ADDRESSEE the committee 
TO PROMOTE THE PASSAGE OF 
ggetajwlita Health gill. 
NEW-YORK. DECEMBER, 1865. 
Please dvcnlate. 
^efo-gork : 
JOHN W. A M E R M A N, PRINTER, 
No. 47 Cedar Street. 
1865. COMMITTEE. 
The Committee on Legislation, as now constituted, con- 
sists of the following gentlemen: 
D. B. EATON, New-York. 
W. E. DODGE, Jr., 
C. R. AGNEW, M. D., 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 
GEORGE BLISS, Jr., 
CHARLES L. BRACE, 
JOHN A. WEEKS, 
GEORGE F. NOYES, 
JAMES R. WOOD, M. D., 
WILLARD PARKER, M. D., 
A. A. LOW, Brooklyn. 
JOHN A. CROSS, 
CHARLES L. BENEDICT, 
THEODORE L. MASON, M. D., " 
LUCIEN BIRDSEYE, 
EDWARD A. LAMBERT, ADDRESS OF THE COMMITTEE 
TO PROMOTE THE PASSAGE OF 
gjtatplitan Halil gill 
NEW-YORK, DECEMBER, 1865. 
I'lease Circulate. 
t fo- go r k : 
JOHN W. A MERMAN, PRINTER, 
No. 47 Cedar Street. 
1865. ADDRESS. 
New-York, December 15, 1865. 
Fellow Citizens : 
The public papers have made it generally known that a 
considerable meeting of influential and public-spirited citizens 
was held in New-York in November last to take steps to 
protect the cities of New-York and Brooklyn, and inciden- 
dentally the whole State, against the threatened visitation of 
the cholera during the coming spring ; and also to secure the 
passage of a proper " Health Bill " for those cities and 
vicinity. 
The proceedings of that meeting were generally noticed in 
the papers of the 8th of November, and below will be found 
the substance of the reports as given in The Tribune and 
The Times: 
A meeting of our most influential citizens and physicians was called 
on Monday evening, at the house of Dr. Willard Parker, to consider 
with the Hygienic Council the best means for averting the cholera 
and promoting the sanitary welfare of the city. Reports were pre- 
sented to the council by Drs. Harris and Post in relation to the 
history of the cholera and the best present means to avert it. The 
plan laid before the meeting of the council through Dr. Post will be 
presented hereafter more in detail to the public. It embraces a 
house-to-house visitation of the poor wards, districted into thirty-one 
divisions, by physicians employed for this purpose, who will prescribe 
for those afflicted with the premonitory symptoms. Besides this, 
cholera dispensaries are to be formed, and " houses of refuge," or tents, 4 
where the poor can be placed, if it should be necessary to cause their 
houses to be vacated for the purposes of cleansing them. For this 
the council desire to raise $50,000. Remarks were also made by Mr. 
Brace in regard to his recent visit to England, showing the remark- 
able results produced on cholera and other diseases by good sanitary 
arrangements, and urging the passage of the Health Bill. The meet- 
ing then organized with Dr. Bellows in the chair, and C. L. Brace 
as Secretary. Addresses were delivered by Messrs. Sturges, Eaton, 
Roosevelt, Vermilye, Dr. Bellows, Dr. Ward and others. The 
plan presented by the Hygienic Council was adopted. The following 
committees were appointed: 
Committee on Legislative Action. 
D. B. Eaton, 
W. E. Dodge, Jr., 
C. R. Agnew, M. D., 
Theodore Roosevelt, 
Col. George Bliss, Jr., 
C. L. Brace, 
John A. Weeks, 
Geo. F. Noyes, 
J. R. Wood, M. D., 
Willard Parker, M. D. 
Committee on Finance. 
Howard Potter, 
J. C. Green, 
R. J. Livingston, 
Peter Cooper, 
J. S. Schultz, 
R. A. Witthaus, 
R. B. Minturn, 
W. II. Aspinwall, 
W. A. Booth. 
Among those present were the Hon. E. D. Morgan, Hon. Mr. 
Conkling, Jonathan Sturges, Esq., Royal Phelps, Esq., Chas. Kirk- 
land, Esq., E. J. Jaffray, Esq., A. R. Wetmore, Esq., Col. Vermilye, 
J. Cowper Lord, Esq., Rev. Drs. Chapin, Tyng and Bellows, Drs. 
Harris, Delafield, Anderson, Stephen Smith, Joseph Smith, Wood, 
and many others. 
Among the persons present at that meeting were several 
of those connected with the " Citizens' Association," who, 
under its auspices, came so near securing the passage of a 
Health Bill at the session of the Legislature of last year. The 5 
failure of last winter, so disgraceful to some members of that 
body ; the continued inefficiency and profligacy of the exist- 
ing health authorities, together with the general sense of 
impending danger now felt, and the better spirit which, since 
the great national restoration, has pervaded the public mind, 
have so aroused public indignation and invigorated the gen- 
eral determination for reform, that the demand for a change 
in the health laws and for the overthrow of the existing cor- 
rupt, imbecile and disgraceful system is loud and earnest, 
and comes up from all classes.* 
It will be seen that the plan of the meeting embraced two 
separate undertakings, for each of which a committee was 
appointed. One to raise money to be used through a volun- 
tary agency, (substantially the same as that adopted relative 
to other matters by the Citizens' Association.) in guarding 
the poor against the inroads of that disease and causing the 
removal of some of its most dangerous causes, pending the 
time wdien the passage of a health bill may, it is believed, be 
secured. The other to carefully prepare and mature such a 
health law as is needed, and to take the requisite measures 
to cause the same to be fully understood, and to protect this 
great measure of reform, as far as possible, from the attacks 
it is sure to receive from those interested in the existing 
abuses, or who make party politics paramount to all religious 
and moral obligations. It was believed that all other oppo- 
sition would be readily removed by a careful examination of 
such a law as -would be proposed. The committees appointed 
to take in charge each of those branches of the general sub- 
ject at once entered on the discharge of their respective 
duties. 
We did not feel at liberty to decline so important a trust. 
What concerns the security of life and health in the cities of 
New-York and Brooklyn, concerns, and, to a large extent, 
also predetermines the prosperity, the public decency, 
* The remark relative to the inefficiency and corruption of the present system, 
&c., applies especially to New-York. In Brooklyn those remarks are not true. 
Only the system there is open to serious objection. 6 
the general morality and the religious observance of large 
portions of their people. Besides, these cities are to the 
State something like what the heart is to the body; the cen- 
tre of life and activity, through which the living currents of 
individuals continually flow and reflow to and from every 
portion of the State. If disease, contagion and death are 
here, they will soon be every where over the State. To les- 
sen the average number who are sick, is to empty the poor- 
houses and asylums, and reduce the candidates for admis- 
sion-to decrease the public taxes, and increase the number 
who contribute to pay them-to improve general comfort 
and happiness, and to render that service to poverty and 
misfortune which health and prosperity can never neglect, 
without paying a ten-fold penalty in the common misery and 
burthens which they cannot escape. 
The question of health reform in New-York and Brooklyn 
is a question that not merely affects the rate of taxation, the 
number of paupers and lunatics, the ratio of disease and mor- 
tality, the general cleanliness and decency, the honor and 
public reputation of those cities and their people, but it ex- 
tends to the whole State, and, to a great extent, to the whole 
nation. New-York is the great national centre, whose fash- 
ions, tastes, buildings, institutions and morals are very quickly 
felt and imitated all over the country. Dirty streets, filthy 
alleys, nauseous smells, over-crowded houses, ill-ventilated 
cellars and garrets, general recklessness of life and health, 
exhibited in such a centre, are the cause or the apology for 
similar abuses in many a country village and interior city. 
While every illustration here of what is pure in taste, wise 
and efficient in government, elevated in morals, and benefi- 
cent in spirit, is seen and felt by millions, and secures admi- 
ration and imitation all over the length and breadth of our 
great country. The noble charities to which New-York has 
given birth have quickened hundreds of similar institutions 
in life. 
The beauty and taste of Greenwood have their rivals, in hum- 
ble measure, in scores of country villages. The excellent police 
system of New-York-the result of a wise remedy of abuses 7 
which no civilized community could longer endure-has been 
copied with more or less success in all the larger cities; till po- 
licemen from Boston, New-York, Philadelphia and Washing- 
ton cannot be readily distinguished. The Central Park is the 
pride and the envy of every great American city, and even 
the war taxes are hardly sufficient to restrain its imitation in 
the 1 aro-er villao-es. 
o o 
There is no reason, not disgraceful to every intelligent man 
and woman irt the cities of New-York and Brooklyn, why 
those cities should not give to the country a wise and benefi- 
cent system of health laws, founded in the highest principles 
of morals and religion, and framed by the best lessons of 
science and experience ; which, while they bless the commu- 
nity to which they especially apply, shall also be a noble con- 
tribution, throughout the State and nation, in behalf of all 
that is beneficent in government. 
Looking to financial results alone, there is no law that 
can be passed that would be of so much advantage, in a pe- 
cuniary point of view, to all classes, as a law which reduces 
the number who are sick and disabled, and extends the 
period of labor and life, especially among the poor, who suf- 
fer so much from ill health, by reason of the unfitness of 
thJr apartments and the unhealthy surroundings of their 
homes. The committee believe, that for the reasons stated, 
a reform, in the particulars alluded to, would be very soon 
felt in the rate of taxation ; to say nothing of removing from 
office the hundreds of idle drones who now, as pretended 
health officers, live at the public charge. 
In the discharge of the duties imposed upon them, the 
committee have spared no pains to secure the full co-opera- 
tion of the people of Brooklyn. No adequate reform of the 
health laws of New-York can be made that does not include 
Brooklyn and the vicinity of the two cities. As to disease 
and health, the cities are, in no limited sense, one. Purely 
local causes have made New-York the more unhealthy of the 
two cities, but in case of pestilence, they must share a common 
peril and be protected by concerted measures. The people 
flow back and forward from each to the other daily. It would 8 
be hardly more practicable to adequately protect one without 
control over the other, than to purify the water of one end of 
a dirty pool, with no right to interfere with that of the other. 
We are glad to be able to state that the people of Brook- 
lyn appear disposed to be united -with New-York and the 
residue of the section that composes the present Metropolitan 
Police District, into a Metropolitan Sanitary District. Last 
year such a union could not be secured, and the bill proposed 
related mainly to New'-York. 
Another difficulty of last year arose in connection with street 
cleaning. That great W'ork, so disgracefully connected with 
charges of the most stupendous frauds and official delinquen- 
cies, was placed by the city government of New-York in the 
control of its most corrupt department, the City Inspector's 
Department, at the head of which is the celebrated F. I. A. 
Boole, w'ho reports he had expended in one year the enor- 
mous sum of $812,003 85 ! (See his Report for 1864.)/ The 
power and duty of cleaning streets could not be given to a 
Board of Health without destroying its true theory and con- 
stitution, and, perhaps, reducing it to the level, if not of a 
political, at least of a mere business machine. ' Nor could 
that almost universally execrated department of the city gov- 
ernment be abolished until some provision w'as made for the 
great work of cleaning the streets. Hence the Health Bill 
of last year was, of necessity, so framed as to leave the City 
Inspector's Department in existence, though it wTas by that 
bill shorn of much of its power of mischief. 
The Legislature of last year having taken from the City 
Inspector's Department the pow'er over street cleaning, and 
secured their being cleaned by a special board, for $500,000 
per year, there is now no reason for not (but every possible 
reason for) totally abolishing the Department of the City In- 
spector of New-York and all its connected abuses and extra- 
vagances. 
Adopting, therefore, the general theory and features of the 
excellent bill of last winter, adding Brooklyn to the Health 
District, abolishing the Inspector's Department, giving the 
appropriate powers and duties therefrom to the Health 9 
Board, and handing over certain of them to the Police Board, 
(which can there be more properly discharged, and the com- 
mittee have drafted a brief law for that purpose,) the com- 
mittee have framed a Health Bill which they trust will prove 
much more satisfactory, as they are sure it will be more 
economical, efficient and useful than the present system. 
The framing of a proper Health Law is a subject of con- 
siderable complication and difficulty, and has called for much 
consideration of local interests, laws and feelings. The bill, 
in all its parts, has been carefully framed, so that if its har- 
mony and adaptation are not impaired too much by hasty 
amendments, they hope it will be found, after due experience, 
to answer the reasonable expectations of the people, and to 
achieve the most beneficent results. 
It is very desirable, in view of the approach of cholera, 
that the law should be put into efficient operation at as early 
a date this winter as possible. To secure this result the bill 
must be passed at an early stage of the session, and must be 
passed complete, and the long delay likely to attend nomina- 
tions by the Governor of names to fill the Board, and their 
confirmation by the Senate, if practicable, be avoided. Be- 
sides, there are men well known in the District, who are 
ahcady familiar with the whole subject of pnblic health and 
the proper means of its improvement, and are ready to engage 
at once in the work from a high sense of duty. The com- 
mittee have thought it their duty to present the bill with the 
membership of the Board, (as was the case with the first police 
bill,) filled with names of persons 'whom the people of the 
city will rejoice to see retained, and who will cause the law to 
be put into prompt, harmonious and wise execution. They are 
men who know the work needed to be done and how to do 
it best. 
The committee have felt called on to disregard all political 
considerations, and, in so doing, they have every reason to 
believe they but anticipate the action of the legislative and 
executive departments of the State government. 
There can be but little patronage, and there ought to 10 
be no political partisanship in connection with such a 
subject. 
The committee have great confidence in the passage 
of the law at an early stage of the session. The public 
indignation that followed the defeat of the bill last year, and 
the stern rebuke administered by their constituents to such 
members as were believed to have defeated the bill from un- 
worthy motives, will not invite repetition this year, even if 
any of that class of men had been returned. 
With these general observations, the committee might 
bring their remarks to a close, but they feel that some 
further explanations and illustrations may be useful, if, in- 
deed, they are not demanded of them. They cannot be un- 
mindful that abuses, well known here, may be quite 
unknown to some members from the country. Lawyers, 
who are members, will desire to know what inadequacy in 
the laws is complained of; physicians what causes of disease 
are sought to be removed ; unprofessional members will ask, 
generally, what abuses there are which the proposed law is 
intended and adapted to remedy, especially in view of the 
fact that we seem to ask to have a law passed complete^ as we 
have prepared it. And besides, we have made some state- 
ments affecting certain officials, which may be thought to call 
for facts to sustain them. At the hazard, therefore, of ex- 
tending this address to an unreasonable length, we shall en- 
deavor to anticipate this possible demand for facts and 
explanations. 
1. Nature of Health. Laws. 
The dangers to health increase vastly with the population 
of places, and the density of such population. Density of 
populations endangers health in two ways : first, by impairing 
ventilation and otherwise producing habits and conditions 
that originate disease; and secondly, by greatly increasing 
its spread by exposure and contagion. 
