A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 
YALE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE 
ON THE FOUNDATION ESTABLISHED IN MEMORY OF 
WILLIAM CHAUNCEY WILLIAMS, M.D., 
OF THE CLASS OF 1822, YALE MEDICAL SCHOOL, 
AND OF 
WILLIAM COOK WILLIAMS, M.D., 
OF THE CLASS OF 1850, YALE MEDICAL SCHOOL  A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
BY 
E. O. JORDAN • G. C. WHIPPLE • C.-E. A. WINSLOW 
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARY K. SEDGWICK 
"He loved great things and thought little of himself. Desiring 
neither fame nor influence he won the devotion of men 
and was a power in their lives; and seeking no dis- 
ciples he taught to many the qualities of 
the world and of man's mind." 
NEW HAVEN 
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
LONDON • HUMPHREY MILFORD • OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 
MCMXXIV COPYRIGHT 1924 BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE WILLIAMS MEMORIAL PUBLICATION FUND 
The present volume is the seventh work published by 
the Yale University Press on the Williams Memorial 
Publication Fund. This Foundation was established 
June 15, 1916, by a gift made to Yale University by 
George C. F. Williams, M.D., of Hartford, a member 
of the Class of 1878, Yale School of Medicine, where 
three generations of his family studied-his father, 
William Cook Williams, M.D., in the Class of 1850, 
and his grandfather, William Chauncey Williams, 
M.D., in the Class of 1822. Contents 
List of Illustrations xi 
Introduction xiii 
The Public Health Movement in the Seventies 1 
The Gates of Knowledge 8 
The Department of Biology and Public Health at 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 22 
The Contribution of the Institute of Technology to 
the Public Health Movement in America 56 
Sedgwick the Teacher 80 
Public Service 109 
As a Man Thinketh 141 
Appendix A 163 
Appendix B 173 List of Illustrations 
William T. Sedgwick Frontispiece 
Facing page 
Professor Sedgwick at His Demonstration Desk 
(Trinity Place Building, 1899) 40 
The Department Staff, 1920-1921 54 
Official Minute Adopted by the Public Health 
Council of Massachusetts, February, 1921 68 
Portrait of Sedgwick Painted by William 
Churchill, 1909 132 Introduction 
The record of a man's achievement in the chosen 
pursuit of his life is, in so far as it was helpful to his 
fellowmen, a public possession. Yet-and possibly 
this is more true of the average scientific man than of 
any other-it is necessarily ephemeral. Our world 
whirls on so fast from discovery to discovery that no 
man's work lives very long unless he be of that rare 
and infinitely small number of immortals who 4 4 climb 
the skies to dwell there everlastingly. ' ' 
The subject of this memoir was so assured that his 
modest contribution to knowledge was not of any 
such rare order, that more than once when speaking 
of biographies he would regret that the subjects of 
some of them had expanded into 44two-volume men," 
as he phrased it, and he would add,441 am not even a 
one-volume man, and I hope no one will be tempted 
to think I am, and write my life." His was the un- 
marked routine of a hard-working student, teacher, 
and investigator; and such a career makes few sig- 
nificant appeals to popular interest. 
It is unquestionably a loss that, friendly with so 
many, helpful to a host, he has not left behind letters 
to charm the casual reader. His correspondence was 
enormous, but largely professional. Consequently, 
xiii INTRODUCTION 
though he knew and enjoyed a great variety of men, 
and especially, through the Lowell Institute, men of 
much distinction, he gave little time to the cultivation 
of one of the most delightful of all forms of memory 
-letters of friendship that reveal a man to a world 
which knew him not. 
Nevertheless, such was the influence his spirit 
wrought upon scores of younger men (who affection- 
ately named him "Chief") that they, in order to pre- 
serve his pioneer work in the advancement of Public 
Health in America, have overborne my reluctance. 
Furthermore, the suggestion has been made that 
I alone can add such detached and fragmentary 
memories and anecdotes, brought together from the 
strayed years, as may reveal a little more intimately 
the kind of man he was who is the subject of this por- 
trait. I have therefore given to the authors of this 
volume such recognita as seemed not to violate his 
wishes, rather than to furnish, as they wished, a sepa- 
rate chapter of personal memories. 
After all, to his friends, to those who gathered 
about the hearth-fire in quiet interchange of friendly 
talk, the thing to be cherished now is not his achieve- 
ment as a pioneer in Public Health, nor his greater 
success as a molder of young minds. What they will 
wish not to lose from memory are his likes and dis- 
likes, the books of which he made companions, the 
buildings or the pictures or the music that he most 
enjoyed, the way in which he refreshed himself spir- 
itually and bodily, "what nonsense made him laugh, 
what pathos made him weep." 
From the beginning of our married life, my part 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
was to read and study along lines outside the range 
of his scientific pursuits in order to refresh him in 
hours of leisure, or to enrich periods of travel with 
knowledge of history and art and literature. The 
wide range of his mental interest was one of the fac- 
tors of his influence, revealing to his young men un- 
expected contacts with sides of life so far removed 
from his own experience, or theirs, as to make new 
planets swim into their ken. One such man writes me 
that this gift of vivid sympathy with phases of life 
upon whose margin only he could touch, was perhaps 
his most characteristic trait, and proved stimulating 
beyond all expression to one just embarking upon the 
independent life of a teacher or research worker. 
Another friend writes: "In a home where W. T. S. 
was like a son and brother, he never crossed the 
threshold without bringing good cheer. Tender gen- 
tleness with the old and real comradeship with the 
young were never failing. By the firelight in winter 
and moonlight in summer, the give and take of family 
life was greatly added to when he joined-he was so 
generous in expressing his opinions and in clarifying 
a subject when there was any haziness." 
During many years he seemed to do the work of 
two or even of three average men. Yet he was never 
outwardly hurried or confused, but carried his heavy 
burden with high serenity, because it was a task he 
loved. More than this, he recognized that the intel- 
lectual life must not be allowed to overshadow or sub- 
merge the very real and urgent life of human rela- 
tions. Family ties and his sense of public duty to the 
community never let his conscience rest satisfied with 
XV INTRODUCTION 
mere professional achievement. He would like, I 
think, to be remembered as a citizen and a friend of 
man, "unspoiled, sweet, generous, and humane." 
Often in the later years I have heard him say he 
longed for freedom from administrative work in or- 
der to write. There were embryo articles and books in 
his mind that yearned for expression; yet he loved 
his teaching, and, could it have been separated from 
official care of a department, he would not so often in 
the last two years have said: "I must stop, but I 
would like to round out my forty years at Tech- 
nology. ' ' This was not vouchsafed him, and his part- 
ing from the life he loved was, at all events, that of a 
good soldier who went with his armor quite undinted, 
even though he left most cherished projects at their 
moment of crisis. 
The outpouring of admiration for "the Chief," 
which, since he left us, has been expressed in hun- 
dreds of letters, strengthens the hope that the present 
volume may help to capture and keep alive for those 
who cared for him, and to reveal to others who in the 
future will know him only through its pages, his 
larger perception of what a fundamental scientific 
philosophy of life may mean to the individual and to 
the community of which he forms a part. 
Mary K. Sedgwick. 
xvi The Public Health Movement 
in the Seventies* 
Homines enim ad Deos, nulla re propius accedunt, 
quam salutem hominibus dando. 
Cicero, Pro Q. Ligario, XII, 38. 
The Great War closed an era in the history of civi- 
lization. What is happening to the world today, the 
wisest of us cannot surely tell. Our sons will know; 
but in the midst of the current it is impossible to 
gauge its direction or its force. Looking backward, 
however, we who are now in the forties and the fif- 
ties can estimate with some accuracy the tendencies 
at work in that vanished world in which we were 
born and grew up to maturity. 
The period of seventy-five years, which began with 
the accession of Queen Victoria and ended with the 
invasion of Belgium, was characterized on the one 
hand by the development of applied science and on 
* The authors desire to express their appreciation of the courtesy of 
Prof. H. G. Pearson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 
Prof. W. H. Frost of Johns Hopkins University who have read the 
manuscript of this memoir and given many valuable suggestions in 
regard to it. 
1 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
the other by the application of that science to the 
amelioration of the physical conditions of human 
life. It was a scientific age and a humanitarian age. 
It was an era of orderly progress in thought and in 
action, an era of faith in the bases of conduct and of 
hope for the future. Even before the war there were 
many signs that this phase of assured progress must 
give way in a natural alternation to a phase of read- 
justment, of doubts and questionings and emotional 
strivings, which will in turn lay the foundation for a 
new period of confident advance. Yet in the last half 
of the nineteenth century the world was a good 
world to live in, and few half-centuries in the world's 
history can show an equal degree of concrete achieve- 
ment for the cause of civilization. 
Among all the movements of this period none was 
more notable than the development of the modern 
public health campaign. Here, the progress of scien- 
tific knowledge and the humanitarian impulse joined 
hands to accomplish results in the saving of life 
and the control of human suffering, never before 
equalled, and perhaps never again to be equalled, in 
a similar period of time. The growth of the public 
health movement is therefore a highly significant 
thing for every student of human affairs; and in the 
history of this movement in America the name of 
Sedgwick stands out as one of its earliest, most char- 
acteristic and most influential leaders. The story of 
his life is a mirror of the progress of the public 
health campaign; and the moral and intellectual 
forces which made him so great a teacher were in un- 
2 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
usual measure the moral and intellectual forces of 
the period in which he lived. 
When Sedgwick was preparing for his life work, 
fifty years ago, the modern public health movement 
was still in its infancy. In England the foundations 
had already, however, been laid. In later years Sedg- 
wick loved the study of these pioneering efforts of 
the eighteenth century and never wearied of delving 
in the Bodleian Library for the records of John 
Howard and Sir George Baker. In an address on 
The Rise and Significance of the Modern Move- 
ment for Public Health he discusses this "seed-time 
of public health science" in the following passage. 
No one has yet drawn for us any such picture of society 
at the end of the eighteenth century as Macaulay, in his 
telling account of England in 1685, has given us of the 
end of the seventeenth. But whenever such a picture 
conies to be painted, we shall find in it, prominent if not 
conspicuous, the rising wave of humanitarianism marked 
by reforms in the treatment of the insane, deaf-mutes 
and the blind; by the establishment of public instead of 
church hospitals and asylums; and by the prison and 
alms-house reforms of John Howard. Some three months 
after the first reform Act brought about by Howard's 
exposures-an Act which dealt with the most urgent ad- 
ministrative reforms-another Act was passed, in June, 
1774, which deserves to be called a great Public Health 
Act, for it required justices of the peace "to see that the 
walls and ceilings of all prisons within their jurisdiction 
were scraped and whitewashed once a year at least; that 
the rooms were regularly cleaned and ventilated; that in- 
firmaries were provided for the sick, and proper care 
taken to get them medical advice; that the naked should 
3 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
be clothed; that underground dungeons should be used as 
little as could be; and generally that such courses should 
be taken as would tend to restore and preserve the health 
of the prisoners." 
In this episode and in this Act public health science and 
especially sanitation may be said to have obtained their 
first formal and official recognition. Great epidemics, 
plagues and pestilences, had of course often before af- 
flicted the human race, and against these all sorts of 
measures, public and private, official and unofficial, had 
been directed. But these measures were usually unscien- 
tific, spasmodic and temporary, and directed toward the 
control of extraordinary and acute conditions, rather 
than general and permanent plans of social betterment 
designed to remove long-standing or chronic evils. The 
establishment of hospitals and lunatic asylums by the 
Emperor Joseph of Austria and others, towards the end 
of the eighteenth century had been measures of public 
comfort and public safety rather than plans for improve- 
ment of the public health; and the justly celebrated work 
of Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments (1764) was 
chiefly designed to expose and prevent cruelty, not sani- 
tary neglect or sickness. 
The eighteenth century was at best only the seed-time 
of public health science, a period of beginnings. But these 
beginnings, as we now know, were highly significant, just 
as straws tell which way the wind is blowing. Sir Christo- 
pher Wren, for example, was consulted early in the eight- 
eenth century, as an architect and engineer, about the 
ventilation of the House of Commons, in which the air had 
begun to be recognized as no longer tolerable. Sir George 
Baker, in the middle of the eighteenth century took the 
first step in scientific epidemiology, when he proved by 
strictly inductive methods that a localized but wide- 
4 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
spread epidemic known as "Devonshire colic" was really 
a lead poisoning due to the drinking of lead-bearing Dev- 
onshire cider. When to these beginnings in sanitary sci- 
ence or the control of human environment we add those 
other and hygienic processes which consist in reinforce- 
ment of the vital resistance, namely the use of lime juice 
to render the body immune to scurvy-recommended in 
1617 but not regularly supplied in the British Navy be- 
fore 1796-inoculation (1722) and vaccination (1796) to 
secure immunity from smallpox, we perceive that the 
eighteenth century is worthy to take rank not only as the 
period of the scientific renaissance, but also as the time 
of the beginnings of a true preventive medicine and of 
the present-day movement for public health. 
The actual fruition of this dawning public health 
movement came with the report on the Sanitary Con- 
dition of the Laboring Population of Great Britain 
presented to Parliament in 1842, the report of the 
Health of Towns Commission in 1844, the creation of 
Chadwick's short-lived Board of Health in 1848 and 
the appointment of the first municipal health officers, 
Duncan at Manchester in 1847 and Simon at London 
in 1849. Under the influence of these leaders, in 
the middle of the nineteenth century environmental 
sanitation in England underwent a veritable revolu- 
tion, whose influence at last began to make itself felt 
in the United States. The basis of the public health 
campaign in America for many decades was the re- 
port on a state sanitary survey of Massachusetts 
made by Lemuel Shattuck and his associates in 1850; 
and this document drew its primary inspiration 
from the work of Chadwick. In 1869 the Massachu- 
5 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
setts State Board of Health was created, as a result 
of Shattuck's eloquent and statesmanlike report, and 
in 1876 the debt of American to British sanitary sci- 
ence was emphasized by the reprinting, under the 
auspices of the Massachusetts Board, of Simon's 
Filth Diseases and Their Prevention. As indicating 
that those aspects of public health which deal with 
environmental sanitation had already acquired a po- 
sition of importance, it is of some interest to note 
that James Campbell, the publisher of the book in 
question, advertises at this time 29 books on sanitary 
science, dealing with water supply, sewerage and 
ventilation.* 
Public health in the seventies was almost wholly 
concerned with the problems of the non-living envi- 
ronment. The first task of the sanitarian was to 
remedy those filthy conditions of living which in the 
larger cities throughout the world were still propa- 
gating the plagues and pestilences of the Middle 
Ages. It was in 1865 that the sanitary survey of 
New York City, conducted by Stephen Smith and his 
associates, revealed the astoundingly unsanitary con- 
ditions of our own metropolis and the nests of diar- 
rheal disease, of typhus fever and of smallpox which 
existed amid the crowded tenements of that city. 
Naturally and inevitably this primarily engineering 
phase of the public health movement predominated 
at the outset; but the dawn of a new era was at hand 
* Most of the authors are of course English, including Latham, 
Parkes, Denton and Corfield; but Waring, Elisha Harris and Morrill 
Wyman also appear among the number. 
6 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
and the data were accumulating for a more scientific 
and intensive attack upon the causes of disease. 
In the dingy laboratories of the Ecole Normale at 
Paris, Louis Pasteur had been conducting since 1857 
his studies on fermentation and biogenesis; in 1865 
he began his work on the diseases of silkworms; in 
1877, the year of Sedgwick's graduation, Pasteur 
presented his first paper on the subject of anthrax. 
The biological basis of the modern public health 
movement was at last firmly laid by these researches, 
and the way was open for the development of bacteri- 
ology and immunology. In the span of Sedgwick's 
lifetime the public health movement passed from the 
sanitation of the environment, through the conquest 
of the insect-borne pestilences and the scientific use 
of vaccine and serum therapy, to the great social and 
educational movement of the present day,-boasting 
of successes which involve the prolongation by fif- 
teen years of the average period of human life. 
7 The Gates of Knowledge 
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, 
But to be young was very Heaven. 
Wordsworth. 
Sedgwick grew up with the development of that 
great social movement which we call the modern pub- 
lic health campaign; but it was only by degrees that 
he found himself swept into its swift current. He was 
born at West Hartford, Conn., December 29, 1855, 
the son of William and Anne Thompson Sedgwick. 
When as a boy he left his home in Farmington for 
the Hartford High School he had no thought of go- 
ing on to college, unless perhaps his slender patri- 
mony might suffice for a year or so at the Troy Poly- 
technic. His father died when William was but eight 
years old, and thenceforth his mother was a gentle 
invalid. In New York a much older half-brother ad- 
vised business but realized that a little more ad- 
vanced training would be useful. By wonderful good 
fortune Will Sedgwick while at school in Hartford 
lived with two gentlewomen, the Misses Goldthwaite, 
formerly well-known teachers who received into their 
household a few youths, mostly Chinese and Japa- 
nese, who were studying in America. These women 
8 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
were inspired by an eager love of books and music 
and brought into the daily life of "their boys," as 
some of them were fondly called throughout life, an 
intimate acquaintance with poetry and general lit- 
erature such as opened wide vistas for the country 
lad, and their household brought him into an atmos- 
phere of young life and laughter which the soberer 
home environment had never furnished. Through the 
influence of the younger sister, always called "Miss 
Jane," the determination to go through college be- 
came a controlling impulse and by working in sum- 
mer vacations on the farm of another half-brother, 
as well as by tutoring college boys at Yale, the course 
was accomplished and Sedgwick graduated with an 
honorable record in 1877 at the Sheffield Scientific 
School and then entered the Medical School. 
In Miss Goldthwaite's home,* Sedgwick formed a 
close friendship with Kakichi Mitsukuri, who was 
with him later, both at Yale and at Johns Hopkins. 
So long as Mitsukuri lived Sedgwick kept up a more 
constant correspondence with him than with any 
other man, and in several visits to this country made 
by "Mitsi" after he had become a distinguished pro- 
fessor in the University of Tokyo, Sedgwick's house 
was always the home of his Japanese comrade. 
• Sedgwick felt that he owed to Miss Jane Goldthwaite all his in- 
spiration toward a scientific career and always showed her the tender- 
ness due to a foster mother. He was unwilling to go to Europe, even on 
what was in effect his wedding journey,-six months after his marriage, 
-without urging Miss Goldthwaite to accompany him and his wife, 
and thus realizing for her a dream of long years. A charming girl was 
added to the party, and no quartet on their first European adventure 
ever enjoyed a more harmonious experience. 
9 At Yale, as always throughout his life, Sedgwick 
was a vital force in the community in which he moved 
and he was the Senior President of his class 
('77 S.).* In the admirable sketch of the Life and 
Work of William Thompson Sedgwick by Samuel C. 
Prescottf there is quoted Edward B. Wilson's de- 
scription of "Sedg" as 
a cheery and even jovial companion, endowed with a keen 
sense of humor and with that equally precious and saving 
gift of fortune which he himself was fond of calling 
"horse sense." 
Prominent among one's early memories of him are his 
intense love of nature and his delicate literary gift. He 
was country-born and bred and never lost his affection 
for the New England hills and woods through which he 
loved to roam. Of these experiences he knew how to write 
with a charm of style and warmth of feeling that was at 
first surprising to one who had thought of him as concen- 
trated on the technical aspects of science. He was one of 
a small group of enthusiastic amateur botanists who de- 
voted much of their spare time to the collection of plants 
in the neighborhood of New Haven, sometimes wander- 
ing as far afield as the Meriden Hills, and who after- 
wards published a list of the plants of this region in the 
name of their college fraternity. In this undertaking, en- 
couraged and aided by the genial professor of botany, 
Daniel C. Eaton, Sedgwick took a leading part. It in- 
volved some hard work, but I doubt whether the rivalries 
of football, rowing and other college sports were ever 
A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
* Among Sedgwick's classmates were Henry Holbrook Curtis and 
W. Gilman Thompson, both of whom attained eminence in the medical 
profession. 
t Technology Review, April, 1921. 
10 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
pursued with a keener sporting instinct or brought larger 
returns in the way of health and happiness than did those 
rather strenuous tramps among the Connecticut wilds. 
Sedgwick was particularly influenced in his college 
course by Professor Brewer, one of the pioneers of 
the Sheffield Scientific School who for more than 
forty years occupied with grace and distinction the 
chair of agriculture, and whose remarkable gifts as a 
teacher found their happiest expression in the re- 
nowned course on stock breeding, wherein he intro- 
duced students to the great fundamental aspects of 
heredity and evolution as they were understood at 
that time. Of this course Professor Wilson writes: 
These lectures were much appreciated by many gen- 
erations of Yale students, and in our time gained added 
piquancy outside the classroom from Sedgwick's lively 
imitations of his beloved professor's sonorous and pic- 
turesque style of lecturing. To the end of his life, indeed, 
Sedgwick loved to cite Brewer's method of introducing 
Gallon's law of heredity by eloquent insistence on the 
fact that "every man has two parents, four grandpar- 
ents, eight great-grandparents, and so on to the end of 
the category."* 
Another member of the Yale faculty who exercised 
a definite influence upon Sedgwick was Professor 
R. H. Chittenden, later Director of the Sheffield Sci- 
entific School, but at that time an instructor in 
physiological chemistry. Sedgwick early attracted 
his attention, serving in his senior year as an assist- 
* Brewer took an active share in the movement which led to the es- 
tablishment of the Connecticut State Board of Health in 1878 and 
served for many years as its presiding officer. 
11 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
ant in the laboratory, and later while a student at the 
Yale Medical School he was chosen by his instructor 
to carry on the course in this subject while Chitten- 
den was on leave of absence abroad. 
At the Sheffield Scientific School Sedgwick ac- 
quired not only the basis of his biological training 
but a vital interest in the general cause of technologi- 
cal education, then still struggling against heavy 
odds for recognition. In a letter written many years 
later to Director Chittenden he comments upon the 
success of this struggle. 
I congratulate you on the splendid appearance of the 
S. S. S. Bulletin and Catalogue lately received. What a 
change from the old days! And what a wonderful and 
splendid development! It does my soul good to see the 
Scientific School taking such a magnificent position in the 
University, and in the country. 
In Washington the other day I fell in with the Rev. 
Douglas Birnie, '78 Academic, and we had a good laugh 
over the way the Academics used to despise the Scien- 
tifics. I assured him that now the tables are turned and 
that we are doing the despising! 
On graduating from the Scientific School in 1877 
Sedgwick entered the Yale School of Medicine. The 
desire for the life of a professional man with its un- 
doubted restrictions and sacrifices had driven out all 
thought of business, however remunerative. Those 
who knew him in later life smile at any association of 
Sedgwick with money matters for which he not only 
showed no aptitude but a humorous indifference. 
In his last important address on Modern Medicine 
and the Public Health delivered at the University of 
12 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Cincinnati in November, 1920, Sedgwick gave the 
following vivid picture of the status of medical edu- 
cation in New Haven at this period. He says, 
Before 1870 even our best medical schools welcomed 
without any educational entrance requirements whatso- 
ever all students who could pay the prescribed fees. In- 
struction consisted almost entirely of lectures, the only 
laboratory open to students being the dissecting room. 
The lectures were given by practitioners usually too busy 
to properly prepare themselves, before students often 
too indolent or too ignorant to profit by them. The school 
terms, of which only two were required for the degree, 
were very short-generally about four months each. 
Hence it was sometimes possible to get the medical de- 
gree within a single calendar year. As late as 1887 it was 
reported as an important fact in American medical edu- 
cation that each term of our medical colleges had recently 
been increased from an average of 23.5 weeks to one of 
24.9-i.e., by one and a half weeks, or to nearly six 
months! 
Entrance examinations were held by the Medical 
School of Harvard University for the first time in 1877, 
and then only thirteen candidates presented themselves, 
of whom six passed and seven failed. As for the charac- 
teristics and deportment of medical students in those 
days President Eliot said in his annual report for 1879- 
1880: " It is notorious that medical students have been as 
a rule a rougher class of young men than other profes- 
sional students of similar age,"-and this was a very 
conservative statement. 
When I was in the medical school in 1877, students 
went all day from one lecture to another listening to a 
13 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
stream of words upon every subject in the curriculum, 
poured out upon everybody, even beginners in their first 
year, and repeated, practically unchanged, in the second 
year. No important examination was held until the end of 
the two years, and then the examinations were brief and 
easy. Chemistry was expounded by lectures and lecture 
demonstrations, but without any laboratory practice, and 
was of the most elementary sort,-far below that now 
obtained by Freshmen in colleges and technical schools, 
-while physiology was taught without laboratory work 
of any kind, through recitations from a textbook, by a 
young physician who had merely taken a similar textbook 
course under another physician equally ignorant of 
physiological science. I shall never forget my regret that 
I had been born too late, for I gathered from the tone of 
the textbook and the teacher, that everything in Physi- 
ology was already known, so there was therefore nothing 
under debate, nothing to be settled, nothing to be discov- 
ered. Pathology, what there was of it, was a poor kind of 
pathological histology demonstrated by miscellaneous 
and mostly inferior microscopes. It was taught by an old 
gentleman lately returned from the Orient, where he had 
long served as a medical missionary. Materia medica and 
therapeutics were lectured about by a busy practitioner, 
with occasional illustrations of plants supposed to pos- 
sess medicinal properties. Obstetrics was likewise taught 
entirely by lectures, without demonstrations or practice 
of any kind whatsoever. In this subject, as in most, a 
number of books were named for reference, but in ob- 
stetrics one prominent treatise was not thus mentioned. 
Word was passed down from the upper class that this 
book, about which the Professor had said nothing, was 
the one from which he drew his lecture material,-with 
the result that the class promptly purchased the one book 
14 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
not recommended and abjured all the others. Theory and 
Practice was taught by a physician from a neighboring 
city, who had there a large private practice, and was also 
a busy medical adviser to an important insurance com- 
pany. This man was nevertheless an excellent teacher, 
and the class really learned a good deal from him and 
from the books which he advised us to read. The brightest 
spot in the school was the instruction in surgery which 
was taught by a really eminent surgeon who, however, 
was overwhelmed with private practice in a large city 
some fifty miles distant. By him we were instructed 
chiefly through clinics, and I well remember his skeptical, 
but still open minded, attitude as he referred to the anti- 
septic method,-which for him was the antiseptic spray, 
-of Joseph Lister, a method then barely ten years old 
and making its way only very slowly in a profession 
noted for its conservatism. 
It was inevitable that such an educational scheme 
should prove profoundly unattractive to a student of 
Sedgwick's inquiring mind and sound common 
sense. He was again registered as a medical student 
in 1878-1879 but he was serving at the same time as 
Instructor in Physiological Chemistry in the Scien- 
tific School and was beginning to find in pure science 
an appeal which medical education as he knew it had 
failed to offer. In this spring of '79, so critical for 
Sedgwick's future, two vacant fellowships in bi- 
ology were announced at the Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity, that inspiring innovation in the American aca- 
demic world. Sedgwick and his intimate friend E. B. 
Wilson both applied, in merry rivalry, for one of 
these fellowships, never dreaming that both could be 
15 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
appointed. Never were two young men more intoxi- 
cated by joy and surprise than when the astounding 
news came that both were awarded the coveted prize. 
Sedgwick shortly after made a brief visit to Balti- 
more and brought back radiant reports of the prom- 
ise held out for the new adventure. The summer was 
full of ardent preparation and in the autumn of '79 
the two friends left the rigid routine of their noviti- 
ate for a new world through which blew the winds of 
a different heaven. 
With Samuel F. Clarke who had preceded them to 
Baltimore by one year and joined by their Japanese 
comrade Mitsukuri, now a graduate student and best 
loved of all the boys in the Hartford family, the 
two young men established themselves gaily enough 
though within very material limits of creature com- 
fort, in lodgings that earned the sobriquet of "Biolo- 
gists' Bower." Of this happy hopeful sowing time 
Wilson has written 
that we were no strangers to the res angusta domi was 
evinced by our sleeping quarters, generally known as the 
"Hospital Ward," because of the four beds, side by side 
in one small room where we slept when the ebullient 
spirits of our companions made sleep possible, but if our 
dwelling was narrow, there were no limits to our youthful 
enthusiasm, and those years were for us a time of rapid 
intellectual awakening and widening of scientific horizon. 
We listened to occasional lectures in other fields by scien- 
tific leaders, and made our first acquaintance with the 
journal club and seminar then a novelty to us, though 
now become a part of the air we breathe in the graduate 
laboratory. 
16 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
There has perhaps never existed on the American 
continent a more invigorating intellectual atmos- 
phere than that of the Johns Hopkins University at 
the time when Sedgwick entered its doors. No extra 
expense had been incurred to make the buildings of 
the University attractive: they were of the plainest 
and most useful sort, without the slightest esthetic 
charm. "Men, not buildings," had been President 
Gilman's constant axiom, and yet those halls seemed 
electric with creative energy. Every one you met was 
full of expectant hope, of an urge toward new discov- 
eries, new theories and developments of thought. 
Limitless in possibility, you foresaw long years in 
which to struggle and achieve. Anything might hap- 
pen, for all was yet unproved and the impelling force 
behind was first, last and always, President Gilman. 
He was the spirit of the future, confidently expecting 
each man there to produce something notable and of 
permanent value to the furthering of knowledge. 
When Gilman accepted the presidency of the new 
university in January, 1875, he and his broad- 
minded trustees, equipped with what for that period 
seemed almost limitless resources, had resolved to 
create a new thing, a real university of a European 
standard, where a type of scholarship could flourish 
for which fifty years ago there was no provision on 
this side of the Atlantic. 
Nearly two years were spent by the new President 
in gathering from all over the world his brilliant first 
faculty. In the fall of '76 the University opened with 
Sylvester in Mathematics, Gildersleeve in the Clas- 
sics, Rowland in Physics, Remsen in Chemistry and 
17 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Martin in Biology, a galaxy which testified elo- 
quently to what Sedgwick in later years used to de- 
scribe as Gilman's "nose for men." 
The development of biology was from the first one 
of the most characteristic features of the new Johns 
Hopkins. Professor Huxley was brought over from 
England to deliver the address at the formal opening 
of the University in September, 1876, a circumstance 
which, in combination with the fact that no opening 
prayer was made at the ceremony, brought down the 
thunders of the godly upon Gilman's devoted head.* 
Dr. Martin entered upon the work in 1876 and at an 
early day Professor William K. Brooks was asso- 
ciated with him, one giving chief attention to physi- 
ology and the other to morphology. Gilman says,f 
1 i These two men made a very strong combination and 
their instruction attracted a great many students, 
not a few of whom have risen to distinguished posi- 
tions. Without disparaging others, I venture to name 
Professor William H. Howell of the Johns Hopkins 
University, Professor E. B. Wilson of Columbia 
University, Professor H. H. Donaldson, once of Chi- 
cago and now of the Wistar Institute in Philadel- 
phia, Professor Morgan of Columbia University, 
Professor S. F. Clarke of Williams College, Massa- 
chusetts, Professor William T. Sedgwick of the Mas- 
sachusetts Institute of Technology and Professor 
Mitsukuri of the University of Tokyo." These men 
* "It was bad enough to invite Huxley. It were better to have asked 
God to be present. It would have been absurd to ask them both." Frank- 
lin, The Life of Daniel Coit Gilman, N. Y., 1910, p. 221. 
t loc. cit., p. 251. 
18 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
became the leaders of American biology and the in- 
fluence of Huxley's keen and comprehensive and 
liberal vision of his science, transmitted through 
Martin to them, and through them to hundreds of 
their pupils, guided and inspired its development in 
this country for a quarter of a century. 
The first great turning point in Sedgwick's life we 
have noted as coming while he was a schoolboy in 
Hartford, for the years at Yale were the inevitable 
corollary of that awakening to the idea of a profes- 
sional career. The second great overturn of his pre- 
conceived plan came when he had been only a semes- 
ter at the Johns Hopkins, when Newell Martin 
induced him to substitute for the life of a practicing 
physician that of a teacher and investigator; for 
even after coming to Baltimore Sedgwick had 
planned, after a year's study of physiology, to com- 
plete the work for the medical degree at the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. Under 
Martin's influence, however, he served respectively 
as fellow and instructor in 1879-1880 and 1880-1881, 
taking the degree of Ph.D. in 1881;* and for the 
next two years he served as Associate in Biology. 
Throughout his career, it was to the fundamental sci- 
ence of biology that Sedgwick owed his primary in- 
tellectual inspiration. He was at bottom not a physi- 
cian, not an engineer, not a social worker, not even a 
bacteriologist or a sanitarian. He was in a measure 
all of these things, but he was above all a biologist; 
and through all his work, in theory and in practice, 
* His thesis was on "The Influence of Quinine on the Reflex Excita- 
bility of the Spinal Cord," Jour. Physiology, Vol. Ill, No. 1, 1880. 
19 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
the biologist's viewpoint of the human machine and 
its relation to its environment was a dominant motif. 
It gave force and direction to his studies as a sani- 
tarian ; it lent clearness and inspiration to his teach- 
ing. No student of his can forget how he used 
Huxley's essays on A Liberal Education and on The 
Physical Basis of Life to inculcate the principles of 
clear and honest thinking. The men and the women 
whom he trained in bacteriology were not mere tech- 
nicians who regarded the diphtheria bacillus as a 
bacillus which produced diphtheria toxin and let it 
go at that; they were biologists, trained to consider 
the life processes of a fascinating group of living 
things. The sanitarians who graduated under his 
guidance were taught to look beyond technical re- 
quirements and administrative procedures to the 
psychological problems involved in the makeup of a 
complex social organism. 
One more event, the most important event, of these 
early years must be mentioned in noting the forces 
which contributed to Sedgwick's influence as a 
teacher and a leader in the field of public health. In 
March, 1879, shortly before going to Baltimore he an- 
nounced to his intimate friends his engagement to 
Miss Mary Katrine Rice of New Haven, and on his 
twenty-sixth birthday, Dec. 29, 1881, they were mar- 
ried. Thus began a relationship of thirty-nine years, 
as complete and as beautiful as ever existed between 
man and wife. Not only did Mrs. Sedgwick give to 
her husband a rare personal devotion which made his 
health and his comfort and the success of his work a 
constantly controlling motive, but her artistic tastes 
20 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
and rich temperament kept a warmth and color in his 
life which made it impossible for Sedgwick ever to 
feel those limitations which sometimes accompany a 
life of objective intellectual concentration. 
Sedgwick found his career as a biologist and a 
teacher in 1880. He won his wife in 1881. A call to the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the institu- 
tion to which he and Mrs. Sedgwick devoted their 
lives with a rare ardor, came in 1883. The stage was 
set and the actors were prepared,-for the develop- 
ment of a new and beneficent influence of science 
upon the life of men. 
21 The Department of Biology and Public 
Health at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology 
In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening 
withhold not thy hand. 
Ecclesiastes. 
The student of natural science at the present day 
finds it difficult to picture a period when laboratories 
were few and ill-equipped, when teachers of science 
in leading colleges were often untrained or slightly 
trained men who had been unsuccessful clergymen or 
physicians and when the Bachelor of Science degree 
generally connoted a lower grade of scholarly attain- 
ment-and social position!-than that of Bachelor of 
Arts. For many years the "regular" college degrees 
in Eastern institutions could be obtained only after a 
course of study including not only four years of high 
school preparation in Latin and three in Greek, but 
considerable additional work in these subjects after 
entering college. A young man wishing to specialize 
in geology or botany or zoology at college must per- 
force devote much of his time to language work, 
22 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
which was quite foreign to his main purpose and fre- 
quently more or less distasteful to him, but a student 
in classics was not expected to follow consecutive 
courses in chemistry for a similar period. 
A way out for some individuals was opened 
through the engineering schools. In New England 
the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale and the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology were the forerun- 
ners of the modern system of scientific education. 
