THE period between World War I and World War II saw the development of well organized sanitary engineering divisions in state health departments and a concurrent interest in the academic preparation of engineers who undertook to provide the technical services needed by a health department, in matters relating to the control of man's physical environment, with special emphasis on water supply and waste water disposal. The end of World War II brought an increased interest in a number of environmental health problems and a correspondingly greater demand for technical advice and services from the engineering staffs of health departments. As technical personnel were added to health departments to deal with these new environmental health problems, two things became evident; first, that those responsible for staffing health departments frequently failed to recognize the significance of specialization in engineering preparation, and, second, that the problems in environmental health were becoming so diversified as to require more than one kind of academic specialization. One sanitary engineer administrator complained of the lack of standards as to what constituted a sanitary engineer, and that the line of demarcation between sanitary engineers, sanitarians, and other scientific personnel was quite vague. While approximately 70 per cent of all persons identifying themselves as sanitary engineers belonged to the Engineering Division, ASCE, there were many sanitary engineers whose professional affiliation was not in civil engineering. In a report of the ASCE Committee on the Advancement of Engineering, given in January, 1949, it was noted that Sanitary engineers have no single professional home. Because of their broad interests, they are scattered through a dozen or more technical, scientific, and engineering organizations, with the choice of their allegiance depending in large measure on their particular interests and pursuits.' Because this committee thought there was a lack of coordination and cooperation among the various groups in which sanitary engineers participated, it recommended the establishment of joint boards and councils of these various groups, with ASCE serving as a stimulating and motivating agency to achieve an urgently needed unity of purpose. The report of this committee in 1950 reemphasized the recommendations of the 1949 report and urged that the Engineering Division, ASCE, recommend to the Board of Direction that