A New Look at Sanitation

Abstract

IT may come as a surprise to some of you that one steeped in the traditions of public health administration and sanitary engineering should possess the audacity to suggest a new look at sanitation. The colorful and impressive milestones spread over the past several decades emphasize the noteworthy accomplishments in the eradication of typhoid and other enteric infections through the improvement and extension of safe water supplies and the installation of sewerage systems and disposal and treatment plants. It is fitting on this occasion to remind ourselves of the early studies and constructive actions instituted by those pioneer men of sanitary science who labored in Massachusetts. State participation and achievements in the advancement of community health have established historical benchmarks since the organization in 1869 of the first among the state boards of health. The creation of a Division of Sanitary Engineering in 1886, the oldest of all, constituted one of the first functional activities of the State Board of Health. The story of the able engineers, Goodnough and Weston, as well as the great contributions to sanitary science by the giants of the Lawrence Experiment Station, are too well known in the history of public health to require enumeration. Mills, Hazen, Fuller, Sedgwick, Jordan, Clark are names which