First-hand observation in the laboratory was the 
watchword, and the sacred precincts of science were 
open to all who could meet relatively simple require- 
ments. The workshop and the laboratory proved a 
new force in American education, and scientifically- 
minded youths flocked in increasing numbers to the 
engineering schools. Scientific education, no less than 
engineering education, was included in the aims of 
the founders of such schools as the Institute of Tech- 
nology, and this wider ideal inspired all the work of 
men like Rogers and Walker. When a professor of 
chemistry at the Institute, Charles W. Eliot was 
made President of Harvard College in 1869, he 
showed in his inaugural address that he was imbued 
with the same spirit. 
It is not because of the limitations of their faculties 
that boys of eighteen come to college, having mastered 
nothing but a few score pages of Latin and Greek, and 
the bare elements of mathematics. Not nature, but an un- 
intelligent system of instruction from the primary school 
through the college, is responsible for the fact that many 
college graduates have so inadequate a conception of 
23 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
what is meant by scientific observation, reasoning and 
proof. 
Sedgwick's own writings show many traces of the 
feeling engendered in this period of transition when 
a scientific education was a new and questionable 
thing. His conception of the function of the Institute 
as a technological school is well illustrated by the fol- 
lowing excerpts from his addresses: 
Our modern industrial and scientific age, when it came, 
came suddenly, and even now is a surprise and a bewil- 
derment to many thoughtful persons educated on the old 
and mediaeval lines. It took the world by surprise-a 
surprise which is still keenly felt in the more backward 
places such as India and China and Turkey and Persia, 
countries which are only just beginning to awaken to the 
new order of things. Moreover, it did not come by the way 
of the older colleges and universities. These it found un- 
prepared and too often unsympathetic. Occupied chiefly 
with Greek, Latin, Mathematics and Philosophy, the col- 
leges and universities at the end of the eighteenth cen- 
tury were too busy threshing over the orthodox mediae- 
val straw to attend to inventions, like Watt's of the steam 
engine, or Cartwright's of the power loom or Eli Whit- 
ney's of the cotton gin or even to demonstrations of so 
much promise in natural philosophy as Ben Franklin's 
of the essential identity of the thunderbolts of Jove with 
the sparks obtained by rubbing a cat's back or a piece of 
amber. The only engineers were military engineers, the 
civil as opposed to the military engineer having not yet 
appeared. 
But necessity is ever the mother of invention, and the 
age of the great inventions-the last half of the eight- 
eenth century-invented also the modern technical 
24 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
school, not at the universities or colleges but in the field 
and near the factory, and at the mines and near the work- 
shops. The first technical school was that at Freiberg, a 
mining town in Saxony opened in 1765, and it was de- 
signed to be a school of practical mining. From that day 
to this, technical schools have sprung up either entirely 
outside the established educational institutions, as in the 
case of the Rensselaer Institute at Troy, the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology at Boston, the Worcester 
Polytechnic Institute at Worcester, the Stevens Insti- 
tute at Hoboken, the Rose Polytechnic Institute at Terre 
Haute, Indiana, and others; or else more or less loosely 
affiliated with colleges, or universities, as in the case of 
the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, the Lawrence Sci- 
entific School at Harvard, the School of Mines at Colum- 
bia, and some others. The latter group had as a rule 
but a precarious existence for many years and were 
often more tolerated than encouraged by the ancient 
foundations with which they were connected. 
Technical schools are thus comparatively new and com- 
paratively disconnected with the old and wealthy educa- 
tional establishments. And because of the former fact, 
they possess great freedom, great independence and 
great adaptability to the needs of a new, independent and 
industrial age. But because of the latter, they are mostly 
without endowment, without aged or wealthy alumni to 
enrich them and without the accumulations of genera- 
tions of deceased graduates. 
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is no ex- 
ception. Founded in 1861 under the very eaves of the 
oldest and most famous college in America, it was opened 
in 1865 in a down town building in the heart of the busi- 
ness section of Boston. Without hallowed associations of 
the past, without campus, yard, elms, dormitories or 
25 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
chapel-in short, without academic shades or academic 
traditions, such as had been the staple of education in 
America for generations, but with a gaze fixed intently 
on the modern world and its needs and keenly alive to the 
practical conduct of life as indicated by the sciences 
whose flowering characterized the Victorian Age, the In- 
stitute turned its young face to the sunrise and began its 
great work. At first almost unnoticed, it gradually won 
its way to a national and even an international reputa- 
tion. Its graduates quietly took their places in the indus- 
trial army, often in the ranks. But by and by it began to 
be discovered that many shops and many mines and many 
mills and many railways were officered by these men, un- 
til today they are scattered far and wide all over the 
land,-and under it,-making surveys, and drawing 
plans, and estimating costs, and building tunnels and sub- 
ways and railroads and skyscrapers; or fixing valuation, 
or irrigating desert lands, or purifying water supplies, 
or draining cities, or developing mines, or making ma- 
chinery or building ships. 
It is evident that Sedgwick threw himself with ar- 
dor not only into the immediate task of technical edu- 
cation, but into the general educational movement 
that was being fostered in the great engineering 
schools and wTas spreading thence to the older institu- 
tions.* There was a buoyancy of spirit among the 
* The present volume must necessarily be primarily limited to what 
Sedgwick accomplished for public health at the Institute of Tech- 
nology. A word must be said, however, as to his relation to the Institute 
as a whole for he was one of the most ardent and effective champions 
of its broader ideals. He collaborated with Mrs. W. B. Rogers in writ- 
ing the life of its founder and first president. He was one of the closest 
and most trusted friends of both Walker and Maclaurin. Allusion must 
be made to his active part in planning the Graduate School of Engi- 
26 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
scientific men of his day, hard to match before or 
since. Science was coming into its own. The air 
tingled with the sense of change. The educational 
system was being made over; the social order was in 
fair way to be reformed. It was in this high and hope- 
ful period that Sedgwick, then a young man of 
twenty-eight, obtained his opportunity to take inde- 
pendent charge of the work in biology at the Insti- 
tute. 
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was 
founded, as we have seen, in 1861, and some sort of 
biological instruction was early included in its pro- 
gram ; for in a record of a faculty meeting on October 
16,1867, there occurs this entry. 
At a meeting of the faculty held this day it was Voted 
that provision be made forthwith for instruction in Natu- 
ral History as laid down in the printed course of study 
and that Dr. Sam'l Kneeland be recommended to the 
neering Research in 1903; to his opposition to the first Harvard-Tech- 
nology merger in 1905; and to his effective service in the successful 
campaign for a state grant in 1911. His part in the merger struggle, as 
in all the controversial matters into which he entered, was conducted 
on a plane which robbed it of all personal bitterness. 
At the time of the final crisis, in regard to the merger, Sedgwick's 
attitude was for a time misjudged by his colleagues of the faculty and 
the deep serenity of his nature was stirred and troubled as at no other 
period, for he was far away in Italy and not easily able to send con- 
vincing refutation of the misinterpretation of his position. 
For twenty years Sedgwick made himself responsible for such form 
as exists in the graduating exercises of Technology. The dignity of life 
and especially of "Occasions" meant a great deal to him although in 
daily life he was as little formal or conventional as any one could be. 
He believed in the efficacy of a certain amount of "academic millinery," 
so called, in college celebrations and he liked festivals of every kind to 
be beautifully appointed and served. 
27 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Committee on Instruction as a suitable candidate for the 
office of Professor of Natural History. 
Later, the courses in Natural History came under 
the charge of Professor J. M. Ordway. Alpheus 
Hyatt and others connected with the Boston Society 
of Natural History also gave courses in zoology and 
paleontology to the students of the Institute, an ar- 
rangement continued until 1888. The word "Bi- 
ology," although coined sixty years earlier by La- 
marck, and independently by Treviranus, had not yet 
come into general use to designate its proper portion 
of the field covered by what Huxley called "the old 
confusing name of 'Natural History' and the ap- 
pointment of Sedgwick in 1883 as Assistant Profes- 
sor of Biology* signalized the creation of one of the 
first academic chairs in the United States under this 
name. General Francis A. Walker, at that time 
President of the Institute, was doubtless influenced 
in his choice of the young Professor of Biology by 
two motives, first by his personal knowledge of Sedg- 
wick who had been a student in his class at Yale, and 
second by his conviction that the higher grades of 
technological work demanded professional rather 
than vocational training. In line with this general 
policy Walker surrounded himself as far as possible 
with men to whom life was more than meat and the 
body than raiment. 
Preliminary training of the American medical stu- 
dent in biological science was, as we have seen, prac- 
tically unknown in the early eighties, and high school 
* He was made Associate Professor in 1884 and Professor in 1891. 
28 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
boys, brought up on almost exclusively linguistic dis- 
cipline, were pitchforked suddenly into the compli- 
cated work of the medical school without any chance 
to get their bearings. Sedgwick was one of the first 
educators in the United States to make a serious at- 
tempt to remedy this extraordinary situation. There 
is no doubt that this was at first the controlling pur- 
pose in his mind. At a later date he wrote: "The 
course in Biology as organized in 1883, was intended 
to afford those looking forward to the study of medi- 
cine the opportunity to secure a general education 
based upon subjects which form the essential part of 
any preparation for efficient work in medical schools. 
Chemistry, physics, general biology, comparative 
anatomy, histology, and physiology, therefore, at 
first formed the main part of the curriculum." 
Among his papers also occurs the following memo- 
randum of a letter sent to the Harvard Medical 
School in October, 1887: 
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has now 
well established and thoroughly equipped a 4-year course 
in Biology Preparatory to Medical Studies, a syllabus of 
which I beg leave to submit herewith. 
It is felt that this course has now reached a point 
where it needs and deserves recognition of some sort by 
the Harvard Medical School, and it is believed that such 
recognition must soon prove profitable alike to the Har- 
vard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. A course similar to this, though shorter, at 
the Sheffield Scientific School in New Haven, has been so 
recognized by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of 
Columbia College with decided benefit to both parties and 
29 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
it is probable that similar recognition by the Harvard 
Medical School of the existence and value of the courses 
in the Institute of Technology would lead to an increased 
number of students going from the latter to the former 
thoroughly prepared and scientifically equipped. 
Prospective students of medicine, however, con- 
tinued to follow the old beaten ways and were not at- 
tracted in any numbers to the admirable courses 
offered at the Institute in physics, chemistry and 
general biology. In spite of Sedgwick's energy and 
his incontrovertible arguments in favor of proper 
preparation for the study of medicine, his was for 
long a voice crying in the wilderness. While a few 
graduates from the Institute went to medical schools, 
where they acquitted themselves well, little impres- 
sion at the moment seemed to be made on the general 
community. 
Thwarted, and to some degree surprised, by the 
general indifference to his plans for furthering medi- 
cal education in New England, Sedgwick's energy 
found other outlets, in the end perhaps even more 
conducive to the public good. His friendship with the 
chemist, Professor William Ripley Nichols, with 
whom he was associated in a study of illuminating 
gas poisoning, kept him in touch with Nichols' ob- 
servations in Europe, in those days when the new sci- 
ence of bacteriology was being born. Sedgwick ob- 
tained through Nichols some tubes of the gelatin 
culture medium devised by Koch, and his early stu- 
dents used to hear him tell with much relish of the 
unpromising appearance of the much-vaunted me- 
dium, which had melted en route and had become 
30 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
contaminated and appallingly malodorous. But bac- 
teriology had come to stay and Sedgwick had the 
acumen to grasp the facts, the courage to stand up 
for them in an unsympathetic atmosphere, and the 
vision to see the future possibilities of an increased 
knowledge of disease causation. It was a disappoint- 
ment to Sedgwick that he was not able to go to 
Europe at a time when to have studied with Koch 
had much the same ring as to have fought with Gari- 
baldi, but he saw what it was possible for him to do in 
the state of Massachusetts and went on with the 
work which lay nearest to his hand. 
It has sometimes seemed strange to outsiders in 
later years that a department of biology and public 
health should have made so large a place for itself in 
an engineering school. Considering its actual origins 
the explanation is simple. The impulse to develop 
suitable facilities and atmosphere for preliminary 
medical education was a natural corollary of the gen- 
eral movement to provide for scientific education 
which played so large a part in the minds of the 
founders of the Institute; and the subsequent transi- 
tion to public health activities was easy and natural, 
based in part on the stimulating influences of current 
bacteriological discoveries, in part on the obvious in- 
terest of a technical school in methods of filtration, 
sterilization and the like, in part on the fortunate 
association with the work of the Massachusetts State 
Board of Health and above all on Sedgwick's own 
far-sighted vision as to what was coming. Before the 
first faint adumbration of schools of public health, 
Sedgwick had looked far into the future and had out- 
31 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
lined for himself and for his students many of the 
main problems of public hygiene. If in a later day 
the development of public health work has come to 
be largely associated with schools of medicine, rather 
than engineering schools, the significance of these 
first undertakings in environmental sanitation 
should not escape us. The practice of public health 
still rests solidly on a basis of pure water supplies, 
pasteurized milk and adequate sewage disposal, 
without which an attempt to reduce infant mortality 
or to suppress the menace of typhoid carriers would 
be ludicrously inadequate. 
The simple initial program of the department, 
with its main emphasis on medical education, gradu- 
ally gave way to a broader conception which was thus 
outlined: 
The work of the department has thus extended its 
scope without giving up any of its original aims, and the 
curriculum is at present arranged with reference to the 
following kinds of subsequent work: 1, to the study of 
medicine; 2, biological work in connection with boards of 
health and other sanitary work; 3, biological work in the 
various industries which involve fermentation processes 
of any kind whatever; 4, the teaching of science in sec- 
ondary schools; 5, graduate study in some special branch 
of biological science, such as morphology, physiology, 
bacteriology or cytology. 
Sedgwick keenly realized how fortunate is that 
man who is standing at the gateway of learning when 
it leads into fresh fields. Often has he been heard to 
congratulate himself on his 'good luck' that he was 
so placed and equipped as to seize the opportunity to 
32 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
advance the buoyant first steps of a new science. Thus 
bacteriology appealed strongly to Sedgwick's imagi- 
nation and he foresaw more or less clearly the pos- 
sibilities of development in two directions: public 
health and industrial biology, two subjects that were 
henceforward to be increasingly emphasized in the 
departmental courses. Had the still more ambitious 
plans for the organization of a complete Institute of 
Biology, that were plainly in the back of Sedgwick's 
mind, ever had a chance for fruition, had his ideal 
ever appealed to the vision of some far-sighted bene- 
factor, it is inspiring to think of the organization de- 
voted to the study of biology and its applications that 
might have been built up at the Institute. 
Those were the days of small beginnings at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The total 
number of students in 1883, including those in ' ' draw- 
ing and shopwork" and in the Lowell School of De- 
sign, amounted to only 443. There were but 22 men on 
the faculty above the rank of instructor, as con- 
trasted with 147 at the time of Professor Sedgwick's 
death. Such conditions provide many advantages. 
Close personal contact with gifted instructors far 
outweighs for the young student any benefit derived 
from superior material equipment. The main thing 
at this stage is to have the mind awakened, the intel- 
lectual sympathies widened and the desire for crea- 
tive effort quickened. If this does not happen, young 
men may persuade themselves that "college activi- 
ties" constitute real life. Any one fortunate enough 
to be in Sedgwick's laboratory in the earlier years re- 
ceived in full measure the influence of a vigorous, 
33 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
ardent, high-minded nature. Some of those who took 
their first courses in the Department of Biology in 
the eighties will never forget those golden days when 
the whole world seemed to be unfolding before their 
vision. 
It was no small matter also that, in the beginning 
as at the end, Professor Sedgwick was seconded in all 
his efforts for his students-his fellow students he 
would have called them-by the gracious and warm- 
hearted presence of his wife. The cordial hospitality 
of the house in Brimmer Street helped many a shy 
lad to forget his self-consciousness and to realize that 
he might one day be of use in the world. The little 
band of young men whom Sedgwick gathered around 
him in these early days of the department were im- 
bued with the spirit of investigation, but the narrow 
resources of the Institute at that time set definite 
limits to their activities. A letter from a member 
of the Executive Committee in March, 1885, goes into 
details: "Let not even one jet of gas burn longer than 
is absolutely required." At this period the Chief was 
not only Professor, but also in some measure janitor 
and bottle washer; he must needs unlock and open 
the laboratory doors in the morning and watch that 
all was safe and locked up again at night. 
So critical was the financial situation that certain 
gentlemen of the Executive Committee of the Insti- 
tute seriously proposed to close the department al- 
together as being in no sense "a necessary factor of 
an Engineering School." There are those who re- 
member vividly the Chief's anxiety in such dark 
days and the warm glow of hope when Mr. Alexander 
34 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Wheeler came into the laboratory just before the de- 
cisive meeting of the Executive Committee to say 
that he and President Walker would fight for the 
continuance of the work and did not intend to be de- 
feated. 
Under the circumstances it was difficult to secure 
adequate assistance in the laboratory. For several 
years Sedgwick's only associate in the department 
was Edward G. Gardiner, who devoted himself to the 
work with great zeal and loyalty, but like Sedgwick 
himself was greatly hampered by the slender equip- 
ment at his disposal. In 1885 E. B. Wilson, while 
waiting for the opening of Bryn Mawr, to whose fac- 
ulty he had been appointed, rendered stimulating 
voluntary service in the department. In 1890 George 
V. McLaughlin, of the class of 1888, became Sedg- 
wick's assistant and was looked upon by his Chief as 
a man of unusual promise. McLaughlin possessed a 
brilliant mind and indefatigable energy, and Sedg- 
wick felt his loss very keenly when he was acciden- 
tally drowned in 1892. About this time, however, the 
number of competent young men entering the de- 
partment so far increased that Sedgwick was usually 
able to make shift at providing suitable instruction 
for the courses announced. The departmental circu- 
lar for 1892 includes five men in addition to Profes- 
sor Sedgwick as "Officers of Instruction," among 
these, three of subsequent distinction: Albert P. 
Mathews, Gary N. Calkins and George W. Fuller. 
This period was long remembered in department 
tradition as "the year of the kid instructors." 
It was in 1893 that Theodore Hough (now Dean of 
35 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
the Medical School of the University of Virginia) 
came from Johns Hopkins to the Institute as Assist- 
ant Professor of Physiology. For a dozen years 
thereafter Hough was the man most consulted and 
relied upon by Sedgwick in the development of the 
department. The never failing insight and staunch 
practical support which Hough gave counted materi- 
ally in the ultimate winning of a footing for Biology 
and Public Health in the minds of the cautious cor- 
poration of an Engineering School. 
Sedgwick felt obliged to teach many different sub- 
jects, General Biology, Sanitary Science and the 
Public Health, Comparative Physiology, Anthro- 
pology and the History of Natural Science, all 
courses that even in the nineties covered a wide field. 
The "awakening" value of his lectures, however, was 
very great, and students taking up any subject under 
his guidance were sure to experience a widening of 
their intellectual horizon and to be directed to the 
best sources for further work. 
At the same time the spirit of inquiry in many dif- 
ferent fields was kept alive and the students were 
imbued with a sense of the unity of biological knowl- 
edge. Seniors of the Institute are required to prepare 
graduating theses, embodying the results of inde- 
pendent work in the field, workshop or laboratory, 
and while the process did not always justify the name 
of research, the theses often rank favorably with 
those presented for the Master's degree in other in- 
stitutions. 
The variety of Sedgwick's interests and his 
breadth of view are well illustrated by the subjects 
36 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
of some of the graduating theses in the years 1887- 
1892. Examinations of water supplies, studies of the 
biological and chemical characters of bacteria, the 
life-history of Amoeba, the physiology of the sundew, 
the phenomena of digestion in the starfish, the physi- 
ology of the circulatory and nervous system of 
the earthworm, are some of the problems upon which 
he set his students at work. No matter if the outcome 
was not an important "contribution to knowledge," 
the influence of such an independent inquiry upon 
the mental processes of the individual students was 
of inestimable value. 
The connection of water supply with disease early 
became one of Sedgwick's main interests and when, 
in 1887, the newly organized State Board of Health 
inaugurated a sanitary survey of the inland waters 
of the state in the chemical laboratories of the Insti- 
tute under the direction of T. M. Drown, and Ellen 
H. Richards, Sedgwick saw the importance of utiliz- 
ing biological as well as chemical methods in water 
examination. Much of his time for several years was 
devoted to the study of the methods and the interpre- 
tation of bacterial and microscopical water analysis, 
and this was plainly one of the factors that led to his 
increasing personal absorption in general public 
health problems. 
In 1888 occurred an important event which was 
destined to have great influence on the work of the 
department. Professor Sedgwick became Consulting 
Biologist to the State Board of Health of Massachu- 
setts, an organization with which, in one capacity or 
another, he maintained relations to the end of his 
37 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
life. This connection gave point and direction to 
much of the departmental activity, and afforded 
financial facilities which kept the critical years of 
some of his young men partly free for scientific in- 
quiry. The well-known experiments on the filtration 
of water and of sewage initiated at the Lawrence Ex- 
periment Station offered an opportunity through 
which Sedgwick and his pupils were fortunately able 
to give one of the first demonstrations in the United 
States as to what might be expected of biology in 
solving the problems of practical sanitation. 
This association with the State Board of Health 
marked the turning point in the history of the de- 
partment under Sedgwick's administration. Thence- 
forward the energy of the staff and Sedgwick's own 
predominating interests went increasingly into the 
field of public health. The department became known 
throughout the country largely because of its public 
health activities, and students from a distance were 
attracted to it for this reason. 
All through these early years the work of the de- 
partment was carried on in one large room at the 
rear of the first floor of the Rogers Building in Boyls- 
ton Street. Sedgwick and Gardiner had their desks 
in a little office compartment opposite the entrance. 
The "departmental library," a few hundred well- 
chosen books-to which the Chief often added from 
his own library-and a score or so of German, 
French and English current journals, occupied the 
southeast corner. Small classes were often held 
around the library table. Aquaria, work tables and 
cases for apparatus and equipment took up much of 
38 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
the remaining space. Against the south wall near the 
entrance a glass-sashed room was constructed for 
plate culture work. Here, with everything tightly 
closed, the specimens of water and sewage brought 
back from Lawrence were laboriously plated in gela- 
tin by the tedious methods of those days* with the 
temperature in this closed chamber rapidly mount- 
ing to a point which would be appalling to the ven- 
tilation expert of the present time. 
At first the number working in the department was 
very small, hardly more than a half-dozen in the ele- 
mentary courses. The students were on very friendly, 
almost intimate, terms with the Chief and Dr. Gardi- 
ner, and came to know when their instructors had 
been out to dinner the night before and when Mr. 
Hiram F. Mills of the State Board of Health had 
been aggressively critical. But this idyllic condition 
did not last. 
The course in Sanitary Engineering (Course XI) 
was organized at the Institute in 1889, largely on 
Sedgwick's initiative, and a special short course in 
Bacteriology was at once planned for the benefit of 
* It will be recalled by older workers that rectangular plates of win- 
dow glass were chilled on a carefully leveled covered dish of ice water 
and the mixture of melted gelatin and water sample then poured on the 
plates. After the gelatin hardened the plates were placed in tiers on 
glass bridges in a large, shallow, covered glass jar and "incubated" at 
room temperature. Temperature fluctuation could not well be pre- 
vented. The gelatin would sometimes melt and the plate be "lost," and 
frequently the fluid from rapidly liquefying colonies would drip down 
from the upper to the lower plates. The irregular outline and varying 
thickness of the gelatin sheet, as well as the encroachment of liquefiers, 
made counting difficult. The method did not appeal to engineers as 
highly accurate. 
39 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
the students in this department. Members of the de- 
partments of civil engineering and architecture also 
realized the desirability of some knowledge of sanita- 
tion. In 1894 there were 51 students taking the ele- 
mentary course in General Biology. 
In 1899 came the removal to new laboratories on 
Trinity Place. Instead of the single room in the rear 
of Rogers, split up by partitions into a dozen 
crowded classrooms and offices, the department had 
now five well-equipped laboratories, assigned respec- 
tively to General Biology and other second-year 
courses; to Comparative Anatomy, Embryology, 
Cryptogamic Botany and other courses of the third 
year; to Physiology; to Bacteriology; and to Re- 
search. 
The scope and volume of the instruction given in 
the department was increasing rapidly, to keep pace 
with the progressive differentiation of the field of 
public health. A course on Germs and Germicides 
was announced as early as 1883, coming into its own 
as Bacteriology in 1888 and later branching off into 
Sanitary Biology (1889) and Industrial Biology 
(1896). The teaching of sanitation began in 1884 
with a course on Ventilation, Heating and Drainage, 
splitting in the next year into Heating and Ventila- 
tion on the one hand and Water Supply and Drain- 
age on the other. Professor Sedgwick's broadly con- 
ceived lecture course, which became the most notable 
feature of the department, began as Hygiene and the 
Public Health in 1886 and was renamed Sanitary 
Science and the Public Health in 1892. In the dec- 
ade which followed the move to Trinity Place new 
40 PROFESSOR SEDGWICK AT HIS DEMONSTRATION DESK 
(TRINITY PLACE BUILDING, 1899) WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
courses in Municipal Sanitation (1900), Microscopi- 
cal Analysis of Water and Sewage (1901), Munici- 
pal Laboratory Methods (1904), Personal Hygiene 
(1905), Industrial Hygiene and Sanitation (1907), 
Epidemiology (1907) and Sanitary Statistics (1908) 
followed with bewildering celerity. The course in In- 
dustrial Hygiene offered in 1907-1908, was the first 
of its kind in the United States. The increasing em- 
phasis on personal hygiene, beginning with 1905, was 
symptomatic of Sedgwick's return to his original in- 
terest in physiology; and during all his later years 
the management of the human machine and its adap- 
tation to its changing environment was his foremost 
interest. 
Sedgwick's chief aids during the later years of the 
department were S. C. Prescott, who was his right- 
hand man, in charge of the applications of biology in 
the industrial field, from his graduation in 1894 until 
he succeeded to the headship of the department, 
C.-E. A. Winslow (from 1898 to 1910), G. W. Field, 
P. G. Stiles, E. B. Phelps, S. M. Gunn, F. Schneider, 
Jr., R. S. Weston, E. A. Ingham, F. H. Slack, C. E. 
Turner and M. P. Horwood. There were always, too, 
special lecturers and research associates who added 
greatly to the breadth and vitality of the depart- 
ment life, particularly W. Lyman Underwood, who 
dropped in one day to ask a question about a practi- 
cal problem in canning and has ever since occupied a 
desk in the department and served it as loyally as 
any salaried member of the staff. It took only a half 
hour's interview for Sedgwick to make a friend and 
to "grapple him to his soul with hoops of steel." 
41 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Among the more important lines of scientific work 
carried on in the department were the studies on the 
Chicago Drainage Canal case and on the water sup- 
ply of Seattle by Sedgwick himself, studies on can- 
ning by Prescott and Underwood, on mosquito con- 
trol by Underwood, on the bacteriology of ice and of 
sewer air, on chlorine disinfection of sewage and 
disposal of industrial waste by Phelps, on diseases of 
the banana by Prescott.* 
In addition to abundant contributions to the scien- 
tific press no less than eight books came out of the 
department during the ten years between 1900 and 
1910 - 
Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health. 
W. T. Sedgwick, 1902. 
Enzymes and their Application (translated from the 
French of Jean Effront). S. C. Prescott, 1902. 
General Zoology. A. W. Weysse, 1904. 
* In a single year (President's Report for 1902) the following in- 
vestigations are listed: 
"A memoir describing the results of extensive experiments on the 
influence of cold upon the bacillus of typhoid fever, with special refer- 
ence to the problem of ice supply and the public health; a paper upon 
the results of ergographic studies on the muscular soreness frequently 
observed after muscular work; the discovery of a remarkable similarity 
between the intestinal bacillus often used in tracing sewage pollution 
and certain lactic acid bacteria; a bacterial study of the self-purifica- 
tion of streams carried out upon the Sudbury River; the conditions 
governing the troublesome occurrence of eels in water works and sug- 
gestions for their control; the sanitary importance, in view of the 
malaria problem, of goldfish as destroyers of mosquito larvae; and a 
report to the Commissioners of Fisheries of the Commonwealth upon 
the scientific basis of the lobster industry and the causes of the decline 
of the latter." 
42 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Elements of Water Bacteriology. S. C. Prescott and 
C.-E. A. Winslow, 1904. 
Elements of Industrial Microscopy. C.-E. A. Winslow, 
1905. 
The Human Mechanism. W. T. Sedgwick and Theodore 
Hough, 1906. 
Systematic Relationships of the Coccacece. C.-E. A. 
Winslow and Anne R. Winslow, 1908. 
Sewage Disposal. L. P. Kinnicutt, C.-E. A. Winslow 
and R. W. Pratt, 1910. 
An important event in the history of the depart- 
ment was the establishment in 1902, through the gen- 
erosity of an anonymous donor, later revealed as 
Mrs. W. H. H. Hughes (Sarah Forbes), of the Sani- 
tary Research Laboratory and Sewage Experiment 
Station. The Sanitary Research Laboratory was 
opened in July, 1903, with Sedgwick as Director, 
C.-E. A. Winslow as Biologist-in-Charge, and E. B. 
Phelps as Research Chemist and Bacteriologist. The 
first sewage experiment station was at the corner of 
Massachusetts Avenue and Albany Street on the line 
of the main trunk sewer of the city of Boston. Here 
work was conducted till 1909, when a new and larger 
experimental plant was established on city property 
near the pumping station of the main Drainage 
Works at Dorchester. The gifts of the donor con- 
tinued until her death in 1917; and during this pe- 
riod of fourteen years a wide variety of contribu- 
tions to sanitary science continued to flow from the 
laboratory. Phelps' pioneer demonstrations of the 
feasibility of disinfecting water and sewage by the 
use of chlorine were perhaps the most important of 
43 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
these, but studies of the trickling filter as a mode of 
sewage treatment, improvements in devices for dis- 
tributing sewage on such filters, and R. S. Weston's 
contributions to the problem of self-purification of 
streams should also be mentioned. In its later years 
the resources of the Sanitary Research Laboratory 
were diverted from the subject of sewage treatment 
and applied in large measure to problems of health 
administration, being used to aid in the development, 
under Phelps' direction, of the cooperative health 
department demonstration at Wellesley, Massachu- 
setts. It was as a "sewage experiment station," how- 
ever, that the Sanitary Research Laboratory was 
chiefly known. It is unfortunate that permanent en- 
dowment could not be secured for the realization of 
Sedgwick's ideal of "a sewage experiment station 
and a practical sewage laboratory, equipped with the 
best of everything in which the sewage expert is in- 
terested, with facilities for mechanical, hydraulic, 
chemical, and bacteriological investigations going on 
side by side, and with a working exhibit of sewage- 
handling machinery, plumbing, gas and water fitting, 
and possibly, in the future, of ventilating devices and 
working models of garbage incinerators and smoke 
consumers,-all this would make a station unique the 
world over. ' ' 
Hough left the department in 1907, Winslow in 
1910 and Phelps in 1913. In writing about the latter 
to Dr. John F. Anderson, Director of the Hygienic 
Laboratory, where Phelps had been offered an ap- 
pointment, Sedgwick said "Rest assured therefore 
that I shall do all I can to enable Phelps to see the 
44 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
full importance of the work in Washington, very 
much as you and I see it, even if it cuts a big gap in 
my own Department here. Oddly enough, my par- 
ticular service in life has been thus far to train up 
missionaries and workers for others to benefit by, but 
after all I don't know that this sort of service is in- 
ferior to any other. ' ' 
Selskar M. Gunn at this time became Sedgwick's 
principal aid on the public health side of the depart- 
ment, developing particularly the fields of health ad- 
ministration and public health education and effect- 
ing new and fruitful cooperation with the State 
Board of Health. Still later, C. E. Turner, Gunn's 
successor, made himself a leader in the development 
of the technique of popular health instruction. Mean- 
while, through all these years the other side of the de- 
partment work, the application of biology to the arts 
and industries, was being ably carried forward by 
Prescott. 
Both graduate and undergraduate students were 
gradually increasing in numbers, although not 
nearly fast enough to supply the demand. Many of 
the graduate students never took degrees in the de- 
partment, because after a few months' work they 
were needed to fill positions outside, for which no 
other candidates were available with any training 
whatever. There was no artificial stimulation of en- 
rollment through scholarships such as are available 
in most graduate schools. As Sedgwick wrote to Pro- 
fessor Loomis of Amherst in 1906, ' ' we are not offer- 
ing prize packages or chromos for graduate students. 
We are simply making it known that good men who 
45 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
come here and do good work can usually without dif- 
ficulty get good places, but in general such men will 
have to pay their tuition and do a lot of good work so 
as to satisfy us that they are worthy of our recom- 
mendations. ' ' 
How attractive Sedgwick could make a career in 
biology, to those who had ears to hear, may be illus- 
trated by brief quotations from a talk which he gave 
about this time on the occasion of the organization of 
a Biological Society among the students. 
The first of the sciences to be developed, were as- 
tronomy and mathematics; then physics; then chemistry 
and geology; and last of all biology and engineering. In 
this slow development of biology and engineering we see 
another illustration of the homely saying that the shoe- 
maker's children go long unshod. Man, a living thing and 
an animal, studies for centuries everything except biology 
and animal life. He studies the science of relation, the 
science of space and the science of numbers; he studies 
the far off heavens and eventually the earth under his 
feet but he postpones to the last any thorough knowledge 
of himself and his own relations, the lower animals and 
plants. At last, however, he begins to study himself and 
the living world to which he belongs, and, having exam- 
ined his structure and considered his origin, finally takes 
up the study of behavior. For this strange order of man's 
investigation there is, however, abundant reason. It was 
not from lack of interest but from lack of power that man 
postponed till the last his studies of the living world. It 
is easier to dwell in abstractions and to gaze and reflect 
upon the stars than it is to experiment in physics or in 
chemistry or to dig up the crust of the earth, comparing 
one part of it with another. It is infinitely easier to do all 
46 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
these things than it is, without first having done them, to 
gain any comprehension of the structure and behavior of 
living things. Among all the mighty achievements of the 
nineteenth century none compare for a moment with the 
triumphs of biology. . . .We have already stepped over 
the threshold and entered into the twentieth century and 
in the seven years that have gone by anyone who watches 
closely the signs of the times can see that we are turning 
away from studies of origins to studies of function, ac- 
tion and the like, which we call in scientific language 
studies of physiology or in untechnical language studies 
of behavior or action, reaction and interaction. The be- 
havior of bacteria, the behavior of the larger microscopi- 
cal organisms, the behavior of mankind as individuals 
and as nations, our reactions to climate, reactions to pov- 
erty and wealth, reactions to industry and idleness; reac- 
tions to polluted water, to smoke, to sunlight, to dark- 
ness; these are some of the problems which are today 
beginning to absorb the attention of mankind as never 
before. 
At last the shoemaker's children seem likely to get 
some shoes. It is no longer enough merely to live. We 
want to live well, to live usefully, to live effectively, to 
live intelligently, to live happily. And here is the field for 
biologists and sanitary engineers in the twentieth cen- 
tury. To teach mankind, first, how to live at all, and then 
how to live well. To nourish the races of the earth by 
means of scientific agriculture or perhaps some day by 
manufactured foods. To teach temperance in all things, 
even in well doing. To ward off infection by the arts of 
engineering. To care for the sick, the poor and the heavy 
laden through hospitals and organized, yet not de-hu- 
manized, charity. 
