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upon us during the last quarter, but the circumstances
of the season have been peculiarly trying,
and there is hope that the normal condition of
things will soon be restored.
As to the sanitary work which has been accomplished
in the year, I have to report that there
were 5,340 inspections of houses, and 2,446 visits to
the Common Lodging-houses of the City. The
number of orders issued for sanitary improvement,
amounted to 1,721; and of the several inspections
there were 1,140, because of the existence of fever,
833 from the occurrence of dysentery and diarrhoea,
and 14 because of cholera. All these were notified
in the returns of the Medical Officers to the Unions
of the City; and, as soon as they became known to
me, they were made the subjects of especial inquiry.
I regard this as one of the most effectual means of
checking the progress of any disease that manifests
a disposition to become epidemic.
In the course of the year, I have laid before you
certificates of the over-crowding of 66 houses, in
which there were 116 rooms occupied by 181 men,
219 women, and 138 children. The inmates were
distributed somewhat in the following manner,—
one man with two, three, or four women; two men
with two or three women; and sometimes three
men to two or more women. This is an evil which