three continuous routes of asphalt pavement from the Battery to Harlem river, so that every hospital has an ambulance route over smooth pavements to all parts of the city, and a bicyclist may ride from one end of the island to the other without traversing a block pavement.

Parks. This department is under the direction of a board of four commissioners. During the year the board was composed of Stephen V. R. Cruger, president, Samuel McMillan, William A. Styles (who died Oct. 7), and Smith Ely. The secretary of the board is William Leary, and the office is in the Arsenal Building, Central Park. The Mulberry Bend Park was formally opened June 15. This was one of the first of the parks to be obtained in consequence of the passage of the small-parks act in 1887. The city paid $1,500,000 for the land, and reclaimed for healthful purposes one of the worst and most populous tenement districts in the city. A small park at 76th Street and East river was decided on by the board at its meeting, June 18, when sites for three other parks were suggested.

Zoological Park. The development of this park is under the care of the New York Zoological Society, of which body Levi P. Morton is president. The bill establishing the park provided that when the society raised $100,000 the city should expend $125,000 on improvements in preparation of the grounds for the buildings and collections. The Board of Park Commissioners in March approved the site chosen in Bronx Park by the society, which is described in the "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1896, page 531, and active measures were taken by the society to secure the necessary funds. In the report of the society for 1897 it is shown that $66,000 has been subscribed. Meanwhile, plans for the work, including those for ten of the most important buildings, were submitted to the Park Commissioners and received their approval on Nov. 22. The Board of Managers have christened all the hills, lakes, and distinctive portions of the park. The largest lake is named Agassiz, and another is called Cope, after the American zoologist who has linked his name with the study of the great mammals that once roamed over this country. There is an Audubon Hill, a Baird Court, and a Wilson Hill. All the quarters for the future zoological population of the park have been selected. The society has a membership of 551, compared with 118 in 1896.

Botanical Garden. The plans for buildings prepared for the managers of the New York Botanical Garden were submitted to the Park Commissioners, and that body appointed a commission consisting of Charles S. Sargent, Thomas Hastings, John C. Olmsted, and Samuel Parsons, Jr., to report on them. A plan changing the site of the conservatory and removing the director's residence from the park, but retaining the original site of the museum, was finally agreed upon by the Park Board. The Board of Estimate and Apportionment granted an appropriation of $500,000 for the building of the

museum.

The Aquarium is under the general direction of the Park Department, and occupies the old site of Castle Garden on Battery Park. The superintendent is Tarleton H. Bean, and the building is open free to the public daily except on Mondays and Tuesdays, when it is open only between the hours of 12 M. and 1 P. M. It was first open Dec. 10, 1896, and in the year ending with Dec. 9, 1897, there were 1,635,252 visitors, being an average of 6,289 persons daily.

Vital Statistics.-The Board of Health consists of the president of the Board of Police, the health officer of the port, and two commissioners, one of whom must have been for five years a practicing physician. The commissioner who is not a physi

The principal causes of death were the following: Pneumonia, 4,624; phthisis, 4,847; diarrhoeal diseases, 2,575-under five years, 2,295; Bright's disease and nephritis, 2,499; heart disease, 2,347; diphtheria, 1,377; bronchitis, 1,089; measles, 391; whooping cough, 308; scarlet fever, 500; typhoid fever, 299; croup, 214; cerebro-spinal meningitis, 232; influenza, 196; malarial fever, 118; and smallpox, 24. Among the deaths by violence were the following: Accident. 1,784; sunstroke, 39; suicide, 436; and homicide, 63.

The use of anti-toxic serum in the treatment of diphtheria, the careful inspection and the permit system for regulating the sale of milk, the treatment of consumption as an infectious disease, the medical supervision of schools, the inspection of tenement houses and the destruction of the worst of the rear tenements, the cleanliness of the streets, and the general improvement in the sanitary administration account in a large part for the great decrease in the number of deaths.

On July 1, 1897. the estimated population of New York city was 1,990,562.

Street Cleaning. This department is managed by a single commissioner. The incumbent during 1897 was George E. Waring, Jr. His report, which dealt largely with the separation, collection, and disposition of garbage, shows that the following cart loads of garbage were collected: By the department, 164,422; by private persons, 19,383: total, 183.805. About 800,000 cart loads of domestic ashes were collected this year, at a cost of 80 cents a load, making the total cost of collecting and delivery at the dumps $640,000. A thorough investigation was made, looking to the possibility of developing a money value from the coal ashes of domestic fires. Repeated experimental analyses of these ashes indicated that they will yield on the average Coal (recoverable), 20 per cent.; clinker, 15 per cent.; fine ash, 50 per cent.; coarse ash and stone, 15 per cent. These percentages give on the amount collected this year: Coal, 144,000 net tons; clinker, 180,000 cubic yards; fine ash, 600,000 cubic yards; coarse ash and stone, 180,000 cubic yards.

A fair estimate of value of these materials is: Coal, 144.000 net tons. at $2.50, $360,000; clinker, 180.000 cubic yards, at 75 cents, $135,000; fine ash, 600,000 cubic yards, at 28 cents, $168,000; total, $663,000. The new method of getting rid of worthless matter by burning has proved much more satisfactory than the old plan of dumping at sea. On this subject Col. Waring says: "To further extend this general method of disposal of refuse by burning it, plans have been prepared for a much larger plant, to be located in East 48th Street. These plans provide for a plant covering an area 85 feet by 100 feet, and having a brick furnace building 55 feet by 35. It will be ready for use early in 1898." Other plants are in course of construction at 131st Street, and at 30th Street, on the North river. Paper,