Human life was probably never more interesting or 
47 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
more exciting than it is today. Those of us who were born 
in the middle of the last century have been sufficiently 
fortunate for we have witnessed the conquests of Dar- 
winism, and the theory of evolution, the rise of anthro- 
pology and the rise and victories of the germ theory of 
disease. Think of it for a moment! The theory of gravita- 
tion, the theory of evolution, the theory of infection! What 
a privilege to have lived while these were debated and 
finally accepted as the basal theories of science. And yet 
those who are now coming on the stage are likely to enjoy 
lives even more interesting, for not only will new knowl- 
edge arise and new theories press forward, but the appli- 
cations of the knowledge already in hand will of itself 
suffice for many lifetimes. These applications, as I have 
already said, may be summed up under the general head- 
ing of a new physiology or a new behavior of mankind. 
And in this work the biologists and the sanitary engi- 
neers are clearly to be the experts and the guides. It be- 
hooves us therefore to lay broad, deep and strong the 
foundations upon which these newer activities must be 
built and it is for this purpose that we here at the Insti- 
tute are working together, today and tomorrow. 
An outstanding event in the history of the depart- 
ment was the celebration, on June 14, 1906, of the 
Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Sedgwick's entrance 
upon his professional career (the attainment of his 
Doctorate in 1881). Ninety-five past students of 
Sedgwick's arranged a banquet (at which G. N. 
Calkins acted as Toastmaster) and when the guests 
took their seats they found at their places a Fest- 
schrift volume, entitled Biological Studies, by the 
Pupils of William Thompson Sedgwick, Published 
in Commemoration of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary 
48 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
of his Doctorate. The volume was "dedicated by his 
pupils to William Thompson Sedgwick to express 
their regard and admiration for him as a friend, 
teacher, investigator, and public-spirited citizen, and 
also to affirm their loyalty to the ideals for which he 
has always stood." The contributors to this volume 
were: S. H. Ayers, G. N. Calkins, H. G. Dyar, G. W. 
Fuller, S. DeM. Gage, Clara E. Ham, Theodore 
Hough, D. D. Jackson, E. O. Jordan, A. I. Kendall, 
M. O. Leighton, E. E. Lochridge, A. P. Mathews, 
C. S. Milliken, E. B. Phelps, S. C. Prescott, B. R. 
Rickards, Anne F. Rogers, P. G. Stiles, Augustus 
Wadsworth, G. C. Whipple and C.-E. A. Winslow. 
The sale of this book was so unexpectedly large as 
to yield a substantial surplus which was applied to 
the painting of a portrait of Professor Sedgwick, by 
William Churchill, completed and presented to the 
Institute in the winter of 1909-1910. On the occasion 
of the formal presentation of this portrait, Sedg- 
wick, in speaking of the Festschrift tribute, said in 
part: 
Behind the deed was the feeling of the students and 
that perhaps is the most precious of all, the feeling of 
loyalty, of friendliness and kindliness; and let me say to 
you students, emulate the example of these other men. 
Cherish your teachers; be true to them. Stand up for 
them, especially as they grow older and begin to wonder 
whether they have or have not accomplished much in this 
world, for this question comes to every man soon or late, 
no matter what his apparent success or failure; that 
question will force itself upon a man from time to time. 
At any such time you can be of great service to him, and 
49 yourselves reflexly, by standing beside him, telling him 
of the good work he did for you when you were students. 
In the year 1911 the increasing importance of the 
public health aspects of the work of the department 
led to the change in its title from "Course VII, 
Biology" to "Course VII, Biology and Public 
Health," and two years later, in 1913, there was es- 
tablished the School for Health Officers, an under- 
taking in which Harvard and the Institute joined 
hands, and which for ten years was by far the most 
potent practical factor for the training of public 
health workers in the United States. The work of 
this School for Health Officers will be discussed in 
detail in a succeeding chapter but it may be pointed 
out here that the undertaking was peculiarly charac- 
teristic of Sedgwick's ability to give and to secure 
whole-hearted and unselfish cooperation and of his 
readiness to begin a job that needed doing with what- 
ever resources might be at hand. It is equally char- 
acteristic that when, as a result of these modest be- 
ginnings, there was a possibility of gaining really 
adequate endowments for public health education in 
Boston he urged the need for such endowment with 
vigor and success and was sufficiently unselfish and 
broad-minded to see that it was to Harvard Univer- 
sity that a new school of public health must be most 
closely allied. 
In 1914 Sedgwick's health was seriously impaired 
and he made a somewhat extended trip to Europe in 
order to recuperate. A charming letter from Presi- 
dent Maclaurin deals with the plans for this trip. 
A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
50 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
I was much cheered by reading your article in the N. Y. 
Times when I was in that city on Sunday last. It showed 
me that there was plenty of vitality left-I might have 
said "that there was life in the old dog yet" if the ex- 
pression could have been permissible. You owe it to the 
Institute and to the community to take care of yourself 
and to make it possible for the youngsters to speak of 
you as "old" without offense. I am told on what should 
be good authority that there is no reason why you should 
not live to a really old age, provided you take reasonable 
care of yourself. Clearly you must stop work for a while 
and stop it now. You were going in March, why not go 
immediately? We shall have to tide over the difficulties 
due to your absence as best we can. Happily you must 
know that any extra burden that will thus be imposed on 
younger shoulders will be gladly borne out of loyalty and 
devotion to you. Let me know that you are off soon. 
Sedgwick returned from this journey in large 
measure restored to health. In 1915, as described in a 
succeeding chapter, he threw himself with whole- 
hearted enthusiasm into the organization of the 
Strong mission to Serbia. In 1916 came the move of 
Technology to the new laboratories on the banks of 
the Charles River. The quarters in the Pierce Build- 
ing had been very quickly outgrown. As far back as 
1908 Sedgwick had said, of the existing condition of 
overcrowding: 
Worst of all, there is nowhere in the Department any 
place for quiet, uninterrupted study; no place for rest, or 
even repose; no sense of either space or seclusion; and 
until we have such places the proper study of biology, of 
life and the right conduct of life under hygienic and sani- 
tary conditions must remain an ideal rather than a reality. 
51 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
The new quarters in Cambridge, therefore, fur- 
nished a welcome opportunity for expansion; and all 
the prospects seemed bright. The President's report 
for 1916 says 
... at the moment public health is everywhere highly 
regarded and everywhere sought after, and there are 
abundant signs that this is only the first wave of a new 
tide in science, technology and education, partly due to 
the World War, which will require more widespread and 
profound studies of life, of disease, of food, of work and 
of rest, and of human activities in general, in which biol- 
ogy must take the leading part. 
At this time Sedgwick says of the School for 
Health Officers, "The time is now at hand, if indeed 
it has not already arrived, when the School should be 
put on a more secure foundation; provided with 
staff, building and appliances of its own, and broad- 
ened out into an Institute of Public Health, worthy 
of Boston, Massachusetts and New England." 
Almost as soon as the new buildings were occupied, 
came the entrance of the United States into the Great 
War. Of Sedgwick's staff, Prescott accepted a com- 
mission in the Sanitary Corps, Gunn left for France 
and Turner became Sanitary Engineer to the U. S. 
Shipping Board. Sedgwick himself embarked with 
enthusiasm upon the organization of summer courses 
and other special instruction for the laboratory 
workers so greatly needed at the training camps, and 
worked earnestly, by visiting the leading women's 
colleges and in other ways, for the recruitment of 
students in this important field. The department had 
ten graduates in this year (1917) and nine at once 
52 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
entered war service. Sedgwick was proud, and very 
justifiably proud, of the war record made by his 
"boys" ( and his "girls" as well) for he had a card 
catalogue including the names of 120 men who served 
in the uniformed forces or in the Red Cross Overseas 
Service, and of 7 women engaged as laboratory tech- 
nicians or in one form or another of essential war 
service. Of the men on this list at least 15 attained 
the rank of Major. 
The war had only been over for about a year, and 
the Institute was just beginning to settle down to the 
problem of coping with a greatly increased enroll- 
ment when it suffered a heavy blow in the untimely 
death of President Maclaurin. The sorrow of the In- 
stitute found expression in this perfect tribute from 
Professor Sedgwick's pen. 
JANUARY 18, 1920. 
A cold, blustering Sunday morning in midwinter. Fine 
dry snow blowing from the housetops and filling the 
chilly air with whirling veils of frozen mist. Across the 
blanched and motionless surface of the Charles the great 
Technology Buildings, solemn, cold and gray in the east- 
ern light. The white flag of Massachusetts flutters from 
their midst but at half mast; for the State has lost an 
adopted son, and like Rachel mourning for her children 
refuses to be comforted because he is not. 
But even as I look, the sun comes out, blue sky appears 
and fair weather clouds begin to sail the sky. The build- 
ings brighten and though the flag flies low it shines in the 
strengthening light, while the great buildings glow. The 
whole scene seems to me symbolic. Chilled with grief and 
almost blinded with sorrow, we yet find in the life just 
53 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
ended light to illuminate the paths we must pursue, and 
guidance towards the goal we must achieve. 
Dr. Maclaurin's life and work will be for us forever 
a shining example and a noble ideal. His was a world 
career. No narrow limitations of his native Scotland 
hedged him in. New Zealand beckoned him and he went. 
America called him and he came. As a great scientific 
man should do, he studied deeply, planned carefully, exe- 
cuted boldly. As a worker he was indefatigable, as a stu- 
dent profound, as a friend faithful. As a leader we shall 
not look upon his like again. 
Almost exactly a year later Professor Sedgwick in 
his turn fell, like a soldier at his post, "in the very 
part and act of public duty "; for he had spent a long 
and wearying evening, as a delegate from Tech- 
nology to a meeting called to discuss the wisdom of 
the establishment of a state university in Massachu- 
setts. In later chapters we shall attempt to trace the 
influence of his thirty-eight years of service upon the 
public health movement and to picture in some small 
measure the personal influence which made him a 
second father to hundreds of devoted students. In an 
appendix will be found a list of the men and women 
who owe to him the inspiration of their careers. The 
present chapter may most fittingly be closed by quot- 
ing from the minutes drawn up after his death by the 
faculty with which he served so long and so faith- 
fully- 
Endowed to a remarkable degree with the spirit of 
service and the essential qualities of leadership, he won 
and held by his character, ability and personality a high 
place in the councils of the Institute and in the esteem 
54 Dr. Pratt Professor Bigelow Professor Sedgwick Professor Prescott Professor Turner 
Dr. Medalia Dr. Slack Dr. Emerson Dr. Horwood 
THE DEPARTMENT STAFF, 1920-1921 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
and respect of his colleagues and of the student body. He 
was always courteous, sympathetic and deeply interested 
in the welfare and proper development of the students, 
and was able to an unusual degree to awaken a love of 
scientific truth and to stimulate latent qualities of indi- 
viduality, character and usefulness. He taught not only 
science but right living and professional integrity, and 
unconsciously left the mark of his own character upon 
all with whom he came in contact. His influence within 
the school was all-pervading, and his reputation as an 
ideal teacher and wise counsellor extended far beyond 
the walls of the Institute. 
The keynote of his life was service, and even in his 
later years when he worked constantly with the knowl- 
edge that any day might be his last, his zeal and industry 
never flagged, and he faced the future with serenity and 
undaunted courage. 
55 The Contribution of the Institute of Tech- 
nology to the Public Health Movement in 
America 
The condition of perfect health requires such laws and regulations as 
will secure to man associated in society the same sanitary enjoyments 
that he would have as an isolated individual; and as will protect him 
from injury from any influences connected with his locality, his dwell- 
ing-house, his occupation, or those of his associates or neighbors, or 
from any other social causes. It is under the control of public authority, 
and public administration; and life and health may be saved or lost, 
and they are actually saved or lost, as this authority is wisely or un- 
wisely exercised. 
Report of the Massachusetts Sanitary Commission, 1850. 
The story of Technology's half-century of service 
to the state if written in detail would be a long one 
and one which would very well illustrate the progres- 
sive steps in public health activity which have been 
taken during that time. "Even before the Institute 
had taken definite form and very shortly after a 
charter had been granted, its founder, President 
William Barton Rogers, was invited by the famous 
'War Governor' of Massachusetts, John A. Andrew, 
to serve as ' State Inspector of Gas Meters and Gas, ' 
an office then lately created and afterward to become 
56 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
and remain closely connected with the service of the 
public health. ' ' 
In the early days sanitation, in the strict sense of 
the term, had the first call. The cleanliness of the en- 
vironment was uppermost in the minds of health 
administrators,-a logical result of the prevailing 
theory that certain diseases, such as typhoid fever, 
were caused by decomposing organic matter. The 
chemist was the man of the hour, although he worked 
in a scientific haze through which he could only dimly 
discern the truth. This period was ended by the light- 
ning bolts which Pasteur shot into the clouds. The air 
was at once cleared, and as Sedgwick was fond of 
saying, "Before 1880 we knew nothing; after 1890 
we knew it all; it was a glorious ten years. ' ' The em- 
phasis quickly shifted from chemistry to biology, but 
in later years the two sciences have blended their ef- 
forts in the interest of the public health. Speaking in 
terms of personalities, William Ripley Nichols rep- 
resented the chemist of the days before Pasteur. 
Thomas M. Drown, on the other hand,-another 
chemist of brilliancy and power,-accepted the new 
ideas and lent his genius to further them in his own 
field. As the new theories of disease prevention began 
to be put into practice, the sanitary engineer was 
roused to new and broader fields of action. But Sedg- 
wick had the vantage point, for after all the control 
of disease is applied biology; biology was his own 
science, and Pasteur and Huxley were his masters. 
Between the year 1871 and his untimely death in 
1886 Professor Nichols had carried out many impor- 
tant investigations in connection with water supply 
57 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
and stream pollution. He went to Europe, studied the 
new methods of water analysis, water filtration, and 
sewage disposal, and returned to perfect them and 
make them useful in this country. In 1871 he con- 
ducted a study of poisoning by lead pipe used for the 
conveyance of water, a subject which for a long time 
had been under discussion. He reported upon the 
condition of the Massachusetts streams and based his 
reports upon the analysis of many more samples of 
water than had been made up to that time. He 
studied the microscopic organisms in water supplies. 
In 1878 he published a celebrated report on the Fil- 
tration of Potable Water, which later became the 
basis of a book entitled Water Supply, Chemical 
and Sanitary, published in 1883, which even now, 
forty years afterwards, contains ideas well worth 
consideration. His work was not confined to water, 
however. Because of the prominence given to Pet- 
tenkofer's theories, which had to do with the san- 
itary significance of ground water and ground air, 
and because some people feared that the filled 
land of Boston's "Back Bay" was unhealthful, he 
made many studies of samples of ground air. He also 
studied the ventilation of railway cars. In 1884 he 
and Sedgwick made important investigations of the 
relative poisonous effects of coal and water gas,-a 
study which involved experiments with animals and 
which brought down the wrath of the antivivisection- 
ists upon the heads of the two young professors. It 
was not Sedgwick's last encounter with these well- 
meaning and sympathetic persons, who have endeav- 
ored for so many years to hamper the humane and 
58 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
life-saving work of biologists and physicians. The 
results of the gas investigation, the first of the sort 
ever made, gave to the Legislature timely scientific 
advice. Sedgwick predicted that the substitution of 
the almost odorless "water" gas, with its high con- 
tent of poisonous carbon monoxide, for the "coal" 
gas, less dangerous and more odoriferous, would re- 
sult in an increased number of cases of accidental gas 
poisoning, and twenty-five years later he compiled 
statistics which showed that his prediction had been 
fulfilled. 
The year 1886 was a memorable one in the Massa- 
chusetts annals of public health. In that year the 
State Board of Health, which since 1879 had been 
illogically combined with a board dealing with "Lu- 
nacy and Charity," was reorganized. Dr. Henry P. 
Walcott became Chairman and Hiram F. Mills, C.E., 
of Lowell, a Member of the Board. In the same year 
the Legislature passed an act for the protection of 
inland waters and an engineering department of the 
Board was organized. 
This act, with the establishment of the Lawrence 
Experiment Station in the same year, marked the be- 
ginning of an important epoch in American sanita- 
tion. Here for the first time the sciences of engineer- 
ing, chemistry, and biology were combined and 
brought to bear on the problems of water purification 
and sewage treatment. These various activities 
brought together a group of men whose influence on 
the development of the arts of water and sewage 
purification has been very great. Not all, but many 
of these men were connected with the Institute. Un- 
59 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
der the guidance of Dr. Walcott and Mr. Mills there 
were Frederick P. Stearns, Chief Engineer, Dr. 
Thomas M. Drown, Consulting Chemist, Dr. William 
T. Sedgwick, Consulting Biologist, and Allen Hazen 
('88), in charge of the experiment station. Among 
the assistants and special workers were George V. 
McLaughlin ('88), George W. Fuller ('90), X. H. 
Goodnough, Arthur T. Safford, Harry W. Clark 
('87), E. O. Jordan ('88), and Gary N. Calkins 
('90). Mention should also be made of Mrs. Ellen H. 
Richards ('73), the first woman graduate of the 
M.I.T. and an early associate of Professor Nichols. 
About the same time Mr. Desmond FitzGerald, Su- 
perintendent of the Western Division of the Boston 
Water Works, and now a member of the Corporation 
of the Institute, took up the study of water purifica- 
tion; a biological laboratory was established at the 
Chestnut Hill Reservoir with George C. Whipple 
('89) in charge, and an experiment station in charge 
of W. E. Foss, with Dr. Drown acting as consulting 
chemist. Dr. William G. Farlow of Harvard Univer- 
sity had already made notable contributions to the 
study of algae in water supplies, and about 1887 
George H. Parker and George L. West made system- 
atic quantitative biological studies of the microscopic 
organisms. These were years of enthusiastic progress 
along new lines and many were the conferences and 
exchange visits of the young men who were working 
at the Institute, at Harvard, at the office of the State 
Board of Health, and at the laboratories at Lawrence 
and Chestnut Hill. 
Sedgwick and Drown were much together. Week 
60 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
after week they would leave Boston by an early train 
and do a long day's work at Lawrence, looking over 
the results of the experiments, studying the analyses, 
and returning at night to formulate new lines of in- 
vestigation. 
The results of the experiments on the purification 
of sewage and water were published in Part II of the 
special reports of the State Board of Health in 1890. 
These two volumes, together with the contributions 
which followed in the regular annual reports, are 
rightly regarded by the sanitary profession as 
American classics. Sedgwick prepared the first re- 
port of the biological work. It described the ' ' Sedg- 
wick-Rafter" method of microscopical analysis, gave 
an account of the bacteriological studies at Law- 
rence, and included a report by E. O. Jordan on cer- 
tain species of bacteria found in sewage. The same 
volume contained also a paper by Jordan and Mrs. 
Richards on Nitrification and the Nitrifying Organ- 
isms. In subsequent reports for several years the 
names of Drown, Sedgwick, Richards, and others 
connected with the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology frequently appeared. From 1887 to 1896 the 
laboratory of water analysis of the State Board of 
Health in charge of Mrs. Richards, under the general 
direction of Dr. Drown, was as we have seen located 
in the Walker Building of the Institute. 
While this scientific study of the chemistry and 
biology of water and sewage was in full blast, a nota- 
ble epidemic of typhoid fever swept down the Merri- 
mac Valley. Professor Sedgwick made a thorough 
study of this catastrophe and developed methods of 
61 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
investigation which have been followed by American 
epidemiologists ever since. Although not a mathema- 
tician, he was a good logician and knew how to mar- 
shal his statistics with telling force and how to draw 
from them conclusions which could not be upset. This 
was the first of a series of typhoid epidemics investi- 
gated by Sedgwick which constituted what was per- 
haps his most notable contribution to knowledge in 
the field of public health. Such investigations, which 
would usually be completed in a few weeks, gave full 
scope for his energy and quick apprehension. He was 
aided by assistants in this work, but gave every detail 
his eager personal attention; and in the Lowell and 
Lawrence epidemic he personally made 2000 house- 
to-house visits for the accumulation of the funda- 
mental data involved. More than one writer has 
called him the Father of Epidemiology in the United 
States, and there can be no doubt that Sedgwick's 
thorough and brilliant reports on Massachusetts ty- 
phoid did much to call attention to the importance of 
this subject. This is not the place to attempt any 
elaborate appraisal of Sedgwick's investigations, but 
if the value of scientific work depends not only on its 
own addition to the body of human knowledge, but 
also upon its effect in stimulating research by others, 
then Sedgwick's studies of typhoid rank high among 
American contributions to public health. His reports 
on the water epidemic at Lowell and Lawrence, and 
the milk epidemic at Springfield exerted an enor- 
mous influence upon their respective fields of epi- 
demiology in this country, while the report on the 
Bondsville outbreak drew attention to the great dan- 
62 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
ger of contact infection in typhoid, and led to scores 
of studies in which the importance of this factor was 
emphasized and properly evaluated as never before.* 
These first days of cooperation with the Massachu- 
setts State Board of Health laid the foundation for 
Sedgwick's second notable contribution to public 
health science, the development of laboratory meth- 
ods for the study of the microbiology of air, water, 
ice and milk. The scope and amount of Sedgwick's 
research work may be best appreciated by reference 
to his list of publications (Appendix A). Approxi- 
mately one-fourth of his published articles embody 
the results of his own investigations and those of his 
pupils; the remainder, which grew in proportion as 
experience and responsibility came to him, were fin- 
ished addresses, general and technical, critical re- 
views on public health topics and comprehensive 
summaries of the conclusions to be drawn from in- 
vestigations in his own laboratory. Among the im- 
portant contributions to public health problems that 
deserve special mention are the work on illuminating 
gas poisoning (with William Ripley Nichols), the 
invention (with G. R. Tucker) of an apparatus for 
the quantitative bacterial examination of air (1887), 
and of a somewhat similar device for estimating the 
microscopic organisms in water (the still standard 
"Sedgwick-Rafter Method," 1888-1889); the study 
(with J. L. Batchelder) of the bacterial content of 
Boston milk (1892), which is notable as the first re- 
port on bacteriological examination of a municipal 
* See 29th Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massa- 
chusetts for 1892. 
63 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
milk supply published in the United States; the ex- 
perimental work (with C.-E. A. Winslow) on ty- 
phoid fever and ice supplies (1902) ; and the statisti- 
cal study (with Scott MacNutt) of the possible effect 
of water purification in diminishing diseases other 
than typhoid (Mills-Reincke Phenomenon, 1908- 
1910). 
Through all these studies there runs a single con- 
sistent tendency, the attempt to apply exact labora- 
tory and statistical methods to the study of environ- 
mental influences affecting the life and health of 
man. Bacteriology, as it was introduced by Biggs and 
Park in New York and by other early workers in the 
United States, was largely pathological in its bear- 
ing. It was the bacteriology of the human body in 
health and disease. In this field the Institute of Tech- 
nology made little or no contribution. Diagnostic pro- 
cedures, the study of carriers, immunologic control, 
owe little to the work of the Institute laboratories. 
On the other hand the microbiology of water sup- 
plies was created by Sedgwick and his pupils. The 
bacteriology of water and sewage owes all its first 
impetus to them, as may be noted by reference to the 
1905 Report on Standard Methods of Water Analy- 
sis and its bibliography. The first work in America 
on the bacteriology of ice and air (except that of 
T. M. Prudden) and of milk was done in the Institute 
laboratories. The men who did the pioneering work 
in this country on water purification, on sewage dis- 
posal and on ventilation were in a large majority 
graduates of the Institute of Technology, who had 
gained their inspiration from Sedgwick's influence. 
64 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
He was an unquestioned leader in developing the 
scientific sanitary study of the environment of man. 
Sedgwick was peculiarly happy in dealing with the 
complex problems which arise in the practical appli- 
cation of sanitary principles to the individual com- 
munity. His broad vision and sound common sense 
made him an invaluable advisor to many cities in re- 
gard to water supply and sewage and garbage dis- 
posal. In later years he devoted much attention to the 
subject of food sanitation and conservation; now it 
was milk, now eggs, now the problem of cold storage. 
He was one of the earliest and most effective advo- 
cates of the general protection of milk supplies by 
pasteurization. He believed that all food was worth 
saving and using and should be protected from con- 
tamination and decay, as illustrated by a short quota- 
tion from an article on Cold Storage and What It 
Means in Peace and War. 
We live in a region of seasons,-of successive summers 
and winters. In summer we produce more food than we 
eat, in winter we eat more than we produce. Hence it be- 
comes necessary to save up and store the surplus of sum- 
mer against the scarcity of winter. 
Our forefathers were confronted by the same neces- 
sity. They salted and smoked and dried various meats 
and fish. They stored in cool places such as cellars, po- 
tatoes and cabbages and carrots and squashes. They 
dried apples and peaches and berries, and they put up 
pickles and preserves. Corn and wheat and rye and oats 
and hay, and sometimes peas and beans, were also easily 
dried and kept through the winter, but fresh meat and 
poultry and eggs were only to be had by drawing from 
time to time upon flocks and herds of living animals. 
65 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Two of the greatest inventions of the 19th century 
were canning and cold storage. Canning, almost unknown 
before the end of the Civil War, enables us to preserve 
for winter far better and fresher than ever before, by 
heating and sealing, vast quantities of meat, fish, poultry, 
and vegetables. Cool storage has always been employed 
in cellars, and often, in summer, by hanging vessels con- 
taining milk or meat in wells or in layers of ice when ice- 
houses were being filled. About 1880, however, with the 
use of temperatures kept just above or just below the 
freezing point of water by means of special refrigerating 
machinery, the present enormous industry began. Under 
the beneficent influence of cold storage fresh meats from 
Australia can be delivered and sold in far distant Europe 
or North America, while fish taken from summer seas are 
frozen stiff and kept indefinitely, to be thawed and eaten 
at will. Poultry grown upon western farms is frozen and 
sold on the Atlantic and Pacific seaboard. 
Cold storage warehouses of great size, thoroughly built 
to withstand the heat of summer, have sprung up in all 
our large cities and in these, low temperatures are pro- 
vided by means of refrigerating machinery, so that, para- 
doxical as it may seem, many tons of coal are burned 
every day, in order to keep frozen the vast amounts of 
food which these warehouses contain. There is unfortu- 
nately a widespread prejudice against the use of cold 
storage foods because these are not infrequently inferior 
in flavor to fresh materials of the same kind. It has never 
been found, however, that they are inferior in nutritive 
value, and in some cases cold storage foods compare fa- 
vorably even in flavor with fresh foods of the same kind, 
and it is generally admitted that Chicago dressed beef is 
even superior, in spite of long storage and transporta- 
tion, to freshly killed meat of the same sort. 
66 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
In the line of official health administration Sedg- 
wick rendered distinctive service both to state and 
nation. Reference has already been made to his con- 
nection with the Massachusetts State Board of 
Health in the formative days of its reorganization. 
Between 1896 and 1914 he had no official connection 
with the state health organization, although the De- 
partment of Biology and its graduates were always 
working in close contact with the officials of the State 
House. In December, 1914, however, when the State 
Board of Health became the State Department of 
Health with a Health Commissioner and a Public 
Health Council, Sedgwick was appointed a member 
of the Council and served in this capacity until his 
death. Commissioner Eugene R. Kelley has sum- 
marized his services as follows: 
Chairman of the Committee on Food and Drugs, with 
much past research work on food as a background; with 
very positive convictions on food conservation; opposed 
to many of the extreme views of prominent food authori- 
ties as encouraging a present day tendency to condemn 
food that was needed in the world's economy; an enthu- 
siastic advocate of cold storage and food canning meth- 
ods-everything relating to the work of our Food and 
Drug Division was of deepest interest to him. 
With his remarkable record in the field of wrater puri- 
fication, he found every detail of the Engineering and 
Water and Sewage Laboratory Divisions' problems, and 
of the matters referred to the Council's Engineering 
Committee, of definite significance. 
With his years of study of epidemiology and his great 
interest in the problems of practical health administra- 
tion, especially in the smaller communities, the work of 
67 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
the Communicable Disease Division, and particularly of 
the District Health Officers, aroused his instant and con- 
stant sympathy. 
But if a comparison of interests can be made, the work 
and the great educational possibilities of our Division of 
Hygiene appealed to Sedgwick the most strongly of all 
the Department's manifold activities. He aided greatly 
in creating it, and when Dr. McLaughlin despaired of 
getting the Division started for lack of suitable funds for 
salary of a director, he proposed the release of Professor 
Gunn from part of his duties at Technology in order that 
he might organize the work, even though this involved 
carrying additional detail himself in his educational 
work, which his failing health warned him to unload. 
The minute adopted by the Public Health Council 
after Sedgwick's death, reproduced herewith, is a 
gracious and fitting expression of the debt which the 
commonwealth of Massachusetts owed to one of the 
most loyal of her adopted sons. 
Sedgwick's relation to the development of the 
United States Public Health Service at Washington 
was of equally notable importance. He was appointed 
October 1, 1902, to membership on the Advisory 
Board of the Hygienic Laboratory of the United 
States Public Health Service by the Secretary of the 
Treasury and served in that capacity until the date 
of his death. His interest in the Laboratory was 
manifest from the fact that he never missed a meet- 
ing of the Board, notwithstanding the great incon- 
venience which attendance frequently occasioned. It 
was often necessary to ask his advice, between meet- 
ings, concerning the researches carried on at the 
68  tlje iWemory 
of 
William Sebgtoirk 
pioneer in mobern public Jjraltl) science. 
(£carljer: nationally loVeb. 
JKutljor: internationally appreciateb. 
(Sotmrillor: universally souyljt for, 
tljis patje io bebirateb by tlje public 
(Council, of wljirlj l)e Was 
an original member, in sweet 
remembrance of l)is rljarminij 
personality, as a man; Ijis wiobom, 
as an abviser; bis bounbless activity 
anb jjooh will as a ro-worker. 
OFFICIAL MINUTE ADOPTED BY THE PUBLIC 
HEALTH COUNCIL OF MASSACHUSETTS, 
FEBRUARY, 1921 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Laboratory, and at such times his aid was always 
freely extended. He was intimately concerned in the 
inauguration and execution of the four years' study 
of typhoid fever in Washington (1906-1909) by 
Rosenau, Anderson, Kastle and Lumsden, which was 
a unique undertaking for the time, and was influen- 
tial in inaugurating the sanitary surveys of Great 
Lake cities by McLaughlin (1910-1912). He was in 
especially close relation with the Service while John 
F. Anderson was Director of the Hygienic Labora- 
tory, and after the passage, in 1912, of legislation 
which broadened the scope of the investigative activi- 
ties of the Public Health Service he was personally 
very influential and helpful in planning the studies 
of the Potomac and Ohio rivers in 1913. 
Sedgwick was particularly active in various crises 
affecting the general policies of the United States 
Public Health Service. On February 11, 1910, he 
wrote a letter to the Hon. James R. Mann, Chairman 
of the Committee on Interstate Commerce of the 
House of Representatives, from which the following 
extracts are taken: 
I am not one of those who would throw together into a 
kind of heterogeneous agglomeration all the public health 
activities of the Federal Government. It is natural and 
logical that, for example, the Bureau of Animal Industry 
should be connected with the Agricultural Department. I 
do, however, believe that the time has come for enlarging 
materially the work of the Public Health and Marine 
Hospital Service. I wish that the latter part of the name, 
now thoroughly antiquated, could be dropped;* that the 
* This change of name was effected in 1912. 
69 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
public health work could be greatly enlarged and that the 
Service might be required to go more extensively into the 
publication and distribution of sanitary information 
among the people, very much as the Agricultural Depart- 
ment disseminates Farmers' Bulletins, and the like. I 
wish also that funds could be provided for strictly inter- 
state investigations such as the sanitary condition of in- 
terstate streams, lakes, and the like. 
I think that as a Member of the Advisory Board and at 
the same time one who is a sanitarian and a layman, not 
a medical man, I can safely promise you that if the Public 
Health and Marine Hospital Service were now to be ma- 
terially strengthened financially and as to the salaries of 
its leading investigators and officers; if furthermore it 
were required to secure and disseminate information and 
to make sanitary as well as purely medical investiga- 
tions, perhaps by the employment of sanitary engineers 
or other sanitary experts,-then we could very quickly 
build up a public health service which would be even more 
creditable to the United States than anything that we 
now have.* 
At the same time by the making of further and more 
popular investigations and by the dissemination of in- 
formation by means of Citizens' Bulletins or People's 
Bulletins relating to public health, so that any one, 
whether a farmer or not, could write directly to the Di- 
rector, United States Public Health Service, and secure 
information about measles or chickenpox, or flies in his 
kitchen, or the dangers of contaminated oysters, or what 
not, then we should largely meet the legitimate demands 
* Within three years from the date of this letter legislation was 
enacted specifically authorizing such sanitary investigations as those 
here recommended; and Sedgwick played a large part in shaping this 
work of building up the present personnel, which now includes a con- 
siderable permanent staff of sanitary engineers. 
70 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
of those who are now crying for an agglomeration of all 
sorts of disconnected branches of the public service 
which, for one reason or another, have more or less to do 
with public health problems. 
More important, however, than all of these direct 
services to the cause of public health, was the indirect 
contribution made by Sedgwick to this movement 
through his own peculiar field,-of education. As in 
the field of research he devoted himself in particular 
to the influences upon health of the environment of 
man, so in education his unique contribution was the 
development of a training school in the scientific con- 
trol of the environment. He was one of the first teach- 
ers in America to realize that something more than 
a traditional medical education was needed for the 
equipment of the public health officer. He saw the im- 
portance of statistics in epidemiology, of sanitary en- 
gineering, chemistry and biology in the prevention 
of some of the most important of the communicable 
diseases, and he knew that the courses in most medi- 
cal schools included no adequate teaching in these 
branches. The trend of his labors and the significance 
of his contribution to public health may, as in the 
case of any influential teacher, be estimated in con- 
siderable measure by the students who have followed 
in his footsteps. E. O. Jordan ('88), G. C. Whipple 
('89), G. N. Calkins, and G. W. Fuller ('90). Allen 
Hazen and Morris Knowles ('91), Severance Bur- 
rage ('92), William R. Copeland and Daniel D. 
Jackson ('93), Theodore Horton ('94), Charles Gil- 
man Hyde and S. D. Gage ('96), R. Winthrop Pratt 
71 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
and C.-E. A. Winslow ('98), Earle B. Phelps 
('99), Arthur I. Kendall ('00), Paul Hansen ('02), 
C. Saville ('06), and S. M. Gunn ('05) may be men- 
tioned as a few of the older men who have endeavored 
to carry forward this characteristic work of Sedg- 
wick's. A distinguished public health worker (who 
was not a pupil of his) has said with keen insight, 
"It seems to me that, broadly speaking, Mr. Sedg- 
wick's most distinctive field was sanitary engineer- 
ing, considering the term 'engineer' in the broader 
sense that seems to be better expressed by the French 
term 'ingenieur,' as one who devises methods, not 
merely methods of constructing and operating so- 
called 'engineering works,' but equally methods of 
scientific study of the basic problems. In this broad- 
est and best sense of the word, Mr. Sedgwick himself 
and many of his graduates who are not technically 
'engineers' are really sanitary engineers of an order 
not previously known or conceived. Those trained at 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for public 
health laboratory or administrative work, and those 
trained at the 'Harvard-Tech' School for health offi- 
cers might, in this sense, be considered 'engineers' of 
public health, men trained to forward the movement 
in actual practice. This seems to me to be the view- 
point which best distinguishes Mr. Sedgwick's life- 
work from that of his contemporaries who ap- 
proached the field of public health from the 
viewpoint of pathology and the practice of medicine 
rather than from his viewpoint of general biology 
(physiology) and technical engineering. It seems to 
me to be the idea which integrates his work into a 
72 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
whole as the outgrowth of his earlier training, his 
environment and opportunities at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, and, above all, his special 
and unique talents and interests." 