For this reason, laws relating to public health have usually 11 
originated in large cities; and it is in the older countries, 
and in the experience of the great cities, that examples of ad- 
equate health laws are to be sought. In this country, there- 
fore, this field of legislation is yet to a great extent unoccu- 
pied. 
It is impossible that a Health Law should declare much 
more than authority in general terms, leaving the officers 
that administer them to apply them according to the exigency 
of the danger. Moreover, it is apparent that the execution 
of a I lealth Law requires great intelligence and experience in 
the officers. The duty of the Health Officer is to study the 
causes of danger to public health, to discover their remedy, 
and then to apply the power he possesses to the removal of 
the causes. This implies a sort of minor legislation all the 
time on the part of the Health Officer. He is not simply 
directed to do a specific thing, but is required to discover hid- 
den causes, to devise the proper remedy, and then to exercise 
the legal power of removal and redress. 
It is not the province of a Board of Health to simply cure 
diseases or consult the health of individuals. Such boards 
are to attend to the pervading dangers that affect the gene- 
ral public health. To devise and apply wise precautions 
ageffinst the hidden causes of disease which threaten the 
health of communities or classes, is their especial duties. 
The precautions relative to the soil we dwell upon-the 
houses we live in-the drainage of waters-the food and 
drink we consume-the places of public gatherings-the 
filth that poisons the air-the trades that contaminate locali- 
ties-the decoctions and drugs that are used as remedies- 
the precautions against contagions-the arrest of pestilential 
disease. . 
A law of 1850 affords a striking illustration of a Health 
Law, as applied to draining a swamp. 
(See laws 1850, p. 585, ch. 271.) 
It must be apparent that such duties can be performed, 
only by scientific and intelligent officers who act in concert,, 
and for a series of years, upon a wise systematic method.. 
Many of the most important results sought can only be 12 
reached by a long and careful study, and by comparison of 
systematic observation and experiments. 
It would seem very plain that a Board or Commission 
with continuity of succession that should make the subject 
of public health a special topic of study and observation, 
would be best calculated to attain the end sought; and the 
science of health must, from its nature, be a progressive study, 
and all health boards should lay before the community full 
reports of their experience and observation as well as of their 
ministerial acts. 
One of the earliest Health Laws, marked by any noticeable 
comprehension or insight, is the English law of 1848, relating 
mainly to London. That law originated in a "Report of 
her Majesty's Commissioners of Health." In 1847 it was 
formally announced in the English Parliament, that " Her 
Majesty had thought tit to appoint a commission to report 
on the best means to improve the Health of the Metropo- 
lis," &c. 
That Report resulted in the elaborate law of 1848, which 
created a " Metropolitan Board of Health f and gave it large 
powers. 
In 1858 a more elaborate act of Parliament enlarged the 
health powers of this Board, and extended the law to the 
other larger cities of the United Kingdom ; and it is well 
known to all who have given the subject of public health 
the attention it demands, that the effect of these laws has 
been to lower the death rate, to lessen disease in the great 
cities of Great Britain, and to extend the term of human 
life. This Board has been an intelligent centre of benevo- 
lent, sanitary and scientific inquiry, and has enlisted, to a 
very salutary extent, public interest in the sanitary condition 
of the lower classes, and aroused a concert of action for the 
promotion of public health throughout the United King- 
dom. No corresponding action has yet been taken on this 
side of the ocean, but in France a similar work is in pro- 
gress. 
In New-York such a work is imperatively demanded. 
It has every natural facility for being a very healthy city, 13 
but is more unhealthy than London, Paris, Philadelphia or 
Boston. The main cause of this unfortunate result is be- 
lieved to be found in the neglect of those precautions which 
wise health provisions, wdsely administered, would, in a few 
years, afford. 
There is not, and has not been, in New-York, any body 
deserving the name of a Board of Health-any body that 
embraces any considerable portion or representation of the 
educated mind, of the sanitary experience, of the medical 
science, of the benevolent heart, or even of the practical ad- 
ministrative talent of the city. 
2. Present Health. Officers. 
The organizations that have had the exercise of health 
powers in New-York have been mainly political bodies, or, 
at best, bodies that devoted most of their attention to politi- 
cal and general municipal affairs. The subordinate officers 
have, in the main, been utterly unqualified to act as health 
officers, and have had a variety of conflicting duties to per- 
form, and have been appointed largely in reference to politi- 
ca1 opinions and influences.* 
Besides, the health powers are distributed in such a man- 
ner as to cause great uncertainty as to who are authorized to 
exercise them ; and there is a necessity of consulting so many 
officers, that concert of action is nearly impossible, even if 
the officers were capable and desirous of serving, with single- 
ness of purpose, the cause of public health. The result has 
unquestionably been, that the Health Laws applicable to the 
City of New- York have never been usefully or wisely ad- 
ministered; and, as now delegated, they are found to be 
nearly impracticable ; the public health is greatly and need- 
lessly exposed, and, by reason of the disease spread from the 
army, is now much more endangered than ever before. 
Disease cannot be confined to localities where it origi- 
* See extracts from Mr. Delavan's Report in the Appendix. 14 
nates or most readily spreads, but is soon carried along the 
rail-roads and rivers, and on the wings of the wind, and 
speedily finds its way into all parts of the State and nation. 
Hence, while the people of the city are directly interested in 
its sanitary condition, the danger in the city is yet the com- 
mon danger of all the people of the State. 
■ The existing organization and the principal authority con- 
cerning public health in the City of New-York are derived 
from the 275th Chapter of the Laws of 1850. (Laws 1850, 
p. 597.) 
It will require but little examination to see that the law is 
so imperfect that its efficient execution is nearly impractica- 
ble, and the strange provisions almost force one to the belief 
that there was a design in their confusion. 
§ 1. Confers all legislative power on the subject of health 
upon the Mayor and Common Council. It is not easy to un- 
derstand the force of the words " legislative power." 
§ 2. The Mayor and Common Council, when acting in rela- 
tion to health, are made a Board of Health. Ten members 
make a quorum, and the Mayor is made President of the 
Board. 
Now, it is known there are two Boards of the Common 
Council, and it is not said whether all the ten composing a 
Board of Health may belong to one Board, or must belong in 
part to both, to make a legal Board of Health. Besides, the 
two Boards of the Common Council are composed of more 
than twenty members, and, hence, there may be two separate 
legal Boards of Health in existence at the same time ; and 
what ten politicians ordered to-day as a Board of Health, 
twelve or fifteen other members of the Common Council, (who 
did not act to-day,) may reverse to-morrow, and, as a separate 
Board, may make other orders. 
Besides, the Board of Health has no power, save when the 
Mayor chooses to call the Board together, and, as often has 
been the case, the Mayor will not make such call. The law 
does not provide whether he need call more than ten mem- 
bers to make a legal Board. There has been no meeting of 
the Board, it is believed, since 1863. 15 
The practical effect of this power of calling the Board to- 
gether by the Mayor is well illustrated in the Report of the 
City Inspector, (Mr. Boole, who exercises at this time the 
principal health powers in the city,) who says, in his Annual 
Report, filed in January, 1865 : 
" Neither my desire, nor that of the Common Council, has 
been able to induce the Mayor to convene the Board of 
Health, and the city is thus deprived of their action on mat- 
ters of pressing importance, when the authority is absolutely 
necessary for efficient action. " 
Probably many good citizens agree with the Mayor, that 
the only action likely to be taken would be quite foreign to 
public health, and would be very dangerous to the public 
purse. So, in the meantime, and at this threatening period, 
there is almost no execution of the health laws. 
§ 3. This provides for secret sessions of the Health Board. 
§ 4. Creates a distinct Board, known as " Commissioners 
of Health," and 
§ 5. Declares the duty of the latter to be, to " advise the 
Mayor and Board of Health," and also the " City Inspector." 
It will be observed that no physician is a member of the 
B ard of Health, or has any authority to be present or ask a 
hearing at its meetings. 
§ 6. A Health Officer is created, and he is to perform the 
duties which the Mayor and Commissioners of Health or the 
Board of Health shall order. The orders of such separate 
bodies may be quite inconsistent, and who the City Health 
Officer shall obey, is quite uncertain. The result is, he does 
nothing, or does as he pleases. 
§ 7. This Health Officer may appoint an assistant who 
may perform all his duties. Hence, the principal may do 
nothing, and his office be a sinecure, and the duties all be 
devolved on his assistant, 'who is not named or removable by, 
or responsible to, either the Board of Health or the Commis- 
sioners of Health. 
§ 8. Defines the duties of the Resident Physician, and 
makes it the duty of this doctor to attend to the private 
wants of any person who is " reported " (by whom ?) to either 16 
the Board of Health, to the Mayor, or to the Commissioners 
of Health. It is plain the Resident Physician is clothed with 
no duty properly relating to public health. No class or de- 
scription of persons are directed to be attended to by that 
officer. 
§ 9. The Health Commissioner is created by this section. 
He is merely an assistant of the Resident Physician. 
§ 10. This requires that the Mayor and Commissioners of 
Health shall meet daily, but as they are only to advise the 
Board of Health, which does not meet at all, and in regard to 
which there is no provision for meeting, this section is quite 
remarkable, even as compared with the other parts of this 
remarkable law. 
§ 11. This gives the Resident Physician a salary of $1,250; 
and the Health Commissioners an annual salary of $3,500. 
Now, as the Resident Physician is, by the fourth section, 
made one of the Health Commissioners, he draws a salary in 
each capacity, and is, therefore, entitled annually to $4,750. 
The sums paid to these several officers, for pretended ser- 
vices as Health Officers, are, therefore, in the aggregate, not 
less than $22,250 annually; and it may be said, without ex- 
aggeration, that they perform no valuable services in the 
sphere of their public duties, and only the two physicians 
perform even a limited service of any kind. 
The Health Physician and Health Commissioners are ap- 
pointed by the Mayor. 
§ 12. This section authorizes the Board of Health to ap- 
point an unlimited number of persons to office. 
Title 2d, (extending from pages 599 to 607,) of this Health 
Law of 1850, confers upon these impracticable health tribu- 
nals a large portion of all the authority conferred by law for 
quarantine purposes. The tribunal was so inefficient and 
useless, that the exigencies of quarantine service caused that 
power to be taken from the Health Board altogether. And 
finally, by a law of 1863, (Laws of 1863, p. 573, ch. 358,) a 
regular Board of Quarantine Commissioners was established, 
and the power over quarantine was given to that Board, and 
it is not proposed to interfere with that power or Board. 17 
Similar relief is now greatly needed for the City of New- 
York. 
Returning again to the Health Law of 1850, p. 607, as ap- 
plicable to the City of New-York, we find Title 3d, Article 
1, § 1, provisions that greatly add to the confusion and un- 
certainty before referred to. For large powers over public 
health are conferred specifically on the " City Inspector of 
the City of New-York." Whether these are a part of the 
legislative powers before mentioned as conferred on the 
Mayor and Common Council, or are a different class of pow- 
ers, is a matter of great perplexity and doubt. 
Certainly the powers of the Inspector are very extensive 
and unguarded. 
(1.) He may appoint, with the consent of the Aidermen, 
" so many Health Wardens and other officers" as " the Com- 
mon Council or Board of Health shall direct," &c., "such 
Health Officers and Wardens, &c., are subject to the control 
of the City Inspector of the City of New- York." 
We have seen that the two Boards of the Common Coun- 
cil, (with the Mayor as President,) or any ten of them being 
a quorum, constitute the Board of Health. Hence any such 
ten members, on the nomination of the Inspector, may ap- 
point just such Wardens and officers as they see fit. 
(2.) These Wardens and officers are to report the sanitary 
condition of the city, not to any Board of Health, but to the 
Mayor and Commissioners of Health. We have seen that 
the duty of the latter officers or Board is only to advise the 
Board of Health. Was there ever such confused, imprac- 
ticable and ill-devised legal machinery. There is no provi- 
sion that any of these Wardens or officers shall be physicians 
or men of science or experience. It is well known they are, 
most of them, mere politicians, who draw their large salaries 
and otherwise utterly neglect their official duties.* 
(3.) Then follows sundry other powers given to the City 
Inspector, including cleaning of lots and places, but he is 
* Sec their names and occupations stated at length in one of the Appendices. 18 
obliged to consult the Mayor and Commissioners of Health 
as to such matters. 
(4.) Then, at page 608, §§ 2 and 3, " the Mayor, Aidermen 
and Commonalty of the City of New-York," &c., are author- 
ized to make all By-laws they may deem necessary to pre- 
serve the public health. 
It will be seen that the exercise of these powers is quite 
inconsistent with powers given to the City Inspector alone, 
and it is no matter of wonder that the health regulations of 
the city are in a state of inextricable confusion. 
Whether the body referred to in §§ 2 and 3, page 608, is 
the same body as that referred to in § 5, page 609, and in 
§ 2, page 597, is by no means easy to determine. 
If the various powers conferred on the Board of Health, 
Mayor and Common Council, Commissioners of Health, and 
City Inspector, at pages 607 to 615, were all conferred upon 
a single Board of Health, made up of six or eight intelligent 
persons, of whom one-half were experienced physicians,-these 
powers could be exercised with a third part of the cost to the 
city, and in that wise, harmonious and efficient manner that 
would avoid the present confusion, and vastly promote the 
health of the City of New-York. 
Sections 10 to 13, inclusive, of pages 610 and 611, (Laws 
1850,) afford striking illustrations of the confusion that fol- 
lows, conferring power on so many different officers with such 
undefined relations. It is not a matter of surprise the reports 
required are almost never made. 
As no small portion of all the health powers really exer- 
cised in the City of New-York are that portion conferred 
upon the City Inspector, and as it is that officer that has 
expended those vast sums of money that have raised so much 
alarm, it is proper to consider the origin and nature of his 
department, and to call attention to its administration. 
3. City Inspector's Department. 
The amendments to the City Charter, (Laws 1849, ch. 187, 
pp. 278 to 285,) established numerous departments in the city 19 
government. The 16th section of the act creates a.depart- 
ment in the city government to be called the "City Inspec- 
tor's Department," and it is declared this department " shall" 
have cognizance' " of all matters relative to the public health 
" of said city, and the chief officer thereof shall be called the 
" City Inspector." - This looks" more like a concurrent than 
like an exclusive jurisdiction. ■ 
The 20th section provides that all heads of Departments 
shall be'elected every1 three'years by the people. 
'The term was changed to two years by the 21st section of 
the act of June 14th, 1857, ch. 446, and . by the 19th section 
of the same act the Mayor appoints and the Aidermen con- 
firm the City Inspector. ■ . 
