_—ee 
37 
Tue Past. 
My remarks under this head must of necessity be short, as the 
amount of authentic information is so meagre. 
The measure of attention given to the subject of the public 
health throughout the world has been various at different periods, 
and up to a certain point, may be taken as a true indication of 
the degree of civilisation attained by any nation in the past. 
Remains of sewage and water works have been discovered in 
almost every place where explorative excavations have been 
made, especially in the great cities of Nineveh, Jerusalem, Car- 
thage and Rome, and in a lesser degree in Herculaneum and 
Pompeii and other places. 
Of these cities Rome stands pre-eminent for the magnitude of 
its works of water supply and drainage. For more than 400 
years after the building of the city, the Romans were content 
with the water supplied by the Tiber, and from wells and springs 
in and about the city. It was about 300 years B.C. that the first 
conduit for general water supply of the city was constructed. It 
was called the ‘‘ Aqua Appia,” and was built by Appius Claudius, 
and was about ten miles in length. In A.D. 52, in the time of 
the Emperor Claudius Cesar, Rome was drawing its water sup- 
ply from nine great aqueducts, the two largest being the Aqua 
Claudia 58 miles long, and the Anio Nova 62 miles long, the 
construction of these aqueducts being extremely massive and 
elaborate. The channels were chiefly of stone and supported 
upon arches for the greater portion of the distance, some of 
which were more than 100 feet in height, and were adorned with 
columns and other ornamentations. 
Beside having plenty of pure water, we are told that there was 
also in ancient Rome a sewage system as far back as 600 years 
B.C., though of its efficacy not much can be said, and its use has 
now passed into oblivion. The most notable example of ancient 
sewers was the “Cloaca Maxima,” or main outfall sewer of Rome, 
built by Tarquinius Priscus, about 600 years B.C. It was 
constructed on the arch principle, formed without cement, and 
measured 14 feet wide and 32 feet high, the arch being semi- 
circular. It is still used and has defied the vicissitudes of over 
2,000 years. There were several other large sewers in Rome, 
but where they lead to is not known. 
During the many wars and political troubles that followed on 
the fall of the Roman Empire, public works of all kinds were 
neglected and allowed to pass into decay, and with renewed 
poverty and ignorance, sanitary precautions were disregarded and 
filthy habits prevailed, a state of things which lasted about 1300 
years. ‘ 
A terrible retribution followed this disregard of all natural and 
sanitary laws; history records the repeated devastation of Europe 
