New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-10-11
The Hon. Fernando WOOD, Mayor, &c.

The Hon Fernando WOOD, Mayor, &c.
To ycur request Of Sept. T. for :" my views and any
suggestions may have to make TO some permanent
provision for the protection Of the public health of this
city" &c. take pleasure in responding, and in doing
would fr AK your attention to the following para
ggsph from the Report Of the proceedngsof the
Sanitary Committee of the Board of Health, relative
to the Cholera as it prevailed in NewYork in ls49."
" Tie labors of your committee during the past up
paliDg season Of sickness and DEATH and the awful
scenes Of degradation, misery and filth developed to
them by their researches have brought into full view
the fact that re hare no sanitary police scorhy Of he
name; that we are unprotected by that watchfu re-
gard over the public health which common die
a.ee TO he necessary for the security of our lives the
mahtt nance of the cys reputation, and the preser
vanen OF the interests of its inhabitants Cholera may
again assall us before we know IT, and it s the dictate
of true policy 10 be prepared in to meet it, aud
not cbolera alone, but any and every other malady
which may be produced aggravated by local causes.
To no other work should the authorities address them
selves more earnestly ia An the establishment Of thor
oughiy OTganized medical police at whose ksad sk0ud
De on dettre and erperieHoed medical The ad
vanfagfs OF such measure would be incalcuable"
PIP. 80 ar 81.
Six years have elapsed since these words so preg-
nsht with meaning, were uttered by those who had
lad personal experience of the horrors AZ endant upon
pesblence-enicken city, and attention whatever
has been paid to them. The committee unprofessional
men driven TO adult the great tr dth which was
well own before to all the medical gord-thaf GER
tain maLadies produced and aggracoted By Locak
eau~'-but the oDly remedy pointed out by the com.
Biitee remains u.beeded.
Our sanitary police has not improved whit since
that time AID the frs. official inquiries foe information
on his most vital of all the departments OF the city
government are Instituted by present chief mags-
tra;e.
There are tso propositions in the science of public
bye iene connected with this subj ct which are demon
shable !. That the sources of cholera cholera in-
fsntun yellow, typhus, remittent and intermittent
levers, diarrhea dysentgy, and several other diseases
OF The ZymOc or DfectiOus class are fully understood
and, 2. That tese causes removable and the dis
eases preveDtsble.
reed rot here stop 10 prove these propositions
believing you will he satisfied wi the simple enua-
oittion Of tbem but will ask you to consider them
fully in oil The length ard bre adth Of their importance
which will appear at once upon learning that every
year, in ordinsry times, e when none of them pre-
walls tpdemicsllyl they produce from twenty Il We to
thirty hr.e per cent of the deaths Of Nex.York and
when one or another Of them has prevailed a. an ep
defnic, the deahs by this class have amounted 10
over fifty per cent Of the aDnIal mortality
And furthermore % one Of the cOnsea neoces of the
fact discovered by the Sanitary Committee of 1919,
" that we have no sanitary police worthy of the
name" though the zymote diseases are weeping of
rom I've thousand 10 ten thousand per annam, toe