New-York tribune., 1912-02-19
DR.. S. SMITHS BIRTHDAY
Dean of New York Surgeons Is
Eighty-nine Years Old.
FULL OF "REMINISCENCES
Man Who Devised Present
Scheme of Municipal Santa
tion Still Active.

DIR. Stephen Smith, the distinguished dean
OF all New York's surgeons, founder Of the
first nurses training school established in
this country and the man who devised the
scheme of municipal sanitation which was
later copied by practically every city in
the United States. celebrates to-day his
eighty-ninth birthday.
While he has recently been elected presi-
dent of the New York Conference of Chari-
ties and of the Tree Planting Association
and is as busy a man i'm his ninetieth year
as ne was twenty years ago. this very ac-
tivity tends to conceal his actual position
among the citys surgeons and physicians.
DR.. Smith remembers when New York had
only two hospitals, when Bellevue was a
small amshouse affair and when the city
had a system Of sanitation that seems
too ridiculous to be worthy of the name
even of System"
One million dollars was appropriated each
year to care for the clty's health, and this
money was dOled out to health commits
sioners" in each ward who got their jobs
through political pull, made no inspections
of conditions, and who were usually bar
tenders or heelers for the ward bosses.
There was nothing in those days that
could be dignifed by the term municipal
sanitation" said DR.. Smith. Sewage
was dumped promiscuously in back yards,
or even in the streets; there were practi-
cally no tenement house laws and the in
herent sloveniness Of the residents of cheap
quarters OF the city was assisted and en-
couraged by the criminal carelessness and
inefficiency Of the men who were supposed
TO enforce the few faulty laws then In oper-
alton.
Each year. when the 81, 100000 appropria-
tion was passed cut, the 'nealth commits
sioners' were put on the job. There were
constant outbreaks Of epidemic diseases and
several times cholera made its appearance,
Ia the terror of the residents. In dozens
Of cases these health commissioners had
merely gone TO the section affected and
peeked around the corner OF the street SO
as to fix In their minds the location Of the
epidemic area
when, along I'm 1864, We decided that
something must he DONE and began TO make
thorough investigation Of conditions, we
found them worse even than We suspect
ed. In getting at the actual facts we came
across almost as many laughable incidents
as we did pathetic ones-especially in the
case OF the inspectors.
ION one occasion we asked ono of these
incumbents what hygiene was. He re-
piled that, to the best OF his knowledge
and belief, il was "a mist that rises up
from stagnant water Another informed
us that tho best way to cure smallpox
was TO burn sulphur in the same room
with the patient After we got after the
politicians. carried two years fight TO
Albany and spent about $500 one summer
getting out report, we managed to get
bill through the Legislature that enabled
us to begin to put the clty's health on a
| safer basis"
Dr. Smiths home yesterday was flooded
with messages and kilograms Of congrat-
ulation. The veteran surgeon, when asked
last night how his health had been for
the last year, replied In an offhand way
that It had been good.
"As young man my health was poor
DR. Smith explained, and, in fact. was
not very good up to the time | was sixty
years old Since then 1t has been excellent
and is improving all the time"