■ -And by the 27th section of the last cited law the power of 
the City Inspector's Department was further modified and is 
now as follows : The City Inspector shall have cognizance 
" of'all matters affecting'.the public health, pursuant to the 
" ordinances of the Common Council and the lawf ul require- 
" ments of the Commissioners of Health, and of the Board of 
" Health. There shall be a bureau in the City Inspector's 
" Department to be called the Bureau of Sanitary Inspection 
" and Street Cleaning, under the control of an officer named 
" the Superintendent of Sanitary Inspection," etc., etc., and 
that.officer is "to remove nuisances detrimental to public 
health," etc. . > . • 
(See Valentine's Laws relative to City of New-York, p. 275.) 
When the powers given the Inspector in 1849 and those 
given in 1857 are compared with the before-recited law of 
1850, it will appear to be almost impossible to decide what 
powers relative to the public health are at this time in the 
City Inspector; what in the Board of Health; what in the 
Mayor and Commissioners of Health; and there is no occa- 
sion for surprise-that the.City Inspector is the only, officer 
that enters upon the exercise of any health power. Yet this 
officer is, at this moment, said to be under sentence of re- 
moval or suspension by the Mayor, under 21st section of the 
Charter of April 14th, 1857 ! 
Hence it is, that at this time, the vital and responsible 20 
powers over the public health, {distributed with such con- 
fusion through so many bodies,) and the vast patronage of 
street cleaning and general inspection in the city, {till last win- 
ter,) and the annual expenditure of near a m illion of money, 
are all note, save street cleaning, in the control of a single 
officer, who is at the head of one of the numerous subordinate 
departments of the city government. ■ 
And it cannot be denied by any one who will look into 
the facts, that a large portion of the shameful abuses to which 
this condition of things has given rise, results naturally from 
the confused and impracticable laws under which the powers 
of the city government are exercised. 
No extended reference can here be made to the Ordinances 
of 1859, under which the immense powers of the City In- 
spector's Department have been consolidated and made 
effectual for those vast expenditures and flagrant abuses 
which now alarm and arouse the public mind. They give 
the most important powers of municipal legislation in the 
City of New-York. The ordinances of this department 
alone, as published in 1860, fill ninety printed pages, and 
no one can read them and any longer wonder at existing 
abuses. 
A copy of the Report of F. I. A. Boole, City Inspector, for 
the year 1863, dated July 22, 1864, is before us, and was 
published at the expen'se of the city. It fills 518 closely 
printed gilt-edge pages, is bound in morocco, and is beauti- 
fully embossed and adorned with gilt letters and designs, and 
the name of the donee, in gilt letters, appears on the gorgeous 
cover. He was doubtless a valuable friend of the Inspector. 
Any one who has seen this rich specimen of official book- 
making will ever after read a corporation printer's bill with 
diminished surprise, and lose half his wonder at the millions 
paid for city inspection and street cleaning. Not much can 
be said here of its significant contents. 
There were, in 1863, in the City of New-York, of marriages, 
3,272; of births, 6,426 ; of deaths, 25,196-as Mr. Boole re- 
ports at page 7. At page 10, he makes certain comparisons 
of the death rates of Londo'n with those of New-York, so im- 21 
perfectly as to be no guide, it is true. Yet lie makes the 
figures show that the rate of deaths is higher in London than 
in New-York, and then triumphantly calls upon the com- 
munity to give the credit " due to the enforcement of sanitary 
regulations in New-York," 'which have, he thinks, contributed 
to the result he reports. 
There never was a more unfortunate request. lie as- 
sumes, in his comparison with London, the correctness of his 
own returns, and asks to be judged as to his manner of en- 
forcing sanitary regulations on the basis of the correctness of 
those returns of his Report. Now, by these returns, in 1863, 
6,426 human beings were born, and 25,196 died,'in the City 
of New-York, a net decrease of population, and a total loss, 
under Mr. Boole's enforced sanitary regulations, of 18,770 
human souls in a single year! Perhaps, if this be a fair 
specimen, false reasoning, presumption and extravagance 
were never united in larger proportions than in the City 
Inspector of the City of New-York. 
It is hardly to be doubted that the returns of marriages are 
very defective, and it is manifest that those of births or deaths, 
and, perhaps, both of them, have not an approximation to 
truth. 
Yet this officer, in his gorgeous Report, at page 11, says, 
" It is in vain that those who have not access to reliable statis- 
tics ," (of course, meaning the Reports of the aforesaid City 
Inspector,) pretend that New-York is not the most healthy 
of the great cities of the world. 
It is not the purpose of these remarks to establish the 
solemn truth, that the contrary is the fact. Nor can we stop 
to expose the other and frequent errors and assumptions of 
this extraordinary Report. 
There is a law, of the 2d day of April, 1853, relative to 
births, deaths and marriages, and providing that the City In- 
spector of the City of New-York shall keep a record thereof, 
and that there shall be collected a fee for the registration of 
the same, of such amount as the city authorities may author- 
ize. It may be suggested that it "would have been interesting 
to the public to have known the rates charged for this regis- 22 
tration, the number of thousands of dollars collected by the 
City Inspector for such service, and the disposition made 
thereof; we find nothing on the subject in this gilt-edged 
Report, or in the Report of the Comptroller. Where is the 
money? . 
With the unparalleled present powers of the City Inspec- 
tor's Department, it is a little surprising to. read at p. 12, that 
the City Inspector has repeatedly demanded, in vain, addi- 
tional powers " to render the powers of the City Inspector 
more effective"-for what ? 
And it is some proof of the impracticable nature of the 
laws we havfe referred to, and illustrates the fatal confusion 
and hostile rivalry that grows out of the present delegation of 
the power over public health, to read this language at the 
12th page of this gilt-edged Report: " It is not true, as alleged ■ 
" by his Honor the Mayor, in his late communication to your 
" honorable body, that I possess a power that no honorable 
u man should desire to exercise." 
Does not a solemn sense of public duty to a great city, 
whose miserable government, reeking filth and pestilential 
air, not only degrade the morals and endanger the lives of its 
own citizens, but those of the people of all the State, sternly 
demand of the Legislature some prompt and efficient remedy 
for those unseemly official conflicts and criminations-those 
confused and impracticable laws, and those alarming conse- 
quences ? ........ i 
We agree with the declaration of Mr.'.Boole's .Report, at 
p. 13, that in London and Paris " it is a fact worthy of all 
praise," &c., " that all that concerns public health receives 
the prompt attention of government," &c., and, we may add, 
the appropriate attention of metropolitan health. bodies. 
And we.now ask that the government of.the State of New- 
York will attend to the same subject, and establish a similar 
Metropolitan Health Board to those of London and Paris. 
At page 21, it is stated that, in the City of New-York, 
6,000 families live in underground cellars, which nurseries 
of disease are inhabited by .18,000 persons. He says his 
Health Wardens daily report the state of all these localities. 23 
It is to be hoped they do, and that they are good, devoted 
men, who make these reports, and that none of them are 
mere political hacks and keepers of groggeries ; but the con- 
trary is believed, and no reports have been seen.* 
The Report of the City Inspector for 1864 states the deaths 
at 25,645 only, being 449 more than in 1863. 
It is a curious indication of the results and of the probable 
accuracy of these returns that 1864 shows only 2,637 mar- 
riages, against 3,272 in 1863, (certainly not indicating a very 
favorable tendency of metropolitan morals and wealth,) and 
gives 5,592 births against 6,429 in 1863. 
The births subtracted from the deaths in 1864, according 
to these valuable and accurate Reports, show that the popu- 
lation of New-York in 1864 decreased 20,053 souls ! It will, 
at this rate of killing off more than 20,000 of the people of 
the city annually, above the number that are born in it, 
hardly require more time for the City Inspector to depopulate 
the place than he is likely to consume in using up all the 
property within the city, rapidly as he is known to be ad- 
vancing in this latter enterprise. The last man and the last 
dollar, upon the joint results of his figures and his action, 
will soon be left " alone together." 
This Report for 1864 is as silent as that for 1863, about 
fees received for the registry of births, deaths and marriages. 
A large portion of the document is taken up by a Report 
of " L. II. Boole, Superintendent of Sanitary Inspection." 
The natural reasons that placed a brother of the Inspector in 
the most important position of this great department of the 
city government, which, though this one officer has paid out, 
in 1864, (as is admitted by this Report,) the enormous sum of 
$812,003 85, has, doubtless, also secured that perfect har- 
mony of aim and co-operation which, it would seem, no- 
where else exists, between the City Inspector's Department 
and the residue of the city government. 
The duties of this Superintendent of Sanitary Inspection 
are defined in the 37th and 38th sections of the city ordi- 
* See Appendix C. to this Address. 24 
nances of 1859, as given in Mr. Morton's compilation, at pages 
86 and 87, as follows: " He shall examine, audit and certify 
to the City Inspector all accounts for work done under his 
supervision, and no requisition shall be drawn for any bills, 
accounts or contracts for cleaning the streets, unless certified 
by the Superintendent of Sanitary Inspection," 
" who shall, in all matters, be under the direction, control and 
supervision of the City Inspector," &c. But it should be 
added that, in beautiful harmony with the last clause, it is 
also declared, (§ 37,) that said Sanitary Superintendent " shall 
also have, exercise and possess all the powers and duties by 
law or ordinance conferred on the City Inspector," Ac. 
That is, one brother may expend $882,003 85 per year-the 
other may approve all the vouchers-the first brother in au- 
thority has full control over the last, while at the same time 
the last has all the powers and duties of the first ! It may 
be thought, in view of such ordinances, that the well-known 
economy of those officers has been the only reason why their 
expenditures have never been thought excessive, and why 
the people are so W'ell satisfied with the present arrange- 
ment ! 
4. Expenses. 
At page G3 of Valentine's Manual for 1864, (published at 
city expense,) we find a list of 22 " Street Inspectors," who 
are appointed by the City Inspector. Their pretended duties 
are, (as defined by the 40th section of the city ordinances of 
1859, still in force, see Morton's Health Laws, p. 88,) to re- 
report to the " Sanitary Superintendent" (an appointee of 
the City Inspector) " the condition of the streets and all vio- 
i( lations of any contract for cleaning them, and shall each 
" receive for his services the sum of three dollars per day." 
Thus nearly $24,000 is annually paid to this class of semi- 
Ilealth Officers. When we know that the streets were not 
cleaned by contract at all till 1865, and these officers are, for 
the most part, ward politicians, who are believed to devote 
their time to their own private affairs and to politics, we find 
some further explanation of the existing public discontent 25 
and official corruption and extravagance. The following ex- 
tract from a Report of a Finance Committee of the Board of 
Aidermen is quite instructive and pertinent to the matter in 
hand: 
For salaries of the City Inspector and of the Officers, Clerks, Mes- 
sengers, and Inspectors attached to, or connected with his office, 
and in each of the bureaus and offices in said department, one hun- 
dred and-thirty-eight thousand one hundred and sixty dollars,... $138,160 00 
For salaries of the Resident Physician, Health Commissioner, and 
the Clerk of the Board, or Commissioners of Health, five thousand 
three hundred and forty-five dollars, 5,345 00 
For advertising, office expenses, and all other expenses necessarily 
incurred in the enforcement of the Corporation ordinances relating 
to said department, not specified and provided for under other 
heads, twenty thousand dollars, 20,000 00 
For compensation of the Resident Physician for his services as agent 
of the Board of Health, and for expenses which may be incurred 
by said Board beyond the amount provided for under other heads of 
account, five thousand dollars, 5,000 00 
Total, $168,505 00 
It is believed, also, that scarcely any of these Health 
Wardens are doctors, or are men of any education; that 
few of them neglect their private affairs, and that all are 
conspicuous as ward politicians, and that they are not wanting 
in their admiration of the City Inspector or in promptness in 
collecting their salaries. But it is said to be generally be- 
lieved, that as Health Officers, they are for the most part 
utterly worthless and utterly disgraceful to the city.* 
An examination of the New-York tax levies, as author- 
ized by the Legislature, for a few years past, will show a 
gradual reduction in the sums paid to the Board of Health 
since the subject of a new Metropolitan Board of Health 
has been agitated. It is yet very suggestive of the corrup- 
tion of the whole existing system, that the "Board of 
Health," (that is, the Mayor, Aidermen and Councilmen,) 
* See affidavit of Mr. Mulligan, in the Appendix, for startling facts as to these 
officers. It is marked Appendix C. 26 
have continued to draw their salaries, though it is as notori- 
ous as it is disgraceful that this Board has never had a meet- 
ing since 1863 ; nor have the Commissioners of Health, as a 
body, discharged any duties worthy of mention for years. 
The following are the figures as they appear in the session 
laws: • - i 
Ileal th 
Com re. 
Laws 1859, p. 1125, salary of Board of Health, $45,000 
" 1860, p. 1016, and 1019, salary of Board of Health, 35,000 $4,250 
" 1861, p. 666, and 669, " • " • " " 35,000 4,250 
" 1862, p. 860, and 861, " " " " , 6,000 4,250 
" 1863, p. . 407, and 409, " " " " 6,000 5,345 
" 1864, p. 940, and 943, " " " " ' 5,000 5,345 
• 1. . ■ 
In 1862, "when .the salary of the members of the Board 
were reduced from $35,000 to $6,000, the danger of a change 
in the law was regarded as considerable; and the further 
reduction to $5,000, in 1864, indicates that its friends had 
gained still greater strength. 
The salaries of Health Wardens, Assistant Health Wardens, 
and sundry other pretended Health Officers in the City 
Inspector's Department are covered by the comprehensive 
term " contingencies" which abound in all New-York tax 
levies. Perhaps those officers read with pleasure such entries 
as these in tax levies :* 
1862, p. 861, "salaries City Inspector's Department," $119,228 
1863, p. 409, "salaries City Inspector's Department," 119,227 
1864, p. 943, " salaries City Inspector's Department,".'. '. 138,160 
1864, p. 941, " contingencies City Inspector's Department," 15,000 
The expenses of the City Inspector's and Health Depart- 
ment for 1865, may be found in Chapter 646 of the Laws of 
1865, as follows: 
" Contingencies City Inspector's Department," $45,000 
" Removing offal and night soil,". &c.,. 1 ' ' 43,500 
" Salaries City Inspector's" Department," 137,909 
"Salaries Commissioners of Health," 9,850 
Total, $236,259 
* Further details as to expenses may be found in Appendix A. 27 
This .does not embrace street cleaning, about which the 
City - Inspector expended oyer $812,000 for doing what is 
now much better done for $500,000 under contract. , Nor 
does the above appear to embrace various salaries stated in 
Appendix A., nor the three offices for which Dr. Sayre (hold- 
ing them both) now draws salary, as follows : 
Sayre, (as Health Commissioner,) $1,500 
Sayre, (as,Resident Physician,) 1,250 
Sayre, (as Agent of Board of Health,) 4,000 
*$6,750 
It appears, therefore, that, during the very years that the 
greater scrutiny of the public has secured a considerable 
reduction in the amount avowedly paid to Health Officers 
who do nothing, there has been a very large increase secured 
by indirection to another class of those officers, under the 
head of " contingencies," and aggregate salaries for the In- 
spector's Department. Vigilance surely is not less the price 
of economy and honesty than of liberty. 
