From this class of medical men the Council selected, as far as possible, its corps of Inspectors. As a body, they represent the best medical talent of the junior portion of the profession of New York. Many occupy high social positions, and all were men of refinement, education, and devotion to duty. They entered upon the work with the utmost enthusiasm; engaging in it as a purely scientific study.
Everywhere the people welcomed the Inspectors, invited them to examine their homes, and gave them the most ample details.
The plan of inspection adopted by the Council was as follows: The city was divided into thirty-one districts and an Inspector selected for each, care being taken to assign to each inspector a district with which he was most familiar. The Inspector was directed to commence his inspection by first traversing the whole district, to learn its general and topographical peculiarities. He was then to take up the squares in detail, examining them consecutively as they lie in belts.
Commencing at a given corner of his district, he was first to go around the square and note: 1. Nature of the ground. 2. Drainage and sewerage. 3. Number of houses in the square. 4. Vacant lots and their sanitary condition. 5. Courts and alleys. 6. Rear buildings. 7. Number of tenement houses. 11. Drinking shops, brothels, gambling saloons, etc. 12. Stores and markets. 13. Factories, schools, crowded buildings. 14. Slaughter-houses (describe particularly). 15. Bone and offal nuisances. 16. Stables, etc. 17. Churches and school edifices.
Returning to the point of starting, he was to commence a detailed inspection of each building, noting: _a._ Condition and material of buildings. _b._ Number of stories and their height. _c._ Number of families intended to be accommodated, and space allotted to each. _d._ Water supply and house drainage. _e._ Location and character of water-closets. _f._ Disposal of garbage and house slops. _g._ Ventilation, external and internal. _h._ Cellars and basements, and their population. _i._ Conditions of halls and passages. _j._ Frontage on street, court, alley--N., E., S. or W. 18. Prevailing character of the population. 19. Prevailing sickness and mortality. 20. Sources of preventible disease and mortality. 21. Condition of streets and pavements. 22. Miscellaneous information.