Note 19 — Chapter XXII · THE CIVIL WAR AND AFTER 1859-1867
Reading edition
City Inspector’s Report for 1863. The wretched condition of the city about this time caused the Legislature to establish the Metropolitan Board of Health, to have jurisdiction over the counties of New York, Kings, Westchester and Richmond and certain other territory. This board’s first report declared that the hygienic conditions of the city were disgusting and horrible; that epidemics were frequent, and that one-third of the deaths occurring in New York and Brooklyn were due to zymotic diseases. See Report of Metropolitan Board of Health, 1866, p. 133.