New York (N.Y.) 
Board of Health 
Address 
1821 ADDRESS 
OF 
¥313 3©ASID 
OF THE 
CITY OF NEW-YORK, 
TO THEIR 
FELLOW CITIZENS. 
The Board of Health, on whom devolves the im- 
portant duty of guarding the city against local, as well 
as foreign causes of disease, have deemed it proper, on the 
approach of the warm season, when the utmost care and 
vigilance are necessary to avoid the disastrous conse- 
quences of past times, to address their fellow citizens, 
and request their earnest attention to the means pointed 
out by the several laws and regulations adopted for the 
preservation of the public health; and they call upon 
them, as they value the health of themselves and fami- 
lies, to assist with zeal and perseverance, in having said 
laws and regulations enforced and observed. 
The several laws and regulations now in operation 
for the security of the public health, constitute a system 
of external and internal measures, intended to guard 2 
against both foreign and domestic causes of disease. 
The following is a brief summary of them : 
All vessels from Asia, Africa, and their Islands, the 
Mediterranean, America south of Georgia, the West In- 
dia, Bahama, Bermuda, or Western Islands, from any 
foreign port with forty or more passengers, and all ves- 
sels on board of which any person may have died, or 
been sick, while at a foreign port, or on her homeward 
passage, are subject to quarantine, and the directions of 
the Health Officer, at all times of the year. Every mas- 
ter or commander of a vessel, offending in the pre- 
mises, shall be considered guilty of a misdemeanour, and 
on conviction thereof, shall, for each offence, be fined in 
a sum not exceeding two thousand dollars, or impri- 
soned for not more than twelve months. 
All vessels from the West Indies, Bermuda, America 
south of Georgia and north of the equator, and Africa, 
between the 31 st of May and the 1st of October, are sub- 
ject to quarantine, four days at least, together with their 
passengers and crews, and when permitted to depart, 
must not come within three hundred yards of the city. 
Their cargoes being discharged, and the vessels having 
been reported clean by the inspector, the Health Com- 
missioners may permit them to come to a wharf ; after 
which they may not change their births between the 31st 
of May and the 1st of October, without permission of the 
Health Commissioners, or by order of the Mayor, or 
Board of Health. Every master, commander, con- 
signee, or passenger, of any vessel, or any person belong- 
ing to, or connected with the same, offending against 
the provisions of this section, is subject to a fine of two 
thousand dollars, or imprisonment for a term not ex- 
ceeding twelve months. 
All vessels from the Mediterranean, Asia, America 
south of the equator, or from Madeira, Canary, Cape de 
Verd, Western, or Bahama Islands, between the 3] st of 
May and the 1st of October, are subject to tw7o days 
quarantine at least; after which the Health Officer shall 3 
direct to what wharf they may proceed, and they cannot 
change their births without permission of the Health 
Commissioners. The penalty for a violation of these 
regulations, is two thousand dollars, or imprisonment. 
Vessels arriving from any place, in the ordinary pas- 
sage from which they must pass to the south of Cape 
Henlopen, between the 31st of May and the 16th of Oc- 
tober, are subject to quarantine. The penalty for every 
offence is two thousand dollars, or imprisonment. 
All vessels coming from sickly ports, or on board 
of which any person may have died or been sick of ma- 
lignant fever during the voyage, shall be unloaded, clean- 
sed, and purified at the quarantine ground, at any sea- 
son of the year ; and all such vessels arriving between 
the 31st of May, and the 1st of October, shall be detain- 
ed not less than thirty days, after which, when judged 
safe by the Health Officer, he shall report them to the 
Board of Health for further directions ; and no person 
from on board such vessel, shall be permitted to go to 
the city of New-York until twenty days after the last 
death or sickness of malignant fever. These regulations 
are enforced under the penalty of two thousand dollars, 
or imprisonment. 
All vessels bound to the eastward of New-York, after 
the proper examination by the Health Officer, are per- 
mitted to pass through the sound, but they must not be 
brought to anchor off the said city, nor must any of the 
crew or passengers be permitted to land, under the pen- 
alty of two thousand dollars, or imprisonment. 
All persons, articles or things, that may be deemed 
prejudicial or dangerous to the public health, and all ves- 
sels at the wharves, may be removed to the quarantine 
ground ; and no vessel thus removed shall return with- 
out permission, under the penalty of one thousand dol- 
lars. 
