
 
 N 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 
 ii 
 
 
 nl 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 j T 
 J 
 
 '+= 
 
 
 i 
 
 L 
 
 E. 
 
 
 HAND ALL OCL. 
 
 A SIXTH WARD FEVER-NEST. 
 
 STATISTICS OF MORTALITY. 
 
 Number of persons. 
 
 Number of families. 
 
 Number of deaths. 
 
 Rate of deaths per 
 1000 persons. 
 
 Ratio of deaths. 
 
 Ratio of sickness. 
 
 ■ 
 
 i 
 
 Pi 
 
 o 
 U 
 
 §3 
 K 
 
 Ratio of deaths of] 
 children under 10 
 years of a^-j. 
 
 Number of children 
 who have died 
 during the year 
 under 10 years. 
 
 Number of children 
 under ten years 
 of age. 
 
 Cubic feet of air to 
 each person. 
 
 849 
 
 74 
 
 18 
 
 m In 
 1000 
 
 1 In 
 19J 
 
 1 In 
 
 115 
 
 llnO 
 
 0 
 
 54 
 
 About 350 by day 
 and 2 >0 by night. 
 
 • The abovo wood-cut presents a sectional view of a fevcr-nest, as Dr. Ilarris terms 
 such generators and hot-beds of typhus. Fifteen persons sick with typhus have 
 been conveyed to hospital and elsewhere during the year. Lack of ventilation is tho es- 
 sential fault of the house and its seventy domiciles. Few of tho bed-rooms have any 
 
HOT-BEDS OF TYPHUS. 
 
 79 
 
 PLAN Or THIRD FLOOR. 
 
 RANDALL DEL. PEABL ^ STREXT. 
 
 PLAN Or riRST FLOOR. 
 
 A SIXTH "WARD FEVER-NEST. 
 
 ventilation whatsoever, and nearly half of the other apartments look out exclusively upon 
 dismal and foetid well-hole areas that arc lined by the privies where three hundred and 
 fifty persons attend the calls of nature. Preceding this note is a statistical statement 
 which was taken the day of my last inspection of the place. 
 
80 
 
 REPORT OF THE SIXTH INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 Internal ventilation is also very imperfect, sleeping rooms in many in- 
 stances having no means of supplying air except through the narrow door 
 which connects with living-rooms ; they are also dark, and, in some in- 
 stances, very damp. 
 
 House drainage is generally imperfect, the court-yards being in many 
 instances below the level of the streets. The facilities for disposing of 
 house-slops and garbage are very imperfect, and everything is thrown into 
 the street and gutters at all times of the day. 
 
 One-fourth of the number of buildings consists of rear tenant-houses, 
 and these are generally in a much worse condition than the front houses. 
 
 Water-Closets. — The water-closets are located between the front 
 and rear houses, many of them covered and surrounded with filth, so as 
 not to be approachable ; others so much out of repair as to endanger the 
 life of those frequenting them. 
 
 Some of them are merely trenches sunken one or two feet in the 
 ground, the fluids of which are in some instances allowed to run into the 
 courts, stones and boards being sometimes provided to keep the feet out 
 of the filth. One-half of the tenant-houses have no sewers connected 
 with them ; consequently the stench from all of the water-closets, during 
 the summer, is absolutely unbearable and perilous. 
 
 Fike Escapes. — Means of escape from fire are very imperfect, only 
 one-half of the tenant-houses being provided with any such means of 
 security from the fearful perils and dreadful fate that have too frequently 
 befallen crowded tenant-houses. 
 
 Tenant-House Population. — The most accurate returns for this 
 year, 1864, show that the tenement population amounts to 23,000 in this 
 district. The average age of this class of inhabitants is found to be about 
 23 years. There are 4,400 families, being an average of 1 7£ to each 
 tenant-house. 
 
 Cellars and Basements. — There has been some improvement in 
 this respect within the last few years, the cellar population having per- 
 ceptibly decreased, yet 496 persons still live in damp and unwholesome 
 quarters under ground. In some of them water was discovered trickling 
 down the walls, the source of which was sometimes traced to the courts 
 and alleys, and sometimes to the soakagc from the water-closets. The nox- 
 ious effluvia always present in these basemcntsarc of a sickening character. 
 
 Many of the cellars arc occupied by 2 or 3 families, a number are 
 also occupied as lodging-houses, accommodating from 20 to 30 lodgers. 
 One near the corner of Elm and Worth Street, is now 15 or 16 feet 
 below the level of the street. (The street having been raised 10 feet.) 
 The lodging-house keeper complained to the Inspector that her business 
 
PROSTITUTION. — MEDICAL CHARITIES. 
 
 81 
 
 has fallen off some since the street was raised. As might be expected the 
 sickness rate is very high ; rheumatic disease, fevers, strumous diseases, 
 cholera infantum, &c, &c, running riot among the population. Indeed, 
 in nearly every basement disease of some kind has been found peculiarly 
 prevalent and fatal. 
 
 Dram-Shops. — 406 drinking shops exist in my inspection district. 
 They are of the worst class, producing an immense amount of alcoholic 
 disease, which in very many instances proves fatal. The social evils and 
 personal suffering resulting from the same cause are everywhere wit- 
 nessed in this district. 
 
 Brothels. — There are 29 brothels. They are the source of much 
 sickness and death, the inmates being of the lowest class. Those in 
 tenant-houses have not been enumerated in this estimation of the number 
 of brothels. Prostitution has long been the most open and shameless 
 of vices in the Sixth Ward. 
 
 Stores. — 528 stores, drug shops, groceries, and markets, are found in 
 my district. 
 
 Factories. — There are 117 factories, consisting of type, lead pipe, 
 shot, iron, sugar and confectionery, brass, pewter, box, stoves, pianoforte, 
 &c, &c, in a fair sanitary condition. 
 
 Stables. — There are 43 stables, which, owing to their location, are 
 prolific sources of disease ; some are located in the basement of tenant- 
 houses, causing them to become fever-nests ; others are situated between 
 the front and rear of tenant-houses. The manure heaps connected with 
 these stables are generally in a neglected condition. 
 
 Churches — There are 6 churches. One of them obstructs the ex- 
 ternal ventilation of the tenant-houses on City Hall Place. These church 
 edifices are badly ventilated. 
 
 Schools. — There are 3 public schools. One is in a very faulty 
 sanitary condition, GOO children being crowded on one floor that is very 
 imperfectly lighted and unfit for the purpose. No playground is provided. 
 The other schools arc surrounded by tenant-houses ; one of them inter- 
 feres with the external ventilation of a large number of high tenant-houses 
 in the neighborhood ; 4 other schools exist, which come under the head 
 Charitable Institutions. 
 
 Dispensaries and Charities. — The New York Dispensary, the 
 oldest and most important medical institution of the kind in America, is 
 located in this district, on the corner of Centre and White Streets. 
 Nearly fifty thousand sick poor are annually treated in this noble institu- 
 tion, and, like the other dispensailes of the city, it furnishes the benefits 
 of vaccination gratuitously to thousands of persons every year. There 
 6 
 
82 
 
 REPORT OF THE SIXTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 are four other charitable institutions in the district. They are devoted 
 to the care of poor children ; these institutions are in good sanitary con- 
 dition. In two of them much sickness has prevailed from time to time, 
 occurring every one or two years ; they are located on the spot that was 
 once the " Collect," and are in close proximity to the great fever-nests and 
 most insalubrious quarters of the city. 
 
 The " Tombs." — This famous penal institution is located on made 
 ground, over what was once the centre of the Collect ; it is in good sani- 
 tary condition. Between 41,000 and 42,000 persons pass through it to 
 the various public institutions in the course of a year. 
 
 Burying Grounds and Vacant Lots. — A negro burying ground 
 formerly existed between Duane and Worth Streets ; it is now 40 feet be- 
 low the level of the street. There are eight vacant lots occupied as coal 
 yards, storage for lumber, &c, &c, in fair sanitary condition. 
 
 Prevailing Diseases. — The following list and number of cases of 
 severe sickness in this small district have been treated from the New York 
 Dispensary or sent to hospital : 253 cases of fever, 29 cases of small-pox, 
 and 48 cases of measles. These were all charity patients, and they indi- 
 cate the prevailing diseases of the locality. 
 
 A large number of insalubrious quarters exist in this district, and in 
 them the constant-sickness rate is large. During the summer months 
 much diarrhoea, dysentery, and cholera infantum prevailed, but I have 
 not had time to glean statements and collect statistics. 
 
 Purulent ophthalmia continually exists in this district ; in a tenant- 
 liouse on Leonard Street the Inspector has seen 17 cases recently. Sev- 
 eral cases of typhus have occurred in the houses on Mission Place, the 
 origin of which could be traced to recent immigrants. 
 
 The increase in the number of deaths for 1863 can be accounted for in 
 two ways : First. By an increase in the number of febrile diseases oc- 
 curring during that year. Second. By an increase in the number of the 
 very lowest class of people who have come to reside in this ward from 
 other wards ; the more respectable of this low class having removed out 
 of this district. The mortality among children is fearfully high, many 
 families having lost all of their children ; others 4 out of 5 or 6. The pro- 
 portion of still-births, also, is almost unparalleled. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — The sewerage of my district needs to bo greatly 
 improved. The accumulation of sewage, the return flow of sewer gases, 
 and the obstruction of house-drains and local sewers, must be provided 
 against ; the culverts, the gutters, and the pavements require vigilant and 
 wkilful care, and all sources and conditions of local filth .should be under 
 '.he survoillancc of faithful and fearless sanitary officials. 
 
SMALL-POX. — TYPHUS. 
 
 83 
 
 Popular Education. — Some method should be adopted to educate 
 the people in sanitary matters, by printed and other instructions suitable 
 for the purpose ; and I would suggest that the assistance of all the clergy, 
 the charitable institutions, and the benevolent ladies of New York, be 
 sought to aid in teaching the unfortunate inmates of these abodes of pov- 
 erty, the duties of life, by a system of domiciliary visitation, and advice in 
 regard to their domestic welfare and sanitary condition. This system has 
 been carried out in the poor districts of London with great success, and 
 is one reason why the mortality in that great city is less than in the gen- 
 eral average of country towns in England. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — A law should be enacted to regulate the construc- 
 tion, and external and internal ventilation of these buildings : an Inspec- 
 tor being appointed to regulate this matter the same as in the case of un- 
 safe buildings. 
 
 Those already constructed to be put in the best sanitary condition, by 
 arranging ventilators and skylights over the stairways on the roof, mak- 
 ing tin or iron flues connecting with every sleeping-room ; the flues ex- 
 tending from the basement to the roof of the house. This improvement 
 could be easily made without much expense. 
 
 Dram-Shops. — As no law can stop the sale of liquor, a law should be 
 enacted to regulate it. Any liquor-dealer selling or giving liquor to a 
 person partially under its influence should be fined. 
 
 Institutions should be provided for those who are in the habit of using 
 it to excess ; and all who are in this condition, no matter wh? + their posi- 
 tion, when found in the streets should be sent to them, and if necessary 
 retained there. 
 
 Brothels. — As no law can prevent them, laws should be enacted to 
 control them, by imposing a fine, when disease is found among them. 
 This would prevent one-half of the diseases arising therefrom. 
 
 Small-Pox. — This disease, as we all know, can be almost entirely pre- 
 vented by vaccination. Nearly all the cases that now occur are among 
 young children who have not been vaccinated on account of the ignorance, 
 superstition, or neglect of the parents. 
 
 Ttphus. — This disease can be controlled, if not entirely eradicated, by 
 proper sanitary measures. The filthy streets, courts, alleys, water-closets, 
 and cesspools, should be cleaned, and the filth removed, sunken courts 
 filled up, obstructed external ventilation also removed, internal ventilation 
 improved by flues in every sleeping-room, ventilators and skylights to be 
 placed over the stairways in every house. And to stop the progress or 
 annihilate the virus of typhus in the tenant-houses of the city, there must 
 be some limitation to the crowding and packing of given areas, and 
 
84 
 
 REPORT OF THE SIXTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 domiciliary apartments must be in some way limited by sanitary regula- 
 tions. 
 
 Epidemics and Local Causes. — Tbe seeds of disease exist every- 
 where in the Sixth District ; and although removable and susceptible of 
 sanitary control, they are yet uncontrolled, and at any time may spring 
 into activity and a terrific life that shall only have the power and effect 
 of death. Cholera, when it visits these shores again, will first break forth 
 here if proper sanitary measures he neglected. The first appearance of chol- 
 era in the great epidemic of 1849, in this city, was in the houses Nos. 21 
 and 23 Baxter Street ; it then spread to Nos. 8 and 10 Mulberry Street, 
 and from thence to all parts of the city. 
 
 Typhus fever-nests exist in all parts of this district ; and it has been 
 traced from these nests to every ward in the city, spreading the disease 
 not only in the worst localities, but into the homes of the industrious, the 
 wealthy, and the highest classes of society. This disease is now on the 
 increase, and if proper sanitary measures are not adopted to remove the 
 predisposing and the infecting causes, we may again have an epidemic of 
 that scourge. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SEVENTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 P. NOLAN, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — This district is hounded on the north by Houston Street, 
 west by Broadway, south by Canal and Wallcer Streets, and on the east by 
 the Bowery. It comprises the Fourteenth Ward. 
 
 Topography. — The Fourteenth Ward has its principal descent south- 
 ward toward Canal Street, with a considerable elevation at its southeast- 
 ern section. It is all original ground of a clay and gravel composition. 
 
 The streets are nearly all sewered, and enter the mains, either directly 
 or indirectly, running through Canal Street. The streets run north 
 and south, east and west, are of good width, and paved — some with cob- 
 ble stone, others with Belgian pavement — all being in good order as 
 regards the condition of the pavement. The gutters and surface of the 
 streets are generally filthy, and the odor arising therefrom very offensive, 
 especially in those running north and south, which are most dirty. 
 
 Squares. — There are 43 squares in the Seventh District, one-fourth 
 of which are in a good, one-half in a fair, and one-fourth in a very bad 
 sanitary condition. The causes which tend to this insalubrious condition 
 are apparent and numerous. They consist of slaughter-pens, crowded 
 buildings, neglected privies, filthy streets and gutters, and a general want 
 of domiciliary cleanliness. 
 
 Population. — One-half the inhabitants are of the lower order, and 
 have little regard for cleanliness. They live by their daily labor or keep 
 small shops. They are mostly Irish and German, the former nationality 
 predominating. 
 
 Buildings. — About one-half of the buildings in this district are tene- 
 
86 
 
 REPORT OF THE SEVENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 ments, many of these having stores underneath ; a small portion are pri- 
 vate dwellings, and a considerable number are manufactories of different 
 kinds, such as iron, glass, soap and candles, sewing machines, carriage, 
 cabinet and the various fabrics of wood. 
 
 The few private dwellings in the ward are brick houses of two and four 
 stories high, well built, and with large and airy rooms, good water-supply 
 and drainage, and lighted with gas. They are generally in good condi- 
 tion. The privies to these residences are in the yards, and are kept in a 
 fair state of cleanliness. 
 
 Nearly all the larger class of brick tenant-houses are comparatively 
 new, and have a good supply of water. The garbage is either thrown 
 in boxes on the sidewalk, or, which is more common, upon the pavement. 
 
 The water-closets are nearly all in the yards — but few being in the 
 houses — and connecting with the sewers. The greater number of these 
 privies are in a filthy condition, being but seldom emptied. Many of 
 those which communicate with the sewers are choked up by all sorts of 
 offal being thrown into them, thereby producing a very bad condition. 
 As a general rule each family has a room and one or two small bed- 
 rooms, the size of which diminish from the lower floors upward. The 
 lower rooms are usually from 10x12, to 12x15, and 12 X 18 feet, the 
 latter being considered a large room. The upper rooms are often as 
 small as 8x12 feet, and the dormitories but 6x10 feet square. The 
 bedrooms are usually only large enough to hold an ordinary-sized bed 
 aud one or two chairs. 
 
 The old wooden houses have more space, but they are mofc filthy. 
 They are the dilapidated private residences of an earlier generation. 
 The present occupants are poor and ignorant, with fixed habits of unclean- 
 liness. 
 
 There are at least 260 liquor shops and drinking saloons in the ward. 
 
 The number of houses of prostitution may be estimated at 40. 
 
 One-half of the buildings in the district have stores and little shops of 
 various kinds in them. There are eight drug stores, and one market, viz. : 
 " Centre Market." 
 
 Slaughter-Houses. — There are six large slaughter establishments in 
 the ward, all of which arc necessarily very filthy, and, of course, inju- 
 rious to the public health, owing to the large collections of offal which is 
 allowed to accumulate before its removal, and which is constantly under- 
 going decomposition ; also the continued flow of blood, washings, urine 
 and faecal matters into the gutters, commingling with the refuse of the 
 streets, have a most deleterious effect on the atmosphere. 
 
 Fat-Boiling, &c. — There arc 3 very large fat-boiling establishments 
 
FAT-MELTING AND HIDE-CURING IN CROWDED SQUARES. S7 
 
 in the ward, and a small or private one. The contamination of the at- 
 mosphere from this cause alone is very great, as the emanations are per- 
 ceptible at a great distance in every direction. The slaughter and the 
 fat-boiling establishments are in close proximity to one of the largest 
 business thoroughfares in the city, viz. : the Bowery ; and not only have 
 a very unhealthy influence on the residents of that neighborhood, but are 
 injurious to the interests of the business community. 
 
 These establishments have often been complained of, and have been 
 closed by the city authorities ; but, by some influence, that can " easily be 
 explained," have been permitted to resume their disgusting business in 
 the heart of the city. The greater part of four or five squares are at 
 present occupied by these establishments, their stables, &c. 
 
 The accompanying wood-cut presents an outline chart of the worst 
 section of my inspection district here menti.oned. Here are exhibited 
 the localities of the butcheries, the hide-curing and the fat-boiling estab- 
 lishments, in the midst of a very dense population, and upon the very 
 border of the most important and crowded line of retail stores and shops 
 in the city. The different classes of buildings are indicated by symbols,* 
 and the offensive establishments are properly designated. The total pop- 
 ulation of the tenant-houses in these four squares, according to a census 
 just completed by Captain Lord, of the Metropolitan Police, is 4,168, 
 while the total population, including all classes, is about 5,000. But the 
 number of people who are daily exposed to the foul emanations from the 
 nuisances of these four squares is many times greater than that of these 
 residents. The tens of thousands who traverse the Bowery or visit the 
 stores of this region, justly complain of these offensive spots. It will be 
 observed, also, that a large public school, with its thousand children, is 
 brought so closely in contact with one of the fat-melting houses, on one 
 hand, and with a butchery on the other, that no space is left for external 
 ventilation and a playground. Broadway itself, and at least three of its 
 great hotels, are frequently visited by oppressive and noxious vapors and 
 smoke that are wafted from these offensive quarters, and over the three 
 or four asylums and other public institutions that intervene. 
 
 It is of the first importance that these great public nuisances be re- 
 moved to the outskirts of the city. In such locality their business would 
 be facilitated, the commercial interests of the city would be subserved, and 
 the health of the inhabitants would no longer be jeopardized. One most 
 dangerous practice would certainly cease, viz. : that of driving thirsty, 
 frightened, and furious cattle through the crowded streets of our city. 
 
 There are three or four large livery stables, and a large number of 
 • For explanation of the symbols sec page 31. 
 
PREVALENT DISEASES. 
 
 89 
 
 private ones, in this district. These buildings are almost uniformly in 
 an uncleanly condition, giving rise to emanations of gases poisonous to 
 the air. 
 
 There are 6 churches in the ward, one of which is private and belong- 
 ing to the Sisters of Mercy in Houston Street. There are 4 public 
 schools, one being for colored children. The Marion Street Lying-in 
 Asylum is a well-kept charity, but is situated in the midst of a dense, poor 
 population, where typhus has been very prevalent during the past sum- 
 mer. I have not been able to trace any unfavorable influence upon tbe 
 health of the inmates from the immediate presence of this disease. 
 
 Diseases. — The diseases mo,st prevalent in this district during the last 
 year are typhoid and typhus fevers. During the last three months 
 small-pox has appeared with great violence, all over the ward. There is 
 one particular locality which has contributed to the spread and intensity 
 of the fever contagion, viz. : the little street known as Jersey Street. It 
 is a short and narrow lane, running from Crosby to Mulberry Streets, 
 but one block from Broadway, at its most fashionable portion, thickly in- 
 habited by the poor, three-fourths of whom are negroes, and amongst 
 whom it first broke out in the early part of 1864. Since that time 40 to 
 50 cases have occurred, and, as far as I can learn, 10 or 12 have died. 
 The disease has spread throughout the street and to houses in other 
 streets. The houses in this street are all old ; many of them wooden, 
 with brick fronts and stone foundations. The street is always filthy, and 
 the effluvia arising therefrom are extremely offensive. The privies are 
 generally full nearly to overflowing, and the yards are also in a dirty con- 
 dition, heaps of refuse matter being allowed to remain and to accumulate 
 continually in many of them. There is no sewer in this little street, 
 though the streets at each end of it are sewered. 
 
 There have been attended in this district during the last year, 
 over 200 cases of typhoid and typhus fever, by the Dispensary District 
 Physician ; also, 70 cases of dysentery, and 50 cases of small-pox. 
 ♦ The population of this district is now about 33,000 ; and, if Ave take into 
 consideration that one physician has had so many cases of fever among 
 the very poorest of the people, we approximative^ estimate the amount 
 of disease in this ward. 
 
 Improvements. — There have been no improvements made in this dis- 
 trict during my inspection. I have made but few complaints, from the 
 fact that the greater number of nuisances arc permanent, and require leg- 
 islative action for their removal. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — This district could be made a very healthy 
 part of the city by removing the nuisances before mentioned ; by keeping 
 
90 
 
 EEPOET OF THE SEVENTH SANITAKY DISTRICT. 
 
 the streets, sewers, and privies clean, and free from filth and offal of every 
 description. The removal of all rear tenant-houses is necessary, in order 
 to secure free ventilation. The overcrowding of people in tenant-houses 
 and other huildings, as is the custom in this city, is very injurious ; and 
 thoroughly effective measures ought to be adopted to prevent it. There 
 is no excuse for this oppression of the poor by landlords. It is a crime 
 to crowd fifty or one hundred families into a building that has only ground 
 and air-space for a fraction of such numbers. The privies should all be 
 made to communicate with the sewers, and there should be such provisions 
 and arrangements for the proper care of garbage, ashes, house-slops, &c, 
 as would tend to insure domestic cleanliness and some degree of social re- 
 finement. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OP THE 
 
 EIGHTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 J. T. KENNEDY, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — North by Bivington Street, southeast by Division Street, 
 east by Norfolk Street, west by the Bowery. 
 
 Topography. — I have ascertained that this comparatively old part of 
 the city was built upon ground as nature moulded it, rolling in its charac- 
 ter. This, it will be observed, is of great importance, and fortunate too 
 was it that the hands of the levellers had not reduced it to the low grade 
 of the city, as illustrated on the west side for some distance above Tenth 
 Street. The extreme southern point of the district touches the verge of 
 the hill which was in the region of what is known as Chatham Square, from 
 whence a gentle declination brings us to Canal Street, where a dip occurs 
 terminating at Grand Street, when again a gentle rise occurs toward the 
 northern boundary at Rivington Street. From the east, Norfolk Street, 
 to the west, the Bowery, there is sufficient slope to carry off all surface 
 water, &c, as well as a considerable descent from the extreme southeast 
 point toward the East River. 
 
 This part of our city at one time was inhabited by some of our most 
 respected citizens of moderate ideas, confined to houses of two stories in 
 height ; but time has changed the whole character of the inhabitants. The 
 " Teutonic " race seems to have rushed in here in sufficient numbers to 
 predominate, and landholders have found it profitable to erect very 
 many substantial tenant-houses, to accommodate the increase of the 
 population ; and although there are some exceptions to this, still we might 
 look for many more instances of dilapidation than arc found here, where 
 so much of the old city remains. I find there is a good substratum of sand 
 underlaying the whole district ; and the sewerage, as indicated on the ac- 
 
92 
 
 REPORT OF THE EIGHTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 companying map by liues drawn through the centre of each street, is 
 very complete, and abundantly sufficient to under-drain aud carry off any 
 accumulation of debris. I make use of the term complete, influenced un- 
 doubtedly by the topography of the surface, and the character of the soil 
 overlaying tbe drains, which are more honestly built than many through- 
 out the more modern city under a corrupt contract system. A thorough 
 system of drainage by means of sewers, is of vital importance to the 
 health of large cities ; and no spot on the face of the globe is more favored 
 for carrying out that system, than our own New York, surrounded as she 
 is by water-courses ready to receive and bear to the ocean on the receding 
 tide all that passes daily into them ; and yet what miserable apologies are 
 constructed beneath this great metropolis, to give origin to constant com- 
 plaints of offensive sewer-gases and constantly recurring nuisances from 
 obstructions, bad grading, etc. ! 
 
 Streets. — The streets run about north and south, east and west, and 
 are of a uniform width, 54 feet from house to house, with the exception of 
 Canal and Grand Streets, which are respectively 90 and 75 feet wide, 
 and are the only ones paved with Belgian pavement. The surface is 
 generally well paved, and the gutters in good repair, and adequate to 
 carry off any standing water. The public health is influenced by the 
 manner in which the streets are kept, so far as removing garbage and 
 cleansing generally ; and although I have in my record book noted a few 
 solitary instances of neglect of those duties, still I cannot say they have 
 resulted in any pernicious influences. Grand Street is watered twice 
 during the day, during the warm season, and the pavement is thus kept 
 constantly moist, and yet I have noticed no injurious effects in conscqueuce 
 upon this locality. But the insalubrious effect upon the public health is 
 too evident wherever standing water accumulates ; and many localities, 
 only a few years back, in this great city, were afflicted in consequence with 
 a malaria frightful in its effects upon both the social and physical condi- 
 tion of the laboring classes. As one example I would call your attention 
 once more to the topography of the Eighth District, and the slope from 
 it terminating in Centre Street, where once was known in all its noxious 
 influence the " Collect," disseminating almost every disease that human 
 skill is called upon to combat. The moral as well as the physical tone of the 
 neighborhood was fearful until the unsightly pool was shut out from the 
 eye by means of undcrdrainage, through a massive and capacious sewer, 
 down Canal Street to the Hudson River. 
 
 The influence of topographical conditions upon the public health 
 may be very properly illustrated by taking the belt across our Island in 
 the centre of which our glorious Park is situated. Only a few years sinco 
 
OKDER AND INDUSTRY EST THE TENTH WARD. 
 
 93 
 
 a more unhealthy locality could scarcely he found, considering the com- 
 paratively sparse population. Beautiful country-seats were deserted, and 
 fevers held entire control. The reasons for this were evident. The rock, 
 approaching close to the surface, prevented the moisture from percolating 
 to any depth, and the exhalations produced the miasmata so general in its 
 results. Streets have been cut through, which, together with the improve- 
 ments in that great Reservoir of Public Health, have changed the 
 whole face of the country, both in a sanitary and topographical point of 
 view. 
 
 Squares. — In the Eighth District there are 48 square, or blocks, three- 
 fifths of which are in a good sanitary condition, two-fifths in a mixed, and 
 none bad. The causes which render squares in whole or in part insa- 
 lubrious in this district may be traced to their being built in low places or 
 upon made ground, where an insufficiency of drainage exists. Such 
 places offer no inducements for those to remain who can possibly find the 
 means to seek more favored localities ; a depreciation of property ensues, 
 and the poor rush in filling every hole and corner to repletion. I have 
 already stated that the Germans, principally mechanics, predominate in 
 this district, and having brought with them from the "Fatherland" all 
 of their institutions, not excepting " lager bier" they present excellent 
 illustrations of the effects of healthful out-door exercise and clanish enjoy- 
 ment. They have more pastimes and festivals than the people of other 
 nations, and as a class they may be looked upon as proficients in all 
 athletic exercises which tend to promote the healthful development of their 
 systems. The east side of the city is a " terra incognita" to most of the 
 inhabitants of the west end ; but should curiosity prompt any of them to 
 go through Grand Street, the main artery of this section, on any fair 
 Saturday evening, they will be astonished at the immensity of the vast 
 throngs of orderly, and cleanly, well-dressed people, and be struck with 
 the excellent sanitary condition, as evinced by the healthful appearance, 
 and the provailing dialect will stamp them as coming from the land of 
 Goethe. Their favorite beverage, for old and young, I may say, has 
 much to do beneficially with their moral and hygenic condition, when we 
 look at the character of the people, morally, socially, and hygienically, who 
 dwell in districts where pernicious and insidious distilled poisons are dealt 
 out without stint to the poor working man. 
 
 Buildings. — The proportion of tenant-houses to dwellings, stores, sa- 
 loons, &c, is one-fifth, and a very small number are what would be called 
 private residences, containing three or less families. The private houses 
 are principally the old landmarks, built substantially of brick, with very 
 few exceptions, and every improvement has been introduced for the ingress 
 
94 
 
 REPORT OF THE EIGHTTI SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 and egress of the Croton-water in all its appliances. The rooms in these 
 old-fashioned houses are, as a general thing, nearly one-third larger in size 
 than of those in tenements, and consequently the ventilation must be all- 
 sufficient. Gas is generally used for artifical lighting, and the parlor and 
 cooking-stove dispense their -warmth according to the financial circum- 
 stances of the inmates. Tenant-houses, of which there are very many 
 good ones in this district, have been to me the subjects of peculiar interest, 
 which has been fully sustained by the pleasing results of my investigations. 
 There are 45 double, 48 single, 61 rear, and 196 partial tenements, all 
 of the three former being of modern structure. The rooms in each will 
 average 12 by 14 feet, with height of ceiling 9 feet, giving 1,512 cubic 
 feet to each. The average number of persons to each apartment is three, 
 and with the most ordinary precautions for the removal of the vitiated 
 atmosphere, and the free admission of the fresh air, there would be an 
 abundant supply for respiration. 
 
 Ventilation. — Dr. Reid, in his admirable and reliable work " Illus- 
 trations of Ventilation" says : " In a room 12 feet square, 12 feet high, 
 containing, therefore, 1,728 cubic feet of air, there are 10 persons who 
 respire the whole air of the room in 15 1 hours, and require a complete 
 change every 17 minutes in order to supply them with 10 cubic feet per 
 minute." The buildings vary from 5 to 6 stories in height, containing on an 
 average 20 rooms each, with hall rooms through, and Croton-water upon 
 each floor, with sinks for ordinary slops. The space between a front and 
 rear tenement, built upon the same lot, is generally from 25 to 35 feet, 
 and in the centre of this space the water-closets are situated, one for every 
 three families, who have access by means of keys, and they are kept in a 
 cleanly condition. 
 
 There are no dark rooms, windows being cut in the gables overlook- 
 ing the passages leading to the isolated rear tenements ; hence every facility 
 for thoroughly changing the character of the internal air. 
 
 Assuming that the inhabitants of these dwellings belong to an indus- 
 trious and comparatively educated class, it is but fair to suppose them 
 appreciating the facilities within their reach, to make them cleanly, com- 
 fortable, and happy. " Heat is more essential to the human frame than 
 fresh air, which consumes the body by slow combustion, or oxygenation, 
 when food is not supplied." 
 
 Stoves arc principally used for giving warmth as well as for culinary 
 purposes ; and although some open fire-places occur, the ventilating shaft 
 or chimney is in a measure closed up. " Ventilation need not be expected 
 where food, fuel, aud clothing arc deficient ; " but as I am speaking of n 
 people who have enough, if not an abundance of those three necessaries 
 
TENANT-HOUSE PACKING. OTHEK EVILS. 
 
 95 
 
 of life, we would fain hope they might distinguish the difference and ad- 
 vantages of fresh and constantly-renewed air, over vitiated and noxious. 
 
 There are garhage-hoxes, hut not at all sufficient for a people 
 disposed to be cleanly, and who are compelled from necessity to throw their 
 garbage into the streets, to be removed at the convenience of the authori- 
 ties, who fail to evince a cooperative spirit with you in your great hygienic 
 labor. 
 
 The mephitic odor that emanates from this neglect is the only 
 nuisance of my district ; and the only hypothesis I can assume, why it has 
 not affected the health of it materially, is from the fact of its elevation 
 giving great salubrity, the width and regularity of the streets acting as 
 external ventilators, and the total absence in the district of any thing 
 approaching a " cul-de-sac." Under such conditions, in other localities 
 less favored, the influence internally and externally upon the inhabitants, 
 in a sanitary sense, would be very pernicious. 
 
 It is estimated that more than one-half of our population reside in 
 tenant-houses ; and Dr. Harris states, in his admirable treatise on ventila- 
 tion, as far back as 1858: "In the Seventeenth Ward there are 1,257 
 tenant-houses, containing, at that time, a population of 57,000 ; " he also 
 states, that " in the lower wards the tenant-houses are more closely 
 packed. In one of them, containing 120 to 150 families, of 3 to 10 
 persons each, there are but 40 feet of frontage and sunlight. The last 
 visitation of cholera was terrific, as well as malignant typhus ; eight per- 
 sons down with the latter disease being found in one small room." 
 
 These were fearful figures five years ago ; and with the increase of 
 emigration since then, there has been a proportionate addition to the fear- 
 ful evil. A walk through Greenwich to Cortlandt Street, where once 
 the aristocracy of our city resided, will satisfy the most skeptical as to 
 the above truths. Being near the shipping, and the emigrants' depot at 
 Castle Garden, very many of the poor creatures, who pass through the 
 last-named institution, are induced from its contiguity to take up their 
 residence here, and crowd to suffocation the hundreds of houses never 
 intended to be used as tenements. The seeds of all pestilential diseases 
 are planted in such localities, and inevitably burst forth upon the first 
 provocation. 
 
 Another condition materially affecting the health of residents in tenant- 
 houses in densely-populated quarters, as Dr. Rcid says, consists " in a 
 healthy tone and character to the occupation of their leisure hours." 
 Hence we properly may note the number and character of the dram-shops 
 and places of dissipation in this district. 
 
 In tbe Eighth District [the Tenth Ward] there are 526 drinking 
 
96 
 
 REPORT OF THE EIGHTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 shops, including lager bier saloons, at least 30 houses of prostitution, and 
 I theatre. 
 
 There are 2 grammar schools, 5 churches, 1 burial-ground, Essex Mar- 
 ket, Police Station-House, Eastern Dispensary, 1 Jail and House of Deten- 
 tion, 6 carpenter shops, 2 carriage factories, 3 livery stables, and 20 private 
 stables. 
 
 Within my inspection district the several district physicians from the 
 Eastern Dispensary attend 225 patients per annum, and 100 cases receive 
 the attention of the New York Dispensary physicians. The convenient 
 proximity of these two dispensaries is partially the reason of so few calls 
 for district physicians in this ward. 
 
 There have been about half a dozen cases of " small-pox" during the 
 past six months, no epidemics have shown themselves, and but a few 
 isolated cases of fever have been developed. Few sections of the city are 
 blessed with such a high degree of health. Perhaps no other district of 
 equal population is favored with better natural conditions of salubrity. 
 In 1860 the population of this ward amounted to 29,051 : the mortality 
 was 796, or 27 to every 1,000 of the deaths ; 98 occurred in March, and 
 33 in December. In 1861 there were 724 deaths, which was one-thirtieth 
 of the whole mortality in the city. The deaths in 1862 were 764, 101 in 
 August, and 43 in October. In 1863 there were 858 deaths ; 117 in Au- 
 gust, and 51 in September. 
 
 The number of deaths occurring since January to September, 1864, 
 inclusive, amount to 724, as follows : 
 
 January, 96 ; February, 85 ; March, 63 ; April, 65 ; May, 70 ; June, 
 59 ; July, 137 ; August, 83 ; September, 66 — total, 724. 
 
 The above facts sustain me in my previously-expressed opinion of the 
 character, hygienically, of the Eighth District, while looking at the records 
 of the Seventeenth to the Twenty-Second Districts for this year, which 
 show a mortality on an average more than double that of the Eighth. It 
 will be remembered that all the above districts are filled with tenant- 
 houses, and in consequence include a large population. Cholera infan- 
 tum, marasmus, and convulsions more than decimate these localities of 
 children, from one to five years old, particularly those of Irish parentage. 
 The infant rarely receives its nourishment unvitiatcd ; and even when that 
 phase of nature has passed, a careless and indifferent supervision of diet 
 occurs; hence the large figures in the bills of mortality. July and 
 August in every district show a large incrcaso of deaths in consequence 
 of these months, particularly the former being included in the season of 
 unripe fruits. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NINTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 OSCAR G. SMIJE, M. D . , 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — North by Division and Grand Streets, east by the East 
 River, south by Catharine Street, west by Division Street. This District 
 comprises all the Seventh Ward. 
 
 Topograph?. — The original topography of this district was hilly, 
 sloping to the East River. These hills of diluvium sand, gravel, and 
 boulders, were abrupt and bluffy toward the river, and, in the north- 
 eastern section, at what was originally termed Crown Point, and now 
 Corlears Hook, there was a sharp bluff covered with immense boulders. 
 
 The reclaimed or artificially filled ground comprises all the land east 
 of Corlears Street, and including that street to the corner of Corlears and 
 Front Streets. All south of Front up to Jackson Street ; all south of 
 Water and Gouverneur Slip ; all south of Front Street at Montgomery 
 Slip ; all south of a certain point between Cherry and Water Streets, on 
 Jefferson Street ; and all south of Water at Pike Street and Rutgers 
 Slip. 
 
 The material employed in the filling in of this reclaimed land was the 
 brick and wall refuse of torn-down buildings, street-sweeping dirt, ashes, 
 garbage, cast-off clothing and furniture, and all manner of offal. 
 
 There were no water-courses, and but one small pond ; the latter was 
 surrounded by large trees, near where Henry Street and Jefferson Street 
 intersect. 
 
 On the authority of an old and well-known citizen of the Sevent h Ward, 
 Mr. Crosby, it may be recorded that there was no stream to mention from 
 this pond, only a wet meadow extended down toward the river from it. 
 
 The present surface-drainage of this portion of the city is excellent. 
 1 
 
 i 
 
98 
 
 REPORT OF THE NINTTI SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 It is like the roof of a house, the ridge being the northwest boundary 
 line of the district, and the eaves the southerly boundary line. 
 
 "Whatever superiority may be observed in the health tables of the 
 Seventh Ward, is, in my opinion, mainly owing to the influence of these 
 topographical conditions. 
 
 Streets. — The direction of the streets of the district arc parallel to 
 each other, and the cross-streets intersecting at right angles. 
 
 The pavement is of cobble stones, except in Grand Street, New Canal 
 Street, and East Broadway, which has the " Belgian " or square block 
 stone, and the best for health and cleanliness. 
 
 The sidewalks are paved with flagging, and there are some brick walks 
 in the eastern portion of the district. The condition of sidewalks and streets 
 is good generally, except along the river. Cherry Street is exceedingly 
 filthy, not only in the streets and gutters but on the sidewalks. Cath- 
 arine Street is very narrow, and being a thronged thoroughfare from a 
 ferry, and occupied by a large market and stores throughout its length, is 
 in a very bad condition. By day people are constantly crowded together 
 on the narrow, dirty sidewalks. Tradesmen's wares, huge signs, drays, 
 carriages, porters with burdens, and mud beneath everywhere, constitute 
 the confused spectacle here. This is repeated on Division Street, another 
 narrow, ill-paved thoroughfare, but a shade less intensified. In Corlears 
 Street, Jackson Street, Scammel Street, and in fact the whole most east- 
 erly portion of the district, the streets and gutters are very filthy with 
 mud, ashes, garbage, etc. 
 
 This condition of the streets may be found in those localities that are 
 overcrowded with a tenant-house population. For example, the square 
 bounded by Jefferson Street, Clinton Street, Henry Street, and East 
 Broadway, where there are no tenant-houses, no rear buildings of any 
 kind, neither a wooden frame building nor a single liquor store, all are 
 good brick or stone private dwellings, witli clean pavements and elegant 
 shade trees. The two stables that are on the square arc private, and 
 kept clean and in order. Contrast (his square with the one bounded by 
 Jackson Street, Corlears Street, Madison Street, Grand and Monroe 
 Streets, which has 5G dwellings, 31 tenant-houses — 12 of which are rear — 
 2 vacant lots, alleys all filthy, streets dirty, with a descending grade east- 
 erly, and borders the original high-water line. With its 8 dram-shops, 9 
 stables, JO workshops and mills, sidewalks broken, uneven and dirty, can 
 it be doubted that there is insalubrity here ? With all these disadvan- 
 tages of bad sanitary condition, is it to be mistaken what arc tho causes 
 of insalubrity ? In comparing these two squares together, there will be 
 no difficulty in conjecturing in what respect the streets influence tho pub- 
 
NOXIOUS EFFLUVIA. — DILAPIDATED TENEMENTS. 
 
 99 
 
 lie health, especially if they be at the bottom of a grade or well toward 
 the foot of a descending grade. Although there are other causes of the 
 insalubrity in this square which will be referred to again, the surrounding 
 streets have much to do with its unhealthiness. One square is reeking 
 with filth, dirt, and other causes of pestilential diseases, and the other 
 square is clean, orderly, not overcrowded with people, and free from en- 
 demic diseases. 
 
 Sewerage. — The Seventh Ward is imperfectly sewered in its eastern 
 section. The early sewerage system of the city was very defective, and 
 consequently the sewers in East Broadway and Henry Street, in the west- 
 ern portion of the Seventh Ward, that were laid first, are not the best. 
 
 According to my observations the past season, the openings of the 
 sewers into the river at the " slips " are small, emptying at high-water 
 mark, and at low tide 4 or 5 feet above the water. It is noticeable at the 
 foot of Market, Pike, and Gouverneur Streets, where at the foot of the 
 latter street are two sewer openings. 
 
 A defective system of sewerage is obviously very detrimental to pub- 
 lic health, and it is especially so where the sewers from houses do not 
 work well from the water-closets. Deleterious gases are driven back into 
 the houses when high winds and very high tides prevail. Where steam 
 power is used, it is customary to allow the blowing off of steam into the 
 sewers. Gasworks are also allowed to discharge their wastings and re- 
 fuse into them. Human exuviaj when decomposing is one of the greatest 
 sources of disease, and therefore should be removed and not allowed to 
 collect from any imperfection of water-closet apparatus or defective sew- 
 erage. 
 
 Squares. — There are 73 squares in this district. 17 of these are in 
 good sanitary condition, but they constitute less than one-quarter of the 
 whole district. 27 are in a mixed sanitary condition, and 29 are decid- 
 edly bad. 
 
 The causes which render a square wholly or in part insalubrious are, 
 the greater or less quantity of tenant-house population, the overcrowding 
 and sometimes packing (by taking of boarders, as they style it) in tenants 
 domiciles, defective house sewerage, want or neglect of domestic cleanli- 
 ness, carelessness in the disposal of garbage, ashes, and filth. 
 
 The presence of old wooden shanties used for stables, and of old 
 wooden frame buildings, sensibly affect the sanitary condition. We must 
 also take into consideration that the tenant-house class of people are 
 crowded in houses where, through the cupidity of landlords, every foot of 
 ground is " made to pay," and that they are obliged to buy inferior food, 
 it is not surprising that they are the most unhealthy class of people, and 
 
100 
 
 REPORT OF THE NINTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 that the squares where they live are the most insalubrious. In a former 
 page we have compared two squares to show the difference in a clean, 
 wide street, and a dirty, insalubrious one. Take another example, in 
 squares side by side. The first, bounded by Montgomery and Madison 
 Streets, has good dwellings, occupied by families well to do. It has but 
 one rear tenement, and that is well kept, with a clean alley, and orderly, 
 clean inhabitants. There is not a place where liquors are sold, although 
 stores on three corners. The next adjoining square, bounded by Gouv- 
 erneur and Montgomery Streets, has filthy old houses, inhabited by 
 people of the tenant-house kind, and liquors sold on every corner ; 
 dirty streets, alleys, and courts ; stables not clean, and rows of wretch- 
 ed old wooden frame buildings. Side by side stands an excellent square, 
 with good inhabitants and good dwellings, in a good sanitary condi- 
 tion, having on one hand a square in a bad sanitary condition, and on the 
 other a square in a mixed sanitary condition. The latter is bounded by 
 Madison, Henry, Gouverneur, and Mongomery Streets. It has good 
 dwellings on all of the streets except Madison. The front and rear tene- 
 ments that occupy the whole of the latter are in a bad sanitary condition. 
 
 Inhabitants. — The population of this district is made up principally 
 of mechanics, laboring 'longshoremen, and sailors. Sailor boarding- 
 houses are in large numbers throughout the district. A few of the old 
 first-class citizens still reside in the central portion. In the eastern part 
 of the district mechanics and laborers live in closely-packed tenant-houses, 
 and in old-fashioned two and three-story houses. 
 
 By far the greater number of the inhabitants of the district is of the 
 laboring class. The occupation of the majority is in following the water 
 or working as 'longshoremen, and the various trades connected witli ship- 
 ping and warehousing. 
 
 Buildings. — The total number of dwellings is 2,153. Of these 274 
 are first-class brick or stone dwellings. Of the dwelling-houses not built 
 for tenements but having a tenant-house population, there are 1,269. And 
 there are 610 noted and unmistakable tenant-houses of the modern kind, 
 and having the modern vices. 
 
 Number of courts and alleys, ..... 117 
 
 M rear tenant-houses, ..... 185 
 
 " wood frame dwellings, ..... 274 
 
 M places where intoxicating drinks arc sold, . . 276 
 
 " Stables, . . . . . .129 
 
 " brothels, 9 
 " market-houses, . . . . • .5 
 
 " mills, 5 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE TENANT-HOUSES. 
 
 101 
 
 Number of 
 
 work-shops, factories, and foundries, 
 
 . 142 
 
 « 
 
 breweries, ..... 
 
 2 
 
 u 
 
 soap-manufactories, 
 
 . 2 
 
 u 
 
 storage-buildings, .... 
 
 33 
 
 u 
 
 bonded (U. S.) warehouses, 
 
 . 9 
 
 «< 
 
 schools (public and private) , . . 
 
 10 
 
 u 
 
 churches and houses of worship, 
 
 . 6 
 
 « 
 
 ball alleys, ..... 
 
 1 
 
 u 
 
 coal yards, .... 
 
 . 9 
 
 u 
 
 timber yards, .... 
 
 10 
 
 u 
 
 vacant square, .... 
 
 . 1 
 
 a 
 
 vacant lots, ..... 
 
 14 
 
 The general character of the private dwellings in this district will not 
 compare unfavorably with first-class dwellings in other sections of the city. 
 They are built of brick, two, three, and four stories, on the usual city 
 lots, 25 X 100 feet, and belong to a former period before the fashion turn- 
 ed to Murray Hill. 
 
 The general character of the buildings occupied as tenant-houses in 
 this district is old, poor, unsuitable, deficient in water supply, defective in 
 drainage, and without provision for the disposal of garbage and slops. 
 "Water-closets are commonly the well-hole kind, and if with sewerage con- 
 nection there is too often some obstruction which makes them sources of 
 nuisance. The apartments are a room and one or two bedrooms to each 
 family, which averages five persons. In each house two or four famines are 
 on each floor, with hall and stairs in centre. The rooms are often badly 
 ventilated, small, and bedrooms dark. The halls arc generally narrow, 
 dark, dirty, and poorly ventilated. 
 
 By far the majority of the tenement population in this district live in 
 houses not built as tenements. They arc old two and three-story private 
 dwellings, and are turned into tenant-houses by their owners, who think 
 it money thrown away to repair them. The large number of old wooden 
 frame buildings in the eastern part of the district is surprising. In ref- 
 erence to the deficient water supply, it may be stated, the usual style among 
 tenant-houses is, a hydrant and sink in a central position of the court-yard 
 for the use of all the inhabitants of both the front and rear houses, there 
 being no water in the houses. The water-closets are in the court also. 
 In many instances the drainage is superficial, by a gutter formed of 
 flagging in the alley obliquely placed for water and slops to run to the 
 street gutters. In some cases it seemed questionable whether the alley 
 was intended as an entrance-way to a rear house, or a sewage-ditch for 
 slops, water, garbage, human excrements, and urine. 
 
102 
 
 EEPOET OF THE NINTH SANITAET DISTEICT. 
 
 In connection with the subject of drainage, it may be mentioned that 
 two instances were discovered in which the old rain-water cisterns in 
 the yard were used as sinks with stone covers, and the decomposing gases 
 bubble up through the water. These cistern-sinks have no sewer connec- 
 tion. The health of the inhabitants of those houses, and, secondarily, 
 the sanitary condition of the square, are greatly influenced by these bad 
 arrangements of house drainage, deficient water supply, disposal of garb- 
 age, bad supply of light and air, damp cellars, unventilated dormitories, 
 crowded rooms, in which the family live, eat, cook, and work. 
 
 To exhibit in what respect these conditions influence the public health 
 and also the health and happiness of the inmates, an example can be 
 given on the insalubrious square first mentioned in this report, compared 
 with a good square. On the square bounded by Jackson, Corlears, Madison, 
 Grand, and Monroe Streets, is a tenant-house, at No. — Monroe Street, 
 which is now inhabited by 40 families and 200 persons.* During this 
 season 20 cases of typhus fever originated in this one place alone. The 
 size of the lot is about 40 feet by 100 feet ; size of the house 30 feet by 
 100 feet. It is built of brick and wood, and stands " end to the street." 
 A grocery and liquor store fronts the street. A small, narrow, old, and 
 broken stairway ascends from the street door to the second story. The 
 house fronts easterly, and has a narrow court in its front open to the 
 street, with a stable-shanty at the entrance. A Croton hydrant and 
 sink is in a central and commanding position of the court. The water- 
 closets, which are a curiosity to view, are in the rear of the court, and 
 have wood steps to ascend to the top of the privy, from thence by other 
 old wooden steps to another entrance to the second story of the house. 
 Heaps of dirt are observed behind the water-closet. This tenant-house is 
 four stories high. The rooms are all small, dirty, very badly ventilated, 
 damp, poorly lighted, and wretched in the fullest sense of the word. The 
 cellar or basement portion lets out at $2 a month, each apartment con- 
 sisting of room and bedroom. Height of the ceiling feet. There arc 
 three entrances, one to each pair of families. To this inhabited cellar-story 
 — which is altogether under ground — wooden steps descend to a small ves- 
 tibule, from which open three doors to two suites of rooms consisting of a 
 cramped-up, dirty, exceedingly foul, damp, mouldy, and close room and 
 dark bedroom with a closet. Ono chimney-flue, one window and door 
 arc the only means of giving light and air to the occupants. The size of 
 the room 10 x 14 feet. Bedroom 9 X 12 feet, and entirely dark at high 
 noon. There is a foul, damp smell about the place. The inhabitants, 
 affected with scrofula, arc destitute of energy, and are obviously dispirited 
 and depraved. In going into other portions of this miserable house, all 
 • See the Plan and Sectional Views of this tenant-house on page 103 opposite. 
 
TENANT-HOUSE FEVEE-NEST IN MONROE STREET. 
 
 103 
 
 may be observed to bave sometbing to do, either cooking, washing, iron- 
 ing, or sewing ; but in these cellars they are idle, listless, and look like 
 prisoners in a cell that have now some one to visit and look at them. 
 The rooms on the first floor are not so bad, but are close and 
 unventilated. On the next floor, second story, which is reached 
 by two entrances, from the street and from the court, by means 
 of the wooden steps from the water-closet, a narrow hall extends 
 the length of the rear of the building, and four short halls lead from 
 it, each to a pair of apartments. The width of these short halls is three 
 feet ; width of the main hall, extending along the back of the building, is six 
 feet, in which are the stairways, the coal-bins, &c. There are eight 
 family domiciles on this and each of the upper floors. Each family has 
 a room and bedroom. The door opens into the little hall. There is no 
 ventilation except by the small windows of the front room, the bedroom 
 receiving air only by the very small hole opening into the main hall near 
 the ceibng. This opening is tightly closed with boards nailed over it 
 during winter. The halls are dark, dirty, damp, foul, and chilly. The 
 rear has only two windows on each floor, of four small panes of glass 
 
 PLAN OF THE MONROE STREET FEVER-NEST. 
 
104 
 
 REPORT OF TIIE NINTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 each. The ceiling of the third floor is 6J feet high. In some of the 
 rooms and dormitories on this floor in midsummer, green mould is observed 
 on the walls. If it be taken into consideration that in -winter the windows 
 and doors must be shut and fires made, is it a wonder, with the poor ven- 
 tilation the building has, and the small, dark, and foul halls, rooms so 
 damp, close, and wretched, that disease and pestilence should perpetually 
 exist in and spread from this crowded tenant-house ? * The building is 
 located on that part of the street at or near the bottom of the grade, and 
 within a few feet of the original high-water mark. It is surrounded on 
 all sides with wooden hovels of stables, and high tenant-houses. 
 
 We will give one more example of the external and internal condition 
 of tenant-houses influencing the health of residents : 
 
 Between Pike and Eutgers Streets, connecting Monroe with Cherry 
 Street, is a narrow and filthy alley called " Pelham Street." On the west 
 side is a row of brick and wood tenements inhabited from cellar to garret 
 by a squalid population. The cellar has 7 feet ceiling ; damp, black with 
 old filth, and very wretched in appearance. Four families inhabit each 
 
 * The following table exhibits at a glancs the families, persons, sickness, and deaths, 
 in this one tenantrhouse. This census was taken late in the Autumn. 
 
 MONTHS. 
 
 Number of Fami- 
 lies. 
 
 b 
 
 H 
 t* 
 
 «-i 
 O 
 
 b 
 
 9 — • 
 
 E § 
 
 B «" 
 & 
 
 Diseases existing. 
 
 Deaths. 
 
 
 41 
 
 205 
 
 Scrofula, Svphills, Ty- 
 phus and Typhoid Fc- 
 vor. 
 
 1 
 
 
 86 
 
 ISO 
 
 Consumption, Scrofula, Sy- 
 philis, Cholera Infantum. 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 89 
 
 195 
 
 
 8 
 4 
 
 
 Scrof. Conjunctivitis. 
 
 
 
 
 89 
 
 195 
 
 Dlarrhrca, Scrofula, Ac, 
 Tuberculosis, Alcohol- 
 ism! 
 
 1 
 
 
 40 
 
 200 
 
 Scrofula, Tuberculosis, De- 
 lirium Tremens, and In- 
 temperance. 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 89 
 
 195 
 
 Scrofula, Tuberculosis. 
 
 2 
 
 
 82 
 
 100 
 
 Tuberculosis, Scrofula, Al- 
 coholism. Ac 
 
 0 
 
THE PELHAM STREET ROOKERIES. 
 
 105 
 
 of the six houses. They are old, out of repair, dirty, and small. The 
 flooring "worn, and steps of the stairways worn tlirough. Doors off the 
 hinges and broken. The houses are two stories, and yards very small. 
 The size of the lots 45 X 18 feet, 18 X 35 feet. The yards are loaded 
 with all manner of filth and rubbish. The "privies" are the old well- 
 hole kind, and are overflowing into and over the yard. In one instance 
 there is one privy to three houses ! An opening in the partition fence 
 gives access to the residents. The side wall of a very extensive soap fac- 
 tory on Monroe Street forms the rear of these yards. The privy-houses 
 are in part or entirely gone, and present a truly disgusting spectacle. The 
 sidewalks of the street are very narrow, pavements broken and very 
 dirty. These places must be seen to be fully appeciated, description is 
 impossible. 
 
 In this district the retail shops and stores are all on Grand, Division, 
 Catharine, and Jackson Streets. 
 
 The workshops consist of blacksmiths, shipwrights, ship-joiners, ship- 
 chandlery, cooperages, iron-foundries, machine and boiler-shops, sugar- 
 refiners, flour-mills, bakeries, cabinet and carriage shops, &c. 
 
 There are no slaughter-houses, bone-boiling, or fat-boiling establish- 
 ments, and but two soap-factories. 
 
 The vacant lots in general are well kept and fenced in. 
 
 The wooden piers and wharves are generally in a bad condition. 
 They are old, decayed, and filthy. During the whole summer, the pier 
 next to Catharine Ferry was in complete ruins, and the end of pier 49, 
 between Clinton and Montgomery Slips, is bodily sunken into the mud of 
 the river. 
 
 Nuisances. — The garbage and ash-box nuisance is a great evil in the 
 Seventh Ward. It pollutes the houses, courts, alleys, vacant lots, streets, 
 and gutters, giving off pestilential gases, offending the sight, and injuring 
 the health of citizens. It is a matter of prime importance and sanitary 
 necessity that a proper method of removing garbage and civic filth 
 speedily and neatly should be adopted. Science and experience fully de- 
 monstrate the value of such materials for fertilizing purposes and in the 
 arts, and when so used be a source of city revenue. 
 
 Provisions Against Special Nuisances. — The almost universal 
 prevalence of a very offensive class of cloacal nuisances that inevitably 
 result from the absence of any public provision and privacy for the " calls 
 of nature," demands immediate attention from the sanitary authorities of 
 the city. The disgusting stench that is kept reeking at every alley-corner, 
 yard, and warehouse wall, is, especially in this inspection district, a source 
 of public insalubrity. 
 
106 
 
 REPORT OF THE NINTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 The Wharves and Docks. — The hygienic importance of improve- 
 ments that are required in the construction and care of the 'wharves, 
 docks, and slips in my district, is not likely to receive the attention the 
 subject deserves. Many of the old wooden structures along the river 
 have become a source both of nuisance and danger, and I would respect- 
 fully submit whether the system of construction and management of the 
 docks ought not to be immediately and radically improved. 
 
 Prostitution. — Though the number of houses of ill-fame in this dis- 
 trict is not large, those that are known are of the lowest and vilest kind. 
 They are without any regulations by law or authority, and it would seem 
 that something should be recommended to mitigate or stay the ravages of 
 syphilis. 
 
 Small-Pox. — From the frequent prevalence of small-pox in this district, 
 it would seem that some regulation or law should be enforced to make vac- 
 cination compulsory. Certainly every reasonable influence should be used. 
 Although the Dispensary offers vaccination to all free of charge, yet there 
 are found some who neglect this vitally-important means of protection 
 from small-pox. 
 
 The frequency of places where liquor is sold is to be deplored. Rum 
 and poverty go hand in hand, producing depravity, crime, and disease. 
 
 Two hundred and seventy-six places are in the Seventh Ward where 
 liquor is sold, and they are, with few exceptions, inimical to the public 
 health, and perilous to the peace of the city as well as the morals of the 
 laboring classes. 
 
 Chief Justice Hale has said that if the crimes and enormities of man- 
 kind, the robberies, murders, adulteries, &c, were divided into five parts, 
 four would have been caused by rum. 
 
 The number of dram-shops to be met in those localities where a 
 tenant-house class reside, is surprising. They exist on all of the corners, 
 in the centre of the squares, and frequently one after another in a row. 
 They are all in a flourishing condition, and seem to encourage each other, 
 at least there is no opposition or rivalry, but thrive in cultivating a taste 
 for rum. Some squares of the district have not a liquor store on them, 
 and these have not a single tenant-house. 
 
 Overcrowded Tenant-Houses. — Perfection is very difficult to 
 reach, and cannot be attained in one step. So the remedy for all the evils 
 of tenant-houses cannot be obtained at once. We can approximate a 
 perfect system of ventilation, water supply, cleanliness, and comfort in a 
 tenant-house. We can, at least, refrain from packing a dozen poor fami- 
 lial into an old dilapidated two-story house, built for one family. We 
 can give a more liberal supply of water, better ventilation, the defective 
 
DISEASES AND VITAL STATISTICS OF SEVENTH WAED. 
 
 107 
 
 house-drainage and sewerage perfected, water-closets cleaned, larger halls 
 and rooms, in a regular built tenant-house. We can then start from this 
 improvement to reach perfection. Models can then be produced of dif- 
 ferent classes of houses. Those intended for a single family, those for 
 two or three, those for four or six, and so on to a hotel in numbers and 
 capacity, all having well-ventilated and roomy passages, apartments, and 
 dormitories ; the water-closets working with a clean and perfect appara- 
 tus, light and fresh air in abundance to every one, water within the reach 
 of every family, and comfort for all. 
 
 Diseases. — The rate of mortality of the Seventh Ward is found, on 
 examination, to be increasing. The deaths in 1862 were one to every 
 thirty-nine, and in 1863 one to every thirty-one* of the inhabitants. In 
 order to exhibit the mortality a few tables have been prepared from the 
 City Inspector's Report, and also tables showing the number of families, 
 average number of persons in each dwelling, and the total population of 
 the Seventh Ward. 
 
 Deaths in each Month of all Classes in Ninth District, Seventh Ward, 
 
 1862-'63. 
 
 1862. 
 
 January,.. 
 February, 
 March, . . . 
 April, .... 
 May, .... 
 June,. . . . 
 
 July, 
 
 September,. 
 October, . . 
 November, . 
 December, . 
 
 Total, 
 
 108 
 10 
 86 
 61 
 83 
 68 
 99 
 
 135 
 93 
 86 
 66 
 68 
 
 1,018 
 
 1863. 
 
 January, . . 
 February, . 
 March, . . . . 
 
 April, 
 
 May, 
 
 June, 
 
 July, 
 
 August,.. . . 
 September, 
 October, . . . 
 November, . 
 December, . 
 
 Total, 
 
 Ratio of Deaths 1 in 39 in 1862, or 2£ per cent. 
 
 " " 31 in 1863, or 3£ " 
 
 Population 40,006. 
 Number of Families, 7,354. 
 Number of Families to each Dwelling, 5i. 
 Number of Persons to each Dwelling, 17. 
 
 * Sec Report of City Inspector for year? 1862 and 1863 respectively. 
 
108 
 
 EEPOET OF THE NINTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Deaths in each Month of Adults and Children in the City of New York 
 during the year 1862. 
 
 MONTHS. 
 
 ADULTS. 
 
 CHILDREN. 
 
 TOTAL. 
 
 
 722 
 
 1,086 
 
 1,808 
 
 
 671 
 
 919 
 
 1,590 
 
 
 783 
 
 1,083 
 
 1,866 
 
 
 780 
 
 991 
 
 1,771 
 
 
 714 
 
 867 
 
 1,581 
 
 
 663 
 
 830 
 
 1,493 
 
 July, 
 
 724 
 
 1,550 
 
 2,274 
 
 
 852 
 
 1,675 
 
 2,527 
 
 
 682 
 
 1,242 
 
 1,924 
 
 
 682 
 
 814 
 
 1,496 
 
 
 606 
 
 737 
 
 1,343- 
 
 
 676 
 
 895 
 
 1,571 
 
 
 8,555 - 
 
 12,689 
 
 21,244 
 
 Deaths in each Month of Adults and Children in the City of New Yorh^ 
 during the year 1863. 
 
 MONTHS. 
 
 ADULTS. 
 
 CHILDREN. 
 
 TOTAL. 
 
 
 767 
 
 1,032 
 
 1,799 
 
 
 805 
 
 1,204 
 
 2,009 
 
 
 829 
 
 1,129 
 
 1,958 
 
 870 
 
 1,121 
 
 1,991 
 
 
 823 
 
 977 
 
 1,800 
 
 
 763 
 
 989 
 
 1,752 
 
 
 868 
 
 1,814 
 
 2,682 
 
 1,263 
 
 2,154 
 
 3,417 
 
 
 876 
 
 1,146 
 
 2,022 
 
 
 922 
 
 996 
 
 1,918 
 
 
 924 
 
 908 
 
 1,852 
 
 
 896 
 
 1,100 
 
 1,996 
 
 
 10,596 
 
 14,600 
 
 25,196 
 
 No great amount of diarrhocal complaints have occurred on this side 
 of the city last season. What dysentery, measles, and fever prevailed 
 during this season was confined to those squares crowded with a tenant- 
 house population. Inflammations of an erysipelatous character were found 
 in those localities that were the most cursed with the nuisances of old 
 wooden buildings, filthy yards, alleys, and privies. Small-pox has oc- 
 curred in former years in the eastern section of the district. The Dispen- 
 sary District Physician, Dr. Morse, referred to several cases in Monroe 
 Street. The sickness which prevails in the worst tenant-houses, without 
 reference to its nature, is always found leas amenable to treatment than in 
 places in better sanitary condition. At No. — Monroe Street, cholera 
 
THE PREVALENT DISEASES LOCALIZED BY FILTH. 
 
 109 
 
 infantum and diarrhoeas have been common this summer. Several deaths 
 have been there the past summer from those causes. In Hamilton Street 
 there have been a number of cases of typhoid fever the past season. It 
 may be regarded as a very insalubrious quarter, as there are many old, 
 filthy, overcrowded tenant-houses in the street. 
 
 Wherever a tenant-house square exists, with its filthy streets, alleys, 
 yards, and crowded houses badly ventilated, and inhabitants ill fed and 
 poorly clad, there pestilential disease prevails with greater virulence ; 
 demonstrating, most conclusively, that it is of the very greatest import- 
 ance to have every house, yard, and street, in the best sanitary condition, 
 to resist diseases. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TENTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 JOHN C. ACHESON, M. D. 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — North by Eivington Street, east by the East River, 
 south ly Division and Grand Streets, west by Norfolk Street. 
 
 Topography. — About seven-eighths of the district is almost entirely 
 level, having a very slight descent toward the river ; scarcely sufficient, 
 indeed, to carry off the surface drainage. The remainder of the district 
 lies upon the northern slope of an elevation, formerly known as " Mount 
 Pitt," which consisted of a ridge of hills elevated from 10 to 30 feet 
 above the adjoining plain, on which, in revolutionary times, a series of 
 forts were built for the protection of the eastern side of the city. As the 
 city advanced in that direction these hills were cut down, so as to con- 
 form as far as possible, to the surrounding surface ; but traces of them 
 are still distinctly visible in the descent of the belt of squares on the north 
 side of Grand Street (which lies on the summit of the hill), extending 
 from Clinton to Goerck Streets. .The material taken from these hills 
 was used in levelling and grading the remainder of the district, and in 
 extending it out to its present water line on the East River. By this 
 process of " fdling in," about eleven squares of ground were added to the 
 district, and a good straight water front was gained, with a depth of 
 water capable of accommodating the largest vessels. 
 
 By referring to the Sanitary Map of the city, it will be seen that tho 
 high-water line originally crossed Grand Street near Goerck, and passed 
 westward, almost to Cannon Street. It will be observed that a space of 
 nearly four belts of squares has been reclaimed from the river. 
 
 "With the exception of the alterations just described, the district still 
 
MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE THIRTEENTH WAED. 
 
 Ill 
 
 retains its natural formation. There are no records of any streams 
 or collections of water ever having existed on its surface ; though it is 
 presumed that nearly the whole of the district was once covered by the 
 river, from the fact that the wells which were dug on it anywhere, except 
 on the hills referred to above, furnished water which was decidedly brack- 
 ish to the taste, and contained a perceptible amount of salt. 
 
 Geology. — The soil of the level part of the district is a fine red sand, 
 quite free from stones, and affording good drainage to a surface which 
 would otherwise be constantly wet, on account of its not having sufficient 
 descent toward the river. The soil of the elevated portion is a coarse 
 gravel, mixed with stones, from a few pounds to half a ton in weight. 
 This latter part of the ground has sufficient slope to afford complete drain- 
 age to the surface, and prevent the accumulation of water and filth on the 
 streets. For the above reasons the insalubrity of the district cannot be 
 charged fairly on its topography. 
 
 Streets. — The streets run east and west, and north and south, and 
 are of very good width. They are all paved with cobble stones, except 
 Grand Street, which is covered with trap-block pavement. The condition 
 of the pavement is moderately good, but the streets are generally in a 
 filthy and unwholesome condition ; especially in front of the tenant-houses, 
 from which the garbage and slops are, to a great extent, thrown into the 
 streets, where they putrefy, rendering the air offensive to the smell and 
 deleterious to health. The refuse of the bedrooms of those sick with 
 typhoid and scarlet fevers and small-pox, is frequently thrown into the 
 streets, there to contaminate the air, and, no doubt, aid in the spread of 
 those pestilential diseases. 
 
 Sewerage. — About half of the district is provided with capacious 
 brick sewers, which are apparently well built and in good order, and 
 empty into the East River below tide-water. A very small proportion of 
 the dwelling-houses are connected with the sewers, so that their effect 
 upon the insalubrity of the houses must be mainly negative. Their gen- 
 eral effect upon the public health is doubtless good, inasmuch as they 
 assist in the drainage of the surface. 
 
 Squares. — The district is composed of 49 squares ; about one-third 
 of which are in good, one-half in a mixed, and the remainder in a 
 bad sanitary condition. Those which are decidedly insalubrious are 
 rendered so by the lowncss of the ground, insufficient sewerage, unsuit- 
 able dwellings (which are overcrowded by a careless and ignorant class 
 of occupants), neglected privies in too close proximity to the dwellings, 
 and the filthincss of the streets. 
 
 Inhabitants. — The great majority of the inhabitants belong to the 
 
112 
 
 REPORT OF THE TENTH SAXITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 working class, who depend upon their weekly income of their lahor for 
 the support of themselves and families. Fully one-half of the males be- 
 long to the laboring class ; the rest are mechanics and tradesmen. 
 There is also a large number of females who earn their living as opera- 
 tives in factories in this and in the lower parts of the city. The majority 
 of the inhabitants are Irish. The Germans rank next, and Americans 
 last. The greater number of all these belong to the poorer and more 
 ignorant classes of the community, and are careless in their habits, and re- 
 gardless of the appearance and healthfulness of their domiciles. They 
 are, of course, pliable instruments in the hands of designing politicians and 
 
 demagogues. 
 Buildings. — 
 
 Total number of buildings, 1,732 
 
 Private dwellings, 1,327 
 
 Rear buildings, 323 
 
 Tenant-houses, 405 
 
 Liquor saloons, 188 
 
 Brothels, 9 
 
 Factories, 85 
 
 Churches and other public buildings, 1G 
 
 Coal and lumber yards, 31 
 
 Store-houses, 17 
 
 Stables, 87 
 
 Slaughter-houses, none. 
 
 Nearly three-fourths of the whole number of buildings are private 
 dwellings. Most of the private residences have been built at least twenty 
 years. The majority of them are built of brick, some of wood, and others 
 still are frame buildings with brick fronts. They are mostly deficient in 
 the conveniences and comforts of dwellings of more modern date, such as 
 baths, gas, and sewer-connections, etc., but in their appointments for 
 health, such as capacity, size of apartments and dormitories, ventilation, 
 drainage, heating, etc., they present few objectionable features, and in- 
 deed are, in some respects, superior to many buildings of more recent 
 date. A little over one-fourth are tenant-houses. Their general character 
 as regards location, age, size, drainage, water supply, etc., is bad. They 
 generally occupy too much of the lots on which they arc built ; arc not 
 connected with the sewers, therefore the garbage and refuse from them are 
 to a great extent thrown into the streets and alleys. Many have an in- 
 sufficient supply of water, sometimes from 20 to 40 families depending 
 upon a single hydrant in the yard. Many arc densely crowded ; some by 
 
PREVAILING DISEASES. — REACTIVE EVILS. 
 
 113 
 
 a careless and shiftless class of people. They generally have very insuf- 
 ficient means of ventilation, and very often where these means are ample, 
 the only obtainable air is poisoned by the odors from the filthy streets and 
 offensive privies. 
 
 Nuisances. — There are no slaughter-houses, fat-boiling establish- 
 ments, or other such public nuisances in the district, nor are any of the 
 numerous factories in the district devoted to any business which is delete- 
 rious to the public health. 
 
 Diseases. — The most prominent diseases during the past year have 
 been phthisis, typhoid and scarlet fevers, cholera-infantum, dysentery, 
 small-pox, and diphtheria. It would be impossible to specify the exact 
 localities of all these cases of disease, but it may be stated, in a general 
 way, that they were most prevalent in that part of the district which is 
 bounded by Broome, Bivington, and Ridge Streets, and the East River. 
 This is also, in every respect, the poorest part of the district, having the 
 lowest ground, the filthiest streets, and the most dense population of poor 
 and careless people, who are crowded in the numerous tenant-houses, 
 shanties, and small dwellings, which were built for one or two families, 
 but are now made to contain from 5 to 10. 
 
 Causes of Insalubrity. — The high rate of sickness and mortality 
 among the people of this district, is undoubtedly attributable to two gen- 
 eral causes, viz. : 
 
 1st. Their insalubrious surroundings, such as the filthy streets, deficient 
 sewerage, neglected privies, overcrowded and ill-ventilated dwellings, and 
 deficiency of water supply ; and 2d. The ignorant and careless habits of 
 the people themselves. Any measures that may be adopted for improving 
 the sanitary condition of the district will meet with only partial success, 
 or must fail altogether, unless they are directed to the removal of both 
 these causes. The condition of the poorer classes would be but slightly 
 improved by their removal to the most perfect dwellings that could be 
 constructed, if they took their present habits with them, and were al- 
 lowed to disregard personal and domiciliary cleanliness ; to close all 
 avenues for the ingress of good and the exit of bad air, and to eat their 
 unwholesome and badly-prepared food. Then, on the other hand, it is 
 almost impossible to instill good habits, intelligence, and morality into 
 people who live in the contracted and unventilated apartments of over- 
 crowded and closely-packed houses, filled with the noisome odors arising 
 from streets reeking with filth, or from neglected privies and court yards. 
 
 Both this proposition and its converse are true, that to improve the 
 health of the people, we must improve their physical and their moral 
 habits. 
 
 8 
 
Ill REPORT OF THE TENTH SANITARY DISTRICT 
 
 Remedial Measures. — In order to remove the first of the causes 
 referred to above, and render the district salubrious, the streets should 
 be paved with Belgian or block pavement, and have a greater elevation 
 in the central axis of the street than at present. This pavement should 
 be kept in good repair and cleaned as often as twice or three times a 
 week. The gutters should be cleaned every day. Garbage-boxes have 
 been shown to be deleterious to health, as well as offensive to the senses, 
 and should be, therefore, abolished. The present system of disposing of 
 garbage would probably be comparatively unobjectionable if it were 
 faithfully practiced. 
 
 There ought to be capacious sewers in all the streets, with which 
 every house containing more than two families should be connected. The 
 rate of populating them ought to be limited by law, on the same principle 
 and by the same right that the law interferes in the crowding of passen- 
 ger ships. 
 
 There is need of thorough reform in the construction and care of ten- 
 ant-houses. New architectural designs should be produced, in which 
 there shall be displayed some care for the health and comfort of the ten- 
 ants, instead of those now in vogue, which were devised exclusively for 
 the profit of the owners. 
 
 In general, only one house should be built on each lot, and that of 
 such dimensions that sufficient space would be reserved for yard, play- 
 ground, privies, etc. 
 
 The houses ought not to be more than four stories in height, with high 
 ceilings, large open fire-places, capacious rooms, halls, and stairways. 
 The stairways should be placed in the front or rear part of the building, 
 so that windows could open upon them, and furnish them and the halls 
 with sufficient light and air. They are now mostly in the centre of the 
 houses, where they are excluded from the light, and arc dark, damp, and 
 unventilatcd. No more than two families should be allowed to occupy 
 each floor, so that ventilation could be insured through each apartment, 
 either from front to rear or from side to side of the house. There should 
 be an ample supply of water on each floor. The privies would be pref- 
 erably located in the yard, if they were connected with the sewers. A 
 good plan has been lately adopted of entrusting the care of the house and 
 the cleansing of the halls, stairways, yard, etc., to a tenant who performs 
 such duties in payment of his rent. 
 
 Authority should be given to Health Wardens to close and remove a 
 building that has become insalubrious in consequence of its having be- 
 come infected with pestilential disease, or even to demolish those that aro 
 uninhabitable on account of their age and want of repair. By this means 
 
WHEKE EEFOEMS MUST BEGEST. — THE AGENCIES. 
 
 115 
 
 the fever-nests and pest-houses could be disinfected, and all the shanties 
 and filthy rookeries which abound in this district could be removed. 
 
 Now, having provided good dwellings for the poor, a difficult task still 
 remains in reforming the people themselves, in changing their habits and 
 morals, and instructing them how to live properly. This could, to some 
 extent, be accomplished by getting their clergy to interest themselves in 
 the temporal as well as spiritual affairs of their parishioners ; by the em- 
 ployment of sanitary missionaries and lecturers among them ; by the cir- 
 culation of cheap newspapers, or by the insertion in the papers now read 
 by them of short readable articles that will teach them the ordinary rules 
 of health, and incite them to habits of cleanliness in their persons and 
 their domiciles ; that will tell them how to prevent disease, how to cook, 
 eat, sleep, and dress, and show them the value of good air, and the econ- 
 omy of eating only wholesome and properly-prepared food. 
 
 Having thus reformed the poorer classes, and provided suitable dwell- 
 ings for them to live in, their health and happiness will be promoted, the 
 rate of mortality be diminished, and lasting benefits will be conferred upon 
 the city and the State. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ELEVENTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 JAMES. L. BROWN, M. D. 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — North by West 14th Street, east by Sixth Avenue, south 
 by Christopher Street, west by the Hudson River. 
 
 This district includes what was formerly known as the village of 
 Greenwich, one of the ancient suburbs of the city, besides other localities 
 of greater or less historic interest. Greenwich village was situated on 
 the shore of the river about a mile and a half north of the City Hall, and 
 was settled at a comparatively early period in the history of the island. 
 It extended from Christopher Street about as far north as Hammond or 
 Bank Street, and was for many years the seat of the State Prison, which 
 in 1828 was removed to Sing Sing. A part of the old prison may still 
 be seen occupying a large part of the square bounded by Washington, 
 West, Charles, and West Tenth Streets. It is now used as a brewery, 
 excepting a small part that has been converted into tenements. Further 
 north, at the corner of Washington and " Little" Twelfth Streets, on what 
 was once the bank of the river, stood " old" Fort Gansevoort, while on 
 the square bounded by Perry, Charles, Fourth, and Bleecker Streets, there 
 still remains one of the oldest private dwellings on the island — the Van 
 Ness House. 
 
 This part of the island has always enjoyed a high reputation for salu- 
 brity, which was doubtless one of the reasons that led to its selection in 
 1793 as a site for the prison. During the prevalence of the yellow fever, 
 on the occasion of its third visitation, in the summer of 1798, when busi- 
 ness was almost entirely suspended, and all whoso circumstances would 
 permit had fled the city, the village of Greenwich was a favorite and E&fe 
 retreat, being at that time separated from the city by nearly a mile and a 
 
rEmrnvE character and present condition of sueface. 117 
 
 half of open country. Bank Street is said to owe its name to the circum- 
 stance that the banks were removed there from "Wall Street during the 
 prevalence of one of these epidemics. 
 
 Topography. — The only topographical changes of any importance 
 that have taken place in this district, as indicated by the old maps, and 
 confirmed by the statements of former residents, consist in the reclaiming 
 of a considerable belt of ground from the river, and the cutting away of 
 a bill wbich extended along the line of Greenwicb and Hudson Streets 
 fi-om Christopber Street about as far north as Bethune Street. No water- 
 course, or pond, or marsh of any kind is known to have existed within its 
 limits, nor is there any made ground except that which has been reclaimed 
 from the river. The original shore of the river extended a considerable 
 distance within the present line of piers, jutting in between Bank and 
 Gansevoort Streets nearly as far as Greenwicb Street. All of the houses 
 in West Street, and about two-thirds of those in Washington Street, stand 
 on made ground. 
 
 According to the report of the State Geological Survey, this part of 
 the city is built upon drift deposits ; the soil consisting chiefly of loam, 
 gravel, sand, pebbles, etc. Nowhere in the district does the rock approach 
 within 50 feet of the surface. In boring for a well on the corner of Wa- 
 verly Place and Perry Street, the rock was struck at a depth of 70 feet. 
 Other borings showed an increase of depth in the direction of the river, 
 and a decrease toward the centre of the island along the line of Broad- 
 way, and also to the northward. 
 
 Drainage. — Nearly the whole surface of the district slopes gently 
 toward the river, affording an excellent surface-drainage. The greatest 
 elevation is in Fourth Street, in the vicinity of Hammond and Perry 
 Streets, where it is 27 feet above tide-water ; and the lowest is along the 
 line of West Street, where it is only 4 feet. 
 
 In considering the topographical conditions of this district with re- 
 spect to their influence on the public health, there appears to be nothing 
 that can be regarded as prejudicial. Even the houses situated on the newly- 
 made ground along the river do not appear to be less salubrious than 
 others. 
 
 Streets. — The number of streets included wholly or in part within 
 this district is 28, of which 14 pursue a nearly westerly direction toward 
 the river, the others intersecting them at various angles. Their width 
 between the opposite buildings varies from 50 to 100 feet, about one-half 
 not exceeding the former number. The widest are Hudson and Fourteenth 
 Streets, and the Avenues from the Sixth to Eleventh. As there are very 
 few high buildings in any of the narrower streets, their general condition 
 
IIS REPORT OF THE ELEVENTH SAOTTARY DISTRICT. 
 
 with respect to ventilation and sunlight is very fair. With hut two or 
 three exceptions, they are all paved with cohble stones, and vary much 
 as regards their cleanliness and state of repair. 
 
 In some parts of the district, as for instance in West, Washington, 
 Little Twelfth, and Gansevoort Streets, they are always filthy, being but 
 seldom cleaned, and then very imperfectly. In other localities, where it 
 is the custom for each family to keep the street in front of its own 
 door always cleanly swept, their condition is very good. The influence 
 which the streets may exercise upon the public health is generally 
 dependent upon three circumstances, viz. : their width, the kind and 
 condition of their pavement, and their cleanliness. On the score 
 of width there is not much to complain of in this district, but 
 with respect to the other two points there is room for considerable 
 improvement. That cities with cobble-stone pavements are less healthy 
 than those paved with cubical blocks, is a fact that has long been known, and 
 is now universally conceded. The reason is obvious : the irregular inter- 
 spaces between the stones afford a lodgment to various animal and 
 vegetable matters which are never reached by the broom of the sweeper, 
 and which, decomposing under the action of the summer sun, give origin 
 to those poisonous emanations that render the atmosphere of large cities 
 so unwholesome in warm weather. But this is a trifling evil in com- 
 parison with those resulting, not from any defect in the pavement, but 
 from the accumulations of filth reposing upon it, and due to an utter want 
 of any proper system of street cleaning. Upon this point, however, it is 
 unnecessary here to dilate. The effect of dirty streets upon the public 
 health is too well known, and too often insisted upon, to need any expo- 
 sition in this report. It will suffice to state that the largest number of 
 cases of cholera infantum, cholera morbus, and kindred disease, is always 
 found in localities where the streets are dirtiest. 
 
 Sewerage. — The sewerage in this district is defective both in quantity 
 and quality ; some of the streets having none at all, and the sewers 
 now in existence, displaying, according to the testimony of competent 
 engineers, " a sad want of forethought and engineering knowledge." In 
 this respect, however, they do not differ from sewers generally throughout 
 the city. Eleven streets are sewered throughout their whole extent ; 
 five not at all ; and the remainder only on occasional blocks. Their 
 outlet is generally below high-water mark ; but to this there is one 
 exception which is of special interest as illustrating the pernicious 
 influence which imperfect or obstructed sewerage may exercise upon the 
 public health. The sewer through Gansevoort Street extends no fur- 
 ther than West Street, all the ground between this street and the river 
 
AN OUTBKEAK OF TYPHOID FEVEE AND DYSENTERY. — CAUSES. 119 
 
 having been made since the sewer was built — most of it, indeed, within 
 the past year. 
 
 From the terminus of the sewer, through this newly-made ground, an 
 irregular, narrow, open channel has been rudely excavated, by which it 
 appears to have been intended that the contents of the sewer should reach 
 the river. In point of fact, however, they never do so. From the fall- 
 ing in of its sides, and other like causes, this channel becomes constantly 
 obstructed, and the flow of the sewage impeded. Independent, however, 
 of any such obstruction, the result must practically be the same ; for long 
 before the contents of the sewer could reach the water's edge, their fluid 
 portion would be absorbed by the loose ground beneath, and the solid resi- 
 due be left on the bottom and sides of the channel. And this is precisely 
 what has been taking place here for several months, until this new ground 
 has become very thoroughly saturated. 
 
 Of the effect of this state of things upon the public health we may form 
 some notion from the following facts : The only square in the immediate 
 vicinity containing any dwellings, is that bounded by Gansevoort, West, 
 Washington, and Horatio Streets. Until within the last year this has 
 justly been considered one of the healthiest in the city, old residents of 
 fifteen to eighteen years' standing testifying to its uniform salubrity. 
 About the middle of July, through the kindness of Dr. Wm. C. Hunter, 
 my attention was called to this locality on account of the unusual amount 
 of sickness that had come to his knowledge while in attendance upon some 
 patients in the neighborhood. I at once made a careful inspection of 
 the square, examining every house, and interrogating every family ; and 
 ascertained that no less than 29 cases of dysentery and diarrhoea, 5 of 
 which had terminated fatally, had occurred during the three weeks immedi- 
 ately preceding my inspection. 
 
