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 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 health 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. [Sidenote: Reorganization of the Fire Department] 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 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. [Sidenote: Creation of a Dock Department] 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, 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. [Sidenote: Reform of the Police Judiciary]