24G SUKGEONS' REPORTS — NEW YORK — EIGHTH DISTRICT. 



\ 

 althongb trite, has lost iiono of its truth or force by our experience of tlie h\st four years, namely, 

 " In time of peace prepare for war," I would suggest the creatiou of a bureau of tke War Depart- 

 ment which should have complete control and supervision lOf this whole matter. It should have 

 under its care the census of every district, the enrollment and examination of all men liable to mil- 

 itary service, together with a supervision and care of all such as were or had been in any way con- 

 nected with the war-service of the Government; and thus a lull and complete registration and 

 record would be had of those who bad served, and of those fit to go into the service of their coun- 

 try in time of need. 



JOHISr E. VAN KLECK, 



Surgeon Board of Enrollment Seventh District of Ifcw Yorlc. 

 New Yokk City, June 14, 1865. 



NEW YORK— EIGHTH DISTRICT. 



Extracts from report of Dr. William C. Roberts. 

 * * * The total number of men, enrolled and enlisted, examined by me, is 



* 



3,064. * 



The eighth congressional district embraces the Eighteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-first wards 

 of the city of New York. It is intersected by that great thoroughfare, the Sixtii avenue, to the 

 east of which lies the Eighteenth ward, extending from tlie splendid long and wide Fourteenth 

 street to Twenty-sixth street; it embraces a large portion of the aristocratic Fifth avenue, with its 

 magnificent hotel ; Broadway, the Fourth avenue, and Irving Place, and then downward toward 

 the East River, a series of smaller streets intersected by numeroits avenues, the Third, Second, First, 

 and avenues A, B, C, and D, containing dwellings and shops of various kinds, and thickly popu- 

 lated by people of the lower orders, of all countries and denominations ; the Germans, perhaps, 

 predominating. 



As we approach the East River, we come u])on an immense pauper population ; among these, 

 of course, intemperance, poor diet, filth, and overcrowding are prolific sources of disease and death; 

 but this is not peculiar to the district. 



The watei'-edges of our city very much resemble each other both as to the business, character, 

 habits, &c., of the population ; only that the east side is the more densely peopled, the streets are 

 dirtier and narrower, the inhabitants more closely crowded together, and that there is i^robably 

 more sickness. As we ascend on either river-side, the circumstances alter for the better. The 

 Twenty-first ward, lying to the north of Twenty-sixth street as far as Fortieth street, contains, also, 

 portions of our most splendid thoroughfares — Broaidway, the Fifth avenue east of Broadway, 

 Madison, Fourth, and Lexington avenues — the homes of the wealthy and luxurious ; and to this 

 fact we are indebted for the very large number of substitutes furnished by our district, which, it 

 was at one time believed, had more than supplied its quota. Below the Third avenue, the features 

 of each ward are the same. 



The Twentieth ward extends from the Sixth avenue to the North River, (west,) and includes 

 the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh avenues, all important thoroughfares and quite 

 densely populated. It contains fewer haudsomedwellings, but more shops, groceries, and liquor-stores, 

 (from which the condition of the inhabitants may be inferred,) and, as we approach the water's 

 edge, manufactories abound ; but I repeat that the general features of the city upper districts along 

 the water-lines do not materially difi'er. 



I can say no more respecting the prevalent diseases and their causes than tliat I suppose them 

 to be similar to those elsewhere met with. No particular endemic, perhaps, exists ; aiul yet typhus 

 and typhoid fevers, scarlatina, small-pox, measles, dysentery, cholera morbus, and cholera infantum 

 prevail. Congestive diseases, as apoplexy, delirium tremens, &c., dependent on causes too pali)ably 

 incident to a large, crowded, immoral, and ill-cleaned city to need specification, are nnnw-'ronsly 

 met with. It is only wonderful how, amid the decomposing accumulations of the matcrics morhi, 

 constantly existing among us, we escape the occurrence of those wide-spreading and destructive 

 endemics, of zymotic origin, to which the large cities of Europe are so often a prey. 



