The deaths [from venereal diseases] for 1899 in the public institutions of the borough of Manhattan were 10,157. The deaths in the institutions of all the other boroughs were 5,400, a little over one-half. Applying this basis of calculation, the total number of cases of venereal diseases treated in the institutions in Greater New York would foot up to a total of 62,157 cases; this, with the cases treated in private practice, would make a grand total of about 225,000 in both private and public practice.

1916

Infantile paralysis is very prevalent in this part of the city.... Keep your children off the streets as much as possible and be sure to keep them out of the houses on which the Board of Health has put a sign. This is a disease which babies and young children get; many of the them die; and many who do not, become paralyzed for life. Don't let your children go to parties or picnics or outings. Don't let them play with any children who have sickness at home. The daily papers will tell you in what homes the disease is.

1957

On September 21, 1918, the New York City Health Department reported 31 cases of influenza, all in the borough of Brooklyn, with one fatality. This announced the arrival of the devastating Spanish influenza epidemic which in six short weeks in New York alone rolled up a total of 93,297 cases of flu, 12,369 of pneumonia, and 12,356 deaths.... This world-wide epidemic-a pandemic-took the lives of nearly 25,000,000 in 1918-1919.