 Now, when we take into consideration the fact that there are only 
 twenty-two dwellings on this square (a considerable portion of it being oc- 
 cupied by a large lumber yard), and that all these cases had occurred 
 within a period of about twenty-one days, the ratio becomes appalling. 
 How many cases may have occurred subsequently, I have not sought to 
 ascertain, my time being fully occupied in the inspection of the other parts 
 of my district. But a still more direct and specific action of the poison 
 ous emanations proceeding from this obstructed sewage, manifested 
 itself in the dwelling on the corner of West and Gansevoort Streets, 
 which is in the closest proximity to the outlet of the sewer. Here I 
 learned, vpon inquiry, that typhoid fever had prevailed almost continuously 
 during the preceding winter, and I found three severe cases of dysentery at 
 the time of my visit. 
 
120 
 
 REPORT OF THE ELEVENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 These facts require no comment. 
 
 Squares. — The number of squares in the Eleventh District is 84, of 
 which about one-half are in a very good sanitary condition, one-eighth in 
 a bad sanitary condition, and the remaining three-eighths intermediate. 
 As an example of a square in a very good sanitary condition may be 
 mentioned that bounded by Thirteenth and Twelfth Streets, Sixth and 
 Seventh Avenues, while one of a directly opposite character maybe found 
 between the same streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues. The circum- 
 stances determining the sanitary condition of a square depend mainly upon 
 its topographical peculiarities, the condition of its Streets, its sewerage 
 and drainage, the kind and condition of its dwellings, the character of its 
 population, its proximity to any marked source of insalubrity, etc. It is 
 with reference to these points that the above classification has been 
 made. 
 
 Population. — The population df this district probably contains a 
 larger proportion of native-born residents than that of any other in the 
 city, unless, perhaps, we may except the Fifteenth Ward, which was 
 originally included in the Ninth. The Knickerbocker element is widely 
 diffused, and exercises no small influence in maintaining the high repu- 
 tation for salubrity which the Ninth Ward has always enjoyed. There 
 are very few wealthy families, and comparatively few of the very poor or 
 vicious. The great bulk of the inhabitants consists of what may be 
 called the middle class of people, composed mainly of trades-people, 
 clerks, mechanics of the better class, cartmen, etc. 
 
 Buildings. — Of the buildings, the great majority are dwelling-houses, 
 the chief exceptions being along the line of the river, where iron foundries, 
 factories of various kinds, steam sawmills and planing mills, lumber, 
 coal, and stone yards, etc., occupy most of the squares fronting on the 
 water. 
 
 Dwellings. — The number of dwellings is 2,205, of which 484 may 
 be considered tenant-houses. It has been a source of no little embarrass- 
 ment to determine Avhere the line of demarcation between private dwell- 
 ings and tenant-houses should be drawn, so gradual is the transition from 
 first-class private residences to tenements of the lowest grade. About 
 four-fifths of the tenant-houses in this district were originally private 
 dwellings of a very respectable character, which have gradually degen- 
 erated into tenements of the worst description, because never designed for 
 more than one family. It is during this state of transition, while they 
 have ceased to be very good, but arc not yet very bad, that it is difficult 
 to classify them. By tenant-houses are meant, in the present report, all 
 those originally designed as such, and all others once used as private 
 
TENANT-HOUSES AND OTHEK DWELLINGS IN NINTH WARD. 121 
 
 dwellings, but now occupied by more than three families. This classifi- 
 cation is, of course, purely arbitrary, and open to some objections, but I 
 have met with none better. 
 
 Private Dwellings. — The private residences, of which there are 
 1.721, present the widest differences in respect of age, size, materials of 
 structure, and other particulars. Of first-class modern houses, the num- 
 ber is comparatively small, by far the larger proportion being two-and-a- 
 half and three-story brick dwellings, from twenty to forty years' old, and 
 occupied more frequently by two or three families than by one. There is 
 quite a number of frame buildings, many of them in an excellent state of 
 preservation. All the dwellings are supplied with Croton-water, most 
 of them lighted with gas and heated by stoves ; while about one-half have 
 drains connecting with the sewers. The water-closets are almost always 
 in the yards. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — The tenant-houses, which constitute a little more 
 than one-fifth of all the dwellings, differ quite as widely from each other 
 as the private residences. As already stated, at least four-fifths of them 
 are private dwellings, in reduced circumstances, and particularly ill- 
 adapted to the accommodation of a number of families. The more modern 
 tenements are generally large brick buildings, four or five stories high, 
 and intended to accommodate either two or four families on a floor, ac- 
 cording to the size of the lot or the class of tenants for whom they are 
 designed. Each family has usually one room and bedroom, sometimes a 
 room and two bedrooms, and occasionally only a single room. These 
 rooms vary in size in different houses, but the following measurements 
 may be taken as a fair average : The main room 12 feet in width by 15 
 in length, and 8 or 9 in height. The bedrooms of the same height, and 
 about 7 X 9 in the other measurements. The sleeping-rooms are very 
 commonly what are called " dark bedrooms," i. e., rooms without any 
 windows opening externally, and consequently badly lighted, and very im- 
 perfectly ventilated. There is generally a supply of Croton-water on 
 each floor, sometimes in the apartments, but more frequently in the halls, 
 with drains for the waste water connecting with the sewers. The water- 
 closets are almost invariably in the yards, frequently inadequate, and 
 commonly quite filthy. The cellars generally contain the coal-bins and 
 wood-houses. The garbage is left on the sidewalk for collection, 
 sometimes in a common garbage-box, but in this district much more fre- 
 quently in vessels or boxes belonging to the different families. 
 
 To illustrate the most favorable features of any of the tenant-houses 
 I have seen, and at the same time to present for commendation a most 
 laudable example of what is practicable and entirely successful as an im- 
 
122 
 
 EEPOET OF THE ELEVENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 provement in an ordinary tenant-house, the following diagram and notes 
 are copied from my Record of Inspections : 
 
 No. 89 Perry Street is a large brick 
 building, 28 feet in width, 5 stories in 
 height (each story averaging nearly 10 
 feet between ceilings), and accommo- 
 dating 20 families (4 families on a 
 floor) . Notwithstanding the large num- 
 ber of families occupying the house, it 
 is so much superior, in some of its 
 features, to other tenant-houses, that I 
 have thought it worthy of special de- 
 scription. 
 
 The accompanying diagram is de- 
 signed to show the arrangement of the 
 rooms on each floor, and particularly 
 the means resorted to for securing letter 
 ventilation than usual. Each family 
 has three rooms (marked in the dia- 
 gram S D K) : S is a large sitting or 
 living-room ; D is a bedroom or dormi- 
 tory ; and K the kitchen. The sitting- 
 room and kitchen have each an inde- 
 pendent entrance into the main hall. 
 The bedrooms are reached either through 
 the sitting-rooms or kitchens. . . . 
 Every apartment has a window or win- 
 dows directly to the external air. . . 
 
 There is a supply of Croton-water 
 in every kitchen, with good drainage. 
 There is no garbage-box, each family deb vers over to the collector its own 
 garbage, so that the street in front of this house is as clean as before any 
 private dwelling. The halls are kept clean by a woman employed for that 
 purpose by the landlord. The families are all of a good character, and 
 their rooms are generally comfortably furnished and well kept. This 
 house, as might be expected, has been very free from sickness.* 
 
 Nearly one-fifth of all the tenements are rear buildings, somo of them 
 of the lowest grade. They are generally contracted in size, very imper- 
 fectly ventilated, shut out in a great measure from the reach of the sud- 
 
 * Copied from pages 70 and 71 of the Inspector's Sanitary Record of the Eleventh 
 District. 
 
 Impsoted Tenajtt-IIouse. 
 
 S 8 Sltting-Eooms. 
 K K Kitchens. 
 D D Dormitories. 
 
TENANT-HOUSES. — CELLAR-POPULATION. — NUISANCES. 123 
 
 light, and commonly an obstruction to light and ventilation in the front 
 buildings. The interval between the front and rear house is frequently 
 so small, and sometimes so completely enclosed on all its sides by the adja- 
 cent houses, as to constitute a mere well-hole. A very fair illustration 
 of this maybe seen at No. 98 Hammond Street. But the worst feature of 
 all in connection with tenant-houses is one less frequently met with in those 
 of modern construction than in dwellings once private, but now occupied 
 by seven or eight families ; I allude to the occupancy of low and damp 
 cellars. At Nos. 137, 139, 141, and 143 Hammond Street, and also at 
 No. 738 Washington Street, are inhabited cellars, the ceilings of which 
 are below the level of the street, inaccessible to the rays of the sun, and 
 always damp and dismal. Three of them are flooded at every heavy 
 rain, and require to be baled out. They are let at a somewhat smaller 
 rent than is asked for apartments on an upper floor, and are rented by those 
 to whom poverty leaves no choice. They are rarely vacant. 
 
 Tenant-houses differ much in the character of their population and in 
 their cleanliness, the most striking contrasts in these respects being ob- 
 served among those of equal pretensions in other particulars. On the 
 corner of Thirteenth Street and Tenth Avenue is a large tenement 
 containing 23 families, the halls of which are never swept or other- 
 wise cleaned from one end of the year to the other. A like condition 
 exists also at No. 4 Horatio Street, and Nos. 125 and 127 Greenwich 
 Avenue, where 18 families are accommodated ( ?) in each house. On 
 the other hand, at No. 89 Perry Street we have seen a large tenement, 
 containing 20 families, in which the halls as well as the apartments 
 are kept as clean as in many private dwellings. Other things being 
 equal, houses differing so widely in point of cleanliness, must differ in a 
 corresponding degree in their sanitary condition. 
 
 Drinking-Shops. — The number of drinking-shops in the Eleventh 
 District is 83, besides 73 liquor-selling groceries, making a total of 156 
 places where liquors are retailed. The free use of alcoholic liquors, 
 especially of such a quality as is sold in these stores, is, in my opinion, 
 one of the most prolific causes of disease existing among us. Being in 
 the highest degree a predisposing as well as an exciting cause of disease, 
 it is justly responsible for a large share of the mortality ascribed to other 
 causes. 
 
 SLAUGnxER-HouSES. — Of slaughter-houses there are 12, about one- 
 half of which are situated on the squares fronting on the river, and not in 
 the immediate vicinity of any dwelling. They arc generally in good con- 
 dition, and probably as well kept as is practicable ; nevertheless they are 
 
124 
 
 REPORT OF THE ELEVENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 inevitably a nuisance to a greater or less degree, and should be provided 
 for by some special municipal legislation. 
 
 Garbage-Boxes. — The only other nuisance to "which I would make 
 allusion in this place is one that lias already been made a subject of spe- 
 cial report by the corps of Sanitary Inspectors, and might, therefore, 
 escape further notice if attention were not again directed to it in the 
 final reports. I refer to garbage-boxes. In front of many of the large 
 tenant-houses are placed on the edge of the sidewalk huge wooden boxes 
 for the reception of all the ashes, garbage, etc., of the score of families 
 within. Not unfrequently one box does double duty in this respect, with- 
 out, however, being always of double size. It is invariably the case that 
 where these boxes exist, the streets are in a filthy condition. 
 
 Prevailtng Diseases. — The diseases that have chiefly prevailed dur- 
 ing the past season are dysentery, diarrhoea, cholera morbus, cholera in- 
 fantum, and the exanthematous fevers. They Avere of most frequent oc- 
 currence in the more crowded and insalubrious quarters. Typhus and 
 typhoid fevers were met with in only three or four localities, as, for in- 
 stance, at Fifteenth and Little Twelfth Streets, No. 148 West Tenth 
 Street, and on the corner of Gansevoort and West Streets. They seldom 
 prevail to any considerable extent in this district. 
 
 Notwithstanding the existence of many localities in a bad sanitary con- 
 dition, the Ninth Ward, next to the Fifteenth, is the healthiest in the city. 
 It has been a very common experience with me in the course of this in- 
 spection to find " insalubrious quarters where the constant sickness rate 
 has been slight," and I have generally explained the fact on the ground 
 that in this district these quarters are usually isolated, having surround- 
 ings of a good character, which by a sort of diluting agency exercise a 
 protective influence over them. In other words, their evils are not con- 
 centrated as in other sections of the city. The proximity, too, of the worst 
 localities to the river, whereby they receive a larger supply of fresh air 
 than would otherwise be the case, is likewise a source of protection. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — Having now considered the various points 
 to which attention was given in this inspection, it only remains to suggest 
 as briefly as possible some remedial measures applicable to the different 
 cases : 
 
 1. There should be a more general and more perfect system of 
 sewerage. 
 
 2. The streets should be paved with cubical blocks in place of cobble 
 stones, and some efficient means adopted for keeping them clean. 
 
 3. The whole system of garbage-boxes should be abolished as only 
 tending to aggravate the evils it was designed to remedy. 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. — SUPERVISION NEEDED. 
 
 125 
 
 4. Tenant-houses should be constructed with special reference to per- 
 fect ventilation, free access of the sunlight, proper drainage, and well- 
 devised and well-kept water-closets. If possible, some measures should 
 be adopted to prevent the overcrowding to which nearly all tenements are 
 liable. 
 
 5. The erection of rear tenements on ordinary-sized lots should be 
 prohibited by law. 
 
 6. Greater restrictions should be placed on the sale of alcoholic liquors, 
 and severe penalties enforced for the vending of adulterated liquors. 
 
 7. Slaughter-houses should not be tolerated in densely-populated 
 districts. 
 
 8. The preservation of a good sanitary condition in this, or any other 
 district, requires the constant supervision of a properly qualified inspector, 
 invested with power to enforce such measures as may be needful. The 
 foregoing are the principal remedies that have occurred to me in connec- 
 tion with these subjects. The following is a brief summary : 
 
 Summary. — Total number of squares 84 
 
 " " " dwelling-houses, 2,205 
 
 " " " tenant " 484 
 
 " « " rear " 83 
 
 " " " liquor stores 83 
 
 " " " liquor-selling groceries 73 
 
 " " " slaughter-houses, 12 
 
 " " " livery stables, C 
 
 " " " churches 13 
 
 " M " school edifices 5 
 
126 
 
 KEPOKT OF THE TWELFTH SAOTTAEY DISTEICT. 
 
 Hg» ss.ffe SJ__ 
 
 --4 0 I 't O.D 
 
 gff"^ TWELFTH DISTRICT 
 
 3.'-. 
 
 \ 53 
 
 38.10 ' 
 
 FIFTEENTH WARD 
 ft 
 
 39.0 
 
 ^^Hsiu^ WEr MARSHY IAHO 
 
 38.10 
 
 21 0 i 
 HOUSTON MB 
 
 EXPLANATION OF FIGUKES, ETC 
 The .ntcrruptcd lines in streets represent the Sewers. ' 
 
 ll: ; ,s on th * line of \r a ™z ^ — *■ h S eeon d aw 
 
 The letter c « « „ connects ^ Sewer in Avenue C. 
 
 The letter d » u u ™ the East River. 
 
 The letter e " ii „ . „ „ 
 
 The letter/ << « „ ? f Uouston Strcet . °Pcns in the East River, 
 
 fron , Broadwav westward, south to Canal StJ^Z^T * ^ ^ ** ^ 
 
 £e bSjiT^Sj^fZ: tha !- emPt r ^ f ° 0t ° f ^ ^ *«* *™ 
 TW I , ; , qUarCS mdlcate the P° siti °n of the sewer culverts 
 
 JXEZ ^ thC8trCCt iDtCr8eCUOnS * ^vationof the teT'at that point 
 
 no To^Zr ithi " t , ,, .r qUarC8 repreSCDt th0 8trcet numb ™ of the comer houses. 
 The configuration of lulls, streams, etc, illustrates the primitive topography. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TWELFTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 F. A. BURRALL, M.D. 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — The Twelfth District embraces that portion of this City 
 bounded north by Fourteenth Street, east by the Bowery and Fourth Avenue, 
 south by Houston Street, and west by Sixth Avenue. Those are also the 
 limits of the Fifteenth W ard. 
 
 Topography. — The original surface was rolling and covered princi- 
 pally by farms. A " Sandy Hill " extended from near the junction of 
 Fifth Avenue and Waverley Place eastward to the Bowery, and there 
 was a smaller one near Broadway and Tenth Street. Art Street (which 
 was the continuation of Astor Place into Waverley, as far as near Mac- 
 dougal Street, where it joined Greenwich Lane) took its name of " Sandy 
 Lane" from the first of these hills. There was also a deep dry valley 
 extending from Fourth to Houston Street, between Macdougal and Woos- 
 ter, and the banks were high along the upper portion of Minetta Creek. 
 The highest street corners in the district are at the junction of Elizabeth 
 and Houston Streets ; the lowest, West Washington Place and Sixth 
 Avenue, being respectively 45 feet 11 inches and 14 feet 5 inches above 
 tide level. 
 
 The stream, Minetta Creek, traversed nearly the whole length of the 
 Fifteenth Ward, and arose by an eastern branch in Fifth Avenue, be- 
 tween Twenty-first and Twenty-second Streets, and by a western, in Sixth 
 Avenue nearly opposite the northeasterly corner of Sixteenth Street. 
 The western branch took a southeasterly course to the northwest corner 
 of Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue, receiving two small branches in the 
 square now lying between Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets, Fifth and Sixth 
 
128 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWELFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Avenues. Continuing its course as far as Eighth Street, it turned in a 
 southwesterly direction, and crossing Washington Square, passed through 
 or very near to Minetta Street, emptying at last into the North River, near 
 the junction of Washington and Hamersley Streets. The lower portion 
 of the creek was also termed Bestaver's Killitje. 
 
 The eastern branch pursued a southerly direction to a point near the 
 southwest corner of Fourteenth Street and University Place, then curving 
 to the southwest, it crossed the junction of Twelfth Street and Fifth Av- 
 enue, and emptied into the western branch at a short distance south of the 
 lower side of Twelfth Street, and about one-third of the distance between 
 Fifth and Sixth Avenues. This stream, and the springs which supplied 
 it, have been occasionally the cause of many damp and wet cellars, but 
 this evil has been remedied to a great extent by the sewers in the cross 
 streets. 
 
 The soil of the district is drift or diluvium ; gneiss rock over granite 
 lying beneath it at variable depths.* In Thirteenth Street, a few feet 
 east of Broadway, gneiss was found at a distance of 20 feet beneath the 
 surface, while a few rods west of Broadway it lay about 3 feet beneath 
 the surface, and on the western side of the junction of Broadway and 
 Bleecker Streets the gneiss was reached at a depth of 42 feet. In Bleeck- 
 er Street, between Broadway and Mercer, after passing through 500 feet 
 of gneiss rock, granite was found. Hence the character of the soil and 
 elevation of its surface constitute topographical conditions which are, on 
 the whole, very favorable to the public health. 
 
 Streets. — This district is traversed by 34 streets, including those sur- 
 rounding it, which for the most part run nearly north and south, east and 
 west, and bisect each other at right angles. The cross streets slope mainly 
 toward the west, while the majority of those running north and south 
 might almost be termed undulating. 24 of them have the cobble-stone 
 pavement, 1 the Russ, 3 the Belgian, and 7 are paved partly with the 
 Belgian and partly with cobble-stones. 
 
 Pavements. — The general surface is too uneven for rapid and thorough 
 drainage. In many of the streets, especially those which have the cob- 
 ble-stone pavement, large and small basins are found, caused by the de- 
 pression of some of the stones, and these hold the surface-water until it 
 evaporates or is absorbed by the soil. One disadvantage of the cobble- 
 stone pavement is the fact that, from its unevenncss it is cleaned with dif- 
 
 • Drift consists of sand, gravel, clay, pebbles, boulders, blocks, and irregular masses 
 of various mincralogical characters, which are derived from the disintegration or breaking 
 up of the superficial or exposed portion of the previously-existing rocks. Thcso substan- 
 ces arc sometimes united by nrgillacious cement, and in that form termed Hard-pan. 
 
THE STREETS. SOURCES OE INSALUBRITY IN THEM. 
 
 129 
 
 ficulty, and evaporation goes on much more slowly than from a smoother 
 surface. The Russ is the most even and enduring, hut is hard and slip- 
 pery. During the year a large numher of horses is injured hy falls upon 
 it, and accidents also happen to equestrians. On the whole, the trap-hlock 
 presents advantages over any other pavement in the district, hut is not 
 without objections, since it, like the cohhle-stone, is liable to become very 
 uneven, while the spaces between the separate stones soon become filled 
 with street soil and are cleaned with difficulty. There are no streets in 
 the district which are kept as clean as they should be, with the exception 
 of that part of Tenth Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, which is 
 cleaned by private contract. I do Dot think there are any dirtier streets 
 in this ward than Mott, between Bleecker and Houston. 
 
 Very many of the gutters are dirty, and often contain stagnant water. 
 In one locality it is almost always present, and in another there was, but 
 a few weeks since, stagnant water covered Avith a green vegetable growth. 
 Various articles are also found in the gutters, such as mud, leaves, pav- 
 ing stones, railroad iron, and a great variety of rubbish. This evil of 
 stagnant water depends mainly on the irregular grading of the gutters 
 and their need of repairs ; yet it is well known that such pools are manu- 
 factories of invisible but most unwholesome miasmata. 
 
 Streets will have the least injurious influence upon the public health 
 when clean, dry, wide, and running in such directions as to catch the 
 prevailing winds. In order to fully appreciate the unhealthfulness of 
 dirty streets, it must be remembered that street dirt is composed to a 
 great extent of organic matter. Under the influence of moisture and the 
 rays of the sun, this matter is constantly undergoing decomposition. 
 Whenever organic material passes through such transformations, crypto- 
 gamic vegetables are produced, which, although only visible by the mi- 
 croscope, are supposed to exert a marked agency in the development and 
 propagation of epidemic disease. They are not found in the pure air of 
 high mountains, but exist in great numbers in that of large cities. That the 
 cause of contagion is in some instances material, is shown from the fact that 
 during an epidemic of ophthalmia, Dr. Eiselt, of Copenhagen, discovered 
 small cells like those of pus in the air of a ward where this malady ex- 
 isted, and that this cause is sometimes of a vegetable nature appears from 
 various experiments of scientific men, among others M. Lcmaire, who. 
 has recently succeeded in producing Favus by means of the parasite which 
 accompanies that malady. Hay fever also furnishes a familiar instance 
 of disease produced by vegetable emanations. 
 
 It seems, then, highly probable that many of "the infections that the 
 eun sucks up" are actual matter, and that there exists an antagonism bc- 
 9 
 
130 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWELFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 tween human health and certain forms of minute vegetable life, which re- 
 sult from organic decomposition. Such germs are produced during warm 
 weather, in the dirty streets of a large city, upon a vast scale. Estimat- 
 ing the area of the streets in the Twelfth District at one-fifth of the en- 
 tire surface, and we have a hot-bed for the production of noxious vegetable 
 miasms that is more than five times as large as Washington Square. 
 
 Hence it is of the greatest importance that the quantity of street dirt 
 should be reduced by careful sweeping to its minimum. As moisture also 
 favors the production of organic changes, streets should be kept so clean 
 as to require but little sprinkling, since this, in the opinion of some of 
 our most prominent physicians, only lays a dust which should be carried 
 out of the city, instead of being left to form one of the materials for the 
 generation of malaria. The sharper particles of dust are also injurious to 
 those suffering from weak eyes or diseases of the respiratory organs. 
 
 Sewerage. — Of the 74 blocks contained in this district, 32 have a 
 public sewer on each side ; 29, one on three ; and 13 have one on two sides. 
 There is no square entirely unprovided. The drainage of Fifth Avenue 
 and University Place is, with the exception of the square between Tenth 
 and Eleventh Streets, accomplished by the sewers in the cross streets. 
 The sewers are of brick, arched, and from 2 to 4 feet in diameter ; the 
 vertical diameter being less than the transverse. They receive the 
 surface-water through the culverts (there are 133), which are usually 
 placed near the street corners.* 
 
 The number of culverts varies in different squares. In proportion as 
 houses are well drained from within, they are of less use, and their num- 
 ber might be considerably diminished. While there is no law, however, 
 obliging landlords to connect their houses with the public sewer, there 
 will always be much dirty water thrown into the streets in tenant dis- 
 tricts. An objection to these culverts is, that they are outlets of miasma- 
 tic exhalations. 
 
 The drainage of the district is only comparatively good. Most of it is 
 accomplished by the Sixth Avenue and Clarkson Street sewers. That 
 from a part of the lower row of squares passes into the Canal Street 
 sewer, and a portion of the sewage on the east side empties into the 
 Fourteenth, Seventh, Fourth, and East Houston Street sewers. 
 
 It is generally admitted that the emanations from sewers arc extremely 
 injurious to health, while no one doubts that a well-drained soil is more 
 healthful than one containing moisture. It is not uncommon even among 
 the better classes of society to meet with cases of low, protracted disease, 
 
 • For Plan of Sewerage of tho Fifteenth Ward, sec the Map p. l id. 
 
SEWERAGE AND HEALTH STATISTICS. 
 
 131 
 
 caused by a break in a waste-pipe wbicb produced a " bad smell in tbe 
 house." Experiments on the lower animals have shown that when ex- 
 posed to the air from sewers, they manifest a hot skin, quick pulse, and 
 diarrhoea, symptoms which are similar to those met with among human 
 beings who are crowded into badly-ventilated rooms. The statistics of 
 Salisbury, England, show that before the drainage of the town, the mor- 
 tality was 20 in 1,000, since, within nine years, the mortality has fallen 
 to 13 in 1,000. " For nine years previous to the new drainage, the births 
 were 2,470, and the deaths 2,226, giving a majority of 244. For nine 
 years since the sanitary arrangements, the births have been 2,624, and the 
 deaths 1,695, giving a majority of 929. The deaths from consumption, a 
 disease which was at one time very prevalent in Salisbury, for seven years 
 before the drainage, were 286, and for seven years since have been 143, 
 being a decrease of one-half." A distinguished English engineer * has 
 also stated that " the death rates of London diminished just in proportion 
 to the abolition of sinks and cesspools, and completeness of sewage 
 drainage." 
 
 Squares. — There are 73 occupied squares in the Twelfth District, 
 one of the entire number being used as a park. Of these, 45 may be 
 classed as in a good, 7 in a bad, and 21 in a mixed sanitary condition. 
 From this, it is evident that the majority of the population enjoys the 
 benefits of fresh air, light, and tolerably clean streets. 
 
 Squares will be insalubrious in proportion as they are crowded, badly 
 drained, surrounded by dirty streets, or occupied by nuisances. Some of 
 those squares which are in a mixed sanitary condition, offer many points 
 of interest. In them, the child of wealthy parents may hear from his 
 comfortable bed the cries of his unfortunate brother, in the dampness and 
 darkness of the tenant-house. The air of such neighborhoods is infected, 
 and the occupants of the better class houses are living in a state of con- 
 stant exposure to some of those contagious diseases so often prevalent in 
 tenant-dwellings. It is not only the poor but the rich who should be in- 
 terested in the sanitary condition of the city, for diseases are often raging 
 within a stone's toss of their houses, which if known would fill them with 
 anxiety. A short time since small-pox existed in a tenant-house in this 
 district, which stood at the end of the yard of one among a row of better 
 class houses. 
 
 As an instance of a square in a mixed sanitary condition, take one 
 from the record-book in which there are of dwelling-houses 47. Rather 
 more than 120 families arc contained in 19 of these houses ; and estimate 
 ing 4 to each family, we should have a population of 480 souls living in 
 * Robert Rawlinson, Esq. 
 
132 REPORT OF THE TWELFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 what might be termed a corner of the square. The remaining 26 dwell- 
 ings contain, on an average, about 7 persons to each house, or 168 for the 
 remainder of the square. These latter are constantly exposed to the ex- 
 halations and diseases which are the accompaniment of the more crowded 
 neighborhood. 
 
 Population. — Most of the population of this district is native-born, 
 and the remainder is composed of foreigners and negroes. The census of 
 1860 gives the following result : 
 
 Population of the Fifteenth Ward. 
 
 WHITES. FREE COLORED. TOTAL. 
 
 Males, 12,429 332 12,761 
 
 Females, 14,380 446 14,826 
 
 Total, 26,809 778 27,587 
 
 The style of living in this population, presents every variety from lux- 
 ury to poverty, and almost every branch of industry is represented. A 
 calculation gives about 70 square feet as the ground area for each person, 
 exclusive of the area of the streets. As, however, some of the tenant popu- 
 lation have but 15 square feet of ground area, the total is very unequally 
 divided. It is the healthiest ward in the city, having a mortality of 
 rather less than 1 in 60 ; and it may not be out of place to state, that in 
 the recent municipal election, it gave a majority in favor of reform. 
 It is a district of strong contrasts, where the rich and poor, healthy 
 and sick, meet together, where better class houses are every year 
 becoming metamorphosed into tenant-dwellings, and where the greatest 
 refinement and most stolid indifference are found respectively in the man- 
 sion and the cellar. 
 
 Buildings. — There are 2,996 of all kinds of buildings which are 
 wholly or partially occupied, as follows : 
 
 Better class dwellings, .... 1,380 
 
 198 
 
 Tenant-houses containing three or more families, 
 Dwellings resembling tenant-houses, 
 Stores on Broadway, 2 sides, . 
 
 " " Fourth Avenue and Bowery, 1 side, 
 
 " " Sixth Avenue, 1 side, 
 
 " " Blccckcr Street, 2 sides, . 
 Drug stores, .. 
 
 Groceries, .... 
 Shanties, ..... 
 Gambling f-aloons, .... 
 Concert euloons, • 
 
 190 
 212 
 129 
 94 
 73 
 16 
 49 
 4 
 17 
 7 
 
CLASSIFICATION OF RESIDENCES AND OTHER BUILDINGS. 133 
 
 Brothels and assignation houses, ... 76 
 
 Livery stables, ..... 29 
 
 Private stables and stalls, .... 161 
 
 Drinking shops, ..... 234 
 
 Lager bier saloons, .... 23 
 
 Policy shops, ...... 22 
 
 Station house, . . . . . 1 
 
 Hotels. ...... 14 
 
 Theatres, ...... 4 
 
 Public schools, ..... 3 
 
 Public library buildings, .... 3 
 
 Theological seminary, .... 1 
 
 Churches, ...... 16 
 
 Synagogue, ...... 1 
 
 Half-Orphan asylum, .... 1 
 
 Asylum for juvenile delinquents, ... 1 
 
 Slaughter-house, ..... 1 
 
 Soap and candle factory, .... 1 
 
 Markets, ...... 18 
 
 Engine-houses, ..... 4 
 
 Factories, ...... 48 
 
 Home for young women and children, ... 1 
 
 Better Class Residences. — Of the various dwellings, 1,380 are in- 
 cluded under better class residences. These vary much in character, but 
 there are few which cannot be termed comfortable, and many are lux- 
 urious. It is well known that there is no city in the world where there 
 are so many handsome private residences as New York, and some of the 
 finest in the city are to be found in this district. Those in the upper por- 
 tion are mostly new, built of brick or brick with facings of brown sand- 
 stone, are spacious, well drained, and supplied with gas and Croton-water. 
 They are heated by stoves, grates, or furnaces, in which soft or hard coal 
 is burned. Unfortunately the supply of water is still deficient, which is 
 accounted for by the fact that although there is enough in the reservoirs, 
 the supply pipes or mains are not sufficiently numerous. A bath-room 
 and water-closet are considered essential to every house. The garbage is 
 kept in an " ash-barrel," and removed by the street-carts. Sometimes a 
 delay occurs in the removal, and then quite an offensive smell is produced. 
 As a general rule, the improved modes of ventilation as at present under- 
 stood have not been specially considered in the construction of these 
 houses, and they are often kept too warm in winter. Bad odors occasion- 
 ally occur in better class residences, as a consequence of the traps being 
 too shallow. 
 
134 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWELFTH SAKTTARr DISTRICT. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — 197 tenanHiouses contain 3 or more families. A 
 different classification would, however, increase this numher materially ; 
 for including small houses, which resemble tenant-houses in deficiency of 
 ground area and cubic air-space, containing only two families, and better 
 class houses which are let out by rooms to a tenant-class population, and 
 we have 388 dwellings which might fairly be termed tenant-houses. 
 
 The 197 tenant-houses contain 1,396 families or 4,940 persons, and a 
 cellar population of 51 families or 234 persons. Of these : 
 18 houses contained 3 families. 
 
 43 
 
 K 
 
 tt 4 
 
 22 
 
 u 
 
 " 5 
 
 35 
 
 u 
 
 " 6 
 
 11 
 
 it 
 
 " 7 
 
 30 
 
 tt 
 
 " 8 
 
 4 
 
 tt 
 
 " 9 
 
 12 
 
 tt 
 
 " 10 
 
 3 
 
 tt 
 
 " 12 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 ■ 14 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 " 15 
 
 4 
 
 tt 
 
 « 16 
 
 2 
 
 U 
 
 17 
 
 5 
 
 tt 
 
 « 18 
 
 1 
 
 tit 
 
 " 19 
 
 1 
 
 it 
 
 w 20 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 " 21 
 
 2 
 
 tt 
 
 tt 24 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 26 
 
 The means of escape from fire was good in 118, bad in 79. 
 
 There were sewers for 124, none for 73. 
 
 In 8 cellars each person had, of cubic air-space from 
 
 200 to 400 square feet. 
 
 5o 
 60 
 28 
 34 
 
 400 " 600 
 600 " 800 
 800 " 1,000 
 over 1,000 
 
 In the rooms above tbc cellar each person in 
 
 10 families bad of cubic air-space from 200 to 400 square feet. 
 55 " " " 400 " 600 " 
 70 « " " 600 " 800 " 
 28 " " " 800 " 1,000 " 
 34 M " " over 1,000 " 
 
nOMES OF THE RICH. AND HOMES OF THE POOR. 
 
 135 
 
 Of these tenant-houses 14 are of wood, 69 are rear buildings, and 25 
 have no rear windows. 
 
 The fact that 1,000 cubic feet of air-space is considered as the least 
 allowance necessary for every adult person, and that residents in first- 
 class houses enjoy from 2,000 feet upwards, shows that the majority of a 
 tenant-population has not the stimulus of fresh air to assist in bearing 
 their other surrounding discomforts or resisting disease. 
 
 The relative sanitary condition of a good private dwelling and a 
 tenant-house may be illustrated by the following comparison : 
 
 Private dwelling — (medium). Tenant— (rear). 
 Area covered by house sq. ft.,.20by40(3 stories and basem't),20 by 25 (4 stories). 
 
 No. of inmates, 8 persons (1 family), 8 families (30 to 40 souls). 
 
 Area of yard and court, 20 by 30, 12 by 20. 
 
 Ground area, each person,. . . .100 square feet, 15 square feet. 
 
 Sewerage, Drains and traps, None or hydrant and cesspool. 
 
 Cubic air-space, each person,.. 4,000 cubic feet, 400 cubic feet. 
 
 Light or dark, Light, Dark, in halls and bedrooms. 
 
 Hygrometric conditions, Dry, Damp. 
 
 Ventilation, Tolerable, Bad. 
 
 Nuisances, Dirty streets, 4 privies in court. 
 
 Garbage-box. 
 
 As an instance of the insalubrious conditions under which some of the 
 inhabitants of this district live, may be mentioned three rows of tenant- 
 houses situated between Broadway and the Bowery, on. a space of 8,100 
 square feet, or a little more than three full lots (see diagram) , which con- 
 tain 352 persons. This gives a ground area of 23 square feet to each in- 
 dividual. 
 
 Between the front and middle houses is a space of about six feet, be- 
 tween the middle and rear one foot. The lower rooms of the middle row, 
 which has five stories above the basement, are very damp. The sun never 
 reaches them. Leather soon becomes mouldy there, and within three feet 
 from each hall door are three privies. 
 
 In a dark and damp cellar, about 18 feet square and 7 feet high, lived 
 a family of 7 persons ; within the past year 2 have died of typhus, 
 2 of small-pox, and 1 has been sent to the hospital with erysipelas. The 
 tops of the windows of this abode are below the level of the surface, and in 
 the court near arc several privies and a rear tenant-house. Yet this oc- 
 curred but a short distance from the very heart of the city. 
 
 Courts, Alleys, Garbage-Boxes. — In connection with the subject 
 of tenant-houses it is proper to mention that there are 12 garbage-boxes, 
 24 courts, and 95 alleys in this district. 
 
 Some of the garbage-boxes arc extremely disgusting, both in smell 
 
136 
 
 EEPOET OF THE TWELFTH SAOTTAEY DISTEICT. 
 
DRINKING SHOPS, CORNER GROCERIES, ETC. 
 
 137 
 
 and appearance. They often remain unemptied for days, and this in hot 
 weather, and the result is a heterogeneous stew worthy of the " devil's 
 kitchen." * These boxes should always be provided with covers, emptied 
 every day in summer, and whitewashed every week on the inside, until 
 some better method is adopted for the disposition of garbage. 
 
 Many of the alleys are damp, and have small gutters running through 
 them into the street. Some of the courts are also damp and exposed to 
 emanations from cesspools. 
 
 Drinking Shops, Saloons, Brothels. — There are 234 dram shops, 
 23 lager bier saloons, 17 gambling saloons, 7 concert saloons, 76 brothels 
 and assignation houses, and 22 policy shops in the limits of this inspection. 
 
 The drinking shops are of various kinds, and may be divided into 
 "bars," where only liquors and segars are sold, lager bier saloons, where 
 more lager bier than strong liquor is consumed, and with less rapidity. 
 Ale-houses similar to lager bier saloons, though generally more quiet and 
 partaking somewhat of the character of restaurants ; billiard rooms, res- 
 taurants, concert saloons, and corner groceries. Some of the brothels 
 also have "bars." 
 
 Deaji-Shops. — The "bars" and corner groceries exert the worst in- 
 fluence of all these varieties upon the health of the community. It is 
 there that the higher and lower grades of tippling are carried on, and large 
 quantities of strong liquors hastily consumed at unseasonable hours. It 
 is the custom with some to drink ardent spirits in the morning for the 
 purpose of bracing up a relaxed nervous system, and others continue the 
 draughts throughout the day. This induces dyspepsia or a nervous de- 
 pression, which calls for the additional spur of a temporary excitement. 
 In this manner bad passions are aroused, and habits of inebriety and chronic 
 alcoholism very likely to be induced. The recent homicide in Hudson 
 Street occurred in one of these drinking saloons. 
 
 Corner Groceries. — The corner groceries are found near the tenant- 
 houses. It may be that the depressing causes which exist in such a 
 neighborhood prompt to the use of some " oblivious antidotes," by which 
 for a time the rough edges of life may be smoothed over. It may be, too, 
 that these stimulants exert a certain degree of prophylactic influence, but 
 the quality of liquor obtained in such places is injurious to the digestive 
 organs, the brain becomes unduly excited, and quarrelling or even murder 
 results. Probably the general health of society would be better without 
 ardent spirits, and there is no doubt that the introduction of cheap and 
 pure wines containing a small percentage of alcohol would be a great boon 
 to the community. 
 
 * The popular name given to a tripe-boiling establishment in the upper part of the city. 
 
138 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWELFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Brothels. — It being for the interest of the inmates of brothels to pay 
 strict attention to neatness and personal cleanliness, these buildings are 
 not overcrowded. They vary in character from the quiet assignation- 
 house, to the gaudy brothel and low resort of prostitution. In some parts 
 of this district prostitution is carried on under the guise of segar selling. 
 
 It has often been urged that such houses, and in fact the whole matter 
 of the " social evil," should be placed under legal and medical supervision, 
 as in many other cities. This seems to be the most efficient method for 
 preserving society from the ravages of a pernicious and inveterate disease, 
 thus only acknowledging what is every day forced upon the public notice, 
 while practically giving it less encouragement than it at present enjoys. 
 
 Stores, Markets, etc. — Most of the stores in this district are on 
 Broadway, the Bowery, Sixth Avenue, and Bleecker Street. In these 
 thoroughfares there are 508, and in the entire limits of this survey the 
 number would rise to more than 600. There are 69 drug stores, 49 
 groceries of all kinds, and 18 markets. Most of the stores are commo- 
 dious, and some very spacious and elegant. The drug stores are mostly 
 of the better class, and the markets generally well kept private markets. 
 I do not know of any instance in this district where poisons have been 
 dispensed by druggists without the prescription of a physician. 
 
 Factories. — There are piano, cabinet furniture, trunk, sewing-ma- 
 chine, chocolate, carriage, ornamental composition, photographic mate- 
 rials, and hoop-skirt manufactories in the Twelfth District, but they do 
 not at present call for special consideration. 
 
 Stables and Slaughter-houses. — There is 1 slaughter-house which 
 i3 in rather a dilapidated condition, 1 soap and candle factory, 29 livery, 
 1 veterinary, and 163 private stables and stalls. The majority of stables 
 is private, and very many are neat and most carefully kept. In some parts 
 of the district the pavements in front of them arc, however, much obstructed. 
 It will be noticed that their number is large, and much originality has 
 been shown in providing for the equine population of the district. Some- 
 times above ground, often under ground, and again in little stalls or 
 stables like inverted boxes, does this indispensable animal find shelter. 
 The large private stable in Amity Street near Woostcr is clean and well 
 ventilated, and there are many handsome private stables attached to better 
 class houses. It is said that horses in subterranean stables are delicate, 
 take cold easily, and often suffer from " scratches." 
 
 Churches, Institutions. — Of the 16 churches, one is attended by 
 colored people ; there are 3 public schools, 1 synagogue, 1 half-orphan 
 asylum, 1 asylum for juvenile delinquents, 3 public library buildings, 1 
 temporary home for young women and children, 1 theological seminary, 
 1 university. 
 
SCHOOLS, ETC. — PREVAILING DISEASES. 
 
 139 
 
 In the construction of the churches there does not seem to have been 
 a special reference to the improved methods of ventilation. This is com- 
 pensated for to a great extent by high ceilings and spacious interior. 
 During the summer the heated air finds ingress and egress through the 
 open doors and windows, but in winter the atmosphere is somewhat 
 confined. 
 
 It is admitted that the ventilation in the public schools is defective 
 since the demand for education among all classes is very great ; but in 
 this district these institutions are under the control of intelligent and 
 public spirited men, who desire to remedy such evils as far as possible. 
 
 The Half-Orphan Asylum and Asylum for Juvenile Delinquents are 
 not overcrowded ; there are clean well ventilated dormitories in the Half- 
 Orphan Asylum, and the sanitary condition of the children there is 
 excellent. 
 
 The Home for Young Women and Children is similar in its good ob- 
 jects, and connected with the House of Mercy in Eighty-sixth Street. 
 
 Vacant Lots, Grave-yards. — There is 1 small grave-yard and 1 
 Jewish burying-ground, 15 vacant lots in a good sanitary condition, and 
 1 park or Washington Square. 
 
 This square, a portion of which was formerly Potter's Field, contains 
 nearly 10 acres. It is used as a playground and public walk, also for 
 military and police drills. In summer, the trees which it contains are in- 
 fested with worms. It is probable that trees exert a purifying influence 
 upon the atmosphere, since they exhale ozone, that remarkable substance 
 which is now admitted to be Nature's great disinfectant. 
 
 This park increases materially the amount of cubic air-space in this 
 portion of the district. 
 
 Prevailing Diseases. — Since the commencement of the survey, 
 scarlet fever, typhoid fever, small-pox, and cholera infantum, have pre- 
 vailed in the tenant-houses of this ward. Six cases of small-pox occurred 
 in one of three thickly-peopled rows of such dwellings, and the disease 
 was communicated to a child living in an adjacent street, who had been 
 playing in the infected neighborhood. Seven cases of typhoid also occurred 
 in a court among children, and this was within a few doors of better class 
 houses. A little child also died of scarlet fever a few months since in a 
 better class house, which was near a tenant neighborhood, where the same 
 disease had existed a short time previously. This, however, may have 
 been only a coincidence. 
 
 There is a great comparative indifference to contagious maladies 
 among the inmates of tenant-houses, and much carelessness as to prophy- 
 lactic measures ou the part of landlords. It sometimes happens that ten- 
 
140 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWELFTII SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 ants move into rooms where small-pox has raged but a few weeks before, 
 without knowing that this disease has existed there, and these rooms are 
 not disinfected during the continuance of the malady, or after it has run 
 its course. 
 
 At the commencement of the inspection, it was a source of much sur- 
 prise that so many localities which apparently contained all the elements 
 for the generation of malaria, should be so free from disease. Certain 
 houses were described as " Insalubrious Quarters," in which the occupants 
 were nevertheless comparatively well. But when the hot months came 
 on, and the sun called out the lurking miasms, then disease showed itself 
 in these poisoned abodes, and the effect was thus associated with its cause. 
 
 Most of the complaints reported to the Association have received the 
 attention of the Sanitary Police, and there seems a disposition on the part 
 of that body to remedy existing evils as far as is practicable. 
 
 But the present health organization of the city is inadequate to main- 
 tain a constant supervision, and a more comprehensive system is necessary, 
 corresponding to the advancement of sanitary knowledge and the wants 
 of a large and rapidly-growing city. 
 
 Although this district includes the healthiest ward in the city, its 
 sanitary condition, as will have been seen from the previous pages, is only 
 comparatively good, and it is believed that the average number of diseases 
 and deaths which occur annually within its limits, might be still further 
 reduced. It would be improved by 
 
 Necessary Improvements. — 1. Cleaner streets and gutters ; the 
 streets to be kept constantly clean by men and carts going through the dif- 
 ferent streets, as is done in other cities, instead of a periodical " cleaning 
 up." 
 
 2. A more complete system of sewerage. 
 
 3. The erection of model tenant-houses. And here it is proper to 
 speak against that indifference as to the welfare of the poor, which is often 
 observed among the better class ; a shifting of those responsibilities which 
 always must press upon the shoulders of the influential members of a large 
 city under a republican form of government, unless they are willing to 
 allow the best interests of the city to fall into unworthy hands. 
 
 The tenant-population is deprived of light and air because of the want 
 of good houses and not from choice, for there is not a doubt that model 
 lodging-houses would be easily filled, and that they would prove remuner- 
 ative. The effect of such buildings would be seen in an increased morality 
 and diminished death-rate. 
 
 4. Liquors should not be sold without a license. 
 
 5. The social evil should be placed under legal and medical restraints. 
 
NECESSAEY IMPROVEMENTS . 
 
 141 
 
 6. It is believed that the packing of street cars is also a cause of the 
 propagation of disease, since persons in these conveyances are often 
 brought into very close contact with those suffering from contagious mala- 
 dies. Seventy-five passengers have been counted riding upon one street 
 car at the same time, while there are only seats for twenty. Serious 
 injuries also sometimes occur to those getting on or off, and one or two 
 individuals have lost their lives by being run over during the past year. 
 
 7. Public urinals are also necessary in large cities. As constructed in 
 Paris they disfigure the public thoroughfares and offend public decency ; 
 but such places might be built in the rear of small stores, thus removing 
 every objectionable appearance. Some points in this district suggest such 
 an improvement. 
 
 It is also a fair question whether animals for slaughter should pass in 
 droves through our principal streets, sometimes filling the air with a dis- 
 agreeable smell, injuring their meat in hot weather, and occasionally run- 
 ning a muck through the town, when thirsty and overheated. Fast 
 driving of horses, although less frequent since the occurrence of fatal re- 
 sults, has not entirely disappeared. 
 
 Is it necessary to add, that the care of the public health should be un- 
 der the supervision of a well-qualified body of medical men, sufficiently 
 numerous to keep a constant watch over all sanitary affairs, and associated 
 with a police force who could carry out such sanitary measures as were 
 necessary for the public welfare. 
 
 It will read strangely by and by that for many years the health of the 
 city was under the control of those who, in some instances, were not 
 especially familiar with the laws of health, and in many quite ignorant 
 of them. It seems only natural that those to whom society commits its 
 individual health, and whose time is occupied in the study of disease, 
 would be the most efficient guardians of the health of a community. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 THIRTEENTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 ROBERT NEWMAN, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — The Thirteenth District comprises the western half 
 of the Seventeenth Ward, and is bounded on the north by East Fourteenth 
 Street, east by the First Avenue, including both sides of said avenue, south 
 by Rivinyton Street, and west by the Bowery. 
 
 Extent of Area. — Measured throughout the exterior line3 of its 
 boundaries, the area of this district covers 8,396,648 square feet. In the 
 early history of the city this district was embraced in three adjacent farms : 
 The " Van Cortlandt Farm," extending northward to the line of Houston 
 Street ; next the " Minthorne Farm," extending to Sixth Street ; and, 
 lastly, north of Sixth Street the " Stuyvesant Farm," covered the balance 
 of this district and much more beyond it. 
 
 Geology. — The diluvium or drift constitutes the principal external 
 feature of the geological formations here. Beneath this drift of silicious 
 clay, etc., is the broad and distorted underlying rock of the island, gneiss, 
 and which at the present grade of the streets is found at various places at 
 a depth of about 18 feet below the surface. 
 
 Topography. — The whole district is elevated ground ; the character of 
 the soil is sandy. Around Stanton and Rivington Streets particularly, the 
 best sand for building purposes was found. A few lots have been filled in 
 with earth from 4 to 6 feet. The only exception in topographical char- 
 acter was a marshy ground on the " Peter Stuyvesant Farm," which ex- 
 tended from a little below Thirteenth Street to Fourteenth Street, and 
 from First Avenue a little beyond the Second Avenue. A brook passed 
 this locality from west to east, and finally emptied into the East River. 
 About twenty years ago this swamp was filled in with earth for a little 
 
STREETS AND DRAINAGE. 
 
 143 
 
 more than 10 feet in depth. The original elevation was here 10t} feet ; at 
 present it is 21 feet, and the lowest point in the district. Several wells 
 and springs have existed in different parts of the district, which have been 
 gradually covered. The last wells were covered in 1861, and were situ- 
 ated as follows : Corner of Second Avenue and Fourth Street, Second 
 Avenue and Third Street, and First Avenue and Sixth Street. 
 
 The natural drainage of the district is good ; the west side at Bowery 
 and Fourth Avenue is highest, varying in height in several places within 
 6 feet, gradually sloping toward First Avenue. The greatest elevation is 
 at the corner of Stanton and Bowery, being 45 feet. The lowest locality 
 is First Avenue and Fourteenth Street, 21 feet, and continuing a few 
 blocks south. 
 
 The elevations in Bowery and Fourth Avenue vary between 
 
 38 ft. 3 in. to 44 ft. 11 in. 
 " " Third Av. vary between 34 ft. 2 in. to 37 ft. 6 in. 
 
 " " Second Av. " " 27 ft. 8 in. to 40 ft. 11 in. 
 
 " " First " " " 21ft. 0 in. to 35 ft. 4 in. 
 
 "While the city of New York has been so favored by nature in regard 
 to situation, that it ought to be one of the most salubrious cities in the 
 world, this district has the greatest natural advantages for health of any 
 within its limits. With proper sanitary regulations in full operation 
 zymotic diseases would not here be known. The elevation, the good 
 natural drainage, the sandy, high ground, combine topographically and 
 geologically all the natural elements of salubrity. 
 
 Streets. — The streets run regularly, being laid out in avenues from 
 south to north, and in streets from west to east, excepting Stuyvesant 
 Street, which runs diagonally between Ninth and Tenth Streets. The 
 avenues and Fourteenth Street are 100 feet wide, the numerical streets 
 and others running in the same direction are 60 feet wide. " Extra Place " 
 is 27 feet wide. The alleys and courts differ much in width. 
 
 The streets are generally paved with cobble stones. Belgian pave- 
 ment is in the Bowery, Fourth Avenue, St. Mark's Place, and Houston 
 Street ; the latter just finished. The gutters in the ennumerated streets 
 arc most cleanly and well drained by the inclination of their planes, but 
 on the avenues the unevenncss and general inclination of their planes ren- 
 der the gutters extremely unclean by the collection of water and garbage 
 in the depressions. At certain places, especially in the neighborhood of 
 factories, large stores, and stables, the gutters are covered to afford smooth 
 passage to vehicles ; these coverings obstruct the gutters and increase the 
 accumulations, generating foul emanations and musquitoes. This is cs- 
 
144: REPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 pecially noticeable in Christie, Rivington, and Stanton Streets. The res- 
 idents of No. 16 Rivington complained that in consequence of such ob- 
 structions and deficiencies of drainage, water accumulates in their cellars 
 during the winter. The whole of this block is filthy. The corners of 
 this street at Christie and Forsyth are particularly filthy. In Christie 
 heaps of garbage are always found. In Forsyth, notwithstanding the ef- 
 forts of the residents, the deficiency of drainage and accumulated filth 
 from the neighboring slaughter-house and establishment for preparing 
 calves' heads, cause a most troublesome nuisance. 
 
 The gutters in Eldridge Street are out of repair. The sidewalk in 
 Stanton, between Eldridge and Allen, is in a miserable condition, nearly 
 every flagstone being on a different plane. The drainage before No. 22 
 Stanton Street is in such a state that the residents cannot keep the gutters 
 clean. The pavement is poor in many places, particularly in First Ave- 
 nue and some places in Second Avenue. At the corner of this avenue 
 and Sixth Street the pavement has given way, causing an excavation dan- 
 gerous to travel. Fifth Street, near Bowery, is very dirty, and needs re- 
 pairs. The two following localities present the appearance of dung-hills 
 rather than the thoroughfares in a civilized city, viz. : Sixth Street be- 
 tween Bowery and Second Avenue, and Eleventh Street between First 
 and Second Avenues. 
 
 Sewerage. — No community and no city can preserve a wholesome 
 condition without a thorough supply of pure water, and an equally thor- 
 ough purification from all refuse. To properly arrange this double circu- 
 lation in a large house, is a matter of no trivial consideration ; how much 
 more, then, is skill, sagacity, and system, necessary for the sufficient supply 
 and drainage of a district of an immense city like New York ? Houses 
 may be built on as many different plans as the fancy of owners or the 
 skill of builders may desire ; blocks may be large or small ; streets and 
 avenues straight or curved, regular or irregular, as may suit the cir- 
 cumstances of proprietors ; but the distributions of pure water and 
 the removal of impurities by sewerage, must be effected according to a 
 logical plan and system. The laws of nature and the rules of art will 
 only give success in this department. It is not enough to empty the slops 
 of one room into the common sink, nor the filth of one house into tho 
 common privy or waste-pipe. The sewerage of each room and house must 
 be accurately estimated before it enters tho common sewer of the block, 
 and that sewer must be of a capacity sufficient for all the houses feeding 
 it. But that is not all ; the street sewer must find an ample reservoir, 
 and the reservoir must find instant conduit by the general channel to tho 
 river. Nor Bhould the solids lie in the corners and on tho shore, whilo 
 
CAN THE SEWERS BE CLEANSED. 
 
 145 
 
 the fluids find difficult passage into the river current. Perpetual motion, 
 and sufficient outlet, are the grand principles of a good sewerage. Heav- 
 ily laden water will not turn sharp corners, run up hill, nor force impos- 
 sible outlets to suit the ignorance, caprice, or stinginess of any individual 
 or community. Nor is it sufficient to plan and execute a complete system 
 of sewerage for New York as it is, but rather for New York as it will be. 
 If a sewer, a culvert, or conduit is sufficient to-day, it will be impassable 
 to-morrow ; for there will be another house to drain. From our obser- 
 vation and reflection we can but conclude that, to devise and put in opera- 
 tion a system of sewerage adequate to the necessities of this city, is a 
 problem to be solved only by the most skilful students of civil engineering. 
 
 The original plan of sewerage for this city was adapted only to a vil- 
 lage ; that plan, barely sufficient at the outset, has never been enlarged 
 nor considerably improved. Additions merely have been made from time 
 to time, which have resulted in the greatest confusion. There are houses 
 with no sewer, privies which overflow into the yards, vacant lots convert- 
 ed into cesspools, streets ankle deep with filth, for which no outlet ever 
 was contemplated. Another fault is, that the sewerage has been con- 
 structed at different times, by different persons. One district has been 
 drained by a contractor, who was utterly ignorant of the condition of the 
 sewerage in the adjoining district, and the sewer from one block has been 
 let into the sewer of another, without a thought as to the capacity of that 
 sewer to perform its double function. If the constructor only got the filth 
 out of sight somewhere, his contract was finished, and the city was drain- 
 ed ! A large amount of water is led into a conduit entirely too small ; 
 sewers are constructed on a level, or even on an ascending plane. A 
 sewer 14 feet in depth empties into another of but 12 feet, and six houses 
 are so drained that, if an obstruction is caused by one house, the other 
 five are not drained at all. This is owing to the wretched economy of 
 speculators, who built houses with no regard to their connection with the 
 street sewer. 
 
 There is no provision for cleaning out the sewers. In the winter the 
 abundant rains and the water from melting of the snow is carried into the 
 sewer, and they are thus partially cleansed. But in the summer, when 
 filth collects most rapidly and decomposes so readily, little rain falls and 
 the sewers are uncleaned sometimes for weeks. There are no means of flush- 
 ing them, and hence where the solids prevail in the drain a foul and pesti- 
 lential atmosphere is generated during the worst months of the year. The 
 same lack of system which prevails in the construction of small and main 
 channels also holds in the outlets. These outlets are intended to diffuse 
 the contents of the sewers into the river currents ; but in many cases the 
 10 
 
146 REPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 outlet is so much above high-water mark, that while the fluids run away 
 the solids lie on the shore, diffusing pestilence and sickness into all the 
 neighborhood. Other outlets are so far below the water-level, that when 
 the tide is high, the sea-water fills the sewer and forces back the filth. 
 The result of this tidal influx is the overflow of cellars and privies in the 
 neighborhood ; the regurgitation or reflux of gases and foul emanations 
 by the privies, basins, and sinks, even far removed from the water-side. 
 For many blocks toward the centre of the city this dangerous recumula- 
 tion sends its evil influences in the shape of foul odors and offensive 
 privies. 
 
 In the neighborhood filled by tenant-houses of the lower classes the 
 waste-pipes from the privies into the sewers are often obstructed by gar- 
 bage, ashes, and dead animals. This evil requires some special provision 
 of grating and facilities for removal. In regard to the size of sewers con- 
 structed in 1862 the dimensions are 4 ft. X 2 ft. 8 in. 
 
 Sewerage of the District.— All the enumerated streets with 
 Houston, Stanton, and Rivington, are sewered, except a part of Twelfth 
 Street, between Second and Third Avenues, where there is a private 
 sewer, which connects with the public one. 
 
 The following Localities have no Public Sewer : 
 
 Part of Twelfth Street between 3d and 2d Avenues. 
 Fourth Avenue " 7th " 9th Streets. 
 
 « « " 10th " 11th " 
 
 " " « 12th " 13th « 
 
 Third Avenue " 7th " 9th " 
 
 " » « 10th " 13th " 
 
 Second Avenue between Houston " 3d " 
 
 » " « 8th " 9th « 
 
 First Avenue " Houston " 12th " 
 
 « « « 13th " 14th « 
 
 Christie Street " Rivington " Houston 11 
 Forsyth " " Rivington " Stanton " 
 
 Eldridge " a small part near Houston " 
 Allen " between Stanton and Houston " 
 Stuyvesant Street entirely. 
 Extra Place entirely. 
 
 There are private sewers in Christie Street, Nos. 181 and 183 ; iu 
 Third Avenue near Tenth Street, and in the same avenue near Twelfth 
 Street, the houses Nos. 72, 74, 7G, 78 have one sewer, which runs from 
 
THE SQUARES. — HOW OCCUPIED. 
 
 147 
 
 their yards and the stable No. 100 East Twelfth Street, and empties into 
 the Twelfth Street public sewer. This is one of the badly-constructed 
 sewers, which often is blocked up, and has given rise to much trouble and 
 inconvenience to the parties concerned. 
 
 Second Avenue provision-house, Nos. 10-14, connects with First Street. 
 " " Nos. 6 and 8 connects with Houston Street. 
 " " Nos. 17-27 have only one sewer. 
 " " between 8th and 9th Streets are good sewers. 
 Stuyvesant Street to 9th and 10th Streets. 
 
 First Avenue Nos. 121 and 123 connects with 8th Street sewer. 
 " " Nos. 143 to 151 " " 10th « " 
 
 In Bowery and in streets below First Street, only a few houses are 
 connected with the sewers, and these are mostly tenant-houses. In First 
 Street, No. 16 to 26, the houses have only one sewer, and belong there- 
 fore to the class mentioned before. 
 
 Squares. — There are in this district 44 squares, besides the blocks on 
 the east side of First Avenue, between Houston and Fourteenth Streets. 
 There is great variety in regard to the sanitary conditions of the same 
 square as well as in different squares. 
 
 First Avenue is mostly in a bad sanitary condition, and the streets are 
 dirty in consequence of municipal neglect and the presence of the large 
 population, who live mostly in tenant-houses. Second Avenue has mostly 
 first-class dwellings. The streets between the avenues present a great 
 variety of conditions. Near the corner of Second Avenue and Sixth 
 Street, fashionable houses, cattle-yards, and markets, and the worst 
 slaughter-house in this district, are promiscuously mingled. In Eleventh 
 Street,' again, we find in the same square first-class houses, and over- 
 crowded tenant-houses of the lowest order, with the great fever-nest of the 
 district. 
 
 In general it can be stated, that the upper part of the district above 
 Seventh Street is in the best sanitary condition, except First Avenue, 
 and Eleventh Street between First and Second Avenues. The lower part 
 below Sixth Street is in a mixed condition. 
 
 Inhabitants. — Private families that have a whole or half a house as 
 a residence, are 2,107. The laboring classes living in tenant-houses, num- 
 ber about 5,872 families ; making a total of 7,979 families in the district. 
 The whole population is estimated about 39,890 persons. In the Bowery, 
 Fourth Avenue, Third Avenue, and First Avenue, almost every house is 
 occupied by a store or business of some kind ; the upper portion of such 
 houses are used for dwellings. 
 
148 REPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 In Second Avenue are private residences exclusively. In the enu- 
 merated streets above Seventh Street are mostly private houses ; below 
 Seventh Street mostly tenant-houses, with some slaughter-houses and fac- 
 tories mixed. Houston Street, and below that street, shopping business, 
 factories, tenant-houses, and private dwellings are intermingled in strange 
 variety. 
 
 In regard to peculiarities, classes, prevailing character and nationality, 
 the streets give a better key for tracing them out than the squares. For 
 instance, the First Avenue is inhabited to Second Street by Americans, 
 with few Germans. Between Second and Sixth Streets, we find Germans 
 exclusively in large tenant-houses ; Sixth to Seventh Streets a mixed 
 population of Americans, Irish, and Germans ; Seventh to Eleventh Streets 
 Irish prevailing, with Germans scattered ; Twelfth to Fourteenth Streets 
 Irish exclusively ; Eleventh Street, between First and Second Avenue, Irish 
 entirely ; below Third Street is a mixed population, with Germans prevail- 
 ing ; Sixth Street, between First and Second Avenue, almost entirely Ger- 
 mans ; Second Avenue, and the enumerated streets above Seventh Street, 
 Americans prevailing, with many Germans scattered ; Third, Fourth, and 
 Fifth Streets, a mixed population. Colored people live scattered around 
 the district in rear buildings and alleys. 
 
 Buildings. — Classification of buildings. 
 
 Private dwelling houses, 
 
 . 1,204 
 
 Tenant Do., ..... 
 
 734 
 
 * Stores, factories, shops, etc., 
 
 . 123 
 
 Slaughter-houses, .... 
 
 38 
 
 Packing-houses, fat and hides, etc., 
 
 17 
 
 Churches, ..... 
 
 . • 14 
 
 Schools, ...... 
 
 7 
 
 * Hotels, saloons, armories, etc., 
 
 48 
 
 * Stables, ...... 
 
 . 116 
 
 Miscellaneous (not specified here), 
 
 53 
 
 Total buildings in the district, 
 
 . 2,354 
 
 Within this district are 46 courts, 160 alleys, 272 rear buildings. 
 Private Dwellings. — Of the 1,204 private dwellings, wc find the 
 
 * The lines with a * show not the whole number of those establishments in the district, 
 as many buildings arc used for several purposes. For instance, a single building may bo 
 occupied in part by tenants as a dwelling, while the other portions are used as a factory, 
 shop, store, market, and stable. The above table is only a classification of buildings, 
 while specification of other establishments arc prepared under their respective heads. 
 
THE TENANT-HOUSES AND THEIR OCCUPANTS. 149 
 
 frame buildings 21, frame with brick front 44. The remainder are mostly 
 substantial brick buildings, of which a large number have brown stone 
 fronts. 
 
 These houses vary considerably in size, but are mostly 22 X 25 feet 
 front, and 52 feet deep. A few narrow houses have been built recently 
 at corners, which in some instances have a front of only 12|- feet, and 
 scarcely any yard attached. Most of these dwellings are comfortable, 
 even luxurious, and have all tbe modern improvements. Some excep- 
 tions to this rule are found in First, Third, and Fourth Avenues, and the 
 Bowery. The old-fashioned dwellings, without any convenience or mod- 
 ern improvements, are all situated in the lower part of the district below 
 Fourth Street. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — The whole district presents great variety in the lo- 
 cation of tenant-houses, the best and the worst mingling in close proximity. 
 Some squares show this variety to such a degree tbat scarcely two build- 
 ings can be found alike. And in the same manner we find the tenant- 
 houses scattered throughout the whole district except on Second Avenue. 
 
 There are rows of tenant-houses recently built in Fifth and Sixth 
 Streets between First and Second Avenues, and in First Avenue. Old- 
 fashioned tenant-houses, in bad repair, are found principally in the follow- 
 ing localities : 1st. Between Bivington and Stanton, Christie and Bow- 
 ery. 2d. Between Houston and First Streets, Bowery and Second Ave- 
 nue. 3d. A row of old houses in Eleventh Street, between Third and 
 Fourth Avenues. These buildings are in a miserable state, old and out of 
 repair, some stairs dangerous to pass, foundation of privies falling away, 
 and the ground saturated with faecal matter. 
 
 Most of the tenant-houses are built of brick ; one, 217 Bowery, lias a 
 white marble front. There are frame buildings 68, frame with a brick 
 front 51. 
 
 The tenant-houses vary much in size ; the fronts from 1G to 25 feet, the 
 depth 40 to 52 feet : some exceptions of course occur. The sizes of the 
 family apartments differ in various places very much, and have been given 
 exactly in the different special reports. Among the different arrange- 
 ments of family apartments, the following are worth mentioning : 1. One 
 family occupies one room and one bedroom. The room has two win- 
 dows, but the bedroom is dark in most cases, without any ventilation. 
 Such bedrooms are generally 8x5 feet, or 8 X 8 feet, or 9 X 7 feet. Often 
 four such family apartments are situated on one floor, by which arrange- 
 ment the stairs and halls necessarily must be narrow and dark. 2. One 
 room with two windows and two bedrooms. The bedrooms of the same 
 size as before, but according to circumstances one or both with windows. 
 
150 REPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 These first and second classes of family apartments are generally in ten- 
 ant-houses, built expressly for such a purpose. 3. One room with two 
 windows, one room with one window, and one dark bedroom. This ar- 
 rangement is found mostly in houses which have been private dwellings 
 formerly, and have become tenant-houses since the up-town movement of 
 fashionable people. In such cases two families are on one floor, each oc- 
 cupying respectively front or back part. 4. Two rooms and one bedroom. 
 The arrangements of such rooms differ in some respect, and are rather 
 exceptions. 5. Two rooms and two bedrooms. In such a case we find 
 almost always two families on a floor, which is divided into two lateral 
 halves. The apartment is generally 12^X52 feet more or less, ceiling 8 
 feet high, and is divided into a front and back room, each with two win- 
 dows. Between these two rooms are two bedrooms, which are generally 
 dark, and receive light and air by the two other rooms. 
 
 If the two bedrooms have windows and good ventilation, they become 
 the best apartments in a tenant-house which can be found at present. 
 
 The best idea of the size of these rooms, and their population, the fol- 
 lowing figures will give, particularly in certain localities. 
 
 Ground-area to Each Person in Tenant-Houses. — In the Bow- 
 ery, Christie, Rivington, and Stanton Streets, there was found to be to 
 each inhabitant 28 square feet. In Nos. — and Nos. — Eldridge Street, 
 12£ square feet. These are lowest averages of area allowed to a tenant 
 population in my district. At various other and more favorable local- 
 ities, I found a pro rata of from 30 to 80 square feet for each inhabitant. 
 
 Cubic feet of air to each person. 
 
 Rivington and Stanton between Bowery and Christie, . 3G0, 4G0, etc. 
 " « " " Christie and Forsyth, 576, 792, « 
 
 " " " " Eldridge and Allen, . 432, 566 
 
 Stanton and Houston " Forsyth and Eldridge, 566 
 Third Avenue, No. — , . . . . 336 
 
 Fourth and Third Avenues between 12th and 13th Streets, 473 
 No. — E. 13th Street, ..... 392 
 Second and First Avenues, Houston to First Street, . 534 
 " " " between 10th and 11th Streets, 392 
 
 " « " " 11th and 12th « 432 
 
 Croton-water is in all the yards, and in more than half of the tenant- 
 houses on all floors. But in the larger half of these houses, the tenants 
 have not many conveniences therefrom. Either from want of pressure, 
 scarcity of water in reservoir, or fault of mechanical structure and re- 
 
DESCRIPTION OF NUISANCES. 
 
 151 
 
 pairs, the water is not found in the house at all, or not above the second 
 story. 
 
 Imperfect drainage of streets, gutters, and houses, has in many places 
 a marked influence on tenant-house population. The filth accumulated is 
 increased in consequence of the uncleanliness that prevails in those places. 
 Perhaps one-half of these houses have well-arranged drainage pipes 
 throughout, for the removal of house-slops, which arrangement works 
 well if the sewerage is good, and the sewers not blocked up. But if the 
 former evils are superadded to bad sewerage, the locality is rendered in- 
 salubrious by foul emanations, stagnant water, etc. The tenants of the 
 houses without house-drainage generally throw their house-slops indis- 
 criminately anywhere into the streets, alleys, courts, yards, and sometimes 
 even into cellars and passages. 
 
 The removal of garbage by public cartmen, whose arrival is announced 
 by bell-ringers, is a new arrangement, and is of decided utility if properly 
 carried out by all parties concerned. Many tenants do not comply with 
 the regulations, and throw garbage and house-slops anywhere. 
 
 The non-removal of the old-fashioned stationary garbage-boxes is a 
 nuisance universally complained of. I have particularly noted four of 
 these nuisances in Sixth Street near the Bowery ; one in Second Avenue ; 
 two in First Avenue ; and, strange to record, one before each of the larger 
 Public Schools. 
 
 The privies are in most cases in the rear court-yard. In about two- 
 thirds of the houses the privies are connected with the sewer. Overflow- 
 ing privies are frequently found. Sometimes they are located in a dark 
 place, which in all cases must be considered an evil. Such is the case in 
 some houses in Rivington, Stanton, Ninth, and Eldridg'e Streets. All 
 these places are filthy, and exceedingly offensive and dangerous to the 
 whole neighborhood ; in some places the foundation of the privies being 
 rotten and broken, and faecal matter runs into the cellar, as in No. — 
 " Extra Place," where diseases and deaths have occurred. The contents 
 of a privy in a court at No. — Fifth Street, have, from a similar cause, 
 saturated the yard of premises on the Bowery, where several children 
 died during this summer. Only a very few houses have water-closets like 
 the modern-built dwellings. 
 
 Insufficient internal ventilation has been already mentioned. Most 
 bedrooms in tenant-houses are dark. Some have a window toward a 
 dark hall. In many of the houses ventilation of the dormitories is an 
 impossibility, as such rooms are only dark and damp cul-de-sacs. The 
 erection of too many rear buildings is objectionable, as it prevents the 
 free current of air. As an example, the following rear buildings, Nos. 68 
 
152 
 
 REPORT OF TIIE THIRTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 and 70 Third Avenue, No. 98 East Twelfth, and stables No. 22 East 
 Eleventh Street, are in one line with the two front houses Nos. 22 East 
 Eleventh and 98 East Twelfth. 
 
 Tldrd Avenue. 
 
 FRONT 
 
 No. 70. 
 
 No. G8. 
 
 DWELLINGS. 
 
 
 98 
 
 •a 
 
 70 
 
 88 
 
 Stable. 
 
 
 No. 98 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 No. 22 
 
 
 Rear. 
 
 
 Rear. 
 
 Rear. 
 
 22 
 
 
 No. 9G 
 
 No. 20 
 
 Six buildings are here crowded upon the same ground area as would 
 be occupied by only two houses in most other places ; for instance, the two 
 adjoining houses Nos. 96 East Twelfth and 20 East Eleventh Streets. 
 This overcrowding of rear buildings prevents the ventilation entirely, and 
 must be injurious to public health. The same condition will be found in 
 a whole square bounded by Bowery, Second Avenue, Fifth, and Sixth 
 Streets. A similar crowding of buildings exists in two consecutive squares 
 between Bowery and Second Avenue and Houston and Second Streets, 
 where scarcely any space for the yards is left. The larger number of 
 tenant-houses have no gas, hence lamps and stoves are used. 
 
 Cellar and Basement Population. — Many basements and cellars 
 arc inhabited. In 15 squares 64 houses contain 343 persons residing in 
 basements. In 17 squares 55 houses contain 246 persons living in cellars 
 entirely under ground. The return of the population of basements and 
 cellars of the whole district is not complete, but in the remaining squares 
 not included in the above statement, such a population is only scattered. 
 As a matter of course such cellars are unhealthy dwelling apartments. 
 Stanton Place has some of these miserable cellar-apartments, in which 
 diseases have been generated. These cellars arc entirely subterranean, 
 dark, and damp. Similar apartments can be found at No. — Thirteenth 
 Street rear. These apartments arc let respectively for $2.50 and $3.00 
 per month. 
 
 From the foregoing description of tenant-houses, it is apparent that the 
 laboring classes arc not living very comfortably and cheap. Many tenant- 
 
TENANT-HOUSE IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 153 
 
 houses need reform. But, it must be acknowledged, that some of these 
 buildings are in a better condition, and a few may be called "model" 
 tenant-houses, when compared with others. One of the latter sort is No. 
 — Allen Street. Both the front and rear are brick, newly built. The 
 front house is 4 stories, with a basement, each 10 feet to ceiling, and 
 arranged for 8 families. The rear building is 3 stories and basement, 
 each 8 feet to ceiling, and for 4 families ; 32 persons are living in both 
 houses on a ground area of 2,012 square feet, which makes to each per- 
 son 63 square feet. Croton-water and house-drainage is provided on all 
 floors. The privies are in the yard, and connected with the sewer ; they 
 are kept clean and in good condition. The ventilation is good, and all 
 rooms are lighted. A sub-celler underneath the basement for coal and 
 wood, is 10 feet deep. The halls and passages are unusually wide and 
 pleasant ; good oil-cloth is on the halls, and the stairs are covered with 
 carpet. An alley leads to the rear building on Allen Street. Gas is in 
 all apartments, and in the hall. The door is kept locked, and the bell 
 promptly answered. The proprietor, a tailor, resides on the first floor, 
 and is very particular with his tenants. Even this model tenant-house 
 has its disadvantages, which consist in the lack of good external ventila- 
 tion, which is prevented by the crowding of the buildings and the close 
 proximity (in the rear) of Nos. 184 and 184£ Eldridge Street, 
 which has been mentioned as a nuisance. Similarly good substantial 
 tenant-houses can be found at No. 239 Ninth Street and No. 30 Sixth 
 Street, etc. 
 
 In erecting new tenement buildings an entirely new system should be 
 introduced. The demand for proper ventilation cannot be pressed too 
 urgently. The arrangement of the dormitories is an important point. 
 If dark rooms cannot be avoided, why not place there the kitchen and 
 store-rooms. Some part of the lot ought to be devoted to a yard, and 
 should not be obstructed with rear buildings. Good fire-escapes, wider 
 halls, passages, and stairways, are needed as further improvements. A 
 common wash-house ought to be attached to each tenant-house, which 
 would improve materially the cleanliness of the people and their dwell- 
 ings. Good sewerage, house drainage, Croton-water, and gas, and the 
 proper arrangement and condition of the privies, are the next important 
 questions for improvement. 
 
 Drinking Saloons, etc. — Very little can be said about these places. 
 Complaints have been made of but two of the places. Except some of 
 the low drinking shops, most of them are kept in a good sanitary condi- 
 tion. The following is their classification : 
 
154 
 
 REPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Dram-shops, 102 
 
 Private supper rooms, ..... 3 
 
 Assignation houses, ...... 3 
 
 Concert saloons, with (pretty?) waiter girls, . . 3 
 
 Groceries, with bars, ...... 64 
 
 Lager bier saloons, 82 
 
 Brothels, 9 
 
 Hotels, 4 
 
 Total, 270 
 
 Stores, Markets, etc. — There are in the district 499 stores and 
 53 markets. The stores include all varieties of business, and are gener- 
 ally situated on the avenues and in the Bowery. Warerooms attached 
 to factories, and other varieties of business, which are enumerated under 
 their respective heads, are not included in the above number. The mar- 
 kets are for the sale of meat, fish, and oysters, and are scattered in all 
 parts of the district. Tompkins' Market is the only public market, and 
 has 38 stands. This market is kept clean, and good order prevails. The 
 building has been erected recently. 
 
 There are 53 factories of various kinds in this district. 
 
 Shops. — There are 154 shops. Some of these are attached to fac- 
 tories, but for most part are only small shops, in which tailors and shoe- 
 makers are largely represented. The book-bindery and printing establish- 
 ment of the Bible-house employs 450 persons, of which more than one- 
 half are females. The various work-rooms of this establishment aro in 
 elegant order, and the rooms arc spacious and airy. 
 
 Miscellaneous Business. — There are not specified the following 
 kinds of business : 
 
 Brewers, ..... 2 
 
 Distillery, ..... 1 
 
 Coal yards, 5 
 
 Lumber yards, .... 2 
 
 Marble yards, .... 8 
 
 Slaughter-Houses. — 
 
 Total Number of Slaughter-houses, ... 38 
 
 " " Fat-houses, .... 2 
 
 " " Hide and fat-houses, . . 4 
 
 " " Butchers' hide and fat association, 1 
 
* 
 
 SLAUGHTER-PENS , THLRTY-EIGIIT DESCRIBED. 
 
 155 
 
 Total Number of Provision and packing-houses, 
 
 " " Provision-houses, occasionally fat-boil- 
 
 ing, of which complaints have been 
 made, ..... 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 Classification of Slaughter-houses, according to the animals hilled there: 
 Where all kinds of animals are killed, ... 8 
 
 beeves " 14 
 
 beeves and calves " ... 4 
 
 calves only " . 1 
 
 sheep " ... 9 
 
 calves and sheep " . . 1 
 
 swine " 1 
 
 Total, 
 
 38 
 
 These 38 slaughter-houses are kept variously in regard to cleanliness 
 and arrangements, and can be classified as follows : 
 
 (a.) The best establishments are kept in a superior style, and in such 
 order and cleanliness that complaints never are made of them. 
 This class I found clean at all times and seasons, and under 
 all disadvantages. There are five that may be reckoned in 
 this class : 
 
 (1.) 190 Forsyth Street. 
 
 (2.) The hoggery, 198-202 Forsyth, and 183 and 185 Eldridge 
 
 Street. 
 (3.) 185 Ninth Street. 
 (4.) 73 Second Street. 
 (5.) 134 Fifth Street. 
 
 (6.) Slaughter-houses which are kept clean and in good order, 
 
 according to the present laws. To this class belong 16. 
 (c.) Kept with less care, 9. 
 
 (d.) This fourth class of butcheries comprises those that are in a 
 
 filthy and bad condition, cleansed once a week, 6. 
 (e.) The worst class — perpetual nuisances, 2. 
 
 A reform and better arrangements and regulation of slaughter-houses 
 is urgently needed, and some steps ought to be taken immediately to 
 secure the desired improvement. If we cannot at once obtain all the 
 reforms that are desirable, we can certainly render these establishments 
 less obnoxious to the public health and convenience by securing : — 
 
156 
 
 REPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 1. The restriction of slaughter-houses to certain localities. 
 
 2. That all slaughter-houses shall be connected with the sewers. 
 
 3. That the driving of herds of cattle shall be restricted to certain 
 streets and hours. 
 
 4. That blood and all fluids shall flow directly into the sewer. If the 
 blood is preserved for other purposes, it should be collected immediately, 
 and kept in air-tight vessels. 
 
 5. The utmost cleanliness, and the most careful removal of offal, etc., 
 within a certain time after killing. 
 
 6. The offal and all refuse to be carried away, should be thrown 
 into air-tight vessels immediately after being separated from the animal. 
 
 7. That persons employed to remove such offal and other solids, shall 
 cany them in air-tight vessels, and leave empty vessels of the same kind 
 in their places. 
 
 8. The killing and slaughtering process shall be carried on in the 
 rear of the lot, away from the street, in order that curious people and 
 children cannot witness it. 
 
 9. The stable manure to be kept in covered well-built sinks, with 
 an outlet of the fluid parts into the sewer, and removed within certain 
 periods. 
 
 10. Fat-boiling to be strictly prohibited, and fat and hides kept as 
 stated under No. 6. 
 
 11. Strict vigilance for the observation of the above rules to be 
 maintained, and the prompt infliction of fines in every case of neglect 
 shall be enforced. 
 
 The utility of a faithful observance of these rules must be obvious, as 
 such observance would prevent any nuisance, disease, or even unpleasant 
 smell and sight. Such rules for slaughter-houses may even be extended 
 to further details, by — 
 
 Inspection of cattle and meat, to exclude unhealthy meats from the 
 markets. 
 
 A regulation of the size of slaughter-houses, in order to secure the 
 proper kind of buildings for the business carried on. 
 
 During warm weather slaughtering should be allowed only at nights, 
 and offal should be carried off before six o'clock A.M. 
 
 These rules and suggestions would not exclude other improvements, 
 nor the introduction of abattoirs. That slaughter-houses may and can 
 be kept clean, even under the present system, with all the disadvantages, 
 may be proved by an examination of several of these establishments. 
 
 Two cattle markets, for the sale of Bhcep principally, arc kept in 
 
158 REPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Sixth Street, between Bowery and Second Avenue, nnder the name of 
 " Central Bull's Head," close to the fashionable quarters of the 17th and 
 15th Wards. 14,000 sheep can be kept here, besides some hundred bead 
 of cattle.* 
 
 Schools, Churches, and Medical Charitles. — The churches with- 
 in this district belong to the following denominations : 
 
 Synagogues, ........ 2 
 
 Episcopal, 2 
 
 Methodist, 1 
 
 Baptist, ........ 2 
 
 Presbyterian, ....... 3 
 
 Roman Catholic, ...... 1 
 
 German Evangelic, 2 
 
 " Lutheran, ...... 1 
 
 Total, 14 
 
 There are four public schools, and three schools attached to 
 churches. 
 
 Tbere are six Dispensaries and other medical charities, viz. : A 
 Homoeopathic Dispensary in Eleventh Street ; the German Dispensary in 
 No. 8 Third Street ; the Dispensary of the Physicians of the German 
 Society ; the Eye Infirmary of New York ; the Women's and Children's 
 Infirmary ; and the Society for the relief of the Ruptured and Crippled. 
 Four of these institutions have small hospitals attached. 
 
 The other institutions within this district which cannot be specified 
 under the preceding heads, are : 
 
 The Historical Society building. 
 1 Police station house. 
 1 District court. 
 
 4 Armories for Militia regiments. 
 3 Banks. 
 
 G Fire Companies. 
 
 1 Gymnasium. 
 
 2 Private Observatories. 
 The Cooper Union. 
 The Bible-house. 
 
 • On page 157 the artist has represented one of the scenes that is daily witnessed in 
 this locality. 
 
CEMETERIES, CHURCH- YARDS, ETC. 
 
 159 
 
 Cemeteries, Church-tards, and Vacant Grounds. — The church- 
 yards, nine in number, are situated as follows : 
 
 1. Houston Street, between Bowery and Christie Streets. 
 
 2. " 
 
 3. " 
 
 4. Second Avenue, 
 
 5. First Street, 
 
 6. Second Street, 
 
 7. Eleventh Street, 
 
 Christie and Forsyth Streets. 
 Forsyth and Eldridge Streets. 
 Second and Third Streets. 
 First and Second Avenues. 
 
 8. First Avenue, " Eleventh and Twelfth Streets. 
 
 9. Second Avenue, around St. Mark's Church. 
 
 Most of these graveyards are in good order ; two, Nos. 4 and 6, are 
 even ornamental. One, No. 5, is in the centre of the square ; the only 
 access to it being through the playground of the Public School. 
 
 From one, No. 7, the human remains have been removed during the 
 last summer. Only one, No. 2, needs a thorough cleaning, as all kinds 
 of articles are found scattered in it, as dead cats and dogs, broken bottles, 
 old shoes, rags, etc. 
 
 There are several vacant lots that are in a most horrible condition. 
 They are the reservoir of all kinds of rubbish. The whole appearance 
 of these places is disgusting and unhealthy. During inspection these lots 
 were partly covered with stagnant water, stones, bricks, pieces of old tin 
 and mats, human excrements in large quantities, stable manure, old boots 
 and shoes, pieces of old hoop-skirts, dead cats, decomposing potatoes, 
 ashes, and chickens. 
 
