PRESENT PROBLEMS 85 



of life saw the beginnings of municipal sanitation in the United 

 States, we must realize the great progress that has been made. 



It is not conceivable that we shall stop with this degree of attain- 

 ment. All the great sanitary questions, the prevention of disease 

 and nuisance, the promotion of municipal cleanliness, the disposal 

 of sewage, the utilization of wastes, and a score of other problems 

 which might be mentioned, are still in their infancy, and the handling 

 of them fifty years hence will make our present-day methods appear 

 almost prehistoric. In all this progress, the physician, the bacteri- 

 ologist, the chemist, and the sanitary engineer will combine their 

 efforts, and the public opinion will support and aid them. 



Such a body of public opinion is now being educated in our schools, 

 where the physician, the nurse, and the sanitary inspector are object- 

 lessons in municipal hygiene; in the literature of the day, which is 

 giving especial attention to sanitation in its broadest sense; and, 

 not least, in the numberless voluntary associations in which public- 

 spirited citizens, prominently the women, are striving to correct 

 municipal abuses and aid the sanitary authorities in estabishing 

 a higher standard of public health. With such duties and such 

 aids, continued progress is imperative and sure. 