Can there be any doubt as to the expediency or even duty 
of abolishing such a department ? 
5. Police Board- 
There is, however, a branch of the health law applicable 
to New-York, not yet referred to, which deserves a passing 
remark. In 1857, the condition of the police law and force 
of the city were about as deplorable and alarming as that of 
the health authorities at the present time ; and the Legisla- 
ture, in April of that year, created a Metropolitan Police 
District and Board of Police Commissioners. The present 
code of police laws and that admirable force which is the 
pride, hope and security of the city, have been the happy 
result. Upon that Board certain health powers have been, 
from time to time, conferred, partly by reason of its peculiar 
ability to execute them, and partly by reason of the utter 
want of confidence in the regular health authorities of the 
city and their shameful neglect of their duties. 
* Is it matter of surprise that the holder of these three comfortable offices, with 
no burthensome duties, is the champion of the opponents of all change ? 28 
For example, the 29th section of the Police Act of the 10th 
of April, 1860, (Laws 1860, ch. 259,) declares it shall be the 
duty of the Metropolitan Police force to " guard the public 
health." 
The exercise of that power is further declared a duty in the 
29th section of the amendment to the Police Act, passed on 
the 25th of April, 1864; and the Police Board is further 
directed " to remove nuisances," and to " enforce any or- 
dinance or resolution, &c., applicable to public health." 
And sections 51, 52, 53, 54 and 55 of the last-named act go 
much further, and authorize the Police Board to create a 
"Sanitary Police Company," and certain limited sanitary in- 
spection is directed to be made by the members of this 
company. Police surgeons are also provided for, and alimited 
sphere of duty is assigned these surgeons, mainly relating to 
the inmates of the buildings and to the men under the 
charge of the Police Board. 
It will be noticed these recent provisions create an addi- 
tional depository of power in the city over the subject of 
public health, and some of the powers conferred are of the 
same nature, and are to be exercised in the same places and 
in like manner as those still possessed both by the City In- 
spector and by the Board of Health. Were it not for the 
inefficiency of the two latter, and that public distrust, which 
would deprive them of support if they interfered with the 
Board of Police, the confusion might be increased and seri- 
ous collision of authority might result. 
It is well known that the exercise of health powers by the 
Board of Police has been far more vigorous, prudent and 
effectual than by any other authority. And that Board has 
ample facilities, through its large force, for executing most 
of the orders of a Board of Health, and with the least confu- 
sion and expense. During the year 1864 the Police Board 
has cleansed more than 2,500 filthy houses, or has caused 
their owners to cleanse them. So much has not been done 
in five years by the City Inspector and Board of Health. 
Many subjects that come before a Board of Health demand 
the consideration of men of scientific and experimental medical 29 
skill, as well as the aid of persons of practical executive talent. 
This fact is understood to be fully appreciated by the members 
of the Police Board. Executive business talent can best de- 
vise effective practical regulations, most promptly remove 
nuisances, secure the purification of premises and districts, 
and most efficiently execute orders. But a different kind of 
experience and knowledge is needed to detect the hidden 
causes of miasmatic and contagious disease, to guard against 
the spread of epidemics and the exposures of contagion. 
The true composition of a Board of Health in a great city 
would, therefore, seem to be found in a union of adminis- 
trative ability and executive experience with scientific, sani- 
tary and medical knowledge, united with skill and practical 
experience in the treatment of disease. The Police Board, 
in a high degree, embodies the former requisites, and mem- 
bers of the medical profession can best supply the latter. 
By a union of the two elements the proposed new Metro- 
politan Board of Health has been formed. 
To prevent a predominance of either element, and to avoid 
jealousy, the two elements are equally united-four doctors 
with the four members of the Police Board. This counter- 
poise requires a majority of five to three for action, and will 
prevent hasty orders. 
The committee are strongly impressed with the import- 
ance of the police being a component part of the Board of 
Health. The members of the police can perform duties, 
without additional expense, that would otherwise involve an 
expense of from $50,000 to $100,000 annually. And without 
the strong executive arm of the police the Health Board 
would greatly want practical power to enforce its orders and 
the means of doing so. 
6. Medical Members of Board.* 
The four medical men named in the bill are alike in what 
* As this and other considerable portions of this address are taken from the 
remarks of Mr. Eaton, before a Joint Committee of the last Legislature, printed by 
the " Citizens' Association," they have been reproduced here without the assent 
of the medical members of the Committee. 30 
adorns personal character or distinguishes professional name 
and position, the foremost in the city and State, and have great 
and varied practical experience. - They are fortunately able to 
devote some time towards removing those great evils of the 
city with which they have become so painfully" familiar. 
And frequent visitations of the neglected poor in garrets'and 
in cellars-long and varied practice in hospitals and in fami- 
lies of every class and condition-familiarity with the high- 
est literature of their profession, and with the writings 'and 
doings of the enlightened Boards of Health which have so 
much honored and improved European cities, together with 
their well-known practical ability-would seem to qualify 
these'men'to inaugurate the great work of sanitary reform 
in New-York, and to afford a guaranty, that what they-slfall 
write and what they shall do will (in marked contrast-with 
the present administration of our Health Laws and'with the 
Reports' heretofore .made) secure' reasonable -safety to public 
health and be creditable to the science and learning of the 
State. 
If a Board of Health, thus organized, can be clothed with 
the requisite powers, it is believed that their administration 
will soon give New-York and the State the blessing'of wise 
•health regulations; and that infancy, now so fearfully deci- 
mated, and all classes so needlessly exposed, both in the city 
and the county, will soon feel the salutary effects of a great 
sanitary reform. 
7. Provisions of the Bill.* 
The provisions of the proposed Health Bill are believed to 
be well adapted to existing laws, and adequate to secure the 
public health. 
Its title expresses a leading feature of its provisions. 
They are intended not only to preserve public health in 
and about the City of New-York, but also " to prevent the 
spread of disease therefrom into other parts of the State." 
* See Appendix A. for a comparison of the old system with the one herein pro- 
posed. 31 
It is well known how readily all infectious and contagious 
diseases are spread from the city into other parts of the State. 
The leading provisions and principles of the hill are the 
following: • - ' ' 
(1.) It creates a Metropolitan Sanitary District, co-exten- 
sive with the Metropolitan Police District. 
(2.) It makes the four Metropolitan Police Commissioners, 
(for any time being,) together with the four medical gentle- 
men named in' the bill, a Metropolitan Board of Health ; and 
all the members are elective for like terms, and are remov- 
able in the same manner as the members of the Board of 
Police, under existing laws. 
(3.) As the Board of Quarantine Commissioners has prin- 
cipally to deal with shipping and foreign commerce, and a 
Board of Health is principally concerned with internal and 
domestic relations, it was thought best that each should be 
master of its appropriate sphere, and be independent of the 
other ; but that each Board should be authorized to co-ope- 
rate with the other for the promotion of the general public 
health ; and such are the provisions of the bill, as follows : 
(4.) The powers and duties relative to public health, now 
by law conferred or imposed upon any officer or board in the 
district, are, excluswely^ hereafter to be exercised and per- 
formed by the new Board of Health ; and these powers are, 
in general, the measure of the powers of the new Board, but 
various additional duties are imposed upon the new Board. 
(5.) And it is a noticeable feature of the bill that it con- 
tains provisions calculated to secure co-operation between all 
the Health Boards of the State for the dissemination of 
information concerning the causes of disease, and the means 
of their removal. 
(6.) The Board is to register births, deaths and marriages, 
yrithout charge, by which the large fees now collected by the 
City Inspector will be saved, and which, as we have seen, 
are now never accounted for. 
(I.) The bill gives large and ample authority to the Board 
to require those whose duty it is, be they individuals, boards 
or offices, to preserve cleanliness, and to avoid doing that 32 
which shall endanger life or health. These provisions, we 
feel confident, will be found adequate, if not frittered away 
by artfid amendments proposed by those hostile to the bill. 
(See Appendix A.) 
There are some abuses known to exist in connection with 
street cleaning, the full correction of which, doubtless, re- 
quires prompt legislative provision; but all such abuses can- 
not be corrected by one law, or at one time, and these abuses 
must be left to their more appropriate remedy. 
There are, however, proper provisions in the bill to prevent 
a duplication of officers and expenses in connection with the 
execution of Health Laws, and for reporting duties performed 
under such laws. (See sectiou 26.) 
(8.) The bill provides for the full co-operation of the Police 
Board and its officers with the Health Board and its officers, 
in promoting public health ; and provides, also, that the 
Police Board, through its ample means and force, shall exe- 
cute the orders of the Board of Health. This secures the 
double result of an economical organization and limited force 
in the Health Board, and will also prevent collisions between 
the two Boards in the exercise of their respective powers. 
(9.) The bill contains stringent and effective provisions for 
ascertaining, with promptness, any improper diversion of 
the funds of the Board, and the treasurer is to give ample 
security. 
(10.) The organization of the Board is very simple and 
economical. There may be a sanitary superintendent, with 
a salary not exceeding $5,000; sanitary inspectors, not ex- 
ceeding fifteen, with a salary of $1,500 each, and a secretary, 
with a salary not exceeding $3,500; and the services of a 
sanitary engineer may be employed annually, at a cost not 
exceeding $5,000. 
Ten of these inspectors are to be medical men of several 
years' experience in the city, and the other persons specially 
qualified, and it is thought they will be able to make a 
pretty thorough sanitary inspection of the city. In Lon- 
don there are forty-eight such inspectors, with numerous 
assistants. 33 
It is a further important provision, that the Board and 
these officers shall perform all the duties of the present health 
authorities. 
(11.) All the other expenses of the Board are properly 
limited, and are placed on the basis of strict economy. The 
only discretionary power of large expenditure is in cases of 
pestilence, and in such case no exact limit can be fixed. 
(12.) And it may further be remarked, that the bill pro- 
vides no opportunities for mischief or extravagance. No 
money can be squandered; no political patronage wielded; 
no rights invaded ; under it men of a high order of expe- 
rience and ability, with great disinterestedness, are willing, 
uncompensated, to serve the public in the highest walks of 
human effort. By this law no valuable organizations are 
struck down, and only useless and incompetent officers and 
impracticable legal provisions are superseded. 
8. Moral Considerations. 
It is not a part of our purpose to comment at length upon 
the interesting moral considerations presented by this subject, 
or to narrate at length the details of disease and death in New- 
York, as compared with other cities, which have caused so 
much alarm and awakened so much interest. But they ought 
not to be wholly omitted here. 
Every Christian will admit it to be a solemn duty of his 
religion to extend all possible relief to the exposed and the 
diseased among the humble and the destitute. No intelligent 
mind will deny that there is a solemn duty resting upon legis- 
lators to afford every available legislative aid for the pro- 
tection and improvement of the health of the people. Dis- 
ease, filth and crime are always closely associated. It will 
justly be every where regarded as a disgrace to the State of 
New-York if her health laws and their administration are 
not marked by the wisdom, disinterestedness and benevo- 
lence which are exhibited, in these respects, in the other great 
cities and states of the world. And there is top much occa- 
sion to fear that this disgrace lias been, to a large extent. 34 
justly incurred; for such brief means of illustration as I have 
at hand, show that New-York is as far behind the great cities 
of Europe and America in her precautions against disease as 
she is before them in the appalling volume and alarming con- 
sequences of filth, disease and death, in her midst. 
London.-Reference has been made to the organization of 
a Board of Health in London, in 1848. Under that Board 
there is a " Sanitary" Police; and at its head is one of the 
most distinguished medical men of the United Kingdom; 
and forty-eight other medical men are subordinate to him in 
the employment of the Board. The reports of this Board are 
valuable documents, and embody the results of the best 
sanitary and medical skill and experience of England. They 
explain the best results of human effort to control the causes 
dangerous to human life and health. This Board has control 
over all the varied nuisances and employments dangerous to 
health. 
When the law creating this Board was proposed, politicians 
and all those who lived on the spoils of the old system, made 
the most determined opposition, and, just as has been the 
case in New-York, they neither wanted funds for bribes, a 
venal press to defend their opposition, nor a noisy, ignorant 
rabble to get up a public clamor. A report before us says, 
" they held public meetings and loudly declared London, for 
" health, cleanliness, &c., &c., unsurpassed." This is very 
much the language of Inspector Boole's Reports, to which 
reference has been made. 
As in New-York, so in London, the friends of reform suf- 
fered repeated defeat, but in the end there was a complete 
and blessed triumph. Of this great triumph of its happy 
results the London " Times" says : 
" It is scarcely credible, but yet, the incontestible figures quoted 
by Dr. Letheby leave it beyond all doubt, that the average of health 
throughout the City of London is higher than the average of health 
throughout all . England, taking town and country together. The 
mortality in all England is at the rate of 22.8 in every 1,000 of the 35 
population; in the City of London it is at the rate of 22.3 for every 
1,000 inhabitants. Gradually the mortality has decreased, until the 
yearly death-roll of 3,763 has been reduced to 2,904, within the period 
of nine years during which the city has been under the rule of the 
Sanitary Commission. The deaths this year-22.3 per 1,000, or one 
in every forty-five of the inhabitants-are nine per cent, below the 
general average, and represent a saving of 286 lives. And, secondly, 
this gratifying result has been obtained in the face of obstacles which 
seemed to be almost insurmountable." 
Liverpool.-This city affords another illustration of the 
advantages of an enlightened and efficient Board of Health. 
When, fifteen years ago, the Board was formed, the death- 
rate was one in thirty of its inhabitants. A gradual improve- 
ment has since taken place, and, in 1860, they had, by gradual 
improvement, reached such a point of healthiness that there 
was only one death to forty-nine persons. In 1860 eight per- 
sons died in Liverpool of small-pox, while the same year 
New-York lost by that disease thirty in. the week ending 
June 29th. Every one is painfully aware of the alarming 
frequency of small-pox both in New-York and in other parts 
of the State of New-York every year. Liverpool is now 
one of the healthiest cities of the world. 
Paris.-This well-governed city has an admirable Board 
of Health. " The Council of Public Hygiene and Health," 
&c., consists of twenty-nine persons, of whom fifteen are 
physicians, six pharmaceutists, and the residue are engineers, 
architects and other persons peculiarly qualified. Besides, 
there are local Boards in the city. The police enforce the 
regulations of the Board of Health. The death-rate of Paris 
is reported to be about the same as that of London and Liv- 
erpool, which are far lower than that of New-York. The 
London and Paris Boards of Health appear to have jurisdic- 
tion of a considerable section around those cities. 
