five hundred dollars has been recovered, and restored to the owners. Nearly twelve millions of dollars have been reported by the officers as having been expended in the erection of one thousand one hundred and thirteen buildings; and one hundred and twenty vessels have been built within the city limits at an estimated cost of one million one hundred and sixty-one thousand eight hundred dollars.

Our citizens have every reason to be thankful for the great efficiency that has been perceptible in the department during the past year, which has been one of much more than usual demand for the best kind of service. The morale of the force has never been better; and the appearance and behavior of the men during the peace jubilee, and on other equally trying occasions, have reflected great credit upon them, and won for them respect and praises which they have received from many appreciative sources.

PUBLIC HEALTH.

No unusual sickness has prevailed in the city during the past year, and the usual epidemics which are So often the cause of the greatest alarm have been almost unknown to our people.

In former years a special inspection by sanitary police, appointed with a direct view to view to this department, has been found necessary for the enforcement of cleanliness, and the removal of unhealthy matters which were liable to engender disease. Owing to the great cleanliness of the city it was not deemed necessary to resort to a sanitary inspection, the citizens generously responding to the request of the department when made, and all incipient nuisances have been promptly abated by the usual means employed, without resorting to extraordinary measures for their suppression. This general state of cleanliness has been produced by the activity of the department; and the laws and ordinances relating to the public health have been promptly enforced, hardly giving time for any nuisance to get so far under way as to attract public attention.

Much good has accrued from the public baths, which have been in use use four months of the year, during which time they have afforded benefits 1,024,074 times, that have been very apparent, as well as useful, to the class of inhabitants who have availed themselves of the privilege so freely and judiciously afforded by the city. The benefit, which has been so great as

to be noticed by strangers, has induced other large municipalities to pattern our institution, with a view of giving similar privileges to their people.

race.

Perhaps something also should be credited to the ten public drinking-hydrants, introduced during the past year, and which have given so much comfort to the dumb beasts as well as to our own Undoubtedly more of these beneficences should be placed in public places not already supplied with these excellent influences for promoting health and comfort. Much has been done in the sewer department to aid health, and much more remains to be accomplished to insure its desirable continuance.

While the general good condition of the city is so apparent, a few nuisances yet exist which should be summarily abated. One of considerable magnitude is connected with Stony Brook, the original stream of which has been diverted from its usual course, and consequently all flowage has ceased, and many acres of land are complained of as a nuisance demanding the immediate attention of the department. The work, however, consequent on the requirement, is of such magnitude that it would be impracticable for the city to

act without authority from the legislature; and for this purpose it seems desirable that an early application should be made to the General Court for the proper power to abate this grievous nuisance of long standing, and by so doing add a large amount of valuable territory to the taxable property in the city. Another nuisance, in the neighborhood of Beacon and Brimmer streets, also requires permanent abatement, which can only be effected by the erection of a sea-wall, as has already been recommended, simple dredging being but a temporary relief, of but short duration.

Considerable advantage has followed the enactment of the tenement building law, passed by the legislature of 1868, and which commanded much attention from the health department during the past year; and yet something remains to be done to realize the benefits of this excellent law.

In my address of the last year, the attention of the city council was called to the necessity of remodelling this department. Nothing has as yet been done towards the improvements imperatively demanded for the public good. The growth of the city, both in area and population, has been so great that the labor and responsibility falling to this department is much too great for efficiency.

I repeat that the sanitary part of it should be placed under the direction and management of a suitable bureau, constituted with a reference to permanency, and composed of scientific and learned men, who have made its object the study of their lives. The services of practical men, skilled in the science of medicine, and learned in the economic arts, should be sought, and their opinions, founded upon experience and good judgment, should be duly respected and carried out. In this connection allow me to remind you that, -perhaps by some inadvertence, no consulting physicians have been elected for the past two years; and it seems to me that, in case of the sudden appearance in our city of any contagious or infectious disease, we should most certainly be considered derelict of duty, if not chargeable with a gross neglect of the sanitary interests, which should always be considered among the most important of the various matters which come within our official cognizance.

The importance of a special department for street cleaning and the removal of house offal is very evident. This should, undoubtedly, be en

trusted, as at present, to a capable superintendent, who can conduct it with the same ability that it