Vessels subject to quarantine, shall not be exempted 
therefrom, by having previously entered any port of the 
United States, unless they shall have discharged their 4 
cargoes, been purified, and remained twenty days unla- 
den. Every master, commander, or consignee of any 
vessel, offending in the premises, is liable to a fine of 
two thousand dollars, or imprisonment. 
All vessels subject to quarantine, must have a written 
permit from the Health Officer, before they come to the 
city, which permit must be delivered to the Commission- 
ers of Health, within twenty-four hours after their arri- 
val. Every master or commander neglecting or refu- 
sing to comply with either of these directions, may be 
fined in a sum of two thousand dollars, or imprisoned. 
AU persons having intercourse with vessels at quaran- 
tine, without permission from the Health Officer, shall 
be considered guilty of a misdemeanour, and may be 
fined in the sum of five hundred dollars, and detained at 
quarantine. 
The Health Officer may take a bond from persons 
wishing to proceed beyond the city of New-York, who 
are under quarantine. 
The Board of Health may cause any cargo, or part of 
a cargo, or any other matter or thing in the said city, that 
may be putrid, or, in their opinion, dangerous to the 
health of the city, to be removed or destroyed. 
No boat can land after sun set, or pass between ves- 
sels at quarantine, at any time, without permission from 
the Health Officer. Any person offending against any of 
these directions may be fined in the sum of fifty dollars. 
Cotton, the growth of the United States, cannot be 
brought into the city south of a line commencing at 
Spring-Street, on the North River, running through the 
said street to the Bowery, thence dowrn the Bowery to 
Grand-Street, through Grand-Street to Walnut-Street, 
and through Walnut-Street to the East River, between 
the 31st of May and the 1st of October. Impure, da- 
maged, or foreign cotton, must be landed at, and may be ex- 
ported from, the quarantine ground, during the said period. 
All hides and skins, during the said period, must be land- 5 
ed at quarantine, and if sound, may be taken to any place 
in the city north of the last-mentioned line. Sound 
cotton, of United States growth, and sound hides, may 
be taken from their places of deposit, and by water only, 
put on board vessels lying at the wharves for exporta- 
tion. Any sound cotton may be shipped from the qua- 
rantine ground, and transported through the East or 
North Rivers, provided the vessel having the same on 
board, shall not approach within three hundred yards of 
any dock in the city of New-York, nor lie at anchor op- 
posite the said city, and provided any such cotton shall 
not be landed in the said city. 
No person can enter the quarantine ground without a 
permit from the Health Officer, or Board of Health, under 
the penalty of one hundred dollars, or imprisonment. 
Every person practising physic in the city of New- 
York, who shall have, between the 31st of May and the 
1st of November, in any year, a patient labouring under 
yellow, bilious malignant, or any pestilential or infectious 
fever, shall forthwith make a report in writing to some 
one of the Health Commissioners, and for neglecting so 
to do, he shall be considered guilty of a misdemeanour, 
and fined in a sum not exceeding two hundred and fifty 
dollars. 
All persons keeping boarding houses, between the 31st 
of May and the 1st of November, are to report within 
twelve hours, to the Commissioners of Health, or the 
Board of Health, all transient persons who may be taken 
sick at their houses ; and all masters of vessels are pro- 
hibited landing any sick person, without first obtaining a 
written permit from one of the Health Commissioners, 
or from the Board of Health, under the penalty of two 
hundred and fifty dollars, or imprisonment for six 
months. 
No dead animal shall be left exposed in any place, 
street, yard, lane, or lot, within the city, under the penal- 
ty of ten dollars. 
No salted provisions shall be packed or repacked at 6 
any season of the year, in that part of the city lying to 
the southward of Canal-Street, on the North River, and 
Walnut Street on the East River. From the first day of 
May to the 1st of October, no salted or pickled beef or 
fish, unless smoked, can be deposited south of said line; 
and all the aforementioned articles, and all cotton and 
hides, which may have been deposited south of said line, 
prior to the 31st of May, and shall there remain on the 
1st of June, must be reported to the Health Commis- 
sioners. 
All dirt and filth shall be brought out from houses, 
cellars, alleys, yards, and lots, on sweeping days, before 
ten o'clock in the morning, under the penalty of two 
dollars. 
