Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-20

tenement in that East Side district For many
years that house continued to be entirely free
from the ordinary contagious diseases OF the
tenement houses of the city. 1t is an interest
ing fact that the landlord subsequently thanked
the writer for having compelled him to improve
his tenement house; for now he had first class
tenants who paid him much higher rents.
Fixing Up the Law
THIS incident came to the attention of sew
eral prominent citizens, physicians, law
yers, and clergymen, who were profoundly inn
pressed with the revelation that there were
no laws under which such glazing violation
of the simplest principles of health and
even common decency, could be at once cor
rected.
In conference it was decided to attempt to
seek proper legislation through the Citizens
ASSOCIATION, a powerful voluntary organIza-
ton to secure municipal reforms, the president
of which was Peter Cooper. Under the
pices of that body a complete inspection of the
city was made, extending to every tenement
room and its surroundings, including a census
of the people and the sickness rate. The in
spection was made by a corps OF young physl-
clans, and the results were subsequently pub
lished in a volume of more than five hundred
pages At the session of the Legislature of
New York in 1865 this report was presented,
together with the draft of health law, the
joint production of the ablest physicians and
lawyers of the city The hearing was at :,
joint meeting of the Committee of Cities OF
DOtn houses, senator andrew ~. w mite
siding The report created much interest
that the bill would have been reported favor
ably in both houses had not the city inspector
secured delay for another hearing. This gave
him the opportunity that he desired of defeat
ing the bill.
But the public, and especially the medical
profession, both of the city and the State, had
become so interested in the measure that at
the next election it became a prominent issue
and led to the defeat of seventeen candidates
who had voted in opposition.
1t is said that epidemcs are the best pro-
meters of sanitary reform, and very oppOr-
timely cholera made its appearance in Europe
late in 1865, and from it's rate of progress it
year. These favoring conditions led to the
passage of the Metropolitan Health Law
among the first measures of that Legislature.
Triumph at Last
THE struggle and final triumph of the people
of New York in their efforts to secure
adequate health protection were national IN
their influence. And this influence was enpha
sized by the first acts of the metropolitan
board. Scarcely had it organized when cholera
made its appearance in New York There was
the usual alarm among the people, and large
numbers left the city. But the new health
laws and ordinances administered by an IN
telligent, scientific authority, demonstrated
the rdtsOn d'ftre of their existence. The FIRST
case of cholera promptly isolated, the
house and its surroundings cleansed and dis
infected, and rigid supervision established. No
other case occurred in that vicinity. The sec
ond case, which appeared in another part of
the city, was treated in similar manner and
with the same results. A third, fourth, fifth,
and finally many cases appeared IN different
parts of the city during the season, apparently
brought from localities in the vicinity where
the epidemic prevailed with its usual severity;
but in New York no two cases occurred in the
same place, SO effectually was each case treated.
Within one month public confidence in the
power of the board to control the spread OF the
disease was firmly established; people who
had fled returned to their homes; business III
commercial districts, which was at first sus-
pended, was resumed; and the health depart
ment became the most popular branch of the
city government, position which it has MAIN
tanned uninterruptedly for nearly half CEN
fury.
This popular triumph of sanitation is largely
due to the perfection of the original Metropoli-
tan Law, which has been declared officially
and judicially to be the most complete piece of
health legislation ever placed on the statute
book. From that fountain of legal lore the
whole country has been supplied with both the
principles and the details of sanitary legisla
ton. 1t is only justice to the memory of the
late Dornan-B. Eaton to state that to him the
country is indebted for this valuable law.
An Anomaly in Law
ONE feature of it deserves mention; for it