IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
85 
Shall future ages look back on us with the same feeling 
that we look back on the past? 
Let the beginning of the twentieth century mark the 
beginning of a new era in sanitary regulations. 
Let us encourage every organization that has for its 
object the fostering of such regulations, anti-tuberculosis 
societies, health clubs, etc., and as a matter that may more 
directly concern us, demand more scientific investigations 
on the part of our commonwealth. We have a geological 
survey in all sections of our state; let us, as members of 
the Academy of Sciences, call for a bacteriological, biol- 
ogical and chemical survey of the various water basins, so 
that we may know what to expect and how to combat the 
deleterious agencies in the water. 
It is absolutely necessary to take all these matters into 
consideration, the past with its woes, the present with its 
glaring needs, before we can take an intelligent, optimistic 
view of the future. 
Before closing, I desire to emphasize the need of pro- 
gressive sentiment demanding that boards of health exer- 
cise their prerogatives and that in fulfillment of duty they 
will be given the moral support of all citizens. The public * 
health is in the hands of its especially appointed boards, 
and it is a sacred duty of such officials to exhaust every 
resource at their command to fulfill the trust reposed in 
them. Germs of typhoid in wells, diphtheria in the air, 
cholera and tuberculosis in food, demand earnest, vigorous, 
progressive, intelligent work on the part of the board of 
health. In their hands is the power to avert the slaughter 
of the innocents. 
