Returning to the point of starting, he was to commence a detailed inspection of each building, noting: a. Condition and material of buildings. b. Number of stories and their height. c. Number of families intended to be accommodated, and space allotted to each. d. Water supply and house drainage. e. Location and character of water-closets. f. Disposal of garbage and house slops. g. Ventilation, external and internal. h. Cellars and basements, and their population. i. Conditions of halls and passages. j. Frontage on street, court, alley—N., E., S. or W. 18. Prevailing character of the population. 19. Prevailing sickness and mortality. 20. Sources of preventible disease and mortality. 21. Condition of streets and pavements. 22. Miscellaneous information.
He entered each room, examined its means of ventilation and its contents, noted the number of occupants by day and by night, and carefully estimated the cubical area to each person. Whenever any contagious or infectious disease was discovered, as Each Room
Examined fever, smallpox, measles, scarlatina, the Inspector made a special report upon the dwelling. This report embodied specific answers to a series of questions, furnished in a blank form, requiring him 1. To trace and record the medical history of the sick person. 2. To ascertain and record facts relating to the family and other persons exposed to the patients and to the causes of the malady. 3. To report the sanitary condition of the domicil. 4. To report the statistics and sanitary condition of the population of that domicil. 5. To report upon the sanitary condition of the locality or neighborhood and its population. 6. To preserve and make returns of these records. 7. To prepare on the spot the necessary outlines or data for the sketching of a map or descriptive chart of the domicil, block, or locality.
Each Inspector was supplied with a notebook and a permanent record-book; in the first he constantly made notes as his examination proceeded, and in the latter these notes were expanded and put on permanent record. These permanent record-books are the property of the Association and embrace for the most part minute details concerning every building and tenement occupied by the laboring classes, as also, grog-shops, stables, vacant lots, slaughter-houses, etc.
Each Inspector was furnished with materials for drawing, and was directed to make accurate drawings of the squares in his district, locating each building, vacant lot, etc., and distinguishing the character and condition of each by an appropriate color. Many of these drafts of districts are beautiful specimens of art, and as sanitary charts enable the observer to locate infectious and contagious diseases, and with the aid of the permanent records, to determine the internal and external domiciliary conditions under which they occur.
I have been thus minute in specifying the details of the plan of inspection, the qualifications of the Inspectors, and the means employed, in order that the character of the work and the value of the results obtained may be properly appreciated.
Early in the month of May the work of thoroughly inspecting the insalubrious quarters, where fever and other pestilential diseases prevail, had been commenced, and the fact was soon ascertained that smallpox and typhus fever were existing and spreading Period of the
Inspection in almost every crowded locality of the city. It was not until about the middle of July that the entire corps of Inspectors was engaged. The work was then prosecuted with vigor and without interruption to the middle of November, when it was completed. The Inspectors met regularly every Saturday evening to report to a committee on the part of the Council the progress of their work, and to receive advice and instruction in regard to all questions of a doubtful character.
On the completion of the inspection each Inspector was required to prepare a final report embodying the general results of his labors. These reports have all been properly collated, under the direction of the Association, and are now passing through the press. They will soon appear in an octavo volume of about 400 pages, largely illustrated, with maps and diagrams. It will be the first interior view of the sanitary and social condition of the population of New York, and will abundantly demonstrate the fact that, though a great and prosperous commercial centre, she does not afford happy homes to hundreds of thousands.
Before proceeding to an analysis of this work, it will be necessary to notice the topographical peculiarities of our city, and the distribution of its population. New York is an island having an area of about thirty-four square miles, inclusive of its Distribution of
Population parks. Unlike Philadelphia, London, and most other large cities, which have a background of hundreds of square miles upon which to extend according to the exigencies of the population or of business, New York is limited in its power of expansion, and must accommodate itself to its given area. While it is true that a large business population will gather upon the adjacent shores, it is equally true that these non-residents will be of the better class. The laboring population will, for the most part, remain upon the island, and must be accommodated in the city proper, as they are compelled to live near their work.
New York has, thus far, grown without any control or supervision, until its population is estimated at 1,000,000 of persons. Of this number, at least one-half are of the laboring and dependant classes, compelled to live under such conditions as they find in their homes, without any power, either to change or improve them. Following the natural law which governs the movements of such a population, the wealthier or independent class spreads itself with its business arrangements over the larger proportion of the area, and the poorer or dependent class is crowded into the smallest possible space.
Already New York has covered about 8 of its 34 square miles with the dwellings of a population not far from 1,000,000, and all its commercial and manufacturing establishments. And the result is, as might have been anticipated, the dependent Tenant-House
Packing class, numbering fully one-half of the people, is crowded into tenant-houses which occupy an area of not more than two square miles. Such crowding amounts literally to packing.