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 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 cleaning 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.” [Sidenote: Reform Movement Born] 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 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 expended 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.