 Nuisances. — These have been already mentioned at length under 
 their respective heads. The following is a list of the principal ones : 
 
 1. The insufficient bad sewerage, with all its consequences. 
 
 2. The houses Nos. — and — Eldridge Street. 
 
 3. The dirty state of some parts of the streets and gutters. 
 
 4. The bad pavement in some localities. 
 
 5. The cellars in " Extra Place " being foul with fascal matter. 
 
 7. The coal yard, No. — Bowery, occupying the first floor for a whole 
 block, from which emanates foul air into " Extra Place." * 
 
 7. An insalubrious locality situated between the walls of the large 
 provision store, No. — First Street, and the rear buildings of Second 
 Street. This is a narrow place, into which the tenants of the rear build- 
 ings have thrown manure, slops, garbage, etc. ; these have accumulated 
 * Sec the diagram of this locality next page. 
 
160 REPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 STREET 
 
 The above Diagram presents a square in which some of the faults of overcrowding 
 are strikingly depicted.* In the very midst of this agglomeration of domiciles and great 
 business establishments a slaughter-house is located. This, with the stables at the ter- 
 minus of Extra Place, must be regarded in the light of a nuisance, and probably they to- 
 gether help account for the diseases that are most prevalent in that cul-de-sac. 
 
 The crowding of the buildings — almost entirely without yards, and consisting of an 
 exterior line of dwellings, surrounding an immense packing-house, a slaughter-pen, various 
 shops, and a foundry— is such as to preclude proper external ventilation on the one hand, 
 while those interior structures and the business pursued in them are sources of offence 
 against sanitary laws. The Inspector presents the ground-plan sketch of this square as an 
 illustration of an evil that is rapidly increasing in various sections of his district. 
 
 The little square here represented contains 51 front houses, mostly dwellings ; rear 
 buildings, including those on " Extra Place," 15 ; there are 5 alleys, and one prolonged 
 cul-de-sac, which being narrow and enclosed on all sides and directly behind rear tenant- 
 houses, and upon the south side faced by the high walls of a provision-packing house, has 
 become a gross nuisance— a cloacal depot, into which are promiscuously thrown slops, 
 garbage, and exuviae, until it has become a fountain of typhoid infection. 
 
 The following extracts from sanitary inspection reports made concerning diseases 
 in this locality, will serve to illustrate the nature of the perils to which these domiciles are 
 exposed : 
 
 First Case— Mrs. , No. — " Extra Place," mother of five children, had a long period 
 
 of incubation of the typhoid infection ; died on the thirteenth day after the physician was call- 
 ed. Cause— foul emanations from local nuisances in the vicinity of the dwelling ; three families 
 in this house are exposed to the same sources of infection. The allowance of ground area 
 to each person in this house is 44 square feet ; the average or pro rata allowance of air- 
 space to each person in this domicile is 402 cubic feet. 
 
 Second Oau. — Hrs. , No. — "Extra Place," is in the rear, opposite the houso 
 
 formerly reported in same locality ; patient was the mother of four children ; had been 
 .constantly exposed to the foul emanations from unclean and leaking privies of the rear 
 tenements, as well as to the exhalations from a slaughter-pen and the stables near by 
 
 She died on the sixteenth day after taking her bed. ^^^^ 
 
 • For explanation of the symbol* used upon this Diagram, boo Cuait on p. 81.— Kditob. 
 
INSALUBRIOUS LOCALITIES. 
 
 161 
 
 there. The only access to this locality is by means of the iron foundry 
 No. — Second Avenue. 
 
 8. The insalubrious locality of court No. — Fifth Street, which is 
 in a very filthy condition. One privy has given way and saturated the 
 soil of yard No. — Bowery, which has injured the health of the in- 
 habitants of the latter place. 
 
 9. The yard and privy of No. — Sixth Street. The privies here are 
 terribly offensive. Garbage, filth of all varieties, rubbish, and fajcal mat- 
 ter is in piles in this yard, and in such close proximity to No. — Fifth 
 Street that the basement inhabitants of the latter house have a dunghill 
 before their window, injurious to health. 
 
 10. The driving of cattle through the streets, and at all hours. 
 
 11. An insalubrious locality in Eleventh Street near Third Avenue, 
 occasioned by the fluids of stable manure. 
 
 12. Two packing-houses, where fat-boiling is carried on occasionally. 
 
 13. The cellars of No. — First Avenue, rear used as dwellings. 
 One of these apartments is in a particularly bad condition, in consequence 
 of an adjoining privy. 
 
 14. First Avenue, between Houston and First Street, is always 
 filthy. 
 
 15. The privies and cellars of — E. 11th Street, rear. The privies 
 are beneath the floored alley-way leading to the building. Large holes 
 in this floor allow ocular inspection from above, and admit rain and dirt. 
 These nuisances are almost always overflowing, and the passage leading 
 to them is full of faecal matter. It would seem impossible for human 
 beings to create or endure such vileness. The cellar is used by children 
 and others as a privy ; the foul air there seems never to change. 
 
 16. An insalubrious locality in Forsyth Street, near Rivington, where 
 the gutter has no drainage. A calves' head boiling establishment, in a 
 shanty near the corner, and a slaughter-house, aid in filling up this list 
 of nuisances. 
 
 17. The insalubrious quarters, No. — Third Avenue. 
 
 18. The construction of the private sewer for the houses No. — to — 
 Third Avenue. 
 
 19. The sink at No. — Rivington Street. 
 
 20. The gutter before No. — Stanton Street. 
 
 21. The insalubrious quarters at No. — Stanton Street. 
 
 22. The condition of the sidewalk in Stanton Street, between Eldridge 
 and Allen Streets. 
 
 23. The condition of Stanton Place. 
 
 24. The ugly stationary garbage-boxes in different parts of the district. 
 
 11 
 
162 REPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 25. A cesspool at No. — Stanton Street. 
 
 26. The location of privies in dark cellars. 
 
 27. The condition of privies in general, and their foundation given 
 way, as for instance in No. — E. Eleventh Street. 
 
 28. The insalubrious locality, Sixth Street, between Bowery and 
 Second Avenue. 
 
 39. The " fever-nest," Court No. — E. Eleventh Street, with its sur- 
 roundings. 
 
 30. Two slaughter-houses, kept particularly unclean. 
 
 31. The want or insufficiency of fire-escapes in crowded and high 
 tenant-houses. 
 
 Diseases. — During the past spring and summer the following dis- 
 eases have been observed to be very prevalent : 
 
 I. In Thirteenth Street, between Third and Fourth Avenue, cholera 
 infantum and measles. 
 
 2. Extra Place, cholera infantum, typhus, and diphtheria. 
 
 3. First Street, cholera infantum. 
 
 4. Fifth Street, small-pox. 
 
 5. Sixth Street, measles and diphtheria. 
 
 6. Ninth Street, typhus and measles. 
 
 7. Eleventh Street, cholera infantum. 
 
 8. Thirteenth Street, typhoid fever. 
 
 9. First Avenue, typhus, etc. 
 10. First Avenue, small-pox. 
 
 II. Eleventh Street, typhus. 
 
 12. Twelfth Street, typhoid. 
 
 13. Eleventh Street, typhus. 
 
 14. " " " 
 
 15. " " " 
 1G. Thirteenth Street, " 
 
 17. " " measles. 
 
 18. Fifth Street, typhus. 
 
 19. First Street, small-pox. 
 
 20. Fourth Street, typhoid fever. 
 
 21. Stanton Place, typhus " 
 
 The causes of these diseases have already been referred to, and havo 
 been detailed in the special reports. Generally a number of similar cases 
 could be traced from one patient to another ; hence contagion was clearly 
 proven. The insalubrious quarters or neighborhood of such places often 
 generate and perpetuate these diseases. 
 
 In one instance the origin of typhus fever was traced to an immigrant 
 
FEVEK-NESTS. — "VICTIMS. 
 
 163 
 
 who was suffering with this malady. A friend of that patient visited 
 her, and soon after was attacked by the same disease. This friend, a girl 
 living in Eleventh Street, conveyed the malady by contagion to several 
 
 other persons. One of these parties was Mrs. , East Twelfth Street. 
 
 Eight individuals belonging to her family were attacked with fever, 
 contracted while nursing the father. These eight persons- were residing 
 in different parts of the cities of New York and Brooklyn. 
 
 The spread of pestilential diseases by fomites is a subject worthy of 
 consideration. Several instances have come under my observation where 
 small-pox and fever have apparently been spread in this way. Other in- 
 spectors have also reported similar cases. 
 
 The most notable fever-nest of this district is the Court No. — East 
 Eleventh Street. Nearly all the causes for generating and perpetuating 
 this disease exist there. It is an insalubrious and crowded locality, sur- 
 rounded with junk-shops, second-hand clothing stores, and a great num- 
 ber of the lowest drinking places ; a transient population fill the tenements 
 who introduce maladies by contagion and fomites. Some of the apart- 
 ments in this court are used only as lodgings. People without a home, 
 professional beggars and vagabonds, lodge here, and sleep in their clothes 
 on the floors in an already overpopulated apartment. 
 
 Insalubrious localities and quarters often exist withoiit diseases. The 
 only explanation of such occurrence is, that other influences counterbal- 
 ance the causes of disease. Such influences are : 1. The natural healthi- 
 ness of the district, as good drainage, soil, elevation, and a pure air. 2. 
 The habit of the population as to cleanliness in their persons and domi- 
 ciles. 3. The peculiar constitution of the individuals as to insuscep- 
 tibility. 
 
 RECAPITULATION OF STATISTICS* 
 
 Total number of buildings, ..... 2,354 
 
 Vacant lots, ....... 38 
 
 Grave-yards, ...... 9 
 
 Courts, ....... 46 
 
 Alleys, ....... 160 
 
 Rear buildings, ...... 272 
 
 Tenant-houses, ...... 734 
 
 Cellar and basement population, .... 589 
 
 * It has been found necessary greatly to condense the elaborate statistics submitted 
 by the Sanitary Inspector of this district. — Editor. 
 
164 
 
 KEPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH SAOTTAKT DISTRICT. 
 
 Population. 
 
 No. of families in private dwellings 2,107. 
 
 " " in tenant-houses 5,872. Total, 7,979 families. 
 
 Total population, 39,890. 
 
 The average of ground area to each person living in tenant-houses is 4C 
 
 square feet. 
 
 Stores and Business. 
 
 Stores, . . . . . . . 499 
 
 Markets of all grades, . . . . 53 
 
 Lager hier saloons, ...... 82 
 
 Groceries with bar, ...... 64 
 
 Dram-shops, . . . . . . . 102 
 
 Classification of Buildings. 
 
 Private dwelling-houses, ..... 1,204 
 
 Tenant-houses, ...... 734 
 
 Stores, factories, shops, etc. .... 123 
 
 Slaughter-houses, ...... 38 
 
 Packing-houses, fat and hide houses, etc., . . . 17 
 
 Churches, ....... 14 
 
 Schools, ....... 7 
 
 Hotels, saloons, armories, etc., .... 48 
 
 Stables, ....... 116 
 
 Miscellaneous, not specified here, .... 53 
 
 Total, 2,354 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OP THE 
 
 FOURTEENTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 EDWARD W. DERBY, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundakies. — North by Bast Fourteenth Street, east by Avenue B, 
 south by Bivington Street, and west by First Avenue — not including any 
 portion of that avenue. This district comprises the eastern half of the Sev- 
 enteenth Ward. 
 
 Topography. — The grade of the district may be said to be low, and 
 the surface level, as the upper two-thirds have been reclaimed from the 
 river shore. The soil is for the most part sandy, except that of the made 
 ground, which is necessarily made of refuse material. A general ten- 
 dency to humidity prevails, which, as a matter of course, affects more or 
 less the health of those who occupy the ill-ventilated and insufficiently- 
 warmed basements. 
 
 Streets. — The streets run nearly north and south and east and west, 
 are of the usual width, paved with cobble stone, except Tenth Street, 
 which has Belgian pavement, and are seldom clean except for a few hours 
 after being swept ; a process to which they are not often subjected. The 
 gutters, as a general rule, in front of the tenant-houses, overflow with 
 filth, and are made the receptacles of the decaying vegetable and animal 
 refuse, and the ashes of the different families, into which they are habit- 
 ually thrown, and which, under the influence of the rays of the summer's 
 sun, exhale miasmata that must and do materially affect the health of the 
 surrounding population. 
 
 Sewers. — Sewers exist I believe in every street, are for the most part 
 connected with the houses, and generally suffice for their drainage ; but 
 in not a few instances these become choked, and contribute their share of 
 foetid exhalations to the general insalubrity. 
 
166 
 
 REPORT OF THE FOURTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Squares. — The district is composed of 37 squares, covered with ten- 
 ant-houses, generally of a poor character, in good or bad repair according 
 as they are new or old, about 1,700 in number, and occupied by about 
 18,000 families. The character of the population of these squares being 
 almost identical, and they being subjected alike to the negligence of the 
 municipal authorities, their sanitary conditions do not materially differ. 
 The deleterious influences of this neglect of cleanliness on the part of the 
 authorities and the inhabitants are apparent. It might be expected that 
 the atmosphere, surcharged with the noxious gases resulting from animal 
 and vegetable decomposition, together with the production of what our 
 learned Professor Joseph M. Smith has termed " Idio-miasma," from 
 the cutaneous exhalations of filthy skins in crowded and ill-ventilated 
 apartments, might be expected to be productive of an extreme degree of 
 typhoid or malignant febrile disease. Such cases undoubtedly do occur ; 
 and if with a degree of frequency less than might have been anticipated, 
 it is not either to any attention to sanitary regulations on the part of the 
 inhabitants, or of the authorities, that this immunity is due. 
 
 Inhabitants. — The inhabitants of this sanitary district are, for the 
 most part, Irish or German, the former predominating, and are of the la- 
 boring class, poor, imperfectly nourished upon salted and vegetable food — 
 chiefly cabbage — uncleanly in their persons and habits, and grossly ad- 
 dicted to intemperance, that fertile source of vice, misery, and crime. 
 
 Buildings. — There are but few private dwellings, churches, or manu- 
 factories, and what private dAvellings there are were generally built some 
 years since, and are for the most part wanting in what are called the modern 
 conveniences. The houses are the usual three to six-story brick tene- 
 ments, generally out of repair. The water is most frequently located in 
 the halls or yards, affording uo means of bathing. The halls, except the 
 lowest and top ones, are always dark ; and the rooms are lighted by the 
 various oils now in use, which contribute their carbon for the still further 
 deterioration of the already impure and exhausted atmosphere. There 
 arc also many families of mechanics of more temperate habits, whose com- 
 forts are consequently greater. The nationality of most of these is Eu- 
 ropean. As might be expected, the sickness and mortality among the 
 former of these, owing to the paucity and bad quality of their food, and 
 the numerous existing sources of constant vitiation, is much greater. 
 
 The privies are located in the yards, in close proximity to the houses, 
 and are in the disgusting condition which might be expected, being pro- 
 miscuously used by persons unaccustomed to habits of cleanliness and re- 
 gardless of decency. These, too, add their reeking flavors to the other 
 perfumes of which these districts abound, and to the malariousucss of the 
 
THE TENANT-HOUSES AND DRAM-SHOPS. 
 
 167 
 
 atmosphere. Much has been said of late* in reference to sanitary matters, 
 upon the subject of the overcrowding of tenant-houses. I can add my 
 testimony to the truth of such statements, and the hygienic influence of 
 the evil. Rooms that are overcrowded are for the most part badly ven- 
 tilated, and either too hot or too cold. If fuel be deficient, the windows 
 and crevices are stopped, and the noxious emanations of dirty people are 
 confined by equally dirty fomites. If, on the contrary, the room is small, 
 it is overheated, and the cutaneous secretions are thereby increased ; and 
 they, not being removed by subsequent ablutions, become prolific sources 
 of cutaneous and febrile diseases. The fecundity of the poor has long 
 been a matter of remark. The number of diseases which menace and 
 destroy infantile existence seem almost a providential interference to pre- 
 vent an excess of population over and above that which the means of the 
 parents could possibly support. Nor, when we reflect upon the condition 
 in which these unfortunate children are found to exist, and the many cb> 
 cumstances, moral and hygienic, by which they are surrounded, do we 
 wonder less at the amount of sickness and mortality among them than 
 that it is not greater ; less that they die than they survive. 
 
 Dram-Shops. — The low groggeries and groceries, in all of which liq- 
 uors are sold, are constantly thronged, I am sorry to say, with members 
 of both sexes, youth and old age vieing with each other as to their capa- 
 bilities of drinking, enriching the proprietors of these places, spending their 
 last penny in gratifying their morbidly-debased appetite rather than pur- 
 chasing the necessaries of life for their families, and then issuing forth or 
 being thrust out upon the streets in various stages of intoxication, half- 
 crazed with the vile and poisoned liquor they have swallowed, fit subjects 
 for the committing of the many crimes which are daily chronicled in our 
 papers. Such are the places which stare you in the face at every step, a 
 disgrace to the city, and a prolific source of corruption to the morals of 
 the surrounding inhabitants. 
 
 Stores. — There are many stores of all kinds occupying the first floors 
 of the tenant-houses, having, no doubt, when occupied as butcher-shops, 
 sausage-making establishments, and receptacles for old rags, a deleterious 
 influence upon the inhabitants of the floors immediately over them. 
 
 Factories. — There is but one to which my attention has been espe- 
 cially directed in a sanitary point of view, and that is a varnish factory 
 on the northeast corner of Rivington and Norfolk Streets. The odor 
 arising from the materials used is very offensive to the smell ; the effect 
 of which may be injurious to the health of those in the neighborhood, by 
 interrupting healthy nutrition, and add its quota to the many surrounding 
 malarious influences. 
 
168 
 
 REPORT OF THE FOURTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Slaughter-Houses. — The slaughter-houses are not so numeroues in 
 my district as in some of the others, ten or twelve heing all that I could 
 find ; but though few in number they are not the less an evil and a 
 nuisance, as they are always to be found in a filthy condition, exhaling 
 the most offensive odors, reeking with decomposing offal, and offensive 
 alike to morality and senses. Although they are not in themselves, so far 
 as I can ascertain, productive of disease, yet they do, no doubt, add their 
 full share to the many provocative influences which are so indigenous to a 
 tenement neighborhood. The moral influence, however, which they exert 
 upon the younger population is greatly to be deplored, as they are gen- 
 erally open to the view of the many passers-by, and the doors are con- 
 stantly thronged with wondering, admiring children, who are eager listen- 
 ers to the not very elegant language which pertains to the slaughter-house, 
 and who thus become habituated to scenes of blood and violence, and to 
 language which is stamped upon their memory never to be forgotten. 
 
 Tompkins' Square, which from its size forms very useful lungs in 
 the ventilation of the district, and the circulation of pure air which it 
 affords, contributes largely, no doubt, in aid of its healthfulness. It is very 
 much to be desired in the planning of all large cities, that wide open 
 parks should be laid out ; and this feature of our city as contrasted with 
 the closely-built and ill-ventilated old cities of Europe, contributes in a 
 large degree to the greater immunity from miasmatic fevers which it en- 
 joys. A Roman Catholic burial ground is situated within my district, 
 but I am not aware that interments are now made in it, nor do I know 
 that it exerts any deleterious influence on the sanitary condition of the 
 district. 
 
 Diseases. — I may mention that the diseases which generally consti- 
 tute the most fatal scourges of children, are cholera infantum in summer, 
 and in winter the contagious exanthemata, and the effects of cold upon 
 the respiratory apparatus. Not a few fall victims also to diseases arising 
 from scrofula in the brain and its meninges, derived from an inherited 
 cachexia, and from sympathetic ecclampsia of the brain and spinal mar- 
 row depending on gastric irritation arising from improper nourishment. 
 
 Signs of congenital contamination are not unfrequently met with in 
 these unfortunate children, who are doomed to expiate in their own per- 
 sons the sins of their parents for many generations. Among the other 
 diseases to which my attention in the daily pursuit of my arduous Dis- 
 pensary duties is most frequently called, are typhus and typhoid fevers ; 
 diseases occurring for the most part in adult people, spreading by infec- 
 tion, and communicating by contagion, and inspiring, like small-pox, the 
 most intense dread and fear, which materially interferes with the welfare 
 
HOW INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPREAD. 
 
 169 
 
 of the sufferers by preventing them from being properly nursed — which 
 endangers the life of the disinterested physician when called to administer 
 to his necessities, and to whose malign influence many a promising votary 
 of our science has fallen a premature victim — may be said to be the es- 
 pecial scourge of the poor. 
 
 According to my views and observation the spread of this disease has 
 been materially increased during the war by the frequent influx of retired 
 or discharged soldiers to their families and friends, fresh from the field or 
 the hospital, and bearing in their persons or their clothing the seeds of 
 the disease. I need not say that the total absence of any thing like proper 
 disinfection of their apartments tends to continue the disease for an inde- 
 finite period after the removal of the original cause, to the detriment of 
 the successive members of the same family or those coming after them. 
 
 There is yet to be mentioned another cause, which is, and long had 
 been, a fruitful one in the propagation of disease : I mean the immigrants. 
 In what way or in what manner the wafting of the many diseases which 
 always are their companions, can be better guarded against than at 
 present, I am not prepared to say ; the existing laws, if properly executed, 
 are I think as effectual as possible ; indeed I know not if the usefulness 
 of the immigrant does not counterbalance the evils that accompany him. 
 
 Diarrhoea, from various causes, chiefly amongst children and drunk- 
 ards, running into dysentery which occasionally terminates in collapse, is 
 frequently met with. In this connection I would observe that I have 
 been visiting Physician to the Eastern Dispensary for the last seven years, 
 and during that period have visited at least twelve thousand patients ; 
 and amid all the deleterious influences to which I have been so freely and 
 constantly subjected, I have graciously been permitted thus far to escape 
 unharmed. My sole preventives from contagion have been fearlessness, 
 strictly temperate habits, and walking instead of riding during the per- 
 formance of my professional duties, whereby the miasmata to which I 
 have been exposed have escaped into the surrounding and open atmos- 
 phere. While on the subject of diseases, I will enumerate the number 
 of cases of typhus and typhoid fevers, diarrhoea, rubeola, scarlatina, and 
 variola, that I have visited in my dispensary district during the past eleven 
 months : 
 
 Typhus and typhoid fevers, . . .110 patients. 
 Diarrhoea, 176 " 
 
 Small-pox, 16 " 
 
 Measles, 47 " 
 
 Scarlatina, 20 " 
 
 As to the rate of mortality, I would state that out of about one hun- 
 
170 
 
 REPORT OF THE FOURTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 dred and fifty patients a month, the average number of deaths is about 
 five ; but I do not wish it to be understood that is the rate of mor- 
 tality ; I wish it were ; it is not, and for these reasons : First. Dispensary 
 physicians, from their multitudinous duties, from the fact that a tenement- 
 population is a migratory one, and from other causes which the physicians 
 cannot control, are unable to follow their patients as. closely as they would 
 like. Second. Many severe cases that are not likely to recover, are sent 
 to one or the other of the many hospitals with which our city is so boun- 
 teously provided. Third. Often when the sickness is a grave one and 
 tends not to recovery, the friends or the patient become dissatisfied, and 
 call in another physician, thereby relieving the dispensary physician from 
 further attendance. Fourth. It happens in many instances, that when 
 the relatives or friends become fully aware there is no possibility of the 
 patient's recovery, they needlessly fear, through ignorance or stupidity, 
 that they may have some difficulty in obtaining a certificate of death from 
 the dispensary physician, or perhaps from a feeling of pride they dislike to 
 have it attached to the certificate that their friend or relative was treated 
 gratuitously from a dispensary, and therefore to avoid incurring that great 
 bugbear of all ignorant persons, a coroner's inquest, they call in the nearest 
 physician, from whom the requisite certificate is obtained. 
 
 Improvements. — I regret to be obliged to add, that by no action of 
 present health authorities under my observation, have any of the objec- 
 tionable features to wliich I have alluded, been removed or improved. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — In reference to remedial measures, I would 
 remark that the remedy suggests itself; but the application is confessedly 
 difficult. To obtain the willing consent of persons so ignorant, so do- 
 graded, so careless of their own best interests, present or future, in any 
 scheme of hygienic amelioration which should involve a change of habit, 
 abandonment of vice, sacrifice of comfort, or the increasing of expense, 
 may seem to present some difficult problems, but such problems can and 
 must be solved ; and it is clear that our efforts should be persistently and 
 strenuously made in this direction ; and hence the public value of the 
 work in which we all are so earnestly and laboriously engaged. 
 
 Gradually, the words spoken " in season and out of season" by our 
 medical missionaries may effect the sanitary conversion of some of these 
 hardened sinners ; and it occurs to me that the distribution of tracts, upon 
 matters connected with the public health, among these dwellers in tenant- 
 houses, would be useful to the health and salvation of the body, I would, 
 therefore, beg leave to call the attention of my colleagues to this means, in 
 addition to the other measures which are now being employed toward the 
 attainment of that greatest of public ends, the security and improve- 
 ment of the nublic health. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OP THE 
 
 FIFTEENTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 JAMES ROSS, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — This district comprises the whole of the Eleventh Ward. 
 It is bounded on the north by East Fourteenth Street, east by East River, 
 south by Rivington Street, and west by Clinton Street and Avenue B. 
 
 This ward contains 3,190 building-lots of ordinary dimensions, and 
 in 1860 embraced a population of 59,571 souls. 
 
 Topography. — Two-thirds of this district were formerly covered by 
 the waters of the East River and by low salt marshes. Twenty-one of the 
 squares now cover the section that has been reclaimed by filling and 
 drainage. The sand hills that once skirted the marshy region have been 
 graded down and used for filling in the low grounds. 
 
 Drainage. — The natural drainage, which was rather incomplete, was 
 by three creeks. The largest had its origin west of the district ; then run- 
 ning northeast it crossed Stanton Street near Clinton, Houston near 
 Sheriff, and Second Street near Houston, entering the river at Third 
 Street. Another commenced near Avenue A and Fourth Street, ran with 
 a zigzag direction between Sixth and Eighth Streets, and emptied its slug- 
 gish waters into the river near Ninth Street. The third stream ran 
 northeastwardly through the blocks bounded by Eleventh and Fourteenth 
 Streets, Avenues B and C, reaching the river at Fourteenth Street.* In 
 this neighborhood was the old Stuyvesant Skating Pond, where New 
 Yorkers in former years held their skating carnivals. 
 
 Sanitary Influence of the Topographical Formation. — In some parts 
 of the reclaimed ground in this district it has been necessary to build the 
 
 * See the Sanitary and Topographical Map at the beginning d" this volume. — Editor. 
 
172 
 
 REPORT OF THE FIFTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 houses upon piles. In numerous cases the cellars are shallow, which is 
 probably a necessity owing to great moisture of the soil. Some have stand- 
 ing water in them constantly, and many of the inhabitants complain of 
 the extreme dampness of their basements. Where such conditions exist it 
 may reasonably be expected that great insalubrity will prevail. This fact 
 finds fearful illustrations in the inhabited basements and cellars east of the 
 line of Ridge Street and Avenue C. 
 
 Streets. — The streets of the Fifteenth District north of Houston 
 Street, consist of parallel avenues and thirteen streets that run at right 
 angles with them. They are all of sufficient width to allow of good exter- 
 nal ventilation to the several blocks of buildings. 
 
 The avenues are from 55 to 70 feet in width, the streets from 50 to 
 105, the latter being the width of Fourteenth Street. 
 
 Avenue B, Columbia, Houston, and Tenth Streets are paved with 
 trap-block Belgian pavement, and are of a uniform surface and in a fair 
 condition. All the other streets of this district have cobble-stone pave- 
 ment, are often uneven, and in very many places need repair. 
 
 As a rule the streets are extremely dirty and offensive, and the gutters 
 obstructed with filth. Occasionally there exists an exception, which sel- 
 dom extends for more than a block. These oases are observed in 
 those localities where the residents have put in practice the old system 
 which required every housekeeper or occupant to keep the street clean in 
 front of his premises. 
 
 The filth of the streets is composed of house-slops, refuse vegetables, 
 decayed fruit, store and shop sweepings, ashes, dead animals, and even 
 human excrements. These putrefying organic substances are ground to- 
 gether by the constantly-passing vehicles. "When dried by the summer's 
 heat they are driven by the wind in every direction in the form of dust. 
 When remaining moist or liquid in the form of " slush," they emit dele- 
 terious and very offensive exhalations. 
 
 Possibly a person may become acclimated to such a locality, or even 
 relish after a time that which at first was very disgusting. If it is a fact 
 that a person passing through a malarious district receives the germs of 
 disease that may not mature in many months, while we can only partially 
 estimate the full effect of the miasmata from filthy streets, we cannot 
 doubt their injurious influence upon the public health. But there is a sure 
 penalty for every violation of physiological laws. And we have abundant 
 evidence that the nuisances which exist throughout this inspection district, 
 both produce and localize several of the more fatal diseases that are con- 
 cerned in giving to our city its present high death-rate. The recking 
 stench of the gutters, the street filth, and domestic garbage of this quarter 
 
BLOCKS OF DWELLINGS. — KATE OF CKOWDLNG. 
 
 173 
 
 of the city, constantly imperil the health of its inhabitants. It is a well- 
 recognized cause of diarrhoeal diseases and fevers. 
 
 Sewerage. — All of the avenues are sewered, and with only a few ex- 
 ceptions the streets also. The street sewers are egg-shaped in construc- 
 tion, and have their outlets below tide-water. 
 
 The tides force back the contents of the sewers throughout the lower 
 level of the district, and thereby cause a noxious reflux of sewer gases. 
 The importance of sewer and drain-traps is here illustrated. Many of 
 the houses are not connected with the sewers, and this circumstance adds 
 to the filthiness and insalubrity of the district. In scarcely any other sec- 
 tion of the city can the importance of thorough sewerage and skilful house- 
 drainage and sewer-trapping be more forcibly illustrated. Of course it is 
 not necessary that the sanitary inspector should present to a council of 
 medical gentlemen any argument in support of the assertion that we must 
 attribute to the imperfections of the sewerage much of the typhoid fever 
 as well as other prevalent maladies of the low districts of the city. The 
 old farmers who owned these low grounds in early times had them drained 
 by deep ditches, simply with reference to pecuniary advantages to them- 
 selves ; how much greater the importance and economic value of thorough 
 drainage of the same region, now that a population of sixty thousand 
 people have made their homes upon the crowded squares that cover these 
 old marshes. 
 
 Squares. — In the Fourteenth District there are 71 squares. But 
 few of them are in a perfect sanitary condition. The causes that render 
 them insalubrious are numerous. Beside the overcrowding of space 
 which we illustrate below, there is an entire absence of, or deficient drain- 
 age ; there are dirty streets, neglected privies, filthy alleys and yards. 
 Many of the privies are not connected with the sewers. 
 
 One square between Avenues B and C contains a little less than 
 142,636 square feet ; the number of persons living on this square, ascer- 
 tained by inquiry at each house, is 1,788, which gives less than 75 feet of 
 ground area to each individual. There are also kept on this square nine 
 horses, and a great number of dogs and domestic fowls. This same 
 square has 88 buildings ; and of these, 85 are dwellings, containing 472 
 families ; 22 are rearhouses, having 79 families ; and 16 families live in 
 basements. Some of the basements are cellars. 
 
 Buildings. — The number of dwellings in the Eleventh "Ward is 2,769 ; 
 of which number 2,152 are tenant-houses ; 432 are rear houses ; stores, 
 825 ; places for the sale of liquor, 286 ; churches, 6 ; schools, 8 ; public 
 market, 1 ; slaughter-houses, 19 ; stables, 159. 
 
 The number of private houses is reported as being 617. They vary 
 
174 EEPOET OF THE FIFTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 in height from two stories and basement to four stories. Some, but not 
 all, have the " modern improvements," such as gas, and hot and cold 
 water through the house. The newer class of tenant-houses are generally 
 five or six stories in height, and are made to occupy as much ground as 
 greedy landlords can manage to cover with their brick and mortar. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — The total number of tenant-houses in this district 
 is 2,152. About one-tenth of them are of wood, the remainder of brick. 
 Nearly one-fifth of the total number are rear houses. Their age is from 
 those built within a few months to the dilapidated old barracks which the 
 late Dr. James Stewart aptly denominated " Dens of death." The cus- 
 tom prevails here of sub-letting a part of a room to " boarders," which 
 increases the ordinary crowding. A few of the more modern tenant- 
 houses in this district are of a commendable pattern. As an illustration 
 we give those built by John "Wendell in Fifth Street between Avenues B 
 and C. They are the best arranged domiciles in respect to ventilation, 
 lighting, and cleanliness, to be seen in the Eleventh Ward. 
 
 This district probably has a greater number of artisans,* workers in 
 wood and metals, than any other district in the city, and nearly the whole 
 water-front as well as several entire blocks are occupied by the extensive 
 manufactories in which they are employed. 
 
 The shipyards, iron, lead, and copper works here, also give employ- 
 ment to many thousand hands to whom a residence near is a great neces- 
 sity. Hence the excessive crowding in this locality. 
 
 How great a benefit would the construction of model tenant-houses in 
 this vicinity confer upon its population ! The abodes where moral vile- 
 ness, squalor, filth, disease, and death now hold the sway, would be con- 
 verted into pleasant rooms, giving health and happiness to thousands. If 
 some of our capitalists would take the subject in hand, and cause the erec- 
 tion of model tenant-houses in this locality, such structures would stand 
 as a monument to their names and an honor to our city. If our Central 
 Park, which has cost millions without any direct pecuniary returns, finds 
 so much favor with a generous public, the construction of model tenant- 
 houses, which would confer such benefits upon the poor, should also ex- 
 cite a deep interest. 
 
 That such dwellings would be a paying investment, may be inferred from 
 the fact that the present crowded habitations of a tenant-neighborhood 
 afford an interest of more than fifteen per cent. 
 
 Stables. — Though we are not prepared to show what particular dis- 
 eases or what mortality is to be directly traced to the neglected and mis- 
 placed stables in this district, the following facts respecting them, contained 
 in the records of our inspection, will illustrate tho importance of bringing 
 them under some kind of sanitary regulation. 
 
PESTILENTIAL QUARTERS. 
 
 175 
 
 At No. — Attorney Street is a rear tenant-house, the first floor of 
 which is occupied as a stable for seven or eight horses, while several fam- 
 ilies occupy the floors above. Again at No. — Avenue B, a horse- 
 stable occupies the rear area of the lot, and the entrance to the stables is 
 made only through the door and hall of the tenant-house. I found two of 
 the scrofulous children in that house on crutches. The grave has a strong 
 claim upon others. The relative localities which the stables in this dis- 
 trict occupy with reference to the tenant-population, the accumulation 
 of filth and manure about them, and the general neglect of adequate local 
 drainage and means of cleansing such premises, demand that some prac- 
 ticable and acceptable plans for the improvement of stables should be pre- 
 sented, as well for the benefit of the hard-working owners of horses as for 
 the general welfare of the community. The prevalence and fatality of 
 pulmonary diseases among horses in overcrowded and neglected stables is 
 only equalled by the fatality of like maladies in the women and children 
 of tenant-houses. 
 
 Slaughter-Pens. — We found 19 slaughter-houses in the Fifteenth 
 District. In most instances the condition of these places is excessively 
 filthy, and utterly reckless of any regard to sanitary regulations or the 
 laws of decency. The worst class of these slaughter-pens is found in 
 rear buildings amidst the most densely-packed tenant-houses. As a writ- 
 ten description can convey no adequate idea of the shameless and brutal 
 scenes that are daily witnessed in and about these butcheries, we beg 
 leave to refer to the faithful illustrations of them which the artist has 
 presented on the following page.* 
 
 Insalubrious Quarters. — This inspection district embraces a great 
 number of fever-nests and insalubrious quarters. The following descrip- 
 tion of three of these places will suffice for the whole series. We copy 
 from our records of inspection : 
 
 1. " Second Square — Stanton to Bivington Street. — Ground filled 
 in, and so level as to render the natural drainage imperfect. Sewers on 
 Lewis, Stanton, and Rivington Streets, but none of the houses are con- 
 nected with them. There are in all 52 houses on the square, of which 
 40 are front, 12 rear, and 41 are tenant-houses. Nearly all of those 
 designated tenant-houses are small two or three story houses, origi- 
 nally intended for one, but now occupied by from five to eight families. 
 Only six of them were originally built for tenant-house. They are all 
 overcrowded, in a bad state of repair, and kept in a most careless and 
 filthy condition. Their apartments are small and ill- ventilated, halls and 
 
 * See one of the scenes here referred to on the next page. 
 
" DENS OF DEATH." — DESCRIPTION OF THEM. 
 
 177 
 
 passages dark and dirty, yards, cellars, and privies carelessly attended to. 
 Five small houses two and a half stories in height including the hasements, 
 each containing apartments for six families, front on an alley called 
 ' Rivington Place,' located in the rear of Nos. 316 and 318 Rivington 
 Street. This alley is always in a filthy condition.* The houses on it are 
 small and overcrowded, and their occupants are constant claimants on the 
 charities of the public dispensaries and hospitals. A detailed description 
 of the squalor and uncleanness of this wretched quarter will hardly be 
 necessary when we state the fact that the 30 families that reside in these 
 five houses have no other water supply than that which two hydrants fur- 
 nish in the exterior courtyard ; while for this population of nearly 200 
 persons of all ages there are but two privy vaults, and, at the time of last 
 inspection of the quarters, these vaults were filled nearly to the surface. 
 Dr. Guernsey, who practises in this district, states that ' In the year 1849, 
 42 individuals died here in three weeks of cholera, and not one recovered 
 that was taken sick. The reasons are plain : they have no ventilation, 
 and the houses being double, the exhalations from one apartment are in- 
 haled by the other.' 
 
 2. " Twelfth Square — Sheriff to Columbia Street. — * * * * 
 On Sheriff Street is a group of rear tenant-houses adjacent to some stables. 
 The northern section of these rookeries is popularly known as the ' Rag 
 Pickers' Row.' This place and its inhabitants have been aptly described 
 in the following language by Dr. Guernsey in a special report made to the 
 New York Sanitary Association by that physician : 
 
 * ******** 
 " ' This nuisance should be destroyed. It is situated in the rear of Nos. 
 — and — Sheriff Street. The houses are of wood, two stories with attic 
 and basement. The attic rooms are used to deposit the filthy rags and 
 bones as they are taken from the gutters and slaughter-houses. The 
 yards are filled with dirty rags hung up to dry, sending forth their stench 
 to all the neighborhood, and is exceedingly nauseous, operating upon me 
 as an emetic. The tenants are all Germans of the lowest order, having no 
 national or personal pride ; they are exceedingly filthy in person, and 
 their bed clothes are as dirty as the floors they walk on ; their food is of 
 the poorest quality, and their feet and heads, and doubtless their whole 
 bodies, are anasarcous, suffering from what they call rheumatism, but 
 which is in reality a prostrate nervous system, the result of foul air and 
 indequate supply of nutritious food. They have a peculiar taste for the 
 association of dogs and cats, there being about 50 of the former and 30 
 of the latter. The whole number of apartments is 32, occupied by 28 
 
 * See Diagram on page 178. 
 
 12 
 
CROWD-POISONING. — TYPHUS. 
 
 179 
 
 families, number 120 in all, 60 adults and 60 children. The yards are 
 all small, and the sinks running over with filth. The owner of one-half 
 
 of this row is , and of the other . The latter gentleman is 
 
 a wealthy man and lives with his tenants in the rear, although he owns 
 the front house ; he prefers the filth because he thus saves some money. 
 He buys and sells rags, a perfect chiffonnier. Not one decent sleeping 
 apartment can be found on the entire premises, and not one stove properly 
 arranged. The carbonic acid gas, in conjunction with the other emana- 
 tion from bones, rags, and human filth, defies description. The rooms 
 are 6 X 10 feet, bedrooms 5x6 feet. The inhabitants lead a miserable 
 existence, and their children wilt and die in their infancy.' 
 
 3. " Fourteenth Square — Stanton to Houston Streets. — ' Cat Alley ' 
 is the local designation of a group of dilapidated tenant-houses in an alley 
 on Cannon Street. The alley is unpaved, and is excessively filthy. The 
 privy is a small and broken-down structure, covering only a part of the 
 vault, which is now full almost to overflowing. The inhabitants are 
 degraded, both physically and socially. In several of the domiciles, at 
 the time of our last inspection, there was neither bedstead nor table. 
 Twelve of these families were found in a wretched condition, and all the 
 children we saw were covered with dirt, and presented the intensest 
 aspects of scrofulous disease ; their sore eyes, encrusted heads, and 
 dehumanized appearance, told the story of want and neglect, and of 
 greater evils to come." 
 
 Prevailing Diseases. — Typhus and typhoid fevers have been found 
 prevailing in all sections of this district. Small-pox, scarlatina, measles, 
 and pulmonary diseases are met with in almost every street. Typhus is 
 the most typical of the preventable diseases that abound in the Eleventh 
 Ward. The very large number of typhus patients that has been sent to 
 the fever hospital from the tenant-houses of this district, constitutes but a 
 small percentage of the total number of cases of that fearful disease. 
 Small-pox, also, was found by the Sanitary Inspector to be prevailing 
 very extensively. Cholera infantum and obstinate diarrhceal maladies 
 were prevalent in the rear tenements, and throughout the lowest streets 
 during the summer and autumn. 
 
 Increasing Causes of Insalubrity. — In this district we find a 
 population of more than 60,000 persons dwelling upon an area of less 
 than 3,000 ordinary house-lots of 25x50 feet, which gives an average 
 of more than twenty persons to each such lot. Although this rate of 
 population extending over an entire ward is worthy of remark, it would 
 not be a cause of special insalubrity if good hygienic regulations pre- 
 vailed. But in the entire absence of such regulations, and especially in 
 
180 KEPOKT OF THE FIFTEENTH SAJOTAET DISTRICT. 
 
 the close packing of particular sections of the district, we find reason to 
 watch against the sources, as well as for the constant diffusion of pesti- 
 lential diseases. The fact is undeniable that typhus has become localized 
 in several of the crowded blocks of tenant-houses. The exanthematous 
 diseases of childhood are persistently prevalent, and the virus of small- 
 pox is continually being spread abroad from this ward. Yet the great 
 mass of the adult population, by excellent habits of industry, and by vir- 
 tue of the good constitutional health they fortunately possessed before 
 becoming residents in the city — for the majority of adults in this district 
 are immigrant artisans and laborers — is reputed in good health. The 
 infants and children die in fearful ratios, and too many mothers find an 
 early grave. 
 
 The particular causes of insalubrity in this ward do not require 
 special explanation beyond that we have given ; but in order to present a 
 concise grouping of the material causes of faulty hygienic conditions in 
 the crowded squares occupied by this population, we will here introduce 
 an abstract of the records of the Sanitary survey of a single square, as 
 entered in our Record-Book of Inspections : 
 
 " Avenue B to C. Thirteenth Square — Twelfth to Thirteenth Streets. 
 
 " Ground a marsh, reclaimed by imperfect filling in, and now im- 
 perfectly drained. 
 
 " Buildings and Population. — Front houses, 59. 
 
 Rear houses, 23. 
 
 Total, . . 82. 
 
 There are 12 alleys and 3 courts. 
 
 Total number of tenant-houses, ... 70 
 
 Total population, nearly, . . . 3,000 
 
 Number of stables, . . . . 11 
 
 " slaughter-pens, 1 
 
 " junk shops, .... 2 
 
 " stores, . . . . .26 
 
 " dram-shops and lager, . . . 16 
 
 " groceries, with bar, . . .7 
 
 " distillery, 1 
 
 u The domiciles are crowded, and, with few exceptions, filthy. The 
 bedrooms are generally unvcntilatcd and dark. Typhus fever, measles, 
 and small-pox were found prevailing at the time of first inspection. Nino 
 patients with typhus had, within a short period, been sent to the fever 
 
THE REMEDY, — BETTER HOUSES, CLEANLINESS. 
 
 181 
 
 hospital from the row of tenant-houses on Thirteenth Street. The sani- 
 tary care of the privies has obviously been neglected, and like the stables 
 and slaughter-pen within the square, they are altogether offensive to the 
 senses, and perilous to the health of the inhabitants of the locality." 
 
 The chief causes of increasing insalubrity in the district are comprised 
 in the brief abstract here given of a single block. They consist in the bad 
 drainage, filth, overcrowding and incongruous packing of populous ten- 
 ant-houses, and the grossest nuisances in compact contiguity. Through- 
 out the ward there is a manifest want of intelligent and faithful sanitary 
 supervision. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — The first and most indispensable means for 
 improving the hygienic condition of this district, would appear to be a 
 careful sanitary survey of every street and square. The evils that exist 
 and are increasing in particular sections of the ward must be clearly 
 ascertained by competent sanitary observers, aided by expert engineer- 
 ing talent. Not only should suitable means be used to procure improved 
 ventilation and sunlighting in the tenant-houses, but several of the 
 squares must be cleared of their nuisances — their slaughter-pens, faulty 
 privies, etc., and, as far as practicable, the general and local drainage 
 should be radically reformed. 
 
 The increasing business of all the great mechanical establishments 
 along the eastern margin of this district, employing many thousand 
 mechanics and laborers who seek homes within the Eleventh Ward, the 
 industrious and worthy character of the nearly twenty thousand families 
 that reside there, and the social and economical considerations that bear 
 upon the whole subject of sanitary improvement of tenant-houses and 
 tenant-house population of this important section of the city, demand that 
 the work of such improvement should not be delayed. 
 
REP O KT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SIXTEENTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 WILLIAM C. HUNTER, M. D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — On the north by Twentieth Street, on the east by the 
 Sixth Avenue, on the west by the Hudson River, and on the south by Four- 
 teenth Street. 
 
 Topography. — The original condition of the surface as to elevation, 
 is shown in the following table, which was obtained from Mr. James E. 
 Serrell, City Surveyor, and is entirely reliable. It shows the elevation in 
 feet and inches of each avenue and street corner above high-water mark : 
 
 STREETS. 
 
 Tenth Av. 
 
 Ninth At. 
 
 Eighth At. 
 
 SeTenth At. 
 
 Sixth At. 
 
 
 w 
 
 13.6" 
 
 19.6*" 
 
 26. 6f" 
 
 si.r 
 
 
 1.6 
 
 18.3 
 
 19.0* 
 
 24.10* 
 
 30.8 
 
 
 7.6 
 
 13.3 
 
 19.0| 
 
 24. 10* 
 
 30.8 
 
 
 7.6 
 
 13.3 
 
 19.0* 
 
 24.10* 
 
 30.8 
 
 
 7.6 
 
 18.6 
 
 19.6 
 
 26. 6 
 
 29.0* 
 
 
 7.6 
 
 13.6 
 
 19.6 
 
 25. 6 
 
 27.5 
 
 
 1.6 
 
 18.6 
 
 19.6 
 
 25. 6 
 
 23.7* 
 
 The soil is almost entirely a gravelly loam. This part of the city 
 was in its earlier history considered the best agricultural district on the 
 island, and was used for such purposes. On referring to the most au- 
 thentic maps no water-course can be discovered entering the district. 
 Natural drainage, as will be seen by reference to the table of elevation, 
 is good ; there is a gradual slope from Sixtli Avenue to the river. No 
 facts have been ascertained going to show that the topographical condi- 
 tions of the district arc otherwise than healthful. 
 
INSALUBRIOUS STREETS. — CAUSES. 
 
 183 
 
 Streets. — The direction of the streets is easterly and westerly, and 
 of the avenues northerly and southerly. The former are, with the excep- 
 tion of Fourteenth Street, sixty feet in width between the buildings. 
 Fourteenth Street and the avenues are of similar width, being one hun- 
 dred feet between the buildings. The streets are all, with the exception 
 of Fourteenth Street, paved with cobble stones. The same pavement is 
 found in all the avenues except the Sixth, which, together with Fourteenth 
 Street between the Seventh and Eighth Avenues, have the Belgian or 
 block pavement. As an example of the neglected state of some of the 
 street-pavements, I would refer to "West Nineteenth Street between the 
 Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The pavement here is usually out of repair, 
 perhaps on account of the wretched sanitary condition of the gutters and 
 surface of the streets. "While the avenues are tolerably clean, some of 
 the streets are extremely filthy. The most marked examples are West 
 Sixteenth Street from the Seventh to the Tenth Avenue, and Seventeenth 
 Street from Eighth to the Tenth Avenue. In these two streets there was 
 observed a greater amount of preventable sickness than in other streets 
 having as large a population. Cholera infantum, dysentery, and diarrhoea, 
 were particularly noticed in Sixteenth Street between the Eighth and 
 Tenth Avenues, where have occurred in five houses since May last four 
 cases of purulent ophthalmia, four of scarlet fever and diphtheria, and five 
 of cholera infantum. The latter was found between the Ninth and Tenth 
 Avenues, where the street at every visit was found in an indescribably 
 filthy state in consequence of deposits of gai'bage and slops. This was 
 particularly noticed in front of the premises where cholera infantum had 
 occurred. As another similar example of the influence of uncleanly 
 streets on the health of their vicinity, I refer to West Nineteenth Street 
 from No. 304 to 335. This street for about two hundred feet to the east, 
 and the same distance to the west of Tenth Avenue, presents a marked 
 contrast to the streets in the vicinity. Here are found some ten or twelve 
 four and five-story brick tenant-houses. The street in front of these 
 houses is such as may account for the excessive amount of sickness and 
 mortality observed here. 
 
 Sewerage. — The sewers of the district are constructed of brick. 
 
 Their outlets should be six in number, while but five are found ; the 
 absent one being at the foot of Fifteenth Street. Each outlet opens at 
 about four feet below high-water mark. Two are from three to four 
 feet in diameter, the rest much smaller. On reference to the map it 
 will be seen that a private sewer commences in the centre of the square 
 inclosed by Fifteenth and Sixteenth Streets, and Ninth and Tenth Ave- 
 nues. Tliis is owned by the proprietors of a large sugar-refining estab- 
 
184 
 
 KEPOKT OF THE SIXTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 lishment, who also own a large number of dwelling-houses on Sixteenth 
 Street west of Ninth Avenue, and also on Tenth Avenue south of Six- 
 teenth Street. Local drainage from the houses connects with this sewer. 
 It passes through a little to the south of the centre of two squares, and 
 reaches the river, it is believed, at Eleventh Avenue and Fifteenth Street, 
 where it emptied at one time, it is said, into the river ; but about three 
 years ago, for certain reasons, the pier or dock was raised. The effect 
 was to prevent the contents of the sewer being received into the river, 
 and the result is that Fifteenth Street for one hundred feet or more east 
 of the Eleventh Avenue is, and has been, constantly covered with this ob- 
 structed sewage for the last three years. It has really rendered Eleventh 
 Avenue at the corner of Fifteenth Street impassable for loaded vehicles, 
 and a private individual has been compelled to construct a bridge across 
 this slough, that his teams may pass in safety. The effect of this on health 
 cannot be definitely ascertained, as there arc no dwellings in the immedi- 
 ate neighborhood. One of the chief reasons of the greater amount of 
 sickness and mortality observed on the squares near the river, over those 
 more remote, is attributable to either the faulty construction of the sewers 
 or their outlets. 
 
 Squares. — 30 squares are included in this district. They are all of 
 regular shape. The sanitary condition of 4 is good, in 3 it is bad, and in 
 23 it is of a mixed character. 
 
 The causes of insalubrity are various. 1st in importance is the large 
 number of buildings used for dwellings, stables, factories, or other purposes, 
 on a single square. 2d. Special nuisances. 3d. Absence of, or imperfect 
 local drainage and sewerage. 4th. Non-removal of garbage and street 
 filth. 5th. Badly-constructed and neglected privies. 6th. Uncleanly and 
 intemperate habits of the residents of the squares. 
 
 1st. Number of buildings on insufficient space. — The first point of san- 
 itary observation is, that too many dwellings are crowded upon an insuffi- 
 cient amount of ground. In very many instances do we find on a lot of 
 25 X 100 feet, two dwellings of from three to four stories in height, tho 
 space between which being in some cases not greater than 10 or 15 feet, 
 while upon both sides of these houses rise, either two high fences or two 
 adjoining buildings. This is the only yard of these houses, and ordinarily 
 contains the privy and Croton-watcr. The former, through entire ab- 
 sence of circulating air, diffuses its effluvium through the eating and sleep- 
 ing rooms on the lower floors of both houses, especially the rear, and in a 
 less degree the upper stories. The latter insures a constantly wet pavement 
 and humid air. Tho square between Fifteenth and Sixteenth Streets and 
 Eighth and Ninth Avenues, presents numerous instances of this condition. 
 
GARBAGE AND NEGLIGENCE. 
 
 185 
 
 Examples are met with at Nos. 240 to 260 "West Fifteenth Street, and 
 in at least four instances between the Ninth and Tenth Avenues on this 
 street. 
 
 2d. Special Nuisances. — Of these the prominent are soap-fat fac- 
 tories and slaughter-houses. Of the former there are 6, of the latter 5. 
 These will receive attention in another portion of this report. 
 
 3d. Absence of, or imperfect local drainage. — In the twelve squares east 
 of the Eighth Avenue, the majority of the houses have under-ground 
 drains, though some have surface local drainage. West of Eighth Avenue 
 to the river but 3 of the squares have good local drainage, while in 12 
 it is surface. These 12 are embraced in the boundaries Eighteenth to 
 Fifteenth Streets, both inclusive. It will be shown that within this terri- 
 tory there was found a larger proportionate amount of sickness and mor- 
 tality than in other parts of the district. The cause of this lack of drain- 
 age is very plainly owing to either the poor character of the buildings, 
 and consequent low rents, or illiberality of the landlords, but not to the 
 want of sewers. This is particularly the case in Sixteenth, Seventeenth, 
 and Eighteenth Streets, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, which streets 
 between these avenues have each a sewer, but few local drains are connected 
 with it. 
 
 4th. Non-removal of garbage and street dirt. — On those squares where 
 tenant-houses are most abundant, garbage-boxes are sources of great in- 
 salubrity. Being made of wood, they are soon destroyed under the com- 
 bined influences of bad usage, rains, and slops, and long before they cease 
 to be used are really worthless, as they allow the liquid portion of the 
 garbage to leak out and flow into the gutters. Again, the great size of 
 these boxes prevents in certain localities the removal of the entire contents 
 at the daily visit. A part only is taken, the rest left to decompose and be 
 covered with fresh accumulations, until the condition of the box can be 
 better imagined than described. As the boxes become damaged they be- 
 gin to disappear piecemeal (it is suspected for fire-wood), and a small 
 mound of garbage being left, it is rapidly increased in size by the previous 
 habits of the occupants of depositing such material in that particular 
 place, until it becomes a large heap of putrefying animal and vegetable 
 matter, disgusting to sight and smell, and detrimental to the health of the 
 square on which it is found. A forcible example may be seen at this 
 time in Nineteenth Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. That 
 street filth is left unrcmoved for too long a time, is a fact with which we 
 are all acquainted ; but in the poorest portions of this district, where the 
 need of prompt and frequent removal is greatest, the neglect seems most 
 apparent. Examples are met with in Eighteenth Street between Seventh 
 
186 
 
 KEPOKT OF THE SIXTEENTH SANITAET DISTRICT. 
 
 and Eighth Avenues, Nineteenth Street between Sixth and Seventh Ave- 
 nues, and elsewhere. 
 
 5th. Improper construction and neglect of privies. — These as a source 
 of insalubrity to squares are in proportion to the population of the square. 
 With very few exceptions, the privies visited were entirely without ven- 
 tilation or seat-covers. In many, the contents were much above the mark 
 prescribed by law. About seven complaints have been entered in regard 
 to this neglect. 
 
 6th. Uncleanly and intemperate habits of the residents of the squares. — 
 Two squares in this district, namely, Eighteenth to Nineteenth Street and 
 Sixth to Seventh Avenue, and Sixteenth to Seventeenth Street and Ninth to 
 Tenth Avenue, show a correspondence in uncleanly habits of the people, 
 number of low drinking shops, and amount of disease. On the first square 
 mentioned there are 9 dram-shops of the lowest class, the domiciliary 
 habits of the people are of the worst character, and measles, diphtheria, 
 and pulmonary consumption had prevailed to an undue extent, Nearly 
 the same remarks apply to the remaining square. Here, however, are 
 18 liquor, or liquor grocery stores ; 22 cases of typhoid fever, 4 of cholera 
 infantum, 4 of purulent ophthalmia, and 4 of diphtheria, have occurred 
 during a part of the past year on this square, and the opposite side of 
 Sixteenth Street. 
 
 The Inhabitants. — It is almost impossible to state correctly the pre- 
 vailing character of the inhabitants of the Sixteenth District, so thoroughly 
 intermingled is the population. Probably one-half belong to the laboring 
 class. United States and Ireland are the nationalities to a very large extent ; 
 the latter bearing a proportion to the former of about five to three. Com- 
 paratively few Germans are to be found in this district. The Manhattan 
 Gas Company, Eighteenth Street and Tenth Avenue, employ in their es- 
 tablishment a large number of men, who live in the vicinity. The occu- 
 pation of others has not been ascertained. The majority of the residents 
 of this district arc dependent on their daily labor for support. In many 
 parts of the district the people arc very poor, yet respectable, hard-work- 
 ing persons. 
 
 Buildings. — The whole number of buildings of every kind in this 
 district, as nearly as can be ascertained, is 1,644. They are classed as 
 follows : 
 
 Private residences, ..... 340 
 Rear buildings (dwellings), . . . 192 
 
 Tenant-houses, ..... 422 
 
 Stores, ...... 393 
 
TENANT-HOUSES. — STATISTICS. 
 
 187 
 
 Drinking places, billiard saloons, policy shops, . 126 
 
 Factories (5 of which are soap), • 23 
 
 Schools, ...... 5 
 
 Slaughter-houses, ..... 6 
 
 Stables, 129 
 
 Churches, ...... 8 
 
 Not far from one-quarter of the buildings contain less than three fami- 
 lies. These, however, must not be regarded as in necessarily good sanitary 
 condition, as there are many small buildings of such size as to accommo- 
 date but two families. Fifty or thereabouts of the private residences are 
 of brown stone, four stories in height, and of modern construction. These 
 are almost exclusively situated on West Fourteenth Street. About one 
 hundred are two and three-story frame buildings, of considerable age, but 
 many are kept in good order and repair. The remainder, of brick, aver- 
 age three stories in height, and are not generally of recent construction. 
 They are in width from 19 to 25 feet. Drainage, so far as observed, is 
 usually good. Water is distributed to the different rooms or halls through- 
 out the dwellings. Water-closet and bath-room are usually combined in 
 some of the houses, in others the privies are kept in good order. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — Of these there are 422. They are chiefly located 
 on the streets, rather than the avenues of the district. Not more than 40 
 are found on the avenues, and these, with the exception of 5 or 6, are of 
 four stories in height. The age of these houses is very difficult to ascer- 
 tain, as the external or internal appearance of the buildings is not a safe 
 guide. Tenant-houses, of recent construction, in consequence of ill-usage 
 and neglect, soon come to present an appearance of age they do not pos- 
 sess. With few exceptions the large tenant-houses in the district are 
 judged to be of recent erection. They are from 3 to 5 stories in height, 
 and from 15 to 30 feet in width. They are chiefly of brick material. 
 Very few front frame tenements are to be found in the district. But one 
 entire block of uniform sized tenements is to be found in the district. On 
 this square 133 houses are located, in which are 424 families. The block 
 referred to contains a row of 47 tenant-houses of uniform size and arrange- 
 ment. These houses are 5 stories in height, 15 feet in width, and 48 feet 
 in depth. These houses represent the minimum width, and 30 feet the 
 maximum width of the tenant-houses in the district. 
 
 Drainage. — In the majority of the large tenant-houses where the 
 street is sewered, there is a connection with it by local drains ; but as these 
 frequently have but one point of commencement, and that in the rear- 
 yard, where the hydrant is located, it does not afford sufficient drainage. 
 
188 
 
 EEPOET OF TIIE SIXTEENTH SAIOTAEY DISTRICT. 
 
 Refuse water, etc., is without doubt allowed to accumulate, especially in 
 the upper floors, to the injury of the health of the occupants. Another 
 insalubrious feature in this mode of drainage is, that to some of the ten- 
 ants it is more convenient to empty slops into the street than to deposit 
 the same in the cesspool. In other localities the drains are of such 
 faulty construction as to be positively hurtful to the occupants of the house. 
 One such instance was observed in a house of respectable appearance, 
 occupied by two families, in Seventeenth Street, where the drain was 
 merely an open trough attached to the west wall of the house, and was in- 
 tended to convey the waste water from the upper part of the house, water 
 from the roof, and, it is said, the contents of the privy in the yard. The 
 drain had become obstructed and overflowed its contents upon the cellar 
 floor for 20 feet or more. This condition of the cellar occurred in May, 
 and the inspection was made in July. One person had sickened, it was 
 believed, from the cause mentioned. Nearly a similar state of defective 
 drainage was found at No. 66 West Eighteenth Street, where a common 
 board drain was used to convey the drainage from the rear-yard ; it be- 
 came defective, and the cellar received the drainage where the putrefying 
 fluid remained, notwithstanding remonstrances of the neighbors, until by 
 a complaint entered at the Bureau of Hygiene and Public Health it was 
 remedied by the Metropolitan Police. 
 
 Surface local drains in other locabties are plainly sources of insalu- 
 brity to the buildings with which they are connected. They become ob- 
 structed, and waste water, slops, etc., being prevented from finding its 
 way through the alley into the gutter, flow back into the yard to a greater 
 or less extent. Examples of this may be seen in Sixteenth and Seven- 
 teenth Streets, west of Ninth Avenue. In both of these streets the drain- 
 age is entirely of this character. The hydrant is placed just at the rear 
 end of a narrow alley, not more than four feet in width, and running 
 through the centre of it is a stream of filth. This is the drainage of these 
 houses. 
 
 "Water-Supply. — In 24 buildings the supply of Croton-water was 
 found in the yard only ; in 9 throughout the house ; in 12 not mentioned. 
 Whether the distributioa of water throughout an entire house tends to a 
 better sanitary condition of the house, depends entirely on the habits, 
 whether cleanly or not, of the occupants. Two contrasting examples of 
 this are afforded in houses No. — West Twentieth Street and No. — 
 West Nineteenth Street. Both have had water distributed throughout the 
 house. In the former it is in the rooms, in the latter iu the halls. The 
 first is a perfectly healthy house, the latter a very insalubrious one. In 
 some of the houses water is distributed to each floor in the hall ; this is 
 
WATER-SUPPLY. — DOMESTIC WANTS. 
 
 189 
 
 used by two or four families on the floor, and as the care of the sink de- 
 volves upon no one in particular, it soon becomes a source of insalubrity to 
 the house, e. g. No. — West Nineteenth Street. In other houses the 
 point of supply has been so placed as to compel occupants of one part of 
 a floor to visit the apartments of other occupants on the same floor 
 for water. This is the case in too or more buildings in Sixteenth 
 near Tenth Avenue ; also in Nineteenth Street near the same avenue. 
 Four families occupy each floor, the water is placed in the two rear rooms 
 on the floor ; those occupying the front rooms visit their neighbors for 
 water. It is very clear that with the tendency to discord and disagree- 
 ment which exists to some extent among different families in nearly all 
 houses, this arrangement subjects such people to shameful deprivation of a 
 supply of water. The only method consistent with a sanitary condition 
 of water-supply, is to distribute it to the apartments of each family. 
 
 Garbage and House-Slops. — In the poorer and most densely populated 
 portions of the district only are these sources of insalubrity, and this it 
 seems may be avoided. Let garbage-boxes be constructed of such size as 
 to contain the daily accumidation ; of such material as will not easily be 
 destroyed (of galvanized iron for example), and which, while it is im- 
 pervious to fluids, may be readily and entirely emptied ; let a properly- 
 constructed lid be attached, and the contents removed daily, and the sick- 
 ening stench we now observe would then be avoided. 
 
 Location and care of Privies. — These form one of the chief features 
 of insalubrity. Nearly all of them are two small in size and too few in 
 number, and without ventilation or seat-covers. About twelve were found 
 full to the floor timbers, or within one foot of them. In some cases the 
 doors were found locked securely, and on procuring the key and inspect- 
 ing the privy, such masses of human excrement were found on the seats 
 and floors as would justify the locking of the door to protect unwary per- 
 sons from injury. Occupants of rear buildings are the principal sufferers 
 from this insalubrity. The proximity of privies is in some cases eight feet 
 from the windows of rear houses ; the odor in these is, especially at night, 
 intolerable. Instances of the kind are to be found at Nos. 82, 283, and 
 285 West Seventeenth Street, and others. They are also too few in num- 
 ber ; for example No. 108 West Nineteenth Street, where in the front and 
 rear buildings more than one hundred persons live, who have one com- 
 mon privy, with a single partition dividing it, and but four seats in all. 
 Twenty-five persons are expected to use one seat-opening. 
 
 Apartments. — The houses under discussion are so arranged as to afford 
 one main room and one or two bedrooms to each family. The main 
 room is used as kitchen, dining, and sitting-room. The bedroom between 
 
190 
 
 REPORT OF THE SIXTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 the front and rear-room is dark ; the hall bedroom, when there is one, is 
 lighted and ventilated. It may also he said that in the recently-built 
 large tenant-houses a small window opens from the dark bedrooms into 
 ,the halls. This, in the majority of cases, is of no real benefit, as the 
 halls are usually dark and unventilated. The dimensions are various ; the 
 following are examples of the usual size : 
 
 Main rooms, width and depth, 18 X 18 ft. ; 19 X 11 ; 16 X 17 ; 19 X 14 ; 
 14x14; 14X14; 15x13. 
 
 Dormitories, width and depth, 12x10 ft.; 6x9; 10x12; 8x9; 
 10X9; 11x9; 12x8; 9x9; 9x9; 14x15. 
 
 Height of ceiling, 7 ft., 8, 8, 8, 9, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8. 
 
 Average cubic feet air-space to each person, 732, 864, 1,047, 671, 
 548, 346, 375, 894, 627, 2,576, 921. 
 
 Ground area square feet to each person, 33£, 58, 38, 113, 42, 80, 33, 
 30, 56, 23, 105, 20, 185, 83, 44. 
 
 Thus it is seen that 18 X 18 feet is the largest main room, and 14 X 14 
 feet the smallest. It is also seen that in but two instances was there 1,000 
 feet of air-space. 
 
 Ventilation. — In nearly all the houses inspected this was found de- 
 ficient, both in the apartments and in the halls. As most of the tenant- 
 houses are occupied by at least two families on each floor, it follows that 
 no through ventilation can be secured. The main rooms are ventilated 
 by two windows with sliding sash, which in most instances the upper sec- 
 tion cannot be lowered. But very few, if any, ventilated by chimney fire- 
 places were noticed. The dormitories are without flues, save in a very 
 few cases, and, with exception of the hall bedrooms referred to, without 
 ventilation and light. The halls of the tenant-houses are very generally 
 unventilated, except by the front door. The scuttle, if one there be, is 
 generally closed and inaccessible, and in at least one-third of the houses 
 there arc no means of exit by the roof. In but two of the large tene- 
 ments visited were there found any means of escape in the event of fire 
 other than by the front door and windows. An occupant remarked they 
 " must either roast or break their necks." 
 
 Cellars and Basements. — Tenant-houses in this district are not, to 
 a very large extent, provided with basements for residences. The few 
 which were observed are of an unhealthy character. Two examples may 
 serve to show this. At No. 206 West Sixteenth Street, two families, in 
 which arc thirteen persons, occupy the basement. It is so dark that ordinary 
 type can be seen witli difficulty. In the other case the people were healthy 
 before entering the basement ; since, however, they have been ill : tho 
 mother has phthisis. Of 24 cellars, note of which has been made, 4 only 
 
DRAM-SHOPS AjSTD SOAP FACTORIES. 
 
 191 
 
 were in good sanitary condition. The rest were more or less filthy, some 
 indescribably so. One contained urine, bones, and soakage from the privy. 
 
 Dram-shops, or places where liquor is sold by the glass, are 121 in num- 
 ber. 
 
 Liquor stores (or grocery and liquor), . . . 119 
 
 Billiard saloons, ..... 2 
 Policy shops, ...... 7 
 
 The liquor stores are nearly all of the class known as low groggeries. 
 Eighteen of these are located on a single square — Sixteenth to Seven- 
 teenth Street, Eighth to Ninth Avenue — the population of which is the 
 most depraved and unhealthy in the district. 
 
 Stores. — Are 403 in number. 119, or more than one-quarter of these, 
 it will be seen are drinking shops. 
 
 Factories. — There are 27 of these, as follows : 
 
 Soap factories, . . . . . .6 
 
 Bleaching and dyeing, ..... 3 
 
 Pickle, . . . . . . .3 
 
 Breweries, .... .4 
 
 Mineral water, . . . . . .1 
 
 Rope, ....... 1 
 
 Pottery, . . . . . . . 1 
 
 Sugar, ....... 1 
 
 Miscellaneous, . . . . . .7 
 
 There is proof that soap factories exert an unhealthful influence on 
 the inhabitants of their vicinity. This was particularly observed at No. 227 
 West Seventeenth Street, where an establishment of the kind is located. 
 Independent of illness at 225, which has been considerable, and which can- 
 not undeniably be attributed to other causes than the factory, I am told 
 that when the process of boiling is in operation, some of the occupants of 
 225 are obliged to go into the street to escape the terrible odor. A some- 
 what similar report was obtained from occupants on the other side of the 
 factory. There the people close their windows without regard to weather 
 to escape its disgusting smell. 
 
 Slaughter-Houses. — They are 6 in number : 
 
 Fronting on street, . . . . . .3 
 
 Rear, .... . . 3 
 
 In good condition, . . . . . .2 
 
 Insalubrious, ...... 4 
 
 One of the latter, located in Seventeenth Street near the Tenth Ave- 
 
192 
 
 REPORT OF THE SIXTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 nue, is very foul. Blood and filth are allowed to flow across the sidewalk 
 into the gutter, making this portion of the square unhealthy. Diphtheria, 
 purulent ophthalmia, and typhus, were observed in the street. 
 
 Gas-Houses. — The Manhattan Gas Company have their extensive es- 
 tablishment occupying the greater part of four squares. There is an of- 
 fensive odor constantly emanating from the manufactory, but the diseases 
 it produces must be ascertained. The operatives are subject of late to 
 an affection of the eyes, produced it is said by a new material introduced 
 into the manufacture of gas. 
 
 Stables. — 129 are located in this district, and are principally private 
 stables owned by cartmen and grocers : the rest private stables for pleas- 
 ure horses. The principal insalubrious feature of these stables is their 
 effect on rear buildings. This happens where a stable in the rear joins a 
 rear dwelling next door. This is observed markedly in the rear of No. 138. 
 "West Twentieth Street. Again, a stable is placed in the rear on one street, 
 and on the opposite street is a rear dwelling-house. The rear walls of 
 the two buildings are within two to four feet of each other (this interven- 
 ing space being an unwholesome " cloaque"), with a small rear bedroom 
 window of the dwelling, and a breathing hole for the animal in the sta- 
 ble ; both window and opening being on the same plane. This is pre- 
 cisely what is seen at No. 278 West Seventeenth Street, where the bedroom 
 window must be kept constantly closed to prevent the unpleasant odor 
 from the stable entering the apartment. Three cases of purulent ophthal- 
 mia have occurred here, and typhus prevails in the front house. 
 
 Churches, Schools. — The churches are 8 in number, and there are 
 4 public schools : 
 
 Industrial, . . . . . . .1 
 
 Ward (colored), ..... 1 
 
 Primary, . . . . . . .1 
 
 Grammar, No. 11, . . . . 1 
 
 These all appear to be in good sanitary condition. 
 
 Vacant Lots. — 73 in number : 
 In lad sanitary condition, .... 54 
 •« not bad " . . . .19 
 
 Twenty-four of these, an area on Seventeenth Street, is made a place of 
 deposit for ashes, garbage, dead animals and old boots. Ten arc on the op- 
 posite square (Eighteenth Street), on the sites of dwellings burned two years 
 ago. The privies of these dwellings have never been filled in, nor emptied 
 of their contents. In other respects these lots arc in a similar insalubrious 
 condition to those just mentioned. It is believed that these lots have pro- 
 
FILTHY PLACES AND PREVAILING- DISEASES. 
 
 193 
 
 duced illness in Nineteenth Street. The remaining 20 in bad condition, 
 are found between Nineteenth and Twentieth Streets, and Tenth and 
 Eleventh Avenues. They are made a dumping-ground for manure and 
 street dirt, and are highly offensive. Fortunately no dwellings are within 
 a few hundred feet of these lots. 
 
 Nuisances. — Those of a public character have been noticed in a pre- 
 vious part of this report. The prominent are slaughter-houses, soap-fat 
 establishments, liquor and policy shops. Private nuisances have been 
 also incidentally noticed. The most remarkable are rear dwellings, of 
 whatever character, and their (usually) attendant cloaque. This term has 
 been applied by Dr. Harris to those spaces or inaccessible alleys, from 1 
 to 3 feet in width, which occur between two rear buildings on opposite 
 streets, or between two rear buildings on the same street. These are 
 undoubtedly sources of disease. They are made receptacles for all kinds 
 of filth, not excepting human excrement ; and one side or end of these 
 houses is ventilated with such an air as may be imagined to be diffused 
 through such a space. In one rear house in Sixteenth Street, where this 
 condition exists, no less than 9 cases of typhus fever have occurred in less 
 than one year. 
 
 Prevailing Diseases. — The prevailing diseases the past year have 
 been cholera infantum, dysentery, diarrhoea, diphtheria, and measles. The 
 first-named affections from the localities in which they have been chiefly 
 observed are due to humidity, from imperfect drainage, to absence of sun- 
 light, and ventilation in rear buildings, to personal and domiciliary filth 
 and filthy streets, together with a high external temperatm-e. The latter 
 two are mainly owing to personal and domiciliary uncleanliness, with 
 overcrowding. Seven cases of the last-named disease occurred in one 
 house, in which were twenty-three children. The average cubic air-space 
 for each person in this house was 694 feet. 3 cases of diphtheria occur- 
 red in another house, in which 73 persons reside ; the cubic air-space 
 for each person 697 feet. 
 
 Locality of Diseases. — In Tenth Avenue near Sixteenth Street, 
 three or more cases of variola. In Nineteenth Street, No. 314 rear, 3 
 cases of variola were found in one room of a tenant-house. Between 20 
 and 30 cases of typhus fever have occurred in the last year in Sixteenth 
 Street, Tenth Avenue, and Seventeenth Street west of Ninth Avenue, 
 cholera infantum in Fifteenth Street near Sixth Avenue, Sixteenth Street 
 near Tenth Avenue, Nineteenth Street near Seventh Avenue, Eighteenth 
 Street near Seventh Avenue. Diphtheria in Seventeenth Street west of 
 Eighth Avenue. It is of course impossible to say what particular cause 
 13 
 
194 
 
 EEPOET OF THE SIXTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 has produced these diseases, but the locality in every instance mentioned 
 was insalubrious. 
 
 Insalubrious quarters have been noticed where the constant sickness 
 and mortality rate is slight. This is accounted for in three ways : 1st. 
 The people in such localities remove often, remaining perhaps not more 
 than a month or two. 2d. They will deceive if possible the inquirer, ap- 
 parently from sheer love of deception. 3d. Through fear of ejectment by 
 landlord, or agent, who occupies perhaps a part of the house, information 
 is withheld. Ejectment of the tenants really took place in one case, in 
 consequence of complaint being made of a nuisance in the house. 
 Disease from immigrants was observed in two persons only : this was 
 typhus. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — A more thorough sewerage, and connections 
 by local drains in all cases ; Croton-water distributed to an apartment 
 of each family ; the removal if practicable of all bad rear dwellings ; 
 privies to be connected with the sewer ; tenant-houses to be erected not 
 to exceed three or at most four stories in height, and so constructed as to 
 afford better through ventilation ; a better class of garbage-boxes ; re- 
 moval of slaughter-houses and soap-fat establishments beyond the city 
 limits ; are some of the principal remedial measures which are suggested 
 to the mind of the inspector, to place the district in a fair sanitary con- 
 dition. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SEVENTEENTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 GUIDO FURMAN, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries and Squares. — The Seventeenth Sanitary Inspection Dis- 
 trict is the northern half of the Sixteenth Ward, and is bounded on the 
 north by West Twenty-sixth Street, south by West Twentieth Street, east 
 by the Sixth Avenue, west by the Hudson River, and contains thirty full and 
 five partial squares. 
 
 Topography : Altitude of Surface. — The highest point of ground in 
 this district will be found in West Twenty-fifth Street, about 275 feet 
 west of the Seventh Avenue, and is elevated about 41 feet above tide- 
 water mark. The lowest being found in the Eleventh Avenue between 
 West Twentieth and West Twenty-fifth Streets, it being only four feet 
 above. 
 
 The following table, obtained from the Chief Engineer of the Croton- 
 water Department, exhibits the present height, above high-water mark, 
 of the several corners of streets and avenues : 
 
 CORNER OF STREETS. 
 
 Sixth Av. 
 
 Seventh Av. 
 
 Eighth Av. 
 
 Ninth Av. 
 
 Tenth Av. 
 
 EleventhAv. 
 
 West Twentieth, 
 
 31.7" 
 
 25.6" 
 
 19.6|" 
 
 13.6" 
 
 7.6" 
 
 
 " Twenty- Second, .... 
 
 33.3 
 
 26.8 
 
 20.4 
 
 13.6 
 
 7.6 
 
 
 31.6J 
 
 25.6* 
 
 19.6* 
 
 13.6 
 
 7.6 
 
 
 " Twenty-Third, , 
 
 31.1 
 
 25.7* 
 
 18.3* 
 
 13.4J 
 
 7.6 
 
 
 " Twenty-Fourth, 
 
 34.6J 
 
 31.6 
 
 18.4J 
 
 13.3* 
 
 7.6 
 
 
 " Twenty-Fifth, 
 
 38 
 
 33.8 
 
 23.10* 
 
 18.4 
 
 9.9 
 
 
 
 39.4 
 
 30.4 
 
 21.4 
 
 19.2 
 
 10.9* 
 
 4 
 
 Primitive Topography. — The primitive condition of the surface of 
 this district was undulating. Formerly three hills of considerable size 
 
196 REPORT OF THE SEVENTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 were found, viz., one between the Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 
 Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Streets ; one between the Ninth and 
 Tenth Avenues and Twenty-first and Twenty-second Streets ; and the last 
 one in a southwesterly direction, between the same avenues and streets. 
 No original water-courses of importance traversed this section of the 
 island, but a small stream coursed for a short distance through "West 
 Twenty-sixth Street, forming a bend in the vicinity of the Eighth Avenue 
 and Twenty-sixth Street, pursuing a northerly and westerly course, and 
 finally emptying into the Hudson River. 
 
 Geological Formation. — The geological formation is beds of loose 
 sands, consisting of quartz ; a coarse conglomerate, silicious and micacious 
 rock ; argillaceous matter, divided in irregular lamina? ; limestone and 
 calcareous sand ; and finally of loam and clay. 
 
 The above-mentioned classes of rocks do not appear in an isolated 
 form, but probably pass into each other. The planes of the various strata 
 occur in nearly horizontal layers, with occasional cross stratification in 
 the sandy ; the greatest line of bearing being from tbe northeast to the 
 southwest. In no part of the district can be found a wet sub or retentive 
 surface soil, the reclaimed ground (which will be mentioned next) ex- 
 cepted, which is and always will be saturated with water and organic 
 matter, both animal and vegetable. 
 
 Reclamed Ground. — A little more than one-fifth of this district is 
 reclaimed ground from the Hudson River ; the materials used for tliis 
 purpose being bricks, mortar, slate, gravel, ashes, coal-dust, street-sweep- 
 ings, oyster, clam, lobster, and egg shells, pig's hair, shavings, straw, 
 glass, carpets, brooms, refuse materials from tanneries, crockery, bones, 
 dead animals — as cats, rats, and dogs ; shoes, boots, feathers, oyster 
 cans, old tin roofs, tin clippings, etc., etc. ; and includes the whole of that 
 section lying between Twentieth and Twenty-sixth Streets and the Tenth 
 Avenue and the Hudson River, a small space at the corner of Tenth 
 Avenue and Twenty-sixth Street excepted, which is natural. 
 
 Sewerage. — The district is imperfectly sewered. The Seventh 
 Avenue, from Twentieth to Twenty-fifth Streets ; the Ninth Avenue, from 
 Twentieth to Twenty-third Streets ; the Tenth Avenue, from Twen- 
 tieth to Twenty-third Streets, and from Twenty-fourth to Twenty-sixth 
 Streets ; the whole of the Eleventh Avenue, and short spaces in Twenty- 
 fourth and Twenty-fifth Streets, near the Eighth and also near the Ninth 
 Avenues, have no sewers. The mouths of the sewers arc above water at 
 low-water mark ; and the pressure of the tides entering them forces the 
 noxious gases into the dwellings and streets through the sewer connection. 
 
 Natural Drainage. — The natural drainage of that portiou of the 
 
DOMICILES AND PEOPLE. 
 
 197 
 
 district west of the Tenth Avenue is poor ; east of the Tenth Avenue is 
 much better, as the foregoing table of altitude shows, the ground having 
 an inclination from the north to the south, and from the east to the west. 
 
 Thoroughfares. — The cross streets run nearly northeast and south- 
 west, the avenues crossing them at right angles. The former are about 
 CO feet in width, while the avenues are 100. They are all graded and 
 paved, the Eleventh Avenue excepted ; the paving in use being chiefly 
 irregular cobble stones, in a few the trap-block pavement is employed. 
 
 The larger proportion of the streets is in a good condition, and has 
 been kept during the past summer tolerably clean ; but the irregular inter- 
 stices between the cobble stones prevent the entire removal of retained organic 
 and other matter, however thorough the cleaning. Many persons have an 
 idea that heavy rains cleanse our streets and gutters thoroughly ; it is 
 erroneous. 
 
 Character of Population. — Two-thirds (about 16,600) of its in- 
 habitants are of the better class, the remaining third (about 8,300) con- 
 sists of the lower. Most of them are American born, engaged in various 
 occupations or mechanical pursuits ; nearly all them being in a condition 
 to obtain a comfortable livelihood. 
 
 Character of Dwellings. — Of the 2,160 dwellings in the district, 
 1 ,006 are used exclusively as private residences, while a little more than 
 half (1,154) are tenant-houses, each containing two, three, four, or more 
 families, and two-fifths of these contain each only two families, and are 
 entitled to all the considerations of a private dwelling, and should pass as 
 such. The private residences are nearly all of recent construction, built 
 of brick or brown stone, having all the modern improvements, such as the 
 introduction of gas, Croton-water, baths, furnaces, water-closets, and 
 proper sewer connections. The buildings are of ample size, possessing 
 good water supplies. Of tenant-houses, a variety were found ; most of 
 them being of the better order, built within the last twenty-five or twenty- 
 eight years, the materials used in constructing them being brick. Quite 
 a number of these are frame buildings, which were originally intended 
 and used as private dwellings. The drainage of many is defective, and 
 very often absolutely wanting. Some of the drains are liable to obstruc- 
 tions, and cause overflows. But few of them have a water supply in the 
 house, but none arc without water in the yard. The facilities for dis- 
 posing of garbage and house-slops are, in almost every instance, defective ; 
 the street gutters becoming, as a rule, the receptacle of the same. 
 
 Privies. — The privies are located in yards, sometimes in cellars ; or 
 underneath the sidewalks, sometimes on each floor. Often the neigh- 
 boring ground is covered with filth. Constant violations of the law, in 
 
198 
 
 REPORT OF TIIE SEVENTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 locating, constructing, and emptying these, were observed ; as an evidence 
 thereof Tve subjoin the following remarks noted down in our record book : 
 " The privies (too in one) of N os. — and — West Twenty-fourth Street 
 need instant cleaning. They are overflowing the yard, and are very offen- 
 sive. The privy at No. — Seventh Avenue, as in the preceding two ad- 
 joining houses, is in the yard, and adjoins the house, and is on a line 
 with the southerly wall of house No. — (the adjacent house) , which has 
 a back area ; the wall of said area being part of the foundation of the 
 privy. At times the fluid portion of the privy oozes through its own and 
 the area wall. If the privy were located and built in the manner laid 
 down in the city ordinances (vide ' Laws of the Public Health for 1861, 
 page 113, § 4'), this would not be the case." 
 
 Annexed is another wood-cut, portraying the privy found in the dark 
 and damp cellar of the rear tenant-house No. — West Twenty-second 
 Street. 
 
 This privy is used by 42 persons ; 
 it has five subdivisions, one for 
 every two families. The compart- 
 ments are so small that a person 
 can scarcely turn around in them, 
 and so dark that they have to be 
 entered with an artificial light. 
 The cellar itself, as has been stated, 
 is damp, dark, and without ven- 
 tilation. Under such circumstances 
 the emanation of the excrementitious 
 matter of 42 persons can find no 
 escape; thus this privy-cellar is 
 worse than a Stygian pit. 
 These are not isolated cases, neither are they the worst. A perfectly 
 law-and-sanitary-abiding privy attached to a tenant-house, is the excep- 
 tional, while the reverse is the prevailing rule. 
 