Sedgwick had done his best to provide the recruits 
so greatly needed for public health work along the 
lines indicated above and succeeded as perhaps no 
other man could have done. Yet he came to realize 
that public health administration is, and is bound to 
be, closely linked with medicine. Holding fast to the 
idea that public health administration is something 
more than a branch of medicine, yet realizing that 
the two must be linked together, he gave much effort 
in his later years to working out plans of coordinat- 
ing the two fields in a sound program of public health 
education. In 1912 there came a great opportunity 
to put his ideas into practice and to establish a school 
of a new type for training men and women for the 
public health service. In 1909 a Department of Pre- 
ventive Medicine and Hygiene had been established 
in the Harvard Medical School under the director- 
ship of Dr. Milton J. Rosenau and in 1911 George C. 
Whipple, an Institute graduate in civil engineering 
who had taken Sedgwick's course in sanitary biology 
the first year it was given, became Professor of Sani- 
tary Engineering in Harvard University. From 
these elements was evolved the School for Health 
Officers of Harvard University and the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology, the first well-developed 
school of public health in the United States. 
As the beginnings of things are always of interest, 
record is made here of the events which led up to the 
73 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
establishment of this school, taken from the diary of 
one of the writers (G. C. W.). 
On March 4,1912,1 happened to meet President Lowell 
at lunch at the Colonial Club. He asked me to think up 
some plan for having my Department of Sanitary Engi- 
neering cooperate with the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology in a course for public health officers. Two 
days later I called on President Maclaurin and talked 
over a plan of cooperation, having meantime talked with 
Professor Sedgwick. On March 25, I dined with Dr. 
Rosenau and discussed a plan to combine our public 
health courses with those of the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology. 
Then followed a series of informal conferences and 
discussions, one of which was held in the Faculty 
Room of the Harvard Medical School on December 
16,1912. 
On January 9, 1913, Professor Sedgwick, Dr. Rosenau 
and I called on President Maclaurin. During the next few 
weeks a rather definite plan for a school was worked out. 
On April 2, I discussed the proposed plan with President 
Lowell at the Colonial Club. 
On April 14, President Maclaurin presented to the 
Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology the proposal to establish a joint school 
for the training of public health officers. On May 1, 
1913, the Harvard Corporation took definite action 
by appointing Professor William T. Sedgwick, Dr. 
Milton J. Rosenau, and Professor George C. Whip- 
ple as members of the Administrative Board of the 
School. Similar action was taken by the Executive 
74 Committee of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology on July 25, 1913 (confirmed on October 8, 
1913, by the Corporation). On July 30, 1913, the 
Administrative Board held its first meeting, Profes- 
sor Sedgwick being Chairman of the Board, Dr. 
Rosenau, Director of the School, and Professor 
Whipple, Secretary and Treasurer. Sedgwick served 
as chairman until his death. 
This school succeeded even beyond the expecta- 
tions of its founders. Its graduates were rapidly 
called to fill executive positions in the public health 
service, students came to it from foreign countries, 
and it is no exaggeration to say that its influence dur- 
ing the nine years of its existence became world-wide. 
After the war the School of Public Health, as it 
had come to be called, renewed its activities and made 
new plans for the future. It had attracted the atten- 
tion of the Rockefeller Foundation, which meantime 
had provided funds for the establishment of a School 
of Hygiene and Public Health in Johns Hopkins 
University, and in 1921 funds amounting to about 
two million dollars were given to Harvard Univer- 
sity for the support of a School of Public Health. 
Sedgwick, as a member of the International Health 
Board, was of course consulted in regard to the pend- 
ing developments and viewed them with generous 
hope, although he felt that in the combination of 
Harvard and Technology there was a strength and a 
mutual reaction which would be of the greatest bene- 
fit to the cause of public health. His death occurred 
before the actual change took place; and in 1922 the 
Harvard-Technology School of Public Health closed 
WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
75 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
its doors, leaving an influence upon public health 
education in America which will long be felt. 
The great work of the Harvard-Technology School 
was the amalgamation of two spirits,-the spirit of 
medicine and the spirit of engineering,-standing re- 
spectively for man and his environment. This indeed 
must be the spirit of the Health School of the future, 
-a spirit different from that of a medical school and 
different also from that of a school of engineering. 
Sedgwick gave much thought to the underlying 
philosophy of public health education. He recognized 
that health administrators must have a knowledge of 
medical science, but he did not believe that it was 
necessary that they be trained in the practice of the 
medical arts of healing in the same way that doctors 
of medicine are trained. He thought it unnecessary 
for young men to go through a complete medical 
course before studying public health, that to do so 
was a waste of two years of youth and an unneces- 
sary postponement of active service. The culmina- 
tion of his conception was the "Y Plan" set forth in 
his Cincinnati address, as follows: 
The medical curriculum of today is for the most part a 
strong single track, a narrow one-way road, leading 
straight to one great terminal,-the ancient, well-known 
and famous metropolis of the medical degree. To have 
conceived and constructed and safeguarded and enriched 
this long and highly graded road, fenced in everywhere 
against interlopers, and discouraging to set out upon for 
all excepting those of fitness and attainment, is the great 
achievement of the generation now passing off the stage. 
But since 1870 another great, though more modern, city 
76 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
has grown up apart, but not far from the original ter- 
minal and a strong branch road is now badly needed, be- 
ginning half way up the line, which shall carry some of 
the many journeymen to this new and thriving suburb of 
which the name is "Public Health." Those arriving here 
should receive the degree of Doctor of Public Health in- 
stead of Doctor of Medicine and should become practi- 
tioners, not of medicine, but of the science and arts of the 
public health. 
Instead of the present rigid medical curriculum which 
resembles the capital letter I, we ought today to have a 
new curriculum of equal height and breadth, but shaped 
like the capital letter Y, of which the base should still be 
substantially the first two years of the present curricu- 
lum-anatomy, physiology, bacteriology, pathology, etc., 
but with the upper parts diverging, the one arm or 
branch leading as now in the last two years to the degree 
of Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and the other in the last 
two years to the degree of Doctor of Public Health 
(D.P.H.). That medical school which first begins this 
Reformation will seize a golden opportunity. It is right 
to provide generously for curative medicine,-for sur- 
gery, for obstetrics, for gynecology, for otology, for oph- 
thalmology, etc. But that medical school which fails today 
to provide also liberal instruction in preventive medicine, 
in vital statistics, in sanitary science, in public health 
laboratory methods, in epidemiology, and in preventive 
sanitation such as the sanitation of water supplies and 
other branches of municipal sanitation; in preventive 
hygiene, such as mental, social, personal, and dental hy- 
giene, and in public health education and public health 
administration-is sending out its graduates unprepared 
for some of the most serious problems they will have to 
face in the immediate future . . . 
77 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Obviously, all these subjects cannot be injected into a 
curriculum already overcrowded. The only way out is 
to recognize the situation, and to meet it squarely by 
erecting a separate superstructure for public health 
training upon the same foundation which already under- 
lies medical training,-replacing surgery, obstetrics, 
gynecology, materia medica, therapeutics, pharmacology, 
and other purely medical subjects by subjects in public 
health such as those just mentioned. The medical man 
without further training, has been tried as a modern 
health officer and, generally speaking, found wanting and 
it is for this reason that special Schools of Hygiene and 
Public Health have sprung up here and there. These, 
however, are and long will be wholly inadequate to sup- 
ply the needs of the time, and our only hope at present 
for any adequate relief is that the medical schools of the 
land shall seize the opportunity that is theirs, to divert 
into the public health channels, with proper preparation, 
some of the talent now going into medicine. If what we 
hear of the coming ilsocialization" of medicine,-by 
which we mean that tendency now everywhere discover- 
able to substitute physicians employed and paid by the 
State for physicians dependent on private practice,-be 
true, such a diversion cannot come too soon. 
It is too early to predict the fate of Sedgwick's 
"Y" plan. It is enough to record here that he re- 
garded it as his heritage to the future. It represented 
his mature judgment on a question which he had 
studied long and thoughtfully. It was his last great 
constructive idea.* The accomplishments of the De- 
* It is of interest to note that an entirely similar plan for training 
sanitarians was independently proposed by Professor Riizicka in the 
first number of the Czech Journal of Public Health (Prague, March, 
1921). 
78 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
partment of Biology and Public Health and of the 
School for Health Officers are however already writ 
large in the history of the American public health 
movement. They established once and for all the im- 
portance of the environmental factors in disease con- 
trol so that,-to a far greater extent than is the case 
in Europe,-every American health organization 
now includes a very important personnel represent- 
ing this special angle of training; that all the recently 
established courses in public health are recognizing 
such branches of science as sanitary engineering, 
sanitary bacteriology and chemistry and physiology; 
that the reforms which Sedgwick advocated in pre- 
medical education have come about; and that not a 
few of his graduates are contributing largely to 
medical as well as to specialized public health educa- 
tion in leading medical schools. It was he, more than 
any other single man in the country, who realized, 
and made others realize, the essential necessity for 
providing a special education for the public health 
administrator. Johns Hopkins and Harvard and 
Yale and Columbia and Michigan may follow differ- 
ent lines from those which were laid down at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but the goal 
they are seeking is the one which was visualized by 
Sedgwick thirty years ago. 
79 Sedgwick the Teacher 
To us thou wast still 
Cheerful, and helpful, and firm! 
Therefore to thee it was given 
Many to save with thyself. 
Arnold, Rugby Chapel. 
It was as a teacher that Sedgwick stood supreme. 
His influence upon his students and in the general 
life of the Institute of Technology, in the broader 
fields of education and in public health, was largely 
due to a rare power of elucidation and inspiration; a 
consideration of the sources of this power as a 
teacher must therefore be central in any estimate of 
Sedgwick's influence upon his time. 
Having begun his own higher education as an un- 
dergraduate at the Sheffield Scientific School, and 
spending his life in the service of the Institute of 
Technology, it was natural that Sedgwick should be 
a warm champion, not only of science, but of applied 
science, as constituent elements in the highest type of 
liberal education. This was a real issue in those days 
though the victory of applied science is now so nearly 
complete that the echoes of the conflict grow some- 
80 what faint. In an address delivered at the Sheffield 
Scientific School in 1893, he says: 
' ' I have been patiently awaiting an opportunity to 
challenge publicly the serious charge that the Shef- 
field Scientific School in the seventies did not give to 
its graduates a liberal education." He then goes 
back, as was his wont, to the dictionary and notes 
that the word "liberal" means "generous" or "befit- 
ting a free man," as opposed to a slave. Hence also, 
"free, broad, ample, not narrowly limited, compre- 
hensive." Next he traces the historic reasons why one 
particular type of education, that of the classical col- 
lege, came to be considered the liberal education, and 
then passes to the changes which occurred in the 
nineteenth century. 
"Few if any saw or understood the vast signifi- 
cance of the new movement,-we do not wholly know 
it yet,-but it was the expression of the Zeitgeist 
which was beginning to feel the old education too 
narrow. It was no longer generous. It dwelt too much 
in the past. Fanned by the swift breeze of human dis- 
covery the century was moving forward. An educa- 
tion essentially monastic was becoming too narrow. 
Charmed by the eloquence of Cicero and the dramas 
of Sophocles, the scholastics of our day heard not the 
revelations of a Cuvier, who was unfolding the elo- 
quent facts of physical being. Journeying with 
Ulysses and listening to the magical language of 
Hellas they knew not that Watt had devised a more 
potent bark than any that Odysseus sailed-one 
which should soon make of every man an Ulysses and 
give into his keeping the whole round world. Ab- 
WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
81 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
sorbed in contemplation of the ruin wrought by the 
French Revolution these knew not that Lavoisier, 
himself a victim of the maw of the guillotine, had 
founded a science which should soon teach the inti- 
mate structure and brotherhood of all things and, be- 
fore long, the chemistry of the stars. Secure in a 
simple theory of geology they knew not that Lyell 
was proving the great age and slow making of the 
crust of this earth. Still less did they dream that Dar- 
win and Wallace, unknown even to themselves, had 
opened note books which would include many of the 
secrets of the origin of life, not excepting that of man 
himself. The coral islands were yielding their secrets 
to our Dana; the spectroscope was demonstrating the 
stupendous fact that our earth had its kindred in re- 
motest space; Schleiden and Schwann proved the 
unity of organic life in microscopic structure; Von 
Mohl, Cohn and Schultze established a kindred 
physical basis first, for all plants and animals, and 
finally for animals and man. The achromatic objec- 
tive bade fair to change the profoundest thoughts of 
man. Boucher de Perthes by his discoveries of fossil 
man gave us a new chronology. Virchow by his cellu- 
lar pathology put a new face upon old facts of dis- 
ease. Faraday by his discovery of magnetic induction 
entered the wedge which was to introduce the age of 
electricity. Pasteur by his labors on fermentation es- 
tablished the germ theory of disease and laid the sure 
basis of preventive medicine. 
"But these and other similarly impressive and 
vital advances went on for the most part without the 
direct inspiration of the American classical colleges 
82 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
and universities. In these, wrapped in devout con- 
templation of the past, and content with the present, 
the scholastics of the nineteenth century dreamed on. 
In their hands seemingly rested the future because 
they alone had the keys of a liberal education. But 
fortunately for the world, and as if to show once 
more how futile are all attempts at exclusiveness in 
education or in the proprietorship of truth, a change 
came, and came from outside the scholastic circle." 
He describes the significance of the movement exem- 
plified by the establishment of the great polytechnic 
schools; and affirms that "the divergence of the new 
learning from the beaten path of nineteenth century 
scholasticism was an event of scarcely less educa- 
tional significance than the Revival of Learning at 
the beginning of the Renaissance." He quotes Hux- 
ley's marvelous definition of a liberal education of 
which he was always especially fond; and Arnold's 
"The ideal of a general liberal training is to carry us 
to a knowledge of ourselves and of the world," of 
which Sedgwick says, "Among the many definitions 
of a liberal education this seems to me the best and 
wanting only in the element of action or power. ' ' He 
accepts the etymological ideal of a liberal education, 
that it shall emancipate; shall make man free. "And 
if it be freedom that is desired, let us remember that 
we shall find it in the truth; and this is that, of which 
every scientific man may say with Harvey-' I avow 
myself the partisan of truth alone. ' ' ' 
It was obviously no narrow type of technical edu- 
cation which Sedgwick championed. As he says in 
another address: ' ' The great educational problem of 
83 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
the day is how to unite power with culture. Mere cul- 
ture is apt to be ineffective, unproductive, critical, 
analytical and sterile. Mere power is pretty sure to be 
narrow, selfish, intolerant, illiberal, ungenerous, un- 
sympathetic, short-sighted. ' ' 
Intense intellectual curiosity-the first gift of the 
gods to the investigator-was one of Sedgwick's 
most marked characteristics. Nothing in nature was 
alien to him. His early students well remember the 
contagious enthusiasm with which in his lecture 
courses he took up one subject after another, general 
biology, physiology, bacteriology, anthropology, the 
history of science, so that while he was talking, each 
topic in turn, the origin of life, the clotting of the 
blood, the causation of disease, seemed the most en- 
grossing problem in the universe. He always wanted 
to find out more, to know more. He often referred to 
an undergraduate experience of his own at Yale (re- 
ferred to in an earlier chapter) where, in a medical 
course to which he had looked forward with keen in- 
terest, the instructor managed to convey the impres- 
sion that the subject was practically a closed book, 
that everything had been found out about it that 
could be found out, and that there was little scope 
for the activities of an inquiring mind. Anything 
more utterly foreign to Sedgwick's own mental proc- 
esses and methods of teaching could hardly be con- 
ceived. In his elementary lectures he contrived at the 
very start to make many a student say to himself: 
Something more needs to be discovered or explained 
about this matter; something more can be discovered, 
and I may be the man to do it. 
84 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
The really great teacher must give to his pupil 
three different things, a vision of the subject in hand 
in its relations to the evolving universe, a rigorously 
honest method of thinking and working so that the 
truth may be adhered to and if possible advanced, 
and an enthusiasm for service which will prove bet- 
ter even than the desire for fame as the compelling 
motive to make men "scorn delights and live labori- 
ous days." These three gifts, and in rich measure, 
Sedgwick bestowed upon his pupils. 
First of all, his mind was permeated with the his- 
torical perspective and with a passion for origins 
which gave to every subject he taught a background 
of evolutionary significance. In an address on The 
Outlook for Preventive Medicine in the United 
States* he expresses this article of his creed. 
The effects of civilization are cumulative. Generations, 
unlike individuals, begin where their parents left off. Yet 
each generation has its own peculiar interests, its own 
problems. The men of the 15th and 16th centuries made 
the famous voyages of discovery and wrought an im- 
mense expansion of the known and habitable world. Their 
successors embodied their discoveries in a great litera- 
ture. The men of the 17th century worked out the princi- 
ples of the anatomy and physiology of the universe, as 
well as of the human body. Their successors of the 18th 
century studied more minutely the structure of the earth, 
laid the foundations of geology and chemistry, inaugu- 
rated toleration and humanitarianism, introduced the 
* Delivered before the alumni of St. Luke's Hospital, New York, in 
1908. 
85 age of machinery, and sought out many and great inven- 
tions. The first half of the 19th century witnessed the es- 
tablishment of science as a recognized branch of learn- 
ing ; the rise of biology,-highest, because most human, of 
all the sciences,-and the triumph of the scientific spirit, 
-the spirit of truth,-as the lode star of life; that spirit 
which Dr. Peabody, Plummer Professor of Christian 
Morals in Harvard University, has finely characterized 
by "its courage and serenity, its disciplined conscience, 
its intellectual morality, its habitual response to any dis- 
closure of the truth. ' ' 
The generation now rapidly passing off the stage and 
which belongs to the latter half of the same century, has 
been chiefly occupied with the applications of the great 
inventions and with an unprecedented devotion to the 
search for origins. The origin of species, the origin of 
man, the origin of institutions and customs, the origin of 
life, of poverty, of crime, of disease,-these have been the 
peculiar problems of the last half century. 
And nowhere has the search for origins been more suc- 
cessful than in medicine. Thirty years ago pathology was 
in the descriptive stage. The footprints of disease were 
conspicuous but the makers of the footprints absolutely 
unknown. Today the microbic origin of the infections is 
a commonplace, and the germ theory is as familiar as the 
theory of gravitation and the theory of evolution. The 
problems of yesterday were the problems of origins. 
Sedgwick delighted in tracing the origin of words 
and in noting how they often came to mean something 
very different from their first significance, so that 
perhaps the most used book on his desk was the Ox- 
ford Dictionary. As an example of his scrupulousness 
in the accurate use of words it may be recalled that 
A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
86 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
when he and Wilson were writing their textbook on 
biology Sedgwick wrote to Professor Whitney, the 
great philologist of Yale, under whom he had stud- 
ied, as to the correct use of the phrase "lifeless mat- 
ter." Whitney brought the question up at a faculty 
meeting of the Sheffield Scientific School and re- 
ported that "opinions were divided, two or three (or 
more) important voices being raised in favor of the 
view that lifeless too much implied a loss of former 
life. Still, the majority were against that; and 'spot- 
less reputation' and 'endless life' were quoted as nor- 
mal examples of the proper use and meaning of ad- 
jectives in less. My own opinion was with the latter 
party. ' ' 
It was his passion for tracing the chain of causa- 
tion through the historic development of knowledge 
which led Sedgwick to organize a course of lectures 
on the history of the inductive sciences for students 
in the departments of biology and physics; and it is 
indeed significant that this course, the first of its 
character to be offered in America, should have 
found place in the crowded curriculum of a scientific 
department. Prescott says: "These lectures (at first 
more like informal talks) were so tinged with the ap- 
preciation of art and poetry as well as of science that 
the students of these early years eagerly looked for- 
ward to them, and doubtless would gladly have 'cut' 
the more laborious 'professional' subjects in order 
that they might get this refreshing draught from a 
realm remote from the more exacting domain of mod- 
ern science they were pursuing in laboratory or de- 
partmental room. ' ' 
87 The study of origins was with Sedgwick, however, 
never an end in itself but a means to the better com- 
prehension of the present and a firmer grasp of the 
future. "I keep three things in mind," he once said, 
"the past, the present and the future." The extent to 
which his lectures were vitalized by the latest scrap 
of current information was as notable as the degree 
to which they were rooted in the firm basis of histori- 
cal background. Clippings from the daily papers, as 
well as from technical journals, were likely to be in 
his hand as he entered the classroom and were posted 
on the bulletin board outside his door. All was fish 
that came to his net and he wanted his students to 
study those fish while they were yet alive. 
It was not merely filiation in time which was em- 
phasized in Sedgwick's teaching. Quite as striking 
was the way in which he brought out the relations 
between apparently unrelated subjects, illuminating 
the place of the particular phenomenon under dis- 
cussion in the universe of which it formed a part. 
Nothing to him was isolated. The whole world, past, 
present, and future, was in the background of his 
thought. He saw every phenomenon in its relation to 
a hundred other phenomena and was at his very best 
with a small group of students, following out in ex- 
perimental vein a line of thought which might lead 
from the structure of plant tissue to the domestic life 
of the ancient Romans and thence to some basic prob- 
lem in philosophy or ethics. One memorable confer- 
ence in plant physiology began whimsically enough 
with the question why Episcopalians have stained 
glass windows in their churches and Unitarians do 
A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
88 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
not, as a basis for a consideration of the function of 
esthetics as a motive force in evolution. 
Sedgwick always taught principles, not merely ap- 
plications ; and his power of seeing the broadest and 
most fundamental principles that might be involved 
in a given case, of reducing a problem to its least 
common divisors, was one of the chief reasons for his 
unique success in popular elementary teaching. One 
invariable article of his professorial creed was that 
only the most mature teacher could adequately give 
fundamental elementary instruction in a new sub- 
ject; therefore until within a few years of the end of 
his life he himself met the beginning students in Gen- 
eral Biology. Others might carry on the training in 
more advanced courses, but only long experience 
could safely guide the untutored mind and open the 
eyes of the novice. 
Every lecture which Sedgwick gave, even on the 
most apparently limited subject, was approached 
from a universal standpoint which gave it a new 
value and interest. A series of talks on "Kitchen 
Physiology" to a Normal School class began for ex- 
ample with a picture of an extra-mundane visitor to 
this world of ours who would at once be struck by the 
phenomena of "periodic activity and rest" and 
"periodic feeding and excretion" as characteristic 
of its human occupants. Then there followed a dis- 
cussion of the physiologic needs for periodic feeding, 
of hunger and its meaning, and of the relation be- 
tween food energy and work. In such a light the work 
of the cook took on a sort of cosmic dignity. 
Again, he began a lecture on the Role of Bacteria 
89 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
in Nature with the following vivid picture of the 
teeming vitality of the universe. 
In a recent English treatise upon Rural Hygiene there 
is an essay entitled "The Living Earth." These words 
seem to us strange bedfellows; for if there is anything 
that is commonly regarded as the type of all things dead 
or not-living it is the earth. True: we speak of the 
"mother" earth; the "kindly" earth and so on; but when 
at last we commit to it with grief and sorrow the bodies 
of our dead we do not hesitate to add, "Dust to dust; 
earth to earth."* 
The fact is, however, that there is a living earth as 
truly as there is a living Boston or living New York or 
living London. In the same sense that Boston is alive, or 
London, or New York, the surface or "loamy" layers of 
our gardens are alive. The first to teach us this was 
Charles Darwin, who showed that the earth is often 
densely populated with living earthworms. Gilbert 
White, of Selborne, a whole century earlier than Darwin 
also gave us the outlines of the story (a fact which is not 
generally known) and possibly incited Darwin to his 
work by the remark that ' ' a good monography of worms 
would afford much entertainment and information, and 
would open a large and new field in natural history." 
No one who has studied earthworms, not in the labora- 
tory alone but in gardens or on grassy lawns by lantern- 
light needs to be told that there is a living earth, often 
populated with more dwellers to the square acre than 
either Whitechapel or the Mulberry Bend. But Bacteri- 
ology has lately carried us beyond the earthworm popu- 
lation to one infinitely more crowded. 
* In another place, but in a similar connection, he quotes the lovely 
line of Homer, "They long since in Earth's soft arms were reposing; 
there in their own dear land their fatherland, Lacaedaemon." 
90 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Sedgwick had a rare power of vivid and vital illus- 
tration, of epigrammatic statement and of apt phra- 
seology. What a historical chain of causation is 
packed into the sentence: "The socalled 'germ' 
theory of disease is the child of fermentation and the 
grand-child of the microscope." How clear a state- 
ment of essential principle in this one: " A sand filter 
is more than a mechanical strainer, and more than a 
chemical furnace, it is a breathing organism." In a 
lecture on the micro-organisms which cause tastes 
and odors in water supply, he expands a computation 
of the average number of various diatoms present in 
the Boston Water Supply as follows: "In one year 
then each person would drink about 2264 feet of 
Asterionella, or nearly half a mile, 1635 feet of Tab- 
ellaria, 1392 feet of Melospira, 481 feet of Synedra, 
and 413 feet of Stephanodiscus. In other words he 
would drink a line of diatoms one and a fifth miles 
long. This line however would nearly approach the 
mathematician's definition, for it has length without 
breadth and could be seen only with the aid of a mi- 
croscope." 
The titles of his papers and addresses, he particu- 
larly loved to elaborate. He would rewrite them 
again and again, substituting a word here and a word 
there, consulting his associates, and finally produc- 
ing something which was at once so clear and so 
pleasing that it went far to prove the main thesis 
with which the paper in question was concerned. 
"Shall We Infect or Shall We Protect the Waters of 
our Lakes, Harbors and Estuaries?" is an excellent 
91 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
example of the ultimate result of this polishing 
process. 
The qualities so far discussed for the most part 
bear on Sedgwick's power of cultivating vision, of 
presenting phenomena in clear and vivid relation to 
other phenomena. He was equally successful in per- 
forming the second great task of the teacher, that of 
conveying a rigorously honest method of thinking. 
The breadth and color of his mind might easily in it- 
self have brought about no more than a transient 
stimulation of the imagination. Vision with him, 
however, was always checked and controlled by the 
scientific conscience. His love of discerning relation- 
ships was subordinate to a passion for exact truth. A 
letter to The Nation by William James, written in 
September, 1876, and reprinted in Volume One of his 
printed letters. (page 189) would have been thor- 
oughly expressive of Sedgwick's own viewpoint. 
If the best use of our colleges is, to give young men a 
wider openness of mind and a more flexible way of think- 
ing, then one can never deny that philosophic study 
means the habit of always seeing an alternative, of not 
taking the usual for granted, of making conventionalities 
fluid again, of imagining foreign states of mind. What 
doctrines students take from their teachers are of little 
consequence provided they catch from the living, philo- 
sophic attitude of mind, the independent, personal look at 
all the data of life and the eagerness to harmonize them. 
Sedgwick would generally begin the consideration 
of any new subject with the simplest and most famil- 
iar phenomenon. The whole of biology he was accus- 
tomed to say could be taught from a study of yeast. 
92 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
"For just as one must know his letters before he can 
grasp sentences or words, just so I have thought it 
wise to have you go up from the simple to the com- 
plex-from yeast to the oak-tree-from Amoeba to 
the ox-rather than in the other direction. ' ' 
No one who had the privilege of taking Sedgwick's 
elementary course in General Biology will ever for- 
get those first lessons on the earthworm and the fern. 
In studying Lumbricus large specimens preserved 
in alcohol were first distributed and the gross mor- 
phology brought out by skillful questioning. What 
was the shape of the animal? How did its head and 
tail differ? Its back and belly? Then the students 
were made to pass the worms backward and forward 
between their fingers to discover the setae. When the 
broad facts of external structure had been elucidated 
the living worm was examined. Exactly how were its 
movements accomplished ? Did it wriggle like a 
snake? What sorts of muscles must be present to 
make the shortening and the lengthening of the body 
possible? Then the alcoholized specimens were dis- 
sected and Sedgwick loved to tell of the young 
woman who was astonished at what she saw revealed 
when the coelom was opened and when asked what 
she had expected to find replied that she supposed 
the animal was "just worm all through." 
Beginning with careful observation of familiar 
things, arousing curiosity in regard to their nature 
and causation, and then passing on to experimental 
study,-these were the essentials in Sedgwick's 
method of approach; but every step was safeguarded 
with the most conscientious care. Each observation 
93 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
was criticised. Each step toward a conclusion was de- 
fined and redefined. Sedgwick loved definitions and 
a volume of the Century Dictionary was sent for in 
his less formal classes once or twice a day. He in- 
sisted upon exact description, exact drawing and 
careful deduction. He was pitiless to the specious and 
the slipshod and if his students did not learn to think 
honestly and clearly they had only themselves to 
blame. 
The care taken by Sedgwick in the preparation of 
lectures and laboratory exercises, particularly dur- 
ing his earlier years as a teacher, was almost un- 
bounded. No trouble wTas too great to elucidate and 
verify even a passing allusion. As all his students 
will recall he was wont to cite Dr. Holmes' "One- 
Hoss Shay" as a type of the ideally healthy human 
body, which succumbs only to old age by wearing out 
but not by breaking down. In 1902 he engaged in vig- 
orous discussions and lengthy correspondence in the 
attempt to discover whether Holmes himself had this 
idea in mind. 
In the preparation of quizzes and laboratory exer- 
cises Sedgwick was equally painstaking, until the 
technique for dealing with a given topic had been 
perfected by long practice. Those urbane and fruit- 
ful hours in the Rogers Building and in the Pierce 
Building when he would lean back in his chair with 
his knees crossed and insensibly develop the logic of 
a situation by making his students really look things 
squarely in the face were the result of a real and a 
very characteristic technique. 
In spite of his gifts as a lecturer, the laboratory 
94 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
was always Sedgwick's primary teaching instru- 
ment. He valued its practical contacts as an antidote 
to what he called the morbus urbicus with its tend- 
ency to exalt talking and reading at the expense of 
a knowledge of "natural objects-such as dew and 
frost, brooks and stones, berries and nuts, leaves and 
flowers, the smaller animals." In an address on The 
Modern Laboratory in Biology and Public Health, 
delivered at Purdue University, May 17, 1917, under 
the text, "Laboratories are the temples of the future, 
-Pasteur," he says: 
The newest building on a modern college campus is al- 
most certain to be either a dormitory or a laboratory; 
the modern gymnasium is a kind of personal hygiene 
laboratory and the modern library is properly regarded 
by the up-to-date librarian as a kind of laboratory. 
Mere observation of nature,-"the improvement of 
natural knowledge"-is of immense consequence. It is too 
often neglected and too little cultivated. But observation 
becomes doubly valuable when coupled with experimen- 
tation, and this last is vastly facilitated by the labora- 
tory. Here, undisturbed by weather or other unfavorable 
conditions, the investigator, the analyst and the student 
may quietly and persistently interrogate Nature, though 
only on the small scale, and without those larger oppor- 
tunities which Nature affords out-of-doors. The field 
naturalist, the oceanographer, the limnologist, the obser- 
vational astronomer, the forester, not unnaturally smile 
at the laboratorian,-with his spectacles, his microscope, 
his spectroscope and his flasks and balances. They have 
the advantage of dealing with Nature in the large, that 
Nature which Chaucer finely called "the Vicar of the 
Almighty Lord." But the laboratorian rejoins "ex uno 
95 disce omnes" and "God hath chosen the small things of 
the world to confound the great." The conclusion of the 
whole matter is that to make the rounded whole, both 
hemispheres are needed. We must work both in the field 
-God's great laboratory of the out-of-doors,-and also 
in his small but not insignificant apartments,-man's in- 
door laboratories. 
In a dedication address at Bates College he dis- 
cusses the history of the laboratory or "laboring- 
place ' ' and says of the college laboratory that 
it offers to the attentive student a kind of moving picture 
of the progress and the conquests of science. With the 
vast extension of the field of knowledge during the last 
300 years it has become impossible for anyone to grasp 
the enormous quantity of facts at our disposal. And yet 
the child instead of beginning where his father left off 
must begin exactly where his father began. Hence the ur- 
gent need of careful choice of facts, choice of experi- 
ments, of apparatus and educational machinery, if he is 
to go in one short life even a little further than his 
father went. In brief, the modern college laboratory is not 
so much a workshop as a show room in which selected 
natural phenomena, facts and processes are conveniently, 
rapidly and successively demonstrated and enforced. It 
provides in logical order an easy epitome, a rapid reca- 
pitulation, of the painfully slow and laborious discoveries 
of the past. 
A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
But whatever our endeavor, this is always,-con- 
sciously or unconsciously,-an attempt to lead the stu- 
dent on to a sound and true interpretation of Nature. 
And surely the modern interpretation as we seek and find 
it in laboratories like this, is objective rather than subjec- 
96 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
five. It begins with the rigorous abnegation of one's self, 
and a calm survey of the world about us, charged as it is 
with impersonal energy, acting for the most part upon 
impersonal matters. The lightning plays about us with 
the same energy as in Homeric days but it is no longer 
Zeus who sends it forth. The waves fling themselves to- 
day upon our shores precisely as of old they beat upon 
the islands of the Aegean, but we do not see in them as the 
Greeks did the fury of Poseidon. We see only an infinite 
number of watery particles in circular movements driven 
by an irresistible wind pressure. For us the winds are not 
the messengers of Aeolus but only lifeless gases caught 
up and dragged by the swiftly spinning earth or seeking 
an equilibrium upset by local expansions or contractions 
due to heat or cold. 
Even more significant than the breadth of vision 
and the sound scientific method which Sedgwick 
gave to his pupils, was the closeness of the personal 
individual contact with which he touched their char- 
acters and inspired their wills. His imagination and 
his sympathy were at the foundation of this influence. 
Every student was to him an individual, a unique 
personality whose capacity and needs he carefully 
studied and developed. He knew when and how to 
encourage, to stimulate or to criticise; and he knew 
exactly when and how to give a boy who was on the 
wrong track a complete and thoroughgoing raking- 
down which was never forgotten. When a student 
was in trouble no father could be more sympathetic, 
more comprehending, more patient or more helpful. 
He was never hurried; but in the midst of an exceed- 
ingly busy life always had an hour to spare for the 
most careful consideration of a student's personal 
97 problems. It was his humanity, his reasonableness, 
flecked with quick humor, his sympathetic insight 
and understanding of the personal problem of each 
individual that won his students even more than his 
teaching in the classroom. 
Among the special features of departmental life 
which most influenced Sedgwick's students was what 
he modestly called the "Journal Club," essentially a 
seminar. Prescott says of this institution: 
One of the most characteristic and useful of the agen- 
cies of instruction which he employed in the department 
was the weekly Colloquium, or Journal Club, wherein the 
advanced students and instructing staff met on common 
ground, and reported on the significant current literature 
or events of professional interest. By this means the stu- 
dent was taught how to present a subject briefly and in a 
telling manner, and how to think while on his feet. A mas- 
ter of English himself, as well as of the art of public 
speaking, Professor Sedgwick made this training of 
inestimable value to the student. The kindly criticism, re- 
inforced by example, was remarkable in its results. Confi- 
dence, simplicity and correctness of speech, clear think- 
ing, and right use of voice and carriage were thus 
brought home to the student, and were recognized by him 
as a proper part of the real equipment of an educated 
professional man. How painstakingly and considerately 
Professor Sedgwick worked with a self-conscious and shy 
student, few outside his department will ever know, but 
it was a worthy and valuable portion of the instruction, 
and his students recall it with deepest gratitude. 
Another agency worthy of mention which he used con- 
stantly was the bulletin board, whereon were posted clip- 
pings relating to matters of professional, civic or politi- 
A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
98 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
cal importance in the world at large. This was a form of 
service appreciated not merely by the students in the de- 
partment but by the hundreds who passed through the 
corridors and often stopped to read the notices or see the 
pictures which opened up vistas of a world outside the 
confines of the institute walls, and inspired an interest 
in the great public problems of citizenship and national 
welfare. 
