THE ONSET of the industrial era in Europe, and in Amei,ca too, changed to an immense dgree the general living conditions of the populations. As a result of econonmic demands for factory labor and also the lure of better wages, a continuous drift of population took place from the rural districts to the towns. This would not have been important as a national change had the cities been able to absorb and accommodate the vast army of employed. As it was, the cities were without sufficient dwellings and such as they had were without a water supply, without sewerage, without even an available or clean food supply to provide for the new citizens. These conditions brought about in the vast majority of city dwellings in America and abroad during the middle of the nineteenth century overcrowding, indescribable filth and generally a miserable living standard among the families of the poor. Disease and every kind of infection ran riot, finding ideal conditions in the foul homes and in the emaciated and undernourished bodies of unfortunate victims. Speaking of the living conditions in the tenement buildings of the City of London in the 19th century Simon said: " There are some places where the mortality is yet high, where in fact the cloud of death is always hanging, where the vitality of the people is seriously sapped and where disease makes an easy conquest. It is not