 Size of Atartments. — The dimensions of the rooms and number 
 of occupants vary much. There are bedrooms 9 x11 x 10=990 cubic 
 feet, having no ventilation, occupied by 16 persons, which nets each 
 individual about 62 cubic feet of atmosphere of a foul character. Another 
 tenant-house, covering an area of 750 square feet and 38 feet high, is oc- 
 cupied by 10 families, consisting of 42 persons. This house has a nar- 
 row hall running through its middle, with apartments consisting of a 
 kitchen and two dormitories for one family on each side. The dormito- 
 ries are each 7x9x8—504 cubic feet in dimensions. The rooms aro 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 / ■ 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 p 
 p 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 ; "\- -i - 1 
 
 ■ — 
 
 
 
PEEV AILING MALADIES AND PREVENTABLE DISEASES. 19S 
 
 crowded throughout the whole building, each occupant having less than 
 240 cubic feet of space. Neither are these isolated pictures ; many other 
 dwellings are in as overcrowded a state. The effluvia in them is noxious 
 and poisonous, caused by the gaseous emanations from the inhabitants, 
 sinks, and drain-pipes. 
 
 Public Schools. — On inspecting them, many points for criticism pre- 
 sented themselves, but we will be content to mention, in the proper place, 
 only the objections appertaining to their sanitary condition. 
 
 Prevailing Diseases. — Diseases in a topography and climate like this 
 should be mild and few in number, and in a sanitary point of view the 
 whole district will compare favorably with any other portion of the city, 
 no considerable part of it having been during the past summer a sickly 
 one ; isolated places excepted. During the early summer months dysen- 
 tery of a mild character prevailed in the district, west of the Tenth Avenue, 
 on reclaimed ground. In all, nineteen houses were found where typhoid 
 or typhus fever prevailed during the past summer, but not one case came 
 under my personal notice during the progress of inspection. A few 
 sporadic cases of measles and scarlet fever occurred in May and June, 
 while diphtheria and small-pox had prevailed during the previous winter. 
 It is worth remarking, that by far the greatest number of cases of diphthe- 
 ria, tonsilitis, and pharyngeal inflammations occurred near the river side, 
 especially in houses whose cellars are partially or wholly filled with water, 
 infiltrated from the Hudson River. Articular rheumatism also appears 
 to have a preference for this locality. For a few weeks (during the pro- 
 tracted heated term) cholera infantum was rife among infants of the' 
 poor ; many cases proving fatal within 24 or 36 hours from the com- 
 mencement of the disease. 
 
 Preventable Causes of Disease. — We start with the bold asser- 
 tion, that specific diseases did not spring from an original unit ! They 
 arise from a chemical combination of materials in certain proportions or 
 equivalents. Some of these materials are filth, heat and moisture : they are 
 violations of hygienic laws, and may very often coexist without develop- 
 ing any disease ; inasmuch as absence of the exact equivalents of the ele- 
 mentary exciting causes, to cooperate in union with proper combining 
 forces or affinities, are accidentally wanting. At a proper season, sur- 
 rounded by favorable circumstances, and in due equivalents, they will 
 give spontaneous birth to this class of maladies. Had we been favored 
 during the past summer with much rain or a low dew-point, an epidemic 
 of typhoid or typhus would have been inevitable. 
 
 In the putrefactive decomposition of sewage, evolving sulphuretted and 
 carburctted hydrogen, ammonia, nitrogen, etc., etc., we have an invisible 
 yet obvious source of a large amount of poisonous elements. The filthy 
 
200 REPORT OF THE SEVENTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 condition of the streets, avenues, and gutters, constitutes one great cause 
 )f sickness. In our opinion, the decaying organic matters found in them 
 and the garbage-boxes form a prominent cause in producing dysentery 
 and diarrhoea. The habit of sprinkling with water the thoroughfares dur- 
 ing the heated term is pernicious, and becomes a prolific source of mala- 
 ria. The water lodges in the irregular depressions between the cobble 
 stones, moistening the organic matters retained by these interstices, which 
 are acted upon by the sun, generating malaria. Cases of fever occurring 
 in young children are frequently met with, that have been exposed to no 
 other kind of malarial influences. The geological formation of the dis- 
 trict is certainly not calculated to the production of malaria. In how far 
 the thermo-hygro and barometrical conditions of the atmosphere may in- 
 fluence a special relationship between these diseases, is still obscure. 
 
 The universal imperfect water supply and drainage, with the poor 
 facilities for disposing of garbage and offal, and filthy reeky outhouses, 
 must per se create disease. 
 
 Another great cause of disease will be found in many dwellings which 
 are out of repair, and their yards (if any at all) in so filthy a condition 
 that to step into them would insure an encounter with filth of a most of- 
 fensive character. Most of the larger tenant-houses are in a state of 
 muckiness, and, as a rule, overcrowded, without ventilation or light. These 
 are offensive enough (and incapable to preserve a normal standard of 
 health), but the crowded rear tenant-houses, completely cut off from external 
 ventilation and perhaps light, are still worse. They abound in dark, damp, 
 'and noisome basements and cellars, converted into sleeping apartments. 
 To these the invigorating and health-preserving sunlight and fresh air are 
 never accessible. As an illustration of one of these habitats, we subjoin 
 the following sketch of the quarters of two families residing in the cellar 
 of the rear house No. — West 21st Street : 
 
 L L are the living-rooms — nearly 
 dark. D D dormitories — dark and 
 damp. 
 
 Here we have low, damp, dark, 
 and unventilatcd bedrooms, whose 
 inmates respire a murky air, and con- 
 sort with snails, spiders, and muck- 
 worms. These underground habita- 
 tions are most pernicious in laying 
 the foundation for, and developing 
 strumous ophthalmia, hip-joint, and 
 certain disease of the spine, diseases 
 of the respiratory organs (the chief 
 
BEUTAL HEALTH WARDENS. WRETCHED MOTHEES. 
 
 201 
 
 of which is consumption), rheumatism, which in turn produces organic 
 diseases of the heart. A protracted residence in these cellars and base- 
 ments is sure to develop a strumous or tubercular cachexia. 
 
 The following case, copied from my daily Record-Book, is but an ex- 
 ample of its class, the homes of ignorance and indigence : 
 
 " At No. — West 25th Street, a wretched tenement of two apart- 
 ments, the rooms occupied by one family. The sitting-room is about 
 10 X 12 feet, and the bedroom about 5 X 12, without a single loindow or 
 air liole. These rooms were occupied in the hot month of July by a 
 poor colored female, having pulmonary consumption, and her two children. 
 Here she died, shortly after we made the inspection of her domicilium ; 
 having no money or friends a Christian burial was denied her for four 
 days, although the neighbors acquainted the police of the fact, and they 
 the Health "Warden ; but this official (a brick-mason) , having a high re- 
 gard for his olfactory sense, neglected to perform his duty until Dr. Wm. 
 C. Hunter and myself drove him into the performance of the same." 
 
 Improper food, Intemperance, etc. — In connection with the overcrowded 
 condition of tenant-houses, we must incidentally state that the diet of 
 many families occupying this class of houses is insufficient in quantity 
 and quality. To meat, fresh vegetables, and fruits, they are almost strang- 
 ers, and subsist on inferior farinaceous products. This mode of living 
 with their surroundings produces a low standard of health, and oftentimes 
 disease. It is impossible that the milk of a mother or a nurse residing 
 in one of these wretched hovels or dungeons, can be of a good and suffi- 
 cient quality and quantity for the nurseling ; it must produce a faulty 
 alimentation or assimilation, and become the predisposing, if not exciting 
 cause of cholera infantum, which is fully developed by meteorological in- 
 fluences during the summer months. Such milk is deprived of the solu- 
 ble salts of iron, potash, and lime, which infants especially require at the 
 period of rapid growth, for the formation of blood, muscle, and bone. 
 
 Deviations from a healthful standard of hygienic supplies, such as 
 fresh atmosphere, light, and electricity, and the vital stimulus of aliment- 
 ation, constitute some of the principal causes of disease. The filth ob- 
 served in a great number of tenant-houses, in the bedsteads, bedding, 
 clothing, and carpets of the occupants, is detrimental to health. The 
 poisonous drinks which are indulged in by this class of people, tend to de- 
 teriorate and degrade the race. Manure heaps saturate the soil they oc- 
 cupy with organic matter, which, under the joint action of sun, heat, and 
 moisture, must produce disease. The sale of stale vegetables, fish, and 
 unripe fruit by street-hawkers to the poor, is a most potent cause in pro- 
 ducing cholera morbus, diarrhoea, and dysentery. We have repeatedly 
 
202 REPORT OF THE SEVENTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 observed the ill-effects which followed the use of such articles of diet. 
 For a full account of these, I take pleasure in referring to the observa- 
 tions made by Dr. J. Lewis Smith, in the Twenty-fifth District. 
 
 Faulty Hygiene in Public Schools — The public school rooms are over- 
 crowded, the ventilation defective, the atmosphere is too dry for the res- 
 piratory organs, and the hours for study too long. 
 
 • Conclusions. — But the causes observed and enumerated appear hardly 
 sufficient to account for all the sickness in our midst. Causes which have 
 probably hitherto eluded our observations, may play an important role in 
 increasing our rates of sickness, and we therefore subjoin the following 
 remarks : 
 
 How are Communicable Diseases spread. — Communicable diseases are 
 conveyed, to our positive knowledge, by paper-money, second-hand furni- 
 ture, clothing, bedding, and public conveyances. For most of these we 
 have personal evidence, namely: In the spring of 1861, we had occa- 
 sion to attend a young gentleman with small-pox, who was clerk in a 
 banking-house. Where and how he contracted the disease was unknown 
 to him ; but several weeks after his recovery he learned that he had 
 opened and counted, a few days before his sickness, a large package of 
 money forwarded by a Western bank, whose cashier, residing in the bank 
 building, had recently suffered from the small-pox. 
 
 As to the matter of public hacks, we would state that, some five years 
 ago, we had under our professional care a young gentleman with vario- 
 loid. Being an inmate of a New York " boarding-house " (houses of star- 
 vation) , he was anxious to go to his sister's home in Williamsburgh ; he 
 was accordingly transferred on the second day of the eruption across 
 the river, in one of the public hacks. It is very probable that any per- 
 son unprotected by vaccination, riding very soon afterward in this car- 
 riage, would contract the disease. 
 
 A year and a half ago I attended the first officer (now a captain) of 
 an emigrant ship with typhus fever. On recovering he returned to his 
 vessel. His captain, at our suggestion, prohibited him from bringing his 
 clothing on board. He disposed of them to a second-hand clothes dealer. 
 There was danger that whoever came in contact with these garments 
 would contract typhus ! 
 
 Still another case : Last spring, while riding in an Eighth Avenue 
 car, we sat near a poor woman who had a sick child in her arms. The 
 child coughed and sneezed, and appeared very uncomfortable. A veil be- 
 coming displaced, with which the child's face was covered, I beheld a fine 
 case of measles. For an interesting statement how communicable dis- 
 eases arc transferred, we refer the reader to the able report of Dr. Ache- 
 
TENANT-HOUSE EVILS AND REMEDIES. 
 
 203 
 
 son. It is certain that, aside from the insalubrious conditions of these 
 cases, they are often the means by which diseases are conveyed from one 
 person to another, which no legislation can arrest ; and the only advice 
 we can give to the public is, that they should never enter these cars when 
 crowded or ill-ventilated. 
 
 One of the most obvious causes which increase our mortuary tables 
 each year, lies in the fact of the people being deceived by ignorant, so- 
 called physicians, and advertising charlatans. The constant and indiscrimi- 
 nate use of patent medicines and domestic remedies — the former frequently 
 endorsed by clergymen and other kindly-disposed but mistaken people — 
 are all causes tending to shorten life. But for our timely interference, the 
 morphine contained in Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup would have de- 
 stroyed one of our little patients. 
 
 As the result of our observations and comparison with the European 
 cities we have visited, we beg leave to express the opinion that these 
 causes require the enactment of stringent laws, which if enforced would 
 result in the preservation of the public health ; and we therefore respect- 
 fully suggest a few 
 
 Remedial Measures. — All dormitories should furnish at least 800 
 cubic feet of fresh atmosphere to each occupant, and be provided with 
 good external and internal ventilation. We can do no better than to 
 quote Dr. Barton : " Houses in a climate like ours should be so con- 
 structed as to promote the maximum of ventilation, and the minimum of 
 moisture and temperature. "Where these are not fulfilled, with a proper 
 protection from the inclemencies of the weather (hot and cold), they fail 
 in their objects. The admission of light, too, is important in the con- 
 struction of a dwelling, to the enjoyment of health, and the prevention of 
 disease. It renders disease milder when it occurs, and makes it more readily 
 amenable to medical and other treatment. There is reputable medical 
 testimony to prove that some diseases, in dark alleys and cellars, cannot 
 be cured without it. Dark passages and corners in dwellings are always 
 the hiding-places of dirt and filth, and particularly in the habitations of 
 the poor." 
 
 Municipal or State laws should prescribe limits to the height of tenant- 
 houses and their ceilings, the number and size of the windows, doors, flues, 
 and fire-places. 
 
 As a model for a tenant-house we add the following plan of the tenant- 
 house No. 107 West Twenty-fourth Street. It is simply a plain adapta- 
 tion of common ideas and means of domestic convenience to the ordinary 
 house with family domiciles front and rear on each floor. And this plan 
 would be still better were the lobby (h) a little more spacious, with a 
 
204 REPORT OF THE SEVENTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 door communicating with the larger of the bedrooms, (D), so as to add 
 certain advantages of privacy and through ventilation, independent of 
 the living-room (S). 
 
 IMPROVED TENANT-HOUSE. 
 
 S, Sitting-room. D, Dormitory. K, Kitchen. P, Pantry. 
 
 H, Principal halL A, Small hall or lobby. C, Closet 
 
 Each bedroom is made to communicate with a ventilating shaft by means of sliding 
 
 windows. 
 
 The above house is occupied by 8 families, consisting of 18 adults and 
 11 children. In connection with all the conveniences for a small family, 
 wc found excellent ventilation and light. 
 
EVILS TO BE REMEDIED. 
 
 205 
 
 Each dwelling should be provided with a yard in the rear at least as 
 large as the ground is on which the dwelling stands. In this way we 
 prevent the criminal custom of building houses back to back, which de- 
 stroys ventilation and the free admission of light. 
 
 Cellar Dwellings should he Prohibited. — The use of cellars or under- 
 ground rooms as dwellings must be prohibited by law. In these we 
 almost invariably found a low dew-point and a stagnant atmosphere. In 
 such habitations, the elimination and evaporation of the excretions is per- 
 ceptibly arrested ; and the most noxious of all substances to the human 
 body is its own worn-out materials. 
 
 Every tenant-house should be furnished with a sufficient number of 
 privies, with a thorough system of cesspool drainage, having an ample sup- 
 ply of water and drain-traps or valves. No privy should be emptied until 
 its contents has been deodorized. A correct system of draining-sewers, 
 either by increasing their diameter to facilitate hand-labor, or by a pro- 
 cess of flushing, is strongly recommended. 
 
 Sewer Gases. — Means must be adopted to prevent or destroy the 
 noxious vapors arising from sewers. Many methods have been suggested 
 and tried ; but the most effective and durable one, and one involving the 
 least expense and care of destroying these, with which we are acquainted, 
 is wood or peat charcoal, as recommended by Dr. Stenhouse. The applica- 
 tion of this remedy is very simple, and consists in depositing a few pounds 
 of charcoal in a perforated wooden, metallic, or earthen vessel or box. 
 Such boxes or vessels containing charcoal are tightly fitted in places where 
 these gases escape, in such a manner that they must pass through the 
 charcoal as through a filter. 
 
 The universal setting out of trees in the streets is recommended. The 
 nearer a city approaches the condition of rural districts, the nearer will 
 it reach a state of salubrity. 
 
 "We earnestly recommend the establishment of a Board of Health or 
 Health Department, to consist of one or more competent Doctors in Medi- 
 cine, Architects, Surveyors, and Civil Engineers : this board should appoint 
 to each ward one competent physician, who should be styled Medical 
 or Health Officer. They also may appoint such other persons as assistants 
 to the last as may seem necessary to carry into effect the sanitary laws, 
 and delegate to them the necessary powers, subject to the approval of the 
 Board of Health. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EIGHTEENTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 H. M. FIELD, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries, etc. — Tlie Eighteenth Sanitary District comprises the south- 
 ern half of the Eighteenth Ward, and is bounded on the north by Twen- 
 tieth Street, on the east by the East Biver, south by East Fourteenth Street, 
 and west by the Sixth Avenue. 
 
 Topography. — As the map on the next page will convey a correct 
 idea of the natural topography of my district, it is only necessary to add 
 a few statements, as illustrative, in this connection. 
 
 General Viele, the President of the Board of Engineers, has truly re- 
 marked : " It is folly to suppose that when the city is fully huilt upon, and 
 the valleys filled up, no water will find its way into the beds of its original 
 streams. I know to the contrary ; and my own experience, during a resi- 
 dence in a southwestern city while au epidemic was in progress, taught 
 me that in all localities where there were original depressions in the topo- 
 graphy, the disease raged with the greatest violence, although there was 
 no apparent presence of water or even of moisture in the ground." 
 Several striking illustrations of this phenomenon have come to my 
 knowledge within the range of this district. One of particular import- 
 ance will be adverted to further on in the report, which indeed suggested 
 the aetiology of an epidemic in a certain locality, where every other cause 
 has seemed inadequate to account for it. A physician of my acquaintance 
 has the particulars of a case which occurred in connection with the stream 
 which formerly flowed through a part of what is now Union Square. All 
 appearance of this stream has long since passed away ; and yet the cellar 
 of ii house on Seventeenth Street near the square, which was ascertained, 
 on inquiry, to have been built immediately uoonthc channel of this former 
 
PRIMITIVE AND PRESENT TOPOGRAPHY. 
 
 207 
 
 MAP ILLUSTRATING THE MEDICAL 
 TOPOGEAPHY OF THE EIGH- 
 TEENTH DISTRICT. 
 
 stream, was found to receive water 
 at certain seasons of the year ; and 
 until it was relieved by extending the 
 sewer, an especial arrangement was 
 necessary for collecting the water 
 and conducting it off. The gentle- 
 man who lived in this house suffered 
 much of the time with " chills and 
 fever," which, it was satisfactorily 
 ascertained, could have been contract- 
 ed nowhere except in his own home. 
 I shall have occasion to allude to this 
 subject again in the course of my re- 
 port, and other illustrations will then 
 be given. 
 
 Streets and Avenues. — All the 
 streets in this district are parallel to 
 each other (making the common dis- 
 tinction between streets and avenues, 
 for convenience' sake), and so are 
 the avenues. Broadway, however, 
 so far as it extends in my district, 
 runs diagonally to the avenues. The 
 pavement of the principal avenues is 
 the trap-block, which, in many re- 
 spects, is a perfect model. But the 
 pavement of the streets, except of a 
 small portion of "West Sixteenth 
 Street, where the pavement of the 
 avenues has lately been extended, is 
 cobble stone, and is, at the best, un- 
 even, containing frequent depression. 
 In the eastern part of the city es- 
 pecially, these holes are very com- 
 mon, and often large and deep. For 
 cleanliness and facilities for thorough 
 sweeping, no pavement yet introduc- 
 ed surpasses the Belgian. In the 
 cobble stone there are necessarily 
 large spaces between the stones which 
 must be filled with sand. More or 
 
208 
 
 EEPOItT OF THE EIGHTEENTH SANITAKY DISTRICT. 
 
 less of this filling is apt to be displaced at any time. The same broom 
 may sweep a portion of the sand out of a cavity, and a part of the filth 
 which is lying about on the street into it. Where there are so many traps 
 for filth, and where the streets are allowed to go so long without sweep- 
 ing, as are those streets of our city which need it the most, and are then 
 swept carelessly, it becomes a serious evil. With the first season of dry 
 weather the organic part of this refuse is converted into dust, and, rising 
 into the air, is borne in every direction by the wind. The streets in the 
 eastern part of the district, east of First Avenue especially, have for the 
 past six months been in a most inexcusably filthy condition. The pave- 
 ment here is uneven, there are deep gutters at either side of the streets, 
 filled with foul slops, in which float or are sunk every form of decaying 
 animal and vegetable matter. Occasionally, at remote and irregular 
 intervals, carts come round, and these stagnant pools are dredged so to 
 speak, and their black and decayed solid contents raked out. If there be 
 any thing on earth that is " rank and smells to Heaven," these gutters do 
 on such occasions, especially in the summer months. The streets in this 
 part of the city are the principal depositories of garbage. In some in- 
 stances heaped-up at the sides of the streets, in others thrown about pro- 
 miscuously, the event in either case is the same, if it be allowed to re- 
 main day after day, as it usually is. After having passed through every 
 stage of decay, after having corrupted the surrounding air with its pestilen- 
 tial smell, it gradually becomes desiccated and converted into dust by the 
 summer sun and the constantly-passing vehicles. And now every horse 
 that passes stirs it up, every vehicle leaves a cloud of it behind ; it is 
 lifted into the air with every wind and carried in every direction. 
 Those who are directly responsible for this state of things suffer no more 
 than the cleanly and thrifty who are so unfortunate as to live anywhere 
 the wind, blowing from this quarter, reaches them. And what & pulvis 
 composilus is this to breathe into the lungs ! As we pass by our mouths 
 become full of it, we draw it in with our breath, it is swallowed into the 
 stomach, it penetrates our dress and clings to, until it has covered, our 
 perspiring skin. Surely no dumping-ground, no sewer, no vault contains 
 more filth or in greater variety than did the air in certain parts of our 
 city during the long season of drought the past summer. And wherever 
 the wind blows, this foul corruption is carried ; by a process as sure and 
 universal as the diffusion of gases, is it conveyed throughout the city. 
 Such, often, is the air drawn into the lungs with every respiration, of the 
 poor sufferer stifled with consumption or burning with fever. No barrier 
 can shut it out, no social distinction can save us from it; no domestic 
 cleanliness, no private sanitary measures can substitute a pure atmosphere 
 lor o foul oue. 
 
AVENUES OF WEALTH. — STREETS OE POVERTY. 
 
 209 
 
 The forbearance of nature is wonderful ; her power and her readiness 
 to adapt herself to conditions the most strange and unnatural : hut surely 
 the forbearance of man is even more marvellous, at least that part of the 
 human family who live in this city ! It is only the very lowest orders of 
 animated beings that draw their life and sustenance from filth and ordure, 
 and at the same time that they grow and fatten upon it increase the 
 heap ; and what could evidence a sadder lapse from probity and honesty, 
 or a lower status in the moral scale, than the " specious way of doing 
 nothing " of certain of our city officials ? 
 
 Squares. — The district includes 55 squares. As a rule, those west 
 of Third Avenue are in a tolerably good sanitary condition ; those east 
 of Third Avenue, as far as to First Avenue, are in a mixed condition ; 
 while that of all the section east of the latter boundary line is positively 
 insalubrious. This rule has, of course, a few exceptions. The greater 
 part of Second Avenue, for instance, from Fourteenth to Eighteenth 
 Street, in respect of all sanitary considerations, will compare favorably 
 with the same extent of Fifth Avenue : or, again, Eighteenth Street, 
 nearly to the corner of First Avenue, is well built-up with highly-respect- 
 able private residences, and is in as sanitary a condition as its surround- 
 ings will admit of.* On the other hand, on Sixth Avenue, between 
 Fifteenth and Sixteenth Streets, are several tenant-houses, and especially 
 a rear house which can assert no privilege, aside from the fact of better 
 neighborhood, over the average of tenant-houses in the east part of the 
 district.f As a rule, however, where exceptions on either hand will about 
 balance each other, we have 27 squares belonging to the first class, 13 
 belonging to the second, and 15 belonging to the third. 
 
 The Inhabitants. — The subdivision under the last head of squares 
 answers very well for the people dwelling in the different series of squares. 
 The first division contains the principal part of the wealth of the district. 
 But if the inhabitants are more wealthy, they are in no way more respect- 
 able than those who live in the second division ; they have in their favor, 
 however, more complete sanitary conditions, having more space, and 
 streets much better built and better kept. In the second division are 
 found most of the artisans and trades-people of the district, with now and 
 then exceptions of wealth and social position as magnificent as any thing 
 which can be found in the first. But this class of the population, the 
 bourgeoisie, although it predominates in the second section, is distributed 
 throughout the entire district by means of the avenues. Each of the three 
 
 * Square No. 35, in the Record-book, p. 65. 
 f Square No. 11, in the Record-book, p. 40. 
 
 14 
 
210 
 
 REPORT OF THE EIGHTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 sections lias a principal avenue, •which is almost altogether given up to 
 trade. The third division is almost entirely occupied by the lahoring" 
 class, living in tenant-houses, and here we find sanitary regulations al- 
 most entirely neglected ; here are the most wide-spread sickness, the most 
 fearful mortality, and the greatest amount of immorality, and misery, and 
 want ; yet there is no inherent reason why the lahoring class, in a coun- 
 try like ours, should not he as healthy, as long-lived, and as moral, and 
 influential, and independent a part of the community as it is an indispens- 
 able part. Seldom is it the case that some prevailing disease is not at 
 work in this part of the city. If a pestilence, yet unsettled, is about in 
 the air, here are the tentacula which are thrown out to seize hold of it, 
 and to retain it until it has established a firm foothold in our midst. 
 There is no natural reason why our city should not be, in its every part, 
 the most healthy city of the country. Above all things, nature has given 
 security against its being, as now it is, the most unhealthy city of the 
 Northern States ; with broad rivers washing both its sides, and a wide 
 bay at its base, whose rapid tide sweeps away all that ia thrown into it, 
 no more to return, it might be both clean and healthy. But we now find 
 fever-nests instead of healthful homes for the laboring classes, and we see 
 filth instead of cleanliness. 
 
 As regards the nationality of the population of this district, nearly 
 all east of First Avenue are Irish and of Irish descent, with the occasional 
 admixture of a family of Germans. More of the latter are found in the 
 middle subdivision than in any other part ; in fact, quite a respectable 
 proportion of the population of that section are Germans. 
 
 Buildings. — It will be seen by the statistics which I have grouped 
 together at the end of this report, and by reference to the record-book of 
 my sanitary survey, that quite a large proportion of the dwelling-houses 
 in my district are private residences. Many of these are quite palatial 
 in construction and extent, and in their furnishing ; yet it is too often the 
 case that, amid all the luxuries and conveniences which wealth can pro- 
 cure, sufficient attention has not been paid to the laws of health, cither in 
 the original construction of the house, or in sanitary care and inspection 
 afterwards. The method of ventilation is often inadequate, or its neces- 
 sary arrangements are out of repair ; drainage and sewerage are more or 
 less neglected, and vaults are not emptied and cleansed as often as is con- 
 sistent with perfect health. The private residences, especially the modern 
 ones, are generally as commodious as could be expected of houses in a city 
 — many of them having very generous accommodations, both as to houac- 
 arca and attached grounds. With regard to the tenant-houses, on the con- 
 trary, no more space is allowed than is absolutely necessary ; their location 
 
FAULTY CONSTRUCTION OF TENANT-HOUSES. 
 
 211 
 
 in respect of each other, their subdivisions into apartments, and the ground 
 allotted to each house as a " back yard," all show the most rigid and mer- 
 cenary economy of area and room. Each family is provided with two 
 rooms, connected together : a living-room, which generally measures 12 X 
 14 X 8 (or 8^) feet, and a dormitory from one-third to two-thirds this 
 size. The majority of the tenant-houses are four stories in height, and 
 have two families to each floor. About three-fourths of the whole num- 
 ber in the district are built on this plan. The remaining one-fourth, I 
 should judge, would be about equally divided between houses having four, 
 and those having five stories, with four families to a floor. A little is 
 gained, and but little, in the former case ; the rooms of the houses which 
 have but two apartments to a floor generally have three windows instead 
 of two, and as much more room only as is necessary for the inserting of a 
 third window. 
 
 There is generally no means of ventilation aside from what the ten- 
 ants can secure by opening the doors and windows ; sometimes there is a 
 scuttle or glass window in the roof, but not for ventilation. 
 
 No argument or entreaty will prevail upon them to keep their rooms 
 sufficiently aired — in the only way left to them, by opening their doors 
 and windows — so long as they have to buy their own coal. This general 
 lack of means for ventilation, and of disposition to avail themselves of 
 such means as they have, is apparent none the less in the effects which it 
 produces, than in the observation of the fact itself. How often have I 
 been led to notice the striking contrast, in respect of all that denotes 
 health and its opposite, between a young mother and her family, tenants 
 of one of these non-ventilated apartments, and her sister who is "out at 
 work " with some respectable family in the city, and who happens at the 
 time of my visit to be temporarily at the house. Nor is it " care and 
 sorrow and child-birth pain " alone which have caused this sad declension 
 from health, in the former case. You will find no member of this family, 
 however young and free from domestic care, with the blooming cheek and 
 the bright eye and the elastic step of their temporary visitor, who has the 
 range of a ventilated house, and who sleeps at night in a well-aired cham- 
 ber. This same fact — the evils attending a constant want of pure air — 
 is strikingly displayed in connection with certain forms of disease. In 
 typhus and typhoid fever the system requires a supply of pure air, even 
 more than in health, to enable it to throw off the zymotic element in the 
 blood. It has happened to the experience of every one who has treated 
 many cases of these fevers among our poor tenantry, to observe how sud- 
 den and rapid a change for the better has been set-up, after the removal 
 of the patient from the narrow and close dormitory to the common-room, 
 
212 REPORT OF THE EIGHTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 where ventilation can be secured. This, in fact, is the first step in the 
 treatment ; nothing else should be done until this change has been effect- 
 ed. And the effect in some cases which I have observed, has seemed 
 well-nigh miraculous ; and such as has led me occasionally to refuse to 
 undertake the treatment of a case where the patient's friends would not 
 permit the removal required. It is like food and drink to a man half 
 famished ; and it shows how ill the system can endure any additional 
 blood-poisoning, when it is already laboring under and striving to throw 
 off a disease induced by toxaemia. * 
 
 Basements and Cellars. — But a small proportion of the tenant- 
 houses in my district are provided with a basement floor, and very few of 
 the tenantry hVe in what could strictly be called cellars. A few striking 
 cases, especially of the latter class, will be found noted from time to time 
 in the " Record-book." The cases that do exist are generally as bad as 
 they well can be. There are a few cellars so dark that one cannot see to 
 read in them, unless by artificial light, except for a few hours in the day, 
 by sitting close to the window ; and there are many basement rooms into 
 whose gloomy recesses not a single direct ray from the sun ever shone. 
 The latter tire •) £is 9> rule, by half their depth below the level of the street. 
 Dark and damp, with very little chance for the circulation of air, it would 
 be difficult to imagine a human being more completely beyond reach of 
 sanitary provisions. And when we consider that four large families often 
 crowd this subterranean floor, no words are needed to show their condi- 
 tion deplorable. That a generally-impaired vitality is promoted by living 
 in this unnatural way — " a nameless, ever new disease " — there can be no 
 question ; that these people will be especially prone to whatever form of 
 prevailing sickness may be about in the community, no one can doubt ; 
 but whether there is any specific cause involved, capable of producing 
 definite forms of disease, is more difficult to determine. Alison and Ban- 
 delocque ascribe more influence in the production of scrofulous diseases to 
 impure and confined air, than to an impoverished diet and improper food. 
 And here I will introduce certain statements bearing upon this general 
 subject. Says Dr. Musscy (one of the noblest, as he was in the days of 
 his activity one of the most deservedly eminent of our profession), speak- 
 ing of ventilation, etc. : " Is it to be wondered at that consumption is, as 
 I am assured by some of my friends, far more common among the Green 
 Mountains of Vermont than it was twenty-five or thirty years ago, before 
 
 " " The habitual want of pure air exerts an unfavorable influence on the state of tho 
 blood, causing imperfect development of the plasma and corpuscles, which, instead of con- 
 tributing to the nourishment of the tissues, degenerates into scrofulous and tuberculous mat- 
 ter" — Williams' Principles of Medicine. 
 
EPIDEMICS OF FEVEK. — THEIR CAUSES. 
 
 213 
 
 the close stove was used, as now, for the open fire?" In "Blackwood's 
 Magazine," September, 1828, may be found the following valuable state- 
 ment : " The deaths of new-born infants, between the ages of one and 
 fifteen days, which, in the Dublin Lying-in Asylum, in the course of four 
 years, amounted to 2,944 out of 7,650, were suddenly reduced to 269 
 during the same period, after the new system of ventilation had been 
 adopted." Dr. Watson refers to a certain epidemic of fever in Ireland 
 where " the mortality among the patients who were placed in open sheds 
 upon straw and left with very little medical attention, or even any great 
 amount of attention from others, was very small indeed ; " although the 
 epidemic, under certain other circumstances, proved very fatal. Dr. 
 Christison's testimony, applied to the subject at hand, is as comprehensive 
 as it is explicit. He says : " The infection of continued fever is, for the 
 most part, by no means virulent. But it is nevertheless certain, so far as 
 minute observation of several violent epidemics during the last twenty 
 years can determine the point, that moderate precautions will render the 
 infectious atmosphere inert. Cleanliness and ventilation will speedily ex- 
 tinguish any epidemic." Much more testimony upon this and collateral 
 points might be cited, but we have not the space — enough has been al- 
 ready presented to suggest conclusions. 
 
 An epidemic may die out among these crowded houses, as every epi- 
 demic must, after running on a certain length of time ; but it is almost im- 
 possible to arrest it before it has reached its natural term. This fact will 
 be further illustrated when we come to speak of prevailing diseases. 
 We need no new name and theory from army experience* to account 
 for sickness, and pestilence, and death, among people living in this unnat- 
 ural way. Nature is lavish of air, and sunlight, and water — they all come 
 from her hands pure and unmixed ; and man must receive them and use 
 them in the same bountiful measure in which they are bestowed, if he would 
 maintain a standard of perfect health. Several illustrations of the fore- 
 going principles, which Ave had intended to introduce, have been crowded 
 out, and will be found in the " Record-book," f under the head of Special 
 Cases. 
 
 Dkam-Shops, etc. — The number of drinking saloons, etc., in the 
 Eighteenth District, affords a ratio of one to every twenty-two dwelling- 
 houses. But a few words of explanation must be given to prevent misap- 
 prehension. If every house contained only one family, and there were still 
 the same number of families in the district as now, taking the population 
 of the tenant-houses only into consideration, we should have an approxi- 
 mate ratio of one liquor store, or bar, to every eighty-eight families. 
 *" Crowd-poison." f Page 100. 
 
214 REPORT OF THE EIGHTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 When we add to this the population of a few hotels and boarding-houses, 
 and of such houses as contain more than one family, although not board- 
 ing-houses, we should, at the least computation, have the ratio one to one 
 hundred. 
 
 I have included lager bier saloons under this head ; for, although 
 bier may be the principal drink retailed in these places, yet every other kind 
 of liquor is kept on hand and provided when called for. Apparently quite 
 insignificant, and yet productive of great evil, and probably alluring 
 more generally to temptation than any other class of bars, are the small 
 whiskey-shops, kept on the first floor of tenant-houses. Here the vilest 
 kinds of liquor are sold cheap; and many a laboring man is here 
 tempted to part with his earnings who would never be decoyed into 
 the larger and more fashionable saloons. Still another class are the 
 corner liquor stores, which make such display with their freshly-painted 
 hogsheads at the doors and windows, and their flashy glasses at the bar. 
 These stores make an exterior show of respectability and good order, 
 except it be on election-days, on which occasion certain well-known 
 political purposes which they subserve secure them from the general 
 order which requires all stores of this sort to be closed. But it is the 
 smaller stores we have already considered which swell the number, 
 for they are found everywhere. Obscure as they are, they are proba- 
 bly more concerned in riot, and misery, and crime, than larger stores, 
 where vastly greater capital is invested. 
 
 Stores, Markets, etc. — My statistics present the large number of 
 308 stores and shops— exclusive, of course, of the class just considered ; 
 or the approximate ratio of one store to every five dwelling-houses. 
 But the same consideration obtains here, as regards families, as in the 
 last section. More than half the number given would more properly 
 be called shops than stores. Such are very numerous throughout the 
 tenant-houses ; if it is not, indeed, impeaching the honesty of the word 
 shop, to apply it to these nondescript cabbage and potato stores. One 
 side of the house through, from front to back, is all that is required to 
 set-up an establishment of this kind ; the front room being thrown open 
 for a store, and the back room reserved for the " grocer's" family. 
 Some there are even who have only one room for both these purposes. 
 A potato-barrel, emptied through the day, will serve one of the smaller 
 children for a bed, by putting a blanket in it ; and the storekeeper sleeps 
 under the counter with a withered cabbage for a pillow. All, or nearly 
 all, the stores, of whatever class, in this district are for retail trade. The 
 greater part of the extent of Sixth Avenue from Fourteenth to Eighteenth 
 Street is thus occupied ; so are Third and First Avenues, a part of 
 
TRADES AND UNHEALTHFEL OCCUPATIONS NOT CAUSES OF FEVER. 215 
 
 Fourth Avenue, and the greater part of Broadway. Drug-stores are 
 found in about the usual proportion. There are a few quite extensive 
 meat-markets, and a larger number of small ones. There is not a 
 slaughter-house in the entire district. 
 
 Factories. — There are but few very extensive works of this order 
 except the foundries, etc., on East River, and the gasworks. I have not 
 yet been able to investigate the subject in any direction. As to their in- 
 fluence upon health, I have not learned that any stated forms of disease 
 could be referred to works of any kind such as happen to be within the 
 limits of the Eighteenth District. The employment of many of the oper- 
 atives is such as to subject them to frequent and sudden changes of tem- 
 perature. This is the case, for instance, with those who feed the furnaces 
 in the gasworks. Running back and forth from the fierce heat of the fires 
 to the coal-yard outside, and this even in the coldest weather, and then for 
 a time inactive, one would suppose that a free perspiration thus repeat- 
 edly and violently checked would often give rise to serious disease. 
 Whether any degree of habituation to that which, with one unaccustomed 
 to the work, must surely cause severe and serious suffering, could be ex- 
 pected to protect men hardened to it from the consequences of such ex- 
 posure, I do not know ; I can only say that, in my dispensary practice, 
 I am often called to visit the employes of the gasworks, and do not find 
 them laid up with complaints ascribable to checked perspiration more 
 frequently than other classes of laborers. The effect upon the human sys- 
 tem of breathing, for hours together, and day after day, air heavily 
 charged with carburetted hydrogen, is also an interesting question. It is 
 a familiar fact, that but a small percentage of illuminating gas in the atmos- 
 phere is sufficient to destroy vegetable life ; to such an extent that the 
 ground all about a gasometer is as barren of trees and verdure as a desert 
 of sand. These are subjects which I hope to be able to give attention to 
 at some future time. 
 
 Prevailing Diseases. — The past summer and autumn have been 
 remarkably healthy, and our city has enjoyed an unusual immunity from 
 prevailing disease and epidemics. There has been considerable rubeola 
 scattered through the district, and it still prevails to an extent ; but it has 
 been of an unusually mild type. In the eastern part of the district, 
 however, typhus and typhoid fever have been prevalent for more than a 
 year past. There is no section of the tenant-house district where isolated 
 cases have not appeared. But there have been well-marked centres of 
 the disease, places where it has remained from first to last, where its 
 action has been well-nigh uninterrupted, and whence its infection has 
 been carried in different directions. And not only lias the disease been 
 
216 
 
 REPORT OF THE EIGHTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 persistent in certain localities, but its poison has been remarkably concen- 
 trated there, and its results the most severe and fatal. 
 
 There is no one of these centres of disease — these "fever-nests" — 
 ivhence long ago the disease might not have been driven out, if the houses 
 of the poor were properly constructed, or if a suitable sanitary inspection 
 were enforced and maintained by a police-power. And yet, notwithstand- 
 ing the fearful totality of sickness and death, and the part they have 
 played in keeping up the epidemic, these houses stand to-day as they did a 
 year ago, infected and infecting, without one earnest endeavor on the part 
 of the city authorities — except in one case, where a capricious and abor- 
 tive effort was put forth for a few days — to stay the progress of the fever- 
 poison. I have said that the disease might long since have been expelled 
 from the localities where it was especially rife, and, consequently, a large 
 number of human lives might have been saved. And not only this, but 
 the epidemic or spreading infection itself might have been arrested at the 
 same time ; for, after the first important step had been taken of expelling 
 the disease from its nidus, it would not have continued, except in scattered 
 and occasional cases. I have known several instances where the disease 
 was contracted, at one or other of these several fever-nests, by a person 
 casually visiting there, thence carried by him to his own home, another 
 tenant-house, more less distant, which had been free from the disease be- 
 fore ; and in every case the fever was communicated to one or more per- 
 sons about him, and a new nidus of disease has been in this way estab- 
 lished. On the other hand, I have known several physicians who have 
 contracted the disease in the same place and manner ; yet in no case was 
 it communicated to persons about them. 
 
 The places where these fevers have principally centred have been 
 the following : On Fifteenth Street east of Avenue A ; on Seventeenth 
 Street between First Avenue and Avenue A ; and on Eighteenth Street 
 between First Avenue and Avenue A. 
 
 The number first mentioned includes a rear house also, as do several 
 of the numbers in that neighborhood. Other houses near by have suf- 
 fered more or less, but apparently only from the extension of the dis- 
 ease from its habitat at No. 25G. Several cases occurring here have been 
 laid before the association through " special reports of pestilential diseases 
 and insalubrious quarters," to which we may now refer for all particulars as 
 to the houses, their population, crowding, etc., etc. For details of the epi- 
 demic at No. 241 Eighteenth Street, reference maybe had also to these 
 reports, and also to special cases in the record-book. The locality men- 
 tioned second in order, No. 222 East Seventeenth Street, requires a more 
 extended notice. In many respects it will servo as representative, and 
 
DESCRIPTION OF A NOTED FEVER-NEST. 
 
 217 
 
 illustrate the disease as found elsewhere ; at the same time that these are 
 intrinsic circumstances, both as regards the class and condition of the 
 tenantry, and the extent, persistency, and virulence of the disease, which call 
 for certain details. And when I use the term disease in this connection, 
 I do not intend to commit myself to any theory ; both typhus and typhoid 
 fevers have existed here and elsewhere, and in the multitude of cases treated, 
 and the relation of one class to the other, many important facts have been 
 observed which bear upon the question of their generic identity or other- 
 wise. But this is not the occasion, nor have I the space, to discuss this 
 question ; and I have said what I have that I might not be misunderstood 
 in the use of the word disease ; which is only for convenience, and with 
 reference to the class to which both typhus and typhoid belong — Continued 
 Fevers. 
 
 No. 222 East Seventeenth 
 Street is one house of a block 
 of houses, seventeen in number, 
 which are of the same construc- 
 tion throughout. Each house has 
 five stories, with four domiciles on 
 each floor, for the accommodation 
 of as many families. This diagram 
 of the plan of these apartments for 
 four families on each floor, is ap- 
 plicable to all of the 340 domiciles 
 in that row of houses. Yet not- 
 withstanding their close contiguity 
 and identity of construction, the 
 fever, as epidemic, seems to have 
 been confined to No. 222 and its 
 neighbor No. 220. There has 
 hardly been a fortnight at a time 
 during the past year when one or 
 more cases of fever has not been 
 in incubation or progress at the 
 former number. It is impossible 
 to ascertain with exactness how *~ 
 many cases of fever have occurred here ; the class of people who live in 
 this way are continually changing their residence, and it is often the case 
 that only one or two families are remaining at a given house at the end 
 of a year, out of twenty that occupied it at its beginning. Especially is 
 this the case with a house which has the repute of the one we are consid- 
 
218 KEPORT OF THE EIGHTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 ering. It has been ascertained that 35 eases of fever have been sent to 
 the hospital from No. 222 since the 1st of January, 1864 ; and from 70 
 to 100, including the 35, have been attacked with this fever in this one 
 house, during the year. About the middle of last summer, after I had 
 repeatedly reported this house to the sanitary police as a pest-house, action 
 was at last taken by an officer of that body, and the house was shut up — 
 the occupants having first received suitable notice and having removed 
 elsewhere. But within ten days of that time the doors were thrown open 
 again, and, in many instances, the same old families came flocking back. 
 So far as I could learn, no effort had been made to purify or disinfect 
 the house during the short period of its closure ; hardly a room was swept 
 or a wall whitewashed. From that day to this its occupants have been 
 allowed to remain there, unmolested by the police, and the fever has con- 
 tinued unabated. Occasionally an apartment becomes vacant, and a 
 family from a distant part of the city, or from the country, ignorant of 
 the character of the house, moves into it. In every case of this kind 
 that has come to my knowledge, the fever has broken out in such a family 
 within a fortnight after their arrival. 
 
 At the next door to the house mentioned above, viz., at No. 220, the 
 disease has not existed so constantly as it has at No. 222 ; and although 
 cases have been more or less frequent here, it would seem that they were 
 derived, by infection, from the great centre of disease at No. 222. 
 
 All epidemics attack the immoral and degraded classes of the com- 
 munity first ; but as they grow in power, as their poison becomes con- 
 centrated, they overleap all barriers physical and social, unless, indeed, 
 in the case where they spring from conditions strictly local. As with the 
 pestilence which Apollo sent upon the Greeks, the "feathered fates" fell 
 upon "dogs and mules" first, until, rising in the scale, it attacked every 
 rank and class, and " the goddess mourned her heroes slain." 
 
 We submit the following considerations meriting attention and further 
 inquiry. "We have quoted at length an observation of Gen. Viele, under 
 the head of topography, to which the reader is ieferred. By looking at 
 the map which accompanies this report,* it will be seen that a stream of 
 water formerly rose near what is now Ninth Street, and, flowing in a 
 northeasterly direction, emptied into the East River at the exact point 
 where this house, No. 222, now stands. Why this locality should bo 
 more insalubrious than others along the bed of the former stream, I do 
 not know, unless it be that the organic debris, collected by tho stream and 
 swept along by its current, would quite naturally'bo deposited in large 
 accumulation at this place. Moreover, it is a fact well known of mala* 
 
 * Sec page 207. 
 
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF INSALUBRIOUS QUARTERS. 219 
 
 rious regions in the South, that those marshes are the most pestilential 
 where fresh and salt waters mingle. 
 
 The least that can he done — and something should be done right away 
 — would be to remove all families from the house, to have it thoroughly 
 cleansed and disinfected and kept vacant (not for a week or ten days but 
 for) a sufficient length of time to ensure the entire eradication of all in- 
 fection. If the ground itself on which the house is built be at fault, as 
 there seems reason to apprehend it may be, then other and more radical 
 measures will be necessary. 
 
 Remarks. — The most populous parts of our city are inhabited by those 
 who are crowded for room. Grasping landlords let out to the families of 
 the poor a small modicum of God's free air and sunlight, hardly sufficient 
 for a single individual. Every expenditure of money, which the law does 
 not force them to, is refused ; and blinds half swung and ready to fall and 
 crush with the first strong wind ; doors long off their hinges, which open 
 and shut by being taken up bodily and put out of or in the way ; chim- 
 neys as apt to conduct the smoke into the room as out of it ; stagnant, 
 seething, overflowing privies, left uncleansed through the hot months of 
 summer, though pestilence itself should breed from them ; hydrants out 
 of repair, and flooding sink and entry ; stairs which shake and quiver with 
 every step as you ascend them ; and all this day after day, month after 
 month, year in and year out, now a little better, and now worse again. 
 Miserere domus labentis ! As you pass the street or enter the outside 
 door, if your eyes are not too much engaged, you are struck with a babel 
 of sound. For 20 families live under this roof; there are, perhaps, 50 
 children of different ages here ; a drunken fight, perhaps, is going on in 
 one of the hall-ways, a quarrel between women quite likely ; and cries, 
 and shrieks, and oaths, and threats, the screams and shouts of uncounted 
 children fill the air at once. For wherever the fault may be, one cannot 
 expect that the most sober and industrious of our poor will live in such a 
 place as this. Poverty alone can never condemn a man to such house as 
 this is. A family may be ever so poor, and yet their door may be on its 
 hinges, and their room be swept. What a place to live in ! to be sick in ! 
 to die in ! and yet a large part of our city population live and die in just 
 this way. Do the intelligent and wealthy of our city know this ? Do 
 they, who arc ever ready to assist in a good deed and to give to a good 
 cause, who use as stewards the abundant wealth which God has given 
 them — do such realize the want, and squalor, and immorality which exist 
 within a stone's throw of their own happy homes? 
 
 Concentration is the great law of our modern civilization ; never was it 
 so active and so marked as now. Men leave their scattered homes in the 
 
220 EEPOET OF THE EIGHTEENTH SANTTAEY DISTRICT. 
 
 country and become near neighbors in town ; houses go up side by side, 
 and blocks of houses, and every inch of ground is economized. The 
 boundaries of the city itself become extended, and every year shows an 
 increase. Men prosper in this way ; they advance their own interests and 
 the interests of others. They have a broader field for usefulness ; they 
 have more abundant means to do good with. Even though they strive for 
 their own selfish ends, though they seek only.to bless themselves, they 
 must bless others in spite of themselves ; for they keep money in circu- 
 lation and large classes of men employed. But what can be said of all 
 this if the most populous parts of a city are the most degraded, the most 
 immoral, the most thriftless and turbulent ? Surely such a city is grow- 
 ing old and in its decay ; or it is growing too fast in some of its parts, and 
 such parts need attention. The welfare of every man is concerned in 
 this ; it does not appeal to the benevolent alone. Let the wealthy resident 
 upon Fifth Avenue walk along Seventeenth Street from First Avenue to 
 the East River, and examine the houses and look at their population as he 
 pursues his way ; and if he can read certain results in their causes, he will 
 see enough to diminish his sense of security in his own house. 
 
 This condition of things appeals, therefore, to every man who loves 
 his own life, who loves his family, and who would retain the wealth he 
 has accumulated. It is his interest to do every thing he can to remedy it, 
 if he never gave a dollar before to any charity, let him give of his 
 influence and substance to maintain effectual agencies and works of sani- 
 tary improvement, and the prevention of popular diseases, and he will by 
 such means maintain his own peace and security. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — The evils to which we have referred, can be 
 remedied. The same concerted and persistent action, which has so long 
 maintained them in an opposite direction, can overthrow them. No man 
 has moral right to build a house, leaving out all the modern appliances 
 and conveniences, even to ventilation, because they cost a little money, 
 and then to crowd twenty families into it. Yet there arc hundreds of 
 such houses in our city, and many more are being built. No landlord 
 has a right to refuse all the most obvious and necessary repairs to a house, 
 until it is in such a state of ruin that nails and spikes must be driven in to 
 keep it together. Nor has he a right to withhold all sanitary care and 
 inspection until the contents of the vaults are more than even with the 
 surface of the ground, and have become a constant nuisance and cause of 
 disease and death. But it may be said the tenants can and should do all 
 this for their own comfort, even if the laudlord refuse. Yet, as a rule, 
 they do not, and they will not. It is a question to what extent those com- 
 pelled to live in this way are responsible for their own moral status. Most 
 
HOW THE POOR BECOME DKOTKAKDS. 
 
 221 
 
 truly says a modern writer : " Space, a free atmosphere, and cleanliness, 
 have a great deal to do with the possibilities of human virtue." A few 
 families of 
 
 " rough, rug-headed kernes, 
 
 Who live like venom, where no venom else, 
 But only they, have privilege to live," 
 
 will infect a whole neighborhood. The family of a better class, who live 
 with only a thin partition separating them, and whose doors intercommu- 
 nicate, will, in time, become more or less assimilated, at least their chil- 
 dren will. Moreover, it is an accepted fact that to live for a long time 
 deprived of pure air and sunlight, will not only depress a man physical- 
 ly and mentally, but will actually demoralize him. The atmosphere is 
 precisely adapted, through its properties and constituents, to the wants of 
 the beings designed to breathe it. Through its oxygen, and perhaps its 
 ozone, it imparts life and energy and vigor to animals and plants. If 
 certain equivalents of its oxygen be taken away, and carbonic acid be 
 substituted, we have the opposite in different degrees, from loss of vigor, 
 and courage, and spirits, to absolute death. There can be no question 
 that peculiar effects follow long habituation to impure air ; not so striking, 
 perhaps, as those one experiences during its temporary respiration, but 
 still none the less deplorable and formidable. It is like the subtle, insid- 
 ious action of lead upon the human system, which is so slow in setting up 
 its terrible power that the Ancients are said for that reason to have 
 compared the metal to the god of time, and to have given it the name of 
 Saturn. A man gradually loses ambition and hope ; concern for the well- 
 being of himself and his family, by slow degrees, lose their hold upon 
 him. He becomes what cannot be better expressed than by the term nil 
 admirari. Loss of physical vigor attends this corresponding condition of 
 the mind, until at length lassitude and depression of spirits and constant 
 ennui get such control over him that no power or effort of the will can 
 shake them off. With this decline of energy and vigor, both of mind and 
 body, is set up an instinctive yearning for something which will give a 
 temporary respite to the dragging weariness of life. . Hence we find that 
 children even, who are brought up without the stimulating influence of 
 pure air and sunlight, will learn to cry for tea and coffee before they learn 
 to talk ; and they will refuse the draught unless it be strong. One would 
 hardly credit unless he has visited condiderably among the tenant-house 
 population, how general this habit is among the youngest children. As 
 they grow older, they acquire the appetite of their parents for alcoholic 
 stimulants ; and we need not go further to account for any extreme of 
 immorality and want. 
 
222 
 
 EEPOKT OF THE EIGHTEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Many and the most important of the evils that have heen described in 
 this report cluster around that gigantic system of evils — the tenant-house 
 system. Let no one refuse to assist the poor victims of these wrongs, 
 because they do so little to help themselves — because they are idle, and 
 dissolute, and indolent. "We have labored to show that they are far from 
 being so culpable for this, as might at first sight appear ; and as they are 
 at present, they are well-nigh helpless without the assistance of a strong 
 arm from without. There is little hope of permanent good from temper- 
 ance reform, among the laboring classes of the city, so long as they arc 
 obliged to live in tenant-houses constructed as at present. Men never 
 will confine their appetite for drink to water so long as they cannot have 
 a sufficiency of pure air. Of course any effort at reform, in this direc- 
 tion will be met with serious opposition. The same spirit is rife in our 
 own day and in our city which prevailed in the time of our Saviour, when 
 the whole country came out and begged Him to depart out of their coasts, 
 because His gracious exercise of divine power had lost to them a herd of 
 swine; unmindful that the same miracle had delivered a human being 
 from the dominion of devils and restored him to his right mind. The 
 same kind of men live in our city, if indeed they are not their direct pos- 
 terity, as those who beat Paul and Silas in the market-place, because " they 
 saw the hope of their gains was gone I " 
 
 Statistical Recapitulation. 
 
 Total number of dwelling-houses, . . . 1,733 
 
 (a) " private residences, .... 1,233 
 
 (b) " tenant-houses, .... 467 
 
 (c) " frame houses, ..... 17 
 (<#) " rear houses, . . . . 16 
 
 Number of vacant lots, 91 
 
 " public stables, ..... 12 
 
 " private u 53 
 
 " church edifices, .... 14 
 
 " school " 4 
 
 u liquor stores, etc., .... 77 
 
 " stores, shops, etc., .... 308 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OP THE 
 
 NINETEENTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 J. R. MANSFIELD, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — The Nineteenth District comprises the northern half of 
 the Eighteenth Ward. It is bounded on the north by East Twenty-sixth 
 Street, east by the East River, south by East Twentieth Street, and west by 
 the Sixth Avenue. 
 
 Topography. — Before the grading of this district, about one-half con- 
 sisted of a low marshy soil, containing a few small ponds, and a small 
 stream of water. This stream crossed Twenty-sixth Street at or near 
 Madison Avenue, passed down to Twentieth Street, where it crossed at 
 a short distance below Fourth Avenue ; but now no trace of the channel 
 is visible, it having been filled with gravel or rubbish. The low margin of 
 the East River has also been filled in, mostly by street sweepings, ashes, 
 etc. ; and many tenant-houses and places of business have been erected, 
 and now stand upon the land composed of such material as street scav- 
 engers usually collect. This kind of soil is very objectionable, because 
 the decay of vegetable matter is a source of disease ; and although no case 
 may have been directly traced to this cause, yet it has, no doubt, greatly 
 assisted in its propagation. 
 
 Drainage and Sewerage. — The natural drainage of some parts of 
 the eastern portion of this district is not good, the streets being so level 
 that, after a heavy rain, water stands in pools for several days ; and as 
 garbage is being continually thrown upon the streets, and allowed to de- 
 cay, the atmosphere becomes impregnated with poisonous exhalations, 
 endangering the health and lives of the people inhabiting the surrounding 
 buildings. 
 
 There are sewers in all the streets and avenues, but some of them are 
 
224 REPORT OF THE NINETEENTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 poorly constructed. The effluvia from the opening of some of the sewers 
 at the corners of the streets, is often exceedingly offensive ; and, in one 
 instance, in the cellar of a house on the east side of Avenue A, there was 
 at the time of my visit more than a foot of water, which had escaped 
 through the waste-pipe from the sinks above. I was informed that this 
 cellar had not been dry for several months ; and it was not only very of- 
 fensive, but also a source of disease. There was a woman sick with 
 typhoid fever at this time in the house. There are also four double tenant- 
 houses, situated on Twenty-first Street below First Avenue, in which fever 
 and other diseases are constantly found. Two of these buildings have no 
 cellars, and water collects and stands in pools under them for weeks, and 
 sometimes months, making them exceedingly damp and unhealthy. They 
 are all poorly ventilated, dirty, and crowded with the lowest class of 
 tenants, many of whom, in removing to other localities, carry with them 
 diseases and causes of disease, liable to be communicated to persons oc- 
 cupying healthy dwellings. 
 
 Most of the streets are paved with cobbles, which form receptacles for 
 vegetable matter that is constantly decomposing, and filling the air with a 
 miasm which is very injurious to health. 
 
 Sickness and its Chief Causes among the Poor. — During the past year 
 C,783 new patients have applied to the Demilt Dispensary for treatment, 
 from this district ; of which 1,422 received treatment at their dwellings ; 
 making an average of over 565 cases taken sick in each month, or nearly 
 19 for each day. By far the greater part of these cases of sickness is due 
 to overcrowding, faulty house drainage, and the neglect of precautions 
 against infectious diseases and their local causes. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — The number of squares in this district is 52, con- 
 taining 1,703 houses; of these, 400 are tenant-houses, and although sev- 
 eral others may not properly be classed with the private residences, never- 
 theless the manner in which the tenants and their landlords disregard the 
 rules of health with respect to cleanliness, ventilation, and proper care 
 of these buildings and their surroundings, has caused me to place them 
 with the list of private dwellings. There are 64 rear buildings, which, 
 with few exceptions, are tenant-houses. The sanitary condition of a ma- 
 jority of these buildings is very bad, inasmuch as they are so hemmed in 
 by other buildings as to prevent a free circulation of air about them, and 
 are usually crowded with a very low class of tenants, on account of tho 
 cheapness of the rent. 
 
 There arc 39 vacant lots in this district, many of which arc used for 
 business purposes ; and on some of them shanties have been built, in which 
 horses and other animals arc kept, and around which, from their peculiar 
 
WANT OF INTELLIGENCE AND A SANITAKT POLICE. 
 
 225 
 
 situation, the children of the neighborhood are in the habit of committing 
 gross nuisances. 
 
 Courts and Alleys. — There are also 58 courts and alleys, 60 fac- 
 tories, 335 stores and markets, and 116 places where liquor is sold — not 
 including grocery stores ! 
 
 Slaughter-Pens. — There are seven slaughter-houses in this district, 
 and located east of Third Avenue ; all of which are very offensive, and 
 they are exceedingly filthy. If this source of annoyance and disease 
 could be removed beyond the city limits, not only a great charity would 
 be conferred upon the poor people residing in that neighborhood, but their 
 health and sanitary condition Would be greatly improved. 
 
 Stables and their Influence.— Situated in this district are the 
 well-known Bull's Head stables, occupying nearly all the south side, and 
 a part of the north side of Twenty-fourth Street, between Lexington and 
 Second Avenues. They are 35 in number, containing 1,000 stalls, occu- 
 pied, at the time of my inspection, by 302 horses, which is a smaller num- 
 ber than is usual for them. These stables may have aggravated the 
 diphtheria which has been prevalent in their vicinity for a few months 
 past. One of these cases of diphtheria was that of a young and very 
 able physician, which terminated fatally on the seventh day of his illness. 
 
 The whole number of stables in my district, including the Bull's Head 
 stables, located in this district, is 176, containing, at the time of in- 
 spection, 613 horses. I was much surprised to learn that whenever any 
 of these animals are sick, they are taken into basement stalls for treatment. 
 This prevents them from receiving the better sanitary influences of the 
 upper part of the building, which admits of a free circulation of air. 
 
 My attention has been called to the public school-house which is now 
 building on Twenty-third Street between Second and Third Avenues. 
 It is in conjunction with a row of stables, and in the immediate vicinity 
 of two slaughter-houses ; the cellar is also very damp, and emits a very 
 disagreeable odor, the soil having been saturated with filthy material 
 previous to its present use. Everywhere in the Nineteenth District is 
 seen the necessity for the strong arm of an intelligent sanitary police, and 
 more especially is there an urgent demand for practicable and effectual 
 methods of improving the ventilation and domestic comfort of the ordina- 
 ry tenant-houses that are already so numerous, and of thoroughly reform- 
 ing the plans of all that may hereafter be erected. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OP THE 
 
 TWENTIETH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 E. H. JANES, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — The Twentieth District comprises the southern half of the 
 Twentieth Ward, and is bounded north by Thirty-third Street, east by Sixth 
 Avenue, south by Twenty-sixth Street, and ivest by the Hudson River. 
 
 Remark. — In presenting this final report, I am aware that it is not in 
 my power to astonish you with facts of so startling a nature as will be given 
 by many of my colaborers in the more insalubrious districts ; though I shall 
 be able to show you that, witli all its natural advantages for health and 
 salubrity, one of the up-town wards is, in many respects, lamentably de- 
 ficient in its sanitary regulations, through the combined influence of the cu- 
 pidity of landlords, the ignorance and negligence of tenants, and the mis- 
 management and corruption of those in official positions. I am confident 
 that there is no section of the city where the natural topography, climate, 
 soil, and drainage, are more conducive to the health of the inhabitants than 
 in this district ; and I might add, that though I have found but few fever- 
 nests, and not a very great amount of preventable disease, yet where these 
 have occurred I have generally been able to trace them directly to the 
 neglect of sanitary measures, either about the premises or in the neighbor- 
 hood. I am, therefore, persuaded that if the proper sanitary regulations 
 were instituted, or even if the existing laws were faithfully executed, much 
 suffering might be avoided, and the bills of mortality greatly reduced. In 
 reporting more fully upon my district, I shall first call your attention to 
 its original topography, geology, soil, natural drainage, etc., and after- 
 wards describe its present sanitary condition. 
 
 Original Topography. — The ground was originally dry and some- 
 
MEDICAL TOPOGEAPHY OF THE DISTEICT. 
 
 227 
 
 what uneven, the principal inclination being to the south and west. 
 The highest point was on Thirty-third Street, about midway between 
 Eighth and Ninth Avenues, where the elevation was 55 feet above high 
 water. On this line the ground gradually descended to Twenty-sixth 
 Street, where the point of elevation was 30 feet. The surface also in- 
 clined to the east as far as Eighth Avenue, the line of which was, and 
 still is, somewhat below the level of the avenues on either side. For this 
 reason the main sewer is through Eighth Avenue, conducting the contents 
 of the street sewers on either side into the main sewer in Twenty-third 
 Street, and thence to the river. East of the Eighth Avenue the surface 
 ascended as far as Sixth Avenue, where the elevation was about 42 feet. 
 On Thirty-third Street near Tenth Avenue, there was also a rocky eleva- 
 tion of about 50 feet above high water. This was the general character 
 of the surface, though there were other slight elevations and depressions 
 in various portions of the district. 
 
 Geology. — The geological formation consists principally of micaceous 
 gneiss, traversed occasionally by veins of granite and quartz ; the former 
 varying in width from ten to fifty feet, the latter from one to twelve 
 inches, extremely tortuous, passing in every direction. The granite is 
 rather coarse, though improving in quality the further north we go. In 
 the northwestern portion of the district it is for a short distance the pre- 
 vailing rock, and is of a fair quality for building purposes. Outcroppings 
 of gneiss, or gneiss and granite, were originally seen on Sixth Avenue 
 near Twenty-ninth Street, at the corner of Thirty-second Street and Sev- 
 enth Avenue, on Twenty-sixth Street between Seventh and Eighth Ave- 
 nues, a little north of Twenty-Seventh Street near Eighth Avenue, on 
 Ninth Avenue between Twenty-ninth and Thirty-first Streets, throughout 
 a considerable portion of the space bounded by Thirty-third Street, Ninth 
 Avenue, Twenty-ninth Street, and Tenth Avenue, and on Thirty-third 
 Street about midway between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. These out- 
 croppings showed the prevailing strike to be either north and south, or 
 northwest and southeast, the dip varying from 80 to 90 degrees. In one 
 or two instances the strike inclined to the northeast, which is, I believe, 
 the prevailing direction throughout the island. In some of the vacant and 
 partially-excavated lots the gneiss appears to have undergone gradual disin- 
 tegration, after having been exposed for a long time to the atmosphere ; 
 this is said to be in consequence of the very small proportion of quartz 
 and feldspar, and the presence of sulphuret of iron, the decomposition of 
 which yielding sulphate and oxide of iron, promotes the disintegration of 
 the rock, and gives it the iron rust color so frequently seen. In addition 
 to what lias been already described, we have traces of horncblend gneiss, 
 
228 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 pebbles of quartz, fragments of feldspar, and sandstone, all of which are 
 occasionally seen in many of the vacant lots throughout the district. 
 
 The soil may be described as a somewhat dry sandy loam, slightly 
 intermixed in some places with gravel. Near the corner of Thirtieth 
 Street and Eighth Avenue commenced what was called Primrose Hill, 
 and afterwards Strawberry Hill. Here was found gravel and sand in 
 abundance, the latter of a fine quality, and was much used for building 
 purposes. The only made or reclaimed ground in the district is about 
 one-half of that portion west of Tenth Avenue, the original water-line ex- 
 tending across this section nearly in a diagonal direction, crossing Thirty- 
 third Street at Eleventh Avenue. The material used for the purpose of 
 " filling in" this portion of the district, I am told, comprises every variety 
 of rubbish, the refuse from every branch of industry, street sweepings, 
 ashes, garbage, etc. In grading the district, Eighth Avenue required 
 elevating, for which good material was used taken from some of the 
 higher elevations. 
 
 These primitive advantages of good natural drainage and of a com- 
 paratively undisturbed natural grading, considered in connection with all 
 the geological peculiarities of the district, together constitute most im- 
 portant conditions that favor the natural salubrity of this locality. This 
 fact is worthy of special remark, as there is every reason to believe that 
 this district is destined speedily to become very densely populated by the 
 laboring classes, and to be perpetually occupied by them. Man, not 
 Nature, will be responsible for any general conditions of insalubrity here. 
 
 Water-Courses. — The principal natural water-course, taking its 
 origin about two hundred feet east of Eighth Avenue, and about midway 
 between Thirtieth and Thirty-first Streets, flowed southwest as far as the 
 corner of Eighth Avenue and Twenty-sixth Street, thence west along 
 Twenty-sixth Street as far as Ninth Avenue, thence northwest, crossing 
 Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Streets, emptying into the Hudson 
 River at Twenty-ninth Street. A small shallow pond stood on Seventh 
 Avenue, between Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Streets, from which 
 issued a small stream which, flowing west, emptied into the stream before 
 mentioned, near what is now the corner of Twenty-seventh Street and 
 Eighth Avenue. Two small streams, one from the north, the other from 
 the south, united at Twenty-eighth Street about 200 feet cast of Seventh 
 Avenue, and flowing west, emptied into the stream first described, at n 
 point about 75 feet north of Twenty-eighth Street, and 200 feet cast of 
 Eighth Avenue. These constituted the natural drainage of the district. 
 
 Present Topography. — In grading the streets and avenues, the orig- 
 inal inequalities of surface have been generally followed, as the annexed 
 table giving the present level at the various corners will show : 
 
EVIDENCE OF NATURAL SALUBRITY PRESENTED. 229 
 
 Table showing the present elevation above high-water in feet and inches at 
 the different street corners in the Twentieth Sanitary District. 
 
 STREETS. 
 
 Sixth Av. 
 
 Seventh Av. 
 
 Eighth Av. 
 
 Ninth. Av. 
 
 Tenth Av. 
 
 EleventhAv. 
 
 West Thirty-Third, 
 
 42.4" 
 
 36.6" 
 
 30.8" 
 
 43.6" 
 
 29.7" 
 
 11.0" 
 
 
 41.6 
 
 35.6 
 
 29.4 
 
 42.0 
 
 19.6 
 
 11.10 
 
 " Thirty-First, 
 
 39.8 
 
 34.4 
 
 28.0 
 
 38.1 
 
 15.6 
 
 10.4 
 
 
 37.11 
 
 33.0 
 
 26.8 
 
 34.0 
 
 15.0 
 
 9.9 
 
 " Twenty- Ninth, 
 
 41.6 
 
 31.10 
 
 25.4 
 
 28.1 
 
 13.3 
 
 8.11 
 
 " Twenty-Eighth 
 
 38.11 
 
 30.1 
 
 24.4 
 
 22.0 
 
 12.3 
 
 8.1 
 
 " Twenty-Seventh, . . . 
 
 37.9 
 
 29.9 
 
 22.8 
 
 20.3 
 
 11.2 
 
 7.5 
 
 
 37.0 
 
 30.4 
 
 21.4 
 
 19.9 
 
 10.9 
 
 Not as- 
 certained . 
 
 By consulting the above table, it will be seen that the most elevated 
 corner is that of Ninth Avenue and Thirty-third Street (the highest 
 point is some distance east of Ninth Avenue) , and the lowest point prob- 
 ably the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Twenty-sixth Street. It will 
 also be seen that above Twenty-eighth Street the grade of Eighth Avenue 
 is lower than that of the adjacent avenues on either side. The water- 
 courses that originally drained this district have been " filled in," and drain- 
 age effected by means of sewers. 
 
 From this brief account of the topography of the Twentieth District, its 
 dry soil, its slightly uneven surface — the principal inclinations being such 
 as to not only favor good natural drainage, but to secure also the full ef- 
 fects of the direct rays of the sun — it will be seen that, in a sanitary point 
 of view, the effects of this topographical condition could have no other in- 
 fluence than one conducive to the public health ; and not until the natural 
 drainage was obstructed, and artificial drainage substituted, was the first 
 step taken in the contrary direction. 
 
 Streets and Avenues. — The direction of the avenues is said to be 
 nortli and south, and that of the streets east and west. To speak more 
 correctly, however, the avenues run north 33° 40' east, the streets cross- 
 ing at right angles. The former are 100, the latter 50 feet in width. 
 The Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth Avenues, together with the portions of 
 Thirty-first and Thirty-second Streets between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, 
 are paved with the Belgian pavement, trap-rock being used for that pur- 
 pore. This pavement is even, appears well laid, and wherever it is seen 
 the streets are kept in a very fair condition. Throughout the remaining 
 portions of the district the old-fashioned cobble-stone pavement is still 
 in use, and full of irregularities of surface ; some of the depressions be- 
 ing quite deep and several feet in extent, allowing the collection of pools 
 of water at every rain, which instead of running off into the sewer, remain 
 
230 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 to increase the humidity of the atmosphere by their gradual evaporation, 
 and thus establish a predisposing cause of malarial fevers. 
 
 In many portions of the district the streets have the appearance of 
 being seldom cleaned. In front of tenant-houses it is usual to see a pile 
 of ashes, garbage, and other refuse matter which the tenants, in defiance 
 of law and order, will persist in throwing into the street, there to remain 
 until the arrival of the corporation cart, whose visits are generally " few 
 and far between." We also see collections of refuse vegetable matter in 
 front of nearly every green grocery in the district, either in the gutters or 
 on the pavement. 
 
 Garbage. — The garbage-box is another nuisance which, although 
 fully discussed at one of the meetings of Sanitary Inspectors, still deserves 
 particular attention. There are between 50 and 60 of these in my dis- 
 trict, not one of which can be regarded in any other light than one prej- 
 udicial to the sanitary interests of their respective localities. They arc 
 generally placed on the sidewalk, in front of tenant-houses, one often 
 deemed sufficient for the accommodation of 20 or 30 families ; and are 
 either constantly full, or never completely emptied. Very few of these 
 boxes are without some signs of demolition. Many have but three sides, 
 many but two, and not one in the whole district has a cover. It is not 
 unusual to see these boxes day by day receiving their accustomed load, 
 until filled to their utmost capacity, when the gutter receives the surplus, 
 which forms a temporary dam, allowing the collection and retention in 
 the gutter of pools of water which become stagnant and filthy, impregnat- 
 ing the vicinity with the seeds of disease and death. When we remember 
 that the garbage-box is made the receptacle for not only ashes and gar- 
 bage proper, but all the dirt, rubbish, and refuse matter in the neighbor- 
 hood, and often every species of filth, including dead animals and even 
 human excrements, we must agree with one of the Inspectors who named 
 it a " Pandora's box, always open, always charged, and continually being 
 supplied with the elements of putridity and disease." Indeed, what more ap- 
 propriate name could be applied to such accumulating masses of filth al- 
 lowed to remain from day to day, exposed to the vicissitudes of rain and 
 sunshine, undergoing decomposition, and filling the atmosphere with tlieir 
 disgusting and poisonous effluvia? When an attempt is made to empty 
 one of these boxes, which sometimes happens, the contents arc hastily re- 
 moved to the cart, during which process more or less is spilled from the 
 shovel into the gutter, and there allowed to remain until the street-sweeper 
 makes his appearance. No effort is made to thoroughly empty the boxes, 
 consequently more or less of this foul matter adheres to the bottom and 
 sides, sending off an odor more disgusting if possible than it was before 
 
RELATIONS OF PAVEMENTS AND SEWERAGE TO HEALTH. 231 
 
 the mass had been disturbed. From this practice the boxes become so 
 completely saturated with their contents that they become themselves a 
 source of disease. I would here enter my protest against the use of these 
 garbage-boxes, for they are not only wholly inadequate to the purpose for 
 which they are intended, but wherever they are seen the streets are in a 
 worse condition than where there are none. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that this condition of the streets and gut- 
 ters is one calculated to exert a baneful influence upon the public health ; 
 and I might add that the most sickly portions of my district are those 
 where this and similar nuisances are found. 
 
 The nature and condition of the street pavement is a subject of import- 
 ance to the sanitarian, as bearing directly upon the salubrity or insalu- 
 brity of the city. Unquestionably Avhatever condition facilitates cleanli- 
 ness, not only promotes our comfort and enjoyment, but is highly condu- 
 cive to health ; and, on the other hand, whatever opposes or retards this 
 condition, is, to a certain extent, prejudicial. In the Ituss or Belgian pave- 
 ment, if the work be well done, we have an even surface, easily swept, 
 and affording no lurking places for dirt to collect ; while the uneven sur- 
 face of the cobble pavement is swept with difficulty, the interstices between 
 the stones affording ample protection for small collections of both animal 
 and vegetable matter, which, in spite of the street-sweeper's gentle touches, 
 remain, undergo decomposition, and mingle their foul emanations with 
 the surrounding atmosphere. The practice of sprinkling the streets dur- 
 ing the warm weather, thereby increasing the humidity of the atmosphere, 
 and hastening the decomposition of whatever organic matter may remain 
 on the pavement, is one directly at variance with the present status of 
 sanitary science. If the streets are regularly and thoroughly swept, they 
 will require no sprinkling ; otherwise better suffer an occasional incon- 
 venience from the dust, than to be constantly inhaling the miasm arising 
 from this practice. 
 
 Sewerage. — Most of the avenues and streets of the district are sew- 
 ered throughout 'their entire length. The sewers generally empty into 
 the river below the level of tide-water. The sewer in Twenty-sixth street, 
 however, is an exception to this, the outlet being a few inches above that 
 point. This sewer terminates at Eleventh Avenue, some two or three 
 hundred feet from the water at low tide. From the termination of the 
 sewer to the river is an open ditch, which ends in a broad flat, exposed at 
 low tide, and covered to a greater or less extent with the matter deposited 
 from the sewer, from which more or less of a disagreeable odor arises. 
 
 It is an almost universal complaint that at times the noxious sewer- 
 gases escape into the streets and houses, concerning the causes of which 
 
232 
 
 EEPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANITAEY DISTRICT. 
 
 distinguished sanitarians are not agreed, one believing it to be in conse- 
 quence of a certain direction of the wind at low tide, while another is 
 equally certain that it occurs only at high tide ; the gas being displaced 
 and driven into the streets and houses by the increased volume of water 
 in the sewer. In his testimony before the " Metropolitan Sanitary Com- 
 mission " of 1847, Mr. John Phillips, Chief Surveyor to the Westminster 
 Court of Sewers, made the following statement in reply to a question 
 concerning currents of air flowing either into or out of the sewers : " In 
 going along the sewers, I have been always anxious to ascertain that fact. 
 The light which I had in my hand I have placed immediately by the side 
 of and into the house-drain, and I found almost invariably the flare car- 
 ried. into the mouths of the drain, so that there must have been direct 
 currents from the sewers through the house-drains, and so into the houses 
 themselves. I rarely met with any instances where there was not a cur- 
 rent from the sewer into the house-drain, and also from the sewer through 
 a number of gully drains into the streets." This could not have been 
 from the presence of an increased volume of water in the sewer driving 
 the gas into the streets and houses, as under such circumstances the ex- 
 amination could not have been easily made. On several occasions I have 
 noticed this smell at low tide with a west wind, and others have noticed 
 the same during the prevalence of east winds. Yet I am not prepared to 
 say that it is never present during the period of high tide. In many in- 
 stances this smell in the houses may be further accounted for by the char- 
 acter of the house-drains, which are often built of brick, one leading di- 
 rectly into the sewer, and being connected with several houses by means 
 of side drains. These brick drains are often too large and of insufficient 
 inclination to enable the water passing through them to effect their entire 
 cleaning ; and meeting the obstruction presented by the rough surfaces of 
 the bottom and sides of the drain, much of the filth, instead of finding its 
 way directly into the sewer, is retained along the course of the drains, 
 and there remains undergoing decomposition, and giving off noxious ef- 
 fluvia and poisonous gases, which, if the waste-pipes are not securely 
 trapped, will soon infect the atmosphere of the whole house. These sewer- 
 gases not only escape through the waste-pipes, but the walls of the drains 
 themselves are often so loosely constructed, or arc so often out of repair, 
 as to allow their escape independent of the waste-pipes. Instead of brick 
 drains, if every house was furnished with a tubular drain of earthen or 
 stone ware with glazed surfaces, as is now generally used in the better 
 class of houses, this cause of the difficulty would be successfully removed ; 
 for the glazed surface of the tubular drain affording less resistance from 
 friction, and its decreased capacity so concentrating the current of water 
 
EVILS OF SEWER-GASES AND OBSTRUCTED SEWERS. 233 
 
 passing through it as to increase both its force and consequently its power 
 to carry the filth with it, there is no possibility of its being choked up as 
 is almost constantly the case with the larger brick drains ; and therefore 
 being always free from obstruction, there would be no decomposition of 
 matter within them, and no foul emanations evolved.* However well the 
 drainage may be constructed, there are still occasional complaints of the 
 escape of sewer-gases into the houses, for which your inspectors were un- 
 able to account, until at one of our meetings a member of the council 
 mentioned a fact in connection with his own house which I think is worth 
 recording, viz. : that in emptying the bath-tub of a large quantity of 
 water, the suction is sometimes sufficiently strong to empty the traps, leav- 
 ing no impediment to the escape of this odor, which is remedied by again 
 filling the traps. , 
 
 The continual inhalation of an atmosphere impregnated with these 
 sewer gases, viz., carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, ammonia, car- 
 buretted hydrogen, etc., is a well-known cause of enteric and typhoid dis- 
 eases ; and a most important desideratum is the best method by which we 
 can effectually avoid these pestilential agencies. It does not come within 
 the sphere of my duties to enter here upon a lengthy dissertation on the 
 complex and unsettled question of the sewerage of large cities ; but a brief 
 allusion to their present mode of construction, with a single suggestion, 
 would not be out of place. As at present constructed, the object of our 
 street sewers seems to be to make our harbor the cloaca magna for the 
 reception of all the debris and filth of the city, occasionally filling up our 
 channels, to the annoyance and detriment of our shipping interests. There 
 is also a constantly-increasing deposit along the bottom and sides of the 
 sewer, generating noxious gases, and eventually diminishing the facilities 
 of the sewer for drainage, and rendering necessary its occasional clean- 
 ing, which is attended with expense to the city, and great inconvenience 
 to the workmen, who are compelled to labor in a stooping posture, with 
 their backs continually exposed to the droppings from the top of the sewer. 
 
 My attention has recently been called to a sewer in Twenty-seventh 
 Street, built by James E. Serrell, Esq.,f of this city, civil engineer, 
 
 * The house in which I reside is a good illustration of this. Soon after moving into 
 the house, nearly four years ago, it was discovered that there existed some defect in the 
 drainage, and upon inspection it was found that the house-drain was a very poorly con- 
 structed one of brick, choked up, and sending an unpleasant odor through the house. 
 This was thoroughly cleaned and repaired, but after a few weeks the same unpleasant odor 
 returned and again invaded the whole house ; and not until this brick drain was removed 
 and a tubular one of tile substituted, were we relieved of this offensive nuisance. 
 
 f To this gentlemen, to whose maps and charts I have had free access, I am indebted 
 for my information concerning the original topography of the district. 
 
234 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANTTAEY DISTRICT. 
 
 and one of our city surveyors, which not only obviates this difficulty, but 
 possesses other advantages not claimed for any system of sewerage with 
 which I am acquainted. The improvement consists in deep vaults called 
 " dirt-catchers," along the course of the sewer, at such distances apart, 
 
 Longitudinal Section. 
 
 and of such a depth, as to secure the collection and retention of the night 
 soil and solid matter washed from the street into the sewer. This solid 
 material, sinking to the bottom of the vault, and consequently under water, 
 will emit little or none of the offensive effluvium so repulsive to our senses. 
 By constructing these "dirt-catchers" at proper distances opart, nearly 
 all of the matter otherwise carried into the river, or deposited along the 
 bottom and sides of the sewer, will be collected, for what passes over one 
 vault the force of the current will suffice to carry to the next, leaving the 
 eewcr always clean and unobstructed. When the vaults are full they will 
 of course require to be cleaned ; and for this purpose they arc built in 
 two compartments, by means of a longitudinal partition, and so arranged 
 that the whole current may, by means of a small temporary dam, be made 
 to pass cither compartment, while the other is being cleaned. This tem- 
 porary dam is afterwards removed to the other side of the sewer, and the 
 current turned through the side of the vault just cleaned, while the re- 
 
ME. SEEEELl's PLAN OF DIET-CATOHEES. 
 
 235 
 
 maining one is undergoing the same process. This arrangement gives 
 the men full liberty to work at the best advantage, while the restrained 
 and uneasy position which they are compelled to assume while at work 
 in the ordinary sewer, enables them to accomplish but very little in a 
 
 Cross-Section. 
 
 given time. There are also four of these " dirt-catchers" in the Fortieth 
 Street sewer, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, of sufficient capacity to 
 contain 100 loads each, and which have been cleaned twice since their 
 construction, at an expense of only from five to ten per cent, of what it 
 would cost to remove the same bulk of material from the ordinary sewer. 
 In addition to the advantage gained in cleaning, we not only relieve our city 
 in a great measure from the offensive sewer smell, prevent an accumula- 
 tion of filth in the rivers around our wharves and piers, but we are en- 
 abled to save to the country a vast amount of fertilizing material hitherto 
 regarded by agricultural writers as the great waste of cities. 
 
 These vaults in the Fortieth Street sewer are 200 feet apart, and re- 
 ceive all the mud and dirt which would be otherwise washed into the 
 river, or adhere to the bottom and sides of the sewer. It would at first 
 view seem an expensive undertaking to construct these vaults in all the 
 sewers throughout the city ; but, in view of the great relief to our rivers, 
 
236 EEPOBT OF THE TWENTIETH SANTTAEY DISTEICT. 
 
 the increased facilities for cleaning, the suppression of the sewer gases, 
 and the immense saving to our agricultural districts, this expense would 
 soon be cancelled even as regards the old sewers ; whereas they could be 
 
 Plan at line A B. 
 
 applied to sewers in the process of construction, and the additional ex- 
 pense saved by the construction of fewer man-lioles, and building the 
 eewers of a diminished area, their present large size being necessary only 
 
 Culvert or Sluice. 
 
 for the purpose of allowing workmen to enter when cleansing is ordered, 
 which, with the improvement suggested, would be wholly unnecessary. 
 As with the house-drains, so with the sewers, the current of water con- 
 
WHY CERTAIN SQUARES ARE INSALUBRIOUS. 237 
 
 centrated by the diminished size of the conduit flows with greater force, 
 and consequently with a greater cleansing power ; and instead of being 
 deposited along the bottom and sides of a large sewer, from whence these 
 offensive gases are evolved, this foul material is forced along by the 
 greater power of the current through its diminished channel into the vault 
 .into which it sinks, leaving the sewer clean, and consequently free from 
 these noxious gases ; for it should be remembered that these gases are not 
 generated by the passage of this matter through the sewer, but by its 
 being retained there, and undergoing decomposition with an insufficient 
 amount of water to cover it. 
 
