the following chapter consists of the address delivered by dr. stephen smith on the occasion of the memorial service of hon. dorman b. eaton, january 21, 1899. we have inserted it immediately following his historic review of the events which led up to the great public health reform of 1865–1866, not only because it is a fitting tribute to the memory of one to whom the citizens of new york are indebted for many improvements in the administration of the municipal government, but because it brings together in one compact perspective the legal and sanitary requirements of modern preventive medicine.—163f. a.
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the progress of the race is largely affected in each generation by a few pioneers who, with toil and sacrifice, prepare the way for the advance. of these pioneers some blaze the future course in the unexplored and unrecognized
pioneers trackless forest; others remove the obstructions which impede the builders; while a few expert engineers bridge the rivers, tunnel the mountains and lay broad and deep the foundations of the great highway along which humanity passes to a higher civilization. unfortunately these pioneers are not always known to public fame, and far too often, though benefactors of their race, pass away without a proper recognition of their services.
this apparent neglect is not due to a lack of appreciation of their work by the people, but rather to the fact that their labors are performed in obscurity, and hence are unknown. far in the wilderness, or deep in the tunnel, or in the mire of the caisson, they toil all unseen164 by their generation, sacrificing health and often life while searching for the true pathway or laying its foundations. when the bridges are builded, the tunnels completed, and the broad highway is thrown open for travel and traffic, few or none of the passing throng give a moment’s thought to the labors and sacrifices of the builders, or the tribute of a sigh to the memory of those who perished at their work.
impressed with a sense of public obligation and of a duty to the memory of a citizen with whose labors and sacrifices in the interests of this city i had great opportunities to become familiar, it has been a grateful task to place on record some of the incidents in the life of hon. dorman b. eaton as they came under my personal observation. he was by nature, education, and association a reformer of the civil administration. born and bred in the rural communities of vermont, educated at harvard, a partner of the famous judge kent, of this city, and an associate of men of the type of william curtis noyes, charles o’conor, and others of equal reputation, mr. eaton was admirably equipped for the great work to which he devoted so much of his life and energies.
nor was he a reformer whose methods were simply destructive of what he regarded as wrong or evil in the municipal government; on the contrary, his mind was eminently constructive,165 a constructive
reformer and consequently he sought to remedy defects by substituting the new and best for the old and worst with as little friction and disturbance as possible. thus he quietly and without observation, as a master builder, laid foundations and reared the massive superstructures of four of the best-organized and most efficient departments of our city government—viz., the department of health, the fire department, the department of docks, the police judiciary.
my personal acquaintance with mr. eaton began in the year 1864, when we became associated in an effort to secure reforms in the sanitary government of the city of new york. although prior to this date there had been periods of agitation in favor of a more character of previous
agitation efficient health organization, especially when epidemics, like cholera, visited the city and the utter worthlessness of our health officials became apparent, yet there had been no such organized effort as that of 1864. previous agitation had, however, been very useful in preparing the way for the final struggle, by creating a popular interest in these reforms and in rendering the public mind both sympathetic and receptive.
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in 1855 the academy of medicine applied to the legislature for relief from the evils of an insufficient health organization, and as a result a committee of that body investigated the sanitary condition of the city. it appeared that incompetent
health officers there were four separate departments devoted to the conservation of the public health. first, was the board of health, composed of the aldermen and mayor. when this body was organized as a board of health it had supreme power, both in the abatement of nuisances and the expenditure of money. so much and so justly was this board feared, that fernando wood, while mayor, refused to call it into existence during an epidemic of cholera, declaring that the board of health was more to be feared than the pestilence.
second, was the commissioners of health, composed of the mayor and the recorder, the city inspector, the health commissioner, the resident physician, and the port health officer. this body had no adequate power and was perfectly useless both for good and evil.
third, was the resident physician, whose duties were limited to visiting the sick poor.
fourth, was the city inspector, a most formidable official politically, for he had the right to expend annually $1,000,000 without “let or hindrance.” his jurisdiction extended to the cleaning167 of the street, gathering vital statistics, and preserving the public health by the appointment of health wardens for each ward.
the investigation showed that this department, the only one which actually exercised public health functions, was permeated with corruption, ignorance, and venality. the city inspector was the lowest type of ward politician, the vital statistics were crude and unreliable, there was no pretense of cleaning the streets, and the health wardens were for the most part keepers of saloons. it was shown in the evidence that no health warden ever dared to visit a house where there was a case of contagious disease. one, who was asked the best method of preventing smallpox, replied: “burn sulphur in the room.” another, asked to define the term “hygiene,” said: “it is a mist rising from wet grounds.”
