Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/482

 464 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

of whom are in the classified service, and may therefore be appointed only after a rigid civil-service examination, and removed for cause. The health officer of the port is appointed by the governor of the state, and, on account of the close con- nection of his work with the sanitary welfare of the city, he was given a place on the Board of Health. It is his duty to keep the department informed, by written reports and otherwise, of the number of vessels in quarantine and the number of persons sick in the marine hospitals. Furthermore, he must not allow any person, vessel, or article which has been quarantined to return to the city without a permit from the sanitary superintendent of the department. 1 For the same reasons the police commis- sioner is also a member of the Board of Health. For it is espe- cially provided in the charter that the police shall co-operate, wherever necessary, with the Department of Health, both in the serving and enforcement of orders, and in the general sanitary inspection work. 2 This is done largely through the medium of a special squad of so-called "Sanitary Police," who are detailed from police headquarters at the request of the Board of Health, and chosen by it because of their special fitness. The squad is commanded by a sergeant and roundsman, and, though remain- ing under the discipline of the Police Department, and reporting its work to police headquarters, is under the sole direction of the sanitary superintendent of the Department of Health. The nature of the work carried on by these officers will be touched upon later, but their high character and efficiency under the pres- ent administration is undoubted and well worthy of imitation by other cities, and perhaps also by some of the men on New York's regular police force. 3

It is necessary to remember that the two chief functions of the Department of Health are preventive and curative. That is, its efforts to promote the public health take the form both of the prevention of disease and its cure. And of these two, the first

1 Cf. sec. 1 66 of Sanitary Code. 2 Charter of 1901, sees. 1202, 12020.

3 The squad must not number over fifty men, selected from those who have seen at least five years' service on the regular force. They are paid from a special fund appropriated by the Department of Health.