SANITARY IMPROVEMENT IN NEW YORK. 325 



tion was modified by placing a front and rear house npon the same 

 lot, with a narrow alley between, thereby accommodating a greater 

 number of families and more effectually depriving them of air and 

 light. An act of the Legislature of 1879 required that the plans 

 and specifications for light and ventilation of all tenement-houses 

 thereafter erected be filed with the Health Department and receive 

 its official approval before work can commence ; and in 1881 a 

 similar requirement was applied to plans and specifications for the 

 plumbing and drainage of all new buildings. Owners, builders, 

 and plumbers are required to construct buildings according to the 

 approved plans, and are vigorously prosecuted for any violation. 

 Sanitary engineers are detailed to inspect as often as necessary 

 every building in course of construction, to report violations of 

 plans and specifications, to thoroughly test the plumbing, and to 

 report the satisfactory completion of all work before the occupa- 

 tion of the building is permitted. As the result of this important 

 sanitary work, the New York tenement-house recently built is a 

 model structure and can hardly be improved. A clear, unob- 

 structed space of ten feet is required at the rear of every such 

 house, with open courts in the interior sufficient in size to afford 

 light and ventilation to every room. At least one water-closet 

 with suitable appliances for flushing, well lighted, and ventilated 

 by a separate air-shaft, must be provided for every fifteen persons. 

 The cellars are lighted by windows to the external air, their floors 

 are concreted, and their ceilings plastered or sealed with boards. 

 The old hydrant in the yard, with its cesspool for receiving the 

 slops and liquid waste of many families, has disappeared, and water 

 is supplied to each apartment with suitable kitchen sinks and 

 wash-tubs. The plumbing and drainage conform to the most ap- 

 proved system, and earthenware pipes with leaky joints, and un- 

 trapped and unventilated waste-pipes, are unknown in the modern 

 tenement. The old tenement-houses are rapidly yielding to the en- 

 croachments of business, and are replaced by factories, stores, and 

 warehouses ; and this fact, together with the proper enforcement 

 of the laws and regulations in respect to the erection of new 

 houses and the conversion of private dwellings to the use of many 

 families, practically solves the tenement-house problem. 



3. Lodging-houses. The laws relating to the light, ventila- 

 tion, plumbing, and drainage of tenement-houses in New York 

 also apply to the numerous lodging-houses which shelter for a 

 night at cheap rates the unemployed laborer, the homeless poor, 

 and in some cases the vagrant and the outlaw. Twenty-five years 

 since no supervision or sanitary control was exercised by the pub- 

 lic authorities as to the character or condition of apartments used 

 for lodgers of this class ; and cellars, dark, damp, and unventilated, 

 were commonly occupied for this purpose and were distinguished 



