Forty-sixth Annual Meeting. 25 



them became filled up and the people actually forgot what they 

 were for. 



In the eighteenth century the subject of sanitation was 

 revived and again brought before the people. In a monograph 

 entitled "A New Method of Purifying Water by Ascent," is- 

 sued by James Peacock in 1793, we have the first published ac- 

 count of a water filter. This filter was constructed of sani 

 and gravel, much as filters are made to-day, and its operation 

 was much the same, excepting that the water passed through 

 the filter from bottom to top instead of descending through 

 it as is customary at this time. The filter was washed by 

 reversing the flow of the water through it. 



This filter may have operated fairly well on English waters, 

 but could not have been long successful if applied to the highly 

 turbid waters of our Kansas streams. However, this little 

 publication proves that the principles of water filtration were 

 being carefully studied at that early date and that considerable 

 progress had been made in developing the practical features 

 of the process. 



Even before this date development in other lines of water- 

 works improvement had begun. A system of waterworks was 

 built in Boston in 1652, and improvements were made in the 

 London and Paris waterworks about the year 1700. More 

 rapid advancement was marked by the introduction of steam 

 pumping machinery, which came into use about one hundred 

 years later. The development of modern waterworks systems 

 has progressed much more rapidly since 1850, and radical 

 changes in processes of pumping and purification are sfll 

 taking place. About the middle of the nineteenth century 

 Charles Kingsley, an English clergyman, struck some mighty 

 blows for reform and urged the clergy of England to agitata 

 the subject of sanitation as part of their bounden duty to 

 their flocks. 



In following the history of the human race we find that 

 many methods have been used in the removal of waste ma- 

 terial. During the time that the functions of microorganisms 

 were unknown, and even their presence unsuspected, elaborate 

 preparations were made in the larger communities for the 

 more or less prompt removal of what they realized from experi- 

 ence to be dangerous accumulations. The first effort to dis- 

 pose of these accumulations were probably made in the way 



