4. Massachusetts State Charities. Report of the Special Joint Committee appointed to investigate the whole System of the Public Charitable Institutions of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, during the Recess of the Legislature in 1858. By JOHN MORRISSEY, WILLIAM FABENS, CHARLES HALE, DEXTER F. PARKER, and GEORGE M. BROOKS. 5. Reports of the Board of State Charities of Massachusetts for the Years 1864 - 1867. 6. Address of his Excellency, John A. Andrew, to the Two Branches of the Legislature of Massachusetts, January 6, 1865. 7. Address of his Excellency, Alexander H. Bullock, to the Two Branches of the Legislature of Massachusetts, January 3, 1868. 8. A Manual for the Use of the Overseers of the Poor of the City of Boston. VI. THE TRANSLATION OF THE VEDA . VII. 1. Ueber gelehrte Tradition im Alterthume, besonders in Indien, etc. . 515 2. On the Interpretation of the Veda. By J. MUIr. 4. On the Veda of the Hindus and the Veda of "the QUOTATION AND ORIGINALITY VIII. BOSTON. II. IX. WESTERN POLICY IN CHINA. X. EXPATRIATION AND NATURALIZATION. 543 557 592 612 1. Allegiance and Citizenship. An Inquiry into the Claim of European Governments to exact Military Service of Naturalized Citizens of the United States. By GEORGE H. YEAMAN. Publications of the Narragansett Club, 673.- Greene's Life of Nathanael LIST OF SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS 629. 671 673 742 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. CCXIX. APRIL, 1868. ART. I. Annual Report of the Metropolitan Board of Health of New York. 1866. New York. 1867. 8vo. pp. 456. IT has been said that "the saddest pages in the history of all nations are those which treat of the wholesale sacrifice of human life, through ignorance or neglect of the simplest means of preserving health or averting disease." It is now known that the fearful epidemics, or plagues, so called, that swept with such deadly malignity through the cities of the Middle Ages, had their origin and derived their strength from gross neglect of the simplest sanitary laws. Narrow and filthy streets, crowded, ill-ventilated, and dark dwellings, lack of provision for drainage, and of facilities for personal and general cleanliness, these were the causes of pestilence no less in mediæval Europe than at the present day. It needs but a glance to see how the frequency and virulence of epidemics have decreased with the application of improved sewerage, the introduction of plentiful supplies of water, the destruction or remodelling of crowded and filthy quarters, and the removal from populous districts of such processes and manufactures as contaminate the atmosphere, and so reduce the vigor and degrade the morale of the inhabitants. It was a consideration of these facts, together with the daily increasing evidence that the city of New York, or at least a large portion of it, was already in a condition, not only to foster such ordinary forms of disease as depend upon foul air and VOL. CVI. NO. 219. 23 general uncleanliness, but to invite and rapidly develop contagion and pestilence, that some six years since stimulated the legislative action which resulted in the establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Health. Many portions of New York and Brooklyn, but especially of New York, had become densely populated, not only, in fact not chiefly, with native citizens, but with immigrants from abroad. Every week added largely to this population. The older portions of the city, where the laboring classes congregated, were becoming overcrowded to a degree that rendered cleanliness and decency almost impossible. Diseases of every kind, but especially such as have their origin directly or indirectly in the lack of pure air, personal cleanliness, and nutritious food, prevailed constantly and to an alarming extent among the inhabitants of these districts. The mortality was very great, particularly among children; and it was from time to time startlingly evident that the almost utter neglect of sanitary regulation was leaving the city a victim to the poisonous influence of these sources of sickness, which were daily extending their limits, and every year more imminently threatening to destroy the salubrity of a city to which Nature had afforded special facilities for the preservation of life and health. The engrossing interests of commerce and politics seemed to have blinded the public generally to the shadow that was gradually, but steadily, growing wider and deeper. Some years since, however, several prominent members of the Academy of Medicine, and subsequently the "Citizens' Association," an organization composed of the more intelligent and public-spirited men in the community, inaugurated a systematic and persistent effort at sanitary reform, and the Legislature of the State was urgently appealed to for aid. Each year, however, the effort proved unsuccessful, until at last, in the winter of 1865-66, when already from the Old World had come the silent, but fearful, warning of the approach of cholera, the importance of a reform was appreciated. On the 26th of February, 1866, a Health Law was passed by the Legislature. This law was entitled "An Act to create a Metropolitan Sanitary District, and Board of Health therein, for the Preservation of Life and Health, and to prevent the Spread of Disease." This law created a Metropolitan Sanitary District, comprising the cities of New York and Brooklyn and several adjoining counties, which was to be under the control, in all matters bearing upon the public health, of a Board of Health, to be composed of four health commissioners, three of whom should be medical men, the fourth a layman, the commissioners of police, four in number, ex officio, and the health officer of the port, ex officio,— also the officer, a medical man, who had charge of the quarantine. It provided likewise for the appointment of a sanitary superintendent, an assistant superintendent, sanitary inspectors, clerks, employees, &c. The Board organized its corps of officers and employees without delay, and commenced at once upon its labors. A plan was perfected by which the district should be under constant and rigid inspection, and the Board notified of the result. The cities of New York and Brooklyn were divided into districts of limited extent, and a sanitary inspector was assigned to each district. The inspectors thus assigned were instructed to proceed forthwith to "familiarize" themselves with the sanitary condition of their respective districts; to transmit to the superintendent, semi-weekly, written reports on such nuisances found in their districts as in their opinion demanded special and immediate attention, giving the situation and number of the premises, the owner's name, and a brief, but distinct, description of the nuisance itself; to designate such streets or parts of streets as were particularly neglected and filthy; to pay especial attention to tenement-houses; to diligently search therein for local causes of disease, particularly from overcrowding, and the lack of proper ventilation, drainage, and light, and, if possible, to indicate in their reports the remedy for such deficiencies, when found. Whenever individual cases of sickness were met with, which in the opinion of the inspectors should, either for the good of the patient or that of his neighbors, be removed to the hospital, they were directed to effect such removal, if possible, by advice and assistance given to the friends of the patient, and failing in this, to report the circumstances at once to the superintendent. By order of the Board, a book was placed in each precinct station-house in the city, in which citizens were invited to enter complaints of nuisances, and a central "Complaint Of fice" was established in connection with that of the superintendent, where complaints could be made, either in person or by letter, and to which the various complaints entered at the precinct station-houses were forwarded daily. Here all complaints were supervised, assorted, and thence referred to the inspecting officers of the districts in which the nuisances complained of were said to exist. Their reports were carefully examined in the office of the superintendent, with the advice, when necessary, of the attorney of the Board. Such as were found to be properly prepared were at once. forwarded to the Board for its action, while those which were found defective in any particular were returned to their respective authors for correction. Some slight modifications in the method of proceeding have from time to time been adopted. In many cases it has been necessary only to call the attention of the property-owners to the evil to have it remedied, and it is customary for the superintendent to send a warning notice to the party responsible. After the lapse of a reasonable time from the date of such notice, a reinspection is made, and if it be found that the nuisance has been abated, no further action is taken in the matter; if otherwise, the original report is laid before the Board to become the basis of an order, the service of this to be followed by a second reinspection, and, provided the nuisance remain still unabated, by the execution of the order under the direction of the sanitary superintendent. Under this system a large number of nuisances are promptly removed by the owners of property, who not unfrequently express their gratification at being notified, while in other instances the more tedious process of forcible execution becomes necessary. The field of jurisdiction of the Board was very extensive, and presented subjects of reform exceedingly diversified in character and apparently unlimited in number, a large proportion of which demanded, with almost equal urgency, immediate |