expedients to provide for them, and under suffering and hardships supplies a new and unbending spirit.

It was ascertained by the Rev. Mr. Clay, at Preston, in 1843, that, taking one hundred persons from each of three classes, of gentry, tradesmen and operatives, at the age of twenty years, seventy-six of the gentry, fifty-one tradespeople, and thirty.one operatives, were living. Dr. Lyon Playfair furnished to the British government the following information for Liverpool : that the average age at death of the gentry was forty-three years, tradesmen nineteen, and of the laborers, sixteen-the average of all classes being twenty years.

The extremes of human condition are the same in all countries. On the one side are debasement in look and condition, crime, barbarism, inability to read and write, hardly a knowledge of a God, and a short life; on the other, length of days, beauty of person and bearing, elevation of character, and vigorous minds and bodies.

But the influences of a common nature exact from each a mutual dependance and sympathy. Freedom from corroding cares, abundance of good food and the possession of comforts, all of which are hygienic considerations, are at the foundation of the differences that exist.

The Hebrews made long life in this world the prime consideration; the Christians eternal life in the next world. But it is strange that Christians who acknowledged the divine authority of the Old Testament, should not have adopted some of the laws inculcated for the preservation of health. They forgot all obligations in this particular until experience had taught them that if they neglected them they should die, and this is now, as ever, the law of God.

Everything conspires to make hygienic measures the great question of the age; enlightened self-interest, the good of mankind, economic considerations, public and private, the wealth and power of the state, and religious obligations unite to urge this knowledge and observance upon every member of the community. In order to succeed, we need the co-operation of the majority of the citizens, and then we can compel ignorance and selfishness to cease their opposition. It is not the day to despair, for the future is full of promise.

SANITARY CONDITION OF THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT.

It would naturally be supposed that New York, situated upon a narrow island surrounded by rivers, supplied with pure air from the ocean or from the highlands of the Hudson, with its broad streets and avenues, its liberal supply of pure drinking water and its facilities for drainage, would be one of the healthiest cities in the world. The city of Brooklyn is also admirably situated, is well supplied with pure air and water, and covers more ground than New York in proportion to its population. The peculiar sanitary advantages of the two cities, have, probably, saved them from numerous destructive epidemics; but a reliance upon these advantages has produced an indifference to the growth of the destructive nuisances which now cause so fearful a mor

tality in their filthy and crowded districts.

New York is the great commercial city of the country and the entrepôt of three hundred thousand immigrants yearly. Many arrive with broken constitutions, and soon sicken or die; many, especially of the Irish and Germans, become permanent residents in the city and vicinity. An entire change takes place in their habits, their previous lives having been spent in agricultural pursuits and in the open air. They crowd the filthy and ill-ventilated tenements, which are rendered pestilential by a hot sun in summer, or by artificial heat in winter. Meats and spirituous liquors abound to which they have not been accustomed, and they use them to excess. Sunstroke, which is rare among the native population, is common among immigrants, and a certain amount of acclimation seems necessary to secure their safety. These causes considerably increase the death-rate in New York and Brooklyn, while the smaller towns of the district, being less densely crowded, suffer only occasionally and in a more limited degree.

When the Metropolitan Board of Health commenced its labors, the cities of New York and Brooklyn were filled with nuisances, many of them of years' duration. The streets were uncleaned; manure heaps, containing thousands of tons, occupied piers and vacant lots; sewers were obstructed; houses were crowded, and badly ventilated, and lighted; privies were unconnected with the sewers, and overflowing; stables and yards were filled with stagnant water, and many dark and damp cellars were inhabited. The streets were obstructed, and the wharves and piers were filthy and dangerous from dilapidation; cattle were driven through the streets at all hours of the day in large numbers, and endangered the lives of the people; slaughter-houses were open to the streets, and were offensive from accumulated offal and blood, or filled the sewers with decomposing animal substances. Gas companies, shellburners, and fat-boilers, pursued their occupations without regard to the public health or comfort, and filled the air with disgusting odors. When complained of, they asserted that their private rights were invaded, and that their pursuits were not prejudicial to the public health. They virtually claimed that the fumes of sulphuretted hydrogen, carbonic acid or carbonic oxide did not vitiate the pure atmosphere, which had been made with its exact proportions of oxygen and nitrogen, for the purpose of securing physical and mental vigor.