The general cultural life of the department was 
delightfully fostered by the Pasteur Club, an evening 
gathering of staff and students in Professor Sedg- 
wick's home at which the classics in Biology and 
Public Health and in wider fields of literature and 
philosophy were read aloud and discussed with en- 
thusiasm. Only five days before his death such a gath- 
ering was held at the apartment at Haddon Hall. The 
Chief presented a digest of Galton's life and writ- 
ings ; and never perhaps did he show more animation 
and a keener delight in the intellectual stimulus and 
the friendly fellowship with which these meetings 
w'ere imbued. 
The contacts of the classroom were by no means 
dropped on graduation. Every student who had once 
been connected with the department remained one 
of "Sedgwick's boys" and was followed and helped 
and guided throughout his professional career. As 
new openings developed in the public health field the 
graduates were moved here and there upon the chess 
board with a judicious faith as to their possibilities 
which was rarely disappointed. Each new appoint- 
ment was hailed with an almost exuberant satisfac- 
tion and was shared with "the Department" as a 
99 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
common source of pride. For example a notice of the 
appointment of Dr. Tetrau as Health Officer of Port- 
land in 1916 was circulated to the staff with the char- 
acteristic comment, "A Real Expert Health Officer 
at last in Maine! and one more now in New Eng- 
land!" 
When an event occurred which he thought of pecul- 
iar importance a circular letter might be despatched 
to all past students, as in the following example sent 
out in April, 1916. 
To Former Members of Course VII 
Dearly Beloved Brethren: 
The Scripture moveth us in sundry places, but seldom 
more effectively or agreeably than President Eliot has 
done in his recent epoch-making address at Columbus, as 
President of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. 
In complimenting him by letter upon this remarkable 
paper, I said to President Eliot that his seems to me the 
most important essay in advocacy of Biology and Public 
Health which has appeared since Huxley's. This I believe 
to be true, and inasmuch as President Eliot was origi- 
nally a chemist, I feel that his present attitude (probably 
largely due to his connection with the International 
Health Commission) is highly significant touching the 
present importance and future influence of our science. 
On my earnest request President Eliot has kindly 
placed at my disposal a considerable number of copies of 
his essay, one of which I take the liberty of sending to you 
with my personal regard and with best wishes for your 
health, progress and prosperity. 
Ever sincerely yours, 
W. T. Sedgwick. 
100 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
In November, 1918, Professor Sedgwick suggested 
in a memorandum to the staff, "I think it would be a 
good plan if we should draw up a circular letter ad- 
dressed to 100 men or at least those of them that are 
in foreign service, wishing them a Merry Christ- 
mas"; and the following letter was despatched in 
cordance with this idea. 
To Graduates and Other Former Students of the 
Department of Biology and Public Health. 
From the undersigned,-left behind while the tidal 
wave of American manhood has sped across the seas and 
overflowed the shores of Europe, 
HAIL AND CHRISTMAS GREETINGS! 
We want you to realize that you have been and still are 
very much in our thoughts, and that we have been, and 
are, and are always going to be very proud of you. We 
appreciate at least partially the good work that you have 
done and the credit you have brought upon the Institute 
and the Department, for we know that you have stood 
while absent for those high ideals which characterize 
both. 
We shall welcome you home with open arms, shall lis- 
ten eagerly to the tales you will have to tell, and shall do 
our best to help you to resume your proper place in the 
new social and political organisms which the war will 
have created. 
For what you have done in holding back the enemy, in 
conserving civilization, and in making America honored 
and respected among the nations, we are deeply grateful. 
AGAIN, HAIL AND A MERRY CHRISTMAS! 
101 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
It was in individual correspondence, however, that 
the Chief's patience and kindliness and wisdom 
shone out most clearly. Take the following example, 
written to a mother, reluctant to permit her son to 
take a position for which Sedgwick had recom- 
mended him. 
My dear Mrs. 
Your boy has told me what a surprise, not to say shock, 
it was to you to think of letting him go so far away as 
Panama, and I don't wonder at all that you felt badly 
about it and that you hesitate to let him go. This seems to 
me all the more natural for the reason that he is a good 
boy and I have no doubt a very devoted, helpful and 
faithful son, whom you hate to have out of the house and 
certainly out of the country. 
I shall not try at all to persuade you to let him go, for 
this is a matter which you and he and his father must de- 
cide, and one in which I have no right to interfere. I shall 
merely take the liberty of telling you just how the whole 
thing strikes me and then leave the final decision with 
you. 
I suppose you feel in the first place that Panama is a 
long way off, and so it is, but not nearly as far away as it 
used to be before we had quick steamers and frequent 
communication. Anybody can now leave Boston on Mon- 
day morning and by making connections at New Orleans 
be in Panama by the end of the week, so that after all one 
is separated only by a very few days from that tropical 
region, and of course there are plenty of cables so that 
telegraphic communication is easy. 
And then as to the climate. Under the French Panama 
was very unhealthy, but ever since the Americans have 
occupied the Canal Zone it has become a matter of pride 
102 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
with those in charge to kill out and keep off yellow fever, 
as they have done with absolute success, so that there 
simply isn't any more on the Isthmus. Malaria still exists 
to some extent but far less than in some places right here 
in the United States, while flies and mosquitoes are said 
to be rarer than they are in some places in Massachu- 
setts. I suppose there are some poisonous snakes, but so 
there are in Connecticut and even on Blue Hill right here 
near Boston, where we have an occasional rattler and 
copperhead. 
In short, while the conditions on the Canal Zone were 
once most unsanitary they are now remarkably salubri- 
ous, the death rate being lower than it is in many Ameri- 
can cities and towns. I have sent a good many young men 
to the Isthmus and not one of them has ever had any seri- 
ous trouble. All have come home enthusiastic and pros- 
perous, and, although I cannot safely predict, I fully 
believe that your son, who is a very careful fellow, would 
have the same experience. 
As for the advantages to him and to your family, I 
need only say that I believe that the experience would be 
simply wonderful, and the rewards very considerable. E. 
would widen his horizon, broaden his outlook and become 
a stronger, healthier and better man in every way, more 
fitted to take a high place in the world, and to reflect 
credit upon the Institute and upon his family. All this of 
course I have carefully considered and I simply lay it be- 
fore you as the reason why I have recommended him for 
the job. 
I hate to have him leave us before the end of the term, 
but the opportunity is, I believe, a rare and golden one, 
and if you can possibly see your way clear to let him go, 
I believe that you will never regret it. I shall not urge you 
to do this, for no man is indispensable in this world, and 
103 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
if E. does not go, we shall send somebody else. I must, 
however, ask you to weigh both sides of the question very 
carefully, and to set over against your own personal in- 
convenience and loss of his presence, his own probable 
advantage and indirectly that of yourself and the other 
members of the family. He will be granted, as I under- 
stand it, 61 days leave every year and with full pay, and 
the salary offered seems to me very handsome for one so 
young and so inexperienced, in short, as I have said 
above, a rare and golden opportunity. 
Let me sympathize with you for the sorrow which this 
opportunity for your boy has brought to you as a mother, 
and let me also express the hope that the shock and worry 
which the problem has brought with it for you may do no 
permanent harm. If I can be of any service by talking 
with you either in my office, by telephone, or otherwise, I 
shall be only too happy to help you. 
With kindest regards and many congratulations upon 
possessing a boy so devoted, so faithful, so capable, and 
so loyal to you and to his home, I am, dear Mrs. , 
Respectfully and sincerely yours, 
How carefully he followed the careers of his men 
and considered the advisability and the possibility of 
a change of position is illustrated by the following 
letter, typical of hundreds. 
Seal Harbor, Me., June 30, 1915. 
My dear 
Your well written and evidently carefully considered 
letter of June 25th is before me and I hasten to assure 
you of my strong support and hearty cooperation in an 
attempt to locate you in a more congenial position. I 
think I can easily understand the situation, and I do not 
blame you at all for wishing to get out of it. On the con- 
104 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
trary, I respect your motives and applaud your decision 
not to become merely ossified in a government bureau. 
Such a change as you have in mind often takes a little 
time, and I would therefore advise you to hold on care- 
fully to your present place while awaiting the discovery 
of just the thing you want. At the moment Professor 
Prescott is in Costa Rica and almost everybody is away 
for the summer so that unless something unusually for- 
tunate turns up you will very likely not be able to make 
much progress in the matter before the autumn. All the 
same I shall keep you constantly in mind and find some- 
thing for you if I possibly can. 
Another difficulty in a change such as you propose to 
make is the fact that it usually means some sacrifice of 
salary. You are getting now, I suppose, about two thou- 
sand a year, and two thousand dollar jobs do not grow on 
every bush. You may even have to make some temporary 
sacrifice of income in order to get started in another di- 
rection. You are like a man who is changing at a way 
station from one train to another, a change often accom- 
panied by a loss of time and loss of fares. It would help 
us a lot if we had some idea how much, if any, sacrifice of 
this kind you would be willing to make for a time. 
No group of Sedgwick letters, however small, 
would be typical without at least one example of the 
wholesome rebuke which careless or superficial work 
never failed to receive; for such rebukes, just and 
discriminating and incisive, played no small share in 
the training of Course VII graduates. Here is an ex- 
cellent example, dealing with a preliminary report 
by two recent graduates on a technical problem. 
Thanks for your letter of Nov. 6th, with which, I regret 
to say, I must find a good deal of fault. 
105 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Your first paragraph sounds as if you and Mr. H. had 
simply talked the matter over in a general sort of way 
without even looking up the subject or making any ex- 
periments, especially as you speak of your "report" as 
'4 tentative. ' ' 
Your second paragraph confirms this idea of mere 
cursory talk about the subject, for you say two fabrics, 
etc. "occur to us as of possible use,"-as if you know 
nothing about them but you had happened to think of 
them. 
Your third paragraph confirms the increasingly bad 
impression made by the first and second, for you more 
than hint that Mr. S. will probably find your suggestions 
of no use, and you throw the burden of choice between 
two suggestions, neither of which would appear to have 
been seriously made, upon him! 
This bad impression is made worse by your final sug- 
gestion that if Mr. S. wishes to submit further details to 
you, you would be glad to talk the thing over together 
again some day when you were not busy, although you 
do say that you would be glad to meet and talk with 
him, which is courteous if not (after what has been said) 
likely to seem to him helpful! 
Finally, instead of giving to Mr. S. the bread of some- 
thing solid, you express the hope that he may be able to 
extract something of value from your two mere "sug- 
gestions." 
I really think it would have been difficult for you to 
have written a more feeble, pointless, and almost worth- 
less letter, and I hope that you will try again, so that I 
may see if you really know how to write the kind of re- 
port which a client would like and have a right to expect 
from a pair of budding scientific men. 
If after you have tried again, the result is still bad, I 
106 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
shall be glad to help you, but I think it is better that you 
should work out your own salvation with much salutary 
fear and trembling, 
Cordially yours, 
It was a constant source of wonder to all who knew 
Sedgwick that he could find, not merely the time, but 
even more, the intellectual energy for such personal 
and intimate letters as he wrote. Many of the letters 
that most of us dictate are formal answers to formal 
questions, acceptances or declinations, agreements or 
disagreements, but Sedgwick seemed never to write 
a letter of that kind. He led an extraordinarily busy 
life and he was by no means a man of remarkable 
vitality; yet he always had energy to spare for an in- 
terlocutor or a correspondent. To all workers in the 
field of public health, to all who were interested in 
public health or other social problems, as well as to 
his own students and graduates he was equally ready 
to respond with sound and sympathetic counsel. It 
was not surprising that "Sedgwick's boys" should 
turn to him in every emergency. It was remarkable 
that so many men and women who had heard only a 
few lectures, received two or three letters, enjoyed a 
half hour's conversation should recall his personality 
as one of the influences of their lives. The reason was 
that in all such contacts he felt the responsibility and 
exerted the power of one who was born to be a teacher 
and who all his life had cultivated that power. 
It is peculiarly fitting that a Sedgwick Memorial 
Lectureship should have been established by the De- 
partment of Biology and Public Health of the Insti- 
107 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
tute, with a special fund, given for the purpose of 
commemorating a great teacher in the way he would 
have most valued. The first lecture on this foundation 
was delivered by Edmund B. Wilson, Sedgwick's 
oldest and closest friend among scientific men, on 
December 29, 1922, the anniversary of Sedgwick's 
birth. The subject was "The Physical Basis of Life," 
on which Sedgwick and Wilson had worked together 
fifty years before. A lecture embodying, it is hoped, 
some fresh contribution to scientific advance in Bi- 
ology or Public Health will be delivered every year 
at the Institute, in grateful memory of that marvel- 
ous gift for personal inspiration with which Sedg- 
wick touched and changed the lives of men. 
108 Public Service 
There is a view in which all the love of our neighbor,-the impulses 
toward action, help and beneficence, the desire for removing human 
error, clearing human confusion, and diminishing human misery, the 
noble aspiration to leave the world better and happier than we found 
it,-motives eminently such as are called social,-come in as part of 
the grounds of culture and the main and pre-eminent part. 
Arnold, Culture and Anarchy. 
Sedgwick was par excellence "The Chief" of 
the big family which was always known to its mem- 
bers as "The Department"; but his influence was by 
no means limited to the walls of Technology. It would 
be quite impossible to estimate this influence at its 
actual value, without reference to the vast public 
which he reached through his popular lectures and 
addresses. No man was more readily listened to 
among his peers; his presidential addresses before 
the American Society of Naturalists (On the Mod- 
ern Subjection of Science and Education to Propa- 
ganda, 1902) and the American Public Health Asso- 
ciation (The Reappearance of the Ghost of Malthus, 
1912), the Harvey and Middleton-Goldsmith lectures 
delivered in New York and the address at the Cen- 
tenary of the Medical School of the University of 
Cincinnati (Modern Medicine and the Public 
109 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Health, 1920) were notable examples of addresses 
that brought, even to the expert, the illumination 
of original and constructive thinking. Sedgwick's 
unique gift, however, lay in the power to present 
scientific facts, clearly, and persuasively, and with 
charm, to a lay audience. He felt a keen responsi- 
bility about the performance of this task and was 
unsparing in his readiness to respond to appeals for 
light and leading. He spoke at school and college 
commencements, he spoke before Women's Clubs 
and Chambers of Commerce, he made public ad- 
dresses wherever some special sanitary issue was at 
stake.* 
* A few of the titles of these popular addresses well illustrate the 
scope of this work of popular education, and the felicity with which 
the titles themselves were chosen: Germs as Friends and Foes; Dust, 
Smoke and Gas in Modern Cities; The Massachusetts Metropolitan 
Water Supply; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Inoculation for 
Smallpox; The Living Earth; Importance of the Study of Physiology; 
A Career in Public Health; A Glass of Milk; Hygiene and Sanitation 
of the Modern City; The Practical Conduct of Life; Preventive Medi- 
cine and the Public Health; The World of Life, or Biology and What 
it is about; Drinking Water and Disease; Fermentation; Scientists and 
Technicians in the Public Service; Our Responsibility to the Public 
Schools; Preparation for Public Health Work; The Moral Training of 
College and Institute Life; The Origin and Significance of the Public 
Health Movement; What We May Do to Promote Health and Prevent 
Disease; Problems in the Technical Education of Women; The City as 
an Organism; Municipal Housekeeping; American Manhood as seen 
under the Magnifying Glass of the Army Draft; Manual Training for 
High School Pupils; Organisms which cause Unpleasant Tastes and 
Odors in Water Supplies; Water, Its Relation to Health and Disease; 
Bacteriology and Its Relation to Public Health; Sanitary Aspects of 
the Plague and Famine in India; The Claims of Modern Life upon 
Education; Modern Revelations of the Microscope; Personal Care of 
the Health; Ancient and Modern Theories of Disease. 
110 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Three series of public lectures, delivered by Sedg- 
wick, deserve special mention, a course at the Lowell 
Institute on The Sanitation of Cities in 1905, a 
course on Science in the Service of the Public 
Health, at the University of Illinois in 1909, and a 
course on Public Health, Yesterday, Today and To- 
morrow, at the University of California in 1919. The 
Lowell Institute course was worked out with special 
care and might well have formed the basis for a 
stimulating book. It began with a vivid picture of 
the city as an organism, in which the ground-plans of 
various cities, thrown upon the screen, illustrated 
their resemblance to amoeboid animal growths; dis- 
cussed the anatomy and physiology of the municipal 
organism, its income and outgo, and its internal 
regulative forces. Every principle was exemplified 
by concrete local examples. Ventilation of public 
buildings for instance was illustrated by a discussion 
of the difficulties experienced in ventilating Hunt- 
ington Hall where the Lowell Lectures were deliv- 
ered. The complex social problems of urbaniza- 
tion were not forgotten and were treated with the 
balance and the humanism characteristic of the lec- 
turer. 
Sedgwick's appointment as exchange professor to 
the English Universities of Cambridge and Leeds in 
1920 marks the pinnacle of his career as a teacher. 
This appointment was the outcome of the visit of the 
British Educational Commission to America in De- 
cember, 1918, President Maclaurin, of the Institute, 
suggesting to the Vice-Chancellors of the Universi- 
ties of Cambridge and Leeds that the opportunity for 
111 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
promoting international good fellowship between 
England and America by the creation of a system of 
Exchange Professorships had been too long delayed. 
This suggestion was heartily welcomed by Sir Ar- 
thur Shipley, Vice-Chancellor of the University of 
Cambridge, and Sir Michael Sadler, Vice-Chancellor 
of the University of Leeds. The addresses (On Scien- 
tific and Technological Education in the United 
States), finally delivered at Leeds on May 11 and at 
Cambridge on May 28, outlined with admirable in- 
sight those phases of American higher education 
which are most characteristic and peculiar, such as 
the organization of university life on the basis of 
class loyalty with its resulting mobilization of alumni 
support, the function of the American University 
trustee, and the peculiar position in the educational 
scheme held by the American college president. Sir 
Michael Sadler summed up the influence of Sedg- 
wick's visit as follows: 
There was such vitality in his thought and in his in- 
fluence that he is still a living presence amongst us. He 
was a link between two nations. In a very real sense he 
served as a representative of the United States in Eng- 
land, and in him we knew that we had a far-sighted and 
eloquent spokesman of American thought. . . . He had 
the simplicity of greatness. He taught us to feel the es- 
sential oneness of humanity, be it American or British, 
the unity of science, and the common aims of education 
and of disciplined life. 
At the International Health Conference held in 
Brussels in the summer of 1920, Professor Sedgwick 
represented not merely the Institute but also the 
112 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
United States Public Health Service, the American 
Public Health Association, and Harvard University. 
He was therefore actually an Ambassador of Health, 
as one of the Boston papers happily characterized 
him at the time of his departure for Europe. The 
part he played at this conference has been described 
as follows. 
Representatives of various nations, gorgeously ar- 
rayed in uniform and regalia, had been droning out 
weary speeches, the audience being visibly bored, when 
Sedgwick's turn came. . . . Simply dressed in his aca- 
demic gown, he rose and spoke for ten minutes. He 
praised brave little Belgium and faithful France for sav- 
ing the world, he gave to England the credit of being the 
father of public health administration, and then spoke 
for America. The audience went wild in applause and 
scores of people, including our own ambassador, went 
forward after the meeting to shake his hand. It was the 
climax of the convention. 
Through his writings, Professor Sedgwick's influ- 
ence as a teacher extended far beyond the audiences 
which he reached from the lecture platform. Aside 
from a multitude of important technical papers and 
addresses, he was the author, or joint author, of five 
books which admirably express the more important 
interests of his professional life. General Biology, 
published with E. B. Wilson in 1886, crystallized in 
effective form the viewpoint, derived, through Mar- 
tin, from Huxley, of biology as a broad and funda- 
mental discipline dealing with the underlying phe- 
nomena of protoplasmic action. The Life and Letters 
113 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
of William Barton Rogers (1896), in the prepara- 
tion of which Sedgwick assisted President Rogers' 
widow, was a labor of love which expressed all the 
loyalty of the Technology faculty and alumni to the 
great founder of the Institute. Principles of Sani- 
tary Science and the Public Health (1902) was Sedg- 
wick's most important literary production, a book 
which is still the best existing epitome of the princi- 
ples of sanitary science. The Human Mechanism, 
published with Theodore Hough in 1906, has proved 
an extraordinarily successful textbook for schools 
and colleges; and A Short History of Science, pub- 
lished with H. W. Tyler in 1917, placed in permanent 
form the broad historical sense and the keen love 
of origins which were always among the greatest 
charms of Sedgwick's courses. 
The General Biology when it first appeared re- 
ceived a remarkable reception from the younger gen- 
eration of biologists, and from a few of the older men 
with vision to realize what it meant. Newell Martin 
wrote as follows (October 20,1886): "The book is, as 
I of course knew it would be, first rate both in matter 
and get up, and is sure to be of great use to all of us 
who are trying biologically to serve the Lord. I sup- 
pose it is hopeless to try to convert Verrill and others 
of that kidney, but the younger generation can be 
saved. Bruce was at our table at the Fish Commission 
Laboratory at Woods Hole most of the summer and 
says he was an object of pity mixed with scorn be- 
cause he cut sections of squid embryos instead of 
spending his time in the hunt for a new variety or 
species." 
114 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Although there is today a tendency, the wisdom of 
which the authors feel tempted seriously to question, 
toward a wider separation between botany and zo- 
ology, the General Biology is still used as a text- 
book in many colleges and has played an inestimable 
part in developing the viewpoint of two generations 
of biologists. It is probable that no other single work 
has exerted so large an influence upon the teaching of 
the biological sciences in the United States. 
The Principles of Sanitary Science reached a still 
wider public and its reception was even more grati- 
fying. It was reviewed not only in journals of medi- 
cine, engineering and home economics, in religious 
and educational and literary weeklies, but in the 
daily press, a column or more of space being allotted 
to the book in many such papers from Florida to 
Maine. Curiously enough the London Lancet pub- 
lished the only unfavorable review, a brief and scorn- 
ful dismissal of the work as practically valueless. 
The British Medical Journal on the other hand says, 
this "is a philosophical work which should be read by 
all medical officers of health, as well as by those pre- 
paring for diplomas in public health. It is fullest just 
where the ordinary textbooks are most scanty and is 
therefore more interesting to read and more of a 
'living' book than the latter usually are. There is 
much to be said for lectures as contrasted with the 
chapters of a textbook, when the result shown in this 
book can be quoted on the former side." The Engi- 
neering News pointed out that "there has long been 
needed a clear-cut statement from an authoritative 
source, of the foundation principles of sanitary sci- 
115 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
ence. True, there are numerous manuals and hand- 
books of sanitation but, as a rule, these attempt 
either too much or too little, and in many instances 
they perpetuate the errors of the past. Besides this, 
such books usually deal more with the practice than 
with the theory of sanitation. . . . The volume 
is a comprehensive yet conservative presentation of 
principles, which, if fully grasped and effectively ap- 
plied, would save many millions of dollars, alleviate 
inexpressible pain and misery, extend the span of hu- 
man life and uplift the individual, the municipality 
and the nation. ' ' 
Sedgwick's book, cast upon entirely different lines 
from earlier texts on hygiene, treating sanitary sci- 
ence as a part of biology and exemplifying so fully 
the application of inductive reasoning to the explana- 
tion of epidemics, came as a really new and remark- 
able contribution; the facts were presented in so tell- 
ing a fashion that generations of students have found 
it "as interesting as a novel." It has contributed to 
the vision and the balance of every public health 
worker in the United States and has rendered a 
unique service in interpreting the movement to thou- 
sands of general readers not professionally inter- 
ested in the subject. 
How manifold were Sedgwick's responses to the 
call for public service, outside as well as within the 
field of public health, may be judged from the follow- 
ing partial list of major positions of responsibility 
which he found time to fill: biologist, Massachusetts 
State Board of Health, 1886-1896; curator, Lowell 
Institute, Boston, 1897-1921; chairman, Pauper In- 
116 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
stitutions Trustees, city of Boston, 1897-1899, and 
acting institutions registrar, 1899-1900; vice-presi- 
dent, Boston Society of Municipal Officers, 1899- 
1901; trustee, Simmons College, Boston, 1899-1921; 
chairman of organization meeting, Society of Ameri- 
can Bacteriologists, 1899, and president, 1900; presi- 
dent, Boston Civil Service Reform Association, 1900, 
and Massachusetts Civil Service Reform Association, 
1901; president, American Society of Naturalists, 
1901; president, Board of Directors, Sharon (Massa- 
chusetts) Sanatorium for Consumptives, 1902-1921; 
member, Advisory Board Hygienic Laboratory, 
Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, 1902- 
1921; member, Board of Trustees, Faulkner Hospi- 
tal, Boston, 1903-1921; member, School Committee, 
Brookline, Massachusetts, 1904-1906; vice-president 
and chairman Section K (Physiology and Experi- 
mental Medicine), American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, 1904-1905; president, Yale 
Alumni Association of Boston, 1904; president, New 
England Water Works Association, 1906; chairman, 
Administrative Board of the Harvard-Technology 
School of Public Health, 1913-1921; president, 
American Public Health Association, 1914-1915; as- 
sistant Surgeon-General (reserve) United States 
Public Health Service, 1919-1921; member, Public 
Health Council, State of Massachusetts, 1914-1921; 
member International Health Board, 1919-1921; fel- 
low of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
and of the Royal Sanitary Institute of Great Brit- 
ain ; member of the American Philosophical Society. 
He received the Honorary Degree of Sc.D. from 
117 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Yale in 1909 and of LL.D, from the University of 
Cincinnati in 1920. 
Sedgwick's service in connection with the Pau- 
per Institutions of Boston resulted from reforms 
which were made in 1897. Previous to this time all 
of the penal, children's, pauper and insane institu- 
tions of the city of Boston had been in charge of a 
single commissioner. Instigated by the investigation 
of Alice N. Lincoln, who had found that the condi- 
tions at the almshouse at Long Island, in Boston 
Harbor, were unsatisfactory, the Legislature passed 
an act placing each of the four institutions in charge 
of an unpaid board of trustees. On June 14, 1897, 
Sedgwick was appointed as the senior member of the 
Board of Pauper Institutions Trustees. He was 
elected Chairman and served in that capacity until 
his resignation on December 6, 1899. 
During his service on this board, reforms were 
made in the administration of the Institutions at 
Long Island and Charlestown which provided for 
greater comfort and self-respect of both the officers 
and the inmates. The utilization of prison labor at 
Long Island was discontinued; punishment in the 
"dark cell" was abolished; the inmates were classi- 
fied, and an attempt made to provide suitable em- 
ployment for the different classes; sanitation was 
improved, as well as the quality of the food supplied. 
These reforms came slowly; municipal inertia had to 
be overcome, politics had to be taken into account, 
there were difficulties in securing personnel. It was 
a thankless service, but it was faithfully performed. 
During the first year the board met thirty-seven 
118 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
times, and Sedgwick was not only constant in attend- 
ance at these meetings, but made weekly visits to the 
Island on the institution tug, John Howard, and 
while on a summer holiday in England he sought 
every opportunity to study similar institutions, in 
order to gain an insight into better methods of ad- 
ministration. In connection with the work of the 
Pauper Institutions Board, Sedgwick had a rather 
unique opportunity to preach the gospel of personal 
hygiene and this connection had much to do with 
broadening his conception of the importance of civic 
health. 
Sedgwick's connection with the Faulkner Hospi- 
tal was largely inspired by his intimate friendship 
with the founders, Dr. and Mrs. George Faulkner. 
This hospital was built and endowed for the benefit 
"of the people of the old town of West Roxbury" in 
memory of Dr. Faulkner's daughter, Mary, a long- 
cherished friend of Mr. and Mrs. Sedgwick. Profes- 
sor Sedgwick served as a Trustee from 1903 (when 
the first patients were admitted to the hospital) until 
the time of his death. During the last years of Dr. 
Faidkner's life Sedgwick dined with him practically 
every week and reported to him all items of interest 
concerning the hospital. 
The Sharon Sanatorium was one of the pioneer 
institutions in this country for the treatment of tu- 
berculosis, having been opened in February, 1891, six 
years after Trudeau established his sanatorium at 
Saranac Lake. It was founded by Dr. Vincent Y. 
Bowditch with the cordial encouragement of Tru- 
deau himself. Sedgwick was elected a member of the 
119 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Board of Directors of the Sanatorium in 1902 and 
from that date until his death served as President of 
the Corporation and of the Board of Directors. His 
knowledge of sanitation was of constant service with 
the growth of the institution and the development of 
its physical plant, under stringent limitations of 
financial resources. 
The curatorship of the Lowell Institute was per- 
haps the most important position held by Sedgwick, 
outside of his chair at the Institute, and it was also 
the position which he held for the longest period,- 
from 1897 to his death. Sedgwick's appointment as 
Curator of the Institute was hailed with delight by 
his friends. President Gilman wrote as follows Feb- 
ruary 9, 1897: 
This is capital! The right man for the right service: 
the right service a pleasant service and the right man a 
bright man; and all's well. You will see lots of the best 
people, encounter not a few perplexities, reap thistles 
with your corn, and have the lasting satisfaction that you 
have served the community, the Institute and science, as 
well as you knew how. When your name is spoken of for 
three important posts within a month, you may well be 
confident that you have reached a station in your career 
of distinction and usefulness which many would rejoice 
in who are much your seniors. 
The Lowell Institute lectures have long been an 
established part of Boston's intellectual life;* and to 
many of the lecture-going public of Boston, Sedg- 
* A History of the Lowell Institute, by Harriette Knight Smith, was 
published by Lamson, Wolffe and Company in 1898. 
120 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
wick will be most vividly remembered, standing as a 
watchful but welcoming host at the head of the long 
flight of stairs in the Rogers Building, where he re- 
ceived complaints and criticisms quite as often, and 
quite as graciously, as the thanks of the public. Fur- 
thermore, association with the notable men who have 
lectured on this platform did much to give to Sedg- 
wick his wide outlook on the world and the culture in 
literature and art as well as in science which ripened 
with the years. 
The Lowell Institute was founded by John Lowell, 
Jr. (1799-1836), a Boston merchant, grandson of 
Judge John Lowell of Revolutionary fame, and son 
of Francis Cabot Lowell who, more than any one else 
perhaps, was responsible for the establishment of 
cotton manufacturing in the United States. By his 
will a sum of nearly a quarter of a million dollars 
was established as a fund for perpetually supporting 
courses of lectures of high grade to be given free to 
the public. By the reinvestment of one-tenth of the 
income, the fund has grown with the years and has 
amply fulfilled its original purpose. The will directed 
that none of the money be spent for buildings; it was 
all to be put into brains. It provided that the trustee- 
ship should remain in the Lowell family and that 
preferably the trustee should bear the name of 
Lowell. The first lecture was given in 1839 by Ed- 
ward Everett, who very appropriately made it a 
memoir of the founder, John Lowell, Jr. The first 
course was that of Professor Benjamin Silliman of 
Yale, who gave twenty-four lectures on geology. 
The first trustee of the will was John Amory 
121 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Lowell, a cousin and the closest friend of the founder, 
who served for more than forty years. He was suc- 
ceeded by his son, Augustus Lowell, who served from 
1891 to 1900, and he, in turn, by his son, the present 
trustee, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, President of Har- 
vard University. The first curator was Dr. Jeffries 
Wyman, of Cambridge, a man of broad culture, emi- 
nent as a physician, and a comparative anatomist, 
whose service was terminated by an early death. In 
1842 Dr. Benjamin E. Cotting, who had already been 
associated with the Lowell Institute, became curator. 
His work was performed with faithfulness and rare 
tact and judgment for fifty-eight years, until his 
death at the age of eighty-five. 
Sedgwick, as curator of the Lowell Institute, did 
not select the speakers,-that function has always 
been exercised by the trustee,-but he made ar- 
rangements for their coming, for their sojourn in the 
city, for the advertisement of the lectures, and for 
the distribution of the tickets. He was almost invari- 
ably present at the lectures and took delight in look- 
ing after the comfort of the audience. He believed 
that, besides the personality of the speaker and his 
subject matter, certain conditions were necessary for 
a successful lecture,-a quiet room, a voice which 
could be heard, an audience not dulled by a warm and 
stagnant atmosphere, a prompt beginning and a 
prompt ending. He devoted particular attention to 
the difficult problem of the ventilation of Huntington 
Hall; and it was here that he evolved his conclusion 
that with an audience of 1000 persons temperature 
control can be infallibly checked up by observing 
122 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
coughs on the one hand and the use of fans on the 
other. 
In ministering to the professional and social re- 
quirements of the Lowell lecturers Sedgwick was 
gracious and indefatigable and the impressions of 
America gained by many a distinguished foreign 
visitor must have been colored by his thoughtful pro- 
vision. He gave to these visitors such introduction 
and hospitality as rendered their stay in Boston 
more agreeable, but at the same time he was fully 
aware that they brought him a deeper understanding 
and sympathy with ideals and activities in fields of 
international influence than otherwise he would ever 
have known. To keep some of his lions in a reason- 
ably tame condition was no light task, as one may in- 
fer from the following extract from a letter written 
to Sedgwick by the brilliant but erratic William 
Everett in the winter of 1904. 
Your advice about running over the hour is entirely 
sound. My father gave it to me before my first course in 
1863 and he knew a great deal more about public speaking 
than even Chauncey Depew. But it is very hard to follow. 
I am afraid if there were no better argument for stopping 
at 9 than people's warm beds awaiting them I should not 
be convinced. For the theatre audiences, the public din- 
ers and lots more amusement seekers do not dream of 
seeking their beds for an hour and a half more. 
I wish very much that I could have for lecturing what 
I always use for work-a German student oil lamp. Of 
course it could not stand on the little desk. It would be 
knocked off. But that would hurt nobody else, and would 
give me the light my eyes crave. I have neither gas nor 
electricity at home. 
123 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Sedgwick's files are full of expressions of appre- 
ciation for the hospitality received by these visitors. 
Thus E. B. Titchener writes: 
I wish again to thank you for your great and unvarying 
kindness to me during the past month. You must get 
heartily tired of lectures and lecturers; yet in all ways,- 
in putting me up at the Club, and in arranging things at 
the Hall,-you were as freshly kind as if you had never 
done anything of the sort before. 
D. Holland Rose has more than once written of 
Sedgwick's great kindness during my visit to Boston 
in 1912. I remember in particular that he came down to 
Boston docks and waited in mist and chill a very long 
time, in order to welcome me and see me through the Cus- 
toms. 
Next to the development of public health and the 
direction of the work of the Lowell Institute, the 
promotion of the general cause of education lay near- 
est to Professor Sedgwick's heart. We have spoken 
of his service as a member of the Brookline School 
Board and, in an earlier chapter, of his numerous 
addresses to high school and industrial school and 
normal school groups on such topics as The Impor- 
tance of the Study of Physiology, Our Responsibility 
to the Public Schools, Manual Training for High 
School Pupils, The Claims of Modern Life upon 
Education, and the like. 
Of particular significance was Sedgwick's interest 
in, and contribution toward, the higher education of 
women. He not only placed all the facilities of the 
124 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
laboratories of biology at the disposal of women 
students, but when, in the early days of the depart- 
ment, Miss Dora Williams and Miss L. S. Plummer 
approached him with regard to opportunities for 
teachers he promptly arranged for special courses in 
the late afternoons for their special benefit. Here was 
a practical beginning of "University Extension" 
long before the term itself was coined or the problem 
generally discussed. From that time forward the 
teachers of Boston and the neighboring towns found 
the Institute laboratories a center of inspiration for 
the teaching of physiology and hygiene. 