Garbage, shells and offals, shall not be cast into the 
street, under the penalty of two dollars. 
No sexton shall inter any person who may have died 
of a pestilential or malignant fever, in any place to the 
southward of Grand-Street, under the penalty of one 
hundred dollars; nor shall they inter any corpse within 
the above limits, except in graves or vaults at least six 
feet deep, and in so doing, shall not remove any other 
dead body or coffin, under the same penalty. 
No new-made ground shall be turned up during the 
summer, under the penalty of one hundred dollars. 
Noisome or offensive substances, shall not be deposit- 
ed in any place to the southward of Grand-Street. 
No oysters shall be brought into, or sold in the city, 
between the 1st of June and the 30th of September, 
under the penalty of two dollars for every hundred. 
No auctioneer shall, between the 1st of June and the 
1st of November, sell, or expose to sale, in either of the 
places of sale assigned by law, salted beef or pork, dried 
or pickled fish, blubber, hides, or cotton wool, under the 
penalty of twenty-five dollars for each offence. 
Undressed skins, hides, blubber, &c, shall not be kept 
to the southward nor westward of Catharine and Canal 
Streets, under the penalty of ten dollars for every twenty- 
four hours neglect. 7 
Putrid and unsound provisions shall be destroyed, by 
starting them into the river or otherwise. 
Butchers shall bring no gut-fat into market, nor the 
head of any sheep or lamb, unless the same be properly 
cleansed ; nor any sheep or lamb in carcase or quarters, 
with the feet or trotters thereto ; nor any hides or skins, 
(calf skins excepted,) under the penalty of two dollars. 
They shall, likewise, immediately after killing any ani- 
mal, destroy the offals, or convey the same into the river, 
under the penalty of twenty-five dollars. They shall 
not expose to sale any stale or unwholesome provisions, 
under the penalty of ten dollars. They shall cause 
their slaughter houses to be washed and cleansed each 
day on which any cattle shall be killed, under the penal- 
ty of ten dollars for every neglect. 
Nuisances of every other description must be removed 
or remedied, agreeably to the mode prescribed by the 
city inspector, and in addition to the penalties prescribed 
in the cases of nuisance, by the statute of the state, and 
ordinances of the city, the remedies by common law may 
likewise be enforced. 
The foregoing is a brief digest of the laws enacted by 
the state and city authorities on the subject of the public 
health ; and it being the opinion of the Board, that a 
due observance of these laws will tend, under the bless- 
ings of Divine Providence, to avert from our city the 
dreadful scourge of malignant and pestilential disease, 
they are determined to enforce them with the utmost ri- 
gour on offenders. The Board are perfectly sensible, 
however, that the strict observance of laws, in them- 
selves salutary, but which are inconvenient in their exe- 
cution, depend, in a great measure, on the co-operation 
of their fellow-citizens to carry them into complete ef- 
fect ; and they, therefore, earnestly request, that when- 
ever any violation shall take place, information may be 
lodged with the Board of Health, or the Health Com- 8 
xnissioners, at their office in the City Hall, where con- 
stant attendance will be given duriirg office hours. 
By order of the Board of Health. 
STEPHEN ALLEN, President. 
J. Morton, Secretary. 
New-York, June 11th, 1821. Allen,Stephen, Address of the Board of Health of the City of New York, 'NN N536a 1821 
Condition Before Treatment: The 8 page report was comprised of 4 sheets, sewn 
through the fold using linen thread. The paper was extremely dark brown, brittle and 
extremely grimy. All pages bore a mottled yellow brown discoloration. The foredge was 
tattered and several corners were missing. Pages 3 through 6 were approximately one 
half inch longer than pages 1,2 and 7,8. Linen thread was tattered and partially broken. 
The cover was missing. 
Conservation Treatment: The papers were surface cleaned using grated vinyl eraser 
crumbs. The paper was bathed in a series of aqueous solutions made of deionized water 
and conditioned to pH 8.0 using ammonium hydroxide and calcium hydroxide. The 
papers were mended extensively along the folds, foredge, and comers using Japanese 
kizukishi paper and wheat starch paste. 
Housing: A new pamphlet cover was created from 2 ply, buffered, 100% rag mat. The 
text was hinged into the new cover using the above mending paper and paste. 
Treatment carried out by Rachel-Ray Cleveland, HMD Paper Conservator, 7/2001.