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SCIENCE

Massachusetts State Board of Health began
to apply the new ideas in biology and chem-
istry to the purification of water and sewage
under the leadership of Dr. Henry P. Walcott,
who for a quarter of a century was chairman
of the board, and Mr. Hiram F. Mills, a hy-
draulic engineer, who for an equally long
time gave most valuable service to the com-
monwealth. A small station for making ex-
periments with sewage and water was built
at Lawrence, Mass. Professor Sedgwick was
consulting biologist of the State Board of
Health and Dr. Drown was consulting chem-
ist. For many years, even up to this day, the
Lawrence Experiment Station has been a
Some of the
center of scientific activity.
leading sanitary engineers of the country be-
gan their work there.

While this scientific study of the chemistry
and biology of water and sewage was in full
blast (1890), a notable epidemic of typhoid
fever swept down the Merrimac Valley. Pro-
fessor Sedgwick made a thorough study of
this catastrophe and developed methods of
investigation which have been followed by
American epidemiologists ever since. Although
not a mathematician, he marshalled statistics
and used them with telling force and drew
from them logical conclusions which could not
be upset. As a result of the epidemic and the
research at the experiment station, the first
scientifically designed municipal water filter
in America was built at Lawrence. This filter,
with additions and modifications, is still in
use and although outgrown in size and ideas
is to-day protecting the people of Lawrence
against the recurrence of an epidemic like
that of 1890. In this matter one can not give
the credit to Sedgwick alone, for it was the
entire group of scientists who deserve the
credit-Mills, Stearns, Drown, Sedgwick,
Hazen, Fuller, and others, most of all per-
Through them America
haps to Mr. Mills.
gave to the world scientific ideas in regard to
the disposal of sewage which revolutionized
methods of treatment and stimulated the con-
struction of disposal works in scores, perhaps
hundreds of cities, in this country and
abroad.

Sedgwick become a great interprete scientific work. He joined the New Water Works Association in 1890, but as 1888 he had contributed a paper Biological Examination of Water. chosen president of the association having already (in 1904) been made a ary member. His last address before ciation was delivered on September on a subject appropriate to the times Peace to War, from War to Victo Victory to Just Judgment." Those w it will never forget the stirring which he called for stern justice for and appealed to a higher ideal of that held by the Kaiser-the ideal tianity, the ideal of civilization. never separated his science from hi ism or his religion. He could mak popular and he could take subjects o interest and clothe them in the lar science.

The American Public Health A also claimed Sedgwick's attention. came a member in 1902 and its pr 1915. He was a member of many co was a frequent speaker, most of his having relation to the broader aspec lic-health work. It is hardly worth this time to recite the long list of societies to which he belonged, bu should be made of the Society of Bacteriologists, which he helped to of which he was president in 190 American Society of Naturalists, o he presided in 1901, and the Academy of Arts and Sciences, of was a Fellow and to which he gave and thought. Society membership the breadth of a man's interest and opportunities for bringing his id the scientific world. Some men "belongers"-others, like Sedgwic full part in promoting the obje societies which they join. As Prof wick advanced in life, his intere from one scientific society to anoth scientific papers shifted from the detailed studies to educational and

He

ical problems. That change marked the normal development of an active, broadening mind. So we may add to Sedgwick's fame as a great teacher that of interpreter of science. We must next look upon him as a councilor in public health. In 1914 when the State Board of Health was replaced by a health commissioner and public health council, Sedgwick was appointed as a member of the council and served in that capacity until his death. Together the commissioner and council constitute the State Department of Public Health. Its work is done partly through committees and Sedgwick served on the committee on sanitary engineering and was chairman of the committee on food and drugs. It is difficult to pick out from the manysided activities of the State Department any particular work which was his, for in one way or another he has been in all of them. was an ideal councilor. His scientific knowledge, his ripe experience, his grasp of fundamental principles made his advice respected by us all. His facility in writing clear and simple English was most useful to the council in the preparation of reports. I remember once that a certain sentence in a letter of advice to some city had been so phrased as to mean just exactly what it was not intended to mean. The commissioner and council had approved it. Sedgwick came in late, looked at the report, and immediately spotted the false phrase and thought it a great joke. He said, "Folks laugh at the sleepy old professors, but you see they have their uses." Sedgwick's graceful yet forceful manner of speaking caused him to be chosen on many occasions to represent the Department and whether he spoke before a legislative committee or a large public meeting he was always effective. Many a fight he has had at the State House with anti-vivisectionists, antivaccinationists, and various other kinds of antis-but Sedgwick's method of fighting was merely to state his side of the case, simply and forcefully, letting his opponent have a monopoly of the fireworks. It was perhaps one of his faults that he was not aggressive enough. But on occasion Sedgwick became

eloquent. Last year at the Brussels con ence of public health officers representat of various nations, gorgeously arrayed in form and regalia, had been droning out w speeches, the audience being visibly bo when Sedgwick's turn came. He was ther represent the American Public Health A ciation, Harvard University, the Massachus Institute of Technology, and the U. S. Pu Health Service. Simply dressed in his demic robes, he arose and spoke for minutes. He praised brave little Belgium faithful France for saving the world, he to England the credit of being the fathe public health administration, and then s for America. I do not know what he said was not there-but I have been told that audience went wild in applause and scores of people, including our own Am sador, went forward after the meeting shake his hand. It was the climax of convention.