Sedgwick's interest in the education of women 
also found expression in his connection with Sim- 
mons College. He was a charter member of the Board 
of Trustees (from 1899) and a close friend of Presi- 
dent Lefavour. A tribute published in the Simmons 
College Review (March, 1921) says of him: "in the 
preliminary study of the plans for the work of the 
college his wide experience, his knowledge of the edu- 
cational field and his keen sympathy with the pur- 
poses of the Founder made him an invaluable coun- 
sellor. He took the deepest interest in the institution 
as it developed, was proud of his relation to it, and 
had complete confidence in its future. He liked to call 
it 'The Woman's Tech' and he was always eager to 
serve it in any way." 
Sedgwick's views as to the particular emphasis 
which should be sought in college education for 
women are strikingly prophetic of the trend toward 
preparation for the practical duties of later life, as 
we see it working for example in Vassar's new pro- 
125 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
gram of courses in Euthenics. In one of his addresses 
he says: 
Higher education should make adaptation more com- 
plete by aiming to supply special as well as general adap- 
tation. This is done in men's colleges by encouraging the 
students to shape their studies with reference to a defi- 
nite specialty as law, medicine, business, fine arts, di- 
vinity. It is still more done in schools of science and 
technology, and the present tendency is unquestionably 
in the direction of doing it more and more everywhere. 
Now it seems to me that women's colleges especially need 
to follow along these lines. They should give a sound 
foundation for general intelligence and on this build a 
special superstructure. If special adaptation is to be pro- 
vided for, it should obviously be in the main something 
quite different from that provided for most men. Most 
women, I trust, will intend to marry and become keepers, 
not of museums and galleries, but of homes. For them, 
therefore, special facilities should be provided. History 
and the history of art, sociology, political economy, the 
history at least of music, bacteriology, sanitary science, 
and at least the elements of the theories of disease and 
their prevention, etc., etc. This might be called the "gen- 
eral" course in a woman's college. For those, however, 
who must surely earn their bread, always a large class, 
and for those who are not willing frankly to prepare for 
the noble profession of home-keepers, other things must 
be provided, as also for that class which yearns for medi- 
cine, theology or law. Next to the profession of home- 
keeper is that of teacher, the fittest and most natural 
sphere for unmarried women. The theory and practice of 
education should receive the principal attention in the 
upper years; for is not every mother also a teacher? A 
126 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
teacher by divine appointment and endowed with all the 
authority that the grace of God can confer. 
A singularly clear prevision is seen in an address 
delivered by Sedgwick before the Training School 
for Nurses of the Children's Hospital, June 23,1904, 
in which he argued for the modification of the 
apprentice system of nursing training and the provi- 
sion of fundamental preliminary education in princi- 
ples,-the conclusions which the Rockefeller Com- 
mittee on Nursing Education has enunciated in its 
recent report. 
Professor Sedgwick, like Mrs. Sedgwick, was an 
earnest anti-suffragist and was always ready to tes- 
tify to the faith that was in him with clarity and 
force. This phase of his activity is illuminated by the 
following extract from a letter written after his 
death.* 
It is because Professor Sedgwick called himself anti- 
feminist-because he belonged to anti-suffrage societies, 
and might make addresses on Woman's Sphere,-that it 
so specially behooves feminists to offer grateful acknowl- 
edgment of the tireless kindness with which he be- 
friended women, the justice touched with chivalry that he 
showed them, and the volume of the work by women 
which is due directly or indirectly to his help. 
Never was there a stauncher friend to women in need 
of help, nor a kinder and more sympathizing listener to 
those who wanted advice, nor one less insistent on having 
his advice taken if some little chit of an inexperienced 
girl was after all the person with a right to decide; nor 
have I met anybody fairer in his treatment of women 
* Published in the Boston Transcript, signed "A. B. G." 
127 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
than this man who called himself an opponent of the 
woman-movement. To those who knew him well enough 
to love him, there was something rather tenderly amus- 
ing in watching how his disapprobation of a woman's 
party never interfered with his perception that some par- 
ticular Mary Jones or Jane Smith was not getting a fair 
deal, and that it was worth his taking endless trouble to 
give her one. His habitual justice (tempered, perhaps, 
with a little extra gentleness and kindness) to the women 
working with him or coming to him for help, might tempt 
those who most disagreed with him to say, "Almost thou 
persuadest me to be an anti." 
Education and suffrage were only two out of a long 
list of public questions in which Sedgwick interested 
himself, with an enthusiastic readiness which was 
simply astounding in view of the demands upon his 
leisure. His professional contacts and his broad con- 
ception of the application of biological principles to 
all human problems laid him open to many such de- 
mands and he almost invariably found the time and 
the energy to meet them. He was tireless in corre- 
spondence, ever eager to aid and to encourage all good 
causes. He did not wait until his friends were dead to 
crown their achievements with his discerning praise; 
but he did have a real gift as a necrologist. Tributes 
in the Boston Transcript to General Walker, to Mrs. 
W. B. Rogers, to Charles Harrington, Secretary of 
the State Board of Health, and to Professor L. P. 
Kinnicutt of Worcester, were particularly felicitous. 
He was always ready to speak on the topics which ap- 
pealed to him, while during the sessions of the Legis- 
lature, there was scarcely a month when he did not 
128 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
appear once or twice at committee hearings on Bea- 
con Hill. He was much sought after as an expert in 
legal cases involving sanitary problems and the ef- 
fect which he produced upon a jury or a legislative 
committee was remarkable for the impression of ab- 
solute judicial fairness and for the clearness and 
charm with which he could present a complex scien- 
tific problem to a lay audience. 
Sedgwick was always ready to take a hand in sup- 
port of public health departments or public health 
workers who might be threatened by political inter- 
ference, as indicated by many letters in his files. He 
was naturally keenly interested in the general prob- 
lem of the extension of the merit system in the public 
service, and, as we have noted, was president of both 
the city and the state Civil Service Reform Associa- 
tions. A letter to the Boston Advertiser of March 3, 
1906, was widely quoted and proved a telling argu- 
ment in the struggle for governmental efficiency at 
this time. 
Too Many "Plums."-To the Editor of The Adver- 
tiser.-A new theory in politics has lately attracted my 
attention, namely, what may be called the "plum" or 
"melon" theory. I find, for example, a newspaper head- 
line "Seventy-five Hundred Dollar Health Plum"; 
again, "Cutting the Melon is Put Off to Next Week"; 
and later, "So and So, Sure to Get Sanitary Plum." 
Also, "What the Mayor Says of Plums." A few days ago 
one or more newspapers contained an article headed 
"Plums for Democrats," in which was given a list of 
probable appointments, such as superintendent of 
streets, superintendent of markets, superintendent of 
129 lamps, superintendent of sanitary police, with a careful 
statement of the salaries attached to each office, but with- 
out any statement as to the service expected. 
Now it seems to me that this plum or melon theory of 
politics marks a dangerous innovation. It assumes that 
public office is a private plum; that the public service is a 
kind of orchard or melon patch into which one worms his 
way by stealth or favor, not to work, but only to eat. It is 
not the merit system but a marauder system, and a direct 
descendant of the familiar but discredited doctrine that 
public office is a private snap, and that to the victor be- 
long the spoils. On the plum and melon theory of politics 
the owners of the orchard and the fields are forgotten 
and the trees and vines are neglected except when their 
fruit is ripe. 
But is public office a plum or a melon or is it a sacred 
trust ? Are we not having too much of the plum and melon 
theory in our insurance companies and elsewhere ? Is the 
presidency of the United States merely a gigantic plum, 
a colossal melon? Was it so regarded by Washington or 
Lincoln? And is it any different with a board of health 
or a water commissionership, or a superintendency of 
streets? The unclean headline suggestions of "sanitary 
plums," or "sewer plums," or "street plums," or "lamp 
plums," are at best enough to take away one's appetite, 
and public office regarded as a private plum has too often 
turned out to be only Dead Sea fruit. 
We are hearing nowadays a great deal about municipal 
ownership, but anyone with half an eye in his head can 
see that until we get in the higher appointive offices men 
technically trained, and assured not only of permanency 
of tenure but also of promotion as vacancies occur, it is 
worse than useless even to consider municipal ownership, 
for any such management of public utilities would simply 
A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
130 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
be an extension of the plum or melon system, making the 
public service of our cities more than ever a reproach to 
American government. 
Is it any wonder that a leading railway president, in 
speaking not long ago of the road to success in his profes- 
sion, said ' ' Railroading is not like politics; the competent 
man wins ' ' ? 
Very truly yours, 
W. T. Sedgwick. 
It was inevitable that individual questions of the 
fitness of particular men for particular jobs always, 
in Sedgwick's mind, opened up the wider and more 
universal problem of governmental policy and prin- 
ciple in the abstract. An extract from an address on 
Scientists and Technicians in the Public Service 
(Worcester Evening Post, June 8, 1911) throws 
much light on what is after all the crucial problem 
which must determine the success or the failure of 
Democracy,-the question whether Democracy can 
learn to find, to trust, and fittingly to reward, the ex- 
perts so essential for the conduct of its affairs. 
Only yesterday we were a scattered and a rural people 
with the backwoodsman as a familiar figure in our na- 
tional life, while today we are rapidly becoming urban or 
semiurban, and the sum total of our numbers is upwards 
of a hundred millions. Fifty years ago travel was com- 
paratively difficult and communication between human 
beings slow and uncertain. Moreover the railway, the 
steamship, the telegraph, the telephone, the post-office, 
the magazine and the newspaper have brought about a 
closer contact of mind with mind, a mental approach 
which, coupled with the increasing agglomeration or gre- 
131 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
gariousness already mentioned, amounts to that " shrink- 
age of the world" which has been noted by various 
thoughtful observers. Meantime a new spirit has taken 
possession of mankind, a passion for nature and the laws 
of nature which sways the world today as no spirit save 
only the spirit of a great religion has ever swayed man- 
kind before. 
And these new phenomena, whether we take them 
singly or in combination, have brought in their train new 
problems. The increase in population is making the food 
problem paramount and has raised as if from the dead 
the ghost of Malthusianism. The mental rapprochement 
or approximation of mankind has quickened and stimu- 
lated intellectual curiosity, intellectual hunger and the 
desire for knowledge. The scientific spirit has increased 
the valuation of life and health and made longevity more 
desirable, while all three phenomena cooperating have 
opened up new channels for trade, magnified a thousand- 
fold the opportunities for wealth and power, and made 
order, continuity, and good government essentials of 
modern civilization. They have made the physician and 
the lawyer more important than the priest, and the sci- 
entist and the technician perhaps more important than 
either. 
The rule of law is more important and more respected 
today than ever before, but it is the scientific, the natural 
law, and not the arbitrary law of princes or potentates. 
The rule of reason has replaced the rule of tradition, the 
rule of spirit the rule of the letter. 
The modern impinging of mass on mass, the growth of 
population and the absorption and utilization of avail- 
able space-which, of course, always remains unchanged 
-makes the problems of life and of government increas- 
ingly difficult, and requires a great increase in the num- 
132 PORTRAIT OF SEDGWICK PAINTED BY 
WILLIAM CHURCHILL, 1909 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
ber of public servants and especially (since ours is a sci- 
entific and industrial age) in the number of scientists and 
technicians in the public service. America appears, in 
fact, to be slowly but surely changing over from a de- 
mocracy to a bureaucracy; and it is to this inevitable 
change, and some of its dangers, that I wish this morning 
to invite your attention. If, as I believe, we are in fact 
moving irresistibly towards a bureaucracy, while cling- 
ing to the ideals of a democracy, we shall do well to pause 
and inquire what kind of a bureaucracy we are building 
up about ourselves. For, unlike most bureaucracies, ours 
will be imposed upon us by ourselves and not laid upon 
us against our will by any ruling monarch or despot. 
The growth of government by commissions, whether 
state or interstate, is a good example of what I mean, and 
the well-known restiveness of a portion of our people un- 
der this growth is probably the instinctive repugnance of 
a democratic people to bureaucratic government. And yet 
when any political party which cries out against such 
government by commissions finds itself in power it finds 
itself unable to do without them. Here is the proof, if any 
proof is needed, of the inevitableness of such a form of 
government in a complex modern state, and whether we 
like it or dislike it we seem to be driving on fast towards 
our own kind of bureaucracy. 
Because of my profession I am naturally best in- 
formed on the growth of boards and commissions dealing 
with the public health, nearly all of which in America 
have come into existence within the last half century and 
mostly within my own active lifetime. The state board of 
health of Massachusetts for instance, one of the very 
first in America, was established only 32 years ago. Be- 
fore that time population was much smaller and more 
scattered than today, the pressure of one community 
133 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
upon another was not serious and scientists and techni- 
cians had not learned to detect or to purify polluted food 
or drink. Ashes, garbage and rubbish were easily dis- 
posed of and such matters as housing and food supplies 
went unquestioned. Today all is changed. Chemists like 
our lamented friend and colleague, Professor Kinnicutt, 
are required, and when found, can ill be spared. Engi- 
neers are needed to build water filters and sewage fields 
and garbage incinerators, and microbiologists must pur- 
sue with energy and skill the invisible and elusive agents 
of filth, decomposition and decay. Moreover, all of these, 
-scientists and technicians alike,-must be employed and 
paid by the people, to rule over them as well as to guide 
and to guard them, to constitute a kind of official class, a 
kind of bureaucracy constituted for themselves by the 
people themselves. 
And once this fact is admitted and recognized we reach 
the problems which I propose to put to you and to leave 
with you today, namely, what kind of scientists and tech- 
nicians shall we have in our public service? What powers, 
precisely, shall we delegate to them? What shall be their 
pay and their tenure of office? And last but not least, 
what, on the other hand, shall be their privileges and 
duties? I honestly believe that upon our ability to solve, 
and solve wisely, these fundamental problems of our 
American life will depend in large measure our comfort 
and our success as a people in the 20th century. I shall 
not try to solve them, but certain fundamental facts seem 
to me so clear and so important that we cannot, if we 
would, escape from them or ignore them. 
The first is that the public service today holds out to 
young men of ability, of ambition, and of idealism, rare 
opportunities for helpfulness and usefulness. The next, 
that we and they must never fail to remember that scien- 
134 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
tists and technicians in the public service are servants 
and not rulers of the people. The abuse or waste of power 
is more culpable in public than in private service, because 
it affects an infinitely larger group, and that oppression 
is the most odious which is inflicted by the public servant 
upon those who create and support him, and yet cannot 
readily unmake or escape him. 
If, as it seems certain, we must have a bureaucracy, let 
us be careful to see that this shall be a good one, and to 
this end we must extend our civil service, increase sala- 
ries, and as soon as possible attract to all important posi- 
tions in the government service scientists and technicians 
of the highest order. Otherwise ours will be not superior 
but inferior to the bureaucracies of the old world. 
It was natural that the Great War should call out 
to the fullest extent all Sedgwick's capacity for pub- 
lic service. He was in England when war was de- 
clared and for six weeks thereafter and would gladly 
have gone into active service in Europe had his duty 
to the Institute and his impaired health made it pos- 
sible. His first real opportunity came with the need 
for relief of the typhus epidemic in Serbia. As soon 
as it was announced in the newspapers that General 
Gorgas had been invited by the Rockefeller Founda- 
tion to resign and take charge of the campaign 
against typhus in Serbia, Sedgwick immediately 
wired, offering to aid in any possible way and sug- 
gesting that the American Public Health Association 
might perhaps provide trained doctors, sanitary in- 
spectors, etc., for any prospective campaign. Soon 
he received a telegram stating that Dr. Strong had 
135 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
cabled for doctors, sanitary inspectors and a sanitary 
engineer and asking how many the Institute could 
furnish. Sedgwick promptly replied offhand that he 
thought he could furnish ten. Whipple and Rosenau, 
who had also been approached, united with Sedg- 
wick in jointly recommending a list of names. A 
telegram from the Red Cross asked if Sedgwick 
could supply five more men and he replied that he 
could and would. It ultimately transpired that out of 
twenty-six men who sailed on the Athenia for Serbia 
eleven had taken work at Technology, two at Har- 
vard and five at both institutions, leaving only eight 
from other parts of the country. 
The effectiveness of the personnel thus promptly 
gathered together was acknowledged by Dr. Strong 
as follows: 
AMERICAN RED CROSS SANITARY COMMISSION. 
Nish, Serbia, August 11, 1915. 
My dear Professor Sedgwick: 
I am very grateful to you for all the trouble you took 
in regard to helping to select the men for sanitary work 
in Serbia. It is perhaps needless for me to dwell upon 
how much I appreciate what you did in this respect. I do 
not think a finer group has ever before been gotten to- 
gether. I feel sure that you would be proud of their work 
here. The men seem to be excellently trained and to know 
their duties. Hence, we have been able to accomplish 
much more than if unskilled and untrained sanitarians 
had been sent. 
I am glad to be able to say that the epidemic is now 
over. During the past week there have not been in all the 
hospitals in Serbia more than five cases of typhus a day. 
136 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
I believe the disease is endemic here and that this is not 
more, and probably less than the amount which occurred 
here at this season of the year in former years. However, 
there is still a large amount of general sanitary work to 
be done in the country in relation to disposal of sewage, 
water supply, and particularly in the construction of 
proper latrines, water closets, filter beds, etc. 
Thanking you again for your great assistance and in- 
terest, I am, with kind regards, 
Yours sincerely, 
R. P. Strong. 
Professor Sedgwick was a thoroughly loyal 
American and had a whole-hearted belief in the char- 
acter of the American people and in the future of 
American institutions. He knew and loved Europe, 
however, and he was one of those who rejoiced when 
the United States, at last, and for a too-brief period, 
emerged from its atmosphere of complacent self-sat- 
isfaction to take its part in the affairs of the world. 
In one of his addresses in England in 1920 he ex- 
pressed, in retrospect, his feeling toward the Allied 
powers. 
The black cloud of hideous and devastating war, which 
so recently hung like a pall over civilized Europe, has 
happily slunk back below the eastern horizon. But even 
war brings some benefit in its awful train, and we may 
well felicitate ourselves that this has left the two great 
branches of the English speaking race more closely 
bound together than ever before since our colonial days. 
We of the west gladly and gratefully acknowledge our 
immense indebtedness to you for your quick and indomi- 
table stand, for us and for all civilization, against a pow- 
erful, resourceful, contemptuous and cruel enemy. Most 
137 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
of us regret, deeply and bitterly, that we as a nation were 
so slow to begin to do our part. Many of us were eager to 
join you, the instant the Lusitania was sunk in shameless 
violation of all humane international law. We rejoice that 
Britain was from the very onset alert and eager to do 
battle for the right; and on behalf of the vast and over- 
whelming majority of my fellow citizens I humbly tender 
to you and to your countrymen our sense of everlasting 
thanks and eternal obligation. 
When America at last "came in" in 1917, Sedg- 
wick threw himself with his usual selfless enthusiasm 
into the task which he could best fulfill, the task of 
recruiting and training sanitary workers to serve 
directly with the army and the Red Cross and to fill 
vacated places in the civilian health service. As Pres- 
cott has said in his Technology Review memoir, 
"With a department depleted of a considerable por- 
tion of its staff, Professor Sedgwick organized and 
successfully carried out war courses for the training 
of laboratory technicians, especially young women, 
to meet the demands created by the national emer- 
gency. The value of these courses to the Government 
was immeasurable, and this service cannot be too 
highly praised, especially when it is known at what 
personal sacrifice of time and comfort and at what 
danger to his own health, already impaired by an in- 
curable structural defect, it was performed. Yet with 
full knowledge that the extra exertion might at any 
time prove fatal, he 'carried on' like a true soldier. 
The fervor of his loyalty to the allied cause and to the 
cause of righteousness and justice is shown in that 
wonderfully stirring address to the New England 
138 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Water Works Association From Peace to War, from 
War to Victory, from Victory to Just Judgment."* 
Even at this time Sedgwick saw clearly that the 
problems of the war would not end with the signing 
of peace. When peace actually came and the United 
States withdrew her hand,-the strong nation stand- 
ing aloof in self-satisfied isolation, leaving the 
weaker nations to stagger toward destruction,-no 
one felt more keenly than he the shame and the folly 
of such a policy. In the introductory address of the 
series of lectures delivered at the University of Cali- 
fornia in July, 1919, he says, referring first to the 
pre-war period: 
Endowed with a vast and virgin country producing 
more food than we ourselves needed and having abun- 
dant metals and coal and cotton we were sufficient unto 
ourselves and for the most part unregardful of the other 
nations of the earth. We had, to be sure, our own prob- 
lems : the negro problem, the yellow peril, the labor prob- 
lem, the lynching problem, Mexico, and the Monroe doc- 
trine; but these were mostly national, not international 
in scope. At times we were not only not international,- 
we were not even national in our thinking, but merely 
parochial. 
But with the outbreak of the great war we began to 
perceive that however we might have chosen to regard it 
we were in fact affected and could no longer keep our 
more or less "splendid" isolation; and before long we 
also became embroiled in the war and hence in its fateful 
* Journal of the New England Water Works Association, Vol. 32, 
1918, p. 189. 
139 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
consequences. Henceforward, whether we will or no, 
whether we like it or not, we must have dealings with the 
European nations. Henceforward we are an integral part 
of the world's political family and it has now come home 
to most of us that the world of our forefathers has disap- 
peared, and that ours is a new world. Together with this 
goes that shrinkage of the world already referred to 
which makes the question "Who is my neighbor?" super- 
fluous, for all nations are our neighbors. 
When these facts are at last realized, and only 
when they are realized, by the political leaders of the 
American people can there be hope for the recon- 
struction of civilization. 
140 As a Man Thinketh 
We have cause to care less for a full inventory of the events which 
make up a man's life, or for the striking nature of those events in 
themselves, than for such a judicious selection and setting of them as 
shall best bring out and explain that individuality which is our main 
interest. We care less for what a man does and more for what he is: 
And it is mainly as a key to what he is that we study the circumstances 
which act upon him and the conduct by which he acts upon them. 
George Tyrrell. 
As Duclaux points out, in his remarkable book on 
Pasteur, The History of a Mind, it is easy to describe 
the externals of a career and hard to trace the evolu- 
tion of an intellect. It is even more difficult to picture 
a man as a whole, to reveal personality, which as 
Sedgwick once said "is the quintessence of life, 
the individual's own peculiar flavor-person-ality. 
Shared by no one else, as culture is and as power is. ' ' 
Yet our task would be only half done if we did not 
strive to show something of those fundamental quali- 
ties of the man himself which formed the secret of 
his power. 
The intellectual and moral mainsprings of conduct 
were always full of interest to Sedgwick; and he 
found these motive forces in the study of science. In 
an unpublished and undated address on Science and 
141 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Conduct he sets forth the basis of his philosophy in 
the following passages. 
The fact that power and influence nowadays involve 
responsibility raises the question, What has an age of 
science to say concerning conduct? It has long been ob- 
vious to those who look below the surface that the 
churches are losing much of their ancient hold, and this 
fact causes a reasonable anxiety among many who have 
hitherto regarded the churches as the principal bulwark 
of righteousness. Science, on the other hand, in its adoles- 
cence, while struggling for existence,-often with official 
representatives of the church,-having as yet little power 
felt little responsibility, and hence gave little thought to 
questions of conduct. 
As in politics, so in this case, the administration, the 
party in power, i.e. theology, was held responsible, while 
the opposition, i.e. science, contented itself for the most 
part with hostile and sometimes irreverent criticism. 
This was true, for example, of the Victorian era, and the 
battle of the Bishops with the forces of science led by 
such generals as Huxley and Tyndall, was a kind of 
merry war in which, however, the substantial victories 
rested with the men of science. 
Today the wheel has turned and science is in the sad- 
dle. The former government or administration party is 
now the party of opposition,-and is in danger of becom- 
ing merely that,-while the whole world is looking to 
science for a superior administration of the affairs of 
men. The quondam critics must now show their capacity 
to rule; they must become constructive; they must admin- 
ister the affairs of civilization, at least as honestly, ably 
and successfully as the theological party which they have 
displaced, and, if possible, more successfully. If they do 
not do this, they will surely be deposed. What, then, has 
142 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
an age of science to say concerning conduct? For power 
today, probably more than ever before, involves and car- 
ries with it responsibility. But why "today more than 
ever before"? If this be true, if in this, which is truly a 
scientific age, more than ever before power implies un- 
avoidable duty and responsibility, then it seems that a 
scientific age has already outstripped the ages of theo- 
logical dominion in establishing one of the great corner- 
stones of conduct. For surely in the most pious Middle 
Ages and even in the most holy mediaeval church, power 
was not generally allowed to be handicapped by responsi- 
bility. Privilege, rather than responsibility went with 
power, when kings and popes ruled. And even today in 
the conferring of honorary degrees by our own more 
monastic academic institutions, stress is laid upon the 
rights and powers and privileges, rather than upon the 
responsibility, which they carry with them. 
I have no right to speak for others, but speaking for 
myself and as one scientific man only, I realize that sci- 
ence is soon to be held more or less responsible for con- 
duct. And, still speaking for myself alone, I, for one, 
accept the responsibility. It has been said that the remedy 
for democracy is more democracy. Similarly I am pre- 
pared to say that the remedy for defects of conduct in an 
age of science is more science. For me the way to salva- 
tion through science can only come through more and 
better science. I fully believe that if we had more com- 
plete knowledge, so that the consequences, good or bad, 
of every act could be accurately foreseen and foretold; if 
chance were wholly eliminated and inflexible law stood 
revealed in its place, much of the evil doing of the time,- 
some of which comes from ignorance, some from half 
knowledge, some from error, but probably most from re- 
liance upon luck or chance, with the uncertainty of pen- 
143 alty and the hope of escape from consequences,-would 
never occur. There would, of course, be many who would 
still seize present pleasure though they must pay future 
penalty, just as many borrow money who know it must be 
paid and yet have no hope of paying but by sacrifice or 
total loss of valued possessions. Such there have always 
been, even in the ages of theology. But the wiser heads, 
and the kinder, in view of the certainty of penalty for 
themselves or others would oftener hesitate. 
Now it is the function, and to a great extent it is within 
the power, of science to supply and spread abroad this 
sure and certain knowledge. And in proportion as science 
becomes the rule of life, it will become the key of conduct. 
If perfect love casteth out fear, perfect science casteth 
out chance and uncertainty, and the mere chance and un- 
certainty of penalty underlies, as I have said, much of the 
evil-doing of all ages. 
A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
We do not what we would, 
What we would not, we do, 
And lean upon the thought 
That chance will bring us through. 
We shall have to reckon, of course, in a scientific age, 
as in any age, upon human frailty and foolishness. There 
will still be those too weak, too self-indulgent or too ig- 
norant, to exercise the needful self-restraint, even in full 
view of all the certain penalties. But this will be due not 
to the rule of science but to structural or functional weak- 
ness ; and original sin will then become synonymous with 
original, and possibly aboriginal, weakness. 
There are probably many who, while granting that 
"the truth shall make men free," have fears lest it make 
them too free. But this was not the dread of those who 
long ago inscribed "Veritas" upon the Seals of Harvard 
and of Yale, nor of President Gilman, a descendant of the 
144 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Puritans, and his largely Quaker trustees of Johns Hop- 
kins University, who, less than forty years ago, boldly 
adopted as its motto the entire text 
Veritas vos liberabit. 
And is it not, after all, the truth, the whole truth, with 
all its consequences for us and for others, which shall 
most effectively promote temperance and continence and 
honesty and faithfulness and kindliness and charity? 
Will not the path of duty be more than ever the way of 
glory, when we see not as in a glass dimly, but clearly and 
face to face, all the consequences, alike of rectitude and 
wrongdoing, for ourselves, for the race, and for all man- 
kind? 
Sedgwick was eminently a man of his time,-Vic- 
torian, as we may say today, when the serene spa- 
ciousness, the scientific reasonableness and the warm 
humanitarianism of that period are coming into 
their own once more. He had also, however, in him a 
sound admixture of the Puritan. He was never lulled 
into slackness by faith in ultimate tendencies. He 
knew that progress comes only by ceaseless effort. A 
strain of austerity which seldom found visible ex- 
pression made no slight part of his own everyday 
life. He believed in the strength that comes only 
through self-denial and struggle, or in his own 
phrase "discipline must always precede freedom." 
These latter days of seeking short cuts to success and 
easy berths with large pay moved him to indignation. 
He felt with Stevenson that "the world must return 
some day to the word Duty and be done with the word 
Reward." Rewards honestly won after difficult 
struggle are among the sweetest of all life's experi- 
145 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
ence but there is a nobler incentive which Sedgwick 
loved to express in the quotation 
Joy's self lies in the doing 
And the rapture of pursuing 
Is the prize. 
Of religion as expressed in creeds, Sedgwick had 
none. Brought up strictly in the orthodox Congrega- 
tional Church, he gently and gradually laid aside its 
positive assertions and its formulas; but of reverent 
belief in a Power not ourselves, something beyond, 
that we can neither describe nor fully comprehend, 
he had full measure. He and Mrs. Sedgwick used to 
call themselves "Wishful Agnostics," using that 
word literally as not knowing, but likewise never de- 
nying, because human intelligence is so limited, so 
very finite, that all the cherished and beautiful leg- 
ends of the centuries may be the truth, and our un- 
belief, the hapless untruth. Sedgwick, perhaps found 
in William Watson's Hope of the World, the nearest 
approach to an expression of what he could accept.* 
He greatly admired the mind of Voltaire. Vol- 
taire's fearless and persistent championship of 
Calas and La Barre, guiltless victims of a long per- 
secution and torture by those in high authority, ex- 
* Here where I fail or conquer, here is my concern, 
Here, w'here perhaps alone 
I conquer or I fail. 
Here, o'er the dark Deep blown 
I ask no perfumed gale; 
I ask the unpampering breath 
That fits me to endure 
Chance, and victorious Death, 
Life, and my doom obscure, 
Who know not whence I am sped, nor to what port I sail. 
146 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
cited Sedgwick's enthusiasm and caused him to name 
Voltaire as a "first humanitarian." Likewise he rec- 
ognized the long injustice done the Frenchman by 
the theologians. True his caustic wit was largely to 
blame, but no man is an atheist who could say "Si 
Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait 1'inventer." In the 
same letter with this famous epigram Sedgwick 
found in Voltaire's words as much of a creed as he 
thought needful for himself. "All nature cries aloud 
that He does exist: that there is a supreme intelli- 
gence, an immense power, an admirable order, and 
everything teaches us our own dependence on it." 
Of the modern interest in occultism and psychic 
communion Sedgwick was not merely impatient; he 
was angered, because it seemed to him so dangerous 
to sanity and a breaking of Natural Law, which was 
the sacredest thing he knew. 
Sedgwick's religion was the religion of service and 
its outlines are suggested in the opening paragraphs 
of an address delivered at Appleton Chapel, Har- 
vard University, September 25, 1916, just after the 
Institute of Technology moved into its new home at 
Cambridge. 
Side by side with this ancient and famous University, 
there opens today in Cambridge a great school of science 
and engineering, hitherto housed in Boston. And when a 
friendly invitation came, as from an elder sister to a 
younger, to join in the opening Chapel Exercises of the 
new Academic year, together with the announcement that 
students of the Institute would always be welcome within 
these walls, the invitation was gladly received and ac- 
cepted. 
147 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is chiefly a 
professional school, much like a school of medicine or a 
school of law, and like most such schools it has never had 
chapel exercises, either compulsory or voluntary. Some 
years ago President Eliot commenting on this feature of 
scientific schools remarked: "Whether it is because the 
students do not need these exercises, or whether they are 
beyond hope, I have never been able to discover. ' ' Today, 
without accepting President Eliot's second alternative, I 
think we may reject the first. Is not the crying need of 
the time, more religion in our professional schools'? Have 
we not erred in keeping religion for only academic life ' 
Is it not perhaps in our professional schools, with thc'ir 
emphasis upon vocations and specialties, upon ambition 
and excellence and achievement and success, that men 
most need to be reminded of problems of duty and des- 
tiny? of life and death? Are not those lines of the Hippo- 
cratic Oath, touching the conduct of life for a physician, 
"With purity and with holiness will I pass my life and 
practice my art," such as ought to be inculcated for every 
profession? For after all the conduct of life-a term fa- 
miliarized by Emerson, and weighted by Matthew Arnold 
in his pronouncement that "conduct is three fourths of 
life," is more important than professional success. 
And, finally, do our schools of law, of medicine and of 
technology emphasize sufficiently altruism, the very basis 
of the best kind of human society and the taproot of 
Christianity? I fear that they do not. Absorbed in the 
development of a legitimate ambition, of professional ex- 
cellence and individual power, they rarely dwell upon 
brotherly love, upon the succor of the poor, the weak, and 
the unfortunate. And yet it is these virtues-self-sacri- 
fice and duty in relation to destiny-which have given 
Christendom its superiority to the more ancient civiliza- 
148 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
tions. Much to be sure depends on what we mean by re- 
ligion. But if we may accept the definition of a recent 
authority that the principal problems of religion are 
those of duty in relation to human destiny, then there can 
be no question of its fundamental importance to man- 
kind. ... No system is perfect and the weak point in 
professional education is its want of the altruistic ele- 
ment. This, and those high ideals touching duty and des- 
tiny, chapel services like these should supply. For here, 
at least, students may come into closer contact with those 
ideals of self-sacrifice, of the brotherhood of man, and of 
altruism which are the hope of the world. The Kingdom 
of God is within us,-not outside of us in machinery, or 
literature, or pictures, or music, or the drama, or even in 
the wonders of nature. "If thy heart be right," says 
Thomas A Kempis, '1 then shall every creature be to thee 
a mirror of life and a book of holy doctrine. ' ' 
In Sedgwick's own personal life the motive of 
service was absolute and instinctive. "We know bet- 
ter than we do" was one of his oft-repeated apho- 
risms. After a long and intimate talk with a student 
about his character and future career he ended with 
the words, "I think you can be a very useful man." 
Not a rich man, not a successful man, not an influen- 
tial man; a useful man. In his own affairs it is doubt- 
ful if it ever occurred to him to say, "Do I want to do 
this?" or "Is it to my interest to do this?" Just 
'1 Ought this to be done ? ' ' and ' ' Can I do it ? " He sel- 
dom spoke about service in conversation; he merely 
made the fundamental tacit assumption that every 
one, like himself, was obviously in the world for just 
one purpose,-to help the world along. He once said, 
149 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
"The most comforting feature of our American life 
today is its altruism, Christianity at its best." His 
own altruism was never vague or sentimental. He 
knew "that charity begins at home, and that the best 
basis for sound society is able, honest and efficient 
units"; and he realized that service must be chiefly 
expressed by the practice of the homely and ordinary 
virtues of daily life. A catalogue of such virtues, 
from an address delivered before the Cambridge 
Trade Association in 1900, might have appeared a 
century earlier in Poor Richard's Almanac. 
A good general education and what is that? Alert- 
ness and readiness; Persistence; Courage; Punctuality; 
Honesty; Truthfulness; Discrimination; Obedience; 
Thoughtfulness; Foresight; Prudence; Good Fellow- 
ship ; Consideration for others; Kindliness; Good 
Health; Good Speech; Good Writing; Good Observation; 
Good Reasoning Power; Thrift. 
When duty led Sedgwick to some course of action 
which was difficult or unpleasant he followed it with 
courage that was as absolute and instinctive as the 
spirit of service itself. He had no Celtic love of a 
fight; but when the cause of the truth made it neces- 
sary to take a stand he took it, without the slightest 
question as to the strength of the forces to be chal- 
lenged. 
The two compelling motives of Sedgwick's nature 
were indeed Truth and Service; but having said this 
we have gone but a short step toward a record of his 
personality. These are phrases which might apply to 
a thousand men or to no man at all but a cold abstrac- 
150 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
tion. And Sedgwick was intensely individual and in- 
tensely human. The following incomplete notes for 
some address, found among his papers, give per- 
haps a suggestion of the virility of his own person- 
ality. 
