persons of those sick with infectious or contagious disease, and from divers other sources, these rags are partially cleaned and placed upon buildings and sheds, or in yards or the public streets, there to dry and constantly emit the most offensive and sickening odors. In aggravated cases, the business has been suspended and the rags removed, and a partial, but not general, reform has been inaugurated. Restrictions upon foreign rags, imported in large and compressed bales, which are not opened in the city, have been materially modified. 16. Sewers.-Complaints in respect to defective or obstructed sewers have invariably been referred to the Croton Aqueduct Department, and have received prompt attention. In streets where new sewers were recommended by this Board, as necessary for sanitary reasons, they have been constructed as soon as the specifications conld be prepared and the work placed under contract, as required by law. The Croton Aqueduct Department has been, at all times, prompt to aid this board in its efforts for sanitary improvement. 17. Slaughter-Houses.-Under the orders of this Board, many slaughterhouses have been closed, some permanently, and others until they could be rendered tolerable by the construction of sewer connections, by improved ventilation, by closing the doors and windows from the public streets, and by the adoption of regular habits of cleanliness. At the present time, the slaughtering places within the District are generally as well conducted as the character of the business will admit. The section of the Health Ordinances requiring the daily removal of the offal to the pier assigned for its reception is, in most cases, faithfully obeyed. Abattoirs, and the slaughtering of animals, are noticed in detail in other parts of this report. 18. Streets. When this Board was organized in March, the streets of New York were in a most filthy and disgusting condition. The street cleaning contractors did not perform one half the duty required, and their work was, generally, done in a careless, and most unsatisfactory manner. A system of thorough inspection and report was instituted through the Metropolitan Police, and a map was prepared weekly in this office, upon which was noted the streets, alleys, and piers, cleaned, as well as those neglected. By this means the contractors were brought and held to a strict accountability, and the result was that New York has been blessed during the past season with comparatively clean streets. In the unpaved sections of the city, particularly in the Twelfth Ward, considerable work has been done under the immediate order and control of the Board. In the city of Brooklyn, where, practically, no contracts or arrangements exist for the proper care of the streets, this Board has been obliged to undertake, in the most filthy districts, this most important sanitary work, for the correct performance of which the city authorities are usually held responsible. 19. Swine. The practice of keeping swine in the built-up. portions of the District has prevailed for a long period. Under the Code of Health Ordinances, and the special orders of this Board, the swine have been removed from New York and Brooklyn as rapidly as could be done consistently with the interests of the poor, many of whom depended for a subsistence upon the profits of keeping and fattening these animals. In the outskirts of Brooklyn large number of swine are kept by persons who have contracts for removing garbage from New York city. The garbage is collected in carts unfit for the purpose, and is transported across the ferries and through the principal thoroughfares to its destination, where it is boiled with offal and other refuse matter. Some of these establishments contain from three to four hundred hogs, and many of the largest ones are near the county buildings, in which there are usually two thousand persons, who are compelled to breathe an atmosphere vitiated by the most foul odors. It is hoped, that on or before the 1st of February, they will be entirely banished. It is a fact worthy of notice that in those districts where pigs and pig-pens most abound, cases of cholera have frequently occurred, and it is the opinion of many observers that nothing is more calculated to develop and increase that disease than the filth and offensive odors which prevail in those localities. 20. Vacant Lots and Ponds.-The condition of vacant lots is one of the most important and difficult subjects which has engaged the attention of this Board. They frequently lie below the grade of the streets, are filled with stagnant water, and receive the garbage and dead animals of the vicinity Often the names and residence of the owners cannot be discovered, even by a reference to the tax-books, and nuisances of the most dangerous character must remain undisturbed, unless this Board perform the necessary sanitary work at the expense of the public. The only remedy for this great evil is an amendment to the Act, by which all work done by this Board, in the abatement of nuisances, can be made a "lien" upon the property in the same manner as State and City taxes. During the present season the most offensive lots have been cleaned, and in some cases, disinfected; drains have been built and the stagnant water removed, or they have been filled up with earth and ashes, and properly graded. Brooklyn suffers more from sunken lots than any other part of the District With the rapid growth of the city, streets without culverts or sewers werc laid across low lands and marshes, thus obstructing the natural water-courses and the escape of tide-water. In the Twelfth and Sixteenth wards there is no drainage nor sewerage, and both are impossible except at immense expense, as the streets are only a few feet above low-water mark. It is the duty of the Common Council to fill in these lots upon the recommendation of the Board of Health, but in many cases this cannot be done except at the public expense, as the law forbids an assessment upon any lot, for this purpose, of a sum to exceed one third of its value. The report of the Engineer is referred to for details upon this subject. Ponds of stagnant water in the rural parts of the District have been the subject of much complaint. Frequently the abatement of these nuisances requires the co-operation of several property owners, and is consequently difficult and tedious. All has not been accomplished that is desirable, and it seems necessary that the Act should be so amended that the requisite work can be performed, and the expense be equitably assessed upon all who are responsible and directly interested. CODE OF HEALTH ORDINANCES. Pursuant to Section 20 of Chapter 74 of the Laws of 1866, as amended, this Board adopted, on the 20th day of April, a Code of Health Ordinances, which was duly authenticated and advertised in compliance with the law. The Board took as the basis of this Code, the sanitary ordinances in force in the cities of New York and Brooklyn, before the passage of the Act creating a Metropolitan Board of Health, making thereto improvements and additions as seemed to be required by reason of the rapid growth and the more crowded state of the population, and by the progress and advancement in sanitary science. As the power has always been exercised by Boards of this character, to make suitable rules and regulations for the preservation of the public health, this Code has been generally