Philadelphia.-This city has, for several years, had a far 
more competent Board of Health, with a vastly superior ad- 36 
ministration, than any thing of the kind in the City of New- 
York. Great sanitary reforms have been effected by such 
means, and the death-rate has been so reduced, that Phila- 
delphia is said to be the healthiest city of the world of its 
size. 
No man can look over the Health Laws and rules applica- 
ble to Philadelphia and the Reports of its Board of Health, 
now before us, and compare them with the laws of New- 
York on the same subject and with the pretended Health 
Ileports of New-York officers, without a feeling of shame 
and humiliation. 
The Philadelphia Report for 1863 shows the Board of 
Health to be composed of eleven persons, of whom four are 
physicians. There are, in addition, four executive officers, 
of whom three, if not four, are physicians. The Report con- 
tains 56 pages of interesting and instructive statistics, and 
important and valuable suggestions; all of which show, that 
the Board is vigilant and industrious in the discharge of its 
duties. Diseases and deaths are classed, and the causes of 
prevailing diseases are thoroughly examined ; and births, 
deaths and marriages are reported. The Report is, in every 
respect, unlike a New-York Report. 
We cannot enter further into details. The document must 
be compared with a New-York Report to appreciate the 
difference, and to better comprehend why New-York has a 
AO much higher death-rate than Philadelphia. 
By way of illustration, however, a single detailed com- 
parison of the Philadelphia Health Report may be made 
with the before-mentioned gilt-edged, morocco-bound, boast- 
ing New-York Health Report of the same year; bearing in 
mind that the rates of population in the two cities is about 
as nine to six: 
New-York Report, 1863. 
Reported Deaths,.., 25,196 
" Marriages,,, 3,272 
" Births, , 6,426 
PlIILADELFniA Report, 1863. 
Reported Deaths, 15,788 
" Marriages, 5,475 
" Births, 15,293 
Does any one believe there were, in 1863, 2,203 more mar- 37 
riages and 8,867 more births in Philadelphia than in New- 
York ? or is the explanation of these Reports to be found in 
the fact, that a reliable and efficient Board of Health has 
charge of these matters in Philadelphia, while neglect and 
imbecility characterize official administration in New-York. 
From the fact that so many more marriages and births are 
reported in Philadelphia, it may be concluded that the re- 
ports of deaths are more nearly complete in Philadelphia 
than in New-York; and yet, (omitting small fractions,) 
the startling fact is disclosed that in Philadelphia, in 1863, 
only one person out of every forty-three died, while there 
died in the same year in New- York one person out of every 
thirty-five. 
This fearful excess of deaths in New-York over Philadel- 
phia is, therefore, either to be attributed to more destructive 
natural causes arising from soil, climate and exposure in the 
former city, or to the defective and badly executed Health 
Laws. To which of these causes do the citizens and Legis- 
lature of New-York feel disposed to have this fearful record 
of disease and death attributed? Can it be that efficient 
action will be longer delayed at a time when, by reason of a 
threatening and fatal disease, the passage of streets may 
soon be dangerous, and from fear, pupils, in large numbers, 
may be leaving the public schools ? 
The Report of the City Inspector of the City of New-York 
for 1861, (not, however, the present incumbent of that office,) 
furnishes an official answer to the question as follows : 
" The causes of this excessive mortality must be sought for in this 
city, and arc readily traceable to the wretched habitations in which 
parents and children are forced to take up their abode ; in the con- 
tracted alleys, the underground, murky and pestilential cellars, the 
tenement house, with its hundreds of occupants, where each cook, 
eat and sleep in a single room, without light or ventilation, surrounded 
with filth, an atmosphere foul, fetid and deadly, with none to console 
with or advise them, or to apply to for relief when disease invades 
them." lie asks, with great pertinency : " How is this state of 
things, which marks with shame the great City of New-York, to be 
remedied?" Let those who believe in our present system mark well 38 
his reply. lie says : " The power of remedy does not rest in me, 
nor in the department over which I have the honor to preside." 
In another report he adds, what well illustrates his views: 
" There has been no improvement in the cleaning of the streets, but 
on the contrary, the city, at this moment, is in a more filthy condition 
than has heretofore been the case at this season of the year. As an 
evidence of the effect of this state of things upon the health of the 
community, I would state that the mortality of the city has been 
largely on the increase. Were this increase of mortality the result 
of an existing pestilence or epidemic among us, the public mind would 
become justly alarmed as to the future ; but although no actual pes- 
tilence, as such, exists, it is by no means certain that we are not pre- 
paring the way for some fatal scourge by the no-longer-to-be-endured 
filthy condition of our city." 
A late Sanitary Report adds : " It is doubtful if there is a city in 
the civilized wmrld that contains within its jurisdiction as many sources 
of that class of diseases known as preventable, or capable of being 
removed and destroyed, as New-York. They are thickly strewn in 
every street, in every lane, and even in every dwelling and shop. 
Many of these sources of public and private pestilence are brought 
to light in a late Report of Captain Lord, of the Sanitary Company 
of the Police : 
"The total number of tenement houses is given at 12,374, with a 
population of 401,376, of whom 22,095 live in cellars-a subterra- 
neous population large enough for a small city in itself. A little 
more than two-thirds of the houses, namely, 8,456, with a population 
of 253,901, are provided with good means of escape in case of fire, 
while 3,801 houses, inhabited by 125,380 persons, are deficient in 
this respect. The ventilation of 4,221 houses, containing 141,168 
persons, is bad." 
Of slaughter-houses we have the following exhibit: The number 
of slaughter houses in the city is 187, of which 40 are reported as in 
bad condition. The number of beeves slaughtered per week is given 
as 2,555; of small stock, 9,362 ; of swine, 13,205. Total per week, 
25,222. Grand total ppr year, 1,311,544. Akin to slaughter- 
houses are those sinks of putridity, fat boiling establishments, of 
which there arc no less than 80 in New-York. These establishments 
are frequently indicted as nuisances, and are generally located in 
densely populated districts; but against neither can our health 
officials be induced to proceed. 39 
Providence.-This city has had for some years an efficient 
Health organization, and has become one of the most healthy 
cities of the world. Its chief Health Officer is Dr. Snow,, 
who is a distinguished physician; and some statistics fur- 
nished by one of his recent reports may be regarded as im- 
partial and reliable, (even though they do not sustain the 
theories of City Inspector Boole, nor state any thing very 
flattering for New-York.) He gives the following table of 
the ratio of deaths to population : 
Estimated 
Deaths, 
Of Population, 
Population. 
lb 63. 
one in. 
New-York, 
Philadelphia, 
900,000 
25,196 
35.7 
620,000 
14,220 
43.6 
Boston, 
194,000 
4,698 
41.2 
Newark, N. J., 
85,000 
1,952 
43.5 
Providence, 
55,000 
1,214 
45.3 
Hartford, 
32,000 
583 
54.8 
These appalling facts are further sustained by a Report 
made by twenty leading physicians of the City of New-York 
during the past year. They use the following language: 
" Previous to establishing a good sanitary government, 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, has been- 
in London, 1 in 45 
In Liverpool, 1 in 41 
In Philadelphia, 1 in 44 to 1 in 57 
" While in the City of New-York the death-rate has increased from 
1 in 46£ (in the year 1810) to 1 in 35+'at the present time. 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 re- 40 
duction would save from 7,000 to 10,000 lives in this city during 
the present year. 
"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 population of our city, upwards of two hundred 
thousand cases of preventable and needless sickness every year !" 
With such a fearful record staring us in the face, is it pos- 
sible that the Legislature should longer delay any practical 
legislative remedy. The growth, good name and prosperity 
of a great metropolitan city are in peril; disease and death, 
the result of neglect, filth and inefficiency, threaten us on 
every hand. In a city of near a million of people-the great 
centre of wealth, refinement, elegance, medical skill, benevo- 
lence and Christian effort of a great nation-garrets and cel- 
lars are filled with contagion and death-lanes and alleys are 
poisoned with nauseous and dangerous emanations-sewers 
and open places are filled with germs of endemic disease- 
the odors of decaying animals and miasmatic filth spread 
along the avenues where liveried servants drive the coaches 
of the rich, and enter the churches where the humble and the 
proud kneel at the altar. No parent or child can now visit 
the city from the interior of the State without awakening 
anxious solicitude for a safe return. Every one who enters a 
stage or car is anxious lest his neighbor be a source of con- 
tagion. Years have elapsed since there has been any meeting 
of a Board of Health; and measures calculated to protect 
life and health are abandoned at a period of the greatest 
danger; the Mayor refuses to call any meeting of the health 
authorities, because he deems them dishonest or incompetent. 
We cannot believe another session of the Legislature will 
be long in session before passing a law that will remedy these 
abuses. Such a result would be seriously discouraging ; yet 
it would still remain the duty of the philanthropist to labor 
in behalf of imperilled life and health-it would still be the 
interest of the merchant and the banker to aid in removing 
that disgrace and danger which makes the traveller approach 
New-York with dread-there woidd still be found men who 
would continue their appeal for an enactment to secure in New- 41 
York that sanitary reform which the meanest instincts of 
fear, and the lowest forms of State pride, as well as the sol- 
emn invocations of the pulpit, and humble prayers of mo- 
thers in cellars and garrets, at the bedside of children sinking 
needlessly to untimely graves-will alike demand. 
9. Specious Objections. 
But it may be said that mere legislative changes cannot 
produce the needed reform. That what is demanded is better 
officers, more disinterested public spirit in the city, and that 
exercise and guardianship of the elective franchise which 
would secure a fuller execution of the laws. It cannot be 
denied that if such virtues and vigilance more generally pre- 
vailed, great reforms would follow. But it sometimes hap- 
pens that laws are made on the suggestions of bad men, and 
that they are, without the cognizance of the Legislature, 
framed so as to facilitate dishonest purposes. We think it 
could be proved that such has been the fact in regard to some 
of the enactments applicable to the City of New-York. 
Until after 1857, the better class of men in the city were not 
much aroused to the necessity of watching and combining to 
counteract the deep-laid schemes of knaves and professed 
politicians. Since that date the conservative and honest in- 
fluences have, to some extent, combined against those two 
mischievous classes, and have succeeded in achieving a great 
triumph in the establishment of a well-disciplined Metropol- 
itan Police. They have also thoroughly aroused the public 
mind to the necessity of reform in other quarters. The con- 
test for a Metropolitan Health Law has been waged during 
the same period, and though its friends have sustained re- 
peated defeats, they are, this year, much stronger than ever 
before. 
They are not, however, unmindful that money which (it is 
believed) defeated them in 1861, and which, aided by all the 
arts of intrigue, prevented a final vote in the Senate, in 1862, 
^nd defeated the bill in 1865, may be used against them in 
1866. There are the same interested combinations-the 42 
same officers who draw salaries without performing duties- 
the same specious arguments, founded on alleged invasions 
of municipal rights-the same pensioned scribblers who 
silence the disinterested utterance of portions .of the public 
press-the same owners of city nuisances, who fear their 
noxious occupations might not be tolerated-to contend with 
now, who have, every former year, combined against the 
advocates of an enlightened Health Law. 
But the friends of the bill are confident that, if their argu- 
ments are not fairly answered, no unworthy influence can, at 
this time, prevail. 
The bill does not invade any municipal rights. It only 
aims to sustain the honor and promote the best interests of 
New-York and Brooklyn-to lift into places of power and 
high responsibility the worthiest citizens of these great cities. 
Disease, contagion, pestilence, are not bounded by city or 
county lines-cannot be circumscribed within constitutional 
limits or political divisions. They travel along our rail-roads 
and our rivers-they fly rapidly with the winds, over the 
hills and along the valleys-they are borne with the parcels 
from the merchant, and even in the sealed missives of friend- 
ship, to every family fireside in every portion of the State. 
And to assert, for the City of New-York, the right to allow 
its streets and hotels, daily and nightly thronged with the 
precious lives of every town and village, to become poisoned 
with fatal exhalations and pregnant with disease and death, 
is to insult the general intelligence of the State, and to main- 
tain that life and health are something less sacred than a 
political dogma, and ought to yield to the claims of a pre- 
tended municipal franchise. 
Is it longer to be tolerated, that while other great cities 
send forth instructive and learned reports, written by able 
physicians, full of valuable information, and disclosing wise 
measures for the protection of life and health-reports credit- 
able to science and humanity, and every where read and 
pondered-the health authority of New-York shall remain 
unexercised, or be exerted and illustrated only in acts and re- 
ports that are a stain upon its honor, a scandal to its science 
and a disgrace to its literature ? 43 
What is demanded is, that there should be a commission, 
composed of educated, independent and practical men, deriv- 
ing their power from the State, and independent of popular 
suffrage in the city-men who will have the courage, power 
and judgment requisite to deal with all those causes that 
now peril life and health. 
All the Health Officers of the city now derive their author- 
ity either directly from popular suffrage or from the Mayor 
and Board of Aidermen. The Mayor is elected for two 
years, and is sure to be a candidate for re-election. The City 
Inspector and Resident Physician are nominated by the 
Mayor and confirmed by the Aidermen. There are seven- 
teen Aldermanic Districts in the city, and the Aidermen are 
elected for a term of two years. 
There are six Councilmen, elected annually, from each 
Senatorial District, for a term of one year. 
The men who keep groggeries, tippling shops, fat-boiling 
establishments and butcheries-who own dance-halls and 
houses of ill-fame-who allow cellars and places to be filled 
with stagnant waters-who neglect drainage and purifications 
-who build ill-ventilated tenement houses-who keep filthy 
and offensive stables-all those who, in a thousand other 
ways, contribute to make New-York the most unhealthy of 
the large cities inhabited by a civilized and Christian people 
-are themselves, with all their friends and dependents, voters 
-the constituents of these Aidermen and Councilmen-are, 
in all probability, the most active politicians of their respec- 
tive wards, whose support or opposition makes or unmakes 
some city officer. The Police Justices are, in a similar man- 
ner, dependent on the same class of men ; and convictions 
before them, for nuisances, are known to be of rare occur- 
rence. Is it supposed that the officers whom such men have 
elected will, when in office, interfere with the doings of their 
most active constituents-proceed against the very premises 
as being a nuisance, or dangerous to health or morality, in 
which, perhaps, the political caucus was held that secured 
their nomination ? 
4 No one who knows any thing of New-York municipal ad- 44 
ministration, will expect any thing of the kind. These 
officers, if public suspicion be correct, are, some of them at 
least, much more likely to be the champions and the apolo- 
gists of the offences and offenders against public health in 
their respective districts ; and those who should be punished, 
are quite likely to be on the long sinecure pay-rolls of the 
City Inspector, side by side with the hireling scribblers for a 
portion of the city press, who receive so much public money 
for palliating official delinquencies, that they are enabled to 
serve their literary employers at rates most agreeably mode- 
rate. It may be that that class of writers may sometimes be 
kind enough even to report the doings of the Legislature on 
the like moderate terms, and, forsooth, include therewith 
elaborate and pungent abuse of all friends of reform, without 
additional charge. It is certainly convenient to receive a 
salary from the City Inspector, and to draw one's pay as a 
" reliable" correspondent, but it might not be pleasant to have 
the facts made public, or creditable to any party concerned. 
