Chapter IV: New York, the Unclean

Alarm of Medical Men--A Systematic Investigation--A House-to-House
Inspection--The Medical Experts--Plan of Inspection--Each
Room Examined--Period of the Inspection--Distribution of
Population--Tenant-House Packing--Avoidable and Inevitable
Disease--Filthy Streets--Street Filth and Disease--Dead
Animals--Filthy Courts and Alleys--Cesspool Abominations--
Unbelievable Vileness--Special Nuisances--Cellar Population:
Dens of Death--496 Persons Under Ground--A Visit to the
Cave-Dwellers--Tenant-House Population--Cat Alley--Rag
Pickers Row--Tenant-House Degeneration--The Rioters--
Tenant-House Rot--Tenant-House Cachexy--Prevailing Diseases--
Seeds of Disease Uncontrolled--Where Disease Flourishes--
Smallpox--Smallpox in Tailored Garments--Typhus Fever--
Intestinal Affections--Living at a Sewer’s Mouth--The Normal
Death-Rate--Death-Rate of New York--New York, London, and
Liverpool Compared--Constant Sickness--Where the Death Pressure
Is Greatest--Some Scapegoats: Foreign Immigration--The
Floating Population--Can the Causes of Disease Be Removed?--
Improvements During the Inspection--How to Improve the People--
Can Diseases Be Prevented?--Can Populous Towns Be Improved?--
Cleanliness Preserves from Epidemics--Importance of Sanitary
Government--The Entire Country Concerned--Smallpox in a Hotel
Bedroom--New York Inoculates the Nation--Inefficiency of
Health Organizations--Without Sanitary Government--The City
Inspector’s Department--Sanitary Inspection--Inspection Must Be
Thorough--The Remedy--An Efficient Health Board

V

VICTORY

Effect of the Hearing--Triumph at Last--The Reform National in Its
Results

VI

THE LEGAL WORK OF DORMAN BRIDGEMAN EATON

Unrecognized Pioneers--A Constructive Reformer--Character of
Previous Agitation--Incompetent Health Officers--Reform
Movement Born--The Right Man--A Board with Extraordinary
Powers--The Fight for the Bill--A Law Enacted and Sustained--
The Regeneration of New York--Epidemics Checked--Sanitation in
Other Cities--Reorganization of the Fire Department--Creation
of a Dock Department--Reform of the Police Judiciary--Mental
Traits of Dorman B. Eaton

VII

THE OCCULT POWER OF FILTH

Filth Diseases--The Scheme of Sanitation Changed--The Mystery of
Infection--How Infection Works--What the Germ Is--The Function
of Bacteria--Bacteria for Every Condition--The Deadly Tubercle
Bacillus--How Bacteria Affect the Body--The Toxin Secreted--
Bacteria Aim to Destroy the Body--Man’s Defenses--Destroy the
Bacteria--The Value of Germicides