40# [ASSENTBLT 



inta the adjacent areas and cellars, keeptng them almost constantly 

 wet. It was but a short time ago I met with the case of a woman,^ 

 the wife of a tailor living in a noted court in Walker-street, and^ 

 occupying partly a basement, in which sHe was compelled to pass 

 much ot her time. She has lived there six months, four of which 

 she has been sick with rheumatism, and on that account, unable to 

 work. Otherwise she would be able to earn considerable by assist- 

 ing her husband. They have four children depending upon them, 

 and are obliged to seek assistance from the public, in consequence 

 of this sickness. She attributes her disease to the water in the cel- 

 lar, which runs in, and obliges her to bail out, and wipe up, at every 

 storm. The money expended upon them in charity, would have rec- 

 tified all this difficulty, have preserved the health and strength of 

 the family, and saved all parties much trouble and suffering. 



Another case is that of a woman with two children' — her husband, 

 a laborer — living in a cellar in Lewis street, two months. Before 

 moving to this place she lived in an upper room in Spring street, 

 and was there always well, but has been side ever since she went ta 

 live in the cellar.. 



Another applied for medical aid who lives in a cellar, immediately, 

 adjoining lohich is the vault of a church-yard, the moisture from 

 which comes throvgh into the apartment, to such an extent, as obliged 

 them to move the bed aioay from the wall. 



It is not a difficult matter for the Dispensary Physician, while 

 receiving applications for medical aid at the office, to distinguish in 

 a majority of cases, the cellar residents from all others, without 

 asking a question. If the whitened and cadaverous countenance 

 should be an insufficient guide, the odor of the person will remove 

 all doubt; a musty smell, which a damp cellar only can impart, per- 

 vades every article of dress, the woolens more particularly, as well 

 as the hair and skin. 



At No. 50 Pike-street is a cellar about ten feet square, and seven, 

 feet high, having only one very small window, and the old fashioned 

 inclined cellar door. In this small place, were lately residing two> 

 families, consisting of ten persons, of all ages. 



Dr. Reid, the ventilator of the new houses of parliament, places. 

 the quantity of air necessary for the perfect,^ free and wholsome res- 