Professor Sedgwick of late had been ke interested in the engineering study now b carried on jointly by the State Departmen Public Health and the Metropolitan Dist Commission which looks forward to an ex sion of the water supply of the eastern of the state, by the construction of a g reservoir in the Swift River Valley. Onc about twenty-five years every growing city district has to enlarge its water supply, cause it does not pay to construct works a longer period ahead. It was in 1895 the Wachusett Reservoir was recommen and a few years later put in use-and time has now come when we of this genera must build a water supply for the next. will be an expensive investment for the st but not an unreasonable one, because it be an income-producing investment. project is one which appeals to the imag tion. An abundant supply of pure wate one of the essentials of life. No commu can prosper if it outgrows its water sup Sedgwick, with his faith in Massachuse was therefore keenly alive to the importa of this new project, of which much will heard during the coming year.

As early as 1882 Professor Sedgwick was elected a member of the Advisory Committee of the U. S. Public Health Service, and for nearly twenty years he maintained this connection with national public health affairs. When after the war a reserve organization was created in this service, Sedgwick was commissioned as assistant surgeon general. A few years ago he was made a member of the International Health Board, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, and thus his interests became world-wide in their scope. Last year he went to England as exchange professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to the Universities of Cambridge and Leeds-and on the eve of his departure a newspaper headline very fittingly characterized him as 66 Ambassador of Health."

During the past few days I have been reading over a list of the titles of the books and most important scientific papers which Sedgwick wrote between the years 1883 and 1921— about a hundred in number. If his minor writings had been included, the list would have been several times as long. Towards the end of his life he wrote less. Only a few weeks before his death he said to me, "I sometimes get sick of talking about health; every Tom, Dick and Harry is now talking about it, and most of what they say is so exaggerated that it casts discredit on all of us who are trying to speak within the bounds of sanitary science."

And I wish to take this occasion to express my own views that just as there is danger that scientific research may be organized to death, so there is danger that public health may be organized and legislated, propagandized and commercialized to the point of nullification. There is danger that over striving for the welfare of particular classes of people may result in misfortune to the people as a whole. Sensible education in the principles of healthy living should be universal, but neither the state nor the nation should embark upon programs of socialization of medicine, socialization of nursing or the paternalistic or maternalistic care of the health of individuals without first looking ahead to see where such poli

cies lead, socially, financially and The police power of the state shou severely to prevent crimes against health; the advisory powers of heal ments should be freely used, but th of the state should not be drawn u for personal benefits or class benefi the name of health. Public health vate health are not the same, an ments may do for the one what t not to do for the other.

We Americans can not boast of t of our governments, especially th ments of our cities. We can not bo governmental methods of public ministration-and unfortunately governments are not becoming mor as they become larger. Let us not make the mistake of turning too ma health activities over to the governm one thing, however, America has ex that is its voluntary cooperative und Let these continue to use their infl improving personal health, leaving to ernments only those matters whi mately belong to the health of the p whole. The time is rapidly approach the financial problems of our cities: will overtop all others-sanitary a health problems included-when appr of all kinds will be cut to the bon off insolvency or repudiation of debt not make our people too dependent governments for health protection, by education seek to make them pr own health, for what they pay for value most.

There is one other aspect of 1 tivities which I can not refrain fron ing in this connection. Too much about one's health makes a person n is possible for communities to ge same condition. After all, there health in the world than there is si tell my students that while as p health officials they must study deat individuals they must look well t rates, for except in old age the living is far greater than the chanc

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and we can sepnd our time best by living and not trying to stay alive. Fortunately, health is a positive quality which can be cultivated in ways that are pleasant, and with reasonable understanding and moderate care we can protect ourselves against those diseases which are preventable.

I am personally out of sympathy with injecting the propaganda and the slogans of public health into the services of the churches, although I am most heartily in favor of church people doing all that they can to mitigate human suffering by methods of prevention as well as those of relief. This concerted movement of the women of Boston to improve the health of our children strikes a responsive chord in all of us. We know that Professor Sedgwick's voice would have been lifted up in favor of this weeks' crusade. His very heart went out to the refugee children of France, and one of the most beautiful episodes of his life was associated with Château Lafayette, which he and Mrs. Sedgwick visited last summer and to which they hoped to return.

We come finally to Sedgwick's last great work in connection with the School of Public Health of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This school he helped to establish in 1913 and served as chairman of the administrative board until his death. He delighted to see it grow, he delighted to see students coming to it from foreign countries-from Italy, from China, from South America, from India and Siam, from Czecho-Slovakia, and from Mexico. Few people of Boston realize how solidly this little school has taken its place as a center of publichealth education, or how its example has been followed by other universities in America.