THE HEALTH LAWS OF NEW YORK.

Immediately preceding and following the year 1800, most of the Health Laws were properly Quarantine Laws, and were intended rather to shut out disease from New York than to prevent its originating within the city limits. Most of the Health Laws passed since that period were valuable in many respects, but were not sufficiently comprehensive in their character, or properly enforced. For several years, the physicians of New York have endeavored to obtain the necessary legislative enactments and the establishment of a Board of Health, with full power to correct the many existing abuses and to

prevent the great mortality that prevailed, but they were uniformly unsuccessful in their efforts.

Two years ago, the Citizens' Association, in connection with several eminent physicians, commenced a sanitary inspection of the city. Medical men were appointed as Inspectors to ascertain the nature of the soil and the character of the drainage, to survey and describe the crowded tenementhouses, to locate upon maps the places where fevers and diarrhoea abounded, and to examine, as far as possible, into all the causes which affected the public health. The result of their labors was published, and is a work of great value, not only to the present generation, but as a book of reference by which to judge of the future sanitary progress and condition of New York. enterprise and energy of these gentlemen are worthy of all honor, and their influence and efforts were largely instrumental in securing the passage, on the 26th of February, 1866, of the Act "to create a Metropolitan Sanitary District, and Board of Health therein, for the preservation of life and health, and to prevent the spread of disease."

The

ORGANIZATION OF THE METROPOLITAN BOARD OF HEALTH.

The Sanitary Commissioners, appointed by the Governor, by and with the consent of the Senate, under the act above referred to, met at the office of the Secretary of State at Albany, on the first day of March, and proceeded, under his direction, to determine, by lot, which of them should hold for the respective terms of one, two, three, and four years, the said office of Sanitary Commissioner. Having taken the oath prescribed for State officers, the Commissioners received from the Secretary of State, certificates of appointment for their respective terms of office, as follows:

JAMES CRANE, one year.

WILLARD PARKER, two years.

JACKSON S. SCHULTZ, three years.
JOHN O. STONE, four years.

On the 24 day of March, a preliminary meeting was held at the Central Department of the Metropolitan Police, No. 300 Mulberry street, New York, at which were present-the Sanitary Commissioners, Dr. James Crane, Dr. Willard Parker, Jackson S. Schultz, Dr. John O. Stone, Dr. John Swinburne, and the Police Commissioners, Thomas C. Acton, John G. Bergen, Joseph S. Bosworth, and Benjamin F. Manierre. Jackson S. Schultz was elected President of the Metropolitan Board of Health, and Benjamin F. Manierre was elected Treasurer.

On the 5th of March, the Board completed its organization by the election of Emmons Clark as Secretary. At a meeting of the Board held on that day, a Bureau of Vital Statistics was established, and Dr. Elisha Harris was appointed Registrar of Vital Statistics. A resolution was adopted requesting F. I. A. Boole, late City Inspector, to deliver to Dr. Harris all the public books, records, statistics, and papers, mentioned or referred to in Section 13

of Chapter 74 of the Session Laws of the State of New York. With this request Mr. Boole promptly complied. To the Registrar of Vital Statistics was assigned the duty of recording all births, marriages, and deaths, and of granting permits for the disinterment or removal of the bodies of deceased persons from the city of New York, and permits for burial. The appointment of a Deputy Registrar of Vital Statistics, to perform the same duties in and for the city of Brooklyn, was also authorized, and Dr. Joseph B. Jones was temporarily appointed to that office. Physicians were instructed to make all reports to this Board, which heretofore they had been required by law to make to the City Inspector, the Board of Health, or to the Mayor and Commissioners of Health; and sextons and undertakers were required to surrender all burial permits and other blanks supplied to them by the late City Inspector, and in all cases to make the necessary reports exclusively to this Board.

The Board of Metropolitan Police was requested to execute and enforce the orders of the Metropolitan Board of Health, relating to cleanliness and the preservation of life and health; also, to ascertain and report to the Metropolitan Board of Health, once in each week, the streets and parts of streets, wharves, bulkheads, and piers, not cleaned in the cities of New York and Brooklyn, in pursuance of contracts for street cleaning in the respective cities. The Board of Metropolitan Police having tendered the use of that part of its large and commodious building fronting on Mott street, the office of the Metropolitan Board of Health was established at No. 301 Mott street. Dr. Edward B. Dalton was elected Sanitary Superintendent, and D. B. Eaton was elected Counsel, and George Bliss, Jr., Attorney to the Board.