 Squares. — My district comprises 35 squares, not including the 
 piers and their surroundings ; and for the purpose of systematic inspec- 
 tion they have been classed in belts, the first belt including the squares 
 between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, the second belt between Seventh 
 and Eighth Avenues, and so on ; there being in all five belts. The first 
 belt, with a few exceptions, may be said to be in a good sanitary condi- 
 tion, there being but few crowded tenements and few rear houses. The 
 streets are also generally in a rather better condition than in many other 
 portions of the district. The inclination of surface is south and west, 
 drainage good, and no made ground. There are, however, a few locali- 
 ties where causes of insalubrity exist, and the effects of these causes are 
 seen in the increased and serious character of the prevailing sickness. In 
 one house there were eight cases of scarlet fever, five of which proved 
 fatal. In another house, the privy of which was found to be in a very 
 filthy condition, and a dead dog had lain for weeks in the damp cellar, 
 typhoid fever and dysentery prevailed. Both of these houses showed 
 abundant evidence of the neglect of sanitary measures, such as bad drain- 
 age, damp and dirty cellars, neglect of personal and domiciliary cleanli- 
 ness, overfilled privies,* etc. Other localities showed similar evidences 
 of a lack of sanitary precautions, together with more or less of the 
 characteristic sickness. 
 
 The second belt of squares in my district I regard as being in a mixed 
 sanitary condition ; some of the squares good, others very bad. The sur- 
 face inclines to the south and west ; the streets are not in as good condi- 
 tion as those of the preceding belt, and in some instances the drainage is 
 more defective. There are on this belt more crowded tenements and 
 more rear houses ; the latter are often so near together that the rear walls 
 of each approach to within a few inches of each other. 
 
 * According to our present sanitary laws, a privy is full when its contents reach to 
 within two feet of the floor, and must then be cleaned ; hence I have applied the term 
 overfilled to those privies in which the contents come to above this point. 
 
238 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Massing of Tenements. — The following is a fair illustration of the 
 manner in which building lots are often crowded : A row of four or five- 
 story brick tenements stands facing the street, twenty or twenty-five feet 
 in the rear of which stands a similar row, on the rear portion of the same 
 lots on which the front houses stand. In the rear of these rear houses, 
 at a distance varying from a few inches to two feet, stand the correspond- 
 ing rear houses of the next street, and twenty or twenty-five feet in front 
 of these last mentioned stands the corresponding row of front houses. 
 In this manner twenty houses, each twenty feet wide, and as high as it 
 pleases the owner to rear them, may stand on a space of less than 20,000 
 square feet ; and allowing each front house to contain eight, and each 
 rear house four families (a moderate estimate), we have to each family 
 about 164 square feet of ground. The wood-cut on the next page 
 presents a bird's-eye view and ground-plan of the locality here described. 
 It is the western section of a newly built-up square, not far from the great 
 hotels on Fifth Avenue and Broadway, and will almost inevitably become 
 a fever-nest. 
 
 This system of building a large number of houses on a small area of 
 ground is frequently seen on this belt of squares, and with it are found 
 what seem to be inseparable evils. The privy, from necessity, is located 
 in close proximity to the rear house, either immediately in front of a 
 window, or just at the entrance to the cellar. It is in some instances 
 connected with the street sewer by means of a drain, which often becomes 
 obstructed by rubbish or garbage thrown into the vault by the tenants. 
 In other instances there is no such connection, and consequently the privy 
 is soon overfilled, and a source of great annoyance. They sometimes 
 become filled to overflowing, and the yard becomes covered with their 
 contents. This frequently happens after a hard rain, where the spout 
 from the house is so arranged as to conduct the rain-water from the roof 
 into the privy vault, which overflows, spreading the contents not only over 
 the yard, but in some instances into the cellar, the bottom of which be- 
 comes covered with this semi-liquid filth. In other instances the seat and 
 floor of the privy become soiled and filthy to such an extent that they are 
 wholly unfit for use, and the poor tenants are compelled to resort to their 
 chamber utensils, the contents of which are emptied into the garbage-box, 
 iuto the already overfilled privy, or into the narrow space between tho 
 rear walls of tho two houses. This space is so narrow in a majority of 
 instances as to render it impossible for a man to pass between the walls, 
 often becomes the receptacle for all the rubbish, garbage, and filth of every 
 description, creating an odor so offensive that it is necessary to keep tho 
 
The Ground-Plan with Explanatory Symbols. 
 
240 REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANITARY DISTRICT 
 
 windows closed, depriving the tenants of that source of ventilation. For 
 the admission of light these windows are of course useless. 
 
 With this nuisance in the rear, and a filthy, overflowing privy in front, 
 it is a matter of surprise that such localities are ever free from epidemics 
 of the most fearful nature ; for it is established beyond a doubt, that while 
 too great humidity of the atmosphere and decaying vegetable matter arc 
 among the most fruitful sources of miasmatic and bilious fevers, enteric 
 and typhoid diseases are generated by human exhalations, the presence 
 of decaying animal matter, and cloacal effluvia. 
 
 The third belt, viz., the squares situated between Eighth and Ninth 
 Avenues, are, with the exception of one block, in a good sanitary condi- 
 tion. This exception is the south side of the square bounded by Twenty- 
 sixth and Twenty-seventh Streets, where, during the summer, measles, 
 cholera infantum, and diarrhoea prevailed. The street had the appear- 
 ance of being seldom swept, but contained more or less garhage and dirt, 
 continually giving off an offensive smell. Many of the cellars were dirty, 
 and the drainage in some of the tenant-houses defective. The north side 
 of this square is in a much better condition, and the remaining squares on 
 the belt are occupied principally by first-class houses, containing all the 
 modern improvements and proper sanitary regulations. 
 
 The remaining two belts can neither of them be said to be in a good 
 sanitary condition, with the exception of a few localities. The streets 
 and gutters here are generally in a bad condition, and many of the inhab- 
 itants are extremely careless in regard to their garbage, house-slops, etc. 
 Dirty cellars, neglected privies, crowded and rear tenements, are found on 
 most of the squares, with more or less of the sickness peculiar to such 
 quarters. 
 
 The Inhabitants. — The first and third belt are occupied principally 
 by people of American birth, many of them engaged in commercial pur- 
 suits. There are, however, many of the poorer class of all nationalities 
 on the first, and a few on the third belt. In some portion of the second, 
 and on a small portion of the first belt, there arc many colored people, 
 generally industrious and enterprising, a few of them owning the houses 
 in which they live. These people either labor at whitewashing and car- 
 pet-shaking, or are coachmen, footmen, waiters, porters, etc. The second 
 belt has a mixed population, the foreign element, I think, predominating. 
 They are generally tradesmen, cartmen, mechanics, or laborers. On tho 
 fourth and fifth belts the population is hy a large majority of foreign birth, 
 and principally Irish. They arc tradesmen, mechanics, and laborers. 
 There is rather more intemperance in this than there is in the eastern 
 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRIVATE DWELLINGS AND TENANT-HOUSES. 241 
 
 portion of the district, though there are no localities in the district very 
 Qotorious for the prevalence of vice and immorality. 
 
 Buildings. — Owing to the important changes continually occurring in 
 some portions of our city many of our statistics can only be approxima- 
 tive. The following, however, is as nearly correct an account as I can 
 furnish of the buildings in my district : 
 
 Whole number of houses, 
 
 Tenant-houses, 
 
 Rear houses, 
 
 Stores, 
 
 Drinking shops, 
 Factories, . 
 Churches, 
 Public schools, 
 Vacant lots, 
 
 2,124 
 1,206 
 231 
 448 
 130 
 25 
 11 
 2 
 28 
 
 About one-seventh of the houses in the district are what are called 
 first-class houses, built either of stone or brick, from three to four stories 
 in height, and containing all the " modern improvements." Most of these 
 houses are of modern date, having been erected within the last ten or 
 fifteen years ; they are commodious, well ventilated, and in good sanitary 
 condition. The water is supplied to every floor, especially to the kitchen 
 and sleeping-rooms, and to each hydrant are pipes for the free discharge 
 of waste water. A few of these houses are warmed with stoves or grates, 
 but most of them are supplied with furnace-heaters. Gas is used for 
 lighting. The bath-room, containing also a water-closet, is usually lo- 
 cated at the rear end of the hall, either on the second or third floor, and in 
 some houses there is also a water-closet in the basement. The waste- 
 pipes of the house, when properly trapped and well constructed, afford 
 good drainage, and prevent the escape into the house of any offensive smell 
 from the sewer. A majority of the houses in my district are what are 
 called tenant-houses ; and I believe that by far the most fruitful source of 
 disease and that which contributes most largely to the bills of mortality, 
 especially infant mortality, is the present system of overcrowding this class 
 of houses. The apartments allotted to each family in the ordinary tenant- 
 house usually consist of one main room, and one or perhaps two small 
 bedrooms. The main room, used for a parlor, sitting-room, kitchen, and 
 laundry, is ventilated by means of two windows and a door leading into 
 the hall. There is also a fireplace, which in winter is usually closed, the 
 room being warmed with a stove. The ceilings vary somewhat in height, 
 16 
 
242 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 but 8 feet is, I think, the average. In the rear of the main room is the 
 bedroom, about 8 or 10 feet square, often less, dark, and often -without 
 any means of ventilation except the door leading to the main room, which 
 reduces both rooms to one common atmosphere. In a few of the best 
 tenant-houses there is a small window from the bedroom to the hall which 
 affords a better ventilation. In some of them there is, in addition to the 
 dark bedroom, a small hall bedroom with a good window affording both 
 light and ventilation. In what is called a single tenant-house we have 
 accommodations of this kind for two families on each floor, the bedrooms 
 occupying the space between the two main rooms. In the double tenant- 
 house we have the same accommodations for four families on a floor, the 
 hall and stairway being in the centre, and apartments for two families on 
 each side. 
 
 Table showing the number of cubic feet of air-space to each individual in 
 
 in tenant-houses. 
 Number of tenant-houses in which there are less than 
 
 300 cubic feet of air to each individual, . 2 
 " 400 " " 26 
 
 " 500 " " 184 
 
 " 800 " " 788 
 
 " in which there are 1,000 or more " . 118 
 The greatest number of cubic feet to an individual in 
 
 any one tenant-house, ...... 2,280 
 
 The least, 252 
 
 One thousand cubic feet of air is now deemed requisite to each indi- 
 vidual, yet a mere glance at the above table will show how small a pro- 
 portion of tenements in this district furnish to their inmates the required 
 amount of that most essential life-sustaining principle. In one of these 
 pent-up apartments live, eat, sleep, cook, and wash, a family of perhaps 
 five or six individuals. At night both rooms are occupied, for what is a 
 eettce or a lounge during the day is easily transformed into a bed, or per- 
 haps a straw mattrass on the floor forms the sleeping accommodations of 
 some portion of the family. When called to one of these tenements in 
 the night time, in a professional capacity, the medical man is arrested at the 
 entrance of the apartment by an atmosphere loaded with carbonic acid 
 gas from the lungs, and the various exhalations from the bodies of those 
 crowded within. On a mattrass in one corner of the main room slumber 
 two or three children in blissful ignorance of tbo violation of any law of 
 sanitary science ; the lounge may be occupied by the maiden aunt, or u 
 
FAULTY HOUSE. — DRAINAGE. 
 
 243 
 
 boarder, or some adult member of the family ; while m the miserable, 
 dark, unventilated hole called a bedroom, is the patient surrounded by two 
 or three officious neighbors doing their utmost to poison what little air 
 might otherwise reach the sufferer. Almost before learning the nature 
 of his visit, the physician instinctively raises a window, and what often 
 proves the most powerful remedial agent at his command is freely admit- 
 ted. This is no exaggeration, for it has been my fortune, and doubtless 
 that of many others, to be called in the night for a distance of several 
 blocks to find the only professional services actually needed to be the open- 
 ing of a window, and the admission of an adequate supply of that pure air 
 which our all-wise Creator intended should be enjoyed by all of his 
 creatures freely and without stint. 
 
 "Water-Supply and House Drainage. — Concerning the water-sup- 
 ply and house drainage, there is in most of the tenant-houses room for 
 improvement. In the better class of tenements the supply is ample, there 
 being usually at least one hydrant to each floor, sometimes one to each 
 family. In the former case it is located in the hall and resorted to by 
 each family on the floor, in the latter case it is located in the main room,' 
 or pantry, if there be one, or sometimes in the bedroom. It is not un- 
 usual while investigating the sanitary condition of a tenement, to hear 
 complaints of the imperfect construction of the Croton-pipes, a leak in one, 
 or some obstruction in another, often demanding the plumber's attention. 
 The waste-pipe is also a frequent source of annoyance, not only from ob- 
 struction and leakage, but there being one continuous pipe from the top 
 to the bottom of the house forming connections at each floor, when the 
 families in the lower apartments empty their house-slops, the water in 
 obedience to the law of gravitation descends, while the vapor, obeying an 
 equally imperative law, ascends through the pipes, escaping into the 
 apartments above, disseminating a most foul and disagreeable, not to 
 say unhealthy odor. I have been in houses where the water was kept run 
 ning during certain portions of the day to avoid the necessity of inhaling 
 this disagreeable vapor, when by having the waste-pipes properly trap- 
 ped, this annoyance could be effectually avoided, and the tenants re- 
 lieved not only of a very unpleasant odor, but of one of the many 
 sources of insalubrity so common in tenant-houses. In many instances 
 the cellar to the tenant-house is made the receptacle for all the 
 rubbish apparently accumulated for years, and consequently many of 
 them are so dirty that they are never used by the tenants for any purpose 
 whatever. It seems to be no one's business to remove this dirt, the land- 
 lord claiming that it is the fault of the tenants that the nuisance exists, 
 and the tenants declaring their innocence, and blaming their predecessors. 
 
2M 
 
 EEPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 In many tenant-houses the first floor is occupied as a store, in which are 
 sold cheap groceries, stale vegetables, very strong butter, a fluid bearing 
 some resemblance to milk, and too often those mysterious compounds 
 known as " new imported wines and liquors." Beer is also sold to a 
 greater extent than any other commodity, most of the tenants deeming it 
 indispensable to their comfort. 
 
 The rear tenements are found to be in a much more repulsive condi- 
 tion, and in every respect more insalubrious than those in front. In order 
 to reach one of these houses we pass through a narrow alley, the centre 
 or one side of which is in many instances used as a surface-drain for the 
 purpose of carrying off the house-slops and waste-water which, to the 
 annoyance of the passers-by, must cross the sidewalk in order to reach 
 the street gutter. This alley passes under the front house, a few steps to 
 the rear of which stands the object of our search surrounded on all sides 
 by buildings of its own height, and consequently not only shut out from 
 view of the street but from every current of air which might dilute and 
 disperse the noxious effluvia arising from the overfilled privy, usually in 
 close proximity to the entrance of the house, aud for a greater part of the 
 day from that very essential life-sustaining element, the light of the sun, 
 without which the most vigorous specimens of either animal or vegetable 
 life will fade and die. The water-supply to these houses is generally lim- 
 ited to one hydrant situated in the yard, or at the entrance of the alley. 
 There is, in some instances, a drain leading from the hydrant into the 
 privy-vault, where the latter is connected with the street sewer, for the pur- 
 pose of conducting thither the waste water that it may effect the cleans- 
 ing of the privy. This, however, it often fails to do, especially if the 
 drain from the vaults be obstructed, the result of which is often the over- 
 flowing of the vault. I have visited houses where it was impossible to 
 pass through the yard, except by the aid of stepping-stones, without 
 getting the feet soiled from this very source. From this cause a sickening 
 effluvium is constantly arising, pervading the whole house, and often ex- 
 tending to the street. Under circumstances like these I have found cases 
 of typhoid fever, dysentery, &c. 
 
 The apartments of these houses usually consist of a room and bedroom 
 to each family. In some instances there are two bedrooms, but in most 
 of the rear houses but one, sometimes containing two beds separated by a 
 curtain. The bedroom, always in the rear of the main room, usually 
 contains a small window ; but, as before stated, in consequence of its 
 proximity to the walls of the corresponding rear building of the adjoining 
 lot, which may be a house, a stable, or whatever the owner may choose 
 to build, this window is of no use for the admission of light, and for 
 
HABITS AND DISEASES IN EEAK TENEMENTS. 
 
 245 
 
 reasons before stated can rarely be used for tbe purpose of ventilation. 
 In a majority of rear tenements, therefore, the apartments are dirty, dark, 
 and uninviting, often reeking with filth, the walls wholly innocent of 
 whitewash, and the atmosphere impregnated with the disagreeable odor 
 so peculiar to tenant-houses. In some the sun never shines, and the 
 apartments are so dark that unless seated near the window, it is impossi- 
 ble to read ordinary type ; and yet the inspector often hears the hackneyed 
 expression, " We have no sickness, thank God," uttered by those whose 
 sunken eyes, pale cheeks, and colorless lips speak more eloquently than 
 words of the anasmic condition inevitably resulting from the absence of 
 pure, fresh air, and the genial light of the sun. Some of these houses 
 are built with the stairs on the outside leading to a portico to each story, 
 which, by projecting over the windows, excludes the greater portion of 
 what little sunshine might otherwise enter the apartment. The cellars of 
 these houses (those that have cellars) are generally in a more filthy con- 
 dition than those in front, being not only loaded with the accumulated 
 masses of dirt, garbage, rubbish, etc., but often substituted for the privies, 
 the latter being unapproachable, either from neglect of cleanliness or the 
 malicious behavior of some of the tenants, who, in many instances, seem 
 to wholly disregard personal cleanliness, if not the very first principles 
 of decency, their general appearance and actions corresponding with the 
 condition of their wretched abodes. This is particularly the case with 
 their clothing, especially their bed-clothing, which has the appearance of 
 rarely being washed or changed, and is consequently saturated with the 
 secretions and exhalations from the bodies of their occupants. This in- 
 difference to personal and domiciliary cleanliness is doubtless acquired 
 from a long familiarity with their loathsome surroundings, wholly at 
 variance with all moral or social improvement, as well as the first princi- 
 ples of hygienic science. The food of these people consists principally of 
 the cheap meats and groceries purchased in the immediate neighborhood, 
 and the half-wilted vegetables furnished by the street-hawkers, washed 
 down by generous potations of stale beer. Very poor tea, and a misera- 
 ble preparation called rye coffee, are also used to a considerable extent. 
 The drinking shops in front of these houses are in too many instances 
 patronized by both sexes, another illustration of the demoralizing effects 
 of this mode of living. 
 
 Although the past season has been healthy so far as my district is 
 concerned, yet I can unhesitatingly say that by far the greater amount of 
 preventable disease has been found in locations similar to those just de- 
 scribed, showing the most conclusive illustrations of the relation of cause 
 to effect. At an early period of our organization a member of the Council 
 
216 REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 suggested the question of acclimitation as influencing to some extent the 
 direct effects of these various causes of insalubrity. I regarded the idea 
 as an important one, ever keeping it in view, and have on several occasions 
 noticed that families suffering the most from diseases peculiar to the 
 season, were comparatively new-comers, and but for a short time exposed 
 to these morbific influences ; while the older residents, though enjoying to 
 some extent an apparent immunity from these characteristic diseases, 
 often exhibited a degree of both mental and physical degeneration but 
 poorly calculated to resist the force of epidemic influences, or the actual 
 presence of disease. The children are strumous, and fall easy victims to 
 whooping cough, measles, scarlet fever, small-pox, etc. I have not been 
 able to ascertain the extent to which factories, stables, and slaughter-houses 
 affect the public health, though in regard to the latter I believe that in 
 my district they are in as good condition as can be expected of such " in- 
 stitutions." In only one instance have I heard complaints of negligence 
 in the disposal of offal, and the consequent stench arising therefrom. But 
 however well they may be managed, there is at least in connection with 
 them much that is offensive, and I believe injurious to the health of large 
 cities. In regard to factories, I believe their average condition in respect 
 to cleanliness and ventilation to be far more favorable both to comfort and 
 health than the average condition of crowded tenements. 
 
 Vacant Lots. — Most of the vacant lots in the district arc in a fair 
 sanitary condition, though quite a number are in a very bad condition, con- 
 taining large quantities of decaying vegetable matter thrown there from 
 time to time by the inhabitants of the neighboring tenant-houses. There 
 are two lots of this character in Thirty-second Street near Tenth Avenue, 
 each containing an abundance of every thing that is filthy, which add mate- 
 rially to the disgusting character of the streets. Many of these lots contain 
 rubbish consisting principally of refuse matter from the various branches 
 of industry, ashes, garbage, and a variety of worthless material of every 
 description. A vacant lot in Thirtieth Street near Sixth Avenue is sur 
 rounded by small wooden sheds used as stables, and the lot itself contains 
 every species of rubbish, consisting of broken carts, milk-wagons, old 
 wheels, and a variety of articles of this description too numerous to men- 
 tion. This locality enjoys the classic name of " Bummers' Retreat," so 
 called from the fact that certain members of our democracy, after having 
 imbibed somewhat freely at the shrine of Bacchus, may " turn in," and 
 beneath the shelter of some friendly cart, or some vacant stable, sleep 
 away the effects of their recent potations. 
 
 Cellar-Population. — The cellar-population in the Twentieth Dis- 
 trict is not so large, neither is their condition so bad as in many other 
 
CELLAR POPULATION. — AIR-SPACE. 
 
 247 
 
 portions of the city. I have, by the kindness of Captain Lord of the 
 Sanitary Company M. P., obtained the amount of the cellar-population 
 of all the cross streets in the district, which comprises nearly all, as on 
 the avenues there are scarcely any that can be classed as such. We 
 occasionally on the evenues find a tailor or shoemaker occupying the front 
 portion of a basement as his workshop, the rear portion being occupied 
 by his little family, which comprises about all the cellar-population on the 
 avenues. 
 
 Statement of Cellar-Population on the Cross Streets. 
 
 Number of houses containing cellar-population, . . .96 
 
 Whole number of individuals constituting " . . 567 
 
 Minimum amount of air-space to an individual, . . . 280 
 Number of houses containing less than 500 cubic ft. to an individual, 12 
 
 u it u m 700 » " . 46 
 
 u u u « 900 " " 68 
 
 " " containing 1,000 " or over " . 22 
 
 Number of basements containing only two persons each, . 8 
 
 « « " over nine " . . 8 
 
 The largest number of persons in one basement, . . 14 
 
 In calculating the number of cubic feet of air-space to an individual 
 in a tenant-house, the width and depth of the house is multiplied by the 
 height, and that divided by the number of people in the house. So with 
 the cellar-population, the width and depth of the house multiplied by the 
 height of the basement-ceiling gives what is called the number of cubic 
 feet of air-space which includes the hall, stairway, partitions, &c. It 
 will be seen, therefore, that these figures do not represent a correct esti- 
 mate of the actual number of cubic feet of breathing air allotted to each 
 individual, for when we make allowance for the furniture contained in 
 these apartments we must make a still further reduction and reduce the 
 actual amount of air to a figure considerably below that of the present 
 estimate. The amount of cellar-population in the city, Captain Lord 
 informs me, has considerably diminished ; and as far as the Twentieth 
 District is concerned, they are in many instances, especially those on the 
 sunny side of the street, more comfortable than the occupants of the 
 rear tenement. There are, however, many examples showing that what- 
 ever has heretofore been said of dark, damp, and cheerless abodes of our 
 cellar-population, is no exaggeration. But I shall leave any further re- 
 marks on this subject to those in whose districts the evil is found to exist 
 in a much greater degree than in the Twentieth Ward. 
 
 Improvements. — No instance of any improvement made through the 
 
248 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 influence of the health department officials has come to my knowledge 
 since commencing this inspection. To show, however, the facility with 
 which many of these evils are remedied. I would add that in many in- 
 stances my visits have been followed with this desired result without the 
 necessity for a complaint ; the landlords sometimes going so far as to 
 issue printed notices to their tenants containing certain requisitions, and 
 threatening ejectment as a penalty for their non-compliance. It has ever 
 been my aim to make as few complaints as possible, and to effect desired 
 changes in a peaceable manner. The experience which I have had in this 
 respect has convinced me that, if invested with legal authority, your in- 
 spectors could have easily instituted a thorough sanitary reform through- 
 out the city ; and that the present health wardens have no excuse what- 
 ever for allowing so many nuisances to exist, and manifesting so little in- 
 terest for the sanitary condition of their respective wards. I am more 
 than ever convinced that this office of health warden is a mere sinecure, 
 generally awarded to political favorites who understand little and care less 
 about the duties incumbent upon them, and whose official occupation, aside 
 from electioneering, seems to be to draw and spend their salaries. As 
 far as my own ward is concerned, I never hear of this functionary in his 
 official capacity, although there is enough to occupy his attention, and test 
 his capacity as a health officer. If instead of filling this important office 
 with men ignorant of the first principles of sanitary science, a competent 
 medical man were appointed to each ward, with one of Captain Lord's 
 efficient men as an assistant, more would be accomplished in a single 
 month toward promoting the real sanitary interests of the city, than is 
 ever done by these misnamed guardians of the public health ; and I be- 
 lieve that not until these sacred trusts are confided to competent men, will 
 the important duties of health warden ever be discharged in a conscien- 
 tious and intelligent manner. 
 
 Diseases. — The principal diseases met with during the past season 
 have been typhoid fever, measles, scarlet fever, diarrhoea, cholera infan- 
 tum, and dysentery. But few cases of small-pox have come to my knowl- 
 edge within the district.* I have found but few houses with more tban 
 one or two cases of sickness at one time, most of them being isolated 
 casc3 in localities where causes of insalubrity were seen ; and wherever 
 a house has borne to any extent the appearance of a fever-nest or pest- 
 house, these causes have existed in proportion. 
 
 It might be asked why it is that no greater amount of sickness is 
 found in places where there arc so many apparent sources of insalubrity. 
 It is a fact in medical science, better known than understood, that to cer- 
 tain conditions of the atmosphere are duo the characteristic features of 
 • Since tins Report was written Small-pox has become fearfully prevalent 
 
EPIDEMICS AM) ENDEMICS EST TENANT QUARTERS. 249 
 
 the prevailing disease of any season. Precisely what this atmospheric 
 agency is that gives us an epidemic of typhoid fever at one. time, and 
 small-pox or cholera at another, we are ignorant ; hut the fact that it does 
 exist, and the knowledge of that fact, should suffice to induce us to guard 
 with jealous care our sanitary interests, and leave behind no magazine to 
 explode at the slightest exposure to these meteorological changes. Dur- 
 ing the past season we have been unusually free from epidemic influences, 
 and these germs of disease have been permitted to remain latent in many 
 places, awaiting only the appropriate stimulus to send them forth to the 
 successful and speedy execution of their destructive mission. Had an 
 epidemic of cholera or dysentery appeared in these localities during the 
 past summer, its ravages would have been fearful, as the well-known his- 
 tory of epidemics can abundantly testify ; and even sporadic cases of 
 measles and scarlet fever prove fatal in a much greater proportion in these 
 localities than in the more salubrious districts. A very large majority of 
 cases of cholera infantum occurring in rear tenements from which are ex- 
 cluded the genial rays of sunshine, and where the atmosphere is loaded 
 with the emanations from overflowing privies, filthy cellars, and undrained 
 cesspools, prove rapidly fatal in spite of the most judicious medical treat- 
 ment ; whereas, when the disease appears under more favorable circum- 
 stances, a fair proportion of the little patients recover. This is not the 
 hasty conclusions of an overwrought fancy, influenced by some finely-spun 
 theory, but the conscientious conviction that emanates from the experience 
 of physicians who have for years given this subject their careful, earnest at- 
 tention. It is in accordance with your own experience, gentlemen, who 
 have often seen your best efforts baffled by these counteracting influences 
 of the surrounding sources and propagators of disease. 
 
 I have often found an apparent unwillingness on the part of tenants to 
 acknowledge the truth in regard to the actual amount of sickness occur- 
 ring amongst them, often pursuing my inquiries as far as the third floor, 
 and there learning that deaths had occurred from fever, or cholera infan- 
 tum, after having been told repeatedly that there neither was nor had been 
 sickness in the house. I have not been able to account for this unwilling- 
 ness to communicate information ; but having seen it manifested on so 
 many occasions, have no doubt that much of the truth escapes the knowl- 
 edge of the inspector, and that a greater amount of disease has been pres- 
 ent than Ave have been able to learn. Besides epidemic influence, there 
 are many diseases propagated by certain noxious emanations arising from 
 the bodies of those laboring under the same diseases, diffusing themselves 
 througli the atmosphere, and entering the body during respiration ; or in 
 other instances attaching themselves to certain substances (fomites), by 
 
250 REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SAN IT ART DISTRICT. 
 
 means of which they may be transported to places far remote from their 
 original development, still remaining active elements of disease. If this 
 contagious or infectious element be diluted by a sufficient amount of pure 
 air, or, in other words, if the apartments of the sick are well ventilated, 
 and proper hygienic precautions observed by the friends and attendants, 
 there will be but little danger from exposure to its influence. If, on the 
 other hand, it be confined to crowded tenements, filthy courts, or narrow 
 and dirty streets, all of which are exposed to the effluvia arising from open 
 privies, cesspools, decomposing animal and vegetable matter, and the ex- 
 halations from living bodies, the result is quite different, and the demon 
 of contagion stalks forth in all its power and malignancy, seizing its vic- 
 tims upon every side, and increasing the bills of mortality to a frightful 
 degree. It is, then, to epidemic and contagious influences when associ- 
 ated with overcrowding and want of ventilation, the miasm arising from 
 the filthy and disgusting condition of external surroundings, the dissipated 
 habits, poverty, and destitution often prevailing in these localities, that 
 is due the greater portion of preventable disease ; and it is by the 
 absence of these epidemic and contagious influences, the naturally 
 healthy topography, and the occasional fresh breezes from the Hud- 
 son, that I account for the fact of there being no greater amount of 
 sickness in certain portions of the Twentieth District, where so many 
 causes of insalubrity exist. Another cause of disease which deserves 
 particular attention from our authorities, is the inferior quality of food used 
 by the poor, especially the miserable half-wilted vegetables and unripe 
 fruit, either hawked through the streets or found in profusion at the various 
 small groceries throughout the city. To this may be added the milk 
 from swill-fed cows with which some portion of our city is still supplied, 
 the evil effects of which have on previous occasions been most graphically 
 portrayed ; and the very poor liquor in which a portion of the poor of 
 both sexes too freely indulge, under the erroneous impression that a cer- 
 tain amount of stimulus is alike necessary to protect them from the cold 
 of winter and the diseases peculiar to the summer months, thus paving 
 the way to intemperance and every consequent vice. The fact that " dis- 
 ease has ever been remarked to go hand in hand with poverty and want, 
 and to be proportionate to their extent," should also warn us to look well 
 to the sanitary condition of our city. We arc in the midst of a season of 
 high prices, with the laborer's remuneration inadequate to the bare neces- 
 sities of life, and the prospect of a severe winter before us, the inevitable 
 consequence of which will be to so reduce the vital forces, and weaken 
 (lie powers of resistance to external impressions, as to convert what may 
 in seasons of plenty be considered merely predisposing, into active or ex- 
 
FOOD FOE DISEASE. — NEGLECT OF VACCINATION. 
 
 251 
 
 citing causes of disease. As an illustration of this I need only allude to 
 the fact that fever is pretty sure to follow a famine, originating in the 
 more filthy localities, and selecting its first victims from among those 
 whom the various causes above mentioned have combined to render more 
 susceptible to the reception of contagious or malarial poison. Even 
 though we were so fortunate as to pass through the present winter, and 
 escape the visitation of any severe epidemic or contagious disease, what 
 may we not reasonably expect during the following season, if the many 
 nuisances above described are allowed to remain unabated? Will not 
 the germs of disease here so carefully nurtured, be rendered ten fold 
 more active upon constitutions already reduced by insufficient food and 
 clothing, to say nothing of the nervous exhaustion induced by the depress- 
 ing passions to which the poor are subjected in every season of destitution 
 and want ? 
 
 It is a well-known fact that a large amount of disease occurring in 
 our midst is of a preventable character, and in a great degree subject to 
 sanitary laws, in the observance of which the people, especially the poor, 
 need to be educated. As an instance of the neglect of precautionary 
 measures, either through ignorance or carelessness, I would state that 
 while inspecting a court containing some 25 families, I found, in addi- 
 tion to the usual sources of insalubrity, 8 children between the ages of 
 1 and 12 years, who had never been vaccinated. If people will con- 
 tinue to neglect measures so simple and yet so effectual, notwithstanding 
 the repeated epidemics of small-pox with which our city is visited, the 
 time must arrive when compulsory vaccination will be imperatively de- 
 manded, not only for our own protection, but as a duty which New York 
 as a great commercial centre owes to the surrounding country. People 
 from all directions are continually visiting our city, and carrying away 
 with them to their respective neighborhoods the germs of this most loath- 
 some disease, than which nothing is more under the immediate control of 
 preventive medicine. What is true of fevers and small-pox may also be 
 said of the greater part of infantile disease. During four weeks in the 
 month of August of the present year, there died in this city 1,773 children, 
 1,626 of them being children of foreign-born parents, a great majoi-ity of 
 whom we know belong to the laboring classes, and live in crowded ten- 
 ements or pent-up courts, surrounded by filthy gutters, garbage-boxes, 
 neglected privies and cesspools, to Avhich with the adulterated milk and 
 stale vegetables with which these poor innocents are fed, is due a great 
 portion of this infant mortality. Notwithstanding, however, the yearly 
 repetition of these facts, we read in the last Report of the Registrar of 
 Records and statistics to the City Inspector, that " this talk about tho 
 
252 REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 number of lives that are lost each, year for want of proper sanitary meas- 
 ures, is a perfect fallacy." * As an off-set to this luminous effusion I 
 would beg leave to close this portion of my subject by another single quo- 
 tation : " Nature deals out death with terrible severity to those who vio- 
 late her laws, even in ignorance ; and it is for the most only through 
 dearly-bought experience that those laws are ascertained." j - 
 
 Conclusion. — I have thus far endeavored to give a faithful though 
 brief account of the sanitary condition of the southern half of the Twen- 
 tieth Ward. A more extended report would require more time and space 
 than is allotted me, and it now only remains for me to suggest such reme- 
 dial measures as would most probably conduce to sanitary improvement : 
 
 1. A more thorough system of drainage by means of sewers and 
 waste-pipes, is, I believe, imperatively demanded ; and for reasons ad- 
 vanced under the head of sewerage, I think the improvement there sug- 
 gested admirably adapted to our necessities, both for efficiency and econ- 
 omy, it being easily applied to all sewers now, or hereafter constructed. 
 The house drainage should consist of pipes of suitable capacity and im- 
 pervious material leading directly from each house to the sewer, instead 
 of one being connected with several houses as is now too often the case ; 
 and the waste-pipes through the house should be so thoroughly trapped as 
 to render the escape of sewer gas impossible. I would recommend the 
 entire removal of cesspools from courts and alleys, and the introduction 
 of tubular drains leading into the street sewer. 
 
 2. Tbe old-fashioned cobble pavement should be wholly dispensed 
 with, and that of cubic blocks of trap-rock substituted, as affording greater 
 facilities for cleaning, and therefore more conducive to health. With 
 this pavement, I would insist upon the streets being swept so frequently 
 as to obviate the apparent necessity for sprinkling, for reasons elsewhere 
 given. 
 
 3. I would recommend the removal of slaughter-houses from the city, 
 and the annihilation, if possible, of the garbage-box, adopting some system 
 for the removal of garbage from the houses without its being exposed for 
 any time upon the sidewalk. The present system of sending a bell-man in 
 advance of the cart, as practised in some of the streets, might be made 
 very efficient, if properly executed. I would then impose a heavy line 
 upon every green grocer, meat, fish, or poultry dealer who throws any of 
 his refuse material, whether animal or vegetable, into the gutters or street, 
 as is now too frequently done. 
 
 * City Inspector's Report for 18G3, page 335. 
 
 f Local Reports on the sanitary condition of the laboring population of England and 
 Wales, 1842, page 150. 
 
PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 253 
 
 4. The privies to tenant-houses should be connected with the street 
 sewer, by means of tubular drains of sufficient capacity and inclination to 
 prevent their obstruction, through which a current of water might be 
 made to pass at intervals, with sufficient force to insure its thorough clean- 
 ing. The plan in use at the public schools is perhaps the best for tenant- 
 houses. Even as now constructed, tight-fitting covers to the seats, and a 
 ventilating tube extending high above the roof, would afford some relief, 
 as the effluvium there, if carried to a sufficient height, might be diluted 
 or dispersed by a current of air. 
 
 5. I woidd recommend that a system of marketing be instituted by 
 which the consumer is brought into immediate relation with the producer ; 
 thus placing within the reach of the poor of our city good wholesome food, 
 in place of the miserable half-wilted trash almost universally used by 
 this class of people. 
 
 6. I would have the entire sanitary interests of the city intrusted to a 
 board composed of well-educated medical men, with whom should be 
 associated engineers and architects of acknowledged ability, whose advice 
 should at all times be sought upon questions c.oming within the sphere 
 of their professional duties. This sanitary board should have power to 
 appoint inspectors, consisting of at least one medical man to each ward, 
 with a competant assistant, to take the place of those myths the health 
 warden and his assistant. These ward officers should have power to 
 suppress all nuisances, to enforce certain sanitary regulations, including 
 both out-door and in-door cleanliness, to investigate, and as far as pos- 
 sible remove all apparent causes of preventable disease ; and, in short, to 
 exercise a general supervision over the entire sanitary interests of their 
 respective wards. 
 
 7. The establishment of a vaccine bureau, with an adequate number 
 of inspectors, whose duty it should be to visit and present the subject of 
 vaccination to every family in their respective districts, offering gratuitous 
 vaccination to all who are unable to pay for it, and urging upon others 
 the importance of attending to the matter at the earliest opportunity. 
 Such a course would eventually expel the small-pox from our city, or at 
 least limit its ravages to a few isolated cases. 
 
 8. The passage of a building act prohibiting the present system of 
 crowding and building houses on plans so injurious to health, the occupa- 
 tion of cellars for dwellings, and subjecting to certain restrictions the con- 
 struction of courts and rear houses. For what calls most imperatively 
 for reform, is the present construction of tenant-houses as regards light, 
 ventilation, and every necessary comfort. Not only does the present 
 system of overcrowding these pent-up and unventilated apartments, and 
 
254 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 the consequent necessity of inhaling an atmosphere loaded with carhonic 
 acid gas, and the poisonous exhalations from human bodies, enervate the 
 physical powers, and predispose to diseases of the worst type, but its de- 
 moralizing effects are fearful to contemplate, and instead of being the 
 most attractive, home is often rendered the most uncomfortable and unin- 
 viting spot on earth. Hence it is that the husband spends his evenings 
 at the neighboring dram-shop, or the gambling-house, in search of com- 
 forts which his own fireside denies him. Hence it is that children reared 
 amid these scenes of poverty, intemperance, and the whole train of their 
 attendant evils, becoming daily more familiar with profanity and every 
 species of wickedness, grow up willing and early victims to whatever 
 vicious or criminal course may seem to them more attractive than their 
 own miserable abodes. And hence I believe much of the vice, immoral- 
 ity, and crime of our city to be due to the construction, overcrowding, and 
 mismanagement of tenant-houses. 
 
 Efforts are from time to time made to relieve the condition of the 
 poor, for which associations and individuals have contributed largely, all 
 of which, however, is but a sprinkling of rain upon this great waste of 
 human misery and destitution. The man of God who, in the exercise of 
 his sacred office, frequents these abodes of poverty in the hopes of direct- 
 ing the attention of some poor creature to the One thing needful, too often 
 encounters only that sullen or desponding indifference resulting from a 
 long familiarity with every thing that is cheerless and unattractive. If 
 we would elevate the condition of these people, we must begin by reliev- 
 ing their social and domestic necessities, and furnishing them with habita- 
 tions where they can enjoy sunshine and pure air, with abundant facilities 
 for personal and domiciliary cleanliness. We then shall have taken the 
 first step toward improving their moral as well as physical condition, and 
 pointing them to the fulfilment of man's higher destiny. But the dark 
 and cheerless rear tenement, with its unventilated apartments, its damp 
 and dingy walls, and the attendant neglect of all sanitary measures, is 
 wholly incompatible with man's social and moral nature, destroys all 
 noble aspirations, ruins the most vigorous health, and opens wide the 
 gate to mental, moral, physical, and spiritual death. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TWENTY-FIRST SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 JAMES L. LITTLE, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — The Twenty-first District comprises the northern half of 
 the Twentieth Ward, and is bounded north by Fortieth Street, east by Sixth 
 Avenue, south by Thirty-third Street, and west by the Hudson River. It 
 contains A.1 squares. 
 
 Topographt. — The original surface of this section of the city was 
 high, rocky, and very uneven. The general slope was to the west, al- 
 though a portion inclined to the south and east. This condition of the sur- 
 face afforded good facilities for drainage, the greater portion of the water 
 flowing into the Hudson River on one side, and on the other running into 
 streams which emptied into the East River. 
 
 The highest ground began at Thirty-third Street and Sixth Avenue, 
 running in a northerly direction as far as Thirty-fifth Street and Seventh 
 Avenue ; here making a turn to the west it ended abruptly in rocks at the 
 foot of Thirty-ninth Street. This high ground was formed by two hills 
 running nearly north, then west, and parallel to each other. The sum- 
 mits of these hills were formed by outcropping rock projecting above the 
 general surface. 
 
 On each side of the Bloomingdale Road (Broadway), from Thirty- 
 fourth Street to Forty-first Street, the rock was about fifteen feet above 
 the common plane. It was not in one continuous chain, but appeared al- 
 ternately on one side and then on the other. It also outcrops above the 
 surface on the banks of the Hudson River in numerous places. This rock 
 is principally gneiss, with veins of quartz running tortuously through it. 
 
258 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIRST SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Along the river, granite of an inferior quality is found. The original 
 highest elevations of ground in this section are at Thirty-third Street and 
 Sixth Avenue, Thirty-fifth Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, 
 and Thirty-eighth Street a short distance east of the Eleventh Avenue. 
 These points were from fifty-eight to sixty feet above the high-water mark. 
 The present elevations above high-water will be seen by reference to the 
 sanitary map. The land in this section, on account of the elevation, is 
 naturally very dry. 
 
 Water-courses. — There were two small, shallow ponds, one at the cor- 
 ner of Thirty-fifth Street and Seventh Avenue, and the other between 
 Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Streets, a short distance east of the Seventh 
 Avenue. 
 
 The pond at the northeast corner of Thirty-fifth Street and Seventh 
 Avenue extended about one-half across the present street and avenue. 
 From this pond a small stream flowed in a northerly direction between 
 the hills before mentioned, and emptied at about the present corner of 
 Fortieth Street and Tenth Avenue into a larger stream which originated 
 between Forty-third and Forty-fourth Streets and Eighth Avenue, and 
 flowed north, then westwardly, and then taking a southerly direction ran 
 through a marsh at Fortieth and Forty-first Streets and Tenth Avenue, 
 and finally emptied at the foot of Forty-second Street into the Hudson 
 River. The pond between Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Streets, near 
 Seventh Avenue, was about one hundred feet in diameter. This was con- 
 nected by a drain to another pond in Forty-second Street, about midway 
 between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. Another stream started from 
 Thirty-seventh Street and Eighth Avenue, flowing in a northwesterly 
 course, and emptied at Forty-second Street and Ninth Avenue. 
 
 Streets. — The condition of the streets in the Twenty-first District 
 varies with the neighborhood. In that portion cast of Eighth Avenue, 
 which contains the better class of dwellings, they are generally kept in a 
 cleanly condition, especially those streets which are paved with the Bel- 
 gian pavement. 
 
 The streets west of Eighth Avenue, with a few exceptions, arc paved 
 with cobble stones, are at all times out of repair, and at all times in a 
 very dirty condition, and are constantly obstructed by old casks, barrels, 
 and other truck. As we approach Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, some of 
 them in wet weather are almost impassable. The Eleventh Avenue is al- 
 ways in a filthy condition, and seems to be entirely out of the range of 
 the street-sweepers, who occasionally make their appearance in other parts 
 of my district. The surface filth of streets being composed of mud, offal, 
 
SEWERAGE AND TENANT-HOUSES TIP TOWN. 
 
 257 
 
 and vegetable and animal refuse that are exposed during the summer 
 months to the hot sun, gives rise to the constant evolution of deleterious 
 gases which poison the atmosphere, and thus exerts a deleterious influence 
 on the health of those living in the neighborhood. And those streets that 
 are in the worst condition are generally those in which hundreds of hu- 
 man beings are crowded in ill-ventilated tenant-houses. 
 
 Sewerage. — The Council's Sanitary and Topographical Map will show 
 the sewerage of my district. I would call the attention of the Council to 
 the sewer in Fortieth Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. This 
 is constructed after a plan suggested by Mr. Serrell, one of the city sur- 
 veyors. It is furnished with a series of traps called dirt-catchers, by 
 means of which the solid matter from the sewers is saved, and may be 
 used for fertilization ; and it is also prevented from filling up the river at 
 the mouths of the sewers. For a full description of this excellent plan of 
 sewerage, I beg leave to refer you to the report of Dr. Janes, inspector 
 of the Twentieth District.* 
 
 Buildings. — The better class of buildings in this district is mostly 
 situated in the streets east of Eighth Avenue, and as far as examined are 
 furnished with all the modern improvements. As time would not permit 
 me to make a thorough inspection of these houses, I am unable to state 
 their precise sanitary condition. 
 
 There are 330 stores in this district, and 147 places where liquor is 
 sold. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — In my district there are 41 7 tenant-houses, of which 
 345 are built of brick ; 72 are frame buildings. There are 361 front and 
 56 rear buildings. Of this number 321 are furnished with proper sewer- 
 age, and the remaining 105 have no communication with the sewers. 
 Slops, &c, are thrown into the street gutters and garbage-boxes. There 
 are 2,614 families, comprising 11,993 individuals, hiving in these tenant- 
 houses, of whom 337 live in cellars. 
 
 Ventilation. — These houses are constructed so as to contain as many 
 families as possible, and generally no attempt is made to secure for the 
 inmates proper ventilation. This is one of the chief causes of the high 
 rate of mortality which occurs in these buildings. In the words of a 
 member of the Council of Hygiene : " The close, uncleansed, unventilated 
 residences of the poor, become the homes of disease and pauperism ; the 
 crowded tenements into which avarice drives poverty, in filthy streets and 
 noisome courts, become perennial sources of deadly miasmata that may 
 
 * See the diagrams representing Mr. Serrell'a improvements, pages 234-230. — Editor. 
 
258 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIRST SAOTTARY DISTRICT. 
 
 fig. 3. 
 
 be wafted to the neighboring mansions of wealth and refinement, to cause 
 sickness and mourning there." * 
 
 Impurity of the air and a miserable home involve ill health, degrada- 
 tion, and an early death ; and the subject of providing proper homes for 
 the poor and the laboring classes of this city, is one which should engage 
 the earnest attention of our Le<?islature. 
 
 According to authority, a person 
 breathes 14 cubic feet of air per 
 hour. This quantity of air, when 
 returned from the lungs exhausted 
 of the vital element oxygen, is 
 charged with carbonic acid to such 
 an extent that it vitiates to a great 
 and poisonous degree 100 cubic feet 
 more of air. The annexed figure 
 represents this 14 cubic feet which 
 is used per hour by each individual. 
 The adjoining figure 2 represents a 
 space of 125 cubic feet. 
 
 The inclosed figure represents a 
 man of ordinary size compared with 
 the above cubic space, and it shows 
 at a glance the small amount of air 
 provided for the individual. The 
 next figure, 3, shows a space of 512 
 cubic feet as compared with the size 
 of an ordinary person.f Now many 
 of the dormitories of these tenant- 
 houses contain about this amount 
 of space, and are generally occu- 
 
 « io— & -y pied by two adults and several chil- 
 
 Fig. 4. dren. 
 This engraving (Fig. 4) shows the proportion which 1,000 cubic feet 
 bears with the above, and this amount of space few if any of the dormi- 
 tories give to a single individual. This in an hour would contain nearly 
 five times the amount of carbonic acid, and soon there would be an excess 
 of impure air for each iudividual. 
 
 • Outline of Hue Progress of Sanilary Improvement. By Dr. E. Harris. Wiley and 
 Halstcad, 18S8. 
 
 f The Builder, Vol. 17, page 64. 
 
PREVAILING MODES OF CONSTRTJCTIN'Gr TENANT-HOUSES. 259 
 
 Figure 5 represents a ground plan of one of the prevailing modes of 
 constructing tenant-houses. This is a tenant-house of the better class. Two 
 
 i — i <■- 
 
 families live on one floor, and have a ite- 5. 
 
 kitchen, sitting-room, and two bed- 
 rooms, which are without any open- 
 ing except the door by which they 
 are entered. One family (not one of 
 the poorest class) living in this build- 
 ing, was composed of five adults and 
 three children. Two of these adults, 
 one of whom was sick, occupied one 
 bedroom, D, and the remainder of the 
 family, six in number — three adults 
 and three children — slept in the other 
 bedroom, D, measuring 1\ X 8-J X 8J 
 feet. Now there is only 526 cubic 
 feet of space in this room, and by 
 careful measurement it was ascer- 
 tained that 129 cubic feet of this 
 space was taken up by the bed and 
 by old clothes and rubbish which was 
 packed in the room, so that these six 
 were compelled to sleep in one bed, 
 with an allowance of about 66 cubic 
 feet of air in the room to each person ! flooe plan. 
 
 How long in such a room does the air remain free from a poisonous 
 effect? And is it any wonder that fever, dysentery, and cholera infantum 
 are prevalent in such habitations ? 
 
 The following table will show the average cubical feet to persons living 
 in tenant-houses in this district, as given in the returns of Sanitary In- 
 spection : 
 
 103 persons have between 200 and 300 cubic feet. 
 
 H_ : : I - 
 
 330 
 
 tt 
 
 " 300 " 400 
 
 1,486 
 
 it 
 
 " 400 " 500 
 
 2,355 
 
 a 
 
 " 500 " 600 
 
 2,351 
 
 it 
 
 " 600 « 700 
 
 1,689 
 
 a 
 
 " 700 " 800 
 
 1,239 
 
 it 
 
 " 800 « 900 
 
 903 
 
 u 
 
 " 900 "1,000 
 
 1,537 
 
 u 
 
 " 1,000 and more 
 
260 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIRST SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 This estimate was made under the direction of Captain Lord, of the 
 Sanitary Squad of the Metropolitan Police. The number of cubic feet of 
 space in the whole building was divided by the number of persons living 
 in the house. No allowance was made for the halls and partitions be- 
 tween rooms, nor for the beds and other articles of furniture which occupy 
 much space in all these domiciles. This would diminish the amount of 
 cubic space nearly one-half. The sleeping-rooms of these houses are 
 small, and most of them have no facilities for ventilation. Many of them 
 are without any opening except the door by which they are entered, this 
 leading from a room in which they live and cook their meals, this room 
 seldom being aired. The closeness and impurity of the air in these apart- 
 ments can only be appreciated by a physician whose duty calls him to visit 
 such places daily. His first act on entering such room is to open the win- 
 dow to admit the pure air. 
 
 Fig. 6. Fig. 7. 
 
 MNMU.KI tUated by means of a central ventilating shaft; 
 
 Tenement with suites of apartments for two ventilation of the sitting-rooms aldod by 
 
 families upon each floor, and with through-and- through currents, 
 through ventilation. 
 
 Another way of building which provides through-and-through vcntl 
 
NUISANCES THAT PRODUCE DISEASE. 
 
 261 
 
 lation, is represented in Fig. 6. This is so arranged that two families can 
 occupy one floor, and each have a parlor, S, kitchen, K, and two bedrooms 
 between, D, D. There are two houses in Thirty-ninth Street, between 
 the Eighth and Ninth Avenues, owned by Mr. Connelly, which are con- 
 structed as the diagram shows (Fig. 7) , with a ventilating shaft running 
 from the basement to the roof. Into this the bedrooms open by means of 
 windows. This plan allows a certain amount of ventilation to take 
 place ; and although not presented as a model tenement, yet I think it is 
 an improvement upon the old way of building tenant-houses. 
 
 Privies. — The privies generally stand in the yard, adjoining the house ; 
 one set of privies being used for two houses. In the majority of cases 
 they are connected with the sewers. But there are also many which are 
 not thus connected, and these constitute one of the greatest evils of this 
 city. Many of them are allowed to become full to the extreme limit 
 provided by law, and remain in this condition for weeks before they are 
 cleaned. During my inspection I reported a number which were filled, 
 and at the same time in such need of repair as to hazard the lives of 
 those who entered them. The proximity of these places to the houses 
 in many cases is a fact to which I would call your attention. One in- 
 stance of this kind I may state : At a house in Fortieth Street, be- 
 tween Broadway and Seventh Avenue, the privy is situated about 10 
 feet from the door, and there is another on a line 10 feet from the 
 first, and still another within 10 feet of the last mentioned, making three 
 privies within 30 feet, and two of these belong to houses fronting on 
 Broadway. The offensive odor arising from these places contaminates the 
 air of the houses in the vicinity. This house, in Fortieth Street, is act- 
 ually unfit to live in. At the time of my inspection the noxious gases 
 from these privies were strongly perceptible in every part of the house. 
 There has been no great amount of sickness in this house. This may 
 be attributed to the fact that few families are able to remain long in 
 the building. 
 
 Nuisances. — The nuisances in my district are the slaughter-houses, 
 fat-boiling and gut-cleaning establishments, swill-milk stables, and 
 manure heaps. These all, in their several ways, add to the impurities of 
 the atmosphere, and help to create and foster disease. 
 
 Slaughter-Houses. — There are 23 slaughter-houses in my district. 
 Included in this number are several large pork-packing establishments. 
 With few exceptions these places are kept in tolerable good order. There 
 are, however, several which are situated in streets which are not sewered, 
 and the blood and liquid offal is conducted by drains into the street gutters. 
 In one instance in Thirty-ninth Street, the blood and liquid offal flows the 
 
262 EEPOKT OF THE TWENTY-FIRST SANITARY DISTEIC1. 
 
 distance of two blocks before it empties into the river. This, during the 
 summer weather, undergoes decomposition, which gives rise to a very 
 offensive odor, and certainly must exert a very injurious effect upon the 
 health of those living in the vicinity. The presence of slaughter-houses 
 within the limits of the city, situated as they generally are amid a crowded 
 population, cannot but be objectionable in a sanitary point of view. 
 
 The Kegistrar-General of Great Britain, in his report for the year 
 1851, exhibits the relative mortality of different occupations as compared 
 with that of all England. And he states, in remarking on the posi- 
 tion occupied by butchers : " This useful body of men experiences a 
 much higher rate of mortality than any other class except the licensed 
 victuallers. 
 
 " Thus from the age of 35 to 45 the rate of mortality per 1,000 among 
 farmers, was 9 ; carpenters and joiners, 10 ; shoemakers, 11 ; black- 
 smiths, 12 ; tailors, 14 ; bakers, 15 ; butchers, 17. At the next decimal 
 age, 45 to 55, the mortality of butchers was 23 ; at 55 to 65 it was 41, 
 or higher than that of any other class." And he further states that the 
 most powerful cause of this high mortality probably depends on the ele- 
 ments of decaying matter by which the butcher is surrounded in his 
 slaughter-house and its vicinity. Now if this be true, then it is certain 
 that the presence of slaughter-houses in the midst of a large city must 
 have a very deleterious influence on the public health. Dr. Stephen H. 
 Ward, of London, states he has " known houses to which slaughter-houses 
 were adjacent, in which scarcely a year elapsed without a case of fever 
 being developed." 
 
 Fat-boiling and Gut-cleaning Establishments. — There are in my district 
 several large establishments of this character. These places constitute the 
 most obvious and abominable nuisances in my district. The smoke or gas 
 emitted from their chimneys spreads itself over the upper part of the city, 
 and on days when the atmosphere and wind are favorable the stench is 
 perceptible for full a mile and a half from the buildings. This offensive 
 odor is certainly injurious to the health of those constantly inhaling it. 
 According to the City Inspector's report for 1859 the bills of mortality in 
 the neighborhood of these establishments show an alarming disproportion 
 of deaths over those sections of the city where they are not suffered to 
 exist. My own observations have shown me that it operates very un- 
 favorably on those who have weak lungs. In cases of pulmonary disease 
 it has an irritant effect, exciting severe and exhausting fits of coughing. 
 Some of these establishments have existed in this part of the city for many 
 years ; and in conversation with one of the proprietors, he stated that if 
 the city would pay the loss incurred by their removal they would at once 
 
DISEASED COWS. — DISEASED MILK. 
 
 263 
 
 take measures to leave the city. Some are already making their arrange- 
 ments to this effect. 
 
 Swillmilk Establishments. — One of these detestable establishments ex- 
 ists in my district. I visited it during the course of my inspection, and 
 every facility to examine it was afforded me by those in cbarge. In these 
 stables there were at the time of my visit over 300 cows. These were con- 
 fined in a building about 25 X 60 feet, containing from 20 to 24 cows each. 
 They were arranged in double rows, tail to tail, in stalls about four feet 
 in width. In front of each row of cows there was a trough to contain 
 the swill. In these stables a disease occurs as an epidemic, and to save 
 the cows from this malady inoculation is resorted to. " This is performed 
 by cutting a slit in the skin of the animal's tail, and binding therein a 
 piece of the lung of an animal that has died of this disease. In conse- 
 quence of the introduction of poisonous virus the tail swells, inflammation 
 takes place, and not unf'requently the inflammation is so great that the tail 
 swells to four or five times its natural size, and has to be amputated to save 
 the life of the animal. Hence the name ' stump tail.' "* Whether this mode 
 of proceeding does really prevent this disease is somewhat doubtful. 
 
 The cows that I saw at the time of my visit were in tolerably fair 
 condition, only a few " stump tails" were to be seen. This may possibly 
 be accounted for by the fact that for some time past the distillery to which 
 these stables are connected has not been in operation ; the swill for these 
 animals being brought from other distilleries, consequently they do not get 
 as much as they would if it could be had on the premises. I was told 
 that the cows were fed on but little swill and considerable meal and hay. 
 These cows are owned by persons who reside in the neighborhood, and 
 who retail this unwholesome milk to the poorer classes who reside in this 
 neighborhood. That it is possible for cows confined in crowded, ill-ven- 
 tilated stables, and fed on such food, to give forth good healthy milk, is 
 manifestly absurd. On the contrary, that it is absolutely poisonous in its 
 effects has been shown by the investigations of the New York Academy of 
 Medicine in 1857. 
 
 Another evil in connection with swill-milk in this city is mentioned 
 by the City Inspector in his report of 1859, and also by Dr. Percy in his 
 paper on the food of cities, and also which has come under my own ob- 
 servation. These cows are allowed to remain in the stables as long as 
 they yield a sufficiency of milk, usually for about a year, after which they 
 are slaughtered, and if the meat has at all a salable appearance it is put 
 into the market and sold. 
 
 * " Food of Cities," by Samuel M. Percy, M. D. Transactions of the N. Y. State Medi- 
 cal Society, 1864. 
 
264 KEPOKT OF THE TWENTY-FIRST SAOTTAUT DISTRICT. 
 
 About a year ago I had an opportunity to see one of these cows, which 
 was on the point of dying from disease, slaughtered, and on removing the 
 hide there was scarcely any fat to be seen. One of the lungs presented 
 the appearance of being in the third stage of pneumonia. A microscopic 
 examination of a portion of the lung showed pus cells in great numbers. 
 This was saved for the purpose of inoculation. The liver was soft and 
 studded with abscesses. This animal was in such a bad condition that 
 its flesh was pronounced unsalable. Other animals, however, which were 
 not quite so much diseased, were dressed and ready to be sold : of course 
 to the poorer classes. But it is useless to dwell on the evil effects of 
 these places. A total abolition of them in this city and elsewhere is 
 called for, for the sake of the suffering poor, who are generally the 
 victims to the effects of this traffic. 
 
 A proper enforcement of the " act to prevent the adulteration of milk 
 and the traffic in impure and unwholesome milk, passed April 23d, 
 1863," would entirely suppress this business. 
 
 Manure Heaps. — Several large vacant lots are used in my district 
 for the accumulation of stable-manure. Thousands of loads are gathered 
 together upon these lots and allowed to undergo the process of " rotting," 
 requiring months to fit it for market. To expedite the process of 
 " rotting" gangs of men are employed at stated periods to overturn 
 the matter, and to expose to the heat and rains such portions of the 
 manure as may not have previously partaken of the benefits of these 
 elements. The stench arising from these accumulations of filth is in- 
 tolerable. 
 
 Offal Dock. — This is situated at the foot of West Thirty-eighth Street. 
 Here the carcasses of horses, cows, and other dead animals, and also 
 the offal from the slaughter-houses, are brought to be removed from the 
 limits of the city. This is done by sloops, which receive their cargo 
 during the day and remove it at night. The lungs and other useless 
 material are required by law to be conveyed outside the Narrows and 
 thrown into the water. The legs of the larger animals are removed and 
 skinned on the dock. The tendons are saved to be made into gelatine 
 and glue. The hoofs are used in the preparation of Prussian Blue. 
 
 The bodies of these animals and part of the refuse from slaughter- 
 houses are removed to a place on the Hudson River, opposite Hastings. 
 Here the animals arc skinned, the hides salted, and sent back to the city 
 to bo converted into leather. Some of tho bones aro used to make but- 
 tons, handles of knives, and other useful articles. Most of them, how- 
 ever, are converted into animal charcoal. Other refuse parts of tho ani- 
 mals are used in the preparation of a patent fertilizer. 
 
OFFAL, SLATJGHTEK-PENS, AND FEVER. 
 
 265 
 
 The butchers are required by law to remove their offal twice a 
 day. This regulation, however, is not always complied with, and it is 
 alloWed to accumulate in the slaughter-houses until decomposition takes 
 place ; it is then carted through our streets, often carried in open barrels, 
 which allow a certain amount to be spilled in the street, emitting a very 
 noxious odor. I was told that the butchers who bring offal in this con- 
 dition were sometimes arrested, but the true remedy for such an evil 
 would be the vigilant eye of a good sanitary inspector. 
 
 The above nuisances, together with the only necessary one the offal 
 dock, are situated in close proximity to each other, as will be seen by the 
 accompanying diagram.* 
 
 "Within the space bounded by Tenth Avenue and the Hudson Eiver, 
 Fortieth and Thirty-seventh Streets, we have three large manure yards, a 
 number of fat-boiling and gut-cleaning establishments, swill-milk cow- 
 stables, and slaughter-houses, and to these may be added a dirty condition 
 of the streets, with the gutters running with blood and filth, and the con- 
 stant passage of offal and dead animals to the offal-dock. And scattered 
 through the midst of these nuisances, which are constantly contaminat- 
 ing the atmosphere with their noxious exhalations, and surrounding 
 them on all sides, are the crowded and ill-ventilated tenant-houses. 
 Cases of fever are constantly occurring in this neighborhood, and cholera 
 infantum and dysentery are by no means strangers to this vicinity. In 
 short, our sanitary inspection of this district has furnished to our own 
 mind abundant evidence that the primitive condition of the soil and the 
 atmosphere of the district were remarkably favorable to health ; while 
 the existing local causes of disease here are both numerous and neglected. 
 
 Diseases. — During the summer and fall months typhus fever prevailed 
 to a great extent throughout my district. One great source of this dis- 
 ease was a fever-nest at No. 293 "West Thirty-third Street. This is one 
 of a row of tenant-houses five stories high, and contains sixteen families. 
 At the time of my visit (May 12th) the house was in a very dirty con- 
 dition. The supply of Croton-water had been cut off, the waste-pipes 
 were stopped up, and the sinks emitted a very offensive odor. Nearly 
 every person in the house had been sick with the typhus fever during the 
 winter. There had been four deaths ; several patients were sent from this 
 house to Bellevue Hospital. No attempt to remedy this condition of 
 things had been made up to the time of my inspection. 
 
 One woman who moved into this building while the fever was pre- 
 vailing, and becoming alarmed, removed to No. 283 of the same street. 
 In a short time she sickened and died with typhus. 
 
 * See next page. 
 
£66 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIRST SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
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 53 
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FEVER-NESTS. 
 
 267 
 
 Now it is absolutely certain that had this house been thoroughly 
 cleansed when the first case of fever appeared, it would have checked the 
 disease and several lives would have been saved. But no such precau- 
 tion was taken, and the fever continued to spread through the tenements. 
 
 Soon after my inspection the house just referred to was thoroughly 
 cleansed by the owners, and I have heard of no new cases occurring there 
 since. 
 
 This fever-nest affords a striking example of what might be accom- 
 plished in reducing the mortality and sickness of this city by a well-or- 
 ganized and competent health department. If, when the first case of 
 fever occurred in this building, it had been reported by the attending 
 physician, and visited by a medical inspector, its hygienic wants ascer- 
 tained, and the owner compelled to put it in proper sanitary condition, six 
 human lives woidd undoubtedly have been saved, besides a great amount 
 of sickness. 
 
 Is it not a burning shame that, while such a large amount of money 
 is annually spent in this city for the public health, that typhus, or ship 
 fever, as it is sometimes called, can prevail in one building for over four 
 months, and yet no notice being taken by the proper authorities, and no 
 attempt being made to stop its ravages ? Such is the fact, however, and 
 even at this present time such fever-nests or plague-spots exist in many 
 parts of the city. 
 
 Another fever-nest existed at No. 444 Tenth Avenue ; but at the time 
 of my inspection the fever had entirely ceased, the house having been put 
 in a proper sanitary condition. Other cases of this fever have come under 
 my observation in Thirty-seventh, Thirty-eighth, and Fortieth Streets. 
 Nearly all these cases received the contagion at some other place. Two 
 cases of fever in Fortieth Street near Tenth Avenue, occurred in my own 
 practice, which were traceable to the house at No. 444 Tenth Avenue. At 
 the present time, December 1864, small-pox is prevailing to an alarming 
 extent in this district, as it does in various other parts of this city. 
 
 I thus submit to your learned body in this report, the most important 
 subjects that have come under my observation as sanitary inspector of 
 this district. In conclusion I would state that, in my opinion, a competent 
 sanitary board, with a thoroughly organized system of inspection, could do 
 much toward preventing and arresting disease in this city. 
 
EEPOKT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TWENTY-SECOND SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 R. L. PARSONS, M. D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — Bounded north by Thirty-third Street, east by East 
 River, south by Twenty-sixth Street, and west by Sixth Avenue. 
 
 Topography. — For convenience of study this district may be divided 
 as follows : First division bounded by Twenty-sixth and Thirty-third 
 Streets, Lexington Avenue and the East River ; the second division 
 bounded by Twenty-sixth and Thirty-third Streets, Sixth and Lexington 
 Avenues. 
 
 First Division. — This portion of the district is represented in Viele's 
 report as being originally low. This is not quite correct. The space in- 
 cluded between Twenty-eighth and Thirty-first Streets, Second and First 
 Avenues, has not been filled in at all. The foundation is in some portion 
 at least rocky, as the rocks may be seen cropping out at some points be- 
 tween the same streets west of Second Avenue. The natural sanitary con- 
 dition is not quite as good ; some of the ground has probably been filled 
 in, and the present surface is more level, and not as well adapted to drain- 
 age. South of the section above mentioned, the land descends toward 
 the south and east — is lower in some places, and has been filled in. East 
 of Second Avenue, and between Thirtieth and Thirty-first Streets, thcro 
 is a sudden descent ; so that while Thirtieth Street is high and well built, 
 Thirty-first Street is one of the most exceptionable in the district. The 
 general descent of the surface north of Thirtieth Street is toward the 
 north and east, a stream of water originally running from the neighbor- 
 hood of Fourth Avenue and Thirty-second Street to the neighborhood of 
 Thirty-fourth Street and the river, allowing the direction of the drainage. 
 
FILTHy STREETS. — HOW KEPT SO. 
 
 269 
 
 The squares east of Second Avenue are the lowest, most badly drained, 
 and naturally in the most unfavorable sanitary condition of any in the 
 district. The inhabitants of this section are poor, closely crowded and 
 degraded, filthy in their habits and improvident. The sickness ratio also 
 is much higher here than in other portions of the district ; but owing to 
 numerous other causes, among the principal of which are overcrowding, 
 filth within and without, and bad ventilation, the exact influence of the 
 first mentioned cause cannot be justly estimated. 
 
 Second Division. — The natural sanitary advantage of this portion of 
 the district is good. The elevation is considerable, the descent sufficient 
 for thorough drainage, and the nature of the soil does not in any way in- 
 terfere with the salubrity of the district. 
 
 Streets. — The direction and width of the streets and avenues in this 
 district are in accordance with the arrangement of the streets and avenues 
 in the upper part of the city, except that none of the streets are wide. 
 The condition of the streets and avenues varies much in different parts of 
 the district. In First Avenue there is a good cobble-stone pavement, but 
 it is usually deeply covered with mud. The gutters are also made the 
 receptacles of slops and garbage wherever the avenue is thickly inhabited. 
 East of Second Avenue, from Twenty-sixth to Twenty-eighth Street, the 
 streets are in fair condition, tolerably well paved, and the gutters are 
 Avithout especial obstruction. Still they are the receptacles of house- 
 slops, garbage, and ordinary street filth. Twenty-eighth Street near First 
 Avenue is sometimes rendered especially offensive from these causes. 
 Twenty-ninth Street is better, and Thirtieth Street is generally unexcep- 
 tionable. Thirty-first, Thirty-second, and Thirty-third Streets are badly 
 paved with cobble stones, the gutters are in bad condition, either being 
 obstructed and not having the proper descent, or being irregular, so that 
 the stagnant water and slops stand in these depressions until washed away 
 by heavy rains. The depressions in the streets are in like manner often 
 filled with stagnant water and decaying garbage. The odor from this 
 decaying animal and vegetable matter is often offensive in the extreme. 
 During the dry term of the past summer, however, the street filth was so 
 thoroughly desiccated, that the offensive exhalations were not nearly as 
 abundant as during the corresponding season of the year before. 
 
 Second Avenue is kept in tolerably good condition, much better than 
 are the streets above mentioned, but is always more or less disfigured by 
 garbage-boxes, and the gutters are often used as receptacles of garbage 
 and slops. Between Second and Third Avenues the condition of the 
 pavements and gutters is very good, with the exception of Twenty eighth 
 and Twenty-ninth Streets, which are more filthy than the others ; the gut- 
 
270 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-SECOND SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 ters being often obstructed with slops and garbage, and the pavement cov- 
 ered with mud. In Twenty-eighth Street the surface drainage is espe- 
 cially poor. 
 
 Third Avenue is usually kept in very good condition. The avenue is 
 paved with cobble stone, and the drainage is generally good. West of 
 Third Avenue the streets and avenues are, for the most part, well paved, 
 are free from nuisances, and the gutters have sufficient descent. 
 
 Squares. — The number of squares in this district is 55. Of these, 6 
 may be considered in a bad, 11 in a mixed, and the remainder in a good 
 sanitary condition. (In this estimate of the sanitary condition of squares, 
 the obvious conditions of cleauliness or uncleanliness, crowding or the 
 contrary, &c, are considered, rather than the less obvious ones of the 
 original nature of the ground, and its subsequent changes by filling in, 
 &c.) 
 
 The causes which render squares insalubrious, may be considered un- 
 der three general heads : (1.) The original formation of the soil, and 
 the subsequent changes that may have been made. (2.) The condition 
 of streets. (3.) The internal and external condition of domiciles. 
 
 (1.) The original surface was Ioav and marshy in the northeastern, 
 and to some extent in the southeastern part of the district. The whole 
 of the eastern portion is noted in Gen. Viele's Report as low. Much 
 of this low land has been filled in ; and wherever the original course of 
 the streams is obstructed, the tendency of the water is to percolate through 
 the loose soil, thus making it damp and insalubrious. This is more es- 
 pecially true when the material filled in is composed in great part of de- 
 caying animal and vegetable matter. 
 
 (2.) The streets arc to be considered as regards (a) the pavements, 
 (b) the gutters, (c) the sidewalks, and (d) the sewers. 
 
 (a.) Pavements to be good should have an even surface, with as small 
 interstices between the stones as is compatible with safety, with a suffi- 
 cient and uniform descent from the middle of the street to gutters. In many 
 of the pavements the contrary of these conditions holds : the surface is not 
 even ; the inequalities forming receptacles for water and filth of all kinds ; 
 the interstices between the stones are so great as to make cleanliness almost 
 entirely impracticable, and the descent to the gutters is insufficient and 
 irregular, so that the operation of natural agencies is, for the most part, 
 ineffectual in thoroughly washing the pavements. Examples may be seen 
 in Thirty-first Street between First and Second Avenues, and in Twenty- 
 eighth Street. 
 
 (b.) The gutters have often in like manner inequalities in surface, and 
 have an insufficient descent toward the culverts, so that they are never 
 
OVERCROWDING KILLS CHILDREN. 
 
 271 
 
 thoroughly cleaned save by rains of more than ordinary violence. Thirty- 
 first, Thirty-second, and Thirty-third Streets, east of Second Avenue, offer 
 sufficient examples. 
 
 (c.) The sidewalks are, as a general thing, less objectionable in a san- 
 itary point of view, and might be kept clean with ordinary care ; but in 
 point of fact they are often so filthy as to add to the other conditions of 
 insalubrity above mentioned. 
 
 (cZ.) Sewers are wanting in some of the most densely-populated por- 
 tions of the district, so that proper drainage for the removal of house- 
 slops and the contents of privies, is impossible. 
 
 (3.) Under this head will be considered overcrowding. 
 
 (a.) Overcrowding. — Apartments are often so overcrowded that only 
 from four to six hundred cubic feet of air is allowed to each occupant, taking 
 into the estimate the whole suite of apartments ; and by night the number of 
 cubic feet to each individual is often reduced as low as two hundred feet. A 
 house with these overcrowded apartments very often contains from fifty to 
 sixty individuals, and not unfrequently from eighty to one hundred or one 
 hundred and twenty. This overcrowding of apartments is a direct and 
 powerful cause of the general deterioration of health in the occupants. 
 It is especially manifested in the sickness and death ratio among children, 
 who are almost constantly exposed, and have less power of resistance. 
 For examples of the large sickness ratio among the children inhabiting 
 these crowded apartments, it is only necessary to visit them and make a 
 cursory inspection. And it may be added that of all the causes that tend 
 to deteriorate the health of children, this is probably among the most ef- 
 ficient. In addition to the general cachexia above referred to, the occu- 
 pants are predisposed to contract contagious and endemic diseases which 
 they might escape if in better health ; and when contracted, these diseases 
 are rendered, by the above conditions, more difficult of control, and more 
 fatal in their results. Thus we often see an endemic disease, as typhus 
 fever, attacking in succession every unprotected inmate of an apartment. 
 But instead of one crowded apartment there is usually a large number, 
 so' that the evil is multiplied still further. And not only this, but there 
 are whole squares filled with these crowded houses, forming vast centres 
 for the incubation and dissemination of disease. The remedy is simple, 
 whether it be practicable or not, viz. : the limitation of the number of per- 
 sons occupying apartments and domiciles. 
 
 (&.) Ventilation. — Want of proper ventilation is an especial cause of 
 insalubrity in domiciles occupied by many families. It is a well-known 
 fact that hospitals having windows on only one or on two contiguous sides, 
 cannot be well ventilated by means of the doors and windows. These wards 
 
272 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-SECOND SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 require twice as much air-space for each patient as do wards having win- 
 dows on opposite sides ; the wards themselves being only of moderate 
 width. Now, in almost all tenements of the worst class, and in the greater 
 part of those of a medium class, each family occupies only part of one 
 floor. Thus they have windows only on one narrow face, and, as the 
 apartments are ususally heated by stoves, there is no adequate means of 
 obtaining a current of air, even at these windows. At night the condition 
 is still worse, for one at least of the bedrooms is situated at the middle of 
 the building, having no means of ventilation whatever ; and even in those 
 dark bedrooms that have a window opening into the hall, the condition is 
 very little better, as the scuttle is usually either closed, or inadequate in 
 size if left open. The first step toward remedying this evil is to render 
 better ventilation possible ; and that by means at once the most econom- 
 ical and efficient available under the circumstances. Considerable ad- 
 vantage in this direction would be gained if the hall itself were ventilated. 
 This might be accomplished by placing directly over the hall stairs a ven- 
 tilator as large as the stair space, with fixed slats so arranged as to en- 
 tirely keep out the rain, and with the entire space between the slats equal 
 to the stair area. The roof of this ventilator might be made of glass, 
 thus affording considerable light to the hall. The advantages of this ar- 
 rangement would be, that the ventilator could never be closed, and that it 
 would be sufficient in capacity. Then the air escaping about the crevices 
 or through the open doors of the rooms, heated as they usually are by the 
 persons of the inmates or otherwise, would seek an escape through the 
 ventilator in the roof, and a current thus formed would make the ventila- 
 tion not only of the hall itself, but also of the rooms adjoining, possible. 
 The dark bedrooms might, as they often do, communicate with the hall 
 by a window, and some communication might be made between the prin- 
 cipal room and the hall, to facilitate its ventilation still further. An ad- 
 ditional door for the principal room, made entirely of slats, with a narrow 
 frame work, would be especially desirable in summer. In winter the cur- 
 rent of air in the hall might be made much stronger by heating the hall 
 itself, but this additional means of ventilation would probably be found im- 
 practicable save in the better class of tenements. In external ventilation 
 the tenements in this district are generally not deficient. The principal 
 obstructions are rear buildings. When these rear buildings arc them- 
 selves tenements, an overcrowded population and obstructed ventilation 
 coexist. The only remedy is obviously a removal of tho cause. 
 
 (c.) Cleanliness. — Want of cleanliness is another great source of in- 
 salubrity. If decaying animal and vegetable matter in streets and cess- 
 pools is insalubrious, it is certaiuly no less so when on tho stairs of domi- 
 
DOMESTIC FILTH. — CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 273 
 
 ciles, in the halls, on the clothing of the inmates, and on the beds. In 
 some apartments of tenant-houses the rags that cover the floor in lieu 
 of a carpet reek with filth. They have become a receptacle for street- 
 mud, food of all kinds, saliva, urine, and faeces. They are sometimes 
 swept, sometimes wiped off with a wet rag, but they are never cleaned. 
 The bed-clothing is often little better. The offensive odor from these 
 coverings is sometimes exceedingly disgusting and persistent, so much so 
 that when handled the hands become so permeated with the odor that 
 notwithstanding all efforts in cleansing they are rendered positively dis- 
 gusting for one or two days after. Add to this unclean persons and un- 
 clean clothes, and there is an aggregate of personal and domiciliary un- 
 cleanliness, of animal and vegetable poison, in the highest degree delete- 
 rious and prejudicial to health. 
 
 The remedy for these evils must be in great part indire'ct. The streets 
 should be in good condition, properly cleansed, and properly drained ; 
 tenant-houses should have an abundant water-supply on each floor ; there 
 should be drainage-pipes frorn each floor to the street-sewers ; the privies 
 should be connected by proper drainage-pipes with the street-sewers ; if 
 possible there should be some regulation by which the halls and common 
 accessories shall be kept clean, and these conveniences and examples will 
 act as a constant incentive to cleanliness on the part of the tenants, 
 and not only will their habits of cleanliness and their health be im- 
 proved but their self-respect will be increased and their moral status 
 elevated. 
 
 (d.) Basements and Cellars. — These apartment are often damp, badly 
 drained, and imperfectly ventilated. The rooms immediately over them 
 are consequently damp and unwholesome, especially when the soil is com- 
 posed of refuse matter. 
 
 (e.) Water-supply. — The supply of pure water is often wanting or 
 insufficient. Wherever this is the case tenants are hot as cleanly in their 
 persons and apartments. 
 
 (/.) Drainage. — This is still more frequently wanting or insufficient, 
 and the evils arising therefrom are very serious. Drainage supplies the 
 only efficient means for the romoval of house-slops and the contents of 
 privies. In all tenements the privies should be properly connected with 
 sewers by means of well-trapped drain-pipes, and each floor should so be 
 supplied with pipes of sufficient caliber for the transmission of ordinary 
 house-slops. 
 
 (g.) House-slops and Garbage. — A special source of insalubrity is the 
 disposition of house-slops and garbage. In the greater part of the district 
 lying east of First Avenue house-slops are thrown into the gutters, and 
 18 
 
274 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-SECOND SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 the garbage is to a greater or less extent thrown into the streets. Thus 
 the streets and gutters become filled with decaying matter, the stench aris- 
 ing from which on a hot day becomes almost insufferable. There are 
 about forty garbage-boxes in use in the district ; and these afford but 
 slight advantages over the more slovenly method of throwing the garbage 
 into the streets. The boxes themselves are never thoroughly cleaned, and 
 of course the refuse furthest advanced toward decay remains in the 
 boxes, while the boards of which the boxes are composed and the ground 
 beneath are saturated with liquids that flow from the garbage. The use 
 of barrels as receptacles for garbage is now very general, and as the bar- 
 rels are left in the street only a short time, are often emptied and are kept 
 dry ; this method is perhaps as little open to objections as any that can be 
 devised. 
 
 (A.) Privies. — In that part of the district occupied by a tenant-popu- 
 lation the privies are frequently not connected with the sewers, and con- 
 sequently cannot be kept in good condition. Even when recently cleaned 
 they are very offensive ; but when they are filled, or left to overflow, as is 
 sometimes the case, the stench becomes almost intolerable. When these 
 privies are situated between front and rear tenements the nuisance reaches 
 its maximum intensity, for occasionally all the privies used by from one 
 hundred to one hundred and fifty persons are situated in one small court 
 between a front and a rear house. The obvious remedy for this nuisance 
 would be to have all privies connected by properly-trapped drain-pipes 
 with the street sewers. 
 
 (j.) Nuisances. — Under this head may be included nuisances not 
 otherwise referred to in the same square, and cases in which the nuisance 
 is outside of and more or less distant from the square under consideration. 
 In at least one case a stable is a cause of insalubrity affecting the square 
 within which it is situated as well as contiguous squares. The foul ema- 
 nations from gas-houses and from fat-boiling establishments are examples 
 of neighboring nuisances. However, these are not to be found alone in 
 this district. An insalubrious square is itself a cause of insalubrity to 
 squares lying contiguous thereto. 
 
 (7c.) Bear Buildings. — Rear buildings, of whatever character, by ob- 
 structing external ventilation, act prejudicially to the health of those in- 
 habiting the section so obstructed. If these buildings arc inhabited, over- 
 crowding is superadded to the evils of defective ventilation. In some 
 cases these buildings become insalubrious from the use to which they arc 
 appropriated, as when they are made storehouses of hides and fat, or are 
 used as butcheries with cattle-yards attached, examples of which may bo 
 found in the squares included by First and Second Avenues, Twenty- 
 
REAK TENANT-HOUSES. — FEVER-NESTS. 
 
 275 
 
 seventh and Twenty-eighth Streets ; Second and Third Avenues, Twenty- 
 eighth and Twenty-ninth Streets. 
 
 To illustrate the relation which 
 the conditions ahove referred to 
 sustain to the prevalence of typhus 
 fever in such localities, the follow- 
 ing abstract is here introduced re- 
 specting the disease found in my 
 inspection of the rear tenant-house 
 that is shown in this diagram : 
 
 " At No. — East Twenty- 
 eighth Street, rear, found 7 cases 
 of typhus at various visits during 
 the summer. The total number 
 of persons residing in this house at 
 time of last visit was 21 ; number 
 of families, 8. The house is 21 X 
 25 feet, is closely hemmed in, and 
 can be reached only through a nar- 
 row and filthy alley. Privies and 
 sheds fill the space between this 
 and the tenant-house in front. 
 Number of inhabitants in front is 
 50. Though the introduction of 
 infection from another house appears to have started the fever in this 
 house, local crowding and filth have furnished the soil to perpetuate it 
 here. The external ventilation of this sickly quarter is as bad as that of 
 the crowded and dingy domiciles themselves." 
 
 Inhabitants. — That portion of the district lying east of Second 
 Avenue, with the exception of both sides of Thirtieth Street, is inhabited 
 almost exclusively by the laboring class, and as a rule by the lowest grade 
 of that class. The inhabitants, with the exception mentioned, are almost 
 entirely Irish and of Irish descent. All the avenues, with the exception 
 of Lexington, Madison, and Fifth Avenues, are inhabited by the laboring 
 class ; the inhabitants of First and part of Second Avenue belong to the 
 lower, and those of the other avenues to the better grade of this class. 
 