For such abuses and sources of corruption, there is no ade- 
quate remedy but a law similar to the one now proposed. 
Defeat last Winter. 
The opposition made to the law last winter is instructive, 
in reference to what may be anticipated this winter. A per- 
son having no experience in the conduct of measures of 
legislative reform would naturally feel confident that no 
dangerous opposition could be made to so beneficent a 
measure as we propose. An honest man can hardly imagine 
that any one would seriously resist so salutary a reform. Yet 
it is a great error and highly dangerous to expect such a re- 
sult. Those who live upon existing abuses or have large 
amounts of public funds to disburse with little responsibility, 
are always strongly intrenched, and can always command 
considerable means of resistance. 
Every new member who goes to Albany, thinking he can 
readily procure the reform of all existing abuses daring his 
short term, (and the best men who go there are too likely t* 45 
think so,) return having accomplished little, quite likely 
much discouraged, and are sure to advise their successors not 
to attack too many intrenchments at the same time, lout to 
imitate those wise generals who concentrate all their forces on 
one vital point and press the attack there till it succeeds. To 
attack all points at the same time is to fail somewhere, if not 
every where. Resistance is always far more desperate than 
is anticipated. The pendency of three important measures 
of reform at the same time last winter-the Registry bill- 
the paid Fire Department bill, and the Health bill-enabled 
tact, intrigue and money to defeat the latter. If the friends 
of reform allow their strength to be divided this winter be- 
tween too many measures, the one most important and most 
dreaded by their opponents may be again defeated. 
When the controversy began in the Senate last winter, it 
appeared to be between all the better and more intelligent 
citizens of New-York, (represented in the persons of large 
delegations and by petitions signed by many thousands of 
people,) on one side, and the City Inspector and the Resident 
Physician on the other. Of course, behind these officials 
were all those who lived on their disbursements, and all who 
were opposed to any reform which threatened them or their 
party. These officials, at the opening of the controversy, 
maintained that no material reform was needed; that New- 
York was among the most healthy cities of the world I 
The intelligent and able committee of the Senate (of which 
Senator Andrews was the efficient chairman) did not allow 
themselves to be deceived by such absurd pretences, and the 
bill was speedily reported to the Senate ; not, however, until 
Senator Fields, its chief opponent in that body, and the 
senatorial champion of existing corruptions in New-York, 
(now, fortunately for the city, left at home,) had, by his vio- 
lent and rowdy ish conduct on the floor of the Senate, while in 
a state nearly bordering on intoxication, broken up a session of 
the committee. The bill promptly passed the Senate, and 
the opposition was transferred to the Assembly. In that 
body, the committee to whom it was referred, and of which 
Dr. Richardson was chairman, manifested no earnestness in 46 
the cause of reform, and the opponents of the bill readily 
found means to delay the bill being reported to the house 
till very late in the session. This delay was known to be 
perilous to the measure. No one appeared to oppose the bill, 
except the officials we have referred to, (City Inspector Boole 
and Dr. Sayre,) and their subordinates. Yet, for a long time 
no progress could be made before the committee. 
But the argument in behalf of the existing laws was found 
to be so weak and the evidence of existing abuses and defects 
so irresistible, that the plan of opposition was abandoned and 
a new one adopted at a very late period of the session. The 
new plan was to admit that the existing laws were utterly 
defective, and that new legislation was needed. It was no 
longer seriously denied that the death-rate of New-York was 
needlessly high, that its tenement houses, garrets and cellars 
were a disgrace to Christian civilization, and that great re- 
forms were quite possible. The City Inspector apparently 
retired from the contest, and the opposition centered in Dr. 
Sayre, the Resident Physician and Agent of the Board of 
Health. lie then proclaimed, on the new line of defence, 
that the bill that had passed the Senate did not give sufficient 
power, (a charge which, if true, would not apply to the bill 
prepared by this committee,) and that no health bill would suc- 
ceed that did not confer all power on some existing municipal 
officials; and he thereupon produced before the committee a 
crude, impracticable draft of a bill, (got up since the defeat 
in the Senate, and with which he stated, what was quite ap- 
parent, that no lawyer had had any connection,) which, he 
said, if adopted, would cure all the ills that afflicted life and 
health in New-York. 
After long and fatal delay, the committee reported both 
bills to the house, and, as we are informed, with no recom- 
mendation of either, radically different as they were in every 
essential particular I 
The great measure of reform was then seen to be in the 
most imminent peril. It was perfectly apparent there was no 
intention of passing Sayre's bill, and that it was only to be 
used to defeat the people's bill and all reform. So the result 47 
proved. The disgraceful history of the final struggle in the 
house is well known throughout the State, and will be long 
remembered. It is fortunate that nearly every one whose 
character has fallen in public estimation, by reason of the 
part taken in these transactions, has been left at home this 
winter. For quite other reasons, the cause has lost the valu- 
able aid of Col. Van Buren ; but the efficient services of Mr. 
Stewart may yet be counted on in the Assembly, and there 
are new members, in both bodies, from this city and Brooklyn 
who, it is believed, will give the bill a hearty support. Still, 
now, as in all cases of city reform in New-York and Brook- 
lyn, we must greatly rely on the aid of the country members. 
But the aforesaid notorious "Sayre bill" also remains to 
us; again, if possible, to be the apology for defeating all 
reform ; and we are assured that those whose offices and cor- 
ruptions it would, if passed, do so much to prolong, have re- 
cently caused it to be printed and circulated broad-cast over 
the State, to forestall public opinion, and create a division 
among the friends of reform. 
Only a single copy, and that in manuscript, could be found 
last winter, and the friends of the people's bill could only get 
access to that when before the committee of the house. 
We now fortunately have a printed copy before us, and its 
crude and dangerous provisions provoke a few observations. 
The Sayre Bill. 
While reading our comments, we ask the reader to bear 
in mind the leading facts we have stated, as to the city offi- 
cials who compose the Board created by this bill. 
(1.) The Board is composed of the President of the Board of 
Aidermen, the President of the Councilmen, the Mayor, the 
Resident Physician, the Health Commissioner, the City In- 
spector, the Health Officer, and the President of the Board 
of Police. 
The Mayor being elected every two years by one or the 
other political party, it is obvious he would only add a 
changing political element to the Board. 48 
The City Inspector, Resident Physician and Health Com- 
missioner are nominated by the Mayor and elected by the 
Aidermen, and hence are likely to be political officers, and 
no more permanent than the majorities of tire Aidermen. 
The Presidents of the two Boards are the mere reflections of 
transient rings or personal influence in those bodies. They 
will not peril a re election by interfering with a stupendous 
nuisance conducted by men whose employer gave them the 
decisive one hundred votes at the last election, and may give 
or refuse them the indispensable one hundred and fifty at the 
next. 
In a body thus constituted, it is obvious the President' of 
the Board of Police would have little influence. 
The majority of the Board is to he made by the Board of 
Aidermen, the source of a large portion of the bad official 
management that now affects the city, and a body which, being 
part of the present Board of Health, the Mayor has not, as 
we have seen, dared call together for three years, for fear 
it would add something to the calamities of sickness, filth 
and pestilence I 
f.) The second section has the usual characteristic of all legis- 
lation, coming from the same source; that of giving unlimited 
power of spending money, and appointing an unlimited num- 
ber of bad, ignorant, petty officers, who become political 
nuisances and party tools. " May incur such expenses as 
" may be necessary," (and the Board is the sole judge,) 
" may appoint such number of clerks and other officers as 
" may be necessary, &c.this is the language of the section, 
and of course means not, as now, only 41 " grog-shop-keep- 
er£," "junk dealers" and "porter-house rowdies," as wardens, 
&c., but 444 of that stripe, " as may be necessary," for party, 
pelf and profit. 
What would further add to the affliction of thus giving a 
new lease of life to those old abuses, is the fact that the third 
section of this bill enables the Board to fix the salaries and 
duties of all these officers and agents ! 
(3.) The third section divides the city into numerous sani- 
tary districts-more than twenty-so that we should be bur- 49 
dened with more than twenty sub-boards of sanitary afflic- 
tions, all of the kind referred to. To add yet others to all 
these terrors, the Board (§ 3) "may also appoint a consulting 
council of physicians," and they " may be invested with such 
power, institute such inquiry and investigation, &c., as shall 
be deemed advisable and necessary," &c. 
There is no limit to number, salary, power or duration. 
The physicians of New-York, not in large practice, ought, 
certainly, to sign petitions for such a bill as this. If there 
cannot be a long list of signatures procured to petitions for 
such a bill from the young and patientless physicians of 
New-York, their refusal will imply far more disinterested- 
ness and honor on their part than this provision of the bill 
. would seem to suggest. 
(4.) The Mayor is then given power overthe inspection of 
vessels. This ought to satisfy him on the score of compensa- 
tion and to reconcile him to the bill. But it seems to seri- 
ously impair the power of the Board, and to invade the pro- 
vince of the Health Officer and Quarantine Commissioners. 
The fifth section clearly shows that the standing shame and 
nuisance of Health Wardens are not to be removed, but are 
to be continued under other names. 
(5.) The whole machinery of the City Inspector's Depart- 
ment is retained and made perpetual by § 9, and thereby the 
whole business of street cleaning taken from that officer last 
winter is to be restored / Nor is that all: as if the people of 
New-York had not been enough afflicted by the " bureaus" 
in that " Department," new bureaus may be created therein ; 
" and the duties of these bureaus may be defined and desig- 
" nated by the Board herein created." 
It is almost impossible to believe that such a proposition 
can be in this bill, even though it was admitted to be pro- 
posed only for the purpose of creating a diversion, and de- 
feating all reform whatever. It is necessary to the success of 
even such a trick that it should pay a decent respect to the 
fears and the indignation of the people, and not insult the 
memory of their fresh calamities. 
(6.) But we do not regard it as necessary to follow this 50 
favorite scheme of the opposition, section by section. It is full 
of crude, impracticable suggestions. It is not worse than the 
existing law, only because that is impossible. The tenth and 
eleventh sections give vast additional, dangerous and unde- 
fined powers to the Board and to the City Inspector. And 
it fully accounts for the readiness of that officer to yield so 
much of his present vast patronage and come into this Board. 
The thirteenth section gives powers equally dangerous and 
undefined to the Mayor. 
The bill acts on the old theory, so fraught with abuse and 
inefficiency, of giving large powers to individual members of 
the Board guite inconsistent with the general powers given 
the Board itself; a division sure to lead again to conflict 
and general inefficiency. It looks as if this heterogeneous 
combination of officials could not be otherwise reconciled. 
It would be a fatal objection to the whole scheme (suppos- 
ing officers elected by popular vote in the city could or would 
attack any city nuisance,) that the powers of the City In- 
spector and Resident Physician, relative to health, arc no 
where taken away ; and we have shown that the powers of the 
former, alone, are actually inconsistent with any adequate 
power or efficiency in the Board, except on the conditions 
which that official may see fit to impose. 
It should be added, that the Sayre Bill relates to the City 
of New-York only, and hence is, for that reason, utterly in- 
adequate to the public wants. 
Such is the " Sayre Bill." 
We shall, doubtless, be thought to have given undue space 
to it. Yet it was the bill under the shelter of which all re- 
form was defeated last winter, and it is to be brought forward 
again this winter for the same purpose. Signatures to peti- 
tions will be solicited in its behalf; a cry will be raised that 
its authors are the champions of municipal franchises; a 
portion of'the party press will, as was the fact last winter, 
sound its praises in the public ear, and denounce as crazy, 
over-zealous reformers, all who oppose it. 
We have, therefore, endeavored to lay the wdiole matter be- 
fore you, and if defeat again follows your and our efforts, we 51 
shall at least have the consolation of having done our duty 
as far as we were able. 
Let no one consider the task in hand an easy one. Let 
every one use his influence with his friends in and out of the 
Legislature, in behalf of what he regards the public interest 
as connected with this vital subject. If the bill shall be de- 
layed in the Legislature, the feeling and the demand of New- 
York and Brooklyn should be plainly and earnestly expressed 
through large and influential delegations, and by petitions 
signed by thousands of their citizens. It is to be hoped, also, 
that the public press, as well in the country as in the city, 
will cause the public wishes to be fully known on this sub- 
ject. There will never be a better chance or a more pressing 
need of complete and speedy success. It is not the cause of 
the poor and afflicted alone, but of all whom pestilence may 
soon strike down and increasing taxes now oppress. 
There is great need of a combined influence to prevent the 
measure being made a political machine-at the last mo- 
ment. It would be a standing disgrace if some mere politi- 
cal doctors should get control of this Board, or the Police 
Board should be left out to make room for politicians.* There 
are plenty of men who will perform none of the labor and 
make none of the sacrifices indispensable to secure this great 
reform, who will yet be prompt with their advice and tireless 
in their assiduity, where there is a prospect of controlling a 
little patronage or advancing a partisan. The whole people 
of New-York and Brooklyn are deeply and solemnly inter- 
ested to prevent such a calamity, and to secure upon this 
Board some of their most scientific, practical, energetic, noble 
spirited physicans, whose lives have illustrated the humanity 
and disinterestedness of their motives, and whose daily prac- 
tice has made them familiar with filth and disease in our 
midst in all their thousand fatal forms. 
What that class of men would do, if clothed with lesral 
* All that relates to doctors has been inserted without consulting, and without 
the assent of, the medical members of the Committee. 52 
authority, is well illustrated in the production, by voluntary 
and uncompensated labor, of the remarkable work entitled 
" The Sanitary Condition of New-York." 
This single great work has done more to secure an im- 
proved sanitary condition in the city, and is more creditable 
to the public spirit and humane science of the country, than 
every thing together that has proceeded from the City Health 
officials, (this bill proposes to supersede,) since they came 
into office. 
We call upon all who have this reform at heart to watch 
the bill at every stage, and make it sure that the Board is 
worthy the subject. We feel sure that, so far as the Governor 
is concerned, he will, if not inadvertently misled by others, 
heartily contribute to such a result. But he cannot know so 
w'ell as you of whom the Board should consist, and he will 
gladly listen to your suggestions if the appointment of com- 
missioners shall devolve on him. There is great danger that 
men who want office will be active and on hand, while those 
who only consult the general good will not be aware of their 
fatal solicitations and perseverance till the public interest is 
fatally sacrificed. It is of vast importance to the health, and 
to all the highest interests of the people of New-York and 
Brooklyn who compose this Board. 
We have done our best to frame a suitable law, and to en- 
list in its behalf by every honorable means the support and 
influence requisite to secure its passage ; and that result 
would, to us, be a most adequate reward for our labor and 
trouble. 
