Februaby 25, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



175 



ical problems. That change marked the nor- 

 mal development of an active, broadening 

 mind. So we may add to Sedgwick's fame as 

 a great teacher that of interpreter of science. 

 We must next look upon him as a councilor 

 in public health. In 1914 when the State 

 Board of Health was replaced by a health 

 commissioner and public health council, Sedg- 

 wick was appointed as a member of the coun- 

 cil and served in that capacity imtil his death. 

 Together the commissioner and council con- 

 stitute the State Department of Public 

 Health. Its work is done partly through 

 committees and Sedgwick served on the com- 

 mittee on sanitary engineering and was chair- 

 man of the committee on food and drugs. 

 It is difficult to pick out from the many- 

 sided activities of the State Department any 

 particular work which was his, for in one way 

 or another he has been in all of them. He 

 was an ideal councilor. His scientific knowl- 

 edge, his ripe experience, his grasp of funda- 

 mental principles made his advice respected 

 by us all. His facility in writing clear and 

 simple English was most useful to the council 

 in the preparation of reports. I remember 

 once that a certain sentence in a letter of 

 advice to some city had been so phrased as 

 to mean just exactly what it was not intended 

 to mean. The commissioner and council had 

 approved it. Sedgwick came in late, looked 

 at the report, and immediately spotted the 

 false phrase and thought it a great joke. He 

 said, "Folks laugh at the sleepy old pro- 

 fessors, but you see they have their uses." 

 Sedgwick's graceful yet forceful manner of 

 speaking caused him to be chosen on many 

 occasions to represent the Department and 

 whether he spoke before a legislative com- 

 mittee or a large public meeting he was 

 always effective. Many a fight he has had at 

 the State House with anti-vivisectionists, anti- 

 vaccinationists, and various other kinds of 

 antis — but Sedgwick's method of fighting was 

 merely to state his side of the case, simply 

 and forcefully, letting his opponent have a 

 monopoly of the fitreworks. It was perhaps 

 one of his faults that he was not aggressive 

 enough. But on occasion Sedgwick became 



eloquent. Last year at the Brussels confer- 

 ence of public health ofiicers representatives 

 of various nations, gorgeously arrayed in imi- 

 form and regalia, had been droning out weary 

 speeches, the audience being visibly bored, 

 when Sedgwick's turn came. He was there to 

 represent the American Public Health Asso- 

 ciation, Harvard University, the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, and the TJ. S. Public 

 Health Service. Simply dressed in his aca- 

 demic robes, he arose and spoke for ten 

 minutes. He praised brave little Belgium and 

 faithful France for saving the world, he gave 

 to England the credit of being the father of 

 public health administration, and then spoke 

 for America. I do not know what he said — ^I 

 was not there — ^but I have been told that the 

 audience went wild in applause and that 

 scores of people, including our own Ambas- 

 sador, went forward after the meeting to 

 shake his hand. It was the climax of the 

 convention. 



Professor Sedgwick of late had been keenly 

 interested in the engineering study now being 

 carried on jointly by the State Department of 

 Public Health and the Metropolitan District 

 Commission which looks forward to an exten- 

 sion of the water supply of the eastern part 

 of the state, by the construction of a great 

 reservoir in the Swift River Valley. Once in 

 about twenty-five years every growing city or 

 district has to enlarge its water supply, be- 

 cause it does not pay to construct works for 

 a longer period ahead. It was in 1895 that 

 the Wachusett Reservoir was recormnended 

 and a few years later put in use — and the 

 time has now come when we of this generation 

 must build a water supply for the next. It 

 will be an expensive investment for the state, 

 but not an unreasonable one, because it will 

 be an income-producing investment. The 

 project is one which appeals to the imagina- 

 tion. An abundant supply of pure water is 

 one of the essentials of life. No community 

 can prosper if it outgrows its water supply. 

 Sedgwick, with his faith in Massachusetts, 

 was therefore keenly alive to the importance 

 of this new project, of which much will be 

 heard during the coming year. 



