174 



SCIENCE 



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



Massacliusetts State Board of Health began 

 to apply the new ideas in biology and chem- 

 istry to the purification of water and sewage 

 under the leadership of Dr. Henry P. Walcott, 

 who for a quarter of a century was chairman 

 of the board, and Mr. Hiram F. Mills, a hy- 

 draulic engineer, who for an equally long 

 time gave most valuable service to the com- 

 monwealth. A small station for making ex- 

 periments with sewage and water was built 

 at Lawrence, Mass. Professor Sedgwick was 

 consulting biologist of the State Board of 

 Health and Dr. Drown was consulting chem- 

 ist. For many years, even up to this day, the 

 Lawrence Experiment Station has been a 

 center of scientific activity. Some of the 

 leading sanitary engineers of the country be- 

 gan their work there. 



While this scientific study of the chemistry 

 and biology of water and sewage was in full 

 blast (1890), a notable epidemic of tj^hoid 

 fever swept down the Merrimac Valley. Pro- 

 fessor Sedgwick made a thorough study of 

 this catastrophe and developed methods of 

 investigation which have been followed by 

 American epidemiologists ever since. Although 

 not a mathematician, he marshalled statistics 

 and used them with telling force and drew 

 from them logical conclusions which could not 

 be upset. As a result of the epidemic and the 

 research at the experiment station, the first 

 scientifically designed municipal water filter 

 in America was built at Lawrence. This filter, 

 with additions and modifications, is still in 

 use and although outgrown in size and ideas 

 is to-day protecting the people of Lawrence 

 against the recurrence of an epidemic like 

 that of 1890. In this matter one can not give 

 the credit to Sedgwick alone, for it was the 

 entire group of scientists who deserve the 

 credit — Mills, Steams, Drown, Sedgwick, 

 Hazen, Fuller, and others, most of all per- 

 haps to Mr. Mills. Through them America 

 gave to the world scientific ideas in regard to 

 the disposal of sewage which revolutionized 

 methods of treatment and stimulated the con- 

 struction of disposal works in scores, i)crhaps 

 hundreds of cities, in this country and 

 abroad. 



Sedgwick become a great interpreter of this 

 scientific work. He joined the ISew England 

 "Water "Works Association in 1890, but as early 

 as 1888 he had contributed a paper on the 

 Biological Examination of "Water. He was 

 chosen president of the association in 1906, 

 having already (in 1904) been made an honor- 

 ary member. His last address before the asso- 

 ciation was delivered on September 11, 1918, 

 on a subject appropriate to the times, " From 

 Peace to War, from War to Victory, from 

 Victory to Just Judgment." Those who heard 

 it will never forget the stirring words in 

 which he called for stem justice for Germany 

 and appealed to a higher ideal of God than 

 that held by the Kaiser — ^the ideal of Chris- 

 tianity, the ideal of civilization. Sedgwick 

 never separated his science from his patriot- 

 ism or his religion. He could make science 

 popular and he could take subjects of popular 

 interest and clothe them in the language of 

 science. 



The American Public Health Association 

 also claimed Sedgwick's attention. He be- 

 came a member in 1902 and its president in 

 1915. He was a member of many committees, 

 was a frequent speaker, most of his addresses 

 having relation to the broader aspects of pub- 

 lic-health work. It is hardly worth while at 

 this time to recite the long list of scientific 

 societies to which he belonged, but mention 

 should be made of the Society of American 

 Bacteriologists, which he helped to found and 

 of which he was president in 1900, of the 

 American Society of Naturalists, over which 

 he presided in 1901, and the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which he 

 was a Fellow and to which he gave much time 

 and thought. Society memberships measure 

 the breadth of a man's interest and give him 

 opportunities for bringing his ideas before 

 the scientific world. Some men are merely 

 " belongers " — others, like Sedgwick, do their 

 full part in promoting the objects of th« 

 societies which they join. As Professor Sedg- 

 wick advanced in life, his interest changed 

 from one scientific society to another and his 

 scientific papers shifted from the record of 

 detailed studies to educational and philosoph- 