 Between Second and Third Avenues the population is mixed, the 
 domiciles ranging from third-class tenements to very good private resi- 
 dences. The private houses are on the south side of Twenty-seventh 
 Street, and on Thirtieth, Thirty-first, Thirty-second, and Thirty-third 
 Streets. The greater part of the houses on the four last-named streets 
 
 Fever-Nests between First and Second Avenues. 
 
 □ 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 i" i [ i \- 1 i ~ r 
 
 P A S S A G 
 
 
 P 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 0 
 0 
 
 p 
 
 Sha/nUes 
 
 V 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 V 
 
 
 High Front Tenements. 
 
276 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-SECOND SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 are private houses or first-class tenements, that is, tenements occupied by 
 not more than one family to each floor, and are as well kept in every par- 
 ticular as most private residences. Between Twenty-eighth and Twenty- 
 ninth Streets there are third-class tenements that have been prolific fever- 
 nests during the past summer. Between Third and Lexington Avenues 
 the population is for the most part of the better class. Between Twenty- 
 sixth and Twenty-seventh Streets near Third Avenue, there are some 
 third-class tenements. There are a few second-class tenements on Twenty- 
 eighth Street, also on Thirty-Second and Thirty-third Streets. Between 
 Lexington and Fourth Avenues the population is of the better class with 
 few exceptions, the houses being private or first-class tenements, with the 
 exception of a row on Thirty-second Street. The remainder of the dis- 
 trict with few exceptions contains only first-class private residences, and 
 is inhabited by the most wealthy, intelligent, and respectable class of 
 citizens. 
 
 Buildings. — There are in this district 1,245 private dwellings, 768 
 tenant-houses, 275 stores, 36 markets, 81 groceries (in all or nearly all 
 of which liquor is sold to a greater or less extent), 68 liquor stores, 3 
 foundries, 3 factories for planing, mouldings, etc., 1 gin distillery, 1 
 brewery and distillery, 1 soda fountain factory, 1 piano factory, 1 window 
 shade factory, 2 carriage factories, 1 car factory, 6 hotels, 1 police station, 
 1 asylum, 74 private stables, 30 public stables (including livery, stage 
 company and car company stables), 4 butcheries, 2 store-houses for hides 
 and fat, 7 churches, 3 chapels, and 1 ward school. 
 
 The general character of the private dwellings can only be stated. 
 East of Lexington Avenue about one-half are nearly new, with the 
 modern improvements ; the other half are older structures, and indifferent 
 in their surroundings and internal arrangements. West of Lexington 
 Avenue the private dwellings are almost without exception first-class 
 structures, and are unexceptionable in their surroundings and internal ar- 
 rangements. A little more than four-sevenths of the dwellings arc private 
 dwellings. Nearly three-sevenths of the dwellings are tenant-houses. In 
 the record of Sanitary Inquiry tenant-houses are divided into three classes, 
 which are also designated on the accompanying maps. These classes arc 
 defined as follows : — Class 1st. Houses well built, with the modern im- 
 provements, occupied in general by one family to each floor, and in all 
 their apartments and surroundings as well kept as neat private houses, 
 save that they arc generally in more crowded and less desirable districts. 
 Class 2d. Under this class is included the great majority of tenant-houses, 
 only the very best and the very worst being included under the first and 
 third classes. Class 3d. Houses inhabited by the poorest, most filthy, 
 
FILTH, DRAM-SHOPS, AND SLATJGHTER-PENS. 
 
 277 
 
 wretched, and degraded class, in bad state of repair, very filthy within, 
 and usually with filthy pestilential surroundings. 
 
 A description that will apply to the worst class of these tenements will 
 be found under the heading of squares. They are located almost exclu- 
 sively in the eastern part of the district ; and in addition to the other de- 
 fect referred to, they are badly crowded, the cubic air-space for each in- 
 dividual varying by day from 500 or 600 to 1,000 or 1,200 feet; and by 
 night in the dormitories from 200 to 400 feet. As we pass from the 
 third through the second to the first class all these conditions gradually 
 change for the better, until in the first-class tenant-house the principal 
 objection to be urged is that the population is crowded. The above divi- 
 sion of tenant-houses would seem to be essential to a proper understand- 
 ing of the subject ; for the difference in sanitary condition between what 
 are described as third and as first-class tenant-houses, is very much greater 
 than that between the first-class tenant-houses and the best private 
 dwellings. 
 
 The rum-holes are about 70 in number, and in the greater portion of 
 them no especial regard is paid to cleanliness and order. Their delete- 
 rious influence is more noticeable, however, in their indirect bearing on the 
 famiUes and persons of those who frequent them than in any thing that 
 appears about the liquor stores themselves. These grogshops are most 
 numerous in the most degraded and overcrowded districts. 
 
 The groceries, markets, and stores are enumerated above. Unclean- 
 liness in markets and groceries, and the sale of unwholesome meats and 
 stale vegetables, must unfavorably affect the health of the districts in 
 which they are situated ; but facts elucidating these points have not been 
 gathered in the course of this inspection. 
 
 There are four slaughter-houses in the district ; and these with their 
 surroundings may be considered as especial abominations, though none 
 of them are as extensive nor as objectionable as others in the immediate 
 neighborhood of the district. Connected with each of these slaughter- 
 houses is a cattle-yard, that always is, and always must be, a nuisance to 
 the neighborhood. The slaughter-house itself, even with the greatest 
 care, can probably never be kept perfectly salubrious. But the greatest 
 care is rarely if ever taken. Decaying animal matter always abounds, 
 and offensive effluvia may always be observed. The herds of cattle that 
 are driven through the streets to reach these slaughter-houses, are an addi- 
 tional nuisance. In addition to all this they must exert a demoralizing 
 influence, especially on the children of the neighborhood, who are often 
 curious witnesses of these disgusting scenes of blood and slaughter. 
 
 The private stables are for the most part kept in good condition. This 
 
278 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-SECOND SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 cannot be said of some of the public stables where a great number of 
 horses are crowded together, and where the stables and their surround 
 ings are often kept in a shockingly filthy condition. The Stage Company 
 stables at the corner of Twenty-seventh Street and First Avenue, may be 
 mentioned as an example of the stable nuisance. The inhabitants of the 
 square in which these stables are located, complain of the exceedingly 
 disagreeable odors sometimes coming from the direction of these stables ; 
 and even a cursory examination of the premises is sufficient to disclose 
 the reason why, especially when the cellars which are the receptacles of 
 the stable filth are being cleaned, as they occasionally are. At such times 
 the effluvia in the neighborhood of these premises are especially obnox- 
 ious, and what is worse, in a sanitary point of view, they are usually borne 
 in the direction of the Bellevue Hospital, which is situated just across the 
 avenue and immediately in front. 
 
 The Bellevue Hospital is situated between First Avenue and the river, 
 Twenty-sixth Street and Twenty-eighth Street, and contains 1,200 beds, 
 the greater part of which are usually occupied. When first built, the 
 hospital was well located, as that portion of the city was then uninhabited, 
 but now the surrounding district is densely populated, and stables, 
 slaughter-houses, and factories abound in that neighborhood. The influ- 
 ence of the surrounding district cannot but be deleterious to the hospital, 
 while, on the other hand, the close proximity of a large hospital injuri- 
 ously affects the densely-populated district in which it is located. Until 
 quite recently this hospital has been the most prolific fever-nest in the 
 district, if not in the whole city ; for not only were cases of typhus fever 
 brought here for treatment, but from these cases the fever was dissem- 
 inated throughout the hospital, proving fatal to patients that otherwise 
 might not have been exposed to the disease, and to the resident physicians 
 and surgeons of the hospital. Now, however, the hospital has been re- 
 lieved of these cases by the establishment of a fever-hospital on Black- 
 well's Island, and its sanitary condition is correspondingly improved. 
 In general supervision, cleanliness of wards, and ordinary hygienic 
 measures, there seems now to be no especial call for change or improve- 
 ment. 
 
 There are six churches, three chapels, one ward school, and one asy- 
 lum in the district, all of which, as far as known, are in good sanitary con- 
 dition. 
 
 There are two houses for the storage of hides and fat, which arc ap- 
 parently kept in good condition. As nuisances these would seem to bo 
 overshadowed by the slaughter-houses of which they are the adjuncts. 
 
 On the shore above Twenty-eighth Street the space is principally 
 
FEVER AND EPIDEMICS LOCALIZED. 
 
 279 
 
 occupied by lumber-yards, all of whicb are in good sanitary condition. 
 The vacant lots are all in good sanitary condition. 
 
 The sewerage is generally good. Where deficiencies exist in the 
 better portions of the district, there are usually private sewers connecting 
 the houses with sewers in adjacent streets. Thirty-first and Thirty- 
 second Streets east of Second Avenue are not sewered, though sewers 
 are here badly needed. Accompanying this report is a map showing the 
 sewerage of the district.* 
 
 Prevailing Diseases. — During the past season continued fevers have 
 been especially prevalent in the eastern portion of the district. The pre- 
 disposing causes have probably been bad air from overcrowding, imper- 
 fect ventilation, the filthy condition of the houses and their surroundings, 
 imperfect drainage, and perhaps the nature of the soil filled in. The effi- 
 cient and immediate cause has been contagion from persons and from 
 fomites. Of this fact one or two from the numerous examples that offer 
 are here subjoined. Indeed, in the examples cited, all the causes men- 
 tioned exist. 
 
 The rear building No. — East Twenty-eighth Street is of brick, 
 poorly built, four stories in height, and consists of two portions, or rather 
 of two separate buildings. The one maybe described as a double tenant- 
 house, with four suites of apartments on each floor, thus accommodating 
 sixteen families ; the other joins at right angles, and is similar in con- 
 struction save that it is but half as deep, thus accommodating only eight 
 families. The ceilings are all low, especially in the lower stories, which 
 are particularly damp and unwholesome. In front of the building is a 
 narrow court and alley-way. The court contains the privies for the 
 accommodation of all the tenants, more than 100 in number ; while be- 
 tween this court and the front houses there are other privies for the 
 accommodation of those inhabiting the front houses. The external ven- 
 tilation at the front and one side is much obstructed, owing to the 
 close proximity of other buildings ; at the other side and in the rear 
 the obstruction is not quite as great, though even here it is bad 
 enough. 
 
 Previous to the riots in the summer of 1863, this building was in- 
 habited by negroes ; but during the riots they were expelled by the mob, 
 and after some slight repairs the building was reoccupied by the lower 
 class of whites. There is generally a large percentage of sickness in this 
 house, especially on the lower floor, where the inhabitants are if possible 
 
 * As the Inspector's map has not been engraved, the reader is referred to the large 
 map at the beginning of this volume. — Editor. 
 
280 REPORT OF THE TWENTT-SECOJTD SAiOTARY DISTRICT. 
 
 more squalid and cachectic than in other portions of the building. This 
 diagram presents the ground-plan of this fever-nest : 
 
 Hides and Fat 
 
 
 
 Hi . 
 
 1 el 
 
 CO 
 
 25 feet 
 
 1 
 
 <£> 
 
 I 
 
 Fever. 
 
 8 families. 
 24 feet. 
 
 ^ Court. 
 
 .2 
 
 
 Privies. 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Privies. 
 
 
 
 Front Tenant-Houses. 
 
 Plan of the rear cul-de-sac where the fever occurred. 
 
 The first case of typhus fever that was observed here during the past 
 season occurred in March. From this patient, a girl 18 years of age, the 
 disease was contracted by two younger girls, her sisters, and also by 
 another member of the family. From these a woman in the adjoining 
 room contracted the fever, which was in turn communicated to her hus- 
 band and four children. Still other cases occurred in this house, and in 
 the immediate neighborhood, that probably had their origin from the cases 
 above mentioned. The patient first referred to contracted the fever by 
 visiting at No. — East Thirty-first Street, a description of which with an 
 account of the cases occurring there is subjoined. 
 
 No. — - East Thirty-first Street is a single tenant-house only 16 or 
 17 feet in width, and 4 stories in height, accommodating 8 families. 
 In the size and arrangement of the apartments this house is like many 
 others in the district. The external ventilation is good but the internal 
 ventilation is deficient. The street is not sewered, and the surroundings 
 
HOW FEVER TRAVELS. 
 
 281 
 
 are usually unwholesome. The 
 first case of typhus fever observed 
 in this house was in the back room 
 of the upper story, and occurred 
 in March last. The plan of the 
 house precludes ventilation of 
 bedrooms. From this patient, a 
 yotmg man 18 years of age, the 
 disease was contracted by the 
 father, and in turn by two broth- 
 ers and two sisters. The first- 
 mentioned patient and his father 
 
 EAST 
 
 32 nd STREET 
 
 TF. 
 
 0 KZ1 
 
 EAST 31 st STREET 
 
 died. A young man in the front room, and also two women in the room 
 immediately beneath, contracted the fever from this family. The young 
 man whom I first mentioned contracted the fever at No. — East Thirty- 
 second Street, from a family five members of which had already had the 
 fever. The mother of this last-mentioned family contracted the fever by 
 washing the clothing of a patient who had died of the fever. 
 
 Further back than this the contagion was not traced, nor is it possible 
 to say how many other cases had their origin from those above enumerated. 
 However, the inference would not seem to be unfair that many other 
 cases did thus originate. 
 
 At No. — East Twenty-eighth Street nine or ten cases of typhus fever 
 occurred during the past season, and others are known to have originated 
 from these. Several of these patients died. The house is a rear tene- 
 ment, one suite of apartments deep, two in width, and four stories in 
 height ; is poorly built, and in bad state of repair. The stench arising 
 from these depositaries of filth is bad enough at all times, but during the 
 warm season it becomes almost intolerable. The tenants occupying the 
 lower floors are often obliged to keep their windows closed as a protection 
 against these offensive odors, thus depriving themselves of even the lim- 
 ited ventilation they might otherwise obtain. 
 
 The exanthematous fevers have also prevailed during the past season, 
 though not to an unusual extent. The same may be said of the diseases 
 of children and of the whole class of diseases that take their rise from 
 local and personal uncleanlincss, bad ventilation, bad personal habits, im- 
 perfect ventilation, &c. 
 
 Several cases of imported typhus have been under observation, but they 
 were immediately sent to hospital, and no other cases have been traced 
 from these. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 TWENTY-THIRD SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 ELLSWORTH ELIOT, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries . — North by Fortieth Street, east by the East River, south 
 by Thirty-third Street, and west by the Sixth Avenue. 
 
 Fortieth Street. 
 
 Thirty-third Street. 
 
 Topogeapiiy, with some matters relating thereto. — That portion of the 
 Twenty-first Ward situated between Thirty-third and Fortieth Streets, 
 Sixth Avenue and East River, which the Council of Hygiene and Public 
 Health designate as the Twenty-third District, is generally considered the 
 healthiest locality in the city. Within its limits are the principal part 
 of Murray Hill in the western and middle sections ; Dutch Hill in the 
 northeastern ; and Kipp's Bay in the southeastern ; the first two named 
 attaining an elevation of from thirty-five to seventy-five feet above high- 
 water mark, while most of the ground adjacent to the waters of the bay 
 is sufficiently elevated and sloping to admit perfect sewerage. Traversed by 
 streets which extend from river to river in one direction, and by the avenues 
 at right angles to them in the other, the freest circulation of air is permitted, 
 and the southwestern, southern, and southeastern slope of much of its sur- 
 face gives the fullest exposure to the sun. Healthful as these influences 
 
THE UP-TOWN NUISANCES. 
 
 283 
 
 are, they are partially counteracted by disagreeable and noxious atmos- 
 pheric contaminations wafted from the bone-boiling and fat-melting 
 establishments at Thirty-ninth Street and North River in one direction, 
 and at Forty-fifth Street and East River in another ; by the emanations 
 from the manure-heap at Thirty-eighth Street and East River ; from the 
 open outlets of the street sewers ; from filthy streets and overflowing 
 privies ; from large and numerous droves of swine which, while passing, 
 completely fill the streets, and put men and horses to inconvenience and 
 sometimes in jeopardy ; and from refuse matter of infinite variety, and 
 in every stage of decomposition. 
 
 The southeastern part of the district, on the First Avenue and the 
 ground adjoining, has been recovered from the river, the water of which 
 penetrates to the cellars when the tide is high. 
 
 The square lying east of First Avenue between Thirty-third and 
 Thirty-fourth Streets is not completed. During the past summer it was 
 used for a dumping ground for refuse matter from factories, from the 
 streets, and from every other source where a load could be obtained 
 which could not otherwise be profitably disposed of. Decomposing animal 
 and vegetable matter made the air sickening, and did not promise well for 
 the salubrity of the habitations which may be there erected. This valua- 
 ble ground belongs to a wealthy corporation, and the city pays six cents 
 for every load dumped, thereby greatly enhancing the value of private 
 property, and at the same time paying the owner for the transaction. The 
 business is generally done through a third party in this manner : A 
 person purchases of the owner the privilege of dumping for a specified 
 amount ; he then contracts with the city authorities, who pay him a stipu- 
 lated sum for each load. My informant said it " paid handsomely." 
 
 As load after load is dumped, large numbers of women and children 
 contend for bits of coal and wood, old clothes, rags, paper, and other ma- 
 terial of use to them. How many causes of disease are thus exposed and 
 diffused it is impossible to ascertain. The row of tenant-houses on the 
 western side of the First Avenue, which are the nearest residences, has 
 an ignoble reputation for insalubrity. 
 
 Formation of the Ground, Soil, etc. — Different varieties of gneiss for- 
 merly appeared in many spots above the surface, and a considerable num- 
 ber of buildings rest upon this foundation, the rock being generally but 
 slightly covered. Swamps and brooks once existed, of which scarcely a 
 trace remains. Old maps and pictures show irregularities of surface dif- 
 fering greatly from the present grade. The high places have been levelled, 
 and the low places filled to afford facilities for travellers and sewerage. 
 One fact of importance in this connection has come to my knowledge : 
 
284 
 
 EEPOET OF THE TWENTY-THIKD SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Within tlie memory of many people, physicians and others, intermittent 
 fever was a very prevalent disease among the residents of Murray Hill. 
 This has ceased to exist unless imported ; a result ascribed to the con- 
 struction of the sewers. 
 
 The soil is clayey, tenacious, compact, and sometimes gravelly, here 
 and there exhibiting the formation called " hard-pan," of unusual thick- 
 ness, and very difficult to dig. In its structure are found fragments of all 
 the rocks of the Hudson River valley, and the boulders were more numer- 
 ous and larger than in any other portion of the island, the neighborhood 
 of Corlaer's Hook excepted. 
 
 Street-cleaning. — Sidewalks: their encumbrances, and other matters per- 
 taining to these subjects, etc. — As the grade in almost every street ascends or 
 descends upon almost every block, unusual facilities are afforded for cleaning. 
 There is no crowding for business purposes, such as necessarily exists 
 in some of our thoroughfares and in the neighborhood of markets, re- 
 quiring the constant use of the shovel and broom to remove the filth. 
 The trap-block pavement has been laid in many of the streets, which can 
 be kept nearly as free from dirt as the sidewalk. Still there is not a block 
 in the district which the city properly cleans. It frequently happens that 
 a gang of men sweep the thickest of the dirt into piles ; the cart does not 
 follow to remove it until a day or more afterwards. Meanwhile it is 
 scattered more or less by the wind, by wheels, and animals. At length 
 a portion is taken away, and the street is soon as filthy as ever. In dry 
 and windy weather the dust, composed of pulverized animal excrement 
 and other irritating substances, rises in suffocating clouds, causing not 
 only great inconvenience to persons in the street, but penetrating the 
 houses and soiling every thing therein. In wet weather the pedestrians 
 must carefully select a place to cross, and then use the utmost precaution 
 to prevent slipping and falling. In winter the snow and ice are allowed 
 to lie in heaps, filling the gutters, so as to turn the water in melting 
 weather upon the sidewalks to freeze there. 
 
 This condition of the streets has compelled the citizens to resort to 
 private enterprise. Portions of many of them are swept every morning, 
 and on Saturday afternoons. The snow is levelled ; the gutters are kept 
 opened ; the sidewalks arc cleaned ; the sprinkling cart is unknown, for a 
 searching wind finds no dust. The expense is defrayed by the voluntary 
 payment of one dollar a month for each house, and a smaller amount 
 would suffice if all contributed, and there were no vacant lots. This 
 plan has been followed for nearly three years in West Thirty-sixth Street 
 between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, under the almost daily observation of 
 the undersigned, and has given so much satisfaction that the example has 
 
FILTHY PLACES AND GKOSS ABUSES. 
 
 285 
 
 been successfully imitated in other localities. The cleanliness excites the 
 admiration of all non-resident observers, and applications are constantly 
 made to the person having the matter in hand to extend his ministrations 
 to the streets where they reside. One great source of filth in the streets 
 is connected with the manure heap. This feature of the district, before 
 referred to, is situated between Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Streets, 
 First Avenue and East River. Large portions of the squares adjoining 
 are also used for the same purpose. Hundreds of loads of manure are 
 daily brought from the stables in different parts of the city ; putrefaction 
 is excited as much as possible in the constantly-increasing heap, and at 
 the proper season the compost is shipped for use in the country. The 
 carts which gather the material are generally small and loosely con- 
 structed. Upon them the manure is piled until no more can be retained. 
 As the driver proceeds to headquarters, the jolting shakes off no small 
 portion, leaving his track wherever he goes. A single cart load fouls a 
 street just cleaned, and a constant procession of them makes cleanliness 
 impossible. 
 
 The grocers, oystermen, and other dealers, throw their refuse into the 
 streets with impunity. Their premises are frequently marked by perished 
 vegetables, rotten fruit, and oyster shells before their doors. As early as 
 the year 1656, when the population was about one thousand, the outskirts 
 of the city, in the vicinity of Wall Street, and beyond that line was a wil- 
 derness, " the burgomasters enacted orders against casting filth into the 
 streets." If in those days there existed a necessity for such orders, in our 
 time the population, increased nearly a thousand fold in number, and 
 greatly in density, should make such orders imperative. 
 
 The sidewalks should receive more attention than is now bestowed 
 upon them. In many instances they correspond to the palatial residences 
 before which they are placed. One, two, or three large flags cover the 
 entire surface ; and for blocks there is no unevenness which can prevent a 
 sure foothold, but there are many places where irregularity of surface ren- 
 ders walking a guarded process. The paver will relay a portion and 
 leave an edge several inches above the adjoining flags, against which the 
 foot strikes, and sprains and even broken bones are the result. Occa- 
 sionally for weeks the builder takes possession of the sidewalk and the 
 contiguous side of the street, which compels the pedestrian to betake him- 
 self to the carriage-way, or to the other side, if this be not in the same 
 condition. Remonstrance is useless. The complainant is told, with a 
 smile partially suppressed, " to take his time and go round." 
 
 It is the practice to place garbage-boxes and ash-barrels upon the side- 
 walk, and their contents, the accumulation of days and perhaps weeks, 
 
286 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-THIRD SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 are often of a character to infect the atmosphere for a long distance. 
 These hoxes are constructed of wood, and placed in the situation intended, 
 where they remain until worn out, knocked to pieces, and stolen for fire. 
 A peculiarity in the construction of one of them deserves a passing notice. 
 The lower part is filled with heavy stones, above which, perhaps fifteen 
 inches from the bottom, is the floor. Thus made, it is immovable ; but 
 the floor not being tight, the stony foundation is the receptacle for nearly 
 all the b'quid filth. As a rule, garbage-boxes are far from being tight, as 
 the dirt in proximity indicates. They are frequently filled to overflowing, 
 and when the contents are removed it is done incompletely. 
 
 If in every residence proper metallic receptacles were provided for 
 solid and liquid refuse ; if it were made contrary to law to place them 
 upon the sidewalks, but left to the ash-men to remove, clean, and return, 
 the cleanliness, comfort, and health of the city would be increased to a 
 wonderful extent. 
 
 The watering-troughs constitute another encumbrance to the side- 
 walks, and, as present constructed, they are the centres of dampness, 
 stagnant water, mud, and filth. 
 
 Inhabitants and Occupations. — The lower floors of the buildings 
 on the Sixth, Third, Second, and First Avenues, are used as stores, and 
 families usually of foreign extraction occupy the floors above. "West from 
 Third Avenue are the residences of the wealthy, unsurpassed in the city. 
 East from this avenue tenant-houses predominate, inhabited chiefly by 
 people of foreign birth. One locality in the northeastern section is given 
 up to shanties, the occupants being squatters, also born abroad. The east- 
 ern limit of Dutch Hill (for so this place is called) is a precipice thirty 
 feet or more in height, without any protection from falling ; its almost 
 perpendicular side corresponds to the line of First Avenue, and on its 
 brink terminate abruptly East Thirty-ninth and East Fortieth Streets. 
 These people find employment in the quarry and manure heap near their 
 homes. They possess cows, swine, goats, and fowls, in large numbers. 
 The women, boys, and some of the men, arc volunteer assistants to the city 
 inspector. They may be daily seen with their carts drawn by themselves 
 and their dogs ; or, if fortune has more signally favored them, a rickety 
 wagon, drawn by a decrepit horse with harness of somewhat primitive 
 construction, facilitates their labors. Going from house to house they 
 ransack the ash barrels, and beg the swill and other kitchen refuse to supply 
 food for their cows, pigs, and goats. It is said that they sometimes steal. 
 Here it may be mentioned that the cow's milk from this source commands 
 a high price because furnished from a single cow ; the purchaser not con- 
 sidering how the animal is fed. 
 
POISONOUS GASES AND EMANATIONS IN DWELLINGS. 287 
 
 Some facts in regard to the construction of dwellings. — In the construc- 
 tion of residences, whether for single families or on the tenement plan, 
 little attention is paid to the health of the occupants. Any thing which 
 contributes to show is not neglected, while parts not exposed to inspec- 
 tion, parts which can be covered up, are slighted. As an illustration of 
 this statement, the plumbing of a house erected in 1857, at a cost of $30,- 
 000, was constructed without suitable traps, so that there was no obstacle 
 to the emanations from the sink and water-closet. A child sickened and 
 died. The other children and women of the house did not escape serious 
 sickness ; the symptoms in each case being those which characterized the 
 National Hotel disease at Washington — vomiting, purging, and great pros- 
 tration. At no inconsiderable expense and trouble the proper additions 
 were made to the waste-pipes, and that plague was stayed. 
 
 In some places the grade of the street is so far above the original level 
 that no excavation is needed, and it may be necessary to fill in. Specula- 
 tors are not particular about the materials used. Most, if not all, of the 
 English basement houses have no cellars. The foundations are laid, and 
 at the proper depth, the lowest floor several feet from the ground. Here 
 is an extensive vacant space for air, it may be foul and damp, the sole 
 escape for which is through the cracks of the floor, or along the course 
 of the water or waste-pipes to the apartments above. Is it to be won- 
 dered at that inexplicable types of fever prevail, or that some houses are 
 regarded as unhealthy ? 
 
 The sewer of a house is a concealed matter. In several houses con- 
 structed as above described, wet earth was thrown up to make the eleva- 
 tion sufficient, and upon it in frosty weather a brick sewer was built. The 
 warmth of spring produced an upheaval, the bricks separated, the rats in 
 crowds took possession, enlarging the openings, and the house was filled 
 with such odors as might be expected. The floors were torn up, for there 
 was no other way of reaching the sewer, which was removed, and another 
 substituted. I am inclined to the belief that there is scarcely a house in 
 which poisonous air does not escape from the gas, furnace, or soil pipes ; 
 and as these are generally covered, it is very difficult to find the leak ; 
 and when discovered, the defect, which might easily have been prevented, 
 is remedied at much inconvenience. To save expense, it has been the 
 custom to make a single connection with the street sewer for several 
 buildings. The results of an obstruction, partial or complete, near the 
 outlet, are experienced in all, and before it is removed the occupants may 
 be subjected to a vitiated atmosphere from an unknown source for days 
 and even weeks. It follows that every building should have its drain- 
 pipe separate ; through which should flow not only all the waste water and 
 
288 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-THIRD SANTTAItY DISTRICT. 
 
 excrement, but the rain falling upon the roof should be conducted through 
 the leader thereto, and not allowed to flow over the sidewalk, as is fre- 
 quently the case, making it wet in the warm seasons, icy in winter, and 
 slippery in all stormy weather. 
 
 The tenant-houses of my district are built in the usual fashion, which 
 i3 so well understood that a particular description is needless. People 
 cannot live in them without impairing their health, and, perhaps, endanger- 
 ing their lives ; and what is of equal importance, all their surroundings 
 contribute to the development of depravity. Good air and cheerful apart- 
 ments are as necessary to the formation of the moral character, as sun- 
 shine and proper soil to vegetation. 
 
 An example of crowded tenant-houses in a bad condition is found at 
 the eastern foot of Murray Hill, corner of Thirty-seventh Street and Third 
 Avenue. To its occupants the house No. 115 East Thirty-seventh Street 
 is known as " The Great Eastern." * In front, on the east side of Third 
 Avenue, are Nos. 523, 525, 527, and 529, the lower floors of which are 
 occupied for business purposes, and above are from two to four families 
 on each floor. In the rear of 527 and 529, and directly in the rear of 
 " The Great Eastern," from which it is separated by an area 20 feet in 
 width, is another tenant-house. The space intervening between the front 
 and the rear houses is crowded with offensive and neglected privies. 
 
 The census of these tenant-houses, and of that of the house on Thirty- 
 seventh Street, is as follows : 
 
 Street Number. 
 
 Number of families. 
 
 What stores and shops 
 on first floor of these 
 houses. 
 
 | Number of inhabitants 
 
 Number under 10 years' 
 of age. 
 
 M 
 
 if 
 o 
 a 
 
 h 
 
 « 
 
 a 
 1 
 
 Deaths in six months. 
 
 Number in basement. 
 
 No. 115 E. 87th St. 
 
 " 528 8d Avenue 
 » 625 " 
 " 527 
 « 529 " 
 " 527 Rear 
 il 629 
 
 22 
 
 8 
 17 
 8 
 8 
 4 
 6 
 
 Second-hand Clothing and Tailoring In 
 
 basement. j 
 Liquor store on lower floor. 
 Shoo store on lower floor. 
 Liquor store on lower floor. 
 Plumber and metal roofer on lower floor. 
 
 90 
 
 80 
 65 
 89 
 40 
 25 
 28 
 
 81 
 
 11 
 
 28 
 18 
 14 
 15 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 8 
 1 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 Water In cellar. 
 2 
 
 Total 
 
 72 
 
 
 812 
 
 123 
 
 16 | 6 
 
 10 
 
 A large part of the ground between the buildings is devoted to the 
 privies, a cloacal sea of indefinite extent, the contents of which are dis- 
 cernible between the dilapidated planks which cover it. During the hot 
 
 • Sec the ground-plun and a bird's-eye view of these houses upon opposite page. 
 
290 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-THIRD SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 weather of summer the stench was well-nigh intolerable. There is filthy 
 water in the basement of 527 rear building, supposed to come from the 
 privy sink. These premises become worse every year. When the vacant 
 spaces near these houses shall have been built upon, as in other parts of 
 the city, then it will become a favorite haunt of pestilential maladies. It 
 is not yet a very sickly quarter. 
 
 During the past season I have made numerous examinations of these 
 buildings, and at every visit have discovered that the flat roof of " The 
 Great Eastern " was used as a privy, and was informed that it was cus- 
 tomary to empty vessels containing human excrement and other filth 
 upon it. During the warm season there is a larger percentage of sick- 
 ness than we have presented in the foregoing table. It will be observed 
 that as given in the table, which is below the actual average for the year, 
 the sickness-rate is five per cent., while the deaths have occurred at the 
 rate of 1 in 52 in six months, or 1 in 26 yearly. 
 
 One of the principal defects in the management of these tenements is 
 the lack of proper supervision. The owner frequently sub-lets, or employs 
 an agent. Were he compelled to place his property in charge of some 
 one who should reside on the premises and act as janitor, and should he 
 then make frequent visits to look after the interest of those whom he 
 should consider as placed under his protection, an improvement would re- 
 sult. In going from one of these habitations to another, it is shock- 
 ing to observe the manner in which the human excrements are dis- 
 posed of. Some throw the contents of chamber vessels from the win- 
 dows ; others, near the roof, deposit there. Many of the privies cannot 
 be approached. Some are locked, but one is commonly open for emp- 
 tying vessels, and the floor, the seat, and the ground near the entrance, is 
 covered with excrement. 
 
 Special provision by the city for the preservation of the health, and the 
 prevention of disease. — The immediate care of the health of the Twenty- 
 first Ward, in which is included the Twenty-third District, is placed in the 
 charge of two officials, called the health warden and assistant health war- 
 den. They receive a handsome remuneration for their services — in former 
 years three dollars a day ; now, perhaps, increased. The present incum- 
 bents arc rumsellcrs ; and if this avocation, pursued for a lengthy period, 
 qualifies them for the proper discharge of their duties, they may justly 
 claim competence, for, according to the directories, they have kept grog- 
 gerics for many years. Their official duties, I am told, do not prevent 
 them from a close attention to business ; nor do I find that they arc fre- 
 quent visitors in any portion of the ward. Few people have ever seen 
 tliom, and to many their existence is unknown. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THK 
 
 TWENTY-FOURTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 ROBERT STEWART, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — This district is bounded on the north by the south side 
 of Fiftieth Street, south by the north side of Fortieth Street, east by the 
 west side of Sixth Avenue, and on the west by the Hudson Biver. The 
 district comprises a southern section of the Twenty-second Ward. 
 
 There are 11 streets and 6 avenues in this district. The number of 
 squares with street boundaries is 68. There are 2,423 buildings in the 
 district occupied as dwellings. In order to describe these as accurately 
 as possible, I will divide them into three classes. 
 
 First Class. — Those occupied by one family. There are of this class 
 1,129 ; 387 of these are built of brick with brown-stone fronts, 442 brick 
 with brick fronts, 300 wood with wooden fronts. The brown-stone and 
 brick fronts are all first-class residences, but the wooden buildings are 
 varied, ranging from the beautiful dwelling neatly painted and richly or- 
 namented, to the first-class shanty. It was not my privilege to inspect 
 many of these buildings, nevertheless, when the occupant was a tenant, 
 I heard many complaints of defective sewerage and plumbing, overflow- 
 ing privy vaults, etc., showing very clearly that what wc call first-class 
 residences would be none the less comfortable for a little attention from 
 an honest " health warden" who was qualified to give advice on sanitary 
 matters. 
 
 Second Class. — Those occupied by two or more families, commonly 
 called " Tenant-Houses." There are of this class 1,126 buildings ; 119 
 of these are on the rear of the lot, two buildings on one lot, 42 of these 
 are constructed of brick with brown-stone fronts, 620 of brick with brick 
 
292 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 fronts, 308 are wooden buildings ; these are generally very poor houses, 
 and it is not over stating the case to say, that they should all he present- 
 ed as nuisances. 
 
 The tenant-houses of this district are built to accommodate two fam- 
 ilies on a floor. There are but few exceptions to this rule, the average 
 number of families is six to a house. Generally, these houses are kept in 
 a filthy condition by the occupants ; the halls are miniature streets, and the 
 same nuisances are found existing as in the streets, the swill-pail taking the 
 place of the garbage-box, wet halls and stairs in lieu of muddy gutters. 
 
 The contents of the swill-pail is a mixture of swill, ashes, and the 
 contents of the chamber-pot. The odor emitted from these vessels is of 
 the most offensive and poisonous character. If the occupants sicken with 
 any of the severe forms of acute diseases, death is almost the necessary 
 consequence. It must be admitted that there are some exceptions to the 
 above general statement ; and I am happy to note the fact, for it only goes 
 to prove that filth and stench are not a necessary consequence in a tenant- 
 house. I have visited houses where every thing was found in the best 
 order, and this, too, in houses of the same construction, division, and num- 
 ber of square feet to a family, as those that are most miserably kept. I 
 do not wish the inference drawn that I maintain that tenant-houses are as 
 a class well-constructed and ventilated ; nevertheless I do maintain, that 
 the differences which we meet with as regards cleanliness, are due in a 
 great measure to the habits of the occupants. For instance, there is in 
 West Forty-first Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues (a miserably 
 filthy block), a house built on 100 feet square of ground. This house has 
 been occupied the past summer by 64 families — 62 German and 2 Irish. 
 I visited this house during the month of September ; the people opened 
 their apartments to me, and seemed proud to have them examined. I 
 found the halls clean, no obstructions, no unpleasant odor, the rooms 
 were tidy, and I found it pleasant to rest in them. There had not been a 
 death during the summer, and but one or two cases of sickness, and that 
 of a mild character. 
 
 Third Class. — All that class of dwellings scattered irregularly around, 
 without reference to lot or to street boundaries, I call shanties. They are 
 one story usually, with but one room, neither ceiled nor lined ; some have 
 a wooden floor, others none ; in short, they arc very uncomfortable looking 
 affairs. There arc of this class of buildings 156 ; Irish and German rag- 
 pickers and cinder gatherers arc the occupants. These people are em- 
 phatically "squatters." The New York Times of November 21st, says: 
 " It is estimated by those who are perfectly competent to judge, that there 
 is a population of 20,000 on this island that pay neither rent for the dwell- 
 
SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY, IMMORALITY, AND INSALUBRITY. 293 
 
 ings they occupy nor municipal taxes as holders of real estate. They 
 comprise that portion of the population known as squatters. In one ward 
 which we need not name, they combined a year or two ago in sufficient 
 numbers to control the election for alderman and councilmen. "We are 
 not altogether sure that they cannot control the majority of votes in the 
 same ward to-day." 
 
 There is no parallel to this state of things in the history of a civilized 
 community calling itself a city. These 20,000 exempts, as we saw the 
 other day, exercise by favor of the Common Council the right of free pas- 
 ture for cows, goats, and pigs. The public pound has been voted a 
 nuisance, the keepers thereof a double-distilled nuisance. Absolved from 
 the duty of paying house-rent, relieved from the burdens of municipal 
 taxation — so trying to the temper of freemen in all countries — this es- 
 pecially favored class of householders also claim the right of carrying on 
 the pork and dairy business, at the expense of the municipality, and to 
 the disadvantage of those who love cleanliness, quiet, and comfort. 
 
 Our exempted population moreover demand of us even more than this 
 in the way of accommodation. The " freedom of the city" they hold to 
 embrace not merely the privilege of living rent free, of paying no city 
 taxes, and of feeding their pigs, cows, and goats in their neighbor's back 
 yards, and on the common thoroughfare, but likewise the right of revis- 
 ing the general municipal surveys. Let any one sceptical on this point 
 take a cursory glance say at Fifth Avenue, opposite Central Park, on 
 that high ground which promises to be in a few years the most magnifi- 
 cent terrace on the continent, and he will find that the dwellings of the 
 " exempt " population, at frequent intervals, hold possession of the public 
 highway. At sundry points they take half the carriage road, the owners 
 no doubt holding to the view that where a dung-cart can pass along, there 
 is ample accommodation for any other species of vehicle. 
 
 We need hardly tell the owners of real property on this island, that 
 the mere fact of this class being above the weakness of paying either 
 rent or taxes, is by far the smallest part of the burden they impose upon 
 the responsible citizens. The depreciation in the value of real property 
 in the neighborhoods we speak of is beyond calculation, not merely from 
 the fact that the grading, draining, causewaying, and paving in up-town 
 districts is delayed by the free-tenement system, but from the still graver 
 fact that in point of social order, obedience to the law, and pcacable cit- 
 izenship generally, the exempt districts bear an atrociously bad character. 
 
 Out of every seven squatter-tenements it can be shown that five are 
 unlicensed groggeries, that on Sundays and other holidays they are the re- 
 sort of the vilest and lowest characters of both sexes, and that they serve 
 
294 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH SANITARY DISTRICT 
 
 the purpose of repositories for petty thievings from one end of the island 
 to the other, besides being nurseries for juvenile criminals of a more 
 dangerous class than those bred in the crowded haunts down town. 
 
 Such, in effect, is the testimony of an officer of long experience ; and 
 apart from the character of the witness, we are prepared from personal 
 observation to give it full credit. 
 
 Stores. — There are 803 stores in this district ; 141 of these are for 
 the sale of liquor, most of the " gin-mill order." 
 
 Manufactories. — There are 96 manufacturing establishments in this 
 district. 
 
 Stables. — There are 132 stables in this district — 117 private, and 15 
 livery stables. I found no cases of sickness that would be directly attrib- 
 uted to the stables. They were generally in good order. 
 
 Slaughter-Houses. — There are 17 slaughter-houses. Two-thirds 
 of these buildings are but poorly constructed for the purpose for which 
 they are used, and as a consequence are not kept in good order. The 
 drains in most instances lead into the street gutters instead of the sewer ; 
 this is the principal difficulty. In Forty-sixth Street, between Tenth and 
 Eleventh Avenues, I found the most filthy one : it is built on the rear of 
 the lot, the drainage is over the surface of the yard over the sidewalk into 
 the street gutter, where the blood is mixed with water ; it then runs two- 
 thirds of the entire block before it finds its way into the inlet of the sewer. 
 The children of the neighborhood play in this mixture. Cholera infan- 
 tum has prevailed to an alarming extent in this neighborhood during the 
 summer. There were 11 deaths during the hot months. There are 6 
 tripe, 3 sausage, and 2 bone-boiling establishments. I did not find any 
 sickness that could be directly attributed to these establishments ; but the 
 people living in the immediate vicinity complained bitterly of the odor 
 emitted from them, being compelled in the heat of summer to close their 
 windows, heat being preferable to cool air ladened with fetid odor. How 
 much of the sickness is to be indirectly attributed to these disgusting 
 nuisances, is a subject that requires careful study. 
 
 The little children of the neighborhood gather around the doors of the 
 slaughter-houses to witness the death of the animals ; in this way they are 
 early in life educated to habits of cruelty. They are rude and boisterous, 
 showing very clearly that the cruel manner in which slaughtering of ani- 
 mals is effected in this city, has a bad effect on the morals of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 Nuisances. — I found 47 places where very evident nuisances existed. 
 They had all been the subject of complaints, but in every instance the 
 complaints proved unavailing. I will note a few of them. 
 
TYPHOID FEVEK. AND PLACES THAT PRODUCE IT. 
 
 295 
 
 The block in Forty-seventh Street running from the Seventh Avenue 
 to the Eighth Avenue, is in a very bad condition. 
 
 There is no sewer in the above. The houses are built of wood and 
 are poorly constructed, being only a little in advance of the shanty variety. 
 They are built on the natural surface without cellars, the yards being in 
 almost every instance above the level of the street. The hydrants are in 
 the yards, the waste water is drained over the surface, keeping the yards 
 and street constantly wet. The street is the receptacle of the ashes, swill, 
 and garbage of the houses, and is filthy and noisome. I found fever cases 
 in seven houses in this block. 
 
 Broadway, from Forty-seventh to Forty-ninth Street, is not sewered ; 
 consequently the houses are, with but few exceptions, deprived of drainage. 
 Some of them are from this reason in a sad condition. 
 
 The block of six houses on the west side of Broadway suffer the most. 
 The natural slope of the land is toward the street, the descent is quite 
 rapid. At the time of every rain the water fills the cellars and vaults of 
 the privies, washing the contents of these into the yards. I found fever 
 in two of these houses. The cellars along the entire length of both blocks 
 have to be emptied by pumping after every rain. 
 
 I found fever cases in every locality where the surface is kept con- 
 stantly wet. 
 
 Spreading of manure during the summer months is, in my opinion, a 
 cause of fever. The blocks bounded on the north by Forty-sixth Street, 
 south by Forty-fourth Street, east by Seventh Avenue, west by Ninth 
 Avenue, are cultivated as vegetable gardens. The gardeners cultivating 
 this ground are very industrious and thrifty men. They gather four crops 
 a year. In order to do this, large quantities of fertilizing material must 
 be used. This is collected from cow-stables, pig-pens, and I believe from 
 the privy-vaults of the city. The odor emitted from this mixture as it 
 lies decomposing is any thing but pleasant ; but when the time comes to 
 unpack this mass for the purpose of spreading it over the surface of the 
 ground, the stench is intolerable. Those who are forced to inhale this 
 are necessarily made sick. Nine of the families residing on the boundary 
 of these gardens have suffered during the past summer with a severe type 
 of fever, and this number would undoubtedly be greatly multiplied if the 
 families living in this neighborhood were at home during the hot months. 
 
 The street gutters of the tenant-houses and stables were invariably found 
 in a filthy condition. This is owing in part to the habits of the people 
 and to their indifference to cleanliness, and partly to the bad construction 
 of the gutters. The stones composing the floor of the gutters are irregu- 
 lar, one sunk below the level of the other — forming " traps for the solid 
 
296 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 matters." This may work well in the sewer ten or fifteen feet below the 
 open surface, but in the gutters it is undoubtedly a cause of disease. A9 
 long as these gutters remain in their present condition no amount of sweep- 
 ing or washing will avail to thoroughly cleanse them. 
 
 The receiving-pens for the swine brought into the city are located at 
 the foot of Forty-second Street and the North River. The pens were in 
 the condition in which pig-stys are generally found. The manure col- 
 lected from them constitutes the nuisance, and it is a serious one. It is 
 thrown into an excavation near the street, at the end of the block ; this 
 pit is always full, a large quantity is allowed to accumulate before it is 
 removed. The air is constantly filled with the noisome odor emitted from 
 this decomposing mass ; many and earnest were the complaints of the 
 neighbors. This locality has been visited by an epidemic of fever of 
 a severe type within the past two years, and in my opinion the manure- 
 heap was the cause. 
 
 Adjoining this establishment toward the river is the slaughter-house 
 of Mr. . This building is new and well-arranged for the busi- 
 ness. During the killing season about one thousand hogs are slaughtered 
 daily. I discovered nothing of an unpleasant nature about the working 
 of this establishment until I visited the foot of "West Forty-second Street 
 (two blocks above). At this point there is a pier for the purpose of land- 
 ing coal which extends out some two hundred feet into the river, and is 
 elevated high above the water. I found the logs and cross beams of this 
 
 fine structure much marred by being full of the offal from Mr. 's 
 
 establishment. Instead of casting the refuse matter of the slaughter- 
 house into the proper dock to be disposed of as directed by law, he saves 
 the city this expense, and dumps it into the river direct. This would not 
 matter much (for we are credibly informed that the city authorities take 
 about the same trouble) if the tide did not take the viscera and small pigs up 
 instead of down stream. Here we have another " trap for solid matters." 
 This is in the immediate neighborhood of the Weehawkcn Ferry landing, 
 consequently thousands of our citizens are daily exposed to the sickening 
 odor emitted from decaying animal matter. 
 
 Swill-milk. — I will note but one stable ; it is located in "West Forty- 
 fifth Street between the Ninth and Tenth Avenues. This milk-factory is 
 built of wood in the shanty style ; it measures twenty by eighty feet. 
 Eighteen cows are stabled and milked in this establishment. The pro- 
 prietor was so jealous of his rights that I was not permitted to examine 
 the internal arrangement of the building or the condition of the cows. 
 This building stands alone high above the level of the street, bounded on 
 the west by higli rocks, on the cast by an empty lot, high in front and low 
 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 297 
 
 in the rear. The street in part is sewered hut is not paved, and the surface 
 of it is rendered very uneven by heaps of ashes. The stable has no con- 
 nection with the street sewer, but is drained into the adjacent lot, on the 
 east side, where the urine forms a large pool. The citizens protect them- 
 selves from the overflow of this by banking ; a crevasse sometimes oc- 
 curs, when the adjacent yards are overflowed and the privy vaults filled. 
 The privy vaults of the houses in Forty-sixth Street, located in the rear 
 of this stable, are filled with urine once in four weeks. At the time of your 
 inspector's visit the vaults were full and the yards overflowed. The 
 manure is all thrown out on the rocks on the west side of the stable. 
 The fluid portion runs off the surface of the rocks for the distance of 
 fifty feet down into the street. Some of the urine finds an outlet in this 
 direction. In this way the street is kept wet, and is in a filthy condition. 
 
 Complaints have been regularly made against this establishment, but 
 it continues to exist. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — Voluntary efforts may do something — should 
 do much — toward the discovery and the application of the remedies for the 
 causes of insalubrity that prevail in this inspection district. But the reme- 
 dial power that is most needed is the power and presence of a thoroughly 
 efficient sanitary police. The evils that I have described in previous 
 pages of this report will not yield to the moral suasion of volunteered in 
 quiry, inspection, or advice. In vain will be the sanitary inspector's re 
 ports upon the causes of the fever, the dysentery, and the high sickness- 
 ratio in his district, unless by such reporting the public conscience and pop 
 ular intelligence are aroused to apply the strong arms of their power in 
 the form of definite sanitary regulations, administered by competent minds. 
 Probably there is no other portion of the city that presents greater incen- 
 tives to popular effort to eliminate every cause and agency of insalubrity, 
 but I fear that no amount of voluntary effort can save the district from 
 evils both impending and now being suffered in this favored section of the 
 city. 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF TH 
 
 TWENTY-FIFTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 J. LEWIS SMITH, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — The Twenty-fifth District comprises that portion of the 
 Twenty-second Ward hounded north by the Central Park and Eighty-sixth 
 Street, east by the Sixth Avenue and the Central Parle, south by Fiftieth 
 Street, and west by the Hudson River. 
 
 Topography. — The surface of this . district, in its natural state, is 
 very uneven, consisting of low, marshy ground, alternating with hills, 
 usually of small size, and produced by the elevation or outcropping of 
 rock from the bed of gneiss which underlies the whole island. Some of 
 these hills consist of bare rock ; in other places, soil and vegetation cover 
 the rock. There is a general inclination toward the Hudson of that por- 
 tion of the district which lies west of Ninth Avenue, while that part east 
 of Ninth Avenue inclines toward the East River. In the primitive state 
 of the district the marshy ground gave rise to seven distinct streams, 
 five of which (A, D, E, F, and G) emptied into the Hudson, and the 
 remaining two (B, B, and C, C) crossing what is now the Central Park, 
 and along the bed of the skating ponds, finally emptied into the East 
 River. These streams, as far as they lay within this district, were all 
 small, and some of them nearly or quite disappeared in protracted dry 
 weather. 
 
 Streets. — Their Condition. — There arc in the district 5 avenues 
 parallel with and equidistant from each other, and when graded there will 
 be 35 parallel and equidistant streets, crossing the avenues at right angles. 
 The district is also crossed diagonally by Broadway, or, as its suburban 
 portion is termed, the Bloomingdale Road ; the old highway of the island. 
 
STREETS. — THEIR CONDITION. 
 
 299 
 
 map of twenty-fifth disteict. This enters the district on the 
 
 south, near Seventh Avenue, and 
 emerges at Eighty-sixth Street, 
 west of Tenth Avenue. Sixth, 
 Seventh, and Eighth Avenues are 
 graded and paved so far as they 
 lie within the district. Ninth 
 Avenue is graded as far as Sixty- 
 third Street, and partially above 
 this street. It is paved to Fifty- 
 fourth Street. Tenth Avenue is 
 graded as far as Sevety-fourth 
 Street, and is open but not graded 
 to Eighty-third Street. Eleventh 
 Avenue is graded to Fifty-ninth 
 Street, and above that is not open. 
 These avenues all contain railroad 
 tracks below Fifty-ninth Street, 
 and Eighth Avenue a track in its 
 entire extent through the district. 
 The pavement used is, in part, 
 cobble stone, and in part the trap- 
 block. Broadway is graded to 
 Seventieth Street, paved with 
 block pavement to Fifty-ninth 
 Street, and macadamized from 
 Fifty-ninth to Seventieth Street. 
 The cross streets, from Fiftieth to 
 Fifty-ninth, are all 
 open, and graded with 
 the exception of Fif- 
 ty-first Street be- 
 tween Sixth and Sev- 
 enth Avenues, and 
 portions of Fifty- 
 third, Fifty -fourth, 
 and Fifty - eighth 
 Streets, near the 
 Hudson River. 
 Above Fifty-ninth no street has been entirely opened except Eighty- 
 
300 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Sewerage. — This is entirely wanting in the northern or upper two- 
 thirds of the Twenty-fifth District, and in the lower third, or the part be- 
 low Sixtieth Street, it is incomplete. The streets entirely sewered below 
 Sixtieth Street, are Seventh and Eighth Avenues, and Fifty-ninth Street. 
 The other streets either contain no sewer, like Broadway, or are sewered 
 only for limited distances. 
 
 Domiciles. — The domiciles of the Twenty-fifth District may be di- 
 vided into four classes : 1st. Shanties. 2d. "Wooden tenements. 3d. 
 Brick or stone tenant-houses. 4th. Good dwelling-houses, whatever the 
 material. 
 
 Shanties. — The shanty is the cheapest and simplest domicile construct- 
 ed in civilized communities. The typical shanty is built of rough boards, 
 which form the floor, the sides, and the roof. It is built either on the 
 ground, or but little raised above it. It is from six to ten feet high, and 
 its ground area varies much in different cases ; but is always of moderate 
 extent. It contains no fireplace or chimney, but a stove, the pipe from 
 which passes through a hole in the roof. It has from one to three or 
 four windows, with single sash, each containing from four to six panes of 
 small size. Some shanties have but one room ; others an additional 
 small apartment, used as a bedroom. The better shanties are lathed and 
 plastered. It is evident that, to the occupants of the shanty, domiciliary 
 and personal cleanliness is almost impossible. In one small room are 
 found the family, chairs, usually dirty and broken, cooking utensils, stove, 
 often a bed, a dog or cat, and sometimes more or less poultry. On the 
 outside, by the door, in many cases are pigs and goats, and additional 
 poultry. There is no sink or drainage, and the slops are thrown upon 
 the ground. The water used is sometimes the Croton, which is brought 
 to the shanties in pails, usually from one of the avenues. In other places, 
 where the Croton hydrants are too far away, and the ground is marshy, 
 the water is obtained from holes dug a little below the surface. This 
 water often has a roiled appearance, and an unpleasant flavor. Shanties 
 are usually built promiscuously over the ground, without the least regard 
 to order. Families living in them arc largely squatters, and such people 
 of course select for residences localities of which no profitable use can be 
 made by the proprietors. Therefore, shanties in this district arc built 
 mainly on rocky, elevated ground, or on lots sunken and too wet for til- 
 lage. There are in the district 552 shanties ; and as a shanty accommo- 
 . dates but one family, this is the number of families living in this kind of 
 domicile. 
 
 Wooden Tenements. — Next to shanties, in tho classification of domi- 
 
SHANTIES DESCKIBED. 
 
 301 
 
 ciles, come -wooden tenements. In determining what buildings should 
 be placed in this class, we have regarded more the appearance and gen- 
 eral character of the houses, than the number of families which they ac- 
 commodate. The separation of wooden tenements from shanties on the one 
 side, and the better class of dwellings on the other, is in a measure arbitrary. 
 Some wooden tenements are but little removed from shanties, as regards 
 both size and mode of construction ; while others might, without much 
 impropriety, be placed in the group of good private residences. Ordina- 
 rily, however, there is little danger of error in their classification. The 
 wooden tenement in the Twenty-fifth District has usually two stories, 
 but some have only one, some three, and a few four. It is built without 
 cellar, and but little raised above the ground. It has a mortised frame, 
 clap-boarded sides, a chimney, and shingled roof. It has no sewer con- 
 nection or other drainage, and no gas or Croton pipes. The privies are 
 in the rear, or in front, and also without drainage. The water used by 
 the occupants is, in some localities, the Croton ; in others, spring or well 
 water. The house is heated by a stove, and the fluel used is coal, fre- 
 quently partially burnt, and sifted from ashes obtained from hotels and 
 private residences in the city. This is also the fluel used in shanties, and 
 the shanties and wooden tenements are lighted by kerosene oil. 
 
 The ground area of the wooden tenement, like that of the shanty, is 
 nearly square ; sometimes the width, sometimes the depth excelling. The 
 width and depth vary generally from twelve to twenty-five feet. 
 
 The number of families in the wooden tenement varies from one to as 
 many as seven or eight, according to the size of the house. In 132 of 
 these domiciles taken without selection, I find 312 families, which is prob- 
 ably not far from the average number. There are in the* entire district 
 861 wooden tenements, containing, therefore, according to the above cal- 
 culation, 2,035 families. 
 
 Brick Tenant-houses. — There are in the Twenty-fifth District 147 domi- 
 ciles, built, with one exception, of brick, which, from their mode of construc- 
 tion, may be properly considered tenant-houses. In the exceptional case, 
 the material is stone. There are some dwelling-houses which are built in 
 part of brick and in part of wood. Whether these are classed with the 
 brick or wooden tenements, depends upon which material is in excess, or 
 whether the building resembles most in its appearance the one or the 
 other kind of domicile. 
 
 Of these 147 tenant-houses 94 have four stories, 32 three stories, 
 19 two stories, and 2 one story. 
 
 The following table exhibits the water supply of these houses : 
 
302 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 No. of 
 houses. 
 
 Croton obtained from hydrants in yard (front or rear), . . 24 
 
 " " " cellar or basement, . . 11 
 
 " " on the floors, . . . . .85 
 
 " " elsewhere ; no water on the lot, . . 15 
 
 Spring water used, . . . . . . .3 
 
 Water-supply not stated in the records, .... 9 
 
 147 
 
 House drainage. 
 
 None, or into gutter or to surface of street, . . .44 
 
 Drained into sewer, ...... 80 
 
 " " contiguous sunken lots, . . . .14 
 
 Not ascertained, ...... 9 
 
 147 
 
 PRIVIES. 
 
 Location. Drainage. 
 In front of house, . .16 None, . . .61 
 
 u rear " . . 116 Drained into sewer, . 77 
 
 " cellar " . 1 " " sunken lots, . 2 
 
 None (water-closets in house), 7 Placed over the Hudson, . 3 
 
 Not ascertained, . . 7 Not ascertained, . . 4 
 
 147 147 
 
 Cellars. 
 
 None, . . . . . . . .27 
 
 Cellars dry, ....... 86 
 
 " wet, j" v : . . . .11 
 
 Not ascertained, ...... 23 
 
 147 
 
 The number of families occupying brick tenant-houses I have ascer- 
 tained to be 634, as follows : 
 
 Houses four stories high, 94, containing 460 families, average about 5 
 " three « 32, " 132 " " 4 
 
 « two « 20, " 40 " " 2 
 
 " one " 2, " 2 " " 1 
 
 While there is great uniformity in the shanties, and most of the wooden 
 tenements, as regards their sanitary condition, there is a wide diversity in 
 the different brick tenant-houses. Some of these latter, on account of the 
 
CLASSES AND CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION. 
 
 303 
 
 lack of house and privy drainage, and of cellars, or the presence of wet 
 cellars, possess all the causes of insalubrity which are found in the wooden 
 tenements ; while others, though a small minority, are nearly as well con- 
 structed to insure comfort and health as the better class of dwellings. In 
 general, the oldest brick tenant-houses, and those built on unfrequented or 
 unimproved streets, are the most objectionable. 
 
 There are, then, living in shanties, in tenements, and in brick tenant- 
 houses, in the Twenty-fifth District, 3,221 families. It may be safely as- 
 sumed that 3,000 families occupy domiciles which, from fault in their con- 
 struction, or in their surroundings, are decidedly insalubrious. The exact 
 character of the insalubrity will be pointed out hereafter. These families 
 are mostly small, in consequence of the great mortality among infants and 
 children, probably not exceeding, in the average, five. This gives a total 
 of 16,105 individuals in the Twenty-fifth District, who reside in shanties, 
 wooden tenements, and tenant-houses. 
 
 Good Dwellings. — The number of good dwellings in the Twenty-fifth 
 District is 287, containing probably about 400 families. Below Fifty-ninth 
 Street these dwellings are mostly of brick; above Fifty-ninth Street 
 chiefly wooden ; and above Seventieth Street, with three exceptions, en- 
 tirely such. 
 
 Population and Occupations. — Those who reside in shanties are, 
 with few exceptions, Irish and Germans ; the Germans predominating. 
 They are engaged in humble occupations. Many are day laborers, em- 
 ployed by contractors in various kinds of work, as in grading, paving, 
 and sewering streets, and in the removal of rock, or in excavating for 
 building purposes. Some are employed in the stables of the city rail- 
 roads and stage companies, or in the Central Park, and not a few are in 
 the army. In addition to these occupations, and occasionally as a sole 
 means of support, many families keep cows or pigs, with poidtry. In the 
 brick and wooden tenements resides the large class of mechanics, as 
 tailors and shoemakers, the drivers and conductors on the various city 
 railroads, and many of those engaged in retail business on the avenues. 
 In the wooden tenements the German families preponderate ; in the 
 brick, the American. Those residing in the better class of houses are 
 mostly engaged in business down town, as merchants, clerks, real estate 
 agents, brokers, bankers, etc. 
 
 Preventable Causes of Disease and Death. — (a.) Stagnant Water. 
 — Much of the insalubrity in the Twenty-fifth District is, no doubt, trace- 
 able to the stagnant water. The surface of this district has been stated 
 to consist of an alternation of hills and valleys, the latter having been once 
 the source of several streams. These streams, with the exception of two, 
 
304 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SAJSTTARY DISTRICT. 
 
 have been obstructed by tbe grading of the streets. Sewerage has in some 
 places partially obviated the bad effects of this obstruction, but at present 
 there is stagnant water along the bed of four of these water-courses. 
 There are five ponds of considerable magnitude produced in this way, be- 
 sides smaller collections of water. Much of the ground above Sixtieth 
 Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, is permanently so wet, in 
 consequence of obstruction to the natural drainage, as to be unfit for 
 tillage ; and the sunken andundrained lots become, to a certain extent, the 
 receptacle of decaying substances, especially dead animals, and the gar- 
 bage from adjacent houses. From the amount of wet ground which the 
 Twenty-fifth District contains, it has always been the habitat of malarious 
 affections. These affections are less prevalent in the southern part than 
 formerly, owing to the greater amount of sewerage ; while in the upper or 
 northern part, where there is no sewerage, and the course of streams is 
 interrupted, they are believed to be more frequent. This was the opinion 
 of the late Dr. "Williams, an intelligent and accurate observer, who, for 
 nearly a third of a century, was almost the only physician living in 
 Bloomingdale. Moreover, in the vicinity of the stagnant water, and 
 probably, in part, in consequence of it, the continued fevers, diphtheria, 
 and cholera infantum prevail to a greater or less extent. The ponds or 
 pools of stagnant water generally have a roiled or dirty appearance ; but 
 in the warmest weather the hue is green, from the presence of minute 
 organisms, chiefly animal, as I have several times observed by the micro- 
 scope. During the warmest weather many of the smaller collections dry 
 away, and they all become reduced in size. 
 
 There is also in the district considerable standing water in excava- 
 tions, made in grading the streets or for building purposes. Even on 
 elevated ground these excavations are occasionally met with, containing 
 water collected either from rains, or from adjoining springs ; but they are 
 oftenest observed in the valleys, along and near the site of the old water- 
 courses, even where there is no stagnant water on the surface. 
 
 (6.) Sewerage and House Drainage. — Insufficient sewerage and house 
 drainage constitute, also, one of the chief causes of insalubrity. The 
 shanties, the tenements, and a considerable portion of the brick tenant- 
 houses, have no connection with the sewers, and no drainage, cxcej)tiuto 
 the gutters. Generally a connection with the sewer is impossible, as there 
 is so little sewerage in the district ; but even in sewered streets, shanties 
 and wooden tenements have no sewer connection on account of the small 
 value of these domiciles, and the cost of constructing drains. This is less 
 objectionable as regards shanties, on account of their being built over the 
 squares, without order and with interspaces ; but the wooden, and in part 
 
NEGLECT OF LOCAL DRAINAGE. — FAULTY SEWEEAGE. 305 
 
 also the brick tenant-houses, being built in rows along the streets, the 
 slops from them are thrown into the gutters, where they form long lines 
 of stagnant, or if the ground inclines, slowly-running water, of the most 
 insalubrious character, and in many places continuing the year round. 
 Wherever there are rows of wooden tenements this condition of the gut- 
 ters generally obtains ; and as there is such a large number of families 
 living in these houses, the noxious exhalations from the gutters must be a 
 proline source of disease. In one locality the water of the gutters forms 
 a network with occasional breaks, extending the distance of several 
 squares. This nuisance might be partially obviated in sewered streets by 
 the construction of more culverts, which are entirely too few for localities 
 where the domiciles have no drainage, or else drainage to the surface of 
 the street. That this description of the gutters is not exaggerated, will 
 be apparent from a brief statement of the condition of Ninth Avenue and 
 the cross streets, from Fiftieth to Fifty-fifth, along which streets there is 
 a dense German population, living in wooden tenant-houses. All the gut- 
 ters in this locality contain more or less water ; and in the more crowded 
 streets the quantity is ordinarily so great that there is a flow or current 
 toward the river, as the ground inclines in that direction. Thus in Fifty- 
 second Street there is a current in each gutter from Ninth Avenue to 
 Eleventh, where it reaches the first culvert, which it enters, although this 
 street is sewered from near Tenth Avenue to the river. In Fifty-third 
 Street, the stream on either side, from Ninth Avenue, enters the vacant 
 lots west of Tenth Avenue, where there is a pond of stagnant water. In 
 Fifty-fourth Street the two streams from Ninth meet at Tenth Avenue, 
 and thence flow to Eleventh ; thence along Eleventh Avenue to Fifty-fifth 
 Street ; and finally down Fifty-fifth Street to the Hudson, a distance from 
 the commencement of probably half a mile. All gutter streams pro- 
 duced by slops and house drainage are of course small, so that in hot 
 weather they frequently dry away, leaving stagnant water in crevices and 
 sunken places. 
 
 (c.) The Condition of Domiciles. — It has been stated above that 
 elevated rocky localities on the one hand, and marshy and sunken ground 
 on the other, are to a great extent peopled by poor families, who select 
 these places for the erection of their cheap dwellings, either because 
 they pay no rent, or but little. Elevations of rock are probably not 
 objectionable to the sanitarian as a place of residence, but swampy 
 ground obviously is. There are many shanties and wooden tenements 
 constructed near the bed of streams, upon ground which is permanently 
 wet, so as to render the apartments liable to dampness. Cellars in 
 these localities are apt to contain water, in some instances through all 
 20 
 
306 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 the seasons, as for example a cellar in Fifty-third Street, where, al- 
 though remote from the river, fish have lived many months. In ad- 
 dition to the objectionable nature of the ground on which shanties and 
 wooden tenements often stand, the salubrity of these domiciles is greatly 
 impaired by their mode of construction. They are generally built with 
 very little elevation of the floors above the ground, and sometimes after 
 a period there is none in consequence of the accumulation of dirt and 
 ashes outside. A large proportion of the wooden tenements, and many 
 of the shanties, are warm and comfortable in cold weather ; but others 
 not being properly lathed and plastered, contain apertures through which 
 the cold penetrates. The inmates of such domiciles suffer especially from 
 those diseases which occur in consequence of sudden changes in the 
 weather, as croup, bronchitis, pneumonia, and dysentery. The inade- 
 quate water-supply of both shanties and wooden tenements, by prevent- 
 ing proper personal and domiciliary cleanliness, is doubtless a source of 
 disease. 
 
 Some of the brick tenant-houses are constructed with a proper regard 
 for the health as well as comfort of the occupants. With others the case 
 is different. In a large number of them the bedrooms have a central 
 position on each floor, so that proper ventilation is impossible, the supply 
 of air being through the door only, or a door and a small half window. 
 Another fault of construction in some houses of this class, is the small 
 size of the rooms, so as to cause crowding or packing of families, and 
 thereby promoting contagious and pestilential diseases. As an example 
 may be mentioned four houses, built however as one, at the corner of 
 Broadway and Fifty-third Street. These houses are four stories high, but 
 are not deep, and are built with the greatest economy of space, containing 
 forty-five families. 
 
 Into one of these families, a few months since, typhus fever was in- 
 troduced by an emigrant from Ireland. There were in the family no 
 children, but six adults, including the emigrant, and only one escaped the 
 disease. This family occupied a main apartment, . measuring 10x12 
 feet, and two bedrooms each 7X 6£ feet. It will be obvious to those fami- 
 liar with typhus, that the spread of this disease was due, mainly, to the 
 small size of these rooms, and the consequent crowding. In this class of 
 buildings the pestilential and contagious diseases, when epidemic, prevail 
 extensively and fatally. It has been seen that some of the brick tenant- 
 houses have no drainage, and therefore, as regards salubrity, differ but 
 little from those constructed of wood. 
 
 The better class of dwellings in the Twenty-fifth District, have been 
 for the most part constructed with reference to health as well as comfort 
 
FAULTY DRAINS AND POISONOUS EXHALATIONS. 
 
 307 
 
 of the occupants. The older houses of this class are, ordinarily, built of 
 wood, and isolated ; those more recently constructed, of brick, and in rows. 
 The point of chief interest to the sanitarian in reference to these dwellings 
 relates to their drainage. Some of the streets, where rows of brick 
 houses have been erected, are not sewered, and proper drainage under 
 these circumstances is hardly to be expected. It is necessary, in such 
 streets, to connect the buildings with some distant sewer ; and as the con- 
 struction of houses in this district is, usually, in the hands of specu- 
 lators and contractors, the drain to the sewer is apt to be built in a care- 
 less manner, and of poor materials, so that obstructions and leakages 
 after a while occur. The longest row of houses in the district affords a 
 striking example in corroboration of the truth of this remark. Fiftieth 
 Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, is not sewered, except a short 
 distance near Ninth Avenue. A row of thirty first-class houses was 
 erected a few years ago in this street, and they all connect with the sewer 
 in Ninth Avenue, by a single drain, which runs under the houses from 
 No. 1 to 30. The occupants of several of these houses have, to my 
 knowledge, complained of an offensive odor arising from the cellars, due 
 doubtless to cracks in the drain or a separation of the joints. In one of 
 these buildings, where a child was sick last summer with cholera infan- 
 tum, the parents stated to me that the odor was sometimes noticed on the 
 second floor, and it may have been one of the causes of the disease. Two 
 or three years since an eminent physician of this city, well known to the 
 public as a sanitarian, stated in my hearing that he had visited two 
 children in a house in this row, who seemed to be suffering from blood- 
 poisoning, and one died. They were both much prostrated, and their 
 tongues presented a singular dark appearance. In investigating the cause, 
 he and the attending physician were shown to the cellar, the ground of 
 which was wet, and exhaling an offensive odor. These physicians appear 
 to have been ignorant of the peculiarity in the drainage of these houses, 
 though satisfied that they had ascertained the cause of the disease. 
 
 The connection of a house with the sewer necessitates the payment of 
 the sum of ten dollars, in addition to the cost of constructing the drain, 
 which, if the ground is rocky, is considerable. On this account it is cus- 
 tomary in building rows of houses to connect several houses, perhaps five 
 or six, with the sewer by a single drain ; and if this is done with as little 
 labor as possible, and as cheap materials as the terms of the contract will 
 allow, it is readily seen that the drainage of the so-called first-class houses, 
 even in sewered streets, may be, and often is, very defective. In conse- 
 quence, in many of these houses there is complaint of an offensive odor 
 from the sewer, especially in certain states of the weather 
 
308 ' REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 (d.) The Disposition of Garbage. — One of the principal sources of im- 
 pure air in the Twenty-fifth District is the garbage. It is removed pretty 
 regularly from the better class of dwellings in a few of the streets, in the 
 lower part of the district, either by boys sent out from shanties to collect 
 it for domestic animals, or by the City Inspector's ash and garbage-carts. 
 From this class of houses, located in the central and upper or northern 
 part of the district, and from the tenant-houses and shanties generally, 
 there is no regular removal of garbage. There are only twenty-eight 
 garbage-boxes in the entire district, and some of these are so dilapidated 
 as to be almost useless. These boxes are used by the occupants of the 
 tenant-houses not only as receptacles for garbage but also for ashes ; and 
 being so few and so irregularly emptied, they are practically of little 
 consequence. As there are about 3,221 families in the district who 
 occupy tenant-houses and shanties, it may be safely said that there are 
 3,000 families who throw their entire garbage on the ground, where 
 it decays. This disposition of the garbage , adds most to the insalu- 
 brity of those squares which contain wooden tenements, for these 
 houses are generally built compactly in rows, and the garbage from 
 them is thrown into the gutters, where there is usually more or less 
 stagnant water. This water then becomes impregnated with organic 
 matter undergoing decay, and to add to the insalubrity these streets 
 are seldom cleaned. For example, Fifty-second Street, between Sixth 
 and Seventh Avenues, contains a dense population on either side, liv- 
 ing in wooden tenements. In the gutters of this street there is al- 
 ways garbage and stagnant water. The street was opened about eight 
 years ago, and one family informed me that it had never been cleaned ; 
 another that it was cleaned once about four years since. Garbage 
 from the shanties probably does not add much to the insalubrity of the 
 district, as the quantity of it is not great, and it is consumed to a con- 
 siderable extent by the domestic animals. 
 
 (e.) The Condition of Privies. — Owing to the unsewered state of the 
 streets, and the character of the domicile, there arc numerous badly-con- 
 structed and.undrained privies in the Twenty-fifth District. Most of 
 the brick better-class dwellings, and five of the brick tenant-houses, are con- 
 structed with water-closets inside, and therefore without privies. All the 
 other brick tenant-houses (142) and nil tlio wooden domiciles, whether 
 tenement or belonging to the better class, have privies. 
 
 Privies attached to wooden tenements and to shanties have no 
 drainage, and it has been seen that of those connected with the brick 
 tenant-houses there is no drainage to sixty-one. Privies belonging to brick 
 houses, whether drained or not, arc ordinarily well constructed. They 
 
LEVTTICAL LAWS OF PERSONAL HYGIENE NEEDED. 309 
 
 are of large size, with suitable doors and covers, and deep vaults. Those 
 not drained are cleaned at intervals, so that the privies of such domiciles 
 cannot be considered a cause of insalubrity. The case is different with 
 those belonging to wooden tenements and to sbanties. These are gener- 
 ally very small, built mainly of rough boards. Many of them are located on 
 rocky ground, and without vaults ; others, and the majority, bave shallow 
 vaults, which are soon filled. It is evident that privies constructed in this way 
 are a source of insalubrity, unless frequently cleaned ; but to a large pro- 
 portion of them proper attention in this respect is seldom given. They 
 are most offensive, and add most to the insalubrity in those squares which 
 contain rows of wooden tenements, for in such localities they are most 
 numerous. It is here that families complain most of the odor from this 
 source, which is so offensive that I have noticed it not infrequently in such 
 domiciles in the apartments occupied by the sick. 
 
 The diseases which prevail most on those squares where the privies are 
 most numerous and in the most offensive state, and which appear to be 
 referable in part at least to them, are diarrhoeal affections, especially of 
 infants in warm weather. From observations made in this district, and 
 more thorough and conclusive examinations in other districts, there is 
 abundant proof that continued fever, especially the typhoid form, is also 
 produced by privy exhalations. 
 
 Families living in the upper part of the district, near Eighth Avenue, 
 complain much of the odor of night-soil, which is dumped in the Central 
 Park for manure ; but fortunately this portion of the district is sparsely 
 inhabited. The cleaning of the undrained privies at night by scavengers 
 is also a nuisance of which there is much complaint, as it produces an 
 intolerable stench in the vicinity. 
 
 (/.) Occupations. — The occupation which has been most productive 
 of insalubrity in this district has been the raising of hogs. At the 
 time of the last epidemic of cholera, in 1854, this nuisance was in a 
 measure abated through the vigilance of the police ; but from the im- 
 munity granted to it of late, the number of pig-pens has again increased, 
 though not to the extent of former years. The presence of pig-pens is 
 objectionable, not only on account of the filthy habits of the animal and 
 the offensive character of the excrementitious matter, but also on account 
 of the nature of the food which is usually given to it. This cousists 
 largely of swill, and garbage obtained from private houses and from hotels 
 in the city. It is collected in dog or horse carts early in the morning, and 
 what is not consumed is thrown upon the ground, where it decays. In 
 this way the amount of decaying animal and vegetable matter in the dis- 
 trict is considerably increased. 
 
310 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 Those engaged in raising hogs reside, for the most part, in shanties, so 
 that the pens are chiefly on those squares where the shanties are located. 
 The largest number on one square, that between Sixth and Seventh 
 Avenues, Fifty-first and Fifty-second Streets, is 18, and here the hogs 
 feed in part upon the viscera of animals obtained from a slaughter-house 
 near by. 
 
 There are in the entire district only about 6 slaughter-houses, and all 
 but two of these are so small that they are scarcely known in their im- 
 mediate neighborhood. The two excepted are connected with sewers 
 about 100 feet distant, and, unless in the warmest weather, no offensive 
 animal odors are noticed in or around them. In one sheep, in the other 
 cattle, are mainly slaughtered. 
 
 There are 7 establishments for the preparation of tripe. The odor 
 from these, especially during the boiling process, and from the rejected 
 portions cut or scraped from the tripe, and which are often not properly 
 disposed of, is offensive, and without doubt insalubrious. The summer 
 complaint of infants, occurred last summer in the immediate vicinity of at 
 least 4 of these establishments (which are usually little more than sheds), 
 and in apartments where the odor was at times distinctly noticed. But 
 the occupations which are the most objectionable to the sanitarian re- 
 main to be noticed. In the interior of a square on which 189 families 
 reside, is a sausage and fat-boiling establishment. The heads and viscera 
 of animals are received here, and the parts which can be profitably used 
 are selected, while the rest is throAvn upon the ground or buried. The 
 adjoining streets have no sewerage, and this building no drainage. In 
 another part of the district, about one quarter of a mile distant from each 
 other, are two establishments where the intestines of cattle are cleaned, 
 boiled, and packed for transportation to Germany, to be used in the man- 
 ufacture of sausages. People living near these buildings complain much 
 of the stench arising from them. The part which they bear in the causa- 
 tion of disease, will be seen when we come to treat of insalubrious lo- 
 calities. 
 
 ((7.) Dram-Shops. — At a recent meeting of the Board of Inspectors, a 
 member of the hygienic council stated that accidents on the city railroads 
 constituted a proper subject for sanitary inquiry. Surgeons who aro 
 called to treat such cases do not find it difficult to discover the chief 
 cause in the sale of intoxicating drinks. A very large proportion of those 
 who receive injuries either on the railroads or elsewhere, are intoxicated 
 at the time. It is the experience too of all physicians, that thoso who are 
 in the habit of taking alcoholic drinks, arc not only more liable to certain 
 kinds of disease than the temperate , but that with them all diseases are 
 
FEARFUL RESULTS OF INEBRIETY AMONG THE POOR. 311 
 
 more severe, and more apt to terminate unfavorably. The drunkard, from 
 exposure to the weather, from irregularity in sleeping and eating, from 
 frequenting dens of vice, which he would shun if sober, from perversion 
 generally of his functions invites disease, so that community would be 
 startled did they know in how large a proportion of cases of sickness in- 
 temperance is either a direct or predisposing cause. But the effects of 
 this vice in the production and aggravation of disease, are not confined to 
 the victim of the habit : the intemperate parent slights his family, in 
 sickness as well as in health, neglects in many instances to send for a 
 physician till the disease »of his wife or child is too far advanced for suc- 
 cessful treatment. Moreover, the destitution of the drunkard's family 
 often necessitates the use of improper food and insufficient clothing, and 
 an exertion in procuring the means of support beyond their strength or 
 years, and therefore incompatible with their health. The child, scarcely 
 advanced beyond infancy, Avho, trembling with cold, begs a piece of bread 
 at your basement window, or whose hands are already hardened by work 
 in the stifling air of the factory, is compelled thus to endanger its health 
 in the formative period of life, in a large proportion of cases, through the 
 intemperance of one, or both of its natural protectors. Hence the sale of 
 intoxicating liquors is not only a proper, but an important subject for san- 
 itary inquiry. Though the use of brewed liquors is not so injurious to 
 the health of individuals as is that of distilled liquors, still some of the 
 evil effects mentioned above proceed from the former as well as the latter, 
 but in less degree. In the Twenty-fifth District are 53 liquor stores ; 44 
 groceries, containing bars ; 48 lager bier saloons. There is, then, one 
 store where distilled liquors arc sold to every 37.5 families, and one lager 
 bier saloon to every 75.1 families. The distilled liquors are, with very 
 few exceptions, prepared in the city, and, being of inferior quality, are 
 sold at low prices. There are in the district only about 12 groceries 
 which do not contain bars, so that the sale of distilled liquors is a more 
 extensive, and, probably, more profitable business than that of groceries. 
 Since the commencement of the war, several. liquor stores, and some lager 
 bier saloons, have been closed. 
 
 There are occupations pursued in the Twenty-fifth District which 
 are detrimental to the health of those who engage in them, but not to 
 community at large ; and as they affect injuriously only a small relative 
 number, they will not be considered in this paper. 
 
 (7i.) Unwholesome Articles of Diet. — This is a subject which has not 
 received the attention it deserves ; but enough is known to lead to the 
 belief that improper or insufficient food is a cause of impaired health 
 and of disease among the poor of this district. The milk used by families 
 
312 
 
 KEPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 occupying shanties and wooden tenements is, in great measure, ob- 
 tained from cows stabled in the city, or, as it has been termed, " swill- 
 milk." That this milk is unsuitable food, especially to infants in warm 
 weather, is well known. The use of it increases the number and severity 
 of cases of cholera infantum. The children of the poor often eat rye bread 
 and cheap molasses, with almost no animal food, the year round, except 
 on certain days and special occasions. Even the swill-milk is too expen- 
 sive for general consumption in the family, and is reserved for the infant. 
 Such diet, doubtless, tends to produce that cachetic or scrofulous state so 
 often visible in the features of these children, and which renders them so 
 easy a prey to disease. 
 
 The practice of rigid economy among the poor induces them to pur- 
 chase cheap and tainted meats and unripe or stale vegetables, and, in the 
 summer season, the effect of this diet is apparent in the production of 
 such diseases as cholera morbus. 
 
 Much of the pork raised in the city and its environs is consumed in 
 the shanties and tenant-houses. The drab and mottled appearance and 
 peculiar oily and disagreeable flavor of this meat, renders it probable 
 that it is not a wholesome article of diet. 
 
 Below Sixtieth Street the water used for cooking purposes, as well 
 as for drink, is chiefly the Croton. Above Sixtieth Street it is ordina- 
 rily obtained from wells or springs. Many of the shanties in this part of 
 the district are so remote from croton hydrants, and from wells, that it is 
 not practicable to obtain water from either. Families living in these 
 localities usually obtain their water from holes dug in the ground where 
 it is marshy. These excavations contain water nearly level with the sur- 
 face of the ground, and, with occasional exceptions, covered by boards or 
 surrounded by a curb. In these holes, which cannot properly be called 
 wells, collect not only the drainage of the valley, but also the washings 
 from the adjacent slopes on which shanties, with their pens and sheds, 
 are located. Professor Draper lately made a chemical analysis of water 
 from one of these valley excavations, and found that it contained " liquid 
 poison ; " contained a larger proportionate quantity of organic matter than 
 the Seine or Thames. Yet there is water in this district, used both for 
 cooking and drinking, which receives the washing of shanties and of pens 
 in greater degree than that which he examined.* In Sixty-eighth Street. 
 
 * The following note, accompanied by the report of the analysis, sets forth the facts upon 
 this subject : 
 
 " Ukivebsitt Medical College, 107 Etiat Fourteenth Street, 
 
 JVew York, Oct. 4</t, ISO*. 
 
 " Dr. E. Hamus : 
 
 "Dkaii Sin. — I enclose the analysis of the sample of water sent by Dr. J. I* 
 
LIQUID POISONS DRANK FOR "WANT OF CROTON. 
 
 313 
 
 midway on the slope of a hill, is one of these holes, without any cover or 
 curb, or inclosure whatever, and full of water, so that any stray pig or 
 goat can drink from it. The slope is nearly or quite destitute of grass, 
 and between the excavation and the summit are 5 shanties, with their 
 yards, containing pigs, geese, and dogs. During rainy weather, the water 
 from above flows so near this excavation that there is doubtless a much 
 larger proportion of "liquid poison" deposited in it than was found in 
 the specimen analyzed by Prof. Draper. There are, probably, about 
 400 families who obtain water from excavations similar to those de- 
 scribed. 
 
 (i) Still-births, Deaths of Parturient Women. — In the enumeration 
 of preventable causes of death, we approach an unpleasant subject, 
 about which little is known outside the medical profession. We allude to 
 the subject of still-births, and deaths of mothers in confinement. The 
 poor in New York cannot, in many instances, afford sufficient remunera- 
 tion to secure suitable attendance in child-birth. The institution for lying- 
 in women is totally inadequate to meet the wants of so large a class, and 
 in most cases is not applied to, probably in part through a feeling of 
 pride. Consequently, in some of these families, neither midwife nor physi- 
 
 Smith. You see at once what is its peculiarity — the very large amount of organic matter. 
 This is reported to me to have been of the most fetid kind, suggesting the proximity of a 
 sewer, privy, or some other putrid receptacle. 
 
 " Now, there is, obviously, but one thing to be done in such a case. It is to close up 
 the well. The people that use it are drinking so much liquid poison, and no wonder they 
 have bowel complaints. 
 
 " Compare the filthy water with waters elsewhere used. It has, in a gallon, more than 
 48 grains of solid matter, half of which is organic. But the Thames water has only 15 
 grains, the Seine water 20 grains, and the Danube 10J grains. 
 