the report of this committee created a profound sensation and gave the first impetus to a reform movement. a number of prominent physicians and influential citizens became deeply interested in the subject and determined to secure proper reform movement
born legislation. health bills were annually prepared and sent to the legislature only to be rejected under the direction of the city inspector, whose $1,000,000 was expended168 freely in the lobby at albany. but the agitation increased in force with successive defeats, a large and still larger number of people were added to the ranks of the reformers of the citizens’ association in 1864, with peter cooper as president and upwards of a hundred of the leading citizens as members.
the moving spirit in organizing and managing this powerful body was mr. nathaniel sands, an ardent and enthusiastic sanitarian. two departments were created in the association, through which the principal work was to be done; viz., a council of law and a council of hygiene. mr. eaton was an active member of the former, and i was for a considerable time secretary of the latter. thus we were brought into frequent consultation over a public health law, which the association had determined to have prepared for the next legislature.
it was decided that the council of hygiene should make a first draft of the bill in which should be incorporated the necessary sanitary provisions. this draft was then to be submitted to the legal council for completion in legislative form. as secretary of the council of hygiene i had to prepare the first draft of the bill, which was done along the lines of former bills and seemed to the members to be a very perfect piece of work. when, however, the bill came from the legal council, scarcely a shred of the original draft was recognizable.
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though the legal council was composed of the leading lawyers of the city at that time, the revision and completion of the health law was committed to mr. eaton, a junior member. this selection proved to be of immense importance to the immediate sanitary the right
man interests of this city, and secondarily to the creation and administration of the health laws of the united states. the field of sanitary legislation was entirely uncultivated in this country at that time, and the principles on which health laws should be based were unrecognized, except by the more advanced students.
mr. eaton fortunately proved to be one of the few citizens who had kept pace with the progress of sanitary reforms in england, and entered fully into the spirit of the great movement that for a quarter of a century had agitated the people of that country. alarmed by the high death-rate annually reported by the registrar-general, and informed that the larger part was due to preventable diseases, the public demanded adequate remedial measures of the government. the contest was long and most exciting, the issues often being carried into the arena of politics. the prime minister once declared that there was such a craze about sanitation that the rallying cry of an election campaign might well be “sanitas sanitatum, et omnia sanitas.”
170 the triumph of the reformers was finally complete, and england adopted a code of health laws that are models of excellence, and which, in their enforcement, have made its cities and towns the healthiest in the world.
when our health bill came from the hands of mr. eaton it was evident in every line that he had made an exhaustive study of the english health code and had become thoroughly imbued with its spirit. the language was not altogether familiar, and in the involved sentences there were intimations of extraordinary powers quite unknown to our jurisprudence. when he brought the completed bill before the legal and medical councils for adoption it was subjected to a most searching criticism. while most of its sections were clear and readily understood, there were portions which were so obscure, owing to the methods of expression employed, that the legal members were in doubt as to the proper construction to be put upon them, while the medical members were altogether at a loss as to their meaning.
mr. eaton explained the theory of modern health legislation as illustrated by the english laws, and contended that a thoroughly organized and efficient board of health must have extraordinary powers, and must not be a board with
extraordinary powers subordinated to any other branch of the civil service, not even to the courts. what it declared171 to be a nuisance—dangerous to life and detrimental to health—no one should call in question. when it ordered a nuisance to be abated within a given fixed time no mandate should avail to stay its action or the enforcement of its decree.
a board of health, in his opinion, should make its own laws, execute its own laws, and sit in judgment on its own acts. it must be an imperium in imperio. england, the foremost country in the world in the cultivation of sanitary science and in the application of its principles to practice, had by its legislation for a quarter of a century established a precedent which it was right and safe for us to follow.
he predicted that if this bill became a law its operations would be so beneficial that it would not only become very popular in this city, but that it would be the basis of future health legislation in this country. he believed, however, that no legislature would pass a bill containing such powers if these powers were made a prominent feature of the bill. for that reason he had adopted that involved expression peculiar to english law which required a judicial interpretation to determine the precise meaning. the bill was approved in the form presented by mr. eaton, and preparation was made to secure its passage.
