58 PUBLIC HEALTH 



that the water of the Broad Street well in London had caused an 

 epidemic in which more than six hundred persons died of Asiatic 

 cholera. The stream of public health science was still further 

 enlarged and quickened by the revelation in and after the sixties 

 of the simple causes of numerous epidemics of trichinosis and of 

 typhoid fever, the latter sometimes through milk. There was an 

 extraordinary popular awakening in England to the importance 

 of sanitation and public health measures in the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century, but we look for some time in vain for any marked 

 inosculation between public health science and other sciences, 

 such as physics, chemistry, microscopy, bacteriology, climatology, 

 engineering, or education. We have, to be sure, minor contributions 

 from the microscopists, such, for example, as that from Dr. Has- 

 sall, who, in 1850, made a careful microscopical examination of the 

 water-supply of London and showed the presence in the public 

 drinking-water of muscle fibers, intestinal parasites, and other ma- 

 terials, plainly derived from sewage; but it was not until Petten- 

 kofer and his disciples, in Germany, and Angus Smith and others, 

 in England, began their splendid chemical investigation that the 

 tributary stream of sanitary chemistry enlarged materially that of 

 public health science. In saying this I do not forget that my late 

 friend and colleague, William Ripley Nichols, whose solid contribu- 

 tions to sanitary chemistry were among the first in America, and 

 will always remain among the best anywhere, long ago pointed 

 out that, as early as 1789, "Fourcroy studied the nature of 'lith- 

 arged ' wine, Berthollet (1801) the methods of preserving water for 

 long voyages, Chevreul (1846) various chemical reactions which ex- 

 plain the hygiene of populous cities, and (1856, 1862, 1870) methods 

 of preparing and preserving food; Graham and Hofmann reported 

 upon the use of acetate of lead in sugar-refining (1850), upon the 

 London water-supply (1851), and upon the adulteration of pale ales 

 with strychnine (1882); Dumas was interested in many sanitary 

 matters and made, among others, reports on the mineral waters of 

 France (1851), on the water-supply of Paris (1859), on the treat- 

 ment of sewage (1867), and on the preservation of food (1870-72); 

 Wurtz was for a number of years president of the Comite consultatif 

 d'hygiene and a year before his death was president of the Societt de 

 medecine publique. His investigations and reports on sanitary sub- 

 jects are numerous on the disposal of the waste from distilleries 

 and sugar-refineries, on the colors employed on German toys and in 

 articles of food, on the adulteration of wines, etc. 



"Other names will occur to us such as those of Sir Henry 

 Roscoe, Sir Frederick Abel, and Dr. Williamson, who served on the 

 Noxious Vapors Commission of 1876; of Frankland, who gave 

 years of service to the Rivers Pollution Commission of 1868 and in 