 " You mention in your note the Permanganate of Potash tests. You will perceive that 
 the quantities here determined have been by the customary process of Quantitative Anal- 
 ysis, which, though more troublesome, is incomparably more correct. 
 
 ' Yours truly, 
 
 " (Signed) JOHN. W. DRAPER." 
 
 Report of an analysis of a sample of water from a well in the Twentieth Ward. Presented 
 by Dr. J. Lewis Smith, inspector Twenty-fifth District. 
 Amount of water sent for examination, 24 ounces. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 Organic matter and volatile salts, per gallon, . . . 23i a „% 
 
 Fixed salts, " ... 24-, a 0 9 ff 
 
 Total solid residue, "... 48-rVff 
 
 HENRY DRAPER, M. D. 
 
 Chemical Laboratory University of New York. 
 October tth, 1864. 
 
314: KEPOET OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 cian is employed, in order to save the fee. Neighboring -women give 
 their advice and assistance, often more to the injury than help of the 
 patient. In other families midwives are employed with the small fee of 
 three dollars, who are mostly uneducated, and are, of course, unfit for the 
 duties which they assume. They ordinarily lack patience, which is in- 
 dispensable in judicious midwifery ; and by the use of baths, fumigation, 
 and, worst of all, ergot, before delivery, and their reckless treatment of the 
 patient afterwards, lead to great and unnecessary sacrifice of life. In- 
 stances might be cited. 
 
 Other families send for physicians, promising pay, which perhaps is 
 sufficiently remunerative if the detention is short, but not if otherwise. 
 There are strong inducements, which many do not resist, to expedite such 
 cases by means which are hazardous to both mother and child. Indeed, 
 an amount of self-denial is required on the part of the physician, in some 
 of these cases, if he treat them carefully and judiciously, which few can 
 appreciate who have not been similarly situated. To stay hour after 
 hour, perhaps all night, in a shanty, or the close room of a tenant-house, 
 inspiring an atmosphere which is poisonous, obliged to answer perpetual 
 queries in reference to the patient, afraid to lie, or almost to sit, through 
 regard for personal cleanliness, and that, too, when there are urgent and 
 more remunerative duties elsewhere, or when sleep is greatly needed, re- 
 quires an amount of patience and benevolence which every one does not 
 possess. Hence physicians engaged in this practice often resort earlier 
 than they should to the use of the forceps or ergot, in order to terminate 
 their own suffering as well as that of the patient, with the hope that it 
 may be as well for the mother and the child, but with consciousness of 
 the risk, and sometimes with a result which leads them to regret that 
 they had been so hasty. 
 
 This truthful statement of midwifery among the poor, explains, in 
 part, but not entirely, the reason why there are so many still-births, and 
 so many deaths of parturient women among these people. The mode of 
 life, and the recklessness of the women themselves, before and after con- 
 finement, constitute, doubtless, one cause. 
 
 A section might be added on the treatment of diseases, especially among 
 the poor, by which there is an unnecessary increase in the number of 
 deaths ; an important and interesting subject, but to which we can only 
 allude. 
 
 Brothels. — There is not in the entire district a single brothel ; or, if 
 there is, it is conducted so secretly that it is not generally known. Con- 
 sequently, the diseases which originate in such places arc not so frequent 
 as in other parts of the city, and decoy-women arc rarely seen in the 
 h! recta at night. 
 
BAD HABITS AND SICKLY PLACES. 
 
 315 
 
 Fike-Escapes. — From the suburban character of the district there 
 are many houses, three or four stories high, built isolated, and only one 
 of these has a fire-escape. Here is a constant source of danger to those 
 ■who occupy the upper floors of these houses, though, fortunately, fires 
 are not so frequent in the upper as in the central and lower parts of the 
 city, and no accident has occurred in the district from this source, at least 
 during the last ten years. 
 
 Crowded Domiciles. — There is less packing or crowding of families 
 in domiciles in the upper part of the island than is complained of by in- 
 spectors in the thickly-settled wards. Some of the tenant-houses in this 
 district contain more families than a proper regard for salubrity would 
 allow. The most crowded building is an asylum for soldiers' children in 
 Fifty-eighth Street, which, with a ground area of 43 feet by 45, contains 
 one hundred children. But sufficient publicity has been given elsewhere 
 to this institution. 
 
 Habits. — A statement of the preventable causes of disease will not be 
 complete without a section on personal domiciliary habits ; but more space 
 is required to treat this subject properly than the limits of this paper will 
 allow. 
 
 There is one fact, however, to which we will call attention, and that 
 is the practice, common among poor Germans, of living in apartments too 
 highly heated ; of covering their children with an unnecessary amount of 
 clothing, and of sleeping between feathers even in the warmest weather. 
 The infant among these people is often placed lengthwise upon a large 
 pillow, which is then wrapped around it, and secured by cord or tape, so 
 that only its head is visible, projecting from the end of the pillow. Such 
 personal and domiciliary habits among people occupying wooden tene- 
 ments, which are especially subject to changes of temperature, evidently 
 increase the liability to inflammatory affections, especially of the throat and 
 chest, and the children in these families are the very ones who are often- 
 est sick with croup, bronchitis, and pneumonia. 
 
 Insalubrious Localities. — In order to show that the causes of insa- 
 lubrity mentioned above do actually have the effect which is represented, 
 a few of the most insalubrious localities in the district will be briefly de- 
 scribed. 
 
 There is a lot 25 X 100 feet which contains a tenant-house in front, 
 and another in the rear, with two rows of sheds between, accommodating 
 six horses and four cows. The location is near one of the old water courses 
 (see the Map page 299 [A]), so that the surface of the lot is below the 
 grade of the street, and wet. The interspaces between the two sheds, and 
 between the sheds and the houses, are covered witli loose boards, between 
 
316 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 which water can be seen stagnant. There is decaying vegetable matter, 
 as apples, potatoes, turnips, and cabbage designed as food for the animals, 
 lying upon and between the boards, and a considerable part of the year 
 there is stagnant water by the side of the rear house, in the adjoining lot. 
 Here is abundant cause of disease, and, as a consequence, typhus fever 
 has occurred in the rear house, in the last six months. 
 
 In Fifty-second street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, there is a 
 dense German population on each side, in wooden tenant-houses. This 
 street is not sewered, and has not been cleaned in four years, as is else- 
 where stated. Nos. 151 and 153 are on low ground, with stagnant water 
 in a ditch between them, and in the gutter in front. This water contain? 
 refuse matter thrown into it from the houses, so as to exhale a deadly 
 miasm during hot weather. As a consequence, an infant in each house 
 rapidly succumbed to cholera infantum last summer, before the warmest 
 part of the season was reached. 
 
 Between Seventy-fifth and Seventy-sixth Streets a point of land juts 
 out from Eighth Avenue into a pond of stagnant water, produced by 
 
 obstruction to a water course (marked 
 on my district map as C) , by work ou the 
 Central Park. This point of land con- 
 tains one shanty and three wooden tenant- 
 houses, till lately but two, occupied by 
 nine families. During the past twenty 
 months, there have been among these 
 people dysentery, typhoid fever, inter- 
 mittent fever, and cholera infantum, and 
 three deaths of infants. These diseases 
 and deaths were unquestionably due to 
 the insalubrity of the place, caused by 
 the stagnant water. In this diagram it 
 will be observed that the area occupied 
 by the dwellings is surrounded by tho 
 filthy pond on three sides. 
 
 Between two streets west of Tenth 
 Avenue is another insalubrious locality. 
 This square contains two establishments 
 for the preparation of tripe, one for cur- 
 ing intestines, a few pig-styes and cow- 
 stalls, and nineteen wooden tenant-houses. 
 The odor from these various sources is at times very offensive in tho 
 vicinity, especially during tho process of boiling the intestines, and tho 
 effect, especially on the health of infants, is quito apparent. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF TWO INSALUBRIOUS SQUARES. 
 
 317 
 
 The best idea of the insalubrity resulting from the nuisances of this 
 locality, will be conveyed by mentioning my own experience. A con- 
 siderable part of the square is in a valley more than twenty feet below 
 the grade of the streets, and is crossed diagonally by a stream (E).* On 
 a close, sultry evening of last summer, I was asked to see a child with 
 cholera infantum, near this water-course. At this time the intestines 
 were boiled in the latter part of the day ; and as noxious exhalations fall 
 to the ground at night, the immediate neighborhood was filled with gases 
 exceedingly offensive to the nostrils, and doubtless proportionately injurious 
 to health. In the valley there was such a concentration of effluvium, 
 that it seemed to me were it not for the conservatism in the economy 
 due to acclimation it would be hardly possibly to support life. 
 
 Of course the infant in such an atmosphere was in a hopeless state, 
 and died soon after. Before leaving I was requested to see another in- 
 fant with the same disease, the result of which was probably similar, 
 and an adult troubled with pain and looseness of the bowels. During 
 the entire evening it was impossible for me to remove the offensive taste 
 of these exhalations from my throat, in spite of gargling with water. 
 
 But to show how the causes of insalubrity may affect a large number 
 of individuals, we would refer to' the accompanying diagram, which repre- 
 sents the most thickly settled square of the district. This square contains 
 one shanty, two brick, and sixty-five wooden tenant-houses, and a popula- 
 tion of one hundred and eighty-nine families. The number of families in 
 each house is stated in the diagram. The diseases occurring among these 
 people from the first of January to the beginning of October have been 
 ascertained, and written opposite the diagram, with the exception of the 
 cases among the families on and near Ninth Avenue, with whom there has 
 been much less sickness than in other parts of the square. 
 
 The obvious causes of so much sickness are the following : 
 
 1st. The low ground in the centre of the square, which was once the 
 source of a stream (D).* 
 
 2d. Crowded population. 
 
 3d. Absence of sewerage, and of house and privy drainage, so that 
 there is water with garbage in the gutters almost the entire year, and an 
 offensive odor from many of the privies in the rear of the houses. 
 
 4th. A sausage and fat-boiling establishment, also without drainage, 
 and having a central position toward one end of the square. The effluvia 
 from this establishment sometimes compel the people in the adjoining 
 houses to close their windows. 
 
 * The letters E and D refer to streams that are indicated upon the Map, p. 299. 
 
318 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SASTTTART DISTRICT. 
 
 Prevailing Diseases in one square in 1864, prior to Oct. 1st. 
 [Domiciles in which sickness occurred are designated by letters.] 
 
 a. Two infants died of diphtheria. 
 
 b. An infant died in warm weather. 
 
 c. Two infants spoon-fed, died in warm weather, 
 
 twelve and fourteen days old. 
 
 d. An infant has had the bowel complaint during 
 
 the six weeks preceding Oct. 1st. 
 
 e. An infant has been sick several weeks, and is 
 
 AVENUE 
 
 now much reduced, the mother says, " with its [J] 
 teeth." H 
 An infant died of cholera infantum in warm 
 
 weather. _ 
 A boy two years old had typhus fever in Sep- ^ 
 
 tember. An infant died in the summer. 
 An infant had bowel complaint in hot weather. K 
 cc « u u 
 
 A spoon-fed infant died of cholera infantum. A CO 
 girl about eight years old has typhus at prcs- 
 ent (Oct. 1st). O 
 
 Two children had dysentery. 
 
 Two children had inflammation of eyes. 
 
 A child twenty-one months old had diarrhoea all 
 summer. 
 
 Two infants had cholera infantum; one died. 
 One child has inflammation of eyes. 
 
 An infant one year old had cholera infantum. 
 
 An infant had cholera infantum in summer. A 
 girl had fever (probably typhus). 
 
 Two cases of dysentery, and three of cholera 
 infantum, in hot weather. 
 
 One case of cholera infantum. 
 
 An infant in the summer very sick with cholera 
 infantum. A girl eight years old now has 
 fever, 20 
 
 An infant had cholera infantum. rn 
 
 Severe attack of dysentery in an adult. j 
 
 An infant died in warm weather with the bowel 
 complaint. 
 
 An infant died of cholera infantum. 
 
 An infant sick with diarrhoea in summer, recov- 
 ered. 
 
 CO 
 
 0 J 
 
 ©6 
 
 4 
 
 ©71 
 
 □ 
 
 6>1 
 
 oq 
 
 A 
 
 do 
 
 Is 
 
 -to 
 
 a 
 
 tx3 
 
 NINTH 
 
 AVENUE 
 
THE MOST FATAL DISEASES PREVENTABLE. 
 
 319 
 
 5th. A pond and adjacent wet ground containing the entire drainage of 
 the domiciles in Fifty-second Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, 
 beside the drainage of a cluster of houses and privies west of Tenth 
 Avenue. Dead animals are also thrown into this pond. 
 
 To a physician, an attentive examination of this diagram, showing, as 
 it does, the nature of the prevailing diseases, would do more than an essay 
 to convince him of the need of proper sanitary regulations, as a means of 
 reducing the amount of disease and death in this city. 
 
 Preventable Diseases in the Twenty-fifth District. — In the 
 examination of diseases of a preventable nature, sanitarians very properly 
 give much attention to the fevers, since the causes of these affections are 
 in great degree under our control. All agree that the causes of inter- 
 mittent and remittent fevers are susceptible of complete removal, and 
 perhaps also the causes of typhoid and typhus, could proper sanitary 
 regulations be enforced. These diseases occur in all parts of the district, 
 though typhus is more frequent in the southern, and intermittent and re- 
 mittent fevers in the northern section, as has been stated. Diphtheria 
 also prevailed in sparsely as well as thickly-settled portions of the district 
 during the recent epidemic of the disease in New York. The most severe 
 cases seen by me were in basements of brick and wooden tenements, 
 in rear buildings, and in shanties in marshy localities, although it spared 
 no condition of domicile or of life. Though not susceptible of entire pre- 
 vention, its mahgnant character could, no doubt, be greatly modified if 
 people lived generally with a proper regard for the laws of health. 
 
 The eruptive fevers are much more prevalent in the district than they 
 would be with proper sanitary regulations. Small-pox prevails more or 
 less every year in portions of the district, notwithstanding the readiness 
 of physicians to vaccinate, and the proffer of gratuitous vaccination on 
 the part of the dispensaries. Many parents, either from indolence or for- 
 getfulness, do not have their children vaccinated ; and some refuse to have 
 it done, in spite of the remonstrance of their physicians, either because 
 they believe it ineffectual as a preventive of small-pox, or dangerous as 
 a means of communicating scrofula. 
 
 Scarlet fever and measles, the former very fatal, are of frequent oc- 
 currence. Both these affections, as well as the other contagious diseases 
 of children, become vastly more frequent in consequence of exposure in 
 the public schools. In truth, the public schools spread such diseases over 
 the entire district. Hence, could proper regulations be enforced in refer- 
 ence to the schools, the amount of sickness among children might be 
 materially diminished. The diarrhoeal affections could be, in a great 
 measure, controlled by proper sanitary regulations, and they add largely 
 
320 
 
 EEPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SANTTABY DISTEICT. 
 
 to the mortality of the district, especially in the summer season! Asiatic 
 cholera, fortunately not a frequent visitant, it is well known, ravages most 
 the insalubrious localities. It has occurred once in this district during 
 my residence in it, namely, in 1854. At this time there were many pig- 
 pens between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, Fiftieth and Seventieth 
 Streets, and over this wide section it prevailed most extensively and ma- 
 lignantly. During the entire summer of this year, after nightfall, the air 
 in the vicinity of the pens and stables was always very offensive to the 
 smell, and the disease occurred most frequently at night, when the noxious 
 exhalations remained in the lower portions of the atmosphere. 
 
 During the months of July, August, and a part of September, so often 
 did these cases occur at night, that physicians who attended them usually 
 expected to be called from bed between the hours of one and three A. M. 
 The recollection is vivid to this day of the great mortality from this dis- 
 ease, not only in the immediate neighborhood of the pens and stable?, but 
 also in certain houses where there were obvious causes of insalubrity. 
 Thus in a double three-story tenant-house in Seventh Avenue resided a 
 butcher, whose daughters were occupied in removing the fat from viscera 
 sent from the slaughter-house. This occupation gave rise to an offensive 
 odor, which was noticed, not only in the apartments where the viscera 
 were kept, but in the adjoining hall. The epidemic first visited the family 
 of the butcher, and then ravaged room after room to the top of the house, 
 with a rapidity and violence which rendered it certain that it had found in 
 the animal miasm a condition exceedingly favorable for its development. 
 
 In the course of this summer so great was the panic, that it was re- 
 solved by the authorities to remove all the hogs beyond the limits of the 
 island ; but this wise sanitary measure was only partially carried out, on 
 account of the resistance and evasions which it met. 
 
 In another three-story tenant-house the disease was more than ordina- 
 rily malignant, and the cause was afterwards found in the cellar, where 
 hogs were kept in order to escape the notice of the police. Cholera also 
 occurred in the other parts of the district ; but in the locality which we havo 
 described, this midnight messenger of death lingered after comparative 
 salubrity had returned to most other portions of the city. The prevcntablo 
 nature of cholera morbus is well known. It is induced mainly by the 
 use, in warm weather, of fruits and vegetables frequently unripe or stale. 
 
 But the diarrhoea! affection which is most destructive to life in this dis- 
 trict, and in the city, is cholera infantum. Therefore we shall treat some- 
 what at length of this disease, especially of its preventable nature. Tho 
 term cholera infantum, originally applied only to those severe cases in 
 which there arc frequent serous evacuations and rapid prostration of the 
 
THE HAVOC OF CHOLERA INFANTUM. 
 
 321 
 
 infant, is now employed to designate all severe and dangerous cases in 
 which diarrhoea is the prominent symptom, occurring in the summer season. 
 This disease begins to appear in the latter part of May, and from this 
 time till November it is the most common and fatal disease which the 
 physician is called to treat, except when Asiatic cholera prevails. It 
 generally commences with moderate diarrhoea, the evacuations being often 
 green, and sometimes containing undigested casein and partly-digested 
 particles of solid food, if its diet have been of this character. After some 
 days vomiting commences, and, if the disease continue, the patient be- 
 comes more and more emaciated and weak. Instead of this gradual com- 
 mencement, the onset of the disease is sometimes violent, an actual cholera 
 morbus, especially if improper food has been taken. Recovery or death 
 may occur at any period, but a fatal termination is not usual till after the 
 lapse of several weeks ; and of those who linger through the summer months, 
 many finally recover as the weather becomes cold, though from a state 
 of extreme emaciation. 
 
 There is much doubt in the minds of physicians in regard to the exact 
 causes of cholera infantum. The belief is prevalent in and out of the pro- 
 fession that dentition is one of the chief causes, and that therefore the dis- 
 ease is in a measure unavoidable. Many lives are lost annually in con- 
 sequence of this belief, since the parents not unfrequently neglect to pro- 
 cure medical advice till the last stages of the disease are reached, acting 
 in the idea that the diarrhoea is the result of dentition, and a relief to it. 
 
 The following statistics, which throw some light on the causation of 
 cholera infantum, are drawn from observations made, for the most part, 
 in this district : 
 
 TABLES. 
 
 Age. 
 
 5 months or under, 
 From 5 months to 1 2, 
 
 12 
 18 
 
 24 
 
 18, 
 
 24, 
 36, 
 
 Total, 
 
 Nos. of 
 Cases. 
 . 52 
 . 193 
 153 
 . 88 
 27 
 
 513 
 
 Ms. of 
 Cases. 
 . 38 
 
 Stage of Dentition,. 
 
 No teeth, . . , 
 
 Cutting incisors, * . . 84 
 
 " anterior molars, 31 
 
 " canines, ... 36 
 
 " last molars, . 14 
 
 " all the teeth, . 25 
 
 STos. of 
 
 When disease Vegan Cases. 
 Beginning of summer, . 5 
 
 In June, 16 
 
 " Julv, 35 
 
 "August, .... 25 
 " September, .... 3 
 "October, 1 
 
 Under the age of 1 yean. 
 Nursing, .... 
 
 Weaned, 
 
 Spoon-fed and occasionally nursed, 
 
 Nos. of 
 Cases. 
 36 
 27 
 15 
 
 78 
 
 Under the age of 18 months. 
 Weaned in spring or summer, . 
 " autumn or winter, 
 
 2fos. of 
 Cases. 
 20 
 8 
 
 As dentition commences at about the age of six months, we see that 
 many cases of cholera infantum occur before the period of dentition, and 
 21 
 
322 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 some afterwards ; so that in a large number of cases this physiological 
 process cannot operate as a cause. Dentition, it is generally admitted, 
 will sometimes increase the peristaltic action of the intestines, and conse- 
 quently the number of evacuations ; but there is no evidence that it ever 
 produces organic change in the mucous surface of the intestines, which 
 occurs in cholera infantum, for in fifty-eight post-mortem examinations in 
 cases of this disease which I have witnessed, colitis was uniformly pres- 
 ent, frequently entero-colitis, unless the patient had died within the first 
 week of its sickness. 
 
 According to my experience, the younger the infant, the conditions 
 being the same, the more liable it is to this disease ; and the reason why 
 fewer have it in the first half year of life than in the second or third, is 
 that in these latter periods more are weaned. Bottle-fed infants under the 
 age of six months, rarely escape the disease in this city during the months 
 of July and August. That the causes of cholera infantum are in a great 
 measure atmospheric, is evident from the fact that the disease occurs only 
 in the season of high temperature ; that though so frequent in the city, it 
 is rare in the country ; and that in the city it prevails most where the atmos- 
 phere is most insalubrious. That the causes are, in part, dietetic, is 
 evident from the above statistics. Although it is customary for mothers, 
 in the class among whom these observations were made, to suckle their 
 infants till nearly the age of two years, one-third of those under this age 
 who had cholera infantum were weaned, and a portion of the remainder 
 were spoon-fed in part. In another table it is seen that a larger proportion 
 take the disease who are weaned in, or immediately before warm weather, 
 than in autumn or winter. These facts show clearly that the nursing in- 
 fant is much less liable to the disease than the one who uses cows' or 
 goats' milk, or solid food, especially such milk or food as is used in the 
 families of the poor. 
 
 Cholera infantum, if we include under this head those cases of maras- 
 mus which result from it, is the most fatal disease in the city except con- 
 sumption. It adds nearly two thousand to the aggregate death-list each 
 year, and yet it is one of the most preventable, and, in its first stages, 
 curable diseases. 
 
 Let the physician and the parent correctly understand the preventable 
 nature of this disease, so that instead of quietly and resignedly deploring 
 the bad effects of dentition, they set themselves vigorously at work to pro- 
 vide purer air, and a moro wholesome diet for the child, if need be, by re- 
 moving it to the country, and cholera infantum would no longer stand 
 second in the lists of deaths. 
 
 These diseases we havo thought best to particularize, as thoy arc so 
 
"WHAT SANITARY REGULATIONS ARE NEEDED. 323 
 
 eminently susceptible of prevention or modification ; but other affections 
 might be mentioned which would be much less frequent, were the laws of 
 health better understood and obeyed. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — It is difficult to determine, exactly, what 
 measures should be employed in order to remove those causes of disease 
 which have been mentioned above, or, if their removal be impossible, at 
 least to restrict their operation. But it is evident that in order to promote 
 the salubrity and health of the district, the following measures are re- 
 quisite : 
 
 1st. Sewerage of all occupied streets, and the connection of each 
 house with the sewer by a suitable drain. Sewerage, also, sufficient to 
 remove stagnant water. 
 
 2d. The construction of water-closets like those in the better class of 
 houses, so far as practicable, in place of privies. These can be located 
 within the domiciles, or in the yard. If privies are built, building them 
 with proper covers and vaults, and with drains trapped, so as to prevent 
 the escape of sewer gas. 
 
 3d. The construction of an adequate number of garbage-boxes of an 
 improved pattern, perhaps as recommended by some of the inspectors, 
 having covers, trapped drains, and hydrants attached. 
 
 4th. Cleaning the streets at short and stated intervals, and the use of 
 Belgian or Russ pavement, in order to facilitate the cleaning. 
 
 5th. Ordinances to improve the mode of constructing domiciles, es- 
 pecially in reference to the size and ventilation of rooms in tenant-houses, 
 and the elevation of the first floors of shanties and tenements above 
 the surface of the ground, so as to prevent dampness ; also an ordinance 
 in reference to the construction of fire-escapes. 
 
 6th. Ordinances either prohibiting or regulating those occupations 
 which add to the insalubrity of the district, or increase the number of 
 deaths. Occupations of this character, which confer no benefit on the com- 
 munity, should, so far as possible, be suppressed. Others which are use- 
 ful, such as hog-raising, should not be allowed within the limits of the 
 city, or should be subject to such restrictions as would render them in the 
 least possible degree injurious to the public health. The advice of the 
 city inspector in reference to this matter deserves consideration, that 
 markets, slaughter-houses, and similar establishments be placed in one lo- 
 cality. 
 
 7th. Ordinances regulating the sale of articles of food, especially milk, 
 vegetables, and meats. Also the construction of more Croton hydrants, so 
 as to furnish a better supply of water to the poor in the central and upper 
 parts of the district. 
 
324 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 8th. Regulations in reference to medical practice, especially the ob- 
 stetric branch. As obstetrical cases are largely attended by women, and 
 will doubtless continue to be, should not the education of women for at- 
 tendance in midwifery be encouraged ? 
 
 9th. Regulations to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, such as 
 exclusion of unvaccinated children from the schools, and what is still more 
 required as a preventive measure, the exclusion of those children who are 
 expos,ed at home to small-pox, varioloid, scarlet fever, or measles. 
 
 This brief enumeration of remedial measures is, of course, incom- 
 plete. It has been our object simply to present certain particulars in 
 which sanitary reform is needed, and is apparently quite feasible. The 
 exact details of the manner in which so desirable an end can be attained, 
 will be best determined by a competent board of health. 
 
JOIS"T EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TWENTY-SIXTH AND TWENTY-SEVENTH SANITARY IN- 
 SPECTION DISTRICTS. 
 
 H. MORTIMER BRUSH, M. D ., AND ALEXANDER HADDEN, M. D. 
 
 Sanitary Inspectors. 
 
 Boundaries of the Joint Districts. — North by Eighty-sixth Street, 
 east by the East River, south by Fortieth Street, and west by the Sixth Av- 
 enue. This district comprises the Nineteenth Ward. 
 
 In reviewing our reports, the fact will doubtless be noticed that, not- 
 withstanding the comparatively healthy condition of all classes of the pop- 
 ulation, there is scarcely a block throughout our two inspection districts 
 that has not either a publicly acknowledged nuisance, or a something 
 which directly deteriorates public health. The causes of complaint to 
 which we refer do not all require a special act of legislation to remove ; 
 many of them being already provided for by law. The city inspector's 
 report for 1863 may be brought in conflict with the above statements in 
 regard to the general health of this district. His report of mortality 
 gives the number of deaths in this, the Nineteenth Ward, as 2,382 ; nearly 
 1 ,000 more than in any other ward in the city ; but this includes the mor- 
 tality of the institutions on Blackwell's Island, the St. Luke's Hospital, 
 Colored Home, Nursery and Child's Hospital, and the various orphan 
 asylums which are located in this ward. 
 
 The population of the Nineteenth Ward, according to the last census, 
 is 31,004 — adults, 16,918 ; children, 14,086. The present population 
 cannot be less than 40,000. 
 
 Topography. — The original topography of this part of Manhattan 
 Island is very difficult to describe with accuracy. The surface was very 
 uneven, abrupt ledges of rock running boldly up 122 feet above tide- 
 water ; valleys almost encircling them, sinking as low as 1 1 feet. The 
 
326 REPORTS OF TWENTY-SIXTH AND TWENTY-SEVENTH DISTRICTS. 
 
 principal portion of the surface was dry, only about one-tenth being 
 marshy, and that along the water-courses. The general inclination, south 
 of Seventieth Street, is southeasterly, waters flowing into the East River, 
 between Forty-seventh and Forty-ninth Streets. Above Seventieth Street, 
 the inclination is directly eastward. The character of the soil is mostly 
 clay : hard-pan about four inches below the surface. About one-eighth 
 of the whole district is made-ground. The materials used have been 
 stones, excavations of cellars in the vicinity, the levellings of high ground, 
 &c, &c. 
 
 Origin, direction, and present condition of water-courses. — There are 
 four original water-courses in these districts.* One arises in the neigh- 
 borhood of Fourth Avenue and Forty-sixth Street, and taking a south- 
 easterly direction, crosses Forty-fifth Street between Fourth and Lexing- 
 ton Avenues, crosses Lexington Avenue at Forty-fourth Street, then runs 
 south to Forty-second Street, along Forty-second Street east to midway 
 between Second and Third Avenues, then south to Thirty-eighth Street, 
 then taking a southeasterly course empties into the East River at Kip's 
 Bay, between Thirty-seventh and Thirty-sixth Streets. The second water- 
 course arises at Seventy-second Street near Ninth Avenue, and taking a 
 winding southeasterly direction empties into the East River at Turtle Bay, 
 foot of Forty-seventh Street. This stream crosses the lower portion of 
 Central Park to the southeastern angle at Fifty-ninth Street, crosses Fifth 
 Avenue at Fifty-eighth Street, then winds northward to Sixtieth Street 
 midway between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, then turning south runs par- 
 allel with Fourth Avenue to Fifty-third Street, crosses Fourth Avenue, 
 Lexington Avenue at Fifty-first Street, Third Avenue between Fiftieth 
 and Fifty-first Streets, crosses Fiftieth Street midway between Second and 
 Third Avenues, Forty-ninth Street at the junction of Second Avenue, 
 then a direct course to the river. The third water-course is short and su- 
 perficial. It rises at about Sixty-fifth Street and Second Avenue, runs 
 southeast, crosses First Avenue between Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth 
 Streets, and opens into the East River between Sixty-first and Sixty-second 
 Streets. The fourth water-course is also superficial. It rises by three 
 forks, one in the high grounds of Eightieth Street near the Tenth Ave- 
 nue, the other two in the Central Park between Sixty-eighth and Seventy- 
 ninth Streets, crosses Fifth Avenue at Seventy-third Street, runs directly 
 eastward between Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth Streets, emptying into 
 the East River between the said streets. By as correct information as 
 can be gained, the two lower water-courses west of the Third Avenue are 
 turned into the sewers ; cast of the Third Avenue they arc below the 
 * Bee the Sanitary and Topographical Map at beginning of volume. — Editor. 
 
OLD WATEE-COUESES OBSTRUCTED. — STEEAMS OF FILTH. 327 
 
 sewers. The condition of the latter is difficult to ascertain, but most of 
 them are bridged over ; the sewer running a number of feet above. These 
 give indications of their insufficiency to carry off the absorbed waters, as 
 the spongy condition of the ground after heavy rains in these localities 
 clearly shows. The cellars, also, in the vicinity of these water-courses, 
 if they have not a direct communication with the sewer, are found very 
 damp, giving evidence of the water being near the surface. The drain- 
 age below Sixtieth Street is nearly complete. The principal streets and 
 avenues are sewered and paved. All the sunken lots, with but few ex- 
 ceptions, are filled in and drained. Above Sixtieth Street the drainage is 
 incomplete. Only a few of the streets are sewered, not any paved, many 
 are not yet cut through, and a large part not graded. The topography in 
 this section of the ward presents many original features. The two su- 
 perficial water-courses mentioned above are as yet uncovered, nor are they 
 in any way improved. Fevers caused by malaria are the prevailing dis- 
 eases in those parts of the districts where the sewerage and drainage is 
 imperfect. Above Sixtieth Street agues are very prevalent ; also around 
 the pools of stagnant water between that and Fortieth Street. 
 
 Streets. — The direction of the streets in these districts is east and 
 west. The direction of the avenues is north and south. The width of 
 the streets is 60 feet, with the exception of Forty-second, Fifty-seventh, 
 Seventy-ninth, and Eighty-sixth Streets, which are 100 feet wide. The 
 avenues are all 100 feet wide, with the exception of Lexington Avenue. 
 Most of the streets are paved with trap-block pavement, cobble stones 
 now being seldom used. Some of the streets have no pavement, especially 
 those above Sixtieth Street. 
 
 The surface and gutters in some of the streets are allowed to remain 
 in a very filthy condition : for example, Forty-third Street, between Fourth 
 and Lexington Avenue ; Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Streets, between 
 First and Second Avenues ; Third Avenue, between Forty-ninth and Fif- 
 tieth Streets ; First Avenue, between Fifty-fifth and Fifty-fourth Streets, 
 and Fifty-fourth Street between First and Second Avenues. The influ- 
 ence the condition of these streets exerts upon the public health is very 
 evident ; the children found here have a strumous appearance, and many 
 of them are constant applicants to the physician for relief. Diarrhoea, 
 cholera infantum, and typhoid fever prevail most extensively in these 
 localities, where the air is rendered impure from the exhalations of gar- 
 bage, house-slops, etc., which are thrown into the streets and gutters. 
 
 Sewerage. — The sewerage below Sixtieth Street is quite general ; 
 above that, very few of the streets are sewered. The sewers, as far as can 
 be ascertained, arc in a very fair condition ; they empty into the East 
 
328 REPORTS OF TWENTY-SIXTH AND TWENTY-SEVENTH DISTRICTS. 
 
 River by eight openings or outlets, viz. : Forty-fifth, Forty-seventh, Forty- 
 eighth, Forty-ninth, Fifty-fourth, Sixty-first, Seventy-ninth, and Eighty 
 sixth Streets. These, with three exceptions, open into the river above 
 high-water mark. (The exceptions are Sixty-first, Seventy-ninth, and 
 Eighty-sixth Streets sewers.) Sewer mouths above the water level may 
 be objectionable. The sewer gases escaping from these openings before 
 coming in contact with the salt-water, are carried back into the city by 
 easterly winds ; furthermore, the same winds force back these gases through 
 the sewers, which, escaping through "stench pipes" opening on the tops 
 of houses, and often through defective house-drainage, the outer air of a 
 densely-populated neighborhood becomes tainted, also that of dwellings, 
 so that disease of a low type springs up as it were from the grounds : these 
 are scrofula, typhoid fever, cholera infantum, and many others, upon which 
 medical skill is unavailing, unless the patients are removed to other local- 
 ities more healthy. 
 
 Squares. — In the two districts there are 276 squares. Of these but 
 very few are in a good sanitary condition ; a fourth of the number are 
 in a bad, and the remainder in a faulty condition. 
 
 There are numerous causes which render these squares in whole, or 
 in part, insalubrious : and of these we particularly mention defective sew- 
 erage and drainage of the houses, and very defective plumbing ; the 
 filthy condition of some streets and gutters, the old wooden boxes on the 
 walk used as the receptacle for garbage and house-slops, and which it is 
 impossible to keep clean ; the water-closets in the rear of some tenant - 
 houses, which are often very offensive by reason of the leaders from the 
 house-tops emptying into them during heavy rains ; the presence of 
 slaughter-houses in thickly-populated neighborhoods ; vacant lots not fenced 
 in, sunken lots with stagnant waters, the receptacles for the washings of 
 water-closets, etc., as in Second Avenue, between Fifty-second and Fifty- 
 third Streets ; also in Fifty-sixth Street, between Fourth and Lexington 
 Avenues, etc. 
 
 Inhabitants. — The general character of the inhabitants is good. 
 About three-fourths are the working-class, composed mostly of Germans 
 and Irish. There are about an equal number of mechanics and laborers ; 
 the larger part have families depending on them. 
 
 Buildings. — Dwellings. — About two-thirds of the dwellings in these 
 districts arc private residence ; that is, dwellings containing less than 
 three families. These houses are comparatively new, nearly all of them 
 having been built within the past ten years. They are built mostly of 
 brick, with brown-stone fronts. Average height three stories. The drain- 
 age is generally defective, the waste-pipes in most of the houses being 
 
trNVENTTLATED TENEMENTS. 
 
 329 
 
 too small ; many of the houses have no direct communication with the sewer. 
 Some of the houses in the upper part of the ward have no cellars nor any 
 means for ventilation under the basement floor. The water-supply is very 
 good. The apartments and dormitories in nearly all of the private resi- 
 dences are of good* size, large enough for health and convenience. The 
 ventilation is by means of doors and windows. Gas is used almost univer- 
 sally for lighting. The water-closets of the private residences in the 
 lower part of the ward are located in the house, in a small room off 
 the hall of the second or third story, basement-floor, or in the cellar. In 
 the upper part of the ward the water-closets are located mostly in the 
 rear yard. 
 
 Tenant-Houses. — About one-third of the dwellings are tenant-houses, 
 The larger proportion of these houses are located in the eastern section of 
 the ward, viz., east of Third Avenue. They are built mostly of brick, and 
 are comparatively new ; a few are old wooden buildings. The average 
 height is four stories. The drainage of these, as of the private residences, 
 is generally defective. About half the houses have water faucets on each 
 floor ; the remainder have one hydrant in the yard, which supplies the 
 entire house. The garbage and house-slops are variously disposed of ; 
 sometimes into barrels and small boxes, sometimes into garbage-boxes 
 on the walks, but too frequently thrown into the streets and gutters, or 
 into vacant lots. The larger proportion of the water-closets to these 
 houses are located in the rear yard. Very few communicate with the 
 sewer. Some of these are kept in a very filthy condition, especially if 
 not under lock and key. The average number of rooms to each family 
 is three. The average number of square feet of floor area to each person 
 is 40. The average number of cubic feet of air-space to each person in 
 apartments is 1,000. The ventilation in most of these houses is very 
 defective. The bedrooms are mostly dark middle rooms, with only a 
 small window two feet square opening into the hall. Some have no win- 
 dow at all, and the only means of ventilation is a door opening into the 
 living-room, in which the family sit, cook, and wash. This room has 
 generally two windows opening into the yard or street. The apartments 
 are mostly heated by small cooking stoves, and the method of lighting is 
 by means of kerosene oil. 
 
 The cellar-population of this ward is proportionately very small, the 
 number being only 205. The average number of cubic feet to the cellar- 
 population is 847. 
 
 The miserable ventilation of tenant-houses — the narrow halls and pas- 
 sages, which sometimes are found in not very clean condition, water- 
 closets not kept in good order, defective drainage, the effluvia from old 
 
330 REPORTS OF TWENTY-SIXTH AND TWENTY-SEVENTH DISTRICTS. 
 
 wooden garbage-boxes on the walks, the filthy state of streets and gutters 
 and of vacant lots not fenced in, dwellings built on the rear of lots, pre- 
 venting a free circulation of air and diffusion of sunlight, water-closets 
 placed in too close proximity to these rear houses. These and many 
 other causes not only tend directly to deteriorate the health of residents 
 of such tenant-houses, but also to imperil the sanitary safety of the city, 
 and help to swell its bills of mortality. For special examples illustrating 
 this, we would refer to our Sanitary Record-books of Sections 2Gth and 
 27th. 
 
 Dram-shops. — There are 200 places in the ward where liquor is sold. 
 No brothels or gambling saloons exist here, as far as can be ascertained. 
 
 Markets. — There is no regular market in this ward. A good one is 
 much needed, both on account of convenience and the public health. 
 
 Factories. — There are about 40 factories in the ward, and scarcely 
 any two of a kind, viz. : ink, piano-forte, comb, bone, iron, cloth, 
 dyeing, varnish, paper, cabinet-makers, etc., etc. Most of these factories 
 are small, and have very little influence on the public health. The ink 
 factory in Sixty-first Street between First and Second Avenues, may be 
 considered as a nuisance ; it sends off from its chimneys a kind of soot, 
 which renders the neighborhood quite objectionable. There arc 14 brew~ 
 eries in this ward. They all communicate, except one, by drains with the 
 sewer, and are kept clean. 
 
 Slaughter-Houses, etc. — Five slaughter-houses are located in this 
 
 ward. The one in Forty-fifth Street between Third and Avenues is 
 
 the most objectionable. It is located in the midst of a thickly-populated 
 neighborhood ; the entrails, manure, hoofs, etc., of the sheep and cattle 
 slaughtered, are left standing in the yard two and three days to decom- 
 pose. This is not only a nuisance, but a breeder of pestilence to the resi- 
 dents of this locality. Several cases of typhoid fever have occurred 
 recently on this square. 
 
 There are 154 livery and private stables in the ward. These, as a 
 general thing, are kept clean and in good order. We find 2 fat-boiling 
 establishments in the ward, located at the foot of Forty-fifth Street, East 
 River. These establishments were thoroughly inspected. They are con- 
 sidered as a great nuisance by the inhabitants of the whole district. 
 
 CntTRCnES, etc. — There are 21 churches, 3 public schools, 1 dispen- 
 sary, 7 asylums and hospitals, and 1 college. AU these institutions are 
 in good condition. 
 
 Parks, etc. — A portion of the Central Park, Jones' Woods, Reservoir 
 Park, and Hamilton Park, arc located in this ward, and all kept in good 
 condition. There arc no public cemeteries, piers, basins, and a very few 
 
EVILS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 
 
 331 
 
 wharfs in this section of the city. The vacant ground below Sixtieth 
 Street is mostly fenced in. Sunken lots are the chief ground of complaint 
 in this ward. They are mostly above Sixtieth Street, in a mixed sanitary 
 condition ; some of them are now being filled in. 
 
 Nuisances. — The public and private nuisances in these districts are 
 not as extensive and aggravated as in some other parts of the city. They 
 may be summed up briefly as follows : The fat-boiling establishments in 
 Forty-fifth Street, East River ; the bone factory in Fifty-third Street and 
 First Avenue ; the ink factory in Sixty-first Street between First and 
 Second Avenues ; small pig-stys which we yet find here and there through 
 the districts, notwithstanding the frequent complaints of the citizens con- 
 cerning them ; filthy streets and gutters, rendered so by garbage and 
 slops from tenant-houses ; also, the modern wooden garbage-boxes placed 
 on the sidewalk ; sunken lots with pools of stagnant water, and decay- 
 ing animal and vegetable matters ; and we may add with propriety, the 
 " stench pipes " and tin leaders, which open on the tops of many of the 
 first-class houses, and communicate directly with the sewer by way of the 
 soil pipes. 
 
 The first three of these, although they may be classed under the head 
 of nuisances, cannot be said to directly affect the public health ; they are 
 very disagreeable, and render the neighborhood for many squares around 
 offensive by reason of their respective emanations. 
 
 The others are not only nuisances by reason of the odors they emit, 
 but they taint the atmosphere with an effluvium, which renders the im- 
 mediate locality a nidus for disease, and a favorable place for the spread- 
 ing of those of a contagious nature. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — Upon this last head we have endeavored to 
 study with great care, and with a single eye toward practicability. The 
 questions under this head are by far the most difficult of any proposed by 
 the Council. 
 
 The topographical peculiarities of the surface of this section of the 
 island renders some part of this beyond our capability to advise, as it 
 comes only within the province of a practical engineer. We shall adhere 
 as closely as possible to our theme, viz. : does this and that affect the 
 public health, and in what manner can causes of insalubrity be removed? 
 The great injustice done to the public by the lack of care for the old 
 water-courses and drains, may best be remedied by placing perforated 
 earthen pipes a few feet below the surface of cellars, and by this means 
 convey the backed-up waters to sewers before they come to the surface of 
 the ground. We would suggest that those water-courses still remaining 
 uncovered, be laid with these same pipes of a large size ; and by this 
 means obviate the danger of their being stopped up. 
 
332 EEPOETS OF TWENTY-SIXTH AND TWENTY-SEVENTH DISTRICTS. 
 
 IMPROVED RECEIVINO VESSEL FOR GARBAOE, AND IMPROVED SOIL-PIPE WITH 
 
 DOUBLE TRAPS, ETC 
 
FOUL GUTTERS AND POISONOUS GASES. 
 
 333 
 
 The gutters in front of second-class tenant-houses are usually in a 
 very filthy condition, and under the present regulations can be no better. 
 The poor have no ready means of doing otherwise than to throw their 
 accumulated garbage in the gutters. Garbage-boxes of wood are very 
 offensive, and the contents of them are often spread out in the streets. 
 
 We would recommend that a garbage-box be made of cast-iron, sunken 
 in the sidewalk about twelve inches, and connected with the sewer by 
 means of a soil-pipe trapped.* The bottom of this box to have a strainer, 
 like what kitchen sinks are provided with, only much larger in proportion, 
 and this box also supplied with Croton-water by means of a pipe enter- 
 ing within about 25 inches of the bottom. The box would also be closed 
 on top by an iron lid, so as to cover the contents completely. 
 
 This fixture would leave tenement classes without an excuse for their 
 filthiness, and the authorities might inflict punishment without doing any 
 injustice. The object of this box is to furnish a receptacle for the garbage 
 without creating a nuisance. It will also carry off the fluids of it directly 
 into the sewer. These fluids a re in reality the most offensive part of the 
 garbage, and are the chief cause of complaint ; they often run more than 
 half-way around a block or square before reaching a culvert. 
 
 In the diagram of waste-pipes, page 332, is seen the plan we would 
 
 * Improved Receiving Vessel for garbage and Improved Soil-pipe with double traps, etc. 
 
 EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES. (Page 332.) 
 
 The Cast-iron Garbage-Box represented in this drawing is for the use of tenant- 
 houses ; dimensions, 2 x 4 x 3 (4 feet long, 3 feet deep, and 2 feet broad). The base of the 
 vessel is of cast-iron, and the sides and two lids are made of thick boiler iron. The lids 
 are hinged in the middle by means of a bolt. This will give strength, and will allow 
 the lids to be raised from either end. The box is also to be somewhat oval, in the bot- 
 tom, supplied by a strainer [S S], and a waste-pipe [W] to the sewer in the street, so that 
 all fluid from the garbage may be conducted directly away. It is also to be supplied with 
 Croton-water, for the purpose of cleansing when the garbage is removed. This is to be 
 in charge of the Collector of garbage ; the water is to be turned on by means of a key 
 reaching below the curb-stone [k k], the pipe to pass up through a covered groove [g g] 
 inside of the box to within a few inches of the top, so that the box may be thoroughly 
 cleansed daily. It is recommended that this box be sunken in the sidewalk, along the 
 curb, to a depth of about 18 inches, or half its height. 
 
 Soil-pipes. — The pipe represented by Figure 1 is the one in use at present in the city. 
 
 Figure 2 with the stench-pipe is the one I recommend. It answers every purpose. 
 
 The stench-pipe runs from the top of the soil-pipe to the top of the house. It has two 
 objects : first, to allow a full escape of gases through the soil-pipe ; and second, it prevents 
 the smaller traps in the dwelling-house from being exhausted of water when a large column 
 of water descends through the soil-pipe. It is furnished with a large trap in the soil-pipe, 
 a few feet from where it enters the drain from the house. This will prevent any sewer 
 gases from rising through the dwelling, which is the great object to be accomplished. 
 
334 REPORTS OF TWENTY-SIXTH AND TWENTY-SEVENTH DISTRICTS. 
 
 recommend for running stench-pipes from the top of waste-pipes of dwell- 
 ings, and extending them above the roof, to prevent water being exhausted 
 from traps, and to carry off offensive gases that might return to apartments. 
 
 This in a most effectual manner makes a chimney for the sewer, and 
 poisons the air with gases that we most desire to rid ourselves of. If the 
 above pipe is required by reason of small-sized soil-pipes, we would re 
 commend a trap to be placed in the soil-pipe on the cellar floor. 
 
 By this means the stench or gases cannot enter the house at all. This 
 we would desire to be made a law ; that every house should have a trap 
 in the drain or soil-pipe on the floor of the cellar, so that if the smaller 
 plumbing of the house should be defective, the noxious gases cannot enter 
 and taint the air of dwellings. Typhoid fever, obstinate diarrhoea, and 
 gastric difficulties, may thus be excluded to a great degree from private 
 dwellings and tenant-houses. 
 
 This is but one of many improvements that seem to be immediately 
 demanded in domestic hygiene ; and whenever the principal Govern- 
 ment or the State provides for the systematic investigation into the nature 
 and causes of prevailing diseases, it will be found that a vast proportion 
 of the most troublesome and fatal maladies arise from removable causes, 
 and that they may be at once mitigated or altogether prevented. 
 
 Statistical Recapitulation. 
 
 Number of houses, 
 
 2,827 
 
 Dram-shops, 
 
 200 
 
 Number of squares, 
 
 276 
 
 Stores, 
 
 532 
 
 Private dwellings, 
 
 1,926 
 
 Factories, .... 
 
 40 
 
 Tenant-houses, 
 
 901 
 
 Breweries, . 
 
 14 
 
 Shanties, .... 
 
 686 
 
 Slaughter-houses, 
 
 5 
 
 Cellar population, . 
 
 205 
 
 Churches, . . . . 
 
 21 
 
 Population of the ward, 
 
 31,004 
 
 Public schools, . , 
 
 3 
 
 Adults, . . . , 
 
 . 16,918 
 
 Dispensary, 
 
 1 
 
 Children, .... 
 
 14,086 
 
 Hospitals and asylums, . , 
 
 7 
 
 Stables, 
 
 154 
 
 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OP THE 
 
 TWENTY-EIGHTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 L. A. RODENSTEIN, M. D. , 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Bound akies. — This district is the northwestern section of the Twelfth 
 Ward, and extends from Eighty-sixth Street to Spuyten Duyvil Creek, and 
 from the Hudson River to Sixth Avenue; — a distance of 5 T 1 7 miles in 
 length, and from 1£ to 1 mile in width. 
 
 In a district as extensive as this, including a greater variety of topo- 
 graphical conformations, of styles of buildings, of social conditions and 
 modes of living, than any other district in the city, and at the same time 
 covered by a population more unequally distributed and more widely 
 scattered, it is more difficult to collect statistical information, and less 
 satisfactory to draw conclusions from general averages. Full details 
 would exceed the limits allowed to this report, and incomplete statistics 
 might only mislead the reader. 
 
 Referring, therefore, to the detailed reports of my inspection, I shall 
 here present only the great outlines and prominent features of this district. 
 
 Topography. — The whole district may be represented as a gradually 
 rising ascent, with abrupt and steep sides, whose highest point is Fort 
 Washington. This slope is only interrupted by a deep cut or valley in 
 which the village of Manhattanville is located. At one time a branch of 
 the Hudson must have cut through the range of hills that extends the 
 length of the Island, dug a bed for itself across, and filled with sand, 
 gravel, and alluvium, the plain which extends from the western terminus 
 of One Hundred and Thirtieth Street, through Manhattanville, along One 
 Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street to Harlem River, and down around the 
 elevations of One Hundred and Tenth Street to the southern part of the 
 city. 
 
336 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 The rest of the district is quite hilly. Primary rocks project every- 
 where through the superficial soil. The principal varieties are gneiss and 
 granite. In the upper part of the district quite an extensive quarry of 
 crystaline limestone may be seen. The soil is generally light and sandy, 
 but in some of the lower depressions of the ground a rich vegetable mould 
 may be found, and in a few places a strong black soil amply repays the 
 gardener for his toil. 
 
 The general aspects of the country present still some of its natural 
 scenery. A few streets have been cut through the hills, and a few of the 
 avenues partly traverse the length of this portion of the Island. In the 
 upper part of the district fresh country air may still be inhaled, and the 
 luxury of rural enjoyments indulged in. 
 
 In this district no land has been made or reclaimed, except a strip of 
 ground known as the " Manhattan Iron Foundry," which extends from 
 110 to 120 feet into the North River, and stretches from One Hundred and 
 Forty-second to One Hundred and Forty-sixth Streets ; it is composed of 
 the refuse of the furnaces — a mixture of iron ore and silex — and exerts 
 no perceptible influence upon the health of the neighborhood. 
 
 A number of small streams flow from the interior of the district to the 
 Hudson or the Harlem River. The lowest of these water-courses takes 
 its rise on the west side of Broadway and One Hundred and First Street, 
 slowly winding its sluggish way through a piece of marshy ground to the 
 Eleventh Avenue and Ninety-sixth Street, and then uniting with another 
 branch empties itself into the river between the Eleventh and Twelfth 
 Avenues. 
 
 Near the source of this stream is a pond of stagnant water, situated 
 between One Hundred Third and One Hundred and Fourth Streets, and 
 the Tenth and Eleventh Avenues ; from it proceeds another stream, and 
 on its way to the river makes those well-known marshes near the Bloom- 
 ingdale Road, on One Hundred and Fourth Street between Tenth and 
 Eleventh Avenues ; on One Hundred and Thirty-eighth ; in One Hundred 
 and Forty-second and One Hundred and Forty-third Streets, other little 
 rills flow in a more or less direct course toward the North River. A 
 more considerable water-course takes its origin in One Hundred and 
 Forty-ninth Street and Tenth Avenue, and runs parallel with the street 
 to the west.* 
 
 As we approach Fort Washington, at about One Hundred and Seventy- 
 fifth Street, wc meet with a number of rivulets intersecting the country. 
 
 * The reader may consult the Sanitary and Topographical Map with reference to this 
 section upon the medical topography of this district. — Editor. 
 
PONDS AND OBSTRUCTED "WATER-COUKSES. 
 
 337 
 
 At the extreme end of the Island where the waters of Spuyten DuyvH 
 unite the Hudson and the Harlem Rivers, whole acres of marsh-land line 
 the shore of the Creek. There, also, is an artificial water-course in that 
 part of the Island, the canal or sluice which runs from the creek to the 
 Harlem River. 
 
 At Two Hundred and Twelfth Street the Harlem River forms an inlet 
 in which a considerable body of water pours itself from a stream whose 
 source is on the east side of Eleventh Avenue near Two Hundred and 
 Eighth Street. About thirteen acres are there covei'ed with boggy ground. 
 A belt of marsh extends along the whole course of the Harlem River 
 down to McCombs Dam, but it does not form the immediate shore of 
 the river ; it lies rather to the rear and below the river height. The 
 whole neighborhood is swampy. McCombs Dam is an inlet which cuts 
 into the Eighth Avenue, extends from One Hundred and Fifty-fourth to 
 One Hundred and Forty-ninth Streets ; this place is subject to constant 
 overflows by the tide-water. Further back, along the Sixth and Seventh 
 Avenues, are other marshes covering several acres of ground. These are 
 salt marshes, and being constantly subject to the action of the tide are not 
 deleterious to health. 
 
 The pond of stagnant water formed by an old canal in this vicinity, 
 constitutes an unmistakable source of sickness. This work was intended 
 to sever the Island ; it runs in a diagonal direction from One Hundred 
 and Seventeenth Street and Sixth Avenue to Tenth Avenue and One 
 Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street. Being found an impracticable under- 
 taking, it has long since been abandoned ; and as the avenues were ex- 
 tended to this portion of the Island, the canal was intersected and the 
 excavations between the avenues have now become ponds of stagnant 
 water. Into these basins the melted snow and the rains of spring are 
 received, and when summer appears and " the Carrion-kissing god laps 
 up the putrid wave," nothing remains but the foul sediments, whose nox- 
 ious exhalations blanch the cheek of health. I have already in a detailed 
 report enlarged upon this matter, and I cannot too emphatically call your 
 attention to these insalubrious places ; for as surely as the summer sun 
 makes its appearance, so surely do remittent and intermittent fevers rise 
 in the miasmata from the green surface of those stagnant pools, and afflict 
 the people who live around them ; nor are the inhabitants of this locality 
 freed from these maladies until in the change of the seasons the ponds are 
 filled and purified by the autumnal rains from " the sweet heavens." 
 
 Streets. — Only a few streets have been laid out in this district. 
 Bloomingdalc Road is still the main thoroughfare, extending from Eighty- 
 sixth Street to Spuyten Duyvil Creek ; it is a macadamized country road, 
 22 
 
338 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 60 feet wide, has no sidewalks, and only dirt-gutters, which are generally 
 filled up. The Eleventh Avenue is nominally opened from One Hundred 
 and Ninth Street to One Hundred and Forty-fifth Street, and in a wretched 
 condition. The Tenth Avenue is used for the aqueduct of the Croton- 
 water, from High Bridge to One Hundred and Seventh Street ; beyond the 
 aqueduct the avenue has no improvements. The Eighth Avenue has, 
 within the last month, been made passable for horse-cars to One Hundred 
 and Twenty-fifth Street, and impassable for every thing else. Beyond 
 One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street to McCombs Dam Bridge it is a 
 good hard road-bed for fast driving. The avenue presents no other hy- 
 gienic advantages. Its gutters are receptacles for stagnant water, not for 
 drainage. The Seventh Avenue is graded, guttered, curbed, and has one 
 row of flags for its sidewalk. The Sixth Avenue the same. Eighty- 
 sixth Street runs from Hudson River to Eighth Avenue ; to the Tenth 
 Avenue it is a rough country road ; from thence to the Eighth Avenue 
 it is curbed and guttered, and has a sidewalk. One Hundredth Street 
 is partially opened, is in a most miserable condition, filled with filth of 
 every description. One Hundred and Tenth Street extends from Bloom- 
 in^dale road to East River, is now being graded, and is almost as wretch- 
 edly dirty as the preceding street. One Hundred and Twenty-third and 
 One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Streets nominally extend from Sixth to 
 Eighth Avenues ; One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street extends from 
 Ninth Avenue to East River, 100 feet wide, macadamized, and makes 
 pretensions to gutters and flag sidewalks. Manhattan Street intersects 
 One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street at the Ninth Avenue, and runs in a 
 diagonal direction to the Hudson River, at One Hundred and Thirtieth 
 Street. It is macadamized, guttered, and flagged. Laurence Street runs 
 parallel with Manhattan Street ; it is a country road with flagged side- 
 walks from Ninth Avenue to the river. One Hundred and Twenty-ninth 
 Street is open from Ninth Avenue to the river, and from Eighth Avenue 
 to Harlem. This is the only street which is paved ; it is also guttered, 
 curbed, and has flagged sidewalks. One Hundred and Thirtieth Street is 
 opened from Ninth Avenue to the river, and has flagged sidewalks. One 
 Hundred and Thirty-seventh Streot is guttered and open from Broadway 
 to the river. One Hundred and Fortieth and One Hundred and Forty-first 
 and One Hundred and Forty-seventh Streets are country roads. One 
 Hundred and Fiftieth Street is opened from Broadway to Tenth Avenue, 
 and is in a filthy condition. One Hundred and Fifty-second and One 
 Hundred and Fifty-sixth Streets arc opened from Broadway to the river, 
 and have good sidewalks. 
 
 I have been particular in enumerating these details, for they have 
 
SHANTY TILLAGES AND SMALL COFFINS. 
 
 339 
 
 special bearing upon the health of the localities to which I would direct 
 your particular attention — One Hundredth Street to One Hundred and 
 Tenth Streets, from Broadway to Tenth Avenue. Also the district 
 bounded on the south by One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, on the 
 north by One Hundred and Thirty-second Street, east by Ninth Avenue, 
 and west by the Hudson River. 
 
 One Hundred and Fiftieth Street, from Tenth Avenue to Broadway, 
 and Croton Street, between Broadway and Eleventh Avenue, and between 
 One Hundred and Seventy-sixth and One Hundred Seventy-seventh 
 Streets, are the sewers in which disease displays its most fearful ravages, 
 and mortality reaps its heaviest harvest ; and here it is also where the 
 streets are in the most shocking condition, and where the least attention 
 is paid to those facilities and precautions which the requirements of pub- 
 lic hygiene demand. Here huddled together are large numbers of human 
 beings in close proximity with domestic animals. A man and his wife, 
 with four, five, or six children, are crowded into a small shanty, with the 
 pig-stye and a cow-shed adjoining, or a small house with four rooms and 
 a basement is inhabited by five families with cats, dogs, geese, and goats ; 
 and a number of these dwellings are crowded together upon the smallest 
 possible space. Filth reigns supreme within the houses, and offal, slops, 
 and garbage are emptied into the streets, or thrown into the back yard, 
 with no facilities for removing the accumulations of dirt and rubbish. 
 There they remain day after day, week after week, breeding a foul and 
 vitiated atmosphere which predisposes the beings who inhale it to every 
 disease. These are the poor haunts of the district, where the poisoned 
 air generates sickness, where malignant diseases are most prevalent, where 
 even the most trivial indisposition often assumes a virulent character. 
 
 Sewers. — To remove the fruitful cause of disease a more extensive 
 system of sewerage is required. There are at present but few sewers in 
 this district. One extends from One Hundred and Tenth Street and 
 Eighth Avenue to the East River. Another commences at the Tenth 
 Avenue and Manhattan Street, empties into the Hudson, after it has 
 effected a junction with one running from Broadway through One Hun- 
 dred and Thirtieth Street. The last begins at Tenth Avenue and runs 
 through One Hundred and Forty-second Street into the North River. 
 These aro all of the oval shape, and constructed in the most approved 
 style. They are excellent but not sufficient, for a district which embraces 
 819 squares. 
 
 Squares. — Only 3G9 squares have yet been laid out, the others (450 
 in number) present still the undisturbed conditions of a rural district. 
 By far the larger part may therefore be represented as in a salubrious 
 
340 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 state ; for naturally there are few local causes of sickness in the upper 
 portion of the Island, the succession of hills, and the declination of the 
 valleys toward the rivers, furnish facilities for natural drainage which are 
 sufficient to carry off any ordinary deposits. But in those portions of 
 the district in which the natural conformation of the surface has been 
 disturbed by the art of man which makes the city, and makes it badly ; 
 where the natural elevations and depressions have been obliterated by grad- 
 ings, and streets have been opened without gutters or insufficient drainage ; 
 where avenues have blocked up the natural flow of streams ; where the 
 squares between streets are pits, and streets look like causeways over 
 abysses ; where an incipient city defaces Nature, and deprives it of its own 
 provisions for restoring the equilibrium of its disturbed elements, and art 
 has not yet provided any substitute for the natural outlets of accumulated 
 moisture ; there we find the habitats of malarious fevers, and the undertak- 
 er's great market-places for small coffins. 
 
 Where the district still preserves the air and appearance of the coun- 
 try, the handsome residences of the wealthy are located, and these local- 
 ities are generally healthy. But the laboring classes are compelled to 
 seek the cheaper tenements in the shanty villages upon undeveloped 
 streets ; they build their shanties on sunken squares filled in wet weather 
 with standing water, and were it not for the Celtic brogue which salutes 
 your ear, you might take them for some of the old Dutch settlers who 
 still wished to perpetuate in a small way the memory of their ancestral 
 dykes and canals. 
 
 Inhabitants. — The inhabitants of the district belong generally to the 
 poorer and laboring classes. Along the banks of the Hudson are the 
 stately mansions of the rich, with the usual complement of domestic ser- 
 vants, gardeners, hostlers, coachmen, stable-boys, etc. The inner portion 
 of the island is dotted with public institutions and small settlements of 
 laborers. The Irish predominate, and next come the Germans ; other na- 
 tionalities are also represented. Many of them work in the Central Park, 
 others in the factories, foundries, or on the public roads. 
 
 Buildings. — The dwellings of the laboring classes arc the usual ten- 
 ant-house and the shanty. Cleanliness is their great want. In such 
 streets as One Hundrcth, One Hundred and Tenth, and Laurence Street, 
 and others, the accumulations of garbage, slops, and filth, are indescribable. 
 In those localities a dense population is closely huddled together. As wo 
 drive along the Bloomingdale Road as far as Fort Washington, and view 
 the elegant residences beyond the extended lawns and gardens that skirt 
 the road, it seems improbable that almost opposite to one of the hand- 
 somest lodges and finest residences the most loathsome and filthy lane of 
 
PREVALENT MALADIES. — PREVALENT CAUSES. 
 
 341 
 
 the island extends ; and yet in Croton Street are more human beings 
 crowded together than inhabit all the proud mansions that crest the banks 
 of the Hudson from one end of the district to the other. The packing oi 
 that little street can only be equalled by a Third Avenue railroad car. 
 Men, women, and children, dogs, cows, pigs, goats, geese, ducks, and 
 chickens are almost promiscuously mixed together. The street is rank 
 with filth and stench, and the consequence is that mortality holds high 
 carnival there ; and diseases which are comparatively trivial, and readily 
 yield to remedies in better homes in the immediate neighborhood, in this 
 street, unsewered, unguttered, reeking with filth, destitute of Croton- 
 water, assume a virulent character, and not unfrequently defy all treat- 
 ment. 
 
 The dwellings of this district are of a very diversified description. 
 They consist of 229 family residences, and are generally spacious wooden 
 buildings. Gas has been introduced into most, Croton into some, and all 
 have sinks for water-closets. 
 
 Tenant-houses. — There are 42 large tenant-houses, 710 single tenant- 
 houses, and 313 shanties. The latter two classes of buildings are very 
 slightly built, many have the evident marks of wear and tear ; there is 
 generally no water drainage, no removal of garbage, and the water-closets 
 are built on the top of the ground. There are 121 saloons ; of these 14 
 are hotels. There are 107 dram-shops ; filthy holes where the worst of 
 intoxicating liquors are sold. They are " dispensaries of poison." "We 
 have in this district in addition, 1 paint factory, 1 candle factory, 2 iron 
 foundries, 1 sugar refinery, 2 breweries. To these establishments there 
 can be no objection from a sanitary point of view. Contrary to what 
 might be expected, the workmen of the paint factory are exceedingly 
 healthy. Some of the operatives have grown old in the service ; some 
 have worked there twenty-five, others twenty years. In former years 
 " painters' eholic" was prevalent among them, but since the lead is being 
 ground under water, or in oil, which prevents the particles from flying into 
 the air, the factory has been singularly free from that malady. 
 
 Slaughter-Pens. — There are 7 slaughter-houses in the district. Those 
 in Manhattanville are badly kept, and have been complained of as nui- 
 sances. 
 
 Public Institutions. — Of public buildings we have 13 churches, 4 
 public schools, 1 college (Manhattanville), the "Sheltering Arms" (a 
 charitable institution), 1 Deaf and Dumb Asylum, 1 Colored Orphan Asy- 
 lum, 1 Insane Asylum, the Leake and Watt (Orphan) Asylum, the Con- 
 vent of the Sacred Heart, and the Manhattanville Dispensary. All these 
 institutions are conducted in an admirable manner with regard to the ob- 
 
342 REPORT OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 servancc of hygienic principles. Trinity Cemetery is one of the best kept 
 interment grounds, and has no perceptible influence on public health. 
 
 Prevailing Diseases. — The following diseases have prevailed during 
 the last season : Cholera infantum has prevailed very fatally in One Hun- 
 dreth Street, between Broadway and Ninth Avenue ; and out of 33 cases, 
 19 have terminated fatally. In Manhattanville the same disease, with 
 the same general characteristics, has been attended by the same fatal con- 
 sequences. We have to contend with many disadvantages in the practice 
 of medicine among the laboring population who inhabit these neighbor- 
 hoods. They are chiefly Irish and Germans of the lower class, and the evils 
 we have to encounter arise partly from the moral dispositions of these two 
 nationalities. The Irish, with their proverbial carelessness, will act utterly 
 heedless of medical advice ; neglect and absolutely expose their children 
 to inclement weather in winter, or the vertical rays of the sun in summer. 
 The Germans, on the contrary, can never be careful enough ; close, over- 
 heated rooms, feather beds above and beneath them, and exclusion from 
 the fresh air, they deem essential to the treatment of theii; sick. Of the 
 two evils I prefer the Irishman's carelessness ; for the patient has at least 
 a chance of getting fresh air, while among the Germans I have known 
 patients to be actually smothered to death. This is merely a few of the 
 single circumstances which increase the fatality in the two localities to 
 which I have here referred. The crowded condition of the houses, with the 
 close, vitiated atmosphere, is another which accelerates the fatal progress 
 of disease ; but I may state it as my deliberate opinion, that the noxious 
 vapors and miasmatic exhalations from stagnant water, and the foul ef- 
 fluvia from decaying vegetables and putrid offal, contribute more than any 
 other causes to the production of malarious fevers, and the malignant and 
 fatal tendency of diarrhccal and other diseases, which, under other cir- 
 cumstances, yield readily to medical agencies. For illustrations I have here 
 pointed to those two localities. They are alike in every particular, and 
 although separated by the distance of a mile and a half, they correspond 
 in all the main conditions that affect their salubrity. They are of the 
 same elevation, populated by the same class of people, surrounded by the 
 same sources of miasmatic influences, pools of stagnant water, the inhab- 
 itants occupy the same class of buildings, live in the same kind of over- 
 crowded, over-heated rooms, and are addicted to the same unfortunate 
 habits of drinking. The streets are distinguished by the same general 
 features of filth ; of course the same results follow in both places. Chol- 
 era infantum has made havoc among the children of these neighborhoods. 
 Diphtheria prevailed last year, and was very fatal, and the scene of its 
 devastation was the very region where cholera infantum proved so fatal. 
 
EVILS AND REMEDIES. 
 
 343 
 
 Miasmatic Feveks. — Any one exposed to the miasmatic influence of 
 marshy lands is liable to contract these, the rich and the poor ; those liv- 
 ing on the highest points of the district, and those who live on the level 
 with the rivers, have alike been more or less afflicted with these fevers.* 
 
 Statistics of intermittent fevers extracted from the Manhattan Dispensary 
 
 record : 
 
 During 
 
 the month of 
 
 May one in every . 
 
 . 3.33 
 
 M 
 
 a 
 
 June 
 
 C( 
 
 3.50 
 
 u 
 
 tt 
 
 July 
 
 a 
 
 . 3.25 
 
 (( 
 
 n 
 
 August 
 
 n 
 
 3.67 
 
 (( 
 
 it 
 
 Sept. 
 
 n 
 
 . 3.20 
 
 K 
 
 u 
 
 Oct. 
 
 a 
 
 2.50 
 
 t< 
 
 a 
 
 Nov. 
 
 It 
 
 . 4.75 
 
 « 
 
 u 
 
 Dec. 
 
 u 
 
 5.20 
 
 But there is a fact in the history of diseases here which ought not to 
 escape our observation. In those insalubrious localities to which I have 
 referred, malarious disease assumes a peculiar phase, and displays de- 
 cided typhoid characteristics. And being already predisposed to disease, 
 with a body enfeebled by deep and oft-repeated draughts of villanous 
 
 * The inspector of the Twenty-eighth District has submitted a very carefully-prepared 
 map to illustrate the medical topography of that important section of the island from re- 
 cent surveys, the essential points of which will be found upon the Sanitary Map at the be- 
 ginning of this volume. A supplementary report upon the sickness and mortality records 
 of the public institutions in that district has also been submitted. As the latter is too 
 lengthy for publication in this volume, we present the following abstract of some of these 
 records to illustrate the practical bearing of Dr. Rodenstein's suggestions respecting the 
 causes of malarious diseasesjn the upper portion of the island : 
 
 The average number of patients in the Bloomingdalc Lunatic Asylum, the past year, 
 
 has been 162 
 
 Total number of Do. sick with malarious fever in Do 16 
 
 Total number of inmates of the Leake and Watt's Orphan Asylum is 169 
 
 Is located on improved grounds, One Hundred and Tenth Street, Ninth and 
 Tenth Avenues. No malarious fever reported. 
 
 Total number of inmates in the Juvenile Asylum 505 
 
 Is located on most elevated grounds at Fort Washington. Reports but 98 cases 
 of sickness during the year, and but one case of malarious fever. 
 
 Total number of children in the Colored Orphan Asylum 209 
 
 Is located on One Ilundred and Fifty-first Street, North River. Total number 
 
 of cases of sickness, 196 ; number of cases of malarious fever 33 
 
 — Editor. 
 
S4A REPORT OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 liquors, and a low degree of vitality induced by unwholesome food, etc., 
 they fall easy victims to the ravages of fever. 
 
 The progress of small-pox infection has been checked by vaccination. 
 For a short time typhoid fever spread very rapidly in One Hundred and 
 Tenth Street. This street extends from Broadway to Tenth Avenue, and 
 on each side is a row of small single tenements numbering in all about 
 27. Each has four small, badly-ventilated rooms, Ughted by kerosene, 
 and heated by stoves. The street has neither pavement nor gutter. The 
 garbage and slops are thrown in front of the houses. Here, then, was 
 the fuel for fever ; the spark was added by the importation of a case of 
 typhoid fever from the army. In a very short time about one-tenth of 
 the population were seized by the fever, and about one-fourth of these 
 died. 
 
 In concluding this report, if I were to suggest any remedial measures, 
 I should simply ask, let there be no new contracts granted for the opening 
 of new streets until some security is given that their improvement will be 
 completed in such manner as to preserve the public health. The few 
 streets that now exist in this district should be paved and guttered ; the 
 ponds and marshes and all stagnant waters should be thorougly drain- 
 ed to the rivers, and the low places filled up. Sewers, or a proper system 
 of dry-gathering in garbage and waste-carts, should be provided, and, 
 most important of all, there should be an efficient medical or sanitary po- 
 lice on daily duty. 
 
REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TWENTY-NINTH SANITARY INSPECTION DISTRICT. 
 
 JOSEPH 0. FARRINGTON, M.D., 
 
 Sanitary Inspector. 
 
 Boundaries. — North by Harlem River, east by the East River, south 
 by Eighty-sixth Street, and west by the Sixth Avenue. 
 
 Harlem, and the greater part of Yorkville, are included in this district. 
 The lay of the land is, with the exception of the southern margin, re- 
 markably level. The elevated portion includes a tier of squares border- 
 ing on Central Park and Eighty-sixth Street, and the single square known 
 as Mount Morris. "With the exception of these parts the entire district lies 
 but little above the tide-level, and has very much the appearance of having 
 been originally submerged. The evenness of the surface, the alluvial 
 character of the deposits, the direction of the water-courses still remain- 
 ing, the absence of forest trees, all indicate that the water once flowed 
 across the island from the North River through the gap at Manhattan- 
 ville to Hell Gate. In fine, the topography of the district is just such as to 
 have gladdened the eyes of the original Dutch settlers. It must have 
 forcibly reminded them of their almost inundated fatherland, and accounts 
 for its receiving the name of Haarlem, after one of their principal cities. 
 
 Streets. — The avenues run northeast and southwest, and the streets 
 cut them at right angles. The former are all 100 feet wide except the 
 Fourth Avenue, which is 140. The streets are CO feet in width, with the 
 exception of a street at an interval of every half mile, which is 100 feet, 
 e. g., One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street and One Hundred and Six- 
 teenth Street. 
 
 One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Street is paved with cobble stone, and 
 
346 
 
 REPOET OF THE TWENTT-NEOTH SANITARY DISTRICT. 
 
 the Third Avenue is macadamized. The other streets and avenues are 
 simply graded. 
 
 Sewerage. — The few sewers constructed are all of the oval kind, and 
 have their outlets above low-water. 
 
 Squares. — The whole number of squares and parts of squares is 256. 
 Of these fully 200 are in a good sanitary condition, well-drained and free 
 from any sources of preventable disease and mortality. The remainder, 
 in consequence of their being low and sunken, or containing ponds of stag- 
 nant water, are in a mixed sanitary condition. On and around all these 
 last-named squares there is a tendency to intermittent fever, and they will 
 continue to be insalubrious until the streets are sewered and the ponds 
 drained or filled up. "Wherever this has been already done the Inspector 
 has observed a marked improvement in the health of the inhabit- 
 ants. 
 
 Inhabitants. — It would probably be safe to say that the population 
 of the district has doubled during the last five years. This has been 
 mainly due to the increased facilities for travel afforded by the Second and 
 Third Avenue Railroads and the Harlem line of Steamboats. The na- 
 tionalities represented are about equally the American, the Irish, and the 
 German. The American element is fully equal to all others combined, 
 and the laboring class embraces about one-half the entire population. 
 The general character of the inhabitants is that of a well-to-do, law- 
 abiding, orderly, and church-going community. 
 
 Buildings. — The whole number of houses is 1820. Of these 1,360 
 are dwellings, occupied by one or two families ; 160 are tenements, con- 
 taining three or more families ; 110 are drinking saloons ; 172 grocery or 
 other stores, and 19 markets. There are also 330 shanties, occupied by 
 Irish families, who are known as " squatters." They locato upon un- 
 opened streets or vacant lots, build their rude one-story cabins, raise chil- 
 dren, pigs, and potatoes, and maintain their squatter sovereignty until com- 
 pelled by the city or proper owners to vacate the premises. 
 
 The district being beyond the fire-limits, the principal material used in 
 building has been wood. At present, however, brick and brown-stone are 
 more in demand, and whole blocks of substantial brick and stone dwell- 
 ings have already been erected. Nearly all the houses have gas and 
 Croton-watcr, and those of recent building contain all the modern im- 
 provements. 
 
 About one house in every eleven and a half is a tenement. The general 
 character of these tenements, which contain, on the average, five or six 
 families, is good. Their location, ventilation, water-supply, and drainage, 
 are, on the whole, conducive to the health of the inmates. They aro 
 
DISEASES. — IMPROVEMENTS. — REMEDIES. 
 
 347 
 
 rarely overcrowded, and present few, if any, of the objectionable features 
 of houses of a similar kind in the heart of the city. 
 
 The whole number of drinking saloons is 110, or one for every sixteen 
 and a half houses. Of these fully one-half are common dram-shops. 
 
 Nuisances. — Ponds of stagnant water constitute the worst nuisances. 
 They are found on some of the low and sunken squares, and which, 
 as above remarked, exert a deleterious influence upon the health of those 
 living near them. 
 
 Diseases. — With the exception of intermittent fever there has been 
 no prevailing disease during the past season, and this has been chiefly 
 confined to the insalubrious squares indicated as low and sunken. 
 
 The condition of the streets and gutters has also, through the praise- 
 worthy exertions of Mr. Thomas Miller, the efficient Deputy Street 
 Inspector, been much improved, and other causes of insalubrity would 
 at once be removed if he had the power to act. 
 
 Improvements. — During the past year the following improvements 
 of a noteworthy character, as bearing upon the sanitary condition of 
 the district, have been made. A large pond of stagnant water in 
 Second Avenue, near One Hundred and Fourteenth Street, has been 
 filled up. Also a similar pond on the First Avenue, between One Hun- 
 dred and Twenty-first and One Hundred and Twenty-second Streets, 
 has been drained by laying a pipe from it to the sewer in One Hun- 
 dred and Twenty-second Street. The following sewers have likewise 
 been built : In One Hundred and Twenth-ninth Stri et, from the Sixth, 
 to the Third Avenue ; in Third Avenue, from < ne Hundred and 
 Eighteenth Street north to the river, or more than half a mile long ; 
 in Third Avenue, from One Hundred and Tenth to One Hundred 
 and Eighth Street, where it connects with the "Harlem Canal;" in 
 One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, from Third Avenue east to the 
 river ; and in First Avenue, from One Hundred and Tenth to One Hun- 
 dred and 'Eighteenth Street, and through the last-named street to the 
 river. 
 
 Remedial Measures. — The undersigned would recommend the speedy 
 filling up of all low and sunken lots, the draining of ponds of stagnant 
 water, and the sewering of the avenues and streets adjacent to the squares 
 which are positively insalubrious. When this is done the district will 
 compare in general healthfulness with any other on the Island. 
 
 Tabulated Statement. — The following table will exhibit at a glance 
 the statistical results of the inspection, the whole district being divided 
 into eight belts by the avenues, and extending from the river south to 
 
•64:8 
 
 REPORT OF THE TWENTY -NINTH SANITARY DISTRICT 
 
 Eighty-sixth Street. (See Map in front of " Sanitary Inquiry," Dis- 
 trict No. 29, Twelfth Ward.) 
 
 Statistical Recapitulation. 
 
 
 Squares. 
 
 o 
 
 0 
 o 
 W 
 
 Shanties. 
 
 Rear 
 Buildings. 
 
 Tenant- 
 Houses. 
 
 Bt 
 
 £ o 
 
 q£ 
 
 © 
 
 N 
 O 
 
 33 
 
 i 
 
 Factories. 
 
 1 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 O 
 
 Schools. 1 
 
 1st Belt (bet. 6th and 5th Avs.) 
 
 28 
 
 120 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 
 2d Belt (bet. 5th and 4th Avs.) 
 
 50 
 
 246 
 
 192 
 
 26 
 
 30 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 i 
 
 2 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 3d Belt (bet. 4th and 3d Avs.) 
 
 46 
 
 722 
 
 80 
 
 48 
 
 81 
 
 60 
 
 97 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 64 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 4th Belt (bet. 3d and 2d Avs.) 
 
 45 
 
 434 
 
 8 
 
 19 
 
 36 
 
 31 
 
 65 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 54 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 5th Belt (bet. 2d and 1st Avs.) 
 
 42 
 
 88 
 
 19 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 31 
 
 1 
 
 
 6th Belt (bet. 1st Av. and Av. A) 
 
 28 
 
 122 
 
 23 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 7th Belt (bet. Avs. A and B). . 
 
 15 
 
 87 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 8th Belt (bet. Av. B and river) 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Totals 
 
 256 
 
 1820 
 
 330 
 
 111 
 
 160 
 
 110 
 
 175 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 255 
 
 16 
 
 5 
 
349 
 
 Statistical Summary of the Tenant-Houses and Cellars, and the Distri- 
 bution and Statistics of their Population, etc., in the City of New 
 
 York, at the close of the 
 
 year 
 
 1864. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 <u 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 $ 
 
 
 and 
 
 
 -a 
 
 E 
 
 "WAKDS. 
 
 No. of Tenant-House 
 
 No. of Families in 1 
 ant-Houses. 
 
 ige No. of Families 
 each House. 
 
 Population in Ten 
 Houses. 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 c 
 
 bp 
 
 03 
 
 Cellar Population. 
 
 Population in Cellars 
 Tenant-Houses. 
 
 No. of Tenant-Hoi 
 without Sewers. 
 
 Population in TJn=ew< 
 Houses. 
 
 
 "o 
 
 3 
 
 B 
 > 
 
 GB 
 
 o 
 
 Eh 
 
 3 
 t- 
 
 
 'a 
 
 
 
 
 EH 
 
 o 
 EH 
 
 < 
 
 H 
 
 <1 
 
 0 
 fH 
 
 0 
 H 
 
 0 
 E-i 
 
 0 
 EH 
 
 
 250 
 
 2,181 
 
 
 8,564 
 
 341 + 
 
 498 
 
 9,002 
 
 89 
 
 2,606 
 
 
 54 
 
 310 
 
 6* 
 
 1,248 
 
 24i 
 
 57 
 
 1,805 
 
 28 
 
 640 
 
 
 4S6 
 
 3,636 
 
 n 
 
 17,611 
 
 35 1 + 
 
 346 
 
 17,957 
 
 151 
 
 4,473 
 
 
 4(12 
 
 2,597 
 
 5* 
 
 10,370 
 
 24? + 
 
 836 
 
 11,206 
 
 293 
 
 5,796 
 
 
 G05 
 
 4,406 
 
 n 
 
 22,401 
 
 34i— 
 
 496 
 
 22,897 
 
 214 
 
 6,612 
 
 
 62T 
 
 4,5S6 
 
 n 
 
 19.293 
 
 30S 
 
 1,233 
 
 20,526 
 
 409 
 
 10.9.53 
 
 
 625 
 
 3,977 
 
 
 15,630 
 
 25 + 
 
 1,258 
 
 16.888 
 
 802 
 
 6.530 
 
 
 596 
 
 3,S36 
 
 6* 
 
 9 
 
 14,955 
 
 25^3 
 
 217 
 
 15.172 
 
 208 
 
 4,4S5 
 
 
 534 
 
 4,487 
 
 18,140 
 
 34— 
 
 453 
 
 18,583 
 
 110 
 
 2,953 
 
 
 2,049 
 
 13,433 
 
 Ci 
 
 64,254 
 
 31A 
 
 1,366 
 
 65,620 
 
 403 
 
 10,026 
 
 
 540 
 
 3,729 
 
 6} 
 
 14,997 
 
 27£ 
 
 939 
 
 15,936 
 
 215 
 
 5,0S9 
 
 
 546 
 
 4,509 
 
 8* 
 
 20,008 
 
 363- 
 
 417 
 
 20,425 
 
 207 
 
 6,202 
 
 
 19T 
 
 1,358 
 
 7 
 
 4,970 
 
 25— 
 
 235 
 
 5,205 
 
 72 
 
 1,237 
 
 
 1.257 
 
 7,08S 
 
 5! 
 
 31,500 
 
 25 + 
 
 2,150 
 
 33,650 
 
 300 
 
 7,107 
 
 
 L890 
 
 15,974 
 
 b| 
 
 63,766 
 
 34| + 
 
 2,441 
 
 66,207 
 
 155 
 
 4,596 
 
 
 S36 
 
 7,267 
 
 Si 
 
 35,869 
 
 42?- 
 
 230 
 
 36.099 
 
 98 
 
 3,766 
 
 
 571 
 
 3,632 
 
 6* 
 
 16,067 
 
 28i + 
 
 205 
 
 16,272 
 
 81 
 
 1,912 
 
 
 1,162 
 
 8,344 
 
 
 32,205 
 
 27j 
 
 1,013 
 
 33.21S 
 
 291 
 
 7,968 
 
 
 1,026 
 
 7.299 
 
 7 
 
 36,675 
 
 351— 
 
 135 
 
 36,S70 
 
 114 
 
 4,491 
 
 
 996 
 
 7,714 
 
 Ti 
 
 31,845 
 
 32— 
 
 699 
 
 32,544 
 
 162 
 
 3,233 
 
 This Table presents the Statistics of Tenant-Houses, as reported by the Sanitary In- 
 spectors of the Council of Hygiene, and verified in a recent inspection by the Metropoli- 
 tan Police. 
 
