50 



one more citizen, who, after he graduates, will insist on a neatly kept house in a. 

 clean, healthy neighborhood ; who will, we hope, find out who his milkman is,. 

 and what kind of milk he and hi.s family are drinking. Then, moreover, he will 

 understand the importance of having, in the thickly settled communities, efficient 

 men, free from [)olitics, to look after the public supplies of water, ice, milk and 

 meat; the removal of garbage and disposal of sewage; the ventilation of public 

 buildings and the cleaning of the streets, the isolation of contagious diseases, etc. 



Aside from the importance of this work as shown above, it is a most valuable 

 training for the young man or woman as a laboratory course. Dr. Geoi'ge M. 

 Sternberg, Surgeon-General of the United States Army, in his address given in 

 September before the Georgetown Medical College, gives very much importance 

 to bacteriological work as a most excellent exercise for teaching the student to 

 observe. This was meant particularly for the preparation of men for the medical 

 profession, but accurate observation is desirable for, and often woefully lacking 

 in our modern citizens, l)oth men and women. The many delicate tests, chemical 

 and physical, that are essential in modern bacteriology give exceptional oppor- 

 tunities for a training of this kind. The careful manipulation necessary in mak- 

 ing microscopical preparations of bacteria, diseased tissues, etc., gives ample 

 chance for the training of the hand as well as the eye. 



The study of vital statistics, which to a certain extent should enter into a 

 course of this kind, would necessarily show the need of accurate systems of reg- 

 istering births, deaths and cases of infectious diseases. 



Much has been done in the last ten years toward establishing such courses in 

 sanitary chemistry and biology, and the recent gift of Miss Culver to ( hicago 

 University, providing especially for departments in sanitary science and hygiene, 

 shows clearly that the subject is not only in the pulblic eye, but that its import- 

 ance is even beginning to be realized. Indianapolis is alive to the subject, having 

 this month passed the ordinance providing for the supervision of the milk supply 

 and inspection of the dairies. 



Wesee, then, that the rapid developementof applied biology and hygiene is call- 

 ing for and must have intelligent, well-trained men and women to lessen the dan- 

 gers that arise from public supplies of various kinds ; to teach the children as 

 well as the public, their duty from the sanitary standpoint toward their neigh- 

 bors, and to assist in the solution of problems that are today perplexing physi- 

 cians and scientists. Many of these wants can be, and are being supplied by the 

 colleges and scientific schools, and the periodicals and the public press are earn- 

 estly pushing on the good cause. 