At a meeting held on the 10th of March, Dr. John T. Conkling was elected Assistant Sanitary Superintendent, and Dr. R. Cresson Stiles was elected Deputy Registrar of Vital Statistics, and detailed for duty to the city of Brooklyn, and their offices located at the City Hall. Eight Sanitary Inspectors were appointed for the city of New York, and six for the city of Brooklyn, and were subsequently assigned by the Sanitary Superintendent to the several districts into which the cities had been divided. Bowen G. Lord, Captain of the Sanitary Company of Metropolitan Police, and the force under his command, were also authorized to make inspections and investigations of and in relation to, any and all matters enumerated in Section 14 of Chapter 74 of the Session Laws of 1866, and to report thereon to this Board. The Board of Metropolitan Police was directed to enforce all laws and ordinances of the cities of New York and Brooklyn relating to the preservation of life and health and the prevention of disease, and to serve all notices and execute all orders issued by this Board. "Complaint books" were ordered to be placed in the station-houses of all the Police Precincts, and citizens were publicly invited to enter therein their complaints against existing nuisances.

At a meeting held on the 30th of March, the Sanitary Committee recommended that, on account of the condition of the city and the impending danger from cholera, thirty clerks, to act as Assistant Inspectors, should be appointed for a period of two months, and be detailed for duty in various parts of the

District. At the same meeting, clerks or Assistant Inspectors were appointed for Yonkers and Morrisania, and subsequently, upon application of the local authorities, clerks or Assistant Inspectors were appointed for nearly all the rural towns in the Metropolitan Sanitary District. These clerks or Assistant Inspectors continued in the service of the Board until the disappearance of the cholera from the District, when they were honorably discharged, with the thanks of the Board for their promptness and fidelity. On the 30th day of

March, William E. Worthen was appointed Engineer to the Board.

The following report of the Sanitary Committee, upon the duties of Sanitary Inspectors, was approved by the Board, and the Sanitary Superintendent was directed to furnish each Inspector with a copy:

"1. The Inspectors will keep constantly in mind the great good to society and the scientific value of the knowledge expected to be gained by the present system of Health Police. It is desirable that they should take especial interest in all sanitary questions, and keep themselves informed of what is being done at home and abroad relative to the causes which affect health or disease. Thus they will contribute their full share to the accumulation of knowledge which is destined to prolong human life, and establish the science of medicine on the most permanent of foundations.

"2. So much depends upon the conscientiousness, intelligence and industry of the Inspectors, that they will be held to a strict accountability. They will be subject to the immediate control of the Superintendent, or his Deputy, and obey orders with promptness, and relinquish the demands of private business, in order the better to observe the obligations imposed upon them by their office.

"3. They shall present themselves at the office of the Superintendent, or his Deputy in Brooklyn, as often as is required by them, to receive orders and to make reports; are they to consider that their duties are limited to the districts to which they may have been assigned, but must feel that they are bound to leave their districts and examine into complaints or sickness elsewhere, whenever the Superintendent or his Deputy may deem it advisable thus to employ them. They are to watch over all cases of fever or small-pox, and if the patients are removed, to follow them with their supervision.

4. Any perversion of the truth, from fear or interest, or any disrespect to the Board or its officers, on the part of the Inspectors, will justify the Superintendent or his Deputy in suspending them from office, without pay, until action is taken by the Board, when the delinquents shall be censured or dismissed.

"5. All the forms for making reports must be filled up legibly and minutely, and any information added that will throw light on the subject under investigation.

6. They shall wear their badges prominently displayed when engaged in their official duties. On entering any house or premises, they must announce their authority and the object of their visit, and while endeavoring to avoid giving offence, must make their investigations minutely.

7. If resistance is offered to the performance of their duties, they are to report the fact to the nearest Police Station. They will likewise report all who violate the Health Laws, in order that offenders may be summarily dealt with.

"8. All questions of doubtful authority must be referred to the Superintendent or his Deputy for decision."