Public Health and Disease

Where it surfaces

• I: Genesis of the Tenement

  High mortality rates, cholera epidemics, and deaths from suffocation in unventilated rooms are documented, with death rates as high as 75 per 1,000 in some tenements.

• II: The Awakening

  The threat of cholera and smallpox drives reform, and the chapter highlights the link between tenement conditions and disease.

• VI: The Bend

  Sanitary conditions are dire, with health inspectors finding rooms at 115°F, babies dying for lack of fresh air, and the official reduction of breathing space to 400 cubic feet per adult.

• XII: The Bohemians—Tenement-House Cigarmaking

  Discusses cases of consumption possibly linked to tobacco fumes, but notes that death records do not show a high rate among Bohemians.

• Waifs of the City’s Slums

  The high mortality rates among foundlings and the conditions in baby-farms reflect public health crises.

• XXII: The Wrecks and the Waste

  The insane asylums are overcrowded, with a constant increase in patients, and the strain of poverty and overwork is cited as contributing to mental illness.

• XXIV: What Has Been Done

  Highlights improvements in air, sunlight, ventilation, and water supply as critical to the moral and physical redemption of tenement dwellers.

• Appendix

  Death rates, child mortality, and the number of sick poor visited by doctors underscore the public health crisis linked to overcrowded tenements.

• Endnotes

  References to unventilated rooms, fever-breeding structures, and mortality tables for children under five underscore public health concerns.