What constitutes a fine personality? Character, no 
doubt, but more. The essence is individuality: something 
that makes one different from the common herd. Matthew 
Arnold "For most men in a prison live," etc. But not 
merely individuality. To this must be added the power of 
sympathy, and of strength, rectitude, sureness, courage. 
A marked personality 
A strong personality 
A fine personality 
A charming personality 
(Farragut's words about defeat) 
These are all desirable. How shall any of them be se- 
cured? Not by direct seeking, rather by a determination 
to be one's self. To see clear and to think straight. If 
you have learned to lean too much on others strike out for 
yourselves. Experiment. Learn by trying and doing. 
(Sureness, Beethoven, Wagner) 
(No fumbling) 
It is perhaps even more important to know what a 
man loves than what he believes; and the lesser 
things are often more significant than the greater. 
Sedgwick loved truth and service: but he also loved 
books and nature, travel and the daily flow of events, 
and above all he cared for people. 
In the field of letters, novels did not appeal greatly 
to him; and at the other extreme he found formal 
philosophy vague and inconclusive. He lived in a 
151 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
world of reality, remote alike from fiction and from 
the absolute. A chief mutual pleasure of Mr. and 
Mrs. Sedgwick was the reading aloud of some biog- 
raphy-to both of them the highest treat in litera- 
ture. He was a great lover of poetry, but preferred it 
musical. Of Keats and Arnold he never wearied. 
Arnold's classic forms and his resignation of old tra- 
ditional beliefs, tingeing life with sadness but teach- 
ing man to bear his uncertain destiny with fortitude 
and cheer, made him, in Sedgwick's view, the poet 
of the scientific man. Shakespeare of course was very 
dear to him. He loved the Autocrat; Stevenson's 
Travels with a Donkey was often a pocket companion 
in summer, when he allowed himself respite from 
serious books, while a small copy of Marcus Aurelius 
was a valiant and beloved strengthener. In hours of 
fatigue he would lie and laugh with Leacock or Mark 
Twain. 
The form of exercise which most delighted Sedg- 
wick was walking. He would watch with keen eyes 
for every unfamiliar plant, every strange and signifi- 
cant natural form. In his walks, the great Bible of 
Nature unfolded to him thoughts and possibilities be- 
yond his dreams. He loved intensely to watch the 
changeful face of the sea, whether stormy and wind- 
blown, misty with grey fogs, or dimpling with the 
sunshine. "Laughing waves," was a favorite expres- 
sion. He loved the pageantry of clouds above the 
hills, and the fathomless skies of night, and he often 
said he thought the astronomer had chosen the no- 
blest of all human studies. 
The summers which Mr. and Mrs. Sedgwick spent 
152 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
at Mt. Desert were deeply loved. At Mt. Desert he did 
much of his best thinking; but there too he knew how 
to do nothing, happily and luxuriously. No bit of 
earth was half so dear to him as the two stony acres 
that he owned upon the island. ("Yonder little nook 
of earth, Beyond all other smiles at me," Horace.) 
Here, at night, he would often go out alone upon the 
ledge to gaze into the illimitable depths of heaven 
above him; or, if accompanied, would quote with 
deep feeling: 
How sweet the moonlight sits upon this bank! 
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music 
Creep in our ears: soft stillness, and the night 
Become the touches of sweet harmony. 
Sit, Jessica; look how the floor of Heaven 
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. 
Sedgwick loved travel. He made many visits to 
Europe and lie and Mrs. Sedgwick wandered widely 
and in unusual bypaths. His curiosity as to the his- 
tory and resources of the places which he visited, 
and as to the customs of the people, was eager and 
insatiable. 
No man could have been more completely on holi- 
day than he was when in Europe. Care and responsi- 
bility dropped from him like a loose mantle before 
the ship left the American port. What he had to 
leave unfinished never worried him-just as at home 
when things turned out unluckily or failure came in 
some thing he had hoped to make a success. Regret, 
there might be, but never brooding or anxiety over 
spilt milk. He had done what he could, the best he 
knew at the time, and remorse was both futile and a 
153 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
waste. This trait made him a delightful companion in 
travel, responsive to all the interests and the hobbies 
of his fellow travelers (for he and Mrs. Sedgwick 
often had with them one or two friends) and he 
caught from his companions their greater knowl- 
edge, it might be of architecture, or painting, with 
the most winning sympathy and quick understand- 
ing. But always his eyes were open as well for any 
new interpretation he might capture for his own sub- 
jects. He was a wonderful courier for those who trav- 
eled with him, never irritated by the small mishaps 
that seem needless and yet are so all-important at the 
time. Only once, as Mrs. Sedgwick recalls, was he 
ever nervously eager to get away from a European 
town and that was in Constantinople. They were 
there just a year after the so-called Committee of 
Union and Progress had deposed Abdul Hamid and 
used five days to the limit of strength and of day- 
light, but nothing would persuade him to prolong the 
stay. It was several years before he would even tell 
why-and then it appeared, he had seen things on 
the streets near the hotel that made him feel as if 
they were walking on the edge of a smoking volcano. 
Of all the buildings that Sedgwick ever saw he 
cared most for the Cathedral of Rheims, and it be- 
came a joke between Mrs. Sedgwick and himself 
when in France that he always contrived to find a 
better railway connection for somewhere, anywhere, 
from Rheims than from any other point. The brutal 
mutilation of this cathedral in the Great War was a 
positive physical pain to him, and when he went back 
to see its beautiful ghost in the autumn of 1920 his 
154 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
suffering and his happy surprise that the destruction 
was not more complete were conflictingly mingled. 
He lingered long over every detail, hoping no resto- 
ration would ever be attempted, but the martyrdom 
of the cathedral be preserved as a token for the ages 
to come of how "efficiency" can develop into "fright- 
fulness." Of all continental countries Greece prob- 
ably made the strongest appeal. There he was enrap- 
tured by its austere beauty; there he sought and 
found the secret of those earliest pioneers in scien- 
tific thought. In England he was glad to feel at home, 
akin to the common heritage of all our Anglo-Saxon 
world. 
Mrs. Sedgwick says of his last visit: 
Probably no honor that ever came to him gave him 
greater pleasure than the English appointment in 1920. 
Our sailing was a little delayed so that the time at Leeds 
was unfortunately curtailed. The welcome there was of 
the heartiest. So much forethought had been given to the 
short session by the Vice-Chancellor that we felt our- 
selves genuine colleagues from the first hour. 
Leeds is, of course, more like the American Univer- 
sities than are Cambridge and Oxford; but the mingling 
of older systems with modern needs was of the keenest 
interest to us. The friendliness and delightfully informal 
social life of those with whom we were associated left a 
memory fragrant with high scholarship and the purest 
human ideals. 
It is good to live over again the six weeks we spent in 
Cambridge where friends of previous years and the new 
friends we made at once, combined to make the experi- 
ence very rich and stimulating. Probably as often as 
three times in each week he would be asked to dine in 
155 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Hall at one or other of the Colleges, where he delighted 
in the good talk he heard and carefully garnered all the 
impressions, more or less unconsciously handed on to 
him, of their ancient tradition. In both places his already 
strong admiration for Englishmen was warmed into per- 
sonal affection and a deep sense of gratitude grew up in 
him that in a small way he could claim kinship with this 
older society. He found hearty appreciation of the work 
America was doing in science and in Public Health and 
he ardently looked forward to welcoming some of the 
English scholars in these lines of research, to Tech- 
nology. 
Then he loved to stroll through the Courts and along 
the Backs, musing of the elder age when the world was 
not so confused by the aftermath of a Great War. The 
gracious beauty of those sweeping lawns overhung in 
May by a wealth of golden laburnum seemed to make the 
sun to be ever shining even when the skies were grey. 
It was a great privilege to be in Cambridge for two 
Congregations when honorary degrees were given to 
some of England's most distinguished men. Mr. Sedg- 
wick dined before each occasion with the Vice-Chancel- 
lor's party. The scene of the reception on the previous 
evening in the Great Hall of Emmanuel is an unforget- 
able memory. 
One of his most cherished plans was to use the leisure 
which he ardently anticipated upon his retirement from 
Technology, to write certain un-technical, non-profes- 
sional essays. During many years I have heard him say 
wistfully that he wanted to write one or two lay-sermons 
-having in mind the effect such lay-sermons of Huxley 
had made upon him in younger days. Of these the first 
was to be on the theme "The Kingdom of God is Within 
You." Another of these projected "lay-sermons" was to 
156 be the philosophic "precipitate" of what he conceived to 
be the good, and the less good, result upon the minds of 
young men of the three so different forms of higher edu- 
cation in England, France, and America. The summer of 
1920, spent chiefly in England but with a month in 
France, gave him the material he would have used. As a 
lecturer at Leeds and at Cambridge he had long talks on 
this subject, with some of the best minds in both places. 
The methods are quite different in these two English uni- 
versities and so, of course, are their traditions, their 
ideals and their results. Although he lived too brief a 
time after his return to America to make the use he 
hoped of this rich experience, I think all his associates 
perceived a deeper intellectual consciousness of the debt 
England and America owe to each other, and also how 
profoundly he hoped to promote still further their in- 
alienable cooperation toward the ultimate goal of a 
higher civilization. 
Five precious days spent at the Chateau Lafayette in 
Auvergne were peculiarly rich for the Chief. During 
each one he had long talks in his "English garden" with 
M. Charles Le Verrier, grandson of the great astrono- 
mer, and himself the head of the College Chaptai in 
Paris. M. Le Verrier was spending his holiday in this 
historic chateau where we were assigned the bed room 
and sitting room of the great General himself. The com- 
plete system of French education is so complex that the 
Chief was puzzled and intrigued by it; he persuaded 
M. Le Verrier not only to talk of it, but to plot it on paper 
in such a way as to form easy reference notes for use 
when the coveted leisure to write about it should arrive. 
Beauty in nature or in art made not only a quick 
appeal to the Chief, but he felt sure that it had its 
WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
157 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
very serious part to play in all true education. Con- 
stantly he would urge students to visit the Museum 
of Fine Arts, or give them tickets to private exhibi- 
tions, or even tell them of a certain florist-decorator's 
shop in Boston whose director was a true artist in 
color and combinations; he would actually send them 
there as a part of their duty, to catch the subtle lesson 
in beauty it offered the mere passer-by. 
At home, and in the ordinary course of life, Sedg- 
wick had the same eager interest in the daily flow of 
events which he displayed in strange lands, and be- 
fore masterpieces of art or of nature. He never took 
up a daily newspaper without finding something that 
awakened his keen response. Above all things, how- 
ever, Sedgwick cared for people. He loved not merely 
mankind, but he loved his fellow men, which is a 
rarer and a more precious gift. He established human 
relations with an extraordinary facility and this was 
because he really cared. He was interested, keenly 
and vitally interested, in the lives and the problems 
of every human being with whom he came into the 
lightest contact. In a smoking car, on a steamer, on 
the porch of a hotel, he effected a real touch with per- 
sonalities. Ships never passed in the night without a 
hail from him. 
Sedgwick's relations with his village neighbors at 
Mt. Desert were altogether characteristic. A chat 
along the way-or a serious talk about some matter 
of importance-cleared up for many of them cob- 
webs of indecision and lightened laborious routine. 
As one of them wrote to Mrs. Sedgwick afterward: 
i'What appealed most to me in my relations with Mr. 
158 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Sedgwick was he knew how to talk with the ordinary 
common laborer in a way that made them forget the 
difference in education or social standing. He also 
seemed to enjoy it." 
The keynote of Sedgwick's relations to the country 
people was struck when the building of the new 
house was nearly completed and he and Mrs. Sedg- 
wick were leaving in the autumn. Every workman by 
this time knew them well and the contractor and 
foreman were induced to devise a long temporary 
table in the veranda dining room where a dinner was 
served to more than twenty of the men. When all 
were seated, a silence that threatened to be awkward 
fell over the little company, but presently the me- 
dium of the host's humor and humanity broke the 
spell and then there followed plenty of talk and 
laughter till the signal for "smokes" and return to 
work was sounded. When the next spring came 
around Mr. and Mrs. Sedgwick were met by the most 
touching response in the form of a tall pair of and- 
irons chosen by the contractor but subscribed to by 
all these men, who had written their names and 
blessed the new abode of content. 
One of the most revealing glimpses of Sedgwick's 
personality has been given by a young man who saw 
him only once,-on the last Christmas Day of his life 
and exactly one month before the end. He and the 
Sedgwicks were guests at the home of a friend on 
that Christmas and the stranger, when he left the 
company toward evening, wrote in his diary a de- 
scription of the Sedgwicks which months later he 
159 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
showed to their host and was with difficulty per- 
suaded to print in the Technology Review * 
He stood in the center of the trays and packages which 
filled the room. There was high joy in his eyes, as if 
happy feelings were making carnival time of every mo- 
ment of the day. He came smiling to me, expressing that 
fine spirit which graced the day. I knew he was a genius 
in creating an area of friendliness about him.-The ad- 
venture of the day was on. I had never talked with Pro- 
fessor Sedgwick, nor had met him, yet in a few minutes he 
had his easy chair by mine, and we were talking of Ar- 
kansas. He knew and liked that State. One of his old boys 
was down there helping to put over a great sanitary en- 
gineering project. He himself had worked with the 
Rockefeller Commission on the problem of malaria, and 
had suggested efforts toward control in that district. He 
knew well the inner ways to confidence, and how finely he 
won the heart to understanding. Listening as graciously 
as he talked, he subtly made me feel I was really proving 
good company for him. That was a real mark of his sym- 
pathy and his goodness. Others have told me that this 
was always their feeling when he passed their way. 
Professor Sedgwick imparted an interest and grace of 
personality to all the talk of the day. The life of Tech- 
nology was always near him, and he was particularly 
concerned in the teaching and the students there. "Do 
you intend to teach?" was the question which opened the 
way for him to say the things that will be always remem- 
bered as expressing his belief in his life's work and the 
privilege of his service. He told of his Yale days, the 
earlier indecisions of post-graduate work and teaching 
experiences. His thoughts went back to his years of 
* C. W. Pipkin. Technology Review, January, 1922. 
160 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
teaching, when he said, "They have been mighty happy 
ones. I don't believe they could have been happier in 
work and in friends." An article in Harper's was men- 
tioned, The Luxury of Being a Professor. The phrase 
pleased him, for he felt no other phrase could fit so fully 
his own experience.... He told me of the pleasure of 
working on projects with his old students, how this made 
his interests a world-wide thing. ' ' One of the old boys is 
directing work in a French village; one will soon leave 
for important things in Europe; one is down in Little 
Rock; and another is out in Salt Lake. Isn't that a fine 
thing? I love to teach and I love to know people. I 
wouldn't have done anything else, for it has given me the 
happiest things in life. Think a long time before you 
change. ' ' 
Professor Sedgwick, as I saw him, was one of those 
whose lives reveal the mystic sense of fullness which goes 
out of their soul. They feel so much of the comradeship 
of life that those they meet are not strangers, but are 
congenial companions along the open road. And those 
they meet have an exhilarating impulse toward more 
wholesome living. These comrades of life, for in the ro- 
bust fellowship of their association we know them as 
comrades, make the personal contribution the supreme 
thing. The genius of good will and hearty faith makes 
them artists in living. 
This was the supreme gift, the art of comradeship 
and of high living, which Sedgwick could impart in 
the contact of a single afternoon. As one of his stu- 
dents has said, "One thinks always of Rugby 
Chapel as the ultimate tribute to a great teacher. 
About Sedgwick, however, there was something so 
much closer and more intimate that the quotation 
161 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
dies on one's lips. The master of Rugby was far off 
on the snowy heights. Sedgwick was in the midst of 
the rush of life and he held us by the hand. Arnold 
thought of his father as a teacher. We who were 
Sedgwick's 'boys' will remember our chief as a sec- 
ond father. ' ' 
162 Appendix A 
A List of Publications by William T. Sedgwick, 
ScD., LL.D. 
A Catalogue of Plants Growing within Thirty Miles of New 
Haven. 
1879 Note on "Potassium Permanganate and the Strychnine Test." 
Am. Chem. Jour., I, p. 369, 1879. 
1879 Note on "The Relations of Eupatorium and Strychnine," based 
on work done at Sheffield Scientific School, 1878. Johns Hop- 
kins Univ. Circ., November, 1879; Am. Chem. Jour., I, p. 370, 
1879. 
1880 The Influence of Quinine upon the Reflex Excitability of the 
Spinal Cord. Jour, of Physiol., London, III, p. 22, 1880-1881; 
Johns Hopkins Univ., Stud. Biol. Lab., II, p. 28, 1881-1882. 
1881 (With H. N. Martin) A Study of Blood Pressure in the Coro- 
nary Arteries of the Mammalian Heart. Trans. Med. Chir. 
Faculty Md., LXXXIII, p. 206, 1881. Stud. Biol. Lab., Vol. 
II. 
1881 (With H. N. Martin) Observations on the Mean Pressure and 
the Character of the Pulse Wave in the Coronary Arteries of 
the Heart. Johns Hopkins Univ. Stud. Biol. Lab., II; Univ. 
Circ., II, No. 20; Jour, of Physiol., London, III, p. 165, 1881- 
1882. 
1881 On Variations of Reflex Excitability in the Frog Induced by 
Changes of Temperature. Stud. Biol. Lab., II, p. 385, 1881- 
1882; Johns Hopkins Univ. Circ., Vol. II, No. 20; Jour. 
Phys., Vol. Ill, No. 3. 
1882 On Fermentation. Third Lecture in Course by Instructors in 
Biological Department of the Johns Hopkins University for 
Employees of the B. & O. R. R. Published for free distribu- 
tion, February, 1882, I. Friedenwald, pp. 98. 
163 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
1883 On Improved Methods of Varying the Thermal Background of 
Reflex Perception. Johns Hopkins Univ. Circ., Vol. II, p. 98, 
1883. 
1883 On Latent or Resting Periods of Vegetation. Johns Hopkins 
Univ. Circ., Vol. II, p. 49, 1883. 
1883 Symbiosis and "Vegetating Animals." Pop. Sci. Monthly, 
XXIII, p. 811, October, 1883. 
1883 (With J. R. Duggan) Pleomorphism in Penicillium, A Pre- 
liminary Communication. Johns Hopkins Univ. Circ., II, p. 
50, 1883. 
1883 The Effect of Quinine upon Blood Vessels and Reflex Action. 
Maryland Med. Jour., X, p. 37, 1883-1884. 
1884 Bacteria and the Germ Theory of Disease. (Review) Science, 
III, p. 133, February 1, 1884. 
1885 (With W. R. Nichols) Report on Illuminating Gas. Mass. State 
Document, Senate No. 60, February, 1885, p. 6. 
1885 (With W. R. Nichols) A Study of the Relative Poisonous Ef- 
fects of Coal and Water Gas. Sixth Ann. Rept. Mass. State 
Board of Health Supp., p. 275, 1885. 
1886 (With E. B. Wilson) An Introduction to General Biology, p. 
193, H. Holt & Company, New York. 
1886 Relative Poisonous Properties of Coal and Water Gas. Proc. 
Soc. Arts, M. I. T., XXIV, p. 13, 1885-1886. 
1886 An Alcoholic Drip for the Thoma-Jung Microtome. Am. Natu- 
ralist, XX, p. 488, May, 1886. 
1887 Persistent Mullerian Ducts in Male Pickerel Frogs. Tech. Quar., 
I, p. 72, September, 1887. 
1887 (With S. R. Bartlett) A Biological Examination of the Water 
Supply of Newton, Mass. Tech. Quar., I, p. 272, February, 
1888. 
1887 (With G. R. Tucker) A New Method for the Biological Exami- 
nation of Air. Proc. Soc. Arts, M. I. T., 1887-1888, 51. 
1888 A New Aerobioscope. Science, XI, p. 197, 1888. 
1888 Biological Examination of Water. Tech. Quar., II, p. 67, Octo- 
ber, 1888; Jour. N. E. Water Works Assn., II, p. 7, June, 
1888. 
1889 Biological Water Analysis. Proc. Soc. Arts, 1888-1889, 13. 
1890 Utilization of Surface Water for Drinking Purposes. Jour. 
N. E. Water Works Association, V, p. 39, September, 1890. 
164 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
1890 The Data of Filtration: I. Some Recent Experiments on the 
Removal of Bacteria from Drinking Water by Continuous 
Filtration Through Sand. Tech. Quar., Ill, p. 69, February, 
1890. II. On Crenothrix Kuhniana (Rabenhorst) Zopf. Tech. 
Quar., Ill, p. 338, November, 1890. 
1890 A Report of the Biological Work of the Lawrence Experiment 
Station. Experimental Investigation by the State Board of 
Health of Massachusetts upon Sewage, etc., Part II, p. 795, 
1890. 
1891 Milk Supply and the Public Health. Tech. Quar., IV, p. 365, 
December, 1891. 
1891 Sanitary Condition of the Water Supply of Lowell, Mass. 
Lowell, April, 1891. 
1892 The Purification of Drinking Water by Sand Filtration. Jour. 
N. E. Water Works Assn., VII, p. 103. 
1892 Modern Scientific Views of the Cause and Prevention of Asiatic 
Cholera. Tech. Quar., V, p. 205, October, 1892. 
1892 Investigation of Recent Epidemics of Typhoid Fever in Massa- 
chusetts (Lowell, Lawrence, etc.). 24th Annual Report Mass. 
State Board of Health, 1892. 
1892 (With J. L. Batchelder, Jr.) A Bacteriological Examination of 
the Boston Milk Supply. Boston Med. Surg. Jour., CXXVI, 
p. 28, January, 1892. 
1892 (With Allen Hazen) Typhoid Fever in Chicago. Eng. News, 
April 21, 1892. 
1893 Reflex Action; Biology; Differentiations; Fermentations; Arti- 
cles in A Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, Wil- 
liam Wood & Co., New York. 
1893 Educational Value of the Methods of Science. Educational Re- 
view, V, 243. 
1893 An Investigation of an Epidemic of Typhoid Fever in Somer- 
ville due to Infected Milk. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 
CXXIX, p. 489, 1893. 
1893 Aetiology, Epidemiology. Articles in Supp., A Reference 
Handbook of the Medical Sciences, William Wood & Co., New 
York. 
Also occasional editorial notices upon biological, bacteriological,, 
and sanitary subjects, in the Boston Med. and Surg. Jour. 
1893 Quarantine vs. Sanitation. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 
CXXIX, p. 193, August 24, 1893. 
165 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
1893 On Methods Used and Results Obtained in Making Germicidal- 
Efficiency Tests of a Disinfectant for Use in Railway Sanita- 
tion. Tech. Quar., VI, p. 143, July, 1893. 
1894 The American College as a Moral Force. Tech. Quar., VIII, 
p. 213, October, 1895. Proc. Am. Inst, of Instruction, 1894. 
1894 (With S. C. Prescott) On the Bacterial Contents of Certain 
Ground Waters, including Deep Wells. 26th Annual Rept., 
State Board of Health of Mass., Pub. Doc. 34, p. 433. 
1894 On an Epidemic of Typhoid Fever in Marlborough, Mass., Ap- 
parently due to Infected Skimmed Milk. Ibid., p. 765. 
1895 Purification of Sewage Polluted Waters by Sand Filtration, 
Natl. Bd. Health Mag., IX, p. 184, 1895. 
1895 (With S. C. Prescott) On the Influence of Variations in the 
Composition of Nutrient Gelatin upon the Development of 
Water Bacteria. Am. Public Health Assn., XX, 450. 
1896 The Sanitary Condition, Past and Present, of the Water Supply 
of Burlington, Vt. Jour. N. E. Water Works Assn., X, p. 167, 
November, 1896. 
1896 The Claims of Modern Life on Education. Proc. Am. Inst, of 
Instruction. 
1896 Notable Sanitary Experiments in Massachusetts. The Forum, 
XX, p. 747, February, 1896. 
1896 (As Assistant Editor) The Life and Letters of William Barton 
Rogers. Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston, 1896. 
1896 (With E. B. Wilson, Ph.D.) An Introduction to General Bi- 
ology. Revised Edition, H. Holt & Co., New York. 
1897 The Protection of Surface Waters from Pollution. Jour. N. E. 
Water Works Assn., XI, p. 245, March, 1897. 
1897 Milk Supply and the Public Health. 45th Annual Report of the 
State Board of Agriculture of Mass. 
1897 The Protection of Public Milk Supplies from Pollution. Jour, 
of the Mass. Assn. Bds. of Health, VII, p. 4. 
1897 (With H. W. Marshall, S.B.) Bacteria and Acidity of the Milk 
Supply of Boston. Ibid., p. 75. 
1897 Report of a Committee on "Rules for the Protection of Public 
Milk Supplies from Pollution." Ibid., p. 116. 
1897 A Note on Some of the Requirements for a Sanitary Milk Sup- 
ply. Tech. Quar., X, p. 245, June, 1897. 
1898 The Claims of Sanitary Science to a Place in the Curriculum of 
166 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Engineering Education. Proc. Soc. for the Promotion of Eng. 
Education, VI, p. 300. 
1899 Organisms which Cause Unpleasant Odors and Tastes in Water 
Supplies. Jour. N. E. Water Works Assn., XIV, p. 54, Sep- 
tember, 1899. 
1899 Report of an Investigation of the Sources of Typhoid Fever in 
Pittsburgh. Report of the Filtration Commission of the City 
of Pittsburgh, Pa. 
1899 (With C.-E. A. Winslow) Experimental and Statistical Studies 
on the Influence of Cold on the Bacillus of Typhoid Fever 
and its Distribution; with special reference to Ice Supply and 
the Public Health. Science, XI, p. 462, March 23, 1900. 
1899 External Digestion, Commonly Called Alimentation. Rumford 
Kitchen Leaflet, No. 8. 
1899 On the Establishment and Conservation of Purity in Public 
Water Supplies. (The Middleton-Goldsmith Lecture of the 
N. Y. Pathological Soc. for 1898) Trans. N. Y. Path. Soc., 
1899. 
1901 Attitude of the State toward Scientific Investigation. Science, 
New Series, XIII, p. 81, January 18, 1901. 
1901 The Origin, Scope and Significance of Bacteriology. President's 
Address, Society of American Bacteriologists, Science, New 
Series, XIII, January 25, 1901. 
1901 On the Rise and Progress of Water Supply Sanitation in the 
Nineteenth Century. Jour. N. E. Water Works Assn., XV, 
p. 315, June, 1901. 
1902 Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health, pp. 368; 
illustrated. The Macmillan Company, New York, May, 1902. 
1902 On the Modern Subjection of Science and Education to Propa- 
ganda. Presidential Address, Amer. Soc. of Naturalists. Sci- 
ence, N. S., XV, p. 44, January 10, 1902. 
1902 (With C.-E. A. Winslow) I. Experiments on the Effect of 
Freezing and other Low Temperatures upon the Viability of 
the Bacillus of Typhoid Fever, with Considerations regarding 
Ice as a Vehicle of Infectious Disease. II. Statistical Studies 
on the Seasonal Prevalence of Typhoid Fever in Various 
Countries and its Relation to Seasonal Temperatures. Mem- 
oirs of Amer. Acad, of Arts and Science, Vol. XII, No. 5, 
August, 1902. 
167 1903 (With Theodore Hough) What Training in Physiology and 
Hygiene may we Reasonably Expect of the Public Schools? 
Science, N. S., XVIII, No. 445, p. 353, September, 1903. 
1904 Why Dirt is Dangerous. Jour, of the Mass. Assn, of Bds. of 
Health, XIV, p. 152, May, 1904. 
1904 Why Dirty Milk is Dangerous. Jour, of the Mass. Assn, of Bds. 
of Health, XIV, p. 208, August, 1904. 
1904 Chicago Drainage Canal Case. Record of Evidence, Supreme 
Court of the United States, State of Missouri vs. The State 
of Illinois and the Sanitary District of Chicago. Vol. Ill, pp. 
2194-2417; 2758-2789. Vol. VIII, pp. 7955-7974. Jefferson 
City, Mo., Tribune Publishing Company, 1904. 
1904 Article on "Sanitary Science and Public Health." Encyclopedia 
Americana, Vol. XIV, New York, 1904. 
1904 Why Dirty Water is Dangerous. Jour, of the Mass. Assn, of 
Bds. of Health, Boston, XIV, p. 278, November, 1904. (Also 
separately as a leaflet.) 
1905 The Relations of Public Health Science to Other Sciences. Ad- 
dress before the Public Health Section, International Con- 
gress of Arts and Science, St. Louis, September, 1904. Sci- 
ence, N. S., Vol. XXI, 546, p. 905, June 16, 1905; Am. Med., 
IX, p. 975, June 17, 1905. 
1906 (With Theodore Hough) The Human Mechanism; Its Physi- 
ology and Hygiene and the Sanitation of Its Surroundings, 
pp. 564. Ginn & Company, Boston, 1906. 
1906 (With C.-E. A. Winslow) On the Present Relative Responsi- 
bility of Public Water Supplies and Other Factors for the 
Causation of Typhoid Fever. Jour, of the N. E. Water Works 
Assn., XX, p. 51, March, 1906. 
1906 On Pavements for Residence Streets. Good Housekeeping, 
March, 1906, pp. 275-278. 
1906 The Experimental Method in Sanitary Science and Sanitary 
Administration. Address of the Vice-President and Chairman 
for 1905 of Section K, A. A. A. S. Proc., New Orleans Meet- 
ing, LV, 1906, p. 497; Am. Med., XI, p. 347, March 10, 1906; 
Science, N. S., XXIII, p. 362. 
1906 The Readjustment of Education and Research in Hygiene and 
Sanitation. Proc., Boston Meeting, September, 1905. Am. 
Public Health Assn. Reports, XXXI, p. 115, 1906. Am. Med., 
XI, p. 159, February 3, 1906. 
A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
168 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
1906 Comments upon a Report by Theodore Horton, M. Am. Soc. 
C. E., on the Prevalence and Causation of Typhoid Fever in 
Washington, D. C., with a Discussion of the Typhoid Fever 
Situation in the District of Columbia. Eng. News, November 
8, 1906, p. 488. 
1906 On the Protection of Public Water Supplies from Pollution 
during Construction, Maintenance and Operation of Rail- 
roads; with Special Reference to the Water Supply of Seattle, 
Washington; together with Criticisms of the Present Methods 
of Water Supply and Sewerage of Railway Trains. Jour, of 
the N. E. Water Works Assn., XX, p. 427, December, 1906. 
1906 Address of Welcome as President New England Water Works 
Association, to the President and Members of the American 
Water Works Association, in Huntington Hall, July 10, 1906. 
Proc, of the 26th Annual Convention of the Am. Water Works 
Assn, for 1906, pp. 557-562. 
1907 The Expansion of Physiology. Address of the Vice-President 
and Chairman of Section K, Physiology and Experimental 
Medicine, New York Meeting, A. A. A. S., 1906, Proc. A. A. 
A. S. for 1906; Science, N. S., XXV, p. 332, March 1, 1907. 
1908 Typhoid Fever: a Disease of Defective Civilization. Introduc- 
tory Essay to Whipple's "Typhoid Fever: Its Causation, 
Transmission, and Prevention." pp. 407. New York, John 
Wiley & Sons, 1908. 
1908 The Conquest of Famines. Youth's Companion, Vol. LXXXII, 
No. 17, 1908. 
1908 The Call to Public Health. Annual Address in Medicine, Yale 
University, July 22, 1908. The Yale Medical Journal, XV, p. 
1, July, 1908; Science, XXVIII, p. 193, 1908. 
1908 (With Scott MacNutt) An Examination of the Theorem of 
Allen Hazen that for Every Death from Typhoid Fever 
Avoided by the Purification of Public Water Supplies Two or 
Three Deaths are Avoided from Other Causes. Preliminary 
communication. Science, XXVIII, p. 215, August 14, 1908. 
1908 Charles Harrington, M.D., an Appreciation. The Harvard Bul- 
letin, II, No. 2, 1908. 
1908 An Investigation of the Sanitary Condition of the Public Water 
Supply of Newport, R. I. Special Report of the Committee 
on Water Supply to the Representative Council, Newport, 
R. I., pp. 47-56, October, 1908. 
169 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
1908 (With Scott MacNutt) On an Apparent Connection between 
Polluted Public Water Supplies and the Mortality from Pul- 
monary Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis in Massachusetts, Chapter 
XIV, pp. 181-186. Published by the Mass. State Committee, 
International Congress on Tuberculosis, Boston, 1908. 
1909 The Foundations of Prevention. Trans. Convention on Preven- 
tion of Infant Mortality, 1909; Bull. Amer. Acad. Med., XI, 
p. 692, 1910. 
1910 Shall We Continue or Shall We Stop the Sewage Pollution of 
Streams? Bull. State Dept, of Health of New York, 1910. 
1910 (With Scott MacNutt) On the Mills-Reincke Phenomenon and 
Hazen's Theorem Concerning the Decrease in Mortality from 
Diseases other than Typhoid Fever following the Purification 
of Public Water Supplies. Jour. Inf. Diseases, VII, p. 489, 
August, 1910. 
1911 On the Proper Correlation of Physicians, Engineers, and Other 
Specialists on Public Health Work. Jour. Am. Pub. Health 
Assn., I, p. 28, January, 1911. 
1911 (With Franz Schneider, Jr.) The Relation of Illuminating Gas 
to Public Health. With six plates. Jour. Inf. Diseases, IX, 
p. 380, November, 1911. 
1911 (With Earle B. Phelps) Memorandum on Disinfection of the 
Sewage of New Bedford, Mass. City Document, New Bedford, 
1911. 
1911 On Natural Ice and the Public Health. New York, 1911. 
1911 (With H. P. Letton) Has the time come for double municipal 
water supplies,-one naturally pure for drinking and cook- 
ing, the other denaturized or sterilized for all other pur- 
poses? Jour. N. E. Water Works Assn., XXV, p. 407, Decem- 
ber, 1911. 
1911 Notes on Typhoid Fever in Washington, D. C. Jour. N. E. 
Water Works Assn., XXV, p. 470, December, 1911. 
1911 On Standards of Good Food. The Clinic, Boston Transcript, 
June 14, 1911. 
1911 Illuminating Gas and the Public Health. Harvey Leet., p. 100, 
Philadelphia and London, 1911-1912. 
1912 (With G. R. Taylor and J. S. MacNutt) Is Typhoid Fever a 
"Rural" Disease? Jour. Inf. Diseases, XI, p. 141, September, 
1912. 
170 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
1912 The Fallacy of Testing Food Materials by Animal Inoculation. 
Jour. Am. Med. Assn., LIX, p. 1509, October 26, 1912. 
1912 Sewage and the Farmer: A Problem in the Conservation of 
Waste. Scientific American, CVII, p. 38, July 13, 1912. 
1912 Cold Storage and Public Health. Am. Jour. Public Health, II, 
p. 825, November, 1912. 
1913 The Interpretation of Nature and the Teaching Laboratory. An 
Address at the Dedication of the Carnegie Science Hall of 
Bates College, January 14, 1913. Science, XXXVIII, p. 169, 
August 8, 1913. 
1913 School Hygiene. Youth's Companion, April 24, 1913. 
1913 The Public Health Movement in America; Today and Tomorrow. 
Proc. Assn. Life Ins. Pres., VII, p. 103, New York, 1913. 
1913 Public Health and Hygiene. American Year Book, 1913, New 
York, Appleton & Company. 
1913 Reappearance of the Ghost of Malthus. Am. Jour, of Public 
Health, III, p. 1032, October, 1913. 
1915 What Massachusetts has done and may yet do for the Public 
Health. Am. Jour, of Public Health, V, p. 637, July, 1915. 
