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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol,. LIII. No. 1365 



of his study and laboratory, but involved all 

 those with whom he came in contact. 



I first knew Professor Sedgwick when I was 

 a student of engineering' and he professor of 

 biology at the Institute of Technology. He 

 was thirty-three and I was twenty-two. For 

 the first time (1888-89) he was giving a course 

 of lectures in bacteriology to civil engineers. 

 It was an innovation. Until then sanitary 

 engineering had leaned for its support on 

 chemistry, but here was a new science coming 

 to its aid. I have in my study the notes which 

 I took of Professor Sedgwick's weekly lec- 

 tures. They began as follows : " The sanitarian 

 peeds a proper working theory." Then he 

 proceeded to develop the germ theory of dis- 

 ease as he had learned it from Pasteur and 

 other European scientists who were laying 

 the foundations of that science which has 

 done so much for the health of the world. 

 He showed how physicians and engineers had 

 been wrong, how they had groped in the 

 dark, and how, by applying the recently dis- 

 'Covered principles of biology, it was possible 

 to give to sanitary engineering new life. Of 

 course, Sedgwick was not the only American 

 to take up with the new ideas. There was 

 •Dr. Welch at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Biggs in 

 New York, and others who were doing the 

 ■same thing. But these other men were in 

 medical schools; Sedgwick was in the Insti- 

 tute of Technology where the engineering 

 sciences predominated and therefore his in- 

 fluence on sanitary engineering was the 

 greatest. Nor would it be right to ignore the 

 work of his colleagues in chemistry, such as 

 Professor "William Eipley Nichols and Dr. 

 Thomas IT. Drown. It was the combination 

 ,of chemistry and biology with engineering 

 which made the profession of sanitary engi- 

 neering what it is — a profession which we are 

 ,proud to think has become more highly de- 

 veloped in America than in any other country. 

 , It is important to keep in mind certain 

 dates in conneotion with the work of these 

 .Massachusetts scientists. Louis Pasteur's 

 .pioneer work in bacteriology was done in the 

 seventies. In 1876 Robert Koch discovered the 

 germ of anthrax. In 1882 he suggested the use 



of solid culture media and thus made it pos- 

 sible to consider bacteria in a quantitative way. 

 In 1880, Eberth found the bacillus of typhoid 

 fever. In the same year Laveran had discov- 

 ered the malarial parasite. In 1883-84 Kleibs 

 .and Loffler found the germ of diphtheria. In 

 1883 Koch found the cholera spirillum. And 

 dt was in 1883 that Sedgwick undertook his 

 work in Boston. No wondter that he saw a 

 .great future for his beloved science of biol- 

 ogy; no wonder that he gave up his intention 

 of being a physician. 



Sedgwick did not study bacteriology in Eu- 

 rope, but I remember hearing him tell how he 

 received what was perhaps the first batch of 

 •Dr. Koch's sterilized nutrient gelatine sent to 

 .this country. Professor Nichols brought it 

 over and probably had not realized its physical 

 .properties, for it had melted, had saturated 

 ■the cotton plug of the flask, had oozed out, 

 .had become infected and nauseating and was 

 about as far from having the required bac- 

 terial purity of a culture medium as one could 

 .imagine. It was an inauspicious beginning 

 for bacteriology at the Institute. Professor 

 .Nichols must have chuckled over it, for at 

 ■that time he did not share Sedgwick's optim- 

 ism in regard to the future of bacteriology. 



I remember those first lectures of Sedg- 

 iwick's. He would hold up a glass of water 

 and talk for an hour about what it contained. 

 He would scare us to death by saying that it 

 icontained enough germs of typhoid fever to 

 .give the disease to a thousand people, and 

 .then go on to show how sanitary engineers 

 icould make the water safe to drink. 

 , He started bis students off on a hunt for 

 bacteria. One of them studied the bacteria 

 found in air — especially the air of hospitals — 

 for he was hunting for big game. Together 

 they devised a method for straining tbe bac- 

 .teria from the air — an aerobioscope — a method 

 .still used. Another student helped him to 

 .study water — not only its bacteria, but its 

 other microscopic organisms — ^those algse which 

 recently caused tbe bad taste in the water 

 .supply of Boston, when for a few weeks it was 

 necessary to draw upon the old Lake Cochi- 

 tuate supply. Another new method of study 



