CONTENTS
| I |
| A Blind Metropolis and Her Dying Children |
| Healthy or Unhealthy: Which?—Two Centuries and a Half Unhealthy—A Plague-Stricken Town—Enormous Sacrifice of Life |
| II |
| A Great Awakening in England |
| The Scourge of 1849—A Town That Was Immune—The Word Fitly Spoken |
| III |
| The Awakening in America |
| Apathy in the United States—An Incident That Counted—A Fever Nest—The Unknown Owner—Fear of Publicity—Agitation for Reform—The Citizens Association—A Health Bill—Sanitary Inspection of New York—An Anomaly in Law—Introduction of an Epoch-Making Bill |
| 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 |
| VIII |
| A Closing Word |
| Cleanliness Next to Godliness—Invisible Agencies in Filth—A Higher Civilization |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| Public School Adjoining Slaughter-Pen, 1865 | Frontispiece |
| Plan of Rookery Holding 1000 Persons | 60 |
| A Crowded Section of the City | 61 |
| A Tenant-House Cul-de-Sac Near City Hall | 70 |
| Cul-de-Sac Near Slaughter-House and Stables | 71 |
| Plan of Cellar—“Worse Than a Stygian Pit” | 73 |
| Slaughter-Pens in Rear of Tenant-Houses | 77 |
| Sixth Street Cattle Market, 1865 | 78 |
| Region of Hide-Curing, Fat-Gathering, etc. | 79 |
| Region of Bone-Boiling and Swill-Milk Nuisances | 80 |
| Plan of Rookery Between Broadway and Bowery | 83 |
| Plan of Cellar Occupied by Two Families | 85 |
| Plan Showing Rear Tenant-Houses Near a Stable | 89 |
| Rivington Place, 1865 | 92 |
| Gotham Court, Cherry Street, 1865 | 95 |
| Transverse Sectional Elevation of Gotham Court | 96 |
| “The Great Eastern” | 98 |
| A Perpetual Fever-Nest | 106 |
| Region of Smallpox and Typhus Fever | 111 |
| Plan of Fever-Nest, East 17th Street | 114 |
| Bird’s-Eye View of Fever-Nest Near Fifth Avenue | 115 |
| Plan of Monroe Street Fever-Nest | 117 |
| A Sixth Ward Fever-Nest | 126 |
| Plan of Typical Fever-Nest, 1865 | 130 |
| Plan of Rear Cul-de-Sac | 134 |
| Fever-Breeding Structure Near Central Park | 139 |
| Stagnant Water, Central Park West | 148 |