836 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Three evenings a week, all winter, Chandler lectured there year after 

 year. The active exertions of the faculty and the trustees, and the 

 interest manifested by the New York druggists, have built up from 

 this small beginning a most flourishing school of three hundred pupils, 

 which is able now to own a line building, with laboratory and lecture- 

 halls. 



At the death of Professor St. John, Professor Chandler succeeded 

 to his chair of Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence in the College of 

 Physicians and Surgeons, which he now holds. Here his voice has 

 always been raised in favor of a much more exacting system of medi- 

 cal education, and has not been without effect, in the recent radical 

 improvements which have been adopted in this institution, involv- 

 ing an extension of the session to seven months, written examina- 

 tions, etc. 



In 1866 Professor Chandler was invited by the Metropolitan Board 

 of Health to do some gratuitous chemical work. He accepted the in- 

 vitation, and so impressed the Commission with the importance of his 

 work that, at the end of the year, they created the oflice of Chemist 

 for him, which he held till 1873, when he was appointed by Mayor 

 Havemeyer President' of the Board. In 1877 he was reappointed, for 

 six years, by Mayor Ely. As Chemist to the Board of Health, food 

 and water supply were made the subjects of careful investigation. 

 The absurdity of the annual complaints with regard to the quality of 

 the Croton was clearly established, as was also the danger of drinking 

 water from any of the city wells. It was also shown that the popular 

 belief in the wholesale adulteration of the common articles of food, 

 such as flour, bread, sugar, etc., was unfounded. The shameful con- 

 dition of the milk-supply was pointed out, and it was shown that for 

 every three quarts of milk there was added at least one quart of wa- 

 ter, to say nothing of the frequent removal of a considerable portion 

 of the cream. The fact that most of the condensed-milk companies 

 skimmed the milk before they concentrated it and sold the cream 

 separately was also published. A fi-aud on the citizens, amounting to 

 at least ten thousand dollars a day, was traced to the milk-dealers. 



After Dr. Chandler was made President of the Board of Health, 

 he made the milk question his special study, and carried on a success- 

 ful warfare against the dishonest dealers. He rightly assumed that, 

 as milk was the chief diet of the one hundred and thirty thousand chil- 

 dren in New York, under five years of age, it was the most important 

 article of food for municipal supervision. His reforms were not ac- 

 complished without very sharp fighting. The milk-dealers organized, 

 and secured the services of lawyers and chemists, who attacked both 

 the laws and the chemical methods. After prolonged litigation, the 

 Court of Appeals affirmed the ordinances of the sanitary code, and the 

 lactometer as used by Dr. Chjyidler and his inspectoi-s received the 

 scientific endorsement of the best chemists in the country, including 



