To substitute for this apathy a healthy action is the object of this investigation. It is but the means to an end. In themselves, as mere matters of information, the facts and deductions presented in the following pages can do nothing but demonstrate the necessity of exertion; but of this necessity they do afford overwhelming demonstration. Thus much for the general arguments as to the necessity of a work of this nature. There are other special and local causes which led to its accomplishment in the present form. "The Governors of the Alms-House of the City and County of New York," or, as they are more generally known, "The Ten Governors," is a body called into existence by an act of the State Legislature passed April 6, 1849, specially to take charge of the vagrant and pauper institutions of the city. The present members of the Board are the following well-known citizens:[1] C. GODFREY GUNTHER, Esq., _President_. ISAAC J. OLIVER, Esq., _Secretary_. Washington Smith, Esq.[2] Anthony Dugro, Esq.[3] Cornelius V. Anderson, Esq. Isaac Townsend, Esq. Daniel F. Tiemann, Esq. Joseph S. Taylor, Esq. P. G. Moloney, Esq. Benjamin F. Pinckney, Esq. At the time these investigations commenced two other prominent men were also members of the organization, Hon. Edward C. West (now Surrogate of the city) and Simeon Draper, Esq. Both of these gentlemen had served as President of the Board of Governors with honor to themselves and satisfaction to their colleagues and the public; both took a lively interest in the projected inquiry, and to both am I indebted for much valuable assistance. The act establishing the Board of Governors assigned to them, with their other duties, _the medical care of all persons who had contracted infectious diseases in the practice of debauchery, and who required charitable aid to restore them to health_. The result was that a very large number of persons, both male and female, chargeable to the citizens of New York through the medium of the institutions on Blackwell's Island, came under their cognizance, and they became convinced that some measures were necessary in connection therewith.