At all events, pressing on in the noble work against every 
obstacle, and after every defeat, the friends of this great re- 
form, relying on the justice of their course, sustained by a 
high sense of duty, which is its own reward, arc firmly re- 
solved to persevere until final triumph shall crown their 
efforts. 
In behalf of the neglected dying poor-by all the priceless 
value of life and health, now doubly imperilled by diseased 
soldiers from the army, and by a fatal contagion now' threat- 
ening us from abroad-in honorable emulation of the great 53 
work of sanitary reform so much advanced in other American 
and in European cities-in harmony with that regenerating 
public sentiment which is purifying the national health 
and life-in obedience to all the holy promptings of 
virtue and religion-by one effective, worthy effort to rebuke 
official imbecility and corruption and inaugurate benevolent, 
practical reform in the great cities of New-York and Brook- 
lyn-let this Legislature honor itself and bless the whole 
people of the State by enacting this great sanitary and all- 
pervading measure of reform. Future generations will won- 
der at any opposition it may encounter, while they rejoice in 
the priceless benefaction it will confer. 
Very respectfully, 
Your obedient servants, 
D. B. Eaton, New-York. 
W. E. Dodge, Jr., " 
C. R. Agnew, M. D., " 
Theodore Roosevelt, " 
George Bliss, Jr., " 
Charles L. Brace, " 
John A. Weeks, " 
George F. Noyes, " 
James R. Wood, M. D., " 
Willard Parker, M. D., " 
A. A. Low, Brooklyn. 
John A. Cross, " 
Charles L. Benedict, " 
Theodore L. Mason, M. D., " 
Lucien Birdseye, • " 
Edward A. Lambert, " APPENDIX A. 
The New Bill. 
(1.) The eight Commissioners act as a single Board, of which five 
are a quorum, and there is no occasion to consult any other Board or 
officer. 
(2.) The Secretary will keep the records, and conduct the corres- 
pondence of the Board. 
(3.) The " Sanitary Superintendent" is the chief executive officer 
of the Board, and has a general superintendence, as the Board by 
its by-laws shall direct. 
(4.) There are fifteen '1 Sanitary Inspectors." They will daily 
examine into causes endangering health, under the charge of the 
superintendent. 
(5.) Any engineer the Board may for any occasion employ, in 
connection with sewerage or otherwise, will attend the work assigned 
him, as the Board may direct. 
(6.) The police force will execute all orders of the Board, except 
such as the inspectors or superintendent may personally execute. 
That the expense is reduced to the lowest possible point, may be 
shown as follows: 
(1.) Secretary, not to exceed . . . $3,500 
(2.) The Sanitary Superintendent, . . 5,000 
(3.) Services of Sanitary Engineer, . . 5,000 
(4.) Ten Inspectors, $1,500 each, . . 15,000 
(5.) Clerk hire, say, .... 10,000 
(6.) Rent of offices, say, .... 2,500 
(7.) Incidentals, Stationery, &c., Ac., . 5,000 
(8.) Pay of Police force, (not increased,) 
Total, .... $46,000 55 
(7.) The bill every where follows the analogy of the police law, and 
contains no experimental legislation. 
(8.) The great difficulty in New-York was, not to any great extent, 
the want of power over the subject of health, but grew out of two 
leading facts : 
(1.) The Health Officers are inefficient, and have not the proper 
qualifications, and the mode of their election is such that better ones 
cannot be secured without a change in the laws. 
(2.) The existing laws contain conflicting provisions, and the power 
over health is deposited in so many offices and Boards, that co-operation 
or harmony in their execution has been found unattainable. 
Hence a concentration of power in proper hands rather than addi- 
tional power is the remedy sought. But valuable additional powers 
over the subject of small-pox and other pestilential diseases have 
been added to the bill since it was first printed. They were taken 
from law long in force in Brooklyn. 
(9.) Contrast this organization with the existing organization and 
expenditure. 
The present organization is as follows : 
17 Aidermen and 
24 Councilmen 
and the Mayor, 
make a 
" Board of Health."* 
(1.) Any ten of 
(2.) The President of the Aidermen, 
The President of the Councilmen, 
The Health Officer, 
The Resident Physician, 
The City Inspector, 
constitute a second 
Board, called " The 
Commissioners of 
Health." 
(4.) The City Inspector.-This officer claims and exercises at this 
time nearly all the authority over health, (now practically known in 
the city,) under Tit. 3, Chap. 275, of the Laws of 1850. 
(5.) The Health Officer. 
* The Corporation Counsel has decided, and it is generally believed, so far as 
there is any harmony of opinion on the subject, that each of the two boards has 
the same authority, and as there are 41 Councilmen and Aidermen, of which any 
ten, "with the Mayor, make a Board of Health, it will be seen that those two bodies 
furnish material for four Boards of Health in addition to that made up of the Com- 
missioners of Health. 56 
(6.) The Resident Physician, 
(7.) The Health Commissioner, 
appointed by the Mayor, with 
the consent of the Aidermen. 
(8.) The Agent of the Board of Health, appointed by the Board 
of Health. The same person is said to be at this time both Resi- 
dent Physician and Agent of the Board of Health, and to draw 
salary in both capacities. 
(9.) The Health Wardens, tioenty-two 
in number. 
(10.) The Assistant Health Wardens, 
twenty-two in number, (a) 
They are appointed by 
the City Inspector with 
the consent of the Ai- 
dermen. 
(11.) The "Superintendent of Sanitary Inspection," a subordinate 
of the City Inspector. 
(12.) " Registrar of Records and Statistics," another subordinate 
of the City Inspector, (b) 
(13.) The Mayor. 
(14.) Numerous Clerks of the sundry Boards and officers above 
mentioned, (c) 
(15.) Expenses of present system. It is not easy, owing to the reti- 
cence of officials, and the method of making up reports, to get at 
the salaries of the foregoing Health Officers. As to some there is 
no doubt, and as to the residue a pretty close approximation and 
something like certainty may be readily reached. 
(1.) Board of Health proper, (that is, sums paid 
Aidermen, Councilmen and Mayor as a 
Board of Health, (d) ... $35,000 
(a) See affidavit attached as to the qualifications of those officers and the influ- 
ences that secured their appointment. Appendix C. 
(6) This officer gets up the bulky reports from the City Inspector's Department, 
and is put forward as one of the chief Health Officers of the city ; though in fact 
he is a mere clerical officer, and has no authority worthy of mention. 
(c) It may be remarked, that it is a great question with the citizens of New- 
York whether this " Registrar," the " City Inspector," the " Resident Physician," 
the " Health Commissioner," or the " Agent of the Board of Health," is the 
greater of the aforesaid officers ; but if one doctor holds two of these offices, as is re- 
ported, he would seem to be clearly entitled to precedence. 
(d) See Laws 1860, pp. 1017 and 1019, and Laws 1861, pp. 666 and 669, where 
that sum is so appropriated, though in 1864 it was apparently reduced to $5,500, 
(Laws 1864, pp. 940 and 943,) by reason of the efforts to obtain a aew Health Law. 57 
(2.) Board of Commissioners of Health. Their 
salary as a Board, the writer has not sat- 
isfactorily ascertained, but estimates it at 12,000 
(3.) The City Inspector, .... 5,000 
(4.) Health Officer, unknown. 
(5.) The Resident Physician, ($1,250,) and same 
person in capacity of Agent of Board of 
Health, estimated $4,000, total, . . 5,250 
(6.) Health Commissioner, . . . 3,500 
(7.) Agent of the Board of Health, as above. 
(8.) Twenty-two wardens from $1,000 to $1,200 
each, ...... 25,000 
(9.) Twenty-two Assistant Wardens, $1,000 to 
$1,200 each, 25,000 
(10.) Superintendent Sanitary Inspection, (esti- 
mated,) 5,000 
(11.) Registrar of Records, &c., (estimated,) . 4,000 
(12.) The Mayor, (unknown.) 
(13.) Clerks, (estimated,) .... 10,000 
(14.) Rent, incidentals, sundries, &c., &c., (esti- 
mated not less than) .... 15,000 
$144,750 
It will, therefore, be seen, even if the entire salary of every offi- 
cer who performs any other duties than those under Health Laws 
proper, be rejected, and if no salary at all be allowed the Commis- 
sioners of Health as a body, and if the Salary of the Board of 
Health be only the sum appearing in the Statute of 1864; and if 
the incidental expenses estimated for, (which are believed to be far 
too small,) are reduced by half; that after all these deductions are 
made, the expenses of the present system will yet be shown to be nearly 
double the amount required under the new law proposed. 
For proof that the present expensive organization is utterly ineffi- 
cient and is incapable of reformation, see the extracts from the 
report of Mr. Delavan, late City Inspector, printed in Appendix B. 58 
APPENDIX B. 
Delavan's Report for 1861. 
The following extracts from the report of the late City Inspector, 
Delavan, the immediate official predecessor of the present Inspector, 
(F. I. A. Boole,) afford a most significant answer to most of the rep- 
resentations of the latter officer and of his subordinates, and confirm 
the allegations of the friends of the pending bill, as to the distressing 
need of reform and the hopelessness of any relief under the present 
system. The report quoted is Mr. Delavan's official report, as City 
Inspector, (a pamphlet said not to be easily obtained at the present 
City Inspector's Office just now,) dated January 13th, 1862. Hav- 
ing read these remarks of Mr. Delavan, (for the frankness of which 
he perhaps lost his office,) a more correct estimate can be formed of 
the consideration due to the allegations of Mr. Boole now before the 
Legislature ; which seem to imply that his department is a model of 
efficiency-that the health organization of the city is wonderfully 
efficient-that the laws are beautifully haynonious-that the health 
of the City of New-York is admirably protected-that the Board of 
Aidermen and Council men are the most disinterested, the best in- 
structed and the most independent bodies that could possibly be 
selected to appoint health officers, and devise and enforce health regu- 
lations. Is it not strange, indeed, that a man with such plans and 
opinions as Mr. Delavan should have been compelled to give place to 
Mr. Inspector Boole and his theories ? 
Speaking of the defects of the registering of births, deaths and 
marriages, Mr. Delavan says, " Nor can this defect be remedied un- 
less by legislative interposition, and by the passage of new laws with 
suitable penalties for non-compliance, which shall compel an obedience 
heretofore reluctantly yielded, and frequently refused." (Page 9.) 
" But this accuracy, easily attained as regards the death record, 
cannot possibly be reached as regards the record of the births and 
marriages, in consequence of the defects in the present statute to 
which I have adverted. Thus one of the principal objects for which 59 
the Bureau of Records and Statistics was instituted is defeated, and 
the usefulness of that branch of the department seriously impaired." 
(Page 10.) 
Speaking of the unhealthy and neglected condition of the city, he 
says, " I refer to the under ground apartments, the hot-beds of febrile 
disease, where it exists in its normal condition, ready for all subjects 
that are placed within its reach. Nothing can be more idle than to 
expect that those who dwell in these vaults of sickness can remain in 
the enjoyment of health. The medical faculty, with one accord, join 
in this opinion, and the question is forced upon us whether it shall 
be permitted to landlords to let such tenements to lodgers." (Pages 
23 and 24.) 
At page 25, he says: " In the upper part of the city, where the 
population is rapidly increasing, the fatal effects arising from the 
miasma of sunken and unfilled lots, from the pools of stagnant water 
with which many of them are filled, are to be seen in the records of 
our annual mortality." 
Again, page 25 : "I refer to the system of tenement houses, which 
has sprung up so gradually among us, that its increase has hardly 
been noticed. An estimate has been made which places us in pos- 
session of the information, that the mortality of those occupying these 
abodes, including infants and children, is as one to twenty. There 
seems to be no doubt of the correctness of this estimate, or, if there 
be any error, it is that the proportion of deaths is larger than herein 
described." 
Again, page 26 : "It is frequently the case that these buildings 
cover whole blocks, and such are the imperfections for the admission 
of light and ventilation, that, in some places, the sun is almost entirety 
excluded, and the air finds admission only from the doorway or the 
narrow passage leading to the rooms." 
Speaking of the necessity of new legislation, he says, pp. 56 and 
57 : " It is interesting and instructive to trace the movements of the 
city authorities after their first earnest attempts to protect the health 
of the city, and their efforts in a new vocation, in which the predomi- 
nant trait seemed to be an utter want of knowledge of all the principles 
and laws which form the basis of sanitary success. But if their move- 
ments were uncertain and their success limited, there is nothing 
strange in such a condition of things, for a moment's consideration 
must convince us that qualifications necessary to conservators of the 
public health, are rarely, if ever dreamed of in the selection of members 60 
of our city councils. However just may be their intention, or with 
whatever zeal they may be disposed to dedicate themselves to this 
incidental but most important branch of public duty, what portion of 
the community ever dreams in their selection of their qualifications for 
the most responsible trust of guarding the public health ? So little 
can be expected of them in the discharge of this branch of their du- 
ties, that it wrould be almost unjust to condemn them for a dereliction 
of those duties, delicate and vital as they are, the performance of which 
never entered into the minds of those who elected them. It may be 
safely said, that the selection of candidates for our city councils, on the 
ground of their fitness for the preservation of the health of the city, is 
a thing almost unknown. Other tests, whether on partisan grounds, 
or on higher grounds of the welfare of the city, may be required, but 
this test, surely not the least important, has been and will remain un- 
heeded. If, then, the operation of the total inability of our local 
legislators to handle a subject, the details of zuhich have never engaged 
an hour of their lives, be admitted, the charge of dereliction of duty 
on their part in the hour of danger should not be harshly made, and 
there should be no disappointment of expectations on that score, for 
no such expectations were ever entertained by those who placed them 
in power. From the very nature of our elections there can be no im- 
provement expected in the present state of things as regards the Public 
Health, so far as the Common Council are concerned ; and the remedy 
apparent to every one must consist in the adoption of laws transferring 
the power of sanitary regulations to some other authority, of a different 
order of instruction in sanitary science." 
And further, at page 58 to 60, he says : 
" The Common Council, first acting in one capacity, as legislators, 
under the disadvantages to which I have called your attention, those 
advantages become doubly apparent when they are resolved into an 
exclusive body, to act on one subject alone, and the whole process 
becomes characterized with an inefficiency which would be regarded as 
ludicrous, zvere it not that the subject is of too vital importance to be 
lightly dealt with. When the matter has thus been bandied about, it 
comes up for the third time in the body where it originated-the cir- 
cumlocution having run its round-and ready for a new start, to travel 
in the same circle zvhere it began, having, in the meantime, not made 
the slighest advance towards the preservation of the Health of the city 
-the warding off impending, or allaying actual pestilence. Such is 61 
the construction of the Board of Health, one branch of our sanitary sys- 
tem ; and the other, the Commissioners of Health, is open to equal 
objection, from the manner of its organization and the want of a suffi- 
cient power. This body is composed of six persons, besides the 
Mayor, who is a member, ex officio. It consists of the President of 
the Board of Aidermen, the President of the Board of Councilmen, 
the Health Officer, the Resident Physician, the Health Commissioner, 
the City Inspector. It will be seen that the Common Council is here 
again represented by two of its members, and that the Board has the 
benefit of three medical officials, but, not having conferred upon it the 
full powers possessed by the Board of Health, it cannot, in many 
instances, carry into effect the measures deemed by it necessary for the 
preservation of the public health. 
