49 



It will be lound that greater iiniloriuity in the negatives fnuii the sections 

 can be gotten l)y using an artifieial light rather than natural light; a Wellsliach 

 incandescent gas lamp gives good results. 



Sanitary Science in the Modern College. By Severance Burrage. 



The modern college should reflect in its curriculum the Ijest, (he most ad- 

 vanced thought of the time on the physical as well as the mental and moral life 

 of the people. Many old habits and customs which have been generally adopted 

 into family life have been curtailed, leaving room for more modern ideas and 

 discoveries. 



( )ne of the most profound changes in the latter part of this Nineteenth Cen- 

 tury has been in our attitude toward the physical Avelfare of mankind, especially 

 in regard to the causes and prevention of disease. This is no longer a matter of 

 importance to the medical profession alone; in fact the physician deals mainly 

 with the cure of disease, not its prevention; therefore, in order that the coming 

 generation shall be prepared to meet and grapple with these vital ])roblems, to 

 apply the new ideas intelligently they must become familiar with the fundamental 

 principles of sanitary science. This is particularly true in view of the extended 

 growth of community life. The decline of individual responsibility, and the in- 

 crease in one form or another of socialism, makes the necessity for public super- 

 vision doubly important. Public supplies are public dangers, and, therefore the 

 supervision of them must be expert. The expert must be intelligent, and perhaps 

 more important still, he must be backed by an intelligent public opinion. Here, 

 then, are the two great vacancies to be filled — the expert sanitarian and the Avell 

 informed citizen. No college should send out its students without some insight 

 into this new science of the public health. Whether the course be compulsory or 

 elective may be a matter of opinion, biit the important bearing of such a train- 

 ing must be evielent. This training should include a certain knowledge of sani- 

 tary chemistry, as applied to the analysis of air, water, milk, buttei', cheese and 

 other foods, as well as the principles of bacteriology, showing the im[)ortance of 

 cleanliness in the home, in the public i)laces of the community, and in the general 

 habits of living. If the student is made to see, by actual laboratory experiment, 

 that the air is full of dust, much of which is living matter in the form of mold 

 and bacteria spores; if he examines a sample of milk and finds a million or more 

 bacteria, and if he understands that wherever there is decaying animal or vege- 

 table matter, there are myriads upon myriads of living microbes, then there is 

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