 The total number of tenant houses, none of which contain less than three families, 
 who hire their apartments by monthly or very brief periods of rental, is 15,511. This 
 exceeds, by 202, the number which the Council of Hygiene as well as the Metropolitan 
 Police has elsewhere given. 
 
 The total population of these tenant-houses at the time of last inspection, was 480,000 
 
 The total population in cellars was 15,224 
 
 Total in tenant-houses and in cellars 501,224 
 
 Note. — The Sanitary Inspectors of the Twelfth Ward report that there arc 202 tenant- 
 houses of the larger class (averaging more than six families in a house) in that Ward. In 
 the same Ward there are G43 inhabited shanties, and 710 other tenements of a poor class, 
 but not having three families each, consequently not counted in the statistics of tenant- 
 houses. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abbatoeis, of Paris, described as Sanitary Insti- 
 tutions, &c, xciv. 
 
 Accidents on the city railroads, generally caused 
 by intemperance, 810. 
 
 AcmsoN, Dr. J. C, Sanitary Inspector, 110 ; on 
 the medical topography of the Thirteenth 
 Ward. HI; classification of buildings by, 112 ; 
 prevailing diseases — reactive evils by, 113; 
 remedial measures suggested by, 114; when 
 reforms must begin, 115. 
 
 Aggeegation of population in cities, xxxviii ; of 
 tenant-houses and its evils, cxxxii. 
 
 Alcoholic drinks, bad quality of, 10, 54, 137, 167, 
 201, 214, 311 ; poisonous air in crowded tene- 
 ments begets a desire for, 54, 221 ; diseases 
 induced by the use of, 55, 81, 123, 137, 201 ; con- 
 sumed at unreasonable hours, 137 ; indulged 
 in by numbers of both sexes, 167, 250 ; lead to 
 riot, misery, and crime, 214, 250 ; habitual us« 
 of, renders diseases more apt to terminate un- 
 favorably, 311. 
 
 Ate, how poisoned in dwellings, cxxxiii-cxxxiv. 
 
 Alleys, filthy condition of, 101, 179; dampness of, 
 137; used for surface drainage, 188; inaccessi- 
 ble between rear tenements, 193 ; in the nine- 
 teenth district, 225. 
 
 Apaetments, . dimensions of, 7, 39, 47, 68, 86, 121, 
 149, 190, 198; filthy condition of, in tenant- 
 houses, 68; defective ventilation of. 101, 190, 
 244; overcrowding of, 271; its effects upon 
 children, 271; effluvia in, 199, 243; of rear 
 tonements, 244; want of light and ventilation 
 in, of rear tenements, 245. 
 
 Association for Improving the Condition of the 
 Poor, its sanitary work and advice, lxxii — 
 lxxiv; its special report on sanitary wants of 
 the laboring classes, lxxxiii. 
 
 Asstlums, the Lying-in, 89; the Half Orphan, 138 ; 
 Home for Young Women and Children, 139 ; 
 for Soldiers' Children, 315; Deaf and Dumb, 
 341 ; Colored Orphan, ib. ; Insane, ib. ; the 
 Leake and Watt (Orphan), ib. 
 
 Atmosphere, moisture of, in the First Inspection 
 District, 36 ; in rear tenements, 48 ; the number 
 of cubic feet of, to each individual among the 
 tenant-house population, 48, 150, 190, 242; hu- 
 midity of, as affecting health, 165; impregnated 
 with sewer gases, a well-known source of dis- 
 ease, 223; amount of to each individual among 
 the cellar population, 247; effects of impurity 
 of, 258 ; amount of, breathed per hour, 258, xc. 
 
 Ballard, Dr. E., of London, his report on tho 
 working of the Metropolitan system, cxv, 
 
 Baeton, Dr., quotations from, 203. 
 
 Basements, untenantable from dampness, 3, 5, 14, 
 55; population of, 152; unhealthy nature of, 
 190; typhoid fever in, 55; rheumatism con- 
 tracted in, 3, 40, 71, 81, 199; ophthalmia in, 71. 
 
 Beekman's Swamp, location and area of, 43. 
 
 Beewick, Eng., results of sanitary works in, cxvii. 
 Bestavee's Kellitje, 128. 
 
 Boarding Houses, 25 ; sailors', how sometimes 
 supplied with food, 60. 
 
 Beonchitis, among the occupants of shanties in 
 the Twenty-fifth Inspection District, 306. 
 
 Beothei.8, in the First Inspection District, 10; in 
 the Third, 26,37; in the Fourth, 59; in the 
 Fifth, 67 ; in the Sixth, 81 ; in the Seventh, 86 ; 
 in the Twelfth, 138; in the Thirteenth, 154 ; 
 by whom frequented, 10 ; difficulty of distin- 
 tinguishing, 26. 
 
 Beown, Dr. J. L., Sanitary Inspector, 116; on the 
 primitive and present topography of the Elev- 
 enth District, 117; objections to the cobble 
 pavement by, 118 ; on an outbreak of typhoid 
 fever and dysentery by, 119 ; on tenant-houses, 
 121 ; description of an improved tenant-house 
 by, 122; cellar population by, 123; on garbage 
 boxes, 124; prevailing diseases, ib.; remedial 
 measures suggested b} r , 124. 
 
 Beush, Dr. H. M., Sanitary Inspector, 385; on 
 natural water-courses of the Twenty-sixth and 
 Twenty-seventh District, 326; old water cour- 
 ses obstructed, 327 ; the evils of sewer gases, 
 828; on tenant-houses, 329; evils and their 
 remedies, 321 ; foul gutters and poisonous 
 gases, 333; garbage-box and waste-pipe pro- 
 posed by. 333. 
 
 Buildings, of the First Inspection District, 6; of 
 the Second, 15; of the Third, 25, 38; of the 
 Fourth, 45 ; of the Fifth, 67, 70 ; of the Seventh, 
 86; of the Eighth, 93; of the Ninth, 100; of 
 the Tenth, 112; of the Eleventh, 120; of the 
 Twelfth, 132; of the Thirteenth, 148; of the 
 Fourteenth, 166; of the Fifteenth, 173 ; of the 
 Sixteenth, 186; of the Seventeenth, 197; of 
 the Eighteenth, 210; of the Twentieth, 241 ; 
 of the Twenty-first, 257; of the Twenty-sec- 
 ond, 276; of the Twenty-third, 286; of the 
 Twenty-fourth, 291 ; of the Twenty-fifth, 300; 
 of the Twenty-sixth and Twentv-seventh, 328 ; 
 of the Twenty-eighth, 340; of the Twenty- 
 ninth, 346 ; effects of high, on the sanitary con- 
 dition of narrow streets, 16; sanitary condition 
 of old, often superior to those of more recent 
 date, 112; defective construction of, 2S7. 
 
 Bueball, Dr. F. A., Sanitary Inspector, 127; on 
 the sources of insalubrity in the streets of the 
 Twelfth District, 129; sewerage and health 
 statistics by, 131 ; classification of buildings 
 by, 182; tenant-house statistics by, 184; ob- 
 jectionable features of the Twelfth District, 
 187; on the construction of churches and 
 public schools, 139 ; on diseases prevailing in 
 tho Twelfth District, ib. ; remedial measures 
 suggested by, 140. 
 
 Castle Garden, 11 ; effects of, on the sanitary 
 condition of the city, 12. 
 
352 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cat-Alley, description of, 179. 
 
 Causes of Disease, xlvii ; considered in connec- 
 tion with death-rates, xlviii ; necessity for 
 guarding against in New York, ib. ; those 
 which are external and those that are personal 
 considered, xlix ; localizing nature of, lxii. 
 
 Cellars, dampness of, during high tide, 8, 22, 40, 
 146 ; from deficiency of drainage, 144, 224 ; ex- 
 cluding light and air from, 40, 103 ; population 
 of, in the Sixth District, 80 ; in the Thirteenth, 
 152; in the Twentieth, 246; in the Twenty- 
 sixth and Twenty-seventh, 329; flooded by 
 heavy rains, 123; diseases prevailing in, 135; 
 filthy condition of, 191 ; rheumatism in, 199 ; 
 should be prohibited as dwellings, 205; dark- 
 ness of, a cause of impaired vitality, 212; dis- 
 eases conveyed from, 224 ; amount of popula- 
 tion of, diminishing, 24" ; offensive odor arising 
 from, 807; blood poisoning from, ib. 
 
 Cemeteries, in the First Inspection District, 12 ; 
 in the Fourth, 59; in the Sixth, 82; in the 
 Eighth, 96; in the Thirteenth, 159. 163 ; in the 
 Fourteenth, 16S; in the Twenty-eighth, 342. 
 
 Chadwick, Edwin, Esq., remarks on particular 
 reforms, cxvi. 
 
 Charitable Institutions, in the Sixth Inspection 
 District, 87; proximity of, to fever-nests, 82. 
 
 Chemistry, hygienic applications of, xcviii — ciii ; 
 report on, by Profs. Draper and Doremus, xcix. 
 
 Cholera, Asiatic, first appearance of, in 1849, 84 ; 
 in the vicinity of pig-styes, 309 ; its history in 
 New York, lxiii ; in Philadelphia and Boston, 
 lxiv ; seeks the insalubrious localities, 820. 
 
 Cholera Infantum, in the First Inspection Dis- 
 trict, 12 ; in the Third, 41 ; in the Sixth, 82 ; 
 in the Eighth, 96 ; in the Tenth, 113 ; in the 
 Eleventh, 124; in the Twelfth, 188; in the 
 Thirteenth, 162; in the Fourteenth, 108; in 
 the Fifteenth, 179 ; in the Sixteenth, 198 : in 
 the Seventeenth, 199 ; in the Twentieth, 248 ; 
 in the Twenty-fourth, 294; in the Twenty- 
 fifth, 312 ; in the Twenty-sixth and Twenty- 
 seventh, 827 ; in the Twenty-eighth, 842 ; in 
 connection with 6tables and offensive water- 
 closets, 41 ; prevalent in rear tenements, 179 ; 
 relation of, to filthy streets and gutters, 168, 
 827; to dram-shops, 186; totality of, in rear 
 tenant-houses, 249 ; in the vicinity of slaugh- 
 ter-houses, 294; caused by swill milk. 812; in 
 the vicinity of stagnant water, 816 ; fatality of, 
 in the Twenty-fifth District, 820 ; relation of, 
 to dentition, 822 ; in Manhattanvillc, 842. 
 
 Cholera Morbus, in the First Inspection District, 
 12 ; in the Third, 29 ; in the Eleventh, 124 ; 
 caused by unwholesome articles of food, 812 ; 
 its preventable nature well known, 820. 
 
 Cnr/BcnES, in the First Inspection District, 11 ; in 
 the Second. 17; in the Third, 2S; in the Fifth, 
 72; in the Sixth, 81; in the Eighth, 96; in the 
 Ninth, 101 ; in the Tenth, 112; in the Eleventh, 
 125; in the Twelfth, 188; in the Thirteenth, 
 148; in the Sixteenth, 192; in the Eighteenth, 
 222; in the Twentieth, 241 ; in the Twenty- 
 second, 278 : in tho Twentv-sixth and Twenty- 
 seventh, 880; badly ventilated, 61, 189. 
 
 Citizens' Association, information and advlso re- 
 quested by, xxxv ; report presented to, xxvii. 
 
 Cleanliness,* tho first remedial measure for the 
 city, exxv, exxxviii ; should be enforced in 
 tenant houses, exxxi ; importance of both per- 
 sonal and domiciliary, 118, 166; neglect of, 
 166; with ventilation, will extinguish epidem- 
 ics, 218'; Indifference to, acquired, and at vari- 
 ance with all moral or social Improvement, 
 246; want of, a great source of Insalubrity, 
 272 ; tho great want of, In tho Twenty-eighth 
 District, 840. 
 
 'Collect,' outlet of, 21,84: description of the, 
 76; fllllng-ln the, 76; an incident, Ib. ; noxious 
 Intlucncc of the, 92. 
 
 Commercial "Warehouses, sanitary wants of, 16 ; 
 
 effects of their want of ventilation and light, ib 
 Commission, form of, to Sanitary Inspectors, xxviii. 
 Contagion, and contagious diseases considered, 
 
 cxxxv. 
 
 Council of Hygiene, date of its organization, xxi ; 
 names of its members, cliii. 
 
 Crime resulting from a want of sanitary regula- 
 tion, 65; from habitual intemperance, 187, 167. 
 214,250. 
 
 Ckoton Street, packing of, 840. 
 
 Croton Water, its sanitary importance, HI ; occa- 
 sional impurities of, and their influence, c. 
 
 Ceoup among the occupants of shanties in the 
 Twenty-fifth Inspection District, 806. 
 
 Culs-de-Sac, diseases and mortality in, lxxvl. 
 
 Death-Rates, defined, xl ; its average in the Sixth 
 Ward, lxiv. 
 
 Derby, Dr. E. W., Sanitary Inspector, 165; on the 
 effects of a vitiated atmosphere, 106; on ten- 
 ant-houses and dram shops, 167; on the moral 
 influence of slaughter-houses, 168; how infec- 
 tious diseases spread, 169; remedial measures, 
 suggested bv, 1 70. 
 Diarrhoea, in the First District, 12; prevalent at 
 all seasons in the Fourth District, 6a ; existence 
 of, among cellar population, 71 ; most preva- 
 lent in insalubrious quarters, 12 ; its prevalence 
 near the river, 29; most severe on low, damp 
 round, 41 ; with drunkards, running into 
 ysentery, 169; connected with filthy streets 
 and gutters, 188, 827; in the Sixteenth Dis- 
 trict, 198; in the Twentieth, 248; maybe con- 
 trolled by proper sanitarv regulations, 819. 
 Diarrheal Maladies, Hi, liii; their causes pre- 
 ventable, cviii ; from open and neglected sew- 
 ers, cviii; from impure water, cix; Dr. Green- 
 how's report on, cix. 
 Diphtheria, proximity of, to stables, 27, 62, 225; 
 in connection with dram-shops, 186; with in- 
 salubrious slaughter-houses, 192 ; with flooded 
 cellars, 199; death of a physician by, 225; In 
 tho vicinity of stagnant water, 842. 
 Disease, avoidable causes of, xxxix; preventable, 
 the proportion of deaths from. Hi ; causes of 
 in Tenth. Eighteenth, and Twentieth Districts 
 reported, lxvl ; special reports on, in a Park 
 Street cul-de-sac, lxxvl; report on, in certain 
 tenant-houses, lxxviii ; in the First Inspection 
 District, 12; in the Second, 17; in the Third, 
 29, 41 ; in the Fourth, 68 ; in the Fifth, 68, 72; 
 in the Sixth, 82; in the Seventh, H); In the 
 Eighth, 96; in the Ninth, 107; In tho Tenth, 
 118: in the Eleventh, 124; in the Twelfth, 189; 
 in the Thirteenth, 162: in the Fourteenth, 168; 
 in the Fifteenth, 179; in the Sixteenth, 198; in 
 the Seventeenth, 199; in the Eighteenth, 215; 
 in the Nineteenth, 224; in the Twentieth, 248; 
 in the Twontv-flist, 265; in the Twenty-sec- 
 ond, 279 ; In the Twenty-fourth, 294 ; in tho 
 Twenty-fifth, 818, 819; In the Twenty-Sixth 
 and Twenty-Seventh, 828; In tho Twenty- 
 eighth, 842; In the Twenty-ninth, 847; exist- 
 ence of, concealed by interested persons, 62 ; 
 zymotic rife In tho vicinity of largo stables, 
 62; statistics of a tenant-house in Monroo 
 Street, 104; influenco of dirtv streets In tho 
 spread of. 111, 118, 129; caused by the use of 
 alcoholic liquors, 128; dispelled by the diluting 
 agency of tho atmosphere, 124; spread by 
 moansofthc city rail-cars, 141 ; hyfomltes,lC8, 
 249; localities o'f, 198; met with in reor tene- 
 ments, 245; effect of acclimation on, lb. ; causes 
 of. among the poor, 224 ; preventable causes of, 
 199; improper food, Intemperance, 201 ; spread 
 by paper money, clothing, public conveyances, 
 etc., 202; patent medicines, 208 ; unwillingness 
 of tenants to acknowledge tho existence of, 
 249; always Hablo to terminate unfavorably 
 with the Intemperate, 811 ; a Inrgc amount of 
 
 5 
 
INDEX. 
 
 353 
 
 preventable, 251 ; statistics of, in the Twenty- 
 third District, 28S; effects of stagnant water 
 upon, 342; the carelessness of the Irish, and 
 the over-carefulness of the Germans, 342. 
 Dispensaries, special services of, cxxxv; the 
 New York, SI; the Eastern, 96; in the Thir- 
 teenth District, 158. 
 Drainage of tiie City, reports on, xcvi ; quota- 
 tions from Mr. Menzies's treatise on, xcvii; 
 natural of the island how obstructed, xeviii ; 
 of the Third Inspection District, 21, 35; of the 
 fourth, 44; of the Fifth, 60; of the Eighth, 92; 
 of the Ninth, 97; of the Tenth, 110; of the 
 Eleventh, 117; of the Twelfth, 127; of the 
 Thirteenth, 143; of the Fifteenth, 171; of the 
 Sixteenth, 187; of fhe Seventeenth, 196; of 
 the Eighteenth, 207; of the Nineteenth, 223; 
 of the Twentieth, 22S; of the Twenty -first, 
 256; of the Twenty-second, 268; of the Twen- 
 ty-fifth, 29S ; of the Twenty-sixth and Twen- 
 ty-seventh, 326; of the Twenty-eighth, 336, 
 837 ; instances of defective, 43, 102, 1SS ; import- 
 ance of thorough, 92; influence of bad house- 
 drainage on the health of the inhabitants, 102 ; 
 local, absence of, or imperfect, 185; sickness 
 caused by defective house-drainage, 18S; sur- 
 face, ib. ; tubular drains of tile preferable to 
 those of brick, 232; faulty waste-pipes, 243. 
 Dram-Shops, in the First Inspection District, 10 ; 
 in the Second, 16; in the Third, 26; in the 
 Fourth, 59 ; in the Fifth, 67, 71 : in the Sixth, 
 81; in the Seventh, 86; in the Eighth, 96; in 
 the Ninth, 106; in the Tenth, 112; in the 
 Eleventh, 123; in the Twelfth, 137; in the 
 Thirteenth, 152; in the Fourteenth, 167; in 
 the Fifteenth, 173 ; in the Sixteenth, 191 ; in 
 the Eighteenth, 213: in the Twentieth, 241; in 
 the Twenty-first, 257; in the Twenty-second, 
 277 ; in the Twenty-fourth, 293 ; in the Twenty- 
 fifth, 310; in the Twenty-sixth and Twenty- 
 seventh, 330; in the Twenty-eighth, 341; in 
 the Twenty-ninth, 346; influence of, on the 
 sanitary condition of squares, 100, 123; char- 
 acter of, 10, 137, 214; evils resulting from, SI, 
 106, 137 ; prejudicial to the public health, 137, 
 186; by whom frequented, 10, 26; ratio of 
 the number of families in the Eighteenth Dis- 
 trict, 213; numerous in the locality of tenant- 
 houses, 106; thronged with multitudes of both 
 sexes, 167, 245 ; evils of, among squatter-tene- 
 ments, 293; dispensaries of poisons, 341. 
 Draper, Professor J. "W., letter from, 312 note ; 
 
 report by, xcix. 
 Draper, Henry, M.D., a chemical analysis of well- 
 water from the Twenty-third District, made 
 by, 313 note. 
 Dutch Hill, location of, 2S2; employments of the 
 
 inhabitants of, 286. 
 Dwelling improvements in English cities, lxxxiv, 
 lxxxviii; Alderman AVaterlow's described, 
 Ixxxvi ; Eev. Dr. Muhlenberg's remarks on 
 the necessity for, in New York, lxxxviii ; rec- 
 ommendations for, lxxxix ; needed in private 
 houses, lxxxix, xc. 
 Dwellings, area of the city to be occupied by, 
 exxxii ; private, in the First Inspection Dis- 
 trict, 6; in the Second, 15; in the Third, 25, 
 88; in the Fifth, 67, 70; in the Seventh, 86; in 
 Eighth, 93; in the Ninth, 100; in the Tenth, 
 112; in tho Eleventh, 121; in the Twelfth, 
 133 ; in the Thirteenth, 148 ; in the Fourteenth, 
 166; in tho Fifteenth, 173; in the Sixteenth, 
 187; in the Seventeenth, 197; in the Eigh- 
 teenth, 210; in the Twentieth, 241; in the 
 Twenty-first, 257; in the Twenty-second, 276; 
 in the Twenty-fourth, 291 ; in tho Twenty- 
 fifth, 306; in the Twenty-sixth and Twenty- 
 seventh, 828; in the Twenty-eighth, 340 ; faul- 
 ty ventilation of, 88, 210; why bad odors oc- 
 casionally occur in, 133. 2*1, 307; sanitary 
 23 
 
 condition of, compared with that of tenant- 
 houses, 135 ; occasional want of sanitnry *are 
 in regard to, 210; defective sewerage and 
 plumbing of, 291, 328; blood-poisooihg and 
 death from defective drainage of, 307; several 
 connected with the sewer by a single drain, 
 807 ; having no cellars, 329. 
 
 Dysentery in the First Inspection District,12; on 
 low, damp ground, 41 ; in damp and filthy 
 basements, 55, 71 ; prevalence of. in the Fourth 
 Inspection District, 63; in the Fifth, 72; in the 
 Seventh District, S9; in the Tenth, 113; con- 
 nected with imperfect sewerage, 119 ; with 
 crowded and insalubrious quarters, 124; with 
 filthy streets and gutters, 183; in the Six- 
 teenth District, 193 ; on reclaimed ground, 
 199 ; in connection with filthy privies and 
 damp cellars, 287; among the occupants of 
 shanties in the Twenty-fifth District, 306; in 
 the vicinity of stagnant water, 316. 
 
 Eliot Dr. E., Sanitary Inspector, 284; on the up- 
 town nuisances, 2S3; on street-cleaning, etc., 
 284; on filthy places and gross abuses, 285; 
 "Dutch Hill," 286; on poisonous gases and 
 emanations in dwellings, 2S7 ; on the tenant- 
 houses in the Twenty-third District, 2SS; the 
 " Great Eastern " tenant-house described, ib. ; 
 remedial measures suggested by, 290. 
 
 Epidemics, attack low, reclaimed ground first, 23 
 extinguished by cleanliness and ventilation, 
 218 ; die out after a certain length of time, 213 ; 
 may be arrested, 216; attack the immoral and 
 degraded classes, 218; influenced by want of 
 sanitary regulations, 249, 250. 
 
 Erysipelas in the Third Inspection District, 29 ; 
 in the vicinity of stables, 62. 
 
 Exanthematous Fevers, partly preventable, liv. 
 
 Executive Committee, its report on the plan and 
 progress of the Sanitary Survey, xxi ; names 
 of, xxxv. 
 
 Factories in the Third Inspection Dictrict, 27,38; 
 in the Fifth, 71 ; in the Sixth, 81 ; in the 
 Twelfth, 138; in the Fourteenth, 167; in the 
 Eighteenth, 215 ; in the Twenty-fourth, 294. 
 
 Families childless from high death-rate in tenant- 
 houses, lxxviii. 
 
 Farrington, Dr. J. O., Sanitary Inspector, 845; 
 remedial measures suggested by, 347; statisti- 
 cal recapitulation by, 848. 
 
 Fat-boiling, establishments for, in close proxim- 
 ity to large business thoroughfares, S6 ; ema- 
 nations arising from, ib. ; in the Twenty-first 
 District, 262 ; effects of inhaling the odor 
 from, 262. 
 
 Fever in the years ISOS-U, cv ; in the Eleventh 
 and Seventeenth Wards, cvi ; its causes and 
 control considered, exxxvi ; prevailing most 
 extensively in moist localities, 23; in damp 
 cellars and basements, 81; in the Sixth In- 
 spection District, 82. 
 
 Bilious and Miasmatic, causes of, 240. 
 
 Continued, prevalent in the Twenty- 
 second District, 279. 
 
 Intermittent, prevailing on reclaimed, low, 
 
 and poorly-drained ground, 41 ; in tho vicinity 
 of stagnant water, 816, 837, 346, 847; statistics 
 of, from the Manhattan Dispensary, 348. 
 
 Malarial, in tho vicinity of stagnant 
 
 water, 230, 842. 
 
 Remitting, almost universal among chil- 
 dren in tenant-houses of tho Third Inspection 
 District, 29 ; on reclaimed ground, 41 ; in the 
 vicinity of stagnant water, 837. 
 
 Typnoin, causes of, preventable, li. ; in 
 
 some portions of tho Third District, 29 ; ma- 
 lignant type of, 41 ; in damp cellars, 71 ; in tho 
 Fifth Inspection District, 72; in tho Seventh, 
 89; in the Tenth, 113; in tenant-houses of tho 
 Twelfth District, 139; in tho Thirteenth, 162; 
 in the Fourteenth, 169; in the Fifteenth, 179.: 
 
354 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 In the Eighteenth, 215; caused by the inhala- 
 tion ot newer gases, 288; by human exhala- 
 tions and cloacal effluvia, 240; in the Twen- 
 tieth District, 248 ; produced by privy exhala- 
 tions, 809 ; in the vicinity of stagnant water, 
 816; caused by the impure exhalations from 
 filthv streets and gutters, 327 ; in One Hundred 
 and "Tenth Street, 844. 
 
 Fever, Typhus, special reports on, and forms for, 
 xxxv ; where found, xlviii; preventable by 
 fresh air and cleanliness, li ; in tenant-houses, 
 1 ; how prevented, li ; illustrations of its in- 
 fectious nature, lvi, lvii ; localizing causes, 
 lviii; neglect of, by municipal authorities, lix ; 
 footprints of, 6, 81 ; prevalence of, in the First 
 Inspection District, 9, 18; in the Second, 17; 
 in the Third, 29, 41 ; in tho Fourth, 68 ; in the 
 Sixth, 82; in the Seventh, 89; in the Ninth, 
 102; in the Eleventh, 124; in the Thirteenth, 
 162; in the Fourteenth, 168; in the Fifteenth, 
 179; in the Seventeenth, 199; in the Eigh- 
 teenth, 215; in the Twenty-first, 265 ; traceable 
 to newly-arrived immigrants, 17, 42, 69, 82, 
 162, 169 ; to discharged soldiers, 169 ; arrested 
 by free ventilation, 17, 163; its relation to the 
 Daturc of the ground on which it occurs, 23, 
 41 ; as connected with the humidity of the at- 
 mosphere, 86 ; with neglected privies and 
 cesspools, 36 ; with junk-shops and clothing- 
 houses, 61 ; with tenant-houses, 63, 78, 211, 
 806; diminishes during summer months, 68; 
 may be controlled, 88, 216, 819 ; originating in 
 a crowded tenement, 102; inspires dread which 
 interferes with the welfare of the patient, 168; 
 endangers tho life of the physician, 169; in 
 proximity to slaughter-houses, 192 ; in connec- 
 tion with stables, 192 ; in rear tenements, 275, 
 280 ; spread of, in the Twenty-second Inspec- 
 tion District, 280, 281 ; cases of imported, 2S1, 
 806; spread of. due to overcrowding, ib. 
 
 Feveb-Nests, definition of, xxi ; inspection of, 
 xxxiv ; the probable number in the city, cvii ; 
 In the First Inspection District, 9; in the 
 Third, 41 ; in the Sixth, 78, 84 ; in the Eigh- 
 teenth, 216; in connection with stables, 81; 
 description of a, in Monroe Street, 102 ; con- 
 tinued by the condition of certain tenant- 
 houses, 216; locality of, in the Eighteenth 
 District, 216; physicians and others contract- 
 ing fever in, ib. ; description of a noted, in the 
 Eighteenth District, 217; number of caBcs oc- 
 curring in a, 218 ; located on made ground, ib. ; 
 now to exterminate disease from, 219 ; advan- 
 tages gained by sanitary measures applied to, 
 267 ; description of, in the Twenty-second 
 District, 279, 280. 
 
 Field, Dr. H. M., Sanitary Inspector, 206 ; on 
 primitive and present topography, 207; on 
 streets and gutters, 208; on avenues of wealth, 
 and streets of poverty, 209 ; on tho faulty con- 
 struction of tenant-houses, 211 ; on cellars and 
 basements, 212; on epidemics of fever, 218; 
 dram-shops and liquor stores, 214 ; trades and 
 unhealthful occupations not causes of fever, 
 215; the spreading of infection may be arrest- 
 ed, 216; description of a noted fevcr-nest, by, 
 217; epidemics attack the Immoral and de- 
 graded first, 218; on the social aspects of in- 
 salubrious quarters, 219 ; remedial measures 
 suggested by, 221. 
 
 Fire Kbcapes, want of, 80, 815. 
 
 Food, articles used for injury of. xcv ; chemical 
 inquiry concerning, ell ; quality of, used by 
 the poor, 59, 60, 166; how sometimes obtained 
 for sailors 1 boarding-houses, 60 ; stale vegeta- 
 bles and fish, and unripo fruit, produce cholera 
 morbus, diarrhoea, and dyBcntery, 201 ; un- 
 wholesome articles of, 811 ; their . r, •:- upon 
 children, 812. 
 
 Foet Gansevoobt, where situated 116. 
 
 Fort Washington, 886. 
 
 Foulib, Dr., his sanitary work in Edinburgh, exxx. 
 
 Fubman, Dr. 6., Sanitary Inspector, 196; on re- 
 claimed ground, 196 ; on sewerage, ib. ; domi- 
 ciles, and people, 197; location and neglect of 
 privies, 19S ; prevailing maladies and pre- 
 ventable diseases, 199; on the evil effects of 
 watering the streets, 200 ; unventilated cel- 
 lars and basements, ib. ; brutal health-war- 
 dens and wretched mothers, 201 ; on faulty hy- 
 giene in public schools, 202; how are com- 
 municable diseases spread, ib. ; on the indis- 
 criminate use of patent nostrums, 208 ; reme- 
 dial measures suggested by, ib. ; description 
 of a model tenant-house, 204 ; evils to be 
 remedied, 205. 
 
 Gajigee, Prof. J. 8., his reports on diseased ani- 
 mals and meats, xcv. 
 
 Garbage, nuisance of, exxviii; disposal of a cause 
 of insalubrity, 8, 87. 89, 6S, 76, 95, 151, 188, 280, 
 269, 804, 808, 828, 881, 889, 840 ; effects of leav- 
 ing in the street, 8, 95; in front of houses 
 where cholera infantum was found, 188 ; non- 
 removal, 1S5; improved receiving vessel for, 
 282. 
 
 Garbage-Box, a perpetual source of nuisance, 
 76, 124, 157, 280 ; not adapted to the wants of 
 a cleanly people, 95 ; necessity for abolishing, 
 114 ; should be provided with covers and 
 emptied daily, 187; a source of great evil 
 where tenant-houses are most abundant, 185, 
 230 ; made of improper material, 189 ; in front 
 of public schools, 151 ; decaying organic mat- 
 ter found in, 200; never completely emptied, 
 280, 274 ; seen in front of tenant-houses, 290 ; 
 faulty construction of, 286 ; practically of little 
 consequence, 808. 
 
 Gas, nuisance from manufactories of, xcv, 192 ; 
 operatives subject to an affection of tho eyes, 
 192. 
 
 Geology, of the Third Inspection District, 19 ; of 
 the Sixth, 75; of the Tenth, 111 ; of the Thir- 
 teenth, 142; of the Seventeenth, 196; of the 
 Twentieth, 227 : of the Twenty-third, 288; of 
 the Twenty -fifth, 298 ; of the Twenty-eighth, 
 886. 
 
 Gotham Cottbt, description of, 49; statistics of, 
 52 ; health of the occupants of, 54. 
 
 Gbeenbow, Dr. S. Headlam, report on Diarrhoea 
 Districts of England, cix. ; on registration of 
 disease, exxiii. 
 
 Greenwich Village, how situated, 116. 
 
 Gbibcom, Dr. J. H., his treatise referred to, exxxiii. 
 
 Gbocebies, how affect the public health, 40, 55, 71, 
 187, 277, 285. • 
 
 Gutters, irregular grading of, 129, 148 ; unwhole- 
 some miasmata emanating from, 129 ; obstruc- 
 tions of, 148, 172 ; Condition of, in front of ten- 
 ant-houses, 805; wretched sanitary condition of, 
 188 ; diseases consequent thereon, ib. ; recep- 
 tacles of garbage, filth, etc., 269 ; in the Twen- 
 ty-eighth District. 88a 
 
 Hadden, Dr. A., Sanitary Inspector, 825 ; on tho 
 natural water-courses of the Twenty-sixth and 
 Twenty-seventh Districts, 826 ; old water- 
 courses obstructed, 827; the evils of sewer 
 gases, 828; on tenant houses, 829 ; evils and 
 their remedies, 881 : foul gutters and poison- 
 ous gases, 888 ; garbage-box and waste-pipo 
 proposed by, 888; statistical recapitulation 
 by, 884. 
 
 IIale, Chief Justice,' on the canses of crime, 106. 
 
 Hammond, Dr. William H., his hygienic studies 
 referred to, cxxxlll. 
 
 IIalliday, Mr. 8. H„ his report on homes of tho 
 poor in tho Sixth Ward, lxxvll. 
 
 Harriot, Dr. H., Sanitary Inspector, IS; old 
 swamps and present drainage, 21 ; street ele- 
 vations, 22 ; influence of topography on health, 
 28 ; tenant-houses, 26; on the influence of sta 
 
INDEX. 
 
 355 
 
 bles on the public health, 27 ; prevailing dis- 
 eases of the Third District, 29 ; diseases preva- 
 lent in proportion to crowding, etc., ib. ; an 
 investigation needed, 80 ; footprints of typhus 
 and small-pox, 31 ; statistical recapitulation 
 by, 82. 
 
 Harris, Dr. Elisha, treatise on ventilation by, 
 95; outlines of the progress of sanitary im- 
 provement by, 25S. 
 
 Health, its value, xxxviii ; laws, committee on, 
 xxxiii ; standard of, how estimated, xli ; ne- 
 cessity for its public protection, civ ; a Board 
 of, needed, cxxvii ; the present organization 
 inadequate, 140 ; measures for the promotion 
 of, should be under the supervision of medical 
 men, 141, 249. 
 
 Health Wardens, should have authority over 
 insalubrious buildings, 114; example of the 
 neglect of a, 201 ; office of, a sinecure, 248 ; 
 occupation of, in the Twenty-third District, 
 290. 
 
 HouGn, Dr. Franklin B., his statistics and pre- 
 dictions, cxxi. 
 
 House-to-house inspections, some results of stat- 
 ed, xlii. 
 
 House-drainage, its importance, xc. 
 
 Hunter. Dr. William C, Sanitary Inspector, 1S2; 
 amount of preventable disease in proportion 
 to filthy streets, 183; on the evils of ob- 
 structed sewerage, 184; on the massing of 
 buildings, ib. ; garbage and negligence, 185; 
 on uncleanly and intemperate habits, 186; 
 classification of buildings by, ib. ; tenant- 
 houses and statistics by, 187, on the evils 
 of defective house-drainage, 188 ; water sup- 
 ply and domestic wants by, 189; on cellars 
 and basements, 190 ; on dram-shops and soap- 
 factories, 191 ; on typhus and ophthalmia in 
 proximity to stables, 192 ; on filthy places 
 and prevailing diseases, 193 ; on locality of 
 disease, 193; remedial measures suggested 
 by, 194. 
 
 nrGROMETRioAL observations, during the sani- 
 tary survey, xcviii ; made in the Third In- 
 spection District, 36. 
 
 Improvements, made during the season in the 
 First Inspection District, 12; in the Third, 
 43 ; in the Seventh, 89 ; in the Fourteenth, 
 170; in the Twentieth, 248 ; in the Twenty- 
 first, 267 ; none made by the health authori- 
 ties, 170, 247 ; in the Twenty-ninth District, 
 847. 
 
 Infants, sacrifice of, in tenant-houses, 10, 64; 
 mortality of, in the Sixth Inspection District, 
 82 ; vitiated diet of, 96 ; diseases of, in the 
 Fourteenth District, 168 ; congenital contami- 
 nations of, ib. ; diseases of, in the vicinity of a 
 tripe establishment, 810. 
 
 Infantile Diseases and Mortality, in the 
 Fourth Inspection District, 64 ; in tho Four- 
 teenth, 168; in tho Fifteenth, 180; fifty per 
 cent of, from preventable causes, 41 ; fear- 
 fully high in the Sixth District, 82; among 
 the poor in the Twenty-fifth District, 199, 201 ; 
 use of patent medicines ; 203 ; the overcrowd- 
 ing of tenant-houses a fruitful sonrco of, 241, 
 271; in the Twenty-fifth District, 303 ; due to 
 stagnant water, 304, 317 ; to the condition of 
 the domiciles, 306, 307 ; to the condition of 
 privies, 309 ; to unwholesome articles of diet, 
 812 ; to habits of the parents, 315 ; cholera In- 
 fantum, 821. 
 
 Infection, of fever, its spread from tenant-houses, 
 exxxiv. 
 
 Inhabitants, character and employment of, in the 
 First Inspection District, 5; of the Second, 
 15; of tho Third, 24, 37; of tho Fifth, 67, 70; 
 of the Sixth, 77; of the Seventh, 85; of the 
 Eighth, 91 ; of the Ninth, 100 ; of the Tenth, 
 111 ; of the Eleventh, 120 ; of the Twelfth, 
 
 132; of the Thirteenth, 147; of the Four- 
 teenth, 166 ; of the Fifteenth, 181 ; of the Six- 
 teenth, 186; of the Seventeenth, 197; of the 
 Eighteenth, 209; of the Twentieth, 240; of 
 the Twenty-second, 275; of the Twenty-third, 
 286 ; of the Twenty-fourth, 293 ; of the Twen- 
 ty-fifth, 303 ; of the Twenty-sixth and Twen- 
 ty-seventh, 328 ; of the Twenty-eighth, 340 ; 
 of the Twenty-ninth, 846 j the proportion of 
 foreign to American birth of, 5; crowding 
 of, 6 ; of tenant-houses need to be educated 
 on sanitary subjects, 68, 113, 115 ; physical and 
 social degradation of, in crowded tenements, 
 179; uncleanly and intemperate habits of, 186. 
 
 Inspection, sanitary, plan and commencement of, 
 xxii. ; Inspection Districts, boundaries of, etc., 
 xxii. ; should be unremitting, cxxvii. 
 
 Instructions, to Sanitary Inspectors, xxiv; in the 
 laws of health needed, exxxvii. 
 
 Intemperance, crime in consequence of, 137, 167, 
 214, 250; disease in proportion to the extent 
 of, 196, 201 ; accidents in consequence of, 310; 
 effects of, not confined to victims of the habit, 
 811. 
 
 Janes, Dr. E. H., Sanitary Inspector, 226 ; on the 
 medical topography of the Twentieth District, 
 227 ; on the advantages of good natural drain- 
 age, 228; evidence of natural salubrity pre- 
 sented, 229 ; the garbage-box, 230 ; oil the re- 
 lations of pavements and sewerage to health, 
 231 ; evils of sewer gases and obstructed sew- 
 ers, 233; a plan of sewerage described by, 
 234; why certain squares are insalubrious, 
 237; on the massing of tenements, 238 ; evils 
 resulting therefrom, 240 ; difference between 
 private dwellings and tenant houses by, 241 ; 
 classification of buildings by, 242; on the 
 number of cubic feet of air-space to an indi- 
 vidual in tenant-houses, 242 ; on water sup- 
 ply and house-drainage, 243; on rear tene- 
 ments, 244 ; habits and diseases in rear tene- 
 ments, 245 ; on cellar population, 247 ; negli- 
 gence of health-wardens, 248 ; epidemics and 
 endemics in tenant-houses, 249 ; on epidemic 
 and contagious influences upon insalubrious 
 quarters, 250 ; on neglect of vaccination, 251 ; 
 remedial measures suggested by, 252 ; poverty 
 and crime as associated with disregard of 
 hygienic laws, 254. 
 
 Jaevis, Dr., reports spread of small-pox to the 
 country, ]x. 
 
 Junk-shops, their connection with the spread of 
 contagions, 61. 
 
 Keenet, Dr. B. M., Sanitary Inspector, 83 ; on the 
 effect of tides upon the sewers, 35 ; hygromet- 
 rical observations by, 86; on the causes of 
 sickness and mortality, 87; moral condition 
 of the inhabitants, 38; on tenant-houses, 38,39; 
 diseases in cellars and basements, 40; prevail- 
 ing diseases, 41: on sanitary improvement, 42. 
 
 Kennedy, Dr. J. T., Sanitary Inspector, 91 ; on the 
 influence of the condition of the streets upon 
 tho public health, 92; influence of topogra- 
 phical conditions upon the public health, ib. ; 
 on the order and industry in tho Tenth Ward, 
 93; on tenant-houses, 94; tenant-house pack- 
 ing, 95 ; summary of disease and mortality, 96. 
 
 Laboring Classes, sanitary wants and neglect of, 
 lxxiv ; Legislative Committee's report on their 
 habitations, lxxv. 
 
 Landlords, grasping disposition of, 219; have no 
 right to refuse necessary repairs, or to with- 
 hold sanitary care, 220. 
 
 Laws, compulsory, not waited for, cxli ; will re- 
 sult from increased Intelligence, cxI. 
 
 Lente, Dr. Frederick D., reports of contagion of 
 small-pox from New York, lx. 
 
 Liebig, Professor, practical suggestions by, exxviii. 
 
 Light, deficiency of, In commercial warehouses, 
 16; public school-houses built without proper 
 
356 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 regard to, 28; excluded from cellars and base- 
 ments, 40, 108, 152 ; absence of, in the halls of 
 tenant-houses, 4T, 68, 149; in rear dwellings, 
 49; in the apartments of tenant-houses, 102; 
 in the dormitories, 21,150; importance of, 203 ; 
 a life-sustaining clement, 244. 
 
 Ltspenabd Meadows, original topography of, 21, 
 83; how filled in, 21, 34; map of, 20. 
 
 Little, Dr. J. L., Sanitary Inspector, 255 ; on the na- 
 tural water-courses and surface of the Twen- 
 ty-first District, 256 ; on the sewerage and ten- 
 ant-houses np-town 257; effects of impurity 
 of the air, 258; on prevailing modes of con- 
 structing tenant-houses, 259 ;~a table showing 
 the number of cubic feet of air-space to an in- 
 dividual, 259; nuisances that produce disease, 
 261 ; on mortality as influenced by occupation, 
 262; on fat-boi!ing and gut-cleaning establish- 
 ments, 262; on diseased cows and their milk, 
 263 ; the -offal dock, ib. ; slaughter-pens and 
 fever, 265; on the prevailing diseases of the 
 Twenty-first District, 265; on fever-nests, 267. 
 
 Liverpool, progress and results of sanitary im- 
 provement in, cxvii. 
 
 Localizing Causes of Disease, numerous and ex- 
 cessive in New York, lxvii. 
 
 Lodging Houses, specimen of, in the First In- 
 spection District, 6; in the Sixth, 77; in the 
 Thirteenth, 163. 
 
 Loines, Dr. J. P., his services as a public vaccina- 
 tor, exxxv. 
 
 London, its metropolitan sanitary system, cxiv, 
 exv ; death-rate in, how reduced, cxvl. 
 
 Lord, Captain B. G., services of, exxvii ; census 
 by, 87 ; on cellar population, 247 ; estimate of 
 cubic foot of air-space to an individual by, 260. 
 
 Lying-in Asylum, surrounded by typhus, 89. 
 
 Tue Dublin, good effects of ventilation in, 
 
 213. 
 
 Malaria, its causes, how controlled, I; in the 
 
 Twelfth Ward, 348, 347. 
 Macclesfield, Eng., results of sanitary works in, 
 
 cxvii!. 
 
 Manchester, Eng., results of sanitary works in, 
 cxvii. 
 
 Mansfield, Dr. .T. R., Sanitary Inspector, 223 ; on 
 sickness and its chief causes among the poor, 
 224. 
 
 Manure Heaps, as sources of disease, 201 ; in the 
 Twenty-first Inspection District, 264 ; in the 
 Twenty-third, 285; spreading of, a cause of 
 fever, 295. 
 
 Marasmus, in fho First Inspection District, 12; in 
 rear tenant-houses, 49; in "Gotham Court," 
 54; in the abodes of the poor, 64. 
 
 Markets, Washington, condition of, 10; Franklin, 
 16 ; Fulton, ib. ; in the Third Inspection Dis- 
 trict, 88; in the Fourth, 59; in tho Twelfth, 
 188 ; in tho Eighteenth, 214. 
 
 Marshes, in the Twenty-eighth District, 887. 
 
 Measles, in tho First Inspection District, 12; in 
 the Second, 17; in the Firth, 72; in the Sixth, 
 82; in the Fifteenth, 179; in tho Sixteenth. 
 198 ; exposure to, in crowded cars, 202 ; in tho 
 Twentieth District, 248; frequent In conse- 
 quence of exposure in the public schools, 819. 
 
 Medical Charities, tho physicians to, xxil. 
 
 Metropolitan Police, form of report to, concern- 
 ing Insalubrious quarters, etc., xxx ; constant 
 sickness- rate of its force, xliil. 
 
 Middle Classes of Society, how disappearing, 
 Ixxlll. Ixxxl. 
 
 Milk, bad quality of, 60; of tho nursing mother, 
 201; from swill-fed cows, 250, 263, 296,812; 
 from cows on Dutch Hill, 286. 
 
 Mn.i.RPAi (iii, Dr. J. L., Sanitary Inspector, 16; 
 faulty condition of streets, 15; on tho sanitary 
 wants of commercial warehouses, 16; reme- 
 dial measures suggested by, 17 ; statistical re- 
 capitulation by, 13. 
 
 Mtnetta Creek, description of, 127; the canse of 
 wet and damp cellars in its old course, 128. 
 
 Monell, Dr. J. A., Sanitary Inspector, 8 ; on the 
 absence of sewerage, 5; example of crowding, 
 6 ; on tenant-houses, 7 ; an example of Insalu- 
 brity, ib.; fever-nests, 9; remedial measures 
 suggested by, 12. 
 
 Mortality, causes and rate of, xliv, xlvi ; rates 
 of, in Fifth and Fifteenth Wards, xlv; In 
 Fourth and Sixth Wards, xlvi; of tho entire 
 city, xlvii ; increase of, in the Sixth Inspection 
 District, 82 ; infantile, ib. ; in tho Eighth Dis- 
 trict, 96; in the Ninth, 107; in the Twelfth, 
 140; in dispensary practice, 170 ; rate of among 
 different classes, 262. 
 
 Mount Pitt, 110. 
 
 Mubray Hill, location of, 2S2 ; intermittent fever 
 among the residents of, 284 ; crowded tenant- 
 houses at the foot of, 2S8. 
 
 Mussey, Dr., on ventilation, 212. 
 
 Narcotic Poisons, often substituted for alcohol, 60. 
 
 Newman, Dr. K., Sanitary Inspector, 142 ; streets 
 and drainage of the Thirteenth District, 148 ; 
 can the sewers be cleansed ? 145 ; localities 
 having no public sewers, 146 ; classification of 
 buildings by, 14S; on tenant-houses and thcir 
 occupants, 149 ; description of nuisances, 151 ; 
 massing of tenant-houses, 152 ; on cellar and 
 basement population, ib. ; tenant-honse im- 
 provements, 153 ; dram-shops and their classi- 
 fication, 154 ; classification of slaughter-houses 
 by, 155; improvements suggested by, 156: on 
 schools, churches, and medical charities, 158; 
 on nuisances, 159 ; on tho prevailing diseases 
 of the Thirteenth District, 162. 
 
 New Orleans, illustrating tho utility of a sani- 
 tary police, cxiv. 
 
 New iork, aggregation of population in, xxxlx. 
 
 Nightingale, Miss, her remarkable sanitary re- 
 forms in tho army, cxviii. 
 
 Noble, Dr. C. C, reports tho spread of small-pox 
 from New York, be. 
 
 Nolan, Dr. P., Sanitary Inspector, 85; on tenant- 
 houses, 86; on fut-mcltlng and hide-curing in 
 crowded squares, 87 ; on diseases prevailing in 
 tho Seventh District, 89 ; remedial measures 
 suggested by, ib. 
 
 Nuisancer, special, described, xcii, xevi, exxix; in 
 the First Inspection District, 12; in the Third, 
 27; in tho Ninth, 105; in tho Tenth, 118; in 
 the Thirteenth, 159 ; in tho Sixteenth, 1S5, 198; 
 in the Twenty-first, 261; in the Twenty -second, 
 274: in tho Twenty -fourth, 294; in tho Twen- 
 ty-sixth and Twenty-seventh, 831. 
 
 Offal Dook, in tho Twenty-first Inspection Dis- 
 trict, 264. 
 
 Officers of Health required in cities, exxvi; 
 their labors and success in London, cxiv. 
 
 Ophthalmia, in crowded tenements, 48, 82 ; 
 among cellar population, 71 ; in tho Sixth In- 
 spection District, 82 ; duo to vitiated atmos- 
 phere, 129; to filthy streets and gutters, 188; 
 In connection with dram-shops, 186: with 
 slaughter-houses, 192 ; with stables, 192. 
 
 Overcrowding, of tho city, exxxii; its results il- 
 lustrated, cxxxlll ; of tenant-bouses, 7, 87, 89, 
 62, 6S, 77, 95, 102, 112, 184, 177, 198; evils of, 
 88, 58, 64, 89, 118, 167, 224; mortality In con- 
 nection with, 77 ; of human bolngs with do- 
 mestic animals, 889, 841; of areas, 7. 66,112, 
 135, 162, 1S4, 288 ; of rail cars, 141, 208, 841. 
 
 Parsons, Dr. K. L, Sanitary Inspector, 208: on 
 filthy streets, and how they aro kept so, 269 ; 
 on tho causos which render squares insalu- 
 brious, 270 ; overcrowding kills children, 271 ; 
 proposed method of Improving ventilation by, 
 274; on domestic filth and its consequences, 
 278; roar tenant-houses and fover-nosts, 276 ; 
 on tho general character of prlvato dwellings, 
 270 ; filth, dram-shops, and slaughtcr-pons, 277 ; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 357 
 
 the Bellevnc Hospital, 278; fever and epidem- 
 ics localized by, 279; how fever travels, 2S1. 
 Palmerston's advice on sanitary works against 
 cholera, liii. 
 
 Pavement, the Russ, 4, 15, 128 ; the Belgian, 4, 15, 
 24, 43, 82, 98, 12S, 143, 172, 1S3, 207, 229 ; ob- 
 jections to the cobble-stone, 4, 15, 24, 44, US, 
 128, 197, 208, 224, 231; where too uneven for 
 thorough drainage, 35, 128, 208 ; neglected con- 
 dition of, 183. 
 
 Peabody, Mr., his healthy dwellings for the poor, 
 lxxxv. 
 
 Peluam Corrr.T, description of, 105. 
 Percy, Dr. Samuel K., on the food of cities, 263. 
 Philips, Mr. John, statement in regard to sewers 
 by, 213. 
 
 rmnisis, as developed in the abodes of the poor, 
 63, in tho Tenth Inspection District, 113. 
 
 Piers, in the First Inspection District, 12 ; in the 
 Third, 28; in the Ninth, 105; intolerable 
 stench from, 72; as a source of disease, 29; 
 condition of the, adjoining Catharine Ferry, 
 105. 
 
 Playfaie, Dr. Lyon, his researches concerning 
 rates of sickness and mortality, xli. 
 
 Pneumonia, prevalent in the vicinity of stables, 
 • 62 ; among the occupants of shanties, 306. 
 
 Police, Metropolitan, to execute sanitary regu- 
 lations, cxxvii, cxxxix. 
 
 PoLicv-Snops, patronage of, and evils resulting 
 therefrom, 40, 58. 
 
 Ponds of stagnant water, a source of disease, 337, 
 346. 347. 
 
 Population, aggregation of, fn cities, xxxviii ; 
 crowding and rate of, in tenant-houses, lxx- 
 lxxv ; rate to the square milo in Fourth Ward, 
 Ixxi ; in the city of New York, lxx ; rate of its 
 increase, cxxi;"London, Liverpool, and Man- 
 chester, lxxi-lxxii. 
 
 Pp.ince Albert, his plans of dwelling improve- 
 ments, lxxxiv. 
 
 Poverty no excuse for filth, 219. 
 
 Privtes, abuse of, 8, 16, 1S9; neglect of, xc; prox- 
 imitv or, to tenant-houses, 8, 89, 48, 80, 111, 
 135, 166, 184, 189, 261 ; insufficient for the ac- 
 commodation of tenants, 39, 105, 189; neglect 
 of cleaning, 39. 1S5, 261 ; overflowing of, 39, 80, 
 105, 145, 161, 219, 238; odor from, generating 
 fevers, 50; location and kind of, in the Ninth 
 District, 101 ; the contents of, overflowing the 
 cellar, 151 ; effluvia from, diffused through the 
 houses, 1S4; improper construction ot^ 185; 
 occupants of rear houses the principal suffer- 
 ers from, 189; located in cellars, 197; viola- 
 tion of law in the location, construction, and 
 emptying of, 198; neglected, xci; should in 
 all instances be connected with sewers, 274. 
 
 Peivy Vaults, etc., neglect and insalubrious 
 effect of, xciv. 
 
 Prostitution, in tho First Inspection District, 
 10 j in the Third, 20, 37, 40 ; in the Fifth, 67 ; 
 in the Sixth, 81; in tho Eighth, 96; in the 
 Ninth, 106; under the guise of segar-selling, 
 138 ; in connection with tenant-houses, 26, 37 ; 
 should be placed under legal and medical su- 
 pervision, 13S. 
 
 Pulling, Dr. E. It., Sanitary Inspector, 43; insa- 
 lubrious quarters in the Fourth District, 44; 
 classification of buildings by, 45; description 
 of a tenant-house by, 47 ; " Gotham Court," 
 49; submarine dwellings, 55; overcrowding, 
 the source of the greatest sanitary and social 
 evils, 58; homes for the poor, 59 ; food and 
 markets, 59 ; " 'long-shoro lobscouse," ib. ; 
 fountains of disease, 61 ; on influence of sta- 
 bles upon disease, 62; children die of fevers, 
 63; infantile disease and mortality, 64 ; "ten- 
 ant-house rot," ib. ; mobs and crime, 65. 
 
 PuitnY, Dr. J. \V., Sanitary Inspector, 70 ; on ten- 
 
 ant-houses and their diseases, 71 ; statistical 
 recapitulation of buildings, 72. 
 
 Hag-pickers' Eow, description of, 177. 
 
 Kajlway-cars, overcrowding of, a cause of dis- 
 ease, 141, 203; ventilation of, lxxxix. 
 
 Hear Dwellings, in the First Inspection District, 
 8; in the Fourth, 48; in the Fifth, 67; in the 
 Sixth, 80; in the Ninth, 100; in the Tenth, 
 112 ; in the Eleventh, 122 ; in the Thirteenth, 
 151 ; in the Sixteenth, 1S6; in the Nineteenth, 
 224; in the Twentieth, 244 ; in the Twenty- 
 first, 257; in the Twenty-second, 274 ; in the 
 Twenty-third, 2S3; insalubrity of, 8, 49,123; 
 ventilation of, 122, 200; diseases common to, 
 200 ; effect of residence in, upon the nursing 
 mother, 201 ; cellars of, 200, 241 ; disregard of 
 iiersonal cleanliness by the occupants of, 245. 
 
 Reclaimed Ground, in the First Inspection Dis- 
 trict, 3; in the Second, 14; in the Third, 21; 
 in the Fourth, 43; in the Fifth, 70; in the 
 Sixth, 76; in the Ninth, 97; in the Tenth, 
 110; in the Eleventh, 117; in the Thirteenth, 
 143; in the Fourteenth, 164; in the Fifteenth, 
 170; in the Seventeenth, 196; in the Eigh- 
 teenth, 206; in the Nineteenth, 223 ; in the 
 Twentieth, 228; in the Twenty-second, 270 ; 
 in the Twenty -third, 2S3 ; in the Twenty- 
 sixth and Twenty-seventh, 326, in the Twen- 
 ty-eighth, 336 ; material used for, 14, 21,97, 
 110, 165, 196, 223, 228. 
 
 Recommendations, of systematic medical inspec- 
 tion, lxi ; of sanitary advice, lxii ; to report 
 and remove localizing causes of disease, lxvii ; 
 to establish sanitary government, lxvii ; to re- 
 form tenant-houses, lxviii. 
 
 Records of sanitary survey, system of, xxvi. 
 
 Registrar-General's reports, their purpose and 
 utility, cxiv, exxiv. 
 
 Reid, Dr. D. B., illustrations of ventilation by, 
 94 ; exxxiii. 
 
 Report, on pestilential diseases — schedule for, 
 xxviii; of the Council of Hygiene, General, 
 xxxvii. 
 
 Remedial Measures, proposed, exxv; suggested 
 by Dr. Monell, 13; by Dr. Milspaugh, 17; by 
 Dr. Warner, 69 ; by Dr. Thorns, 82 ; by Dr. 
 Nolan, S9; by Dr. O. G. Smith, 105; by Dr. 
 Acheson, 114; by Dr. Brown, 124; by Dr. 
 Burrell, 140; by Dr. Newman, 156; by Dr. 
 Derby, 170 ; by Dr. Ross, 181 ; by Dr. Hunter, 
 194 ; by Dr. Furman, 203 ; by Dr. Field, 220 ; 
 by Dr. Mansfield, 225; by Dr. Janes, 252; by 
 Dr. Little, 267; by Dr. Stewart, 297; by Dr. 
 J. L. Smith, 323; by Drs. Brush and Hadden, 
 333 ; bv Dr. Rodenstein, 344 ; by Dr. Farring- 
 ton, 347. 
 
 Respiration, requirements for its healthy per- 
 formance, xc. 
 
 Rheumatism, contracted in damp cellars and base- 
 ments, 8, 40, 71, 81, 199. 
 
 Rivtngton Plaoe, description of, 177. 
 
 Rodenstein, Dr. L. A., Sanitary Inspector, 835; 
 on ponds and obstructed watercourses, 337 ; 
 on the crowding of human beings and domes- 
 tic animals, 339 ; on maladies and their causes, 
 341 ; statistics of intermittent fevers by, 343. 
 
 Ross, Dr. J., Sanitary Inspector, 171; on the sani- 
 tary topography and formation, 172; on the 
 evil effects of dirty streets, ib; effect of tides 
 upon the sewers, '173; on dwellings, and tho 
 rate of crowding, ib. ; tenant-houses, "dens of 
 death," 174; a model needed, ib. ; on pestilen- 
 tial quarters, 175; description of Rivington 
 Place by, 177; on crowd-poisoning and typhus, 
 179; typhus localized, ISO; tho remedy sug- 
 gested by, 181. 
 
 Sahitary Commission, tho TJ. S. Army— its pur- 
 poses and results, cxviii; its statistical bu- 
 reau, exxiv. • 
 
358 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Sanitary Inqtttry, plan and leading points of, 
 xxiv ; subjects of, xxvii ; system of, xxvi ; In- 
 spection Districts and boundaries, xxii ; In- 
 spectors, instruction to, xxiv; necessities — 
 prospective of New York, cxix ; works, prac- 
 tical character of, civ ; described, cv ; diseases 
 that show the necessity of, cv, cxii ; necessi- 
 ties of populous cities, xxxviii ; examples of, 
 exiii. 
 
 Sakitabt Science, necessity for its practical ap- 
 plications in cities, xxxix: its value and ap- 
 plications, cliii. 
 
 Scarlatina, proximity of, to stables, 27; prevail- 
 ing in tenant-houses in proportion to crowd- 
 ing, uncleanliness, eta. 29; in the Fifth Inspec- 
 tion District, 72; in the Tenth, 118; in ten- 
 ant-houses of the Twelfth District, 139; in 
 the Fifteenth District, 179 ; in the Sixteenth, 
 183; in the Twentieth, 237,248; frequent in 
 consequence of exposure in the public schools, 
 319. 
 
 Schools, in the First Inspection District, 11 ; in the 
 Second, 17 ; in the Third, 2S, 41 ; in the Fifth, 
 72 ; in the Sixth. 81 ; in the Seventh, 89 ; in 
 the Ninth, 96; in the Eleventh, 125; in the 
 Twelfth, 133; in the Fifteenth, 173; in the 
 Sixteenth, 187, 192; in the Seventeenth, 199, 
 202; in the Eighteenth, 222 ; in the Nine- 
 teenth, 225; in the Twentieth, 241; in the 
 Twenty-second, 276 ; badly arranged for ven- 
 tilation and light. 17, 28, 81, 139, 202; proxim- 
 ity of, to fever-nests, 41, 82; to fat-boiling es- 
 tablishments, 87 ; faulty hygiene in, 202 j ad- 
 joining a row of stables, 225. 
 
 Seaman, Dr. Valentine, his first vaccination, ex. 
 
 Seerell, James E., improvements by, 233,257; 
 plan for saving the sewage and relieving the 
 slips, 234 
 
 Sewage, evils of emptying into the slips, 23; 
 effects of the putrefactive decomposition of, 
 199 ; a plan proposed for 6aving the, 234. 
 
 Sewerage, of the First Inspection District, 4; 
 of the Second, 15; of the Third, 21, 85; of the 
 Fourth, 48; of the Fifth, 66, 70; of the Sixth, 
 77; of the Seventh, 84; of the Eighth, 92; of 
 the Ninth, 99 ; of the Tenth, 111 ; of the Elev- 
 enth, 118; of the Twelfth, 180; of the Thir- 
 teenth, 144, 146 ; of the Fourteenth, 165 ; of 
 the Fifteenth, 173; of the Sixteenth, 188; of 
 the Seventeenth, 196; of the Nineteenth, 223; 
 of the Twentieth, 231 ; of the Twenty-first, 
 257; of the Twenty-second, 279 ; of the Twen- 
 ty-third, 287 ; of the Twenty-fourth, 291 ; of 
 the Twenty-flfth, 800; example of faulty, 22, 
 85, 119; obstructions to, 77, 119, 184; diseases 
 influenced by imperfect, 77, 99, 119, 804; how 
 affected by the tide, 8, 22, 86, 146, 178 ; general 
 effect of, upon the public health, 111 ; imper- 
 fect, in the Eleventh District, 119; in the 
 Thirteenth, 145; health statistics in connec- 
 tion with, 181 ; nocessity for an improved sys- 
 tem of, 144 ; the original plan of, for this city, 
 defective, 145 ; objections to the present sys- 
 tem of, 233; a plan suggested, 284; advan- 
 tages and economy of the "dirt catchers," 
 2:!.">; insullicient ill the Twenty-eighth Dis- 
 trict, 839; of the Twenty-ninth, 846. 
 
 Sewers, flushing and cleansing of, xcvil ; build- 
 ings imperfectly, or not connected with, xcvil, 
 6, 15; the proper depth of, 22; emanations 
 from, injurious to health, 180, 165; experi- 
 ments on the lower animals, 181 ; escapo of 
 gases from, 281 ; causes, 228 ; inconvenience 
 of cleaning the, 288; Mr. Scrrcll's plan for 
 constructing, 284. 
 
 Seweb Oases, evils of Inhaling, 283, 828; how to 
 prevent or destroy, 205. 
 
 Shantieh, as affecting the public health, 99; In 
 tho 1 wonty-fourrn Inspoctlon District, 292; 
 occupants of, 298 ; demoralizing lnlluonco of, 
 
 293, 294; the typical shanty described, 800; 
 wooden tenements distinguished from, 801 ; 
 population of, and their occupation, 803 ; mor- 
 tality among infants, 808; severe cases of 
 diphtheria in, 819; the floors of, should be 
 elevated, 823 ; in the Twenty-eighth District, 
 839 ; in the Twenty -ninth, 846. 
 
 Sinks, with no sewer connection, 102. 
 
 SLATfGHTEE-Hor/SES, insalubrious influence of, xci v; 
 in the city injurious, exxviii ; in.tho Fifth In- 
 spection District, 71 ; in the Seventh, 86; in 
 the Eleventh, 128; in the Twelfth, 13S; in 
 the Thirteenth, 155; in the Fourteenth, 168; 
 in the Fifteenth, 175 ; in the Sixteenth, 191 ; 
 in the Nineteenth, 225; in the Twenty-first, 
 2C1 ; in the Twenty-second, 277 ; inthoTwen- 
 ty-tourtb, 294; in the Twenty-fifth, 810; in 
 the Twenty-eighth, 841; injurious to tho 
 public health, 86, 294; importance of the re- 
 moval of, to the outskirts of the city, 87; 
 moral influence of, 168, 294; fllthy condition 
 of, 175 ; cholera infantum in the vicinity 
 of, 294. 
 
 Sickness-rate, explained, xli ; its ratio to the 
 death-rate stated and illustrated, xli, xlii ; 
 probable constant sickness-rate in New York, 
 xliii ; of Metropolitan Police force stated, xliii ; 
 that of New York corresponds with that of 
 British cities, xliii. 
 
 Simon, Dr. J., special hygienic inquiries by, exxxv ; 
 his recommendations, exxxviii. 
 
 Small-pox, fields of, inspected, etc., xxxiv ; plan of 
 inspections, and report of, xxxiv ; epidemic of, 
 in winter of 1S65, liv ; the many foci of in New 
 York, 1 v ; its prevalence in particular districts, 
 lv, cvii ; total mortality from, cxi ; its preva- 
 lence in connection with typhus, hi ; its com- 
 plete arrest by vaccination, cx ; where preva- 
 lent, 29, 68, 63, 89, 96, 106, 180, 819 ; spread of, 
 through the medium of junk-shops and cloth- 
 ing, 61 ; prevalence of, in tenant-houses, 63, 
 189; traceable to newly-arrived immigrants, 
 69; preventable nature of, 88; progress of, 
 arrested by vaccination, 844. 
 
 Smith, Dr. J. L., Sanitary Inspector, 298; on the 
 streets of tho Twenty-fifth District, and their 
 condition, 299 ; description of a shanty by, 800 ; 
 on the classes and character of the population 
 in the Twenty-flfth District, 808 ; on prevent- 
 able causes of disease and death, 803 ; neglect 
 of local drainage, and faulty sewerage, 805 ; 
 diseases in wooden tenements, 806; faulty 
 drains and poisonous exhalations, 807 ; on the 
 disposition of garbage, SOS ; Levitlcal laws ot 
 personal hygieno needed, 809; on summer- 
 complaint of infants in the vicinity of fat-boil- 
 ing establishments, etc., 810; fearful results ot 
 inebriety among the poor, 811 ; on the effects 
 of using unwholesome articles of diet, 812 ; 
 liquid poisons drank for want of Croton, 818 ; 
 midwifery among tho poor, 814 ; bad habits 
 and sickly places, 815; sickness record of a 
 single square. 818 ; the most fatal diseases pre- 
 ventable, 819 ; cholera in tho vicinity of hog- 
 Btyos and stables, 320 ; on tho havoc of cholera 
 infantum, 821 ; on the causes of cholera in- 
 fantum, 322 ; romedial measures suggested by, 
 823. 
 
 Smith, Prof. .TosErn M., report by, exxxii, cxxxill ; 
 " Idlo-nilasni," 166. 
 
 Smith, Dr. O. G., Sanitary Inspector, 97; on the 
 condition of the streets in the Ninth District 
 "Is; <l. tVcl i v<- system of sewerage detrimental 
 to public health, 99 ; causes of Insalubrity, 99 : 
 classification of buildings, 100; description of 
 the tenant-houses by, 101 ; their intlnence on 
 tho public health illustrated by, 102; descrip- 
 tion of a fever-nest In Monroe street by, 108; 
 tho Polham street rookeries, 105; other causes 
 of Insalubrity, 106 ; diseases and vital statistics 
 
INDEX. 
 
 359 
 
 of Seventh Ward, 107; tho prevailing diseases 
 localized by overcrowding and filth, 109. 
 Show. Dr. E. M., reports spread of small-pox from 
 New York to Providence, Lxi; his remarks 
 on, cxiii. 
 
 Soap Factories, unhealthful influence of, 191. 
 
 Soil, its relations to public hygiene, ciii ; where 
 favorable to drainage and public health, 14, 111, 
 128, 228 ; objectionable, 223. 
 
 Spotted Fever, in connection with crowded apart- 
 ments, 37. 
 
 Sprague, Dr. Jenks S., his account of small-pox 
 contagion from city of New York, lx. 
 
 Spectrum Analysis, hygienic applications of, ci. 
 
 Squares of the First Inspection District, 5 ; of the 
 Second, 15; of the Third, 24, 36: of the Fifth, 
 67; of the Sixth, 77; of the Seventh, 85; of 
 the Eighth, 93 ; of the Ninth. 99 ; of the Tenth, 
 111; of the Eleventh, 120; of the Twelfth, 181 ; 
 of the Thirteenth, 147; of the Fourteenth, 
 166; of the Fifteenth, 173; of the Sixteenth, 
 184; of the Eighteenth, 209; of the Twentieth, 
 237; of the Twenty-second, 270 ; of the Twenty- 
 fourth, 291 ; of tho Twenty-sixth and Twenty- 
 seventh, 22S ; of the Twenty-eighth, 339 ; of 
 the Twenty-ninth, 346; on reclaimed ground, 
 15; causes of the insalubrity of, 85, 99, 111, 
 131, 173, 184, 237, 2G9, 270, 32S ; two contrasted, 
 100 ; influenco of liquor stores and dram-shops 
 on the sanitary condition of, 120 ; example of, 
 in a mixed sanitary condition, 131, 237 ; rate 
 of crowding, 173, 184. 
 
 Stables, in the First Inspection District, 11; in 
 the Third, 27, 40 ; in the Fourth, 61 ; in the 
 Fifth, 71 ; in the Sixth, 81 ; in the Seventh, 
 87; in the Twelfth, 138; in the Thirteenth, 
 116 ; in tho Fifteenth, 174 ; in the Sixteenth, 
 192 ; in the Nineteenth, 225 ; sanitary care of, 
 recommended, exxix ; diphtheria in connec- 
 tion with, 27, 225; as sources of insalubrity, 
 11, 27, 41, 61, 81, 89; influence of, upon disease, 
 62; evils of confining horses in subterranean, 
 138; effects of overcrowding, upon horses, 
 174; insalubrious effects of, on rear buildings, 
 192; ophthalmia and typhus in connection 
 with, 192. 
 
 Statistics, of the First Inspection Disirlct, 13; 
 of the Second, 18; of the Third, 32. 42; of the 
 Fourth, 45, 46, 47, 55, 63; of the Fifth, 67, 69, 
 72 ; of the Sixth, 71, 78 ; of the Ninth, 100, 104, 
 107, 10S; of the Tenth, 112; of the Eleventh, 
 125 ; of the Twelfth, 133-135; of the Thirteenth, 
 143, 150, 163; of the Fourteenth, 169; of the 
 Fifteenth, ISO ; of the Sixteenth, 186, 191 ; of 
 the Eighteenth, 222 ; of the Twentieth, 241, 
 242, 247; of the Twenty -first, 259; of crowded 
 tenant-houses in tho Twenty-third District, 
 288; of the Twenty-fifth, 802, 318, 321 ; of the 
 Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh, 334 ; of 
 the Twenty-eighth, 343 ; of the Twenty-ninth, 
 848 ; of disease required, exxvi ; vital, of New 
 York City and suburbs, exxi ; practical uses 
 of, exxiii, exxxix. 
 
 Stewart, Dr. K., Sanitary Inspector, 291 ; on the 
 dwellings of the Twenty-fourth District, 292; 
 on Bqnatter sovereignty, immorality, and in- 
 salubrity, 293 ; slaughter-houses and their 
 moral effects upon children, 294; on typhoid 
 fever and places that produce it, 295; on swill- 
 milk, 296; remedial measures suggested by, 
 297. 
 
 STiLL-BiitTns, proportion of, in the Sixth Ward, 82 ; 
 cause3 of, 813 ; uneducated midwives, 814 ; 
 impatient physicians, 314. 
 
 Stores, in the First Inspection District, 10; in the 
 Second, 15; in the Third, 26, 38; In the Fourth, 
 45; in tho Fifth, 71 ; in the Sixth, 81 ; in tho 
 Seventh, 86; in the Ninth, 105; in the Tenth, 
 112; in the Twelfth, 138; in the Thirteenth, 
 154 ; in tho Fourteenth, 167 ; in tho Sixteenth, | 
 
 1S6; in the Eighteenth, 214 ; in the Twentieth, 
 241; in the Twenty-second, 276; in the 
 Twenty-fourth, 294; how they affect the pub- 
 lic health, 40, 71. 
 
 Streets, of the First Inspection District, 4 ; of the 
 Second, 15; of the Third, 23, 34; of the 
 Fourth, 43 ; of the Fifth, 67, 70 ; of the Sixth, 
 76; of the Seventh, 85; of the Eighth, 92; of 
 the Ninth, 98; of the Tenth, 111; of the 
 Eleventh, 117; of the Twelfth, 128; of the 
 Thirteenth, 143; of the Fourteenth, 165; of 
 tho Fifteenth, 172; of the Sixteenth, 182; of 
 the Seventeenth, 197: of the Eishteenth, 207; 
 of the Twentieth, 229; of the"Twenty-first, 
 256; of the Twentv-second, 269 ; of the Twen- 
 ty-fourth, 291 ; of the Twenty-fifth, 298; of the 
 Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh, 327; of 
 the Twenty-eighth, 337, 338 ; of the Twenty- 
 ninth, 345; the cleaning of, exxix; elevations 
 of, 22, 143, 182, 195, 229 ; filthy condition of, 5. 
 24, 76, 99, 111, 118, 147, 339 ; insufficient capa- 
 city of, 15, 34; public health affected by the 
 condition of, 92, 99, 111, 113, 172, 339; perni- 
 cious effects of watering the, 92, 200, 281 ; im- 
 perfect grading of, 35, 12S; dirt of, how com- 
 posed, 129, 172 ; influence of moisture and the 
 sun's rays on the dirt of the, 129 ; a hot-bed 
 for the production of noxious vegetable mias- 
 mata, 130; importance of sweeping the, ib. ; 
 depositories for garbage, and evils resulting 
 therefrom, 20S; never thoroughly cleaned ex- 
 cept by private enterprise, 234, 
 
 Stutvesant Farm, 142. 
 
 Swill-milk Establishments, 263, 296. 
 
 Swine, pens for receiving, 296; the raising of, a 
 source of insalubrity in the Twenty-fifth In- 
 spection District, 309. 
 
 Tenant-houses, sanitary wants of, lxviii ; total 
 number of, iri the city, lxix; aggregation and 
 abuse of, in the Fourth Ward," lxxi ; rate of 
 crowding in, lxx, Ixxii ; number and character 
 of new ones needed, exxx ; duties of the 
 owners of, exxx ; system of, its abuses and 
 perils, lxxix, lxxxiii ; improved, lxxxiv ; the 
 number unfit for dwellings, exxxiv ; in the 
 First Inspection District, 7 ; in the Second, 15; 
 in the Third, 25, 3S; in the Fourth, 44; in the 
 Fifth, 67, 71 : in the Sixth, 77; in tho Eighth, 
 94; in the Ninth, 101 ; in the Tenth, 112; in 
 Eleventh, 121 ; in the Twelfth, 134 ; in the 
 •Thirteenth, 149; in the Fourteenth, 166; in 
 the Fifteenth, 174 ; in the Sixteenth, 187; in 
 the Seventeenth, 199 ; in the Eighteenth, 211; 
 in the Nineteenth, 224; in the Twentieth, 23S; 
 in the Twenty-first, 257 ; in the Twenty-third, 
 2S8 ; in the Twentv-fonrth, 292 ; in the Twen- 
 ty fifth, 300 ; in the'Twcnty-sixth and Twenty- 
 seventh, 329; in the Twenty-eighth, 341; in 
 the Twenty-ninth, 346 ; modern construction 
 of, regardless of sanitary laws, 7, 112; size of 
 apartments in, 7, 39, 47, 68, 86, 121, 149; de- 
 scription of improved tenant-houses, 122, 
 153, 204. 260 ; differ in tho character of their 
 population, 123; massing of, 7, 56, 112, 135, 152, 
 184, 238; where originally private dwellings, 
 7, 38,45, 101, 121; overcrowding of, 7, 87, 39, 
 52, 68, 77, 95, 102, 112, 134, 177, 193; evils of 
 overcrowding, 33, 58, 64, 69, 118, 167, 224 ; mor- 
 tality in connection with overcrowding, 77 
 main object of tho proprietors of, 68; ventila- 
 tion of, 7, 25, 47, 6S, 78, 80, 112, 151, 211 ; means 
 of escape from, in time of fire, 80, 134, 190; 
 sunlight excluded from, 8, 40, 68, 200, 221 j dis- 
 posal of garbage and house-slops from, 8, 39, 
 6S, 80,95, 112, 151, 183. 197; examples of In- 
 salubrity in, 8, 39 t> 109 ; never thoroughly 
 cleaned, 40, 48, 67 ; 'flooding of, during heavy 
 rains, 8; effects exhibited npon the inmates of, 
 9, 48; tho tenant a slave to his landlord, 58; 
 little hopes from temperance reform among 
 
360 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 occupants of, 222 ; evils of imperfect house- 
 drainage of, 151; indifference of the inmates 
 of, to contagious diseases, 189 ; investigation 
 needed, 30 ; the effects of a residence in, upon 
 children, 221 ; defective drainage of, 39, 43, 80, 
 112,197; classification of, in the Fourth Dis- 
 trict, 46 ; description of, in the Fourth Dis- 
 trict, 47 ; personal habits of the inmates of, 07 ; 
 population of, in the Sixth District, SO ; need 
 of reform in the construction of, 114, 153-; a 
 gigantic system of evils, 222; "The Great 
 Eastern," 288; want of proper supervision, 
 290 ; wooden, 300 ; condition of, in the Twenty- 
 fifth Inspection District, 306; consequence of 
 the ill usage of, 187; filthy condition of bed- 
 ding, clothing, carpets, etc., in, detrimental to 
 health, 201; condition of streets in front of, 230. 
 
 Tnosis, Dr. W. F., Sanitary Inspector, 73; statis- 
 tics of district, ib. ; statistics of disease and 
 mortality, 74; medical topography by, 75 ; the 
 inhabitants of the Sixth District and their 
 homes, 77 ; a Sixth Ward fever-nest, 7S ; pros- 
 titution in the Sixth Ward, 81; prevailing 
 diseases, 82 ; popular education, S3 ; epidemics 
 and their local causes, 84. 
 
 Tides, effects of, on cellars and basements, 3, 22, 
 35, 2S3 ; a remedy suggested, 36 ; ground over- 
 flowed by, 837. 
 
 Topographical draughtsman in the sanitary sur- 
 vey, lxvii. 
 
 Topography of the First Inspection District, 8 ; 
 of the 6econd, 14; of the Third, 19; of the 
 Fourth, 42 ; of the Fifth, 66. 77 ; of the Sixth, 
 75; of the Seventh, 85: of the Eighth, 91 ; of 
 ihe Ninth, 97; of the Tenth, 110; of the Elev- 
 enth, 117; of the Twelfth, 127; of the Thir- 
 teenth, 142; of the Fourteenth, 165; of the 
 Fifteenth, 171 ; of the Sixteenth, 1 82: of the 
 Seventeenth, 195; of the Eighteenth, 206 ; of 
 the Nineteenth, 223; of the Twentieth, 226; 
 of the Twenty-first, 255; of the Twenty second, 
 268; of the Twenty-third, 2S2; of the Twenty- 
 fifth, 29S; of the Twenty-sixth and Twentv- 
 seventh, 325; of the Twenty-eighth, 885; of 
 the Twentv-ninth, 844 ; influence of, on the 
 public health, 8, 23, 84, 92, 98, 148, 171, 182, 228; 
 on drainage, 92 ; healthful influence of, counter- 
 acted by atmospheric contaminations, 283. 
 
 Trades, sanitary wants of, exxvi. 
 
 Typhoid Feveb. See Fever. 
 
 Typhus Fever. See Fever. 
 
 Urinals, pnblic, necessary in large cities,141, exxix. 
 
 Vacant Lots in the Fourth Inspection District, 
 59; in the Ninth, 105; in the Twelfth, 189; in 
 the Sixteenth, 192; in the Nineteenth, 224; in 
 tho Twentieth, 246 ; places for repositories for 
 ashes, garbage, etc., 192; open privies in, ib. ; 
 dumping-grounds for manure, 198 ; " Bum- 
 mers^ Retreat," 246. 
 
 Vaccination, Jenner's discovery, liv ; State and 
 municipal laws for, needed, 1 v ; when first per- 
 formed in New York, ex ; history of, in Massa- 
 chusetts, cxi; why defective, exxxv; condi- 
 tions of protection by, cxxxvl ; neglect of, 52, 
 106, 251, 819; a duty wo owe to the surround- 
 ing country, 251; tho progress of small-pox 
 arrested by, 844. 
 
 Van Couhtlandt Farm, 142. 
 
 Ventilation, importance of, in dwellings and 
 school-rooms, xc; bow obstructed In tenant- 
 house construction, xcl ; compulsory, rccom- j 
 
 mended, exxix; special, for tenant-houses 
 exxx ; of crowded dwell togs, exxxiv ; of tenant- 
 houses, 7, 25, 47, 68, 71, 113, 184, 167, 190, 211, 
 224, 241, 257, 829 ; bad effects of the want of in 
 commercial warehouses, 16; influence of, in 
 arresting the spread of typhus, 17; houses 
 vary as to their facilities for, 29 ; deficiency of, 
 in private dwellings, 88, 133; of "Gotham 
 Court," 52; of rear dwellings, 49, 78, 112, 152, 
 244, 245; of churches, 81; of public school- 
 houses, 28, 81, 87. 202 ; a law needed to regu- 
 late the construction of buildings with regard 
 to, 83 ; in old-fashioned private residences, 94, 
 112; Dr. l'.ied on, 94; Dr. Harris on, 95; of 
 halls. 101, 114. 190; of dormitories, 108, 121. 
 148, 151, 180, 190, 242. 260, 3^9 ; effect s of a want 
 of, on pestilential disease, 109, 200, 280, 281; 
 want of, a cause of insalubrity, 118, 257, 271, 
 829; example of a well- ventilated tenant-house, 
 122 ; cf stables, 133 ; the erection of two many 
 rear buildings an obstruction to, 151, 158; ex- 
 amples of good, in a tenant-house, 204, 260 ; 
 beneficial effects of. in fevers, 211 ; defective 
 in basements and cellars, 212, 278; the power 
 of. to extinguish epidemics, 212 ; no right to 
 build houses without regard to, 220; a want 
 of, demoralizing, 221, 254 ; importance of, 242, 
 258; of factories, 246; power of, to neutralize 
 contagions and infectious influences, 250; a 
 suggestion for the improment of, 272. 
 
 Vermin, in brothels, 40 ; in crowded tenements, 52. 
 
 Vlele, General E. L., on the evils of imperfect 
 drainage, 206 ; his report on civic cleanliness, 
 xcviii. 
 
 Vital Statistics, practical uses of. cxix; those of 
 New York studied and tabulated, exxi; 
 should include statistics of disease and of 
 health, exxiii. 
 
 Warner, Dr. E. B., Sanitary Inspector, 66; on 
 topography and sewerage, ib. ; inhabitants of 
 the fifth District, 67 ; on tenant-houses, 68 ; on 
 prevailing diseases, ib. ; remedial measures 
 suggested by, 69; statistical recapitulation 
 by, ib. 
 
 Waste-Pipes, obstructions of, 146. 1S8, 197, 238; 
 escape of sewer gases through, 232 ; escape of 
 offensivo vapor through, 248 ; should bo 
 thoroughly trapped, 252. 273; improved plan 
 of, 882. 
 
 Water, insufficient supply of, to tenant-honses, 
 112, 177; should be distributed to the apart- 
 ments of each family, 189; Croton, better sup- 
 ply needed in certain districts, cix. 
 
 Water-closets, should be substituted for sinks, 
 etc., xcil; often obstructed, 89; filthy condi- 
 tion of, in the Sixth Inspection District, 80. 
 
 Water-courses of tho Third Inspection District, 
 21, 84 ; of tho Sixth, 75 ; of the Twelfth, 127 ; 
 of the Thirteenth, 148; of the Fifteenth, 171; 
 of the Seventeenth, 196; of the Eighteenth, 
 207, 218 ; of the Nineteenth, 228 ; of the Twen- 
 tieth, 228; of the Twenty-first, 256; of tho 
 Twentv-second, 268; of the Twcnty-tbird, 283 ; 
 of the Twenty-fourth, 298, 299 ; of the Twenty- 
 sixth and Twenty-seventh, 826; of the Twenty- 
 eighth, 886; of the Twenty-ninth, 846; ob- 
 structions of, a source of malarial fevers. 840. 
 
 Watson, Dr., on tho effects of fresh air in fevers, 
 218. 
 
 Zymotic Diseases, how affected by sanitary works, 
 cxvlll ; how influenced by stables, 62. 
 
Ex IGtbrtH 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
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