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as the city inspector with his health wardens always appeared at albany when a health bill was before the legislature, denying vociferously the alleged unsanitary condition of the city, mr. eaton advised that the association make a careful inspection of the the fight for
the bill city with its own inspectors. this inspection was organized by the council of hygiene and prosecuted during the summer of 1864 by young physicians, and was the most exhaustive study of the sanitary condition ever made of a city, even by officials. the results were published in a large volume which has been pronounced by authorities at home and abroad as equal to the best official reports of european cities.
the bill was early introduced into the legislature of 1865. in due time it came before a joint committee of both houses, with senator andrew d. white in the chair. the city inspector, with his health wardens, was present, and a large attendance of members with several prominent citizens of new york. at mr. eaton’s request i described the deplorable sanitary condition of the city as revealed by our inspections and explained the medical features of the bill. he followed with a brilliant and exhaustive speech on the nature of sanitary legislation and the value to cities of adequate health laws administered by well-organized boards of health.
at the conclusion of the hearing the members173 of the committee assured us that if the two houses were in session they would pass the bill at once. but we were doomed to disappointment. the city inspector secured delays, and meantime employed through his agents the means at his command to defeat the bill. the agitation, however, was continued during the year, chiefly through the new york times, then under the management of mr. raymond, an ardent reformer.
mr. eaton advised the medical council to interest the physicians of the country, and especially urge them not to nominate men who had voted against the bill in the last legislature. this plan was carried out, and seventeen former members failed a law enacted
and sustained of renomination to the assembly. the result of this scheme succeeded admirably, for the new legislature was to some extent pledged to support the bill when they came to the capitol. the bill promptly passed both houses early in the session of 1866, and in march the metropolitan board of health was organized. mr. eaton accepted the position of counsellor to the board, which position he retained several years.
as he had anticipated, a suit against the board was early commenced to test the constitutionality of the law. he was very apprehensive174 of the results, and made the most thorough preparation to argue the case. he was successful in the lower courts, and finally won in the court of appeals by a majority of one. he always regarded his success in the management of this case as one of the most important events of his life, for on the decision of the highest court depended the fate of health legislation in this country.
no one unfamiliar with the sanitary condition of this city prior to 1864 can form any adequate conception of the enormous benefits conferred, not only upon this metropolis, but upon the entire country, by the labors of mr. eaton and his associates in the regeneration
of new york securing to it the metropolitan health law. during the former period new york was a prey to every form of pestilence known to man. smallpox, the most preventable of contagious diseases, was epidemic in this city every five years, and created a large death-rate among the children. scarlet fever and diphtheria spread through the city without the slightest effort on the part of the officials to control them. cholera visited us once in ten years without any adequate measures of prevention. the mortality was greater than of any other city of a civilized country, it being estimated that 7,000 died yearly from preventable diseases.
175 the tenement-house population lived under the most unhealthy and degrading conditions, a prey to greedy landlords, and without any possible relief or redress. in one notorious building, which covered an ordinary city lot, were fifty families, with a total population of five hundred persons.
here every form of domestic pestilence could be found at all seasons of the year. still more deplorable was the condition of the tenants of cellars. of these so-called “troglodytes” there were 5,000 living in rooms the ceilings of which were below the level of the surface of the street.
to the present generation it may appear incredible that there was neither law, ordinance, nor department of the city government capable of giving the slightest relief. this was illustrated in an attempt to break up a fever nest in 1860. the landlord refused to make the slightest repairs, or cleansing, in a tenement house from which upwards of one hundred cases of fever have been removed to the hospital.
the attorney to the police department was unable to find any law or ordinance by which he could be compelled to cleanse, repair, or vacate the house. it was only by confronting him in court, to which he had been brought on a fictitious charge, with a reporter, that he was induced to take any steps to improve the tenement.
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now everything relating to the public health is so changed that it is almost impossible to realize the condition of the city in 1866. the change began with the very organization of the metropolitan board. within a few days of that epidemics
checked event, cholera, which had devastated portions of europe, made its appearance in this city; but it met with a far different reception than that of former visitations. the first case was quarantined within an hour of its occurrence; the clothing of the patient was destroyed, the room disinfected, and a sanitary guard placed over the house. no other case appeared in that quarter of the city. there were several similar outbreaks in different parts of the town, but each was treated with the same vigilance and energy, and the contagion never secured a foothold in the city or the metropolitan district.
though cholera has since appeared in europe at its usual intervals, and has several times been at our doors, it has not been able to invade the city for a period of thirty-four years. smallpox, which once decimated the child population every five years, has not been epidemic in a whole generation. diphtheria and the whole brood of domestic pestilences are diminishing in frequency and fatality. even consumption, so common and fatal among the poor, is rapidly disappearing in consequence of the improved condition of the tenement houses.
