No. 216.] 409 



Does it not become the duty of the magistrate and the philanthro' 

 pist upon the presentation of such a statement as this, of the waste 

 and havoc of the life, health, and strength of the people, to institute 

 an inquiry into the causes of so great an amount of sickness, and to 

 use every possible means to alleviate them? 



Another fact developed by these reports is conclusive as to the 

 influence of the causes to which I have alluded, of this great amount 

 of sickness. 



If the habitation of damp, dark cellars, and of narrow alleys and 

 courts, and the breathing of a vitiated atmosphere, are rightly 

 asserted to be promotive of disease, then those most subject to these 

 causes should be sick in the greatest numbers. Now the male part 

 of this class breathe a totally different air through the day, at their 

 labors in the streets, along the rivers, or upon the buildings, and 

 only at night are they subject to the worse atmosphere. Thus more . 

 than half their hours are passed under more healthful circumstances. 

 Even the boys who spend several hours at play, or even in a partially 

 ventilated scboo!-house, follow an improved regimen in this particu- 

 lar. On the other hand, the females, both night and day, inhale the 

 polluted atmosphere of the dwellings, and are more continually under 

 all the other bad influences of their unfortunate situations. 



Do the official results correspond with these premises? 



It will be seen upon examining the Dispensary returns, that in some 

 years the proportion of females to males, prescribed for at the Dis- 

 pensaries, has been as 12 to 10| — m others, 12 to 8|, and in one in- 

 stance as 19 to 11. This comparison is rendered more striking when 

 we take into account the greater amount of intemperance among the 

 males. 



The Annual Reports of the City Inspector show that nr-arly one-half 

 the deaths by consumption are of the foreign part of the population, 

 and that more than one-third the whole number of deaths are of 

 foreigners. Such an immense disproportion can only be accounted 

 for on the supposition that some extarordinary causes of death pre- 

 vail among the strangers who come to reside among us. Now it is a 

 pretty well ascertained fact, that a large majority of the cellar and 

 court population of this city consists of persons of foreign birth and 

 their children. Of the Dispensary patients, about 60 per cent, are 

 natives of other countries, and if it were possible to ascertain the 

 parentage of the children receiving aid from these institutions, we 



