What Bacteriology Has Done for Sanitary Science. 



By Severance Bukbage. 



Sanitation, the science of disease prevention, has been practiced vari- 

 ously and in varying degrees from time immemorial; but it was of 

 little importance and remained in comparative obscurity and impotence 

 until the birth of bacteriology in the latter part of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. The establishment of this new science by Robert Koch in ISSl 

 marlvcd a most important epoch in the history and practice of preventive 

 medicine. Sanitation at once became transformed from a puny, uncer- 

 tain, "hit or miss"' science into one of the most iaiportant factors in 

 modern civilization. The causes of many diseases being positively 

 knoAvn. The possible causes of many others being inferred, the sani- 

 tarian had the most important key in his possession for the prevention 

 of those diseases. In other words, he became much better fitted to 

 practice his profession. Furthermore, each separate branch of sanitary 

 science has received from the bacteriologist definite knowledge which 

 has made it far more exact and practical, and correspondingly more 

 efficient. 



Take for example the subject of disinfection. This science in various 

 forms has been practiced for many centuries. Ovid states with regard 

 to it. that sulphur was used by the shepherd of his time for purifying 

 wool from contagious diseases. At the time of Hippocrates sulphur 

 was used as a preventive against plague. While good results were often 

 obtained by pursuing these and other such practices, the exact reasons 

 for the results were not imderstood. Today, however, the bacteriolo- 

 gists have shown by exhaustive and conclusive experiments that certain 

 specific disease germs are destroyed by certain disinfectants under cer- 

 tain conditions. They have also shown that the spores of certain bacteria 

 will not be killed liy the same processes which destroy the vegetative 

 forms of the same species. Thus they are able to tell us that some 

 of the ancient practices were entirely useless, others were quite unneces- 

 sary, while still others were very efficient. 



More than 400 years B. C, Hippocrates advised that all polluted 

 water should be boiled and filtered before being used for drinking pur- 



