244 SUEGEONS' REPORTS— NEW YORK SEVENTH DISTRICT. 



NEW YOEK— SEVENTH DISTRICT. 

 Extracts from report of Dr. J. E. Van Kleck. 



* * * My comiectiou with this office dates from its establishment, in the year 



1863. Operations were first begun in May of that year. The first and only professional duties for 

 three or four months were the examination of candidates for the " Invalid Corps," a very gratifying 

 duty, as showing on the part of the Government a desire to do something for those who had become 

 disabled in the service of their country, and that too in a manner far more honorable than to make 

 them simply the recipients of bounty or pensions. At the same time that the plan was commend- 

 able on the score of economy, it also showed on the part of the applicants that they did not want 

 to eat the bread of charity, but were still desirous of doing what they were able for the cause of 

 that country to whose service they had dedicated their lives, and in whose behalf they had thus 

 far toiled and suffered. The number examined for this purpose in the first year reached only about 

 fifty. Afterward, in the autumn of the year 1864, very many more of this class were examined at 

 these headquarters. * * * 



All operations at this oflice, as at all the offices in this city, were suddenly brought to a stop by 

 the disgraceful and lamentable drama of July, 1SG3, when, for the wicked and insane purpose of 

 thwarting the Government in the prosecution of the draft, New York was made a scene of anarchy, 

 of riot, and bloodshed, leaving a stain upon us as a city which years will not efface. Quiet being at 

 length restored by the strenuous and well-directed efforts of the General Government, and peace and 

 security being insured by the presence of troops, the draft, which was about to have taken place 

 at the time of the riot, and of which it was supposed to be the cause, was now resumed It took 

 place in this district on the 26th day of August, 1863. The quota called for was 2,050 men, to 

 obtain wLich 50 per cent, was added, so that 3,075 names were drawn. Of these very many were 

 never found, a result which was inevitable, and which must ever o»cur in large cities like this, 

 where the poiKilation is of so varied and shifting a character, and where the enrollment was con- 

 ducted as it was bere, with full scope, namely, for the ignorance and liability to deception of the 

 euroUingofiicers. Of those who did appear when summoned, 2,238 came under my observation ; 

 of these, 638 were examined and were exempted for the various reasons set forth in the report of 

 the result of the draft of 1863 ; those who were held to service furnished substitutes, procured for 

 them, for the most part, through the iustrumeuta'.ity of the supervisors' substitute fund, and a few 

 paid commutation. * * * 



This district is made up of the Eleventh and Seventeenth wards of tbe city of New York, being 

 a compact district, definitely bounded by the Fourth avenue on the west and the East Eiver on 

 the east, lying between Eivington and Fourteenth streets; it covers au area of about two square 

 miles. Tbe locality itself is, in the main, healthy, save in the easternmost part, where a good deal 

 of the ground is made or filled in. There is nothing, however, in the character of tbe district likely 

 to be productive of disease, but much in the character and habits of its population. In this small 

 locality is pent up a larger foreign population than in any similar district in the United States, 

 (in the Seventeenth ward alone there are nearly 100,000 Germans.) They are packed in dense 

 masses in the immense tenement-houses, sometimes to the number of four hundred, or even six 

 hundred, in a house. Many of these are new-comers in the country ; they are very slow to change 

 the habits they have brought with them, and they retain to a very great degree the heedless and 

 filthy modes of life of such classes in all foreign countries. Most of them, it is true, are not indis- 

 possd to industry — indeed, they have always worked, and must work to live — but a large propor- 

 tion is of the class of judoor operatives; and confessedly objectionable as their occupations must 

 always be, even under favorable circumstances as to air and ventilation, it will be readily seen how 

 injurious must be the effect if they are pursued under the less favorable hygienic influences which 

 prevail in the district described. A very large part of the male population is made up of tailors, 

 shoe-makers, cigar-makers, and cabinet-makers, while '' lager-bier" shops abound in every block ; 

 hence, the dise<ises peculiar to this class of operatives, increased by unfavorable hygienic condi- 

 tions of indoor life, and by irregular habits of the individual, show themselves in a marked 

 ratio. # * * 



