Morning journal and courier., 1893-06-28
THE MEDICAL SCHOOL.

Able Address by DR.. WalcOtt-An-
nOuncement of Prizes.
Yesterday was an interesting day at
Yale Medical school and very able ad-
dress was delivered by DR.. Henry P. Wal
colt, chairman of the Massachusetts, State
Board Of Health. He has made an excel
lent record for good work and earnest en-
deavor in behalf of sanitary work and
measures. He advocated the wider eduea,
ton of the physicians in the interest of
public health, there were defects in the
l fession that needed rectifying. He spoke
/ of the importance of the work of the
medical profession and how much de-
pended upon the proper equipment of tho
| doctor for his work. In many fields of
enquiry much depended upon him. The
| speakers subject was "The College, the
Physician and the Commonwealth" He
spoke of the creditable work which was
| done by the national board of health dur
/ ing it's short life.
"Few of the political schemes that too
frequently have destroyed the legislative
proceedings at Washington were more Of
fensive than the man who destroyed the
life of the national board of health. That
another organization with the function of
conducting scientific investigations would
now bs more fortunate seems to me more
than doubtful, and while I have always
believed and still believe that some central
health body preferably representative of
various state boards of health should be
that 1t should not directly control scientific
Investigations"
A few other points from the speakers
excellent address are as follows:
Most encouraging of the signs that an
nouncs the better preparation of our uni
versities for such investigations are the
funds already given to them for the pur-
pose of enabling work to be done in those
departments which are related to the sci
entifc teaching of hygiene. The money
so literally given in the city of Philadel-
phia for the building and maintenance of
the Institute of Hygiene cannot represent
public intelligence and libsrality limited
to that city, leader though she has been in
the teaching of medicine; but an equal
generosity can surely not fell In this New
England of ours, which took the lead on
this side of the Atlantic in establishing
state health organizations and still sue
cessfully maintains them. The example
thus set has been followed by every state
in the Union-the influence and powers Of
these boards have steadily grown, and
have so grown, believe, because they
they have been built upon a substructure
of definite knowledge.
One of the earliest enactments in the
sanitary history of the human race was the
prohibition of the pollution of springs and
rivers. No monuments of ANTIQUITY are
more conspicuous than the auueducts
which brought supplies of water to the
fountains and bathing places Of the cities
1t is perhaps true in Connecticut, as it is
in Massachusetts,, that nearly SO per cent.
of the whole population of the state live in
towns provided with public water supplies.
If We define pure water as one which has
at no time received the waste products of
human life, it is qnite evident that all your
large New England sources of supply be-
long to the polluted class, inasnuch as they
are derived from territory more or less
thickly inhabited. No provision exists in
such territory by which the sewage is re-
moved beyond the Observation-Disclosures
+ sooner or later, in moro or less altered
form, the waste products can be discov-
cred in the stream or pond to which the
district has been drained.
1t will be evident from this brief state
ment that the first step to be taken In order
to make reasonable provision for the pur
ity OF the public water supplies was to un-
derstand as thoroughly as possible their
natural history in all its details, and this
not only of pure waters, bat of the contain
inated sources. Geology, chemistry, biol
ogy and physics have all bsen called into
service. Repeated examinations have been
made of the organisms living in the waters,
the chemical constituents determined and
measured, the physical qualities examined,
and all these facts have been ascertained,
not only for natural bodies of water, but
also for water collected or stored by arti6-
cial devices The information go gathered
together Is not such as the science of med
icine can give, but is nevertheless collected
for the purpose of assuring healthy water
supply, and medicine must decide whether
this end has been attained.
It has been shown that sewage charged
with all the noxious wastes of human life
can be thoroughly purified by application
to properly prepared filter beds madesof
ordinary sand. Tits now possible to state
with scientific accuracy how such filter
beds should be constructed In order to do
this work most rapidly and efficiently; and
80 confident is the board of health of
Massachusetts, of the euMciency OF the
knowledge possessed on this subject that
arrangements have been made for the con-
struction of filter area on the banks of
the Merrimac in the city of Lawrence for
the purpose of purifying the contaminated
waters of the stream, and rendering them
safe for domestic use. If the value of q
human life Is to be capitalized upon the
basis Of the lowest daily wages earned
here. I believe that we ehall find the
amount of money saved by the reduction
of the death rate from enteric fever In
Lawrence to be- greater than all the costs
of the construction of this work. More
caused by polluted waters.
The anaak6r now PaferYA6 tn what had