94 DR. EDWARD SCHUNCK. MEMOIR 



This circumstance directed Dr. Smith's attention to sani- 

 tary matters, and led him to commence the series of 

 investigations which occupied a great part of his time and 

 attention from the year 1844 up to the time of his death. 



At the time when Dr. Smith commenced his researches 

 sanitary science could not be said to exist, unless a mere 

 collection of unconnected facts can be dignified with the 

 name of science. Since that time much more system has 

 been introduced into the subject, and a great portion of 

 the merit of having developed the purely scientific side of 

 it is due to Dr. Smith. The pathological department of 

 the subject did not, as may be supposed, receive so much 

 attention from him as the physical ; nor did he, I think, 

 at any time pronounce decidedly on the question whether 

 the phenomena with which sanitary science deals are 

 purely organic in their nature, or whether they are not 

 also partly due to merely physical causes. What he did 

 was to investigate patiently the physical and chemical 

 conditions as regards outward agents, more especially the 

 air we inhale and the water we drink, on which health and 

 disease seem to depend. No doubt, since the time when 

 he entered the field, our views on this subject have altered 

 considerably. It is now held that most diseases, especially 

 those of the zymotic class, are due to the development of 

 organic germs, but the most ardent advocate of the germ- 

 theory must allow that there are physical and chemical phe- 

 nomena attending disease which should not be neglected, 

 and to these Dr. Smith chiefly confined his attention, now 

 and then only reverting to the general question of the 

 causes of disease, as to which he was always prepared to 

 modify his opinions when the progress of discovery required 

 him to do so. The results of his labours are contained in 

 a series of papers, of which the Royal Society's catalogue 

 contains a list, though an incomplete one, beginning with 