Nearly twenty years ago when Sedgwick joined the American Public Health Association, he was made a member of a committee on the Teaching of Hygiene and the Granting of the Degree of Doctor of Public Health. He always held the view that the public health service was different from the medical service, that a man could be an efficient health executive without being a doctor. His last im

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portant address, given at the 100th anniv sary of the medical school of the Univers of Cincinnati, was devoted to the subject the education of health executives. He ad cated what he called the Y plan, by whi medical schools should have two progra alike during the first two years, but aft wards diverging, one towards the degree doctor of medicine and one towards the deg of doctor of public health.

His last act as a member of the administ tive board of the School of Public Health, h December 19, 1920, was to assist in prepari a statement relative to the future of t school, planning for a reorganization of government and doing so at the sacrifice his own position as chairman and having mind only the future good of the cause public health education. In time to co Sedgwick's part in the organization of t school, which seems destined to take its pla side by side with the Harvard Medical Scho will stand forth as one of his most constru tive works. May it not be possible that in t near future some friend or group of frien will contribute a fund big enough to endow William Thompson Sedgwick professorship this School of Public Health of Harvard U versity and the Massachusetts Institute Technology which he loved so well. Wh finer memorial could be given than one whi would tend to make his name and teachi known to the students of the coming year

And so we may sum up Professor Sed wick's life as that of a great teacher, an i terpreter of science, a wise councilor, an a bassador of public health. Friend of you men, loyal supporter of the institute, patrio citizen, a Christian gentleman, he will greatly missed by all who were fortuna enough to know him.

On Sunday mornings I like to hear the H vard student choir sing in Appleton Chap Sometimes the music rises and falls in var ing melody until at the end it fades away in a distance. At other times it pursues simple motif, which grows in volume until culminates in a burst of song and, on a su den, ceases. For an instant the air ting

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OUR DISAPPEARING WILD PLANTS1
THE destruction of the vast herds of bison

in our western plains, the total extinction of
the formerly abundant wild pigeon, the ex-
zermination of many of the most beautiful of
yur wild birds, all this is a matter of common
knowledge. How many of us, however, realize
at the same rapacious spirit of destruction
as seriously endangered our wild plant life,
til many of our most desirable plants have
serua disappeared from wide areas of our
ountry!

The earliest Europeans in America found
in the New World a flora marvelously rich in
its abundance of species and indescribably
beautiful in its display of attractive plants.
Since the time of the earliest settlers this
wonderful flora has suffered a gradual deple
tion until at present the flora in many regions
is a mere relic of the past with hardly a sug-
gestion of its pristine loveliness. The appre-
eration of mankind was expressed in an odd
manner indeed when he removed the hand-
somest of the plants, allowing the dull and
love aftrmotive species to take their place.
This painful tragedy has been enacted right
here in the vicinity of Washington, where the
formerly luxuriant display of laurel, rhodo-
dondon, holly, ground pines, and arbutus has
in many place been supplanted by weedy and
amerally unattractive species. All the plants
named are almost extinct within a wide radius
of the pity and the wild orchids, spring
barution, Iduebells, and many other species of
vare grace and beauty are vanishing rapidly,
and will soon live in memory only unless
motive atopa are taken to save them.

The one fonding to their disappearance

4 Anablepas delivered with illustrations before flor Pubaudeat hocipty of Washington, D. C., Oo

are complex, but by far the greate
tributing factor is the unrestricted
criminate, thoughtless picking to whi
beauteous plants are subjected. Eac
witnesses the descent of legions of
less flower-gatherers who ravish the fil
hardly a thought that the tearing
the flowers robs most plants of th
methods of reproduction. These m
hordes gather huge armfuls and b
of hepatica, anemone, bloodroot and
of other rapidly-wilting plants, which
joyed for the moment but are soo
along the highways and byways in
unsightly masses, mute evidence of
destruction of nature's most perfe
The process of extermination has of
largely aided and widely extended by
enemy of our flora, the automobi
trating into regions formerly remote
cessible and returning loaded with b
of drooping, withered branches of
dogwood, redbud, and service berry,
by trespassers who had neither n
legal justication for such disfigurati
has not seen great branches of dog
bunches of other wild flowers offere
by irresponsible street-merchants?
half-hour during an automobile dr
the redbud and flowering dogwood
bloom, the speaker was accosted tw
along Conduit Road near Washingt
by boyish flower venders offering
gotten wares. The accumulated d
of years will be great until it is
that the handsomest of our species
appear.

Must these wondrous gifts of n
only in song and story for the cou
coming generations? Is it fair th
sipate this great natural heritag
posterity of the pleasures derived
flowers which we now so fully
would seem that the doctrine of t
good for the greatest number deman
accept this rich birthright in guar
to be safeguarded and preserved for
ment of those who come after us;
generation act as trustees of the s

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