| Adverted: | Referred, called attention to. | ||
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| Adynamic forms of fever: | Chronic diseases such as malaria. | ||
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| A great popular outbreak: | The New York City Draft Riot of July, 1863, one of the worst riots in U.S. history. Working-class New Yorkers, primarily immigrants or of foreign parentage, rioted to protest the Civil War draft. They looted the homes of wealthy people, attacked police, lynched African Americans, and burned down an orphanage for black children. Troops were brought into the city to restore order. |  |
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| 'Araby
the blest.'...., Java or Brazilian plains |
Pulling is referring to places where coffee is grown; he is suggesting that the substance sold as coffee on Chatham street is fake, and thus never came from such places. | ||
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| Attenuated | Made thin and weak | ||
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| Baxter Street | Baxter Street was located in the notoriously poor and disorderly "Five Points" section of the Sixth Ward, a few blocks from where the boys are shopping. | ||
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| Belated | Kept out late; in this case, presumably by work. | ||
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| Belgian pavement: | A durable pavement made of granite blocks. It provided a much smoother surface than cobble-stones, but was expensive to install. |  |
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| Bowery | One of the most important commercial thoroughfares in lower Manhattan. In the 1860s, it was extended south into the Fourth Ward, but today its southernmost point is at Chatham Square. In the mid nineteenth century, as Manhattan's population expanded north, the Bowery developed a reputation as a seedy district of cheap entertainment, low-quality shops, and cheap lodging houses. It became a skid row in the twentieth century, but is now undergoing some gentrification. | ||
| Cachexy: |
A sickly condition in which the body wastes away |
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| Calling: | Paying a visit. Pulling may be using the term ironically to suggest a formal visit of the sort that would take place among more prosperous people. | ||
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| Capitalists: | Investors; the implication here is that these are wealthy, absentee landlords. | ||
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| Central Park: | An 843-acre park in the center of Manhattan island, one of the first landscaped parks in the United States. Designed in 1857 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the park was opened to the public in 1859 (though still several years from completion). Its construction involved the displacement of hundreds of Irish, German, and African American squatters. In its early years, the park drew a disproportionately wealthy class of visitors.More on park history |  Looking northwest from the southeast corner of the park. |
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| Chiffonier: | Rag picker | ||
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| Class of factors: | Men who manage the buildings for the landlords | ||
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| Coal-gas: | As electric lighting was not yet available, many homes were lit by gas, which at this time was produced by processing coal. | ||
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| Cobble-stone: | Small, rounded stones, often taken from river bottoms, that were set on end in a base of sand. Cobble-stones were one of the earliest forms of pavement in American cities. |  |
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| Conjunctiva: | The mucous membrane inside the eyelid | ||
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| Corporeal frame: | The body. | ||
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| Creed | Set of beliefs | ||
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| Croton-water | The relatively pure city water that was supplied by an aqueduct from the Croton reservoir in upstate New York. Since 1842, water had been brought by the Croton aqueduct to a receiving reservoir in what is now Central Park, and from there to a distributing reservoir at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. |  The distributing reservoir, on what is now the site of the New York Public Library |
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| Cutaneous eruptions: | Infections or diseases of the skin, such as boils and rashes | ||
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| Declivity: | Downhill slope | ||
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| Destitute: | Utterly lacking, completely impoverished | ||
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| Domains of Neptune: | The ocean. Neptune was the god of the sea | ||
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| Domiciles: | Homes, places of residence | ||
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| Dysentery: | An inflamatory illness of the bowels, in which the victim suffers from severe and even bloody diarrhea | ||
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| Effluvia: | Invisible and usually foul-smelling vapors thought to be harmful. At this time, medical science did not fully understand the role of bacteria and viruses in causing disease. Doctors and scientists thought many diseases were spread by effluvia, emanations, or miasmas that arose from filth and decaying substances. | ||
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| Elicit: | Draw forth | ||
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| Emaciated | Made unhealthily thin | ||
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| Emanations: | Invisible and usually foul-smelling vapors thought to be harmful. Also called effluvia or miasmas. | ||
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| Enkindle: | To light (as in, to light a fire); to incite | ||
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| Entails: | Imposes | ||
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| Erysipelas: | A skin disease whose symptoms include a spreading rash and fever; it is now known to be caused by streptococcus. | ||
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| Exciting: | Immediate, proximate, directly causal | ||
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| Febrifacient: | Producing fevers | ||
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| Fetid | Having an offensive odor | ||
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| Flagging: | Flagstones; flat paving stones used in courtyards |  |
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