46— SANITARY SCIENCE. 

 By James S. Dunn, A.R.S.I., A.R.I.P.H. 



A general discourse on Sanitary Science, even at a Congress 

 like this, would, I fear, be of little avail, for under the title are 

 included the questions of providing communities and individuals 

 with Pure Air, Pure Water, Pure Food ; the consideration of 

 Climate and Soils ; the healthy construction of Habitations, Schools, 

 Workplaces, Prisons, Hospitals, Barracks, and other buildings, and 

 the Ventilation and Heating of the same ; Infectious and Contagious 

 Diseases and Disinfection ; Offensive Trades ; the Removal and 

 Disposal of Sewage, Refuse and all Waste Matters, and the Dis- 

 posal of our Dead. These sub-headings are in most cases vast 

 subjects in themselves, and impossible of adequate treatment in a 

 short paper ; that, however, with which I intend making an attempt 

 to deal, and that only briefly, is the question of the removal and 

 disposal of Waste Matters. 



Having accepted the duty, and decided upon which sub-division 

 of the subject I will write, it becomes my deep coiicern to consider 

 whether I cannot place before you for your consideration, something 

 new, something important, something which affects the welfare of 

 communities in general, or something which affects this country in 

 particular. 



Man in his primitive state had little occasion to worry about 

 Sanitary Science. He alone could not contaminate the air he 

 breathed nor the water he drank, and it does not appear likely that 

 he would attempt to defraud himself by adulterating the food he 

 prepared for his own consumption. He was his own Doctor, his 

 own Architect, his own Local Authority and Sanitary Inspector. 

 With the increase of population, and the formation of small and 

 large communities, an unnatural state of affairs was brought about ; 

 unknown diseases appeared, and man in his ignorance could not at 

 first tell what caused them, nor how to cure or prevent them. Ex- 

 perience and knowledge, however, have throughout the course of 

 ages taught. so much, that it is now possible for thousands of persons 

 to dwell in health and comfort on an area where only tens could 

 have lived in safety in past ages. Complicated questions have been 

 gradually solved by wonderful feats of engineering. Water and 

 food are conveyed to huge communities from long distances, and 

 waste matters are removed therefrom and disposed of in various 

 ingenious ways. These are but a small portion of Sanitary Science. 



It has been written that outside the range of party politics there 

 is no subject on which so much envy, hatred, malice and all unchari- 

 tableness prevail as on the treatment of sewage, and this is not 

 difficult to believe when it is discovered that during the forty years 

 ending 1886, four hundred and fifty-four patents were taken out 

 dealing with sewage. What has been the number since I am not 

 in a position to state. To the student of the subject there is con- 

 siderable interest in tracing the improvements and development in 

 the collection, removal and disposal of sewage during the past fifty 