respected and obeyed, and the Courts have manifested a disposition to enforce these ordinances. Those arrested for its violation have been fined or imprisoned, and its moral and restraining influence has been most salutary in the correction of various abuses. For Code of Health Ordinances and Sanitary Rules and Regulations above referred to, see Appendix, Schedule H. " THE SUPPLY OF FOOD. After securing pure air and general cleanliness, nothing tends so directly to promote the public health as a proper supply of food; and to regulate and control the quality and supply of meat, fish, and vegetables, is, the duty of the health authorities of all large cities. Free and direct communication between the producer and the consumer is, for many reasons, very desirable; but when the public authorities interfere in this free interchange, by establishing public markets and compelling their use, great care is necessary that the interests of the public do not suffer. Many old citizens can recollect when a portion of each market was devoted to the sale of vegetables and small meats, and was known as the country market," in which countrymen, upon the payment of a small daily fee, could expose for sale the products of their farms and gardens; but this system has been supplanted by a process of forestalling, which monopolizes all the markets and compels the country people to sell from their wagons; and even this privilege is enjoyed within narrow limits and under great embarrassments. Not only are all portions of the desirable markets and surrounding sidewalk occupied by permanent stands or stalls, which are rented by the year, but the public streets are rapidly passing under the control of the middle-men. As an illustration, the streets for many blocks around Washington Market are occupied daily and nightly by what appear to be country wagons, although many of them belong to speculators residing in the city. In some instances these wagons are without wheels, and consequently become stationary obstructions in the street. When farmers and gardeners come to the city they are compelled to arrive early in the evening and take their places, six or eight hours before the opening of the market in the morning, in order to secure a suitable stand for the sale of their vegetables. This whole system of monopoly and forestalling greatly adds to the cost of market produce, and causes detentions which depreciate its freshness and quality. No single cause so directly tends to produce diarrheal diseases as the use of stale fish and vegetables. Yet this system of forestalling results in supplying the poor with the most unwholesome and dangerous food; for when a stock of vegetables becomes wilted or decayed the middlemen dispose of it for a trifle, to the very poor, or turn it over to irresponsible travelling hucksters, to be distributed in the more humble and destitute portions of the city. The same is true of the supply of fish, and to a much more dangerous extent. The most effectual remedy for this great evil is to remove the present restraints upon the free access of the country people to the city markets. Country wagons should be allowed to stand in the vicinity of all the public squares, and in the triangles formed by the intersection of streets; and the wide streets, like Fourteenth and Twenty-third, could for this purpose be occupied, under such regulations as would render their use unobjectionable. By eight or nine o'clock in the morning, al these wagons should be required to leave their stands, and such fee shouldl be collected as would pay for the immediate cleaning of the streets and places thus occupied. The consumer of fruits and vegetables would thus be brought into immediate contact with the producer, to the great pecuniary advantage of both parties, and the promotion of the health and comfort of all classes of citizens. Not only are the markets monopolized by forestallers, but many of them are occupied in part for purposes to which the market property should not be devoted. In Fulton Market, for instance, liquors, boots and shoes, books, stationery, and fancy goods, are sold, and there are not less than fifty eating and oyster stands within this market enclosure; all use extensive fires, many cf them open furnaces, for cooking. The result is that, in the spring and summer months, that portion of the market used for fish, poultry, and meats, is rendered almost valueless. The poultry and fresh meats soon spoil, and the air of the whole enclosure is rendered impure and offensive from the fumes which proceed from these eating establishments. The system and maintenance of public markets in this District, have scarcely changed (certainly, not for the better) during the last quarter of a century. The old structures, long in use, still exist, with all the dilapidation incident to neglected public property. The lower portion of New York City contains four of these structures, viz.: Catharine, Fulton, Franklin and Washington Markets. The latter has within a few years been twice indicted by the Grand Jury as a public nuisance, and the others richly deserve the same condemnation. Soon after the organization of the Metropolitan Board of Health, a thorough inspection of the markets was ordered, and elaborate reports upon their sanitary condition were submitted by the Sanitary Inspectors. The report of Inspector Emerson (Schedule I, Appendix) upon Washington Market, shows the situation and sanitary condition of the most important public market in the country. Independent, however, of the strictly sanitary condition of this and other markets, there are questions in respect to their continuance which no intelligent citizen can overlook, and which are so allied to the safety of life, that your attention is called to them in this connection. The crowded state of Broadway, Chatham, and other streets leading to Wall street and the ferries, has for many years been the source of much consideration, and various projects of an expensive character have been suggested as remedies for this evil. The practical operation of our present market system aggravates the difficulties complained of. The whole surrounding country pours its products into the lower portion of the city at Washington and Fulton markets and vicinity. At night and early morning, hundreds of country wagons may be seen in the streets adjacent to Washington Market, and large numbers of hucksters' and grocers' wagons are also present to receive and distribute the various agricultural products. So great is the crowd and rush of this market traffic that during the forenoon it is almost impossible for merchants to deliver their goods to the various forwarding lines in the vicinity, and pedestrians experience great difficulty in passing through the crowd of wagons and carts in that section of the city. The remedy for the great inconvenience caused by the crowded state of the streets around these markets, is the removal of the markets to the upper part of the city. Immediate relief would be experienced by all the great commercial interests in the lower part of the city. That the public treasury would be greatly benefited, will appear by the following official financial statements: Statement of Comptroller A. C. Flagg, contained in his Report on Market Property (1854). Interest on market poperty, valued at $1,041,000... 72,870 00 -116,887 73 Deduct market receipts..... 84,250 95 Deficiency $32,636 78 |