The Influence of Sanitary Engineering on Public Health.

FIFTY years ago sanitary engineering in this country scarcely existed, even in name. The larger cities were provided with public water supplies and there was a general desire among sanitarians to supply water free from filth. Sewers in combination with storm water drains.had been built in the larger communities to a limited extent for several decades. Some of the more progressive engineers were watching the activities of the Rivers Pollution Commissions in England andc at Paris, Berlin and a number of other places abroad. The germ theory of disease had not been established. The laboratory man spoke of chemical tests in terms unappreciated by the engineer and of comparatively little aid to him. Bacteriology had not sprung into being. In brief, the historyof the past fifty years tells practically all of the substantial accomplishments of the sanitary engineer in advancing the publichealth movement on this continent. I shall outline briefly what the engineer has accomplished along sanitary lines in the field of water supply, water purification, sewerage, sewage disposal, control of streams and the collection and disposal of solid wastes.