177 and what a vast change has been made in the homes of the poor! no human habitation is underground; the ancient rookery, with its five hundred inhabitants, is a past number; the dark, foul courts are disappearing, and in their places have arisen the modern tenements, with their light, airy, and cheerful apartments, and all the conditions necessary to family health and domestic happiness. the laws and ordinances all conspire to compel the landlords to remedy every defect on complaint of the tenant; the penalty being that the latter need not pay rent until the home is made habitable in a sanitary sense. the vital statistics show that human life is lengthening in this city, and that the entire metropolis is more healthy as a place of residence than the surrounding country towns.
but the beneficent results of the labors of mr. eaton and his associates in the field of sanitary legislation are not confined to new york. as he predicted, the metropolitan health law became the basis of sanitary legislation throughout the country. at the sanitation in
other cities time of its enactment the municipalities of the united states were as destitute of health laws and regulations as the city of new york. to-day there is not a city, or even village, that has not its laws and ordinances relating to the preservation and promotion of the public health178 based on the original law drawn by mr. eaton. and the same remark is true of the organized health administration of the states of the union, for on analysis it will be found that their sanitary legislation is in harmony with the provisions of that law. mr. eaton’s work was broad and fundamental.
at that period the old volunteer fire department was quite as discreditable to the city as was its health organization. intrenched in the political organizations of the city, it wielded a power second only to that of the great political reorganization of the
fire department parties themselves. it required the strength and courage of a hercules to purify this department by removing the existing elements, reconstructing the entire organization, substituting a paid for a volunteer membership, and requiring a high grade of qualification of its officers.
but, aided by the citizens’ association, mr. eaton undertook this reform, and after a fierce and prolonged struggle carried it to a successful conclusion. the law creating the fire department, like that creating the health department, is a model of intelligent discrimination of all the conditions essential to the efficiency of the service and its permanent freedom from the vices inherent in the old system.
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scarcely had these reforms been perfected when mr. eaton’s attention was turned by the citizens’ association to the necessity of having a department in the city government devoted exclusively to the care and management of the public docks, creation of a dock
department wharves, and other water-front interests of the city. this movement resulted in the passage of the law drawn by mr. eaton creating the department of docks. though this department was to occupy an entirely new field in the municipal administration, the law shows in every section the same mastery of all the details peculiar to mr. eaton’s legislative work.
finally, mr. eaton undertook, single-handed, to reform the police judiciary. he prepared a bill creating the civil magistrates to take the place of the police justices and reforming in many particulars the methods of procedure. this law is regarded reform of the
police judiciary as a great improvement upon the previous police judiciary, but the bill became a law only after a protracted struggle with the old police justices, a struggle which mr. eaton maintained alone, relying upon the merits of the measure which he advocated. the consensus of opinion of legal authorities is that the new law effected180 radical reforms of great importance in these inferior courts of criminal jurisprudence in new york city.
if we may estimate mr. eaton’s mental traits by the laws which he drafted in the interests of municipal reform, we can readily conclude that he had a remarkable genius for constructive legislation. though he was compelled to weave into the very woof of those mental traits of
dorman b. eaton laws, extraordinary powers, which he acknowledged were of vital importance to their efficiency, and yet would be a menace to the public, if the laws were administered by unscrupulous persons, he succeeded in so guarding those powers that these laws have been in operation upwards of a quarter of a century; and, while those who have from time to time been called to administer them have not always had the best reputation for intelligence and civic virtue, yet there has at no time been any complaint of injustice in their execution, nor has there been any serious lapse in their vigorous enforcement. to-day, as a generation ago, they are accomplishing the full measure of usefulness for which they were designed by their author.
standing now at the close of a life so largely devoted to the service of his fellow-men and consecrated to the amelioration of human suffering,181 and where we may, in some slight degree, estimate the vast and ever-increasing fruition of its labors, how sublime it appears! monuments and memorials can but faintly symbolize its greatness and perpetuate its enduring force. mr. eaton’s own thought of true fame once was expressed to me thus: “i ask only to be remembered as one who in his sphere of life’s duties endeavored to improve the conditions of human life around him.”