" The Board of Health, from the ls£ of January last down to the 
qoresent day, has not held a single meeting to consider the sanitary 
necessities of the city. With such a system, can there be a wonder that 
the sanitary condition of the city is not improved, or that the City 
Inspector is crippled in his power of action in this respect ? Nor must 
the consideration be kept from view, that the members of the Com- 
mon Council, the Board of Health and Commissioners of Health are 
&W,from the manner of their appointment, subject to partisan influence. 
To expect a perfect sanitary system under such a condition of things is 
to expect an impossibility. The first groundwork of reform, in the 
opinion of the undersigned, is to bestow upon some other body, dif- 
ferently constituted, all poicer over the sanitary affairs of the city ; 
and until this is done, all other proposals of reform will be deprived 
of their essentially beneficial features. To escape present complications 
is the first great point to be gained ; and, this point secured, sim- 
plicity, promptness and efficiency may be substituted for inefficiency, 
complication and delay''1 
Again, at page 63, he says: 
" As an additional measure of reform, I would recommend the 
abolishment of the present system of Health Wardens, and the con- 
solidation of these offices in the Visiting Physicians of the Dispensa- 
ries, w'ho are to receive, as compensation, the pay now allowed to 
those Health Wardens. In effecting this change, the city will have 
the safest security that its interests will be attended to, with prompt- 
• ness and efficiency, by a body of men in all respects qualified for 
their duties." 62 
Again, at page 67, he says : 
" It can hardly be questioned, that even the members of the Com- 
mon Council would gladly be relieved of a burden that does not 
legitimately belong to their legislative functions-a responsibility 
from which, while they cannot shrink, they yet feel incompetent to 
assume; which brings with it no rewards for duties well performed, 
and is almost sure to bring condemnation when those duties have 
been imperfectly discharged, notwithstanding they may have been 
so discharged with the best motives." 
APPENDIX C . 
Mulligan's Affidavit. 
Health Wabdens.-1864. 
Names. 
Occupation. 
1st Ward, 
Michael St. George, 
Liquor Dealer. (1.) 
2d " 
Charles A. Lamont, 
Refiner. 
3d " 
John J. Taylor, 
Warden. 
4 th " 
Daniel Leamy,. 
Notary. 
5th " 
James Lawrence, 
Warden. 
6 th " 
John Donnelly, 
Cl 
7th " 
James Kennedy, 
" Ship Caulker. 
8 th 11 
George Cox, ... 
Oyster Saloon. (2.) 
9th " 
Alva Terhune, 
Warden. 
10th " 
Roderick T. Entwistle 
Liquor Dealer. (3.) 
11th " 
Alois Ludwig, 
Warden. 
12th " 
James Hope, 
Liquor Dealer. (4.) 
13th " 
Samuel 0. Donnell, 
Warden. 
14th " 
John Cavanagh, . 
Liquor Dealer. (5.) 
15th " 
Elwood T. Jones, 
Mason. 
16th " 
Peter Welsh, 
Carpenter. 
17th " 
John Forney, 
Warden. 
18th " 
John II. Forman, 
Surveyor. 
19th " 
Patrick Carroll, 
Liquor Dealer. (6.) 
20th " 
Joseph Brennan, 
Warden. 
21st " 
Patrick Dee, 
Cl 
22a " 
Thomas Higgins, 
Liquor Dealer. (7.) 
Seven of the twenty-two, Liquor Dealers. 63 
Assistant' Health Wardens. 
Names. 
Occupations. 
1st Ward, 
Andrew Carey, 
Warden. 
2d " 
Walter Joyce, 
ic 
3d " 
John J. Crotty, 
Cl 
4th " 
.... John S. Roche, 
Cl 
5 th " 
James 0. Hall, 
11 
6 th " 
Terence Foley, 
Liquor Dealer. 
7 th " 
James Lee, 
Liquor Dealer. 
8th " 
Ralph Bogert, 
Trunks. 
9th " 
Thomas Culkin, 
Warden. 
10th " 
Asa II. Bogart, 
Il 
11th " 
Henry W oltham, 
u 
12th " 
Isaac Vermilyea 
IC 
13th " 
James Davison, .... 
ll 
14th " 
Patrick Barnes, 
Clerk. 
15th " 
Epes E. Ellery, 
Paints. 
16th " 
John Beady,...., 
Liquor Dealer. 
17th " 
Patrick Brady, 
Warden. 
18th " 
Ananias Matthews, 
Cl 
19th " 
Philip Fitzpatrick, 
Liquor Dealer and Builder. 
20 th " 
Herman Eiviseh, 
...... Warden. 
21st " 
William Reynolds, 
IC 
22d " 
Alexander Wilder, 
Notary. 
County of New-York, ss.: 
James Mulligan being duly sworn, deposes and says: That he re- 
sides in 117th-street, between 1st and 2d Avenues, in the 12th Ward 
of the City of New-York, and has for over sixteen years resided in 
said Ward ; that the foregoing list of Wardens and Assistant War- 
dens of New-York, for the past and present year, and of their occu- 
pations, he believes to be correct. 
That many changes take place during the year, and he cannot state 
the length of time said persons held the office. That he has made 
personal examination and inquiry as to nearly all said persons, and 
has ascertained said persons, so inquired of, now hold said office, and 
believes all of them so indicated now holds said office, except as 
hereinafter mentioned. 
That those mentioned as " liquor dealers," are keepers of stores 
or cellars where liquors are sold at retail, and as to some of them he 
knows, and as to all he believes, they personally and regularly attend 
to their daily and nightly customers at their stores or cellars. These 
places are known in New-York as " corner liquor stores," and are 
the resort of large numbers of intemperate persons. 
And deponent further says, that it is commonly reported and un- 64 
derstood in New-York, that liquor dealers obtain and retain the posi- 
tion of Health Wardens or Assistants by reason of their influence on 
such of their customers as are voters. 
That James D. Hall, Assistant Health Warden of the 5th Ward 
last year, is put down in Valentine's Manual as residing at 179 
Church-street, and on going there, deponent finds 179 Church-street 
to be the house of 27 Hose Company, and said Hall reported to be 
a " bunker " and exempt fireman of that Hose Company, (that is, he 
resides and sleeps in the engine-house, though not on the list of 
active firemen.) His name is not given in the City Directory. 
The Health Warden and the Assistant Health Warden of the 19th 
Ward at this time (unless they have been changed within a few days) 
are the keepers of the most extensive, and most frequented, and notorious 
liquor shops and groggeries of said Ward ; and these facts are per- 
fectly notorious in the Ward. Liquor is sold at these places, at retail, 
to men, women and children. That the liquor store of Carrol, the 
Warden of said IQth Ward, is at the corner of Third Avenue and 
Vid-street, and is a second rate grog-shop, and the open resort of the 
idle and intemperate of the Ward, and said Carrol is an active poli- 
tician. 
That deponent knows the Warden and Assistant Warden of the 
12th Ward of said city very well, The first, James Hope, keeps 
and personally attends a liquor store, and the last (Isaac Vermilyea) 
is not, as deponent has reason to believe, in any business but politics, 
and is to be found generally at Hope's liquor store ; and during the 
time said Assistant Vermilyea lias held said office, he has devoted 
but very little, if any, time to the duties of his office, and causes of 
danger to health in said Ward are almost wholly neglected. 
That the liquor store of said Warden (Hope) is the political head- 
quarters of the 12th Ward, and (for the years 1863 and 1864) the 
Aiderman of the 12th Ward (Jacob M. Long) made Hope's liquor 
store or bar room the political head-quarters of the 12th Ward poli- 
ticians, which he represented. That the primary elections and meet- 
ings in the Ward were always held in Hope's parlor, over the bar-room, 
or in the back room adjoining the same. 
And deponent further states, that he has acted as secretary of such 
meetings, and is acquainted with the manner and place of conduct- 
ing them in other Wards, and he believes that what is true of the 
12th Ward, is also true of the other Wards of the city. 
That John Cavanagh, put down in the list as Warden in the 14th 65 
Ward, deponent finds to live with a brother at corner of Mott and 
Mur> ay streets ; which brother keeps a second class liquor store at the 
last-named place. 
That Patrick Barnes, the Assistant Warden of said Ward, is put 
down in the Directory for 1865, as a "Clerk," and is reported to be 
an active politician. 
That James Lawrence, named in said list as Warden of the 5th 
Ward, as appears by the official Pay-rolls from the Mayor's Office, 
•was paid up to February I, 1865, and since that date (that is-within 
the last 15 days) one Michael McManus has been made Health 
Warden in place of said Lawrence in said 5th Ward, and McManus 
is the keeper of a notorious liquor store and gin-mill at 67 West 
Broadway, which deponent has visited to personally ascertain its con- 
dition. It is the resort of the idle and intemperate of the Ward, and 
is reported by the police as a low gin-mill. 
That in place of William Reynolds, reported in Valentine's Manual 
for 1864, as Assistant Warden in the 21st Ward for that year, it ap- 
pears by a report from the Mayor's Office, made this day, that one 
Bernard McCabe has been put in the place of said Reynolds. Said 
McCabe is reported in the City Directory for 1865, as keeping a liquor 
store at 391 3(7 Avenue in said city. And said McCabe is a well- 
known active politician. 
That said McCormick was known as a sporting man and politician 
in said Ward, and had no active business, as deponent is informed 
and believes. That the police report said Morrisey as a bar-tender, 
and deponent has reason to believe that, for years before his appoint- 
ment, he was a bar-tender in a liquor and victualling house much fre- 
quented by car-drivers, at the corner of 49th-street and 8th Avenue, 
in said city. 
That Terence Foley, the Assistant Warden in the 6th Ward, keeps 
and personally attends a liquor store at 41 Elm-street, near the Tombs 
of said city, which is a celebrated head-quarters not only of the 
politicians of said Ward but of the city officials generally. 
Deponent further says, that it is generally understood, among those 
knowing the facts, that the appointments of Health and Assistant 
Health Wardens are, in a large measure, made to reward political ser- 
vice or to secure political influence, and from such reason there are 
many changes occurring during the year. 
That it is the custom in the city that Health Officers, and other 66 
officers, should pay a portion of their salary to support the political 
expenses of their party, and such is now the fact. 
That Vermilyea, the Assistant Health Warden in said 12th Ward, 
has generally been an Inspector of Primary Elections in said Ward, 
and also an Inspector on regular election days. 
That the Health Wardens and Assistant Health Wardens, as is 
generally understood, are selected by the Aidermen, and required to 
be nominated to the Board of Aidermen by the City Inspector, and 
are for the most part the well-known political agents and runners 
of the Aidermen of the respective Wards. 
That the foregoing facts can be substantiated by the evidence of 
numerous persons. 
James Mulligan. 
Subscribed and sworn to, before me, 
this 15th day of February, 1865. 
Henry A. Tailer, 
Coni'r of Deeds. 
[Stamp, 5c.] 
If any thing could add to the disgrace which the endurance of such 
a set of officials justly attaches to the City of New-York, it would be 
the fact, that at the very time the exposure of this shameful condi- 
tion of things was being made before the Legislature, the officers 
which that body allowed to remain in power for another year ap- 
pointed 44 successors to these officers that were, in like manner, 
(doubtless with some exception, but taken as a whole,) utterly unfit, 
and they now pretend to perform the high and important duties 
of the guardians of the life and health of near a million of people in 
the great metropolitan city of the Union. 
We have taken pains to ascertain their names and occupations; and 
if any citizen of the State of New-York can read the list without a 
blush of hopeful shame, and a shock of healthy indignation, we shall 
despair of any aid from that person in the good work of reform. 
The list is as follows : 
Health Wardens. 
1st Ward. Michael St. George, keeps junk store, 51 Pearl-street. 
2d " Daniel II. Warring, clerk, corner Water and Fulton sts. 
3d " John J. Taylor, oyster dealer. 67 
4th Ward. Daniel Leamy, shoemaker, liquor dealer and Assembly- 
man. 
5th " Michael McManus, liquor store. 
6th " John Donnelly, policy dealer. 
7th " James Kennedy, caulker. 
8th " Ralph Bogart, trunk-maker, 339 Iludson-street. 
9th " John J. Terhune, cartman. 
10th " R. T. Entwhistle, printer, Sergeant-at-arms Board of 
Councilmen and porter-house. 
11th " Louis Ludwig, baker, 25 Avenue C. 
12th " James Hope, porter-house, 25th-street and Third Ave. 
13th " Sam'l O'Donnell, licensed vender. 
14th " John Cavanagh, cartman. 
15th " Wm. Stevenson, soap maker, 186 Laurens-street. 
16th " Peter Welsh, porter-house, cor. 26th-st. and Ninth Ave. 
17th " John Tomey, clerk for Murray & Harrington, butchers, 
in Second-street. 
18th " John H. Foreman, cartman. 
19th " Patrick Carroll, porter-house, 612 Third Avenue. 
20th " James Casey, driver for Knickerbocker Ice Co. 
21st " Jeremiah Crowley, builder, 253 E. 32d-street. 
22d " James A. McCormick, Custom House, hog dealer, As- 
sistant Foreman 33 Engine Co. 
Assistant Health Wardens. 
1st Ward. Andrew Carey, Constable and City Marshal. 
2d " Walter Joyce, business-none. 
3d " James McCluskey, shoemaker. 
4th " John J. Roach, porter-house. 
5th " Joseph Hoffmeyer, business-none. 
6th " Terence Foley, " " 
7th " James Lee, " " 
8th " Bernard Neis, Ex-Policeman. 
9th " Thomas Caulkin, liquor dealer. 
10th " Asa Bogart, mechanic. 
11th " Henry Wohtman, Ex-Policeman. 
12th " Isaac Vermilyea, shoemaker, corner llOth-street and 
Third Avenue. 68 
13th Ward. James Davison, licertsed vender. 
14th " Patrick Burns, porter-house. 
15th 11 Tobias Lawrence, Fire Warden, Inspector of Hydrants. 
16th " Charles Warnock, night watchman, 22d and 23d sts. 
17th 11 Patrick Brady, plumber. 
18th " Ananias Matthews, carpenter. 
19th " Philip Fitzgerald, porter-house, 65 W. 45th-street. 
20th " Adam Moser, shoemaker. 
21st 11 John Murray, milkman. 
22d " Lawrence Morrisey, bar-tender, 715 Ninth Avenue.