Affirmative-The Mayor, Comptroller, President of the Board of Aldermen, and President of the Department of Taxes and Assessments--4. The COMPTROLLER offered the following resolution: Resolved, That the sum of two hundred and ninety-five and eight cents ($295.08) be and hereby is appropriated from the "Excise Fund" to the "Home for Fallen and Friendless Girls," for the support of forty-one inmates, in the month of May, 1888, aggregating seven hundred and twenty days, at the rate of $150 per annum, pursuant to Section 208, Chapter 410, Laws of 1882 (New York City Consolidated Act of 1882). Which was adopted by the following vote: Affirmative-The Mayor, Comptroller, President of the Board of Aldermen, and President of the Department of Taxes and Assessments-4. The COMPTROLLER presented the following: OFFICE OF THE "CITY RECORD," No. 2 CITY HALL? To the Honorable the Board of Estimate and Apportionment: Gentlemen,―The Board of Health makes requisition on this Bureau for the printing of its indices of births, marriages and deaths for the year 1888, and accompanies the request with an explanatory report on the subject by Dr. Roger S. Tracy, the Registrar of Vital Statistics (appended hereto). The proposition contemplates a permanent change from a single manuscript index to several printed indices, some of them distributed amongst the public libraries, and thus easily accessible to the public. But, however desirable the change may be, this Bureau has no appropriation to meet the additional expenditure, which for the residue of the current year would be about $1,500. The request of the Board of Health is therefore respectfully submitted to your honorable body for such action as you may deem proper. Very respectfully, THOMAS COSTIGAN, Supervisor of the "City Record." HEALTH DEPARTMENT, NEW YORK, May 31, 1888. TO THOMAS COSTIGAN, Supervisor of the "City Record," No.2 City Hall: Sir, I hereby certify that the articles hereinafter enumerated are necessary for the transaction of the business of the Health Department, No. 301 Mott street: Printing Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths for the year 1888. By order of the Board. Your early attention is requested by C. GOLDERMAN, Chief Clerk. The above expenditure being necessary, is hereby authorized to be incurred, without contract, and the amount thereof is hereby appropriated. Mayor. Counsel to the Corporation. Commissioner of Public Works. Col. EMMONS CLARK, Secretary: Sir, I beg leave to submit the following suggestions in relation to the proposed printing of the indexes of births, marriages and deaths: The disadvantages of the present system of manuscript indexes are these: 1. Only one person can use an index at any particular time, so that simultaneous searches for the same or different names are impossible. Every name has to be searched for in succession. As the applications for searches increase from year to year, it becomes more and more necessary to make the work easier and less protracted. 2. Manuscript indexes cannot be read as rapidly as printed ones and are more bulky. 3. The names in the indexes are entered according to the first three letters of the surname, as Ama, Ami, Ana, etc. Such an arrangement facilitates the use of a manuscript index, but requires a great deal of time for the proper assorting of the certificates before they are entered. Moreover it is likely to lead to errors, owing to the misspelling of names by the persons who fill out the cer tificates, e. g., Snyder may be spelled by the writer Schneider, and entered in this office under Sch., a future search might not readily find it. Such an error is not likely to occur in the first letter, which is generally given correctly. 4. A manuscript index for permanent use requires more careful penmanship than one that is merely a current weekly one and intended as copy for the printer. It therefore requires more time for its preparation. The printing of the indexes is intended to be carried out in the following manner : 1. The certificates each day will be arranged alphabetically by the first letter of the surname. 2. In this order, the names will be copied on manifold paper providing two copies. Every week one set will be sent to the printer, and the other set kept for use in the office until ten printed copies are sent to us. 3. One of these printed copies will be compared and corrected, and sent back as proof to the printer. The rest will be kept in this office for use until we get the monthly. 4. The type used in printing the weekly index it would be desirable to keep "alive," and when the first certificate of the succeeding month came in, the type as set up by weeks could be combined, all the A's, etc., together, and printed as a monthly index. The type could then be redistributed. 5. The monthly indexes would be bound together at the end of the year. The advantages of the printed index would be: 1. The ease of reading, greatly facilitating the work of a searcher. 2. Several persons could be searching at the same time. 3. The names could be entered by the first letter only, thus avoiding liability to error, and rendering the work of indexing much more rapid. 4. Extra copies could be sent to the Law and City Libraries and others, for the use of lawyers. 5. The marriages could be indexed by bride's maiden name, as well as by bridegroom's name, thus : Smith, John E., and Annie J. | Jones | 18764. The bride's name, not being arranged alphabetically, would be difficult to find in a written index, but in a printed one many a relative, who knows the maiden name of a bride but not that of her husband, would be glad to search for it. 6. The printed indexes would occupy much less space than the written ones, and we are already crowded for room. In short, the printing of the indexes would greatly facilitate the clerical work of the office, and will certainly have to be done some time or other, for the number of these records increases yearly in geometrical progression, and it will soon be impossible to keep them properly without a greatly increased force, for which we have no room. As to the probable cost of printing these indexes, I have no means of judging, but the work required will be approximately, as follows: Deaths are indexed thus: Age. No. of Smith, John J. | 64 | July 6, 1888 | 15639 Births the same, excepting age. Marriages thus: Smith, John J., and Annie S. | Jones | July 6, 1888-7463 There will be about 40,000 deaths, 35,000 births and |