103 



It was this Act the provisions of which Dr. Smith with 

 the aid of his sub-inspectors was to see carried out by con- 

 stant supervision on the part of the sub-inspectors and 

 frequent periodical visits to various districts by himself. 



That he was eminently successful in his attempts to 

 secure for the public the benefits which the legislature had 

 in view when the Act was passed, and on the other hand in 

 conciliating by his prudence and tact those who were 

 to some extent restricted and interfered with by the pro- 

 visions of the Act, is universally conceded. It is quite pos- 

 sible that in other hands the task which Dr. Smith was 

 called on to perform might not have been accomplished and 

 the result might have been complete failure. To continue 

 what he began according to methods initiated by him is a 

 comparatively easy task. As chief inspector under the 

 Alkali Act Dr. Smith had each year to present a report of 

 the proceedings under the Act for the preceding year. These 

 reports, of which the last presented in 188-i was the twen- 

 tieth of the series, contain much information over and above 

 what mere official summaries might be expected to give, 

 and they should be carefully studied by all who are in- 

 terested in hygiene in its relation to manufactures. 



In the year 1876 an Act similar to the Alkali Act, though 

 of a less stringent character was passed styled the " Elvers 

 Pollution Prevention Act," Under this Act Dr. Smith was 

 appointed to examine polluted waters, more especially the 

 state of effluent fluids from sewage works, and he presented 

 two re])orts to the Local Government Board as an inspector 

 under the Act. To the results set forth in the second of 

 these reports, presented shortly before his death, Dr, Smith 

 attached the greatest importance. It will be for others to 

 judge of the value of these results, but he himself considered 

 that the discoveries described in the report would open up 

 a wide field of research throwing quite a new light on the 

 relations between disease and water and soil. 



