EDITORIAL. 703 



duction of such preventive measures as a sanitary water supply, 

 proper methods for the disposal of sewage and garbage, and mosquito 

 and fly extermination, and wishes to avail himself of these benefits. 

 This is evidenced by the correspondence and other appeals received 

 by this Department, the Public Health Service, the agricultural col- 

 leges and experiment stations, state boards of health, the' agricul- 

 tural press, and many other agencies, for reliable and practical in- 

 formation as to means of improving existing conditions. 



The matter has in a measure attracted the attention of scientists 

 and sanitarians, but the scientific contributions to the subject are 

 still relatively fewer and less adequate than could be desired. The 

 Public Health Service has given special attention to the campaign 

 against the malarial mosquito and the house fly, and the devising 

 of sanitary arrangements to prevent soil and water pollution. 

 Among state boards of health which have been active may be men- 

 tioned those of Pennsylvania, Virginia, IViinnesota, North Carolina, 

 Indiana, Illinois, and Maine. The more strictly sanitary engineer- 

 ing features of the investigations of these boards have included 

 studies of rural water supplies, particularly the shallow well as re- 

 gards pollution from local sources, soil pollution, sewage and gar- 

 bage disposal, and swamp drainage. In Pennsylvania, rural tu- 

 berculosis has been a special subject of inquiry. 



During the last two years, the United States Bureau of Education 

 has made an extended survey of the sanitary condition of rural 

 schools in various States. Other surveys have been made in Con- 

 necticut, Vermont, New York, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and a large amount of valuable data 

 has been accumulated on this phase of the question. 



The work of this Department in rural sanitation has for the most 

 part been along broad lines, consisting in part of cooperation with 

 state boards of health in the examination of rural water supplies, 

 general studies of personal hygiene and nutrition, food and milk 

 supplies, and of such diseases as typhoid fever, malaria, and hook- 

 worm, safe disposal of sewage, insects affecting man, and the im- 

 provement of home conditions. A large share of its work has con- 

 sisted of issuing miscellaneous information to individual applicants 

 through the agency of correspondence. 



The importance of the subject is also becoming recognized by some 

 of the leading universities and agricultural colleges. Harvard Uni- 

 versity, for instance, has recently announced a course in rural sani- 

 tation under its department of sanitary engineering, in which it is 

 proposed to instruct engineers, health officers, and physicians in the 

 design and construction of sanitary rural dwellings, water supply, 

 sewage and waste disposal, dairy sanitation, handling of farm prod- 