1915 American Achievements and American Failures in Public Health 
Work. Address of the President, Amer. Public Health Assn., 
Science, XLII, p. 361, September 17, 1915; Am. Jour, of 
Public Health, V, p. 1103, November, 1915. 
1916 Foreword: The Genesis of a New Science: Bacteriology. Jour. 
of Bact., I, p. 1, 1916. 
1917 (With H. W. Tyler) A Short History of Science. The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1917, pp. 474. Illustrated. 
1918 (With Theodore Hough) The Human Mechanism. Revised Edi- 
tion. Ginn & Co., Boston and New York, pp. 564, 1918. 
1918 From Peace to War, from War to Victory, from Victory to Just 
Judgment. Jour. N. E. Water Works Assn., XXXII, p. 189, 
September, 1918. 
1918 Rats and Insects as Public Enemies. Am. Jour. Pub. Health, IX, 
p. 34, January, 1918. 
1919 Women's Colleges in War Time. Simmons College Review, Janu- 
ary, 1919. 
1919 Observations of a Summer Visitor on the Higher Education in 
California. Simmons College Review, December, 1919. 
1920 Gentleman and Scholar: An Appreciation in Memory of Dr. 
R. C. Maclaurin. Tech. Review, XXII, p. 29, January, 1920. 
171 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
1920 Early School of Public Health at Lyons, France. Am. Jour. Pub. 
Health, X, p. 352, April, 1920. 
1921 Modern Medicine and the Public Health, Public Health Reports, 
XXXVI, p. 109, January 28, 1921, Univ. Cincin. Med. Bull., 
II, p. 27, 1920-1921. 
1921 Insects and Disease. Youth's Companion, May, 1921. 
172 Appendix B 
1. A Partial List of Graduates and Former Students 
in the Department of Biology and Public Health 
during the Incumbency of Professor Sedgwick. 
Y ear: 
1887 
Profession: 
Address: 
Bartlett, Sidney R. 
Colorado Springs, 
Colo. 
Houghton, N. H. 
1888 
Physician 
Brookline, Mass. 
Gross, H. G. 
Physician 
Eureka, Calif. 
Hazen, Allen 
Hazen and 
Whip- New York City 
pie, Civil 
neers 
Engi- 
Jordan, E. 0. 
Professor of 
riology 
Bacte- University of Chicago 
Kean, A. L. 
• 
Livingston, N. J. 
1889 
Cartwright, J. W. 
Farmer 
Hampton, Conn. 
Whipple, G. C. 
Professor of 
Sani- Harvard University, 
1890 
tary Engineering Cambridge, Mass. 
Batchelder, John L. 
Coal dealer 
Boston, Mass. 
Bickford, Miss E. E. 
Teacher 
South Pasadena, 
Calif. 
Calkins, G. N. 
Professor of 
Proto- Columbia University, 
zoology 
New York City 
Fuller, G. W. 
Consulting Sanitary New York City 
Engineer 
173 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Y ear: 
Profession: 
Address: 
■ Molineux, Miss M. A. 
Lecturer 
Lynn, Mass. 
White, Franklin W. 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
1891 
Bird, Adelaide 
Professor 
Wilson College, 
Chambersburg, Pa. 
Ramsey, Allen 
Physician 
Cincinnati, 0. 
Robinson, Mrs. A. B. 
Physician 
Upper Montclair, 
N. J. 
1892 
Brown, Miss B. M. 
Teacher 
Hyannis Normal 
School 
Burrage, Severance 
Professor 
Colorado State Uni- 
versity, Boulder, 
Colo. 
Dodd, Miss Margaret 
Teacher 
Quincy, Mass. 
Mathews, Albert P. 
Professor 
University of Cincin- 
nati 
Pough, Mrs. F. H. 
Columbia Heights, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Worthington, A. M. 
Physician 
Dedham, Mass. 
1893 
Copeland, W. R. 
Sanitary Engineer 
Milwaukee, Wis. 
Keith, S. C. 
Business 
Boston, Mass. 
Leighton, Florence M. 
Physician 
New York City 
Wadsworth, A. B. 
Physician 
Director State Labo- 
ratory, Albany, 
1894 
N. Y. 
Horton, Theodore 
Sanitary Engineer 
Chief Sanitary Engi- 
neer, New York 
State Board of 
Health, Albany, 
N. Y. 
Kimball, J. H. 
Constructing Engi- 
Miami Conservancy 
neer 
District, Dayton, 0. 
Parker, H. N. 
Bacteriologist 
Jacksonville, Fla. 
Prescott, S. C. 
Professor, Head of 
Massachusetts Insti- 
Department of Bi- 
ology and Public 
Health 
tute of Technology 
174 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Y ear: 
Profession : 
Address: 
Sayward, W. H., Jr. 
Physician 
Wayland, Mass. 
1895 
Joyce, Miss Edith K. 
Teacher 
New York City 
Marcy, H. 0., Jr. 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
Parmelee, C. L. 
Consulting Engineer 
New York City 
Woods, F. A. 
Investigator and 
Statistician 
New York City 
1896 
Field, F. E. 
Engineer 
Montreal Water 
Board 
Hyde, Charles G. 
Professor of Sani- 
University of Cali- 
tary Engineering 
fornia 
Leighton, M. 0. 
Sanitary Engineer 
Washington, D. C. 
Melluish, J. G. 
Sanitary Engineer 
Bloomington, Ill. 
Perley, C. W. 
Library of Congress 
Washington, D. C. 
Rockwell, J. A., Jr. 
Physician 
Cambridge, Mass. 
1897 
Marshall, H. W. 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
Matthews, Mrs. A. P. 
Cincinnati, 0. 
Osgood, E. P. 
Sanitary Engineer 
Bangkok, Siam 
Richards, L. J. 
Health Officer 
Elizabeth, N. J. 
Spear, W. E. 
Department Engi- 
Board of Water Sup- 
neer 
ply, New York City 
Stiles, P. G. 
Professor 
Harvard Medical 
School, Boston, 
Mass. 
Tower, S. F. 
Principal, High 
School 
South Boston, Mass. 
Warren, G. W. 
Physician 
Portland, Me. 
1898 
Blau, Mrs. R. P. 
Princeton, N. J. 
Jones, H. W. 
Colonel, U. S. Army 
Jones, S. F. 
Physician 
Denver, Colo. 
Laing, Miss Minerva A. Teacher 
Lambert, F. D. 
Physician 
Tyngsboro, Mass. 
Lambert, J. H. 
Physician 
Lowell, Mass. 
Lambert, Mrs. J. H. 
Lowell, Mass. 
Mendenhall, Mrs. C. E. 
Physician 
Washington 
Richardson, F. L. 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
175 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Y ear: 
Profession: 
Address: 
Snow, F. W. 
Physician 
Newburyport, Mass. 
Underwood, W. L. 
Naturalist 
Belmont, Mass. 
Usher, Miss S. 
Dietetics expert 
Boston, Mass. 
Winslow, C.-E. A. 
Professor, Yale 
School of Medi- 
cine 
New Haven, Conn. 
1899 
Hancock, Mrs. J. H. 
Hudson, Mass. 
Leary, Mrs. Timothy 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
Milliken, C. S. 
Citrus expert 
Pasadena, Calif. 
Phelps, E. B. 
Consulting Sanitary 
Engineer 
New York City 
Whiting, Charles F. 
The Whiting Com- 
pany 
Charlestown, Mass. 
1900 
Conant, H. S. 
Hall, M. W. 
Clergyman 
Physician 
Bridgewater, Mass. 
Kendall, A. I. 
Long, Miss Margaret 
Dean, Medical 
School 
Physician 
Northwestern Univer- 
sity, Chicago 
Porter, J. L. 
Director, Water Pu- 
rifying Station 
New Orleans, La. 
1901 
Bass, F. H. 
DeBerard, W. W. 
Professor of Mu- 
nicipal and Sani- 
tary Engineering 
Western Editor, En- 
gineering News- 
Record 
University of Minne- 
sota 
Gallup, Miss A. B. 
Children's Museum 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
1902 
Beckler, Miss Edith A. 
Bacteriologist 
State Board of 
Health, Boston 
Gannett, Farley 
Consulting Engineer 
Harrisburg, Pa. 
Messinger, H. C. 
Physician 
Providence, R. I. 
Mixter, C. G. 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
Mixter, W. J. 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
Peters, W. C. 
Physician 
Bangor, Me. 
Philbrick, B. G. 
Bacteriologist 
Boston, Mass. 
176 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
y ear: 
Profession: 
Address: 
Wells, C. H. 
1903 
Hansen, Paul 
Sanitary Engineer 
Chicago, Ill. 
Martin, Mrs. A. H. 
Franklin, Mass. 
1904 
Emerson, C. A. 
Consulting Engineer 
State Board Health, 
Pennsylvania 
Levy, E. C. 
Physician 
Richmond, Va. 
Longley, F. F. 
Consulting Sanitary 
Engineer 
Melbourne, Australia 
Lounsbury, W. C. 
General Manager, 
Water, Light and 
Power 
Superior, Wis. 
McCormick, Mrs. S. 
New York City 
Willcomb, G. E. 
Chemist 
Albany, N. Y. 
Winslow, Mrs. C.-E. 
A. 
New Haven, Conn. 
1905 
Ayers, S. H. 
Laboratory director, 
Glass Container 
Asso. 
New York City 
Beers, W. H. 
Filter Manager 
Gatun, C. Z. 
Bunker, G. C. 
Sanitary Expert 
Panama Canal 
Gunn, S. M. 
Director, Rockefel- 
ler Institute 
Paris, France 
Lochridge, E. E. 
Chief Engineer, 
Water Works 
Springfield, Mass. 
Rohde, Miss Alice 
Physician 
Tarbett, R. E. 
Sanitary Engineer 
U. S. Public Health 
Service 
1906 
Greeley, S. A. 
Sanitary Engineer 
Chicago, Ill. 
Kerr, Andrew 
Fish Culturist 
Plymouth, Mass. 
McClintock, J. R. 
Sanitary Engineer 
New York City 
Patten, Miss J. B. 
Instructor, Simmons 
College 
Wellesley, Mass. 
Rice, Roger L. 
Business 
Canton, 0. 
Saville, C. 
Director of Sanita- 
tion 
Dallas, Tex. 
177 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Y ear: 
Profession: Address: 
Scales, F. M. 
Bacteriologist U. S. Department of 
Agriculture, Wash- 
ington 
Steinharter, E. C. 
Physician Cincinnati, 0. 
1907 
Daniels, F. E. 
Engineer, State Trenton, N. J. 
Board of Health 
Hale, Miss A. P. 
State Board of Jamaica Plain, Mass. 
Health Labora- 
tory 
* Jones, G. R. 
Associate Professor Johns Hopkins Uni- 
of Civil Engineer- versity 
ing 
Taylor, G. R. 
Sanitary expert Scranton, Pa. 
1908 
Howe, E. C. 
Professor, Welles- Wellesley, Mass, 
ley, College 
MacNutt, J. S. 
Artist St. Louis, Mo. 
Tully, E. J. 
Engineer, State De- Madison, Wis. 
partment of 
Health 
Walker, L. T. 
Lt.-Col. retired, Tunis, Tunis 
U. S. A. 
1909 
Colson, H. C., Jr. 
Biochemist Baltimore, Md. 
Harrub, C. N. 
Sanitary Engineer U. S. Public Health 
Service 
Hoyt, R. N. 
Instructor, Medical University of Georgia, 
School Augusta, Ga. 
Irwin, R. E. 
State Department Harrisburg, Pa. 
of Health 
Jenkins, H. 0. 
Commercial Biolo- Davis, Calif, 
gist 
Morrill, A. B. 
Professor of Sani- Imperial Pei Yang 
tary Engineering University, Tient- 
sin, China 
Palmer, G. T. 
Director of Re- New York City 
search, A. C. H. A. 
* Deceased. 
178 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Year: 
Profession: 
Address: 
Pierson, Miss Ruth 0. 
Bacteriologist 
California 
Robinson, E. A. 
Clergyman 
San Diego, Calif. 
Scharff, M. R. 
Morris Knowles, 
Inc. 
Pittsburgh 
Schneider, F., Jr. 
Financial Editor 
N. Y. Evening Post, 
New York City 
Stevenson, A. F. 
Milk Expert 
New York City 
Straus, A. H. 
Professor, Medical 
College of Vir- 
ginia 
Richmond, Va. 
White, J. H. 
Sanitary Engineer 
U. S. Public Health 
Service 
1910 
Blanchard, C. K. 
Health Department 
Trenton, N. J. 
Carpenter, W. T. 
Sanitary Engineer 
White Plains, N. Y. 
Davis, L. 
Chemist and Bacte- 
riologist 
Baker Chocolate Co., 
Boston 
Hilliard, C. M. 
Professor of Bacte- 
riology and Public 
Health 
Simmons College, 
Boston, Mass. 
Horne, R. W. 
Fay, Spofford and 
Thorndike 
Boston, Mass. 
Lang, H. L. 
Professor of Bi- 
ology 
Carnegie Institute of 
Technology, Pitts- 
burgh 
Maglott, G. F. 
Division Engineer, 
Morris Knowles, 
Inc. 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 
O'Neill, J. H. 
State Engineer 
New Orleans 
Pomeroy, C. T. 
Health Officer 
Montclair, N. J. 
Stover, F. H. 
Bacteriologist, Mu- 
nicipal Filters 
Louisburg, Ky. 
Stuart, E. 
Sanitary Engineer 
New York City 
Tiernan, M. F. 
Wallace and Tier- 
nan 
Newark, N. J. 
Wells, W. F. 
Biologist, Conserva- 
tion Commission 
Albany, N. Y. 
4 
179 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Year: 
1911 
Profession: 
Address: 
Babbitt, H. E. 
Instructor in Mu- 
nicipal and Sani- 
tary Engineering 
University of Illinois 
Ell, C. S. 
Dean, School of En- 
Northeastern College, 
gineering 
Boston 
Kellogg, P. 
Business 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
Lathrope, T. L. 
Letton, H. P. 
Consulting Sanitary 
Engineer 
Lincoln, Neb. 
Magoon, C. A. 
Bureau of Plant In- 
dustry 
Washington, D. C. 
Orchard, W. J. 
General Sales Mana- 
ger, Wallace and 
Tiernan Company 
New York City 
Schmidt, S. M. 
Sanitarian for Com- 
mission to Pales- 
tine 
Winthrop, Mass. 
1912 
Dodson, F. S. 
Health Officer 
Framingham, Mass. 
Eisenberg, A. M. 
Author 
Boston, Mass. 
Ferguson, H. F. 
Sanitary Engineer 
State Department of 
Health, Illinois 
Levine, M. 
Professor of Bacte- 
riology, Iowa 
State College 
Ames, la. 
Mathews, L. A. 
Bacteriologist, 
Pease Laborato- 
ries 
New York City 
Murray, J. I. 
Dairy Control Ex- 
pert 
Winnipeg, Manitoba 
Osborne, F. J. 
Society for the Con- 
trol of Cancer 
New York City 
Rush, J. E. 
Physician, Cancer 
Commission 
New York City 
Troland, L. T. 
Instructor, Harvard 
University 
Cambridge, Mass. 
1913 
Armstrong, D. B. 
Secretary, National 
Health Council 
New York City 
180 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Year: 
Profession: 
Address: 
Ballinger, T. D. 
Health Officer 
Orange, N. J. 
*Brown, W. E. 
U. S. Public Health 
Service 
Buck, A. W. 
Graduate Student, 
Yale University 
New Haven, Conn. 
Font, M. 
Service of Sanita- 
Government of Porto 
tion 
Rico 
Harmon, G. E. 
Instructor, Western 
Reserve Medical 
School 
Cleveland, 0. 
Purdy, W. C. 
U. S. Public Health 
Service 
Cincinnati, 0. 
Shoub, H. L. 
U. S. Public Health 
Service 
Washington, D. C. 
Smith, E. E. 
Superintendent, Fil- 
ter Plant 
Lima, 0. 
Sthrtevant, A. P. 
1914 
Bacteriologist, Bu- 
reau of Animal 
Industry 
Washington, D. C. 
Bates, R. D. 
Sanitary Engineer 
U. S. Public Health 
Service 
Calver, H. N. 
Secretary, American 
Public Health As- 
sociation 
New York City 
Campbell, H. M. 
Chemist 
Norwood, 0. 
Cowles, C. L. 
Biochemist, Lederle 
Antitoxin Labora- 
tories 
Cummins, E. H. 
Chemist 
Lewis, M. 
State Health Dept. 
Raleigh, N. C. 
Moreno, J. I. 
Sanitary Works 
Guayaquil, Ecquador 
Nightingale, H. W. 
Sanitary Expert 
and Chemist 
Gatun, C. Z. 
Parsons, R. 
Chemist 
Lynn, Mass. 
Sawyer, F. L. 
Dairy Expert 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
Stewart, H. G. 
Physician 
Baltimore, Md. 
Zimmele, G. B. 
* Deceased. 
Chemist 
Boston, Mass. 
181 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Y ear: 
Profession: Address: 
1915 
Berger, H. E., Jr. 
Health Director Wellesley, Mass. 
Buck, C. E. 
Duff, J., Jr. 
Physician, U. S. N. Virgin Islands 
Funk, F. J. 
Industrial Bacteri- duPont Co., Wilming- 
ologist ton, Del. 
Geer, L. P. 
Bacteriologist Columbia, S. C. 
Holway, W. R. 
Consulting Engineer Tulsa, Okla. 
Masucci, P. 
Biochemist Glen Olden, Pa. 
Phelan, J. F. 
Bacteriologist Charlestown, Mass. 
Simons, G. W., Jr. 
Sanitary Engineer State Board of 
Health, Florida 
Tisdale, E. S. 
Sanitary Engineer State Department of 
Health, W. Va. 
Whitman, W. C. 
Food expert, H. A. Boston, Mass. 
Johnson Co. 
Woodfall, H. C. 
Engineer, Georgia Atlanta, Ga. 
State Department 
of Health 
1916 
Connolly, J. I. 
Sanitary Engineer U. S. Public Health 
Service 
Cousineau, A. 
Sanitary Engineer Montreal 
Duff, P. H. 
Physician Boston, Mass. 
Ellicott, V. L. M. 
Physician, Depart- Baltimore, Md. 
ment of Health 
Fair, G. M. 
Instructor in Sani- Harvard University 
tary Engineering 
Green, H. W. 
Sanitary Engineer, Porto Rico 
Rockefeller Foun- 
dation 
Horan, C. F. 
Welfare Expert, Watertown, Mass. 
Hood Rubber 
Company 
Horwood, M. P. 
Asst. Professor, Cambridge, Mass. 
Massachusetts In- 
stitute of Tech- 
nology 
182 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Y ear: 
Profession: 
Address: 
Johnson, E. B. 
U. S. Public Health 
Service 
Birmingham, Ala. 
Junkins, W. H. 
Health Officer 
York, Me. 
Lawrence, C. W. 
Teacher 
Pawtucket, R. I. 
Ryan, D. F. 
Fermentation expert 
Boston, Mass. 
Sanders, M. B. 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
Shuey, A. F. 
Superintendent 
Water Works 
Tampa, Fla. 
Tobey, J. A. 
National Health 
Council 
New York City 
1917 
Abele, C. A. 
State Department 
of Health 
Birmingham, Ala. 
Bedell, A. S. 
State Department 
of Health 
Salt Lake City 
Bernard, F. 
Business 
Cambridge, Mass. 
Fales, W. T. 
Vital Statistician 
Birmingham, Ala. 
Hamilton, H. W. 
White Tar Company 
Kearny, N. J. 
Heath, E. H. 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
Hiller, A. D. 
Statistician 
Washington, D. C. 
Johnson, A. K. 
Instructor, Lowell 
Textile School 
Lowell, Mass. 
Johnson, W. T., Jr. 
Bacteriologist, 
Dairy Division 
Grove City, Pa. 
McDougall, J. G. 
Business 
Lynn, Mass. 
Nichols, P. F. 
U. S. Department of 
Agriculture 
Los Angeles, Calif. 
Parker, H. G. 
Bacteriologist, 
Health Depart- 
ment 
Norfolk, Va. 
Pouchain, R. A. 
Chemist, Tasty Bak- 
ing Company 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
Reynolds, E. D. 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
1918 
Burke, A. E. 
Bacteriologist, Sup- 
plee Dairy Com- 
pany 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
Cameron, E. J. 
Bacteriologist, Na- 
tional Canners 
Laboratory 
Washington, D. C. 
183 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Y ear: 
Profession: 
Address: 
Capen, Miss Ruth G. 
Biochemist, U. S. 
Department of 
Agriculture 
Washington, D. C. 
Fennessey, Miss E. M. 
State Board of 
Labor and Indus- 
try 
Boston, Mass. 
Hart, C. D. 
Professor of Sani- 
tary Science 
College of William 
and Mary, Wil- 
liamsburg, Va. 
Herzstein, J. 
Horwood, Mrs. M. P. 
Medical Student 
New York City 
Newton Centre, Mass. 
Larner, H. B. 
Sanitary Expert, C. 
E. North 
New York City 
Nelson, J. B. 
Bacteriologist, State 
Department of 
Health 
Columbia, Mo. 
• 
McWhirk, Clara V. 
Bacteriologist 
Boston, Mass. 
Pickett, E. R. 
Bacteriologist, 
Beech-Nut Pack- 
ing Company 
Canajoharie, N. Y. 
Pinkerton, H. 
Student, Harvard 
Medical School 
Boston, Mass. 
Stockman, C. C. 
Graduate Student, 
University of Ox- 
ford 
Newburyport, Mass. 
1919 
Balfour, M. C. 
Brennan, Miss C. J. 
Student, Harvard 
Medical School 
Boston, Mass. 
Boston, Mass. 
Chandler, L. D. 
U. S. Public Health 
Service 
Washington, D. C. 
Coleman, B. S. 
Water Filter Plant 
Little Falls, N. J. 
Coombs, R. H. 
Health Officer 
Berlin, N. H. 
Hayes, S. J. 
Bacteriologist, Lud- 
low Associates 
Ludlow, Mass. 
Hunt, R. S. 
Graduate Student, 
Massachusetts In- 
stitute of Tech- 
nology 
Swampscott, Mass. 
184 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Year: 
Profession: 
Address: 
Kahn, G. 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
Powers, R. 
U. S. Department 
of Agriculture 
Los Angeles, Calif. 
Strang, J. M. 
Student, Harvard 
Medical School 
Boston, Mass. 
Wolff, L. 
Physician 
Boston, Mass. 
1920 
de Zubiria, A. 
Sanitary Expert 
Cartagena, Colombia 
1921 
Clark, E. S. 
Sanitary Chemist, 
Illinois State De- 
p artment of 
Health 
Chicago, Ill. 
Ellsworth, A. A. 
Investigator, U. S. 
Massachusetts Insti- 
Bureau of Fisher- 
tute of Technology, 
ies 
Cambridge, Mass. 
Etherington, E. L. 
Student, Harvard 
University 
Cambridge, Mass. 
Holmes, F. 0. 
Graduate student, 
Johns Hopkins 
University 
Baltimore, Md. 
MacDonald, J. J. 
Instructor, Univer- 
sity of Buffalo 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
1922 
Duffield, T. J. 
League of Nations 
Geneva, Switzerland 
Hershenson, B. B. 
Assistant Professor 
B iochemi stry, 
University of Vir- 
ginia 
Charlottesville, Va. 
Hewes, W. R. 
Bacteriologist, E. I. 
duPont de Ne- 
mours Company 
Wilmington, Del. 
McClellan, R. N. 
Research Assistant, 
Massachusetts In- 
stitute of Tech- 
nology 
Cambridge, Mass. 
185 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Y ear: 
Profession: 
Address: 
Perine, K. 
Instructor in Bio- 
chemistry, Uni- 
versity of North 
Carolina 
Chapel Hill, N. C. 
Radin, A. 
Health Officer 
Danville, Va. 
Stevens, A. H. 
Student, Harvard 
Medical School 
Boston, Mass. 
Strieder, J. W. 
Student, Harvard 
Medical School 
Boston, Mass. 
Tewksbury, R. B. 
Student, Johns Hop- 
kins University 
Baltimore, Md. 
2. A List of Graduates of the Harvard-Technology 
School of Public Health with Present Occupations. 
CLASS OF 1914 
Mark Frederick Boyd, M.D., C.P.H. 
Epidemiologist, Iowa State Board of Health (1915-1917); Professor 
of Bacteriology and Preventive Medicine, University of Texas 
(1917-1921); now with International Health Board. 
Merrill Edwin Champion, A.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
Director, Division of Hygiene, Massachusetts State Department of 
Public Health. 
Gaius Elijah Harmon, M.D., C.P.H. 
Assistant Professor of Hygiene and Bacteriology, Western Reserve 
University, Cleveland, Ohio. 
William Leland Holt, A.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
Director, Department of Hygiene, University of Tennessee (1920- 
1921). 
Harry Benjamin Neagle, A.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
Professor of Preventive Medicine, Harvard Medical School, China 
(1915). Health Officer and Director of Hospitals, Jackson, Michigan. 
. Director of Department of Public Health and Professor of Preven- 
tive Medicine, Medical School, University of Georgia. 
186 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
CLASS OF 1915 
Andrew Foster Allen, S.B., C.P.H. 
Associate Sanitary Engineer, U. S. Public Health Service. 
Walter Henry Brown, M.D., C.P.H. 
Epidemiologist, Massachusetts State Department of Health (1915); 
Health Officer, Bridgeport, Connecticut (1916-1920); Assistant 
Medical Director, Commission for Prevention of Tuberculosis in 
France (1921); Director, Child Health Demonstration, Mansfield, 
Ohio. 
William Eustis Brown, Ph.D., C.P.H., M.D. 
Health Officer, York, Maine (1915); Instructor, School of Public 
Health (1915-1918); Physician to New Jersey Zinc Co., Franklin, 
New Jersey (1921- 
Ralph Waldo Emerson Cole, M.D., C.P.H. 
Epidemiologist, West Virginia State Department of Health (1918- 
1919). 
Albert Franklin Cornelius, M.D., C.P.H. 
With American Red Cross in Serbia (1915-1916); Director, San 
Antonio City Clinic for Venereal Diseases. 
William Joseph McDonald, A.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
Major, Medical Corps, U. S. A. (1917-1919); Director, Department 
of Student Health, University of Iowa. 
Stanley Hart Osborn, M.D., C.P.H. 
With American Red Cross in Serbia (1915-1916); Epidemiologist, 
Massachusetts State Department of Health (1917-1920); Medical 
Corps, U. S. A. (1918); Commissioner, Connecticut State Depart- 
ment of Health (1923- 
CLASS OF 1916 
En Tseng Hsieh, M.D., Dr.P.H., C.P.H. 
Peking Union Medical College, Peking, China. President, Army 
Medical School, China. 
Edward Alexander Ingham, S.B., C.P.H. 
State District Health Officer, Southern District of California (1917). 
Died December, 1918. 
Harold Hubbard Mitchell, S.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
With American Red Cross in Serbia (1915); Epidemiologist, In- 
diana State Board of Health (1916-1917); Special Agent, National 
Child Labor Committee (1919). 
187 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
George Philip Paul, M.D., C.P.H. 
International Health Board, Fiji Islands (1917-1918); Australia 
and India (1919-1921). 
Aaron Paul Pratt, A.B., C.P.H., M.D. 
District Health Officer, Maine State Department of Health (1917- 
1919); Instructor, School of Public Health (1919-1921); Medical 
practice, Windsor, Connecticut. 
Bernardo Samper, A.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
Director of a private laboratory, Bogota, Colombia, South America. 
Sien Ming Woo, A.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
Associate Secretary, Joint Council on Public Health Education, 
Shanghai, China; Health Commissioner of Canton, China (the first 
health commission in China); Organizer of the Public Health Asso- 
ciation in China. 
CLASS OF 1917 
Herbert Drury, M.D., C.M., C.P.H. 
Medical Officer and Bacteriologist, William Head Quarantine, 
Canada (1917-1918). 
Augustus George Gigger, M.D., Ph.G., C.P.H. 
Assistant Pathologist, State Board of Health, Rhode Island (1917- 
1918); City Bacteriologist and Director of Laboratories, Syracuse, 
N. Y. (1918-1922); Health Officer, Albany, Missouri. 
Selskar Michael Gunn, S.B., C.P.H. 
Department of Biology and Public Health, Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology (1910-1917); American Tuberculosis Commission in 
France (1917-1920); Ministry of Health, Prague, Czecho-Slovakia 
(1920-1922); Rockefeller Foundation (1922- ). 
Linda James (Mrs. William Benitt), C.P.H. 
Harvard Infantile Paralysis Commission (1917-1918); Massachu- 
setts State Board of Labor and Industries (1918); Minnesota Public 
Health Association, Executive Secretary. 
Arthur Lederer, Chem. Eng., M.D., C.P.H. 
U. S. Public Health Service. 
John Joseph McCormick, M.D., C.P.H. 
Epidemiologist, Health Department, Jackson, Michigan; U. S. Pub- 
lic Health Service, 1919; Medical Corps, U. S. A. (1920- 
Vernon Robins, M.D., C.P.H. 
Alabama State Department of Health (1917-1918); Bacteriologist 
and Chemist, Health Department, Louisville, Kentucky. 
188 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Daniel Clarence Steelsmith, M.D., C.P.H. 
Health Officer, Tuscaloosa, Alabama (1917-1918); Health Commis- 
sioner, Iowa City (1918-1919); Health Officer, Columbus, Georgia 
(1919-1920); City and County Health Work, United States Public 
Health Service. 
Elmer Seth Tenney, B.L., M.D., C.P.H. 
Commissioner, Department of Health, Nebraska (1917-1918); Medi- 
cal Corps, U. S. A. 
Frank Alonzo Wilmot, A.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
Sanitarian, Dennison Manufacturing Company, Framingham, Mas- 
sachusetts (1917); Medical Corps, U. S. A. 
Fu Chun Yen, M.D., C.P.H. 
Hunan Yale Medical School, Changsha, China. 
Millard Knowlton, M.D., C.P.H. 
Kansas State Board of Health, Chief, Bureau of Venereal Diseases 
(1918-1919); North Carolina State Board of Health, Director, Bu- 
reau of Venereal Diseases; Epidemiologist, Connecticut State De- 
partment of Health. 
William Wesley Peter, Ph.B., Ph.M., M.D., C.P.H. 
Joint Council on Public Health Education in China, Shanghai. 
Clair Elsmere Turner, A.B., A.M., C.P.H. 
Sanitary Engineer, U. S. Public Health Service; Department of 
Biology and Public Health, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
CLASS OF 1918 
CLASS OF 1919 
Marion Coon, M.D., C.P.H. in Industrial Hygiene, S.B., A.M. 
Health work with Women's City Club of Boston, Women's Educa- 
tional and Industrial Union, Boston; and R. H. Stearns Company, 
Boston. 
Arthur William Hedrich, S.B., C.P.H. 
Secretary, American Public Health Association; and Editor of the 
American Journal of Public Health, New York City (to 1923). 
Edward Scannell, M.D., C.P.H. 
Jose Alves de Castilho, Jr., M.D., C.P.H. 
Ettore Ciampolini, M.D., C.P.H. 
New Haven Health Centre (1920-1922). 
CLASS OF 1920 
189 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
Rufus Baker Crain, M.D., C.P.H. in Industrial Hygiene. 
Industrial work, Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, New York. 
William Thurber Fales, S.B., C.P.H., Dr.P.H. 
Instructor in Epidemiology, School of Hygiene and Public Health, 
Johns Hopkins University (1920-1923); Statistician, State Board of 
Health, Alabama. 
Jonathan Edwards Henry, A.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
Epidemiologist, Massachusetts State Department of Public Health 
(1920-1921); United States Army. 
Robert Nelson Hoyt, S.B., C.P.H. 
Acting Bacteriologist, Health Department of Boston (1920); In- 
structor in Preventive Medicine and Director of Public Health Labo- 
ratory, University of Georgia. 
Clara Viola McWhirk, S.B., C.P.H. 
Bacteriologist, University Public Health Laboratory, Toledo, Ohio 
(1920). 
Harold Everett Peebles, S.B., S.M., C.P.H. 
Pathologist, New Samaritan Hospital, Sioux City, Iowa. 
Hynck Pelc, M.D., C.P.H. 
Ministry of Public Health, Prague, Czecho-Slovakia. 
Philip Skinner Platt, A.B., A.M., C.P.H. 
Director, New Haven (Connecticut) Health Centre (1920-1923); 
Research work, American Child Health Association, New York City. 
Alton Stackpole Pope, A.B., C.P.H. 
District Health Officer, Maine State Department of Health (1920- 
1922); student, Tufts Medical School. 
Minna Mary Rohn, M.D., C.P.H. 
Health Officer, Lake George (New York) Health District (1918- 
1921); Assistant Superintendent, New York State Reformatory for 
Women, Bedford Springs, New York; Professor of Health, Skid- 
more College, Saratoga Springs, New York. 
William Francis Wild, M.D., C.P.H. 
Director, County Health Work, Mississippi (1920-1921); Executive 
Secretary, Minnesota Public Health Association. 
Arthur Wilson, M.D., C.P.H. 
Health Officer, Saskatoon, Canada. 
Zelma Zentmire, S.B., S.M., C.P.H. 
Iowa State Board of Health. 
190 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
CLASS OF 1921 
James E. Baylis, S.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
Bertha Millard Brown, S.B., C.P.H. 
Arthur E. Burke, S.B., C.P.H. 
Health Officer, Keene, New Hampshire (1921-1922); Mosquito Sup- 
pression Work for Brookline (Mass.) Board of Health (1922). 
Elmer Wilmot Campbell, S.B., C.P.H., Dr.P.H. 
Director, Division of Sanitary Engineering, State Department of 
Health, Augusta, Maine. 
Roy Jones Campbell, A.B., C.P.H. 
Head of Department of Biology, Rollins College, Winter Park, 
Florida (1921-1922). 
George Fordham, Ph.G., M.D., C.P.H. 
Charles Lovelace Foster, S.B., M.D., M.S., C.P.H. 
Sanitary Inspector, U. S. Army. 
Harry Eastman Hitchcock, M.D., C.P.H. 
City Physician, Jackson, Michigan; Medical Director, New Haven 
(Conn.) Health Centre (to 1923). 
Edgar Erkskine Hume, A.B., A.M., M.D., C.P.H. 
First Corps Area Laboratory, Fort Banks, Massachusetts; Assistant 
to Librarian, Army Medical Library, Washington, D. C. 
William Fuller Lawrence, A.B., C.P.H. 
City Bacteriologist and Director of Health Department Laboratory, 
Richmond, Virginia. 
George Fairless Lull, M.D., C.P.H., Dr.P.H. 
Instructor in Preventive Medicine and Vital Statistics, Army Medi- 
cal School, Washington, D.C. 
Dorothy Ruth Pierce, A.B., C.P.H. 
Mahidol Songkla, Prince of Siam, C.P.H. 
Ministry of Education, Bangkok, Siam. 
Arnold Carapiet Vardon, M.D., C.P.H. 
Central Research Laboratory, Kasauli, Simla Hills, India. 
Joseph Francis Vesely, M.D., C.P.H. 
Mildred Ernestine Wilson, C.P.H. 
Teaching Bacteriology, Washburn College, Topeka, Kansas. 
CLASS OF 1922 
Henry Ehlen Berger, Jr., A.B., C.P.H. 
Health Officer, Wellesley, Massachusetts. 
191 A PIONEER OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
James Van Wagner Boyd, M.D., C.P.H. in Industrial Hygiene. 
Denham Darfield Hall, M.D., C.P.H. 
David Barnard Lepper, M.D., C.P.H. 
Field Director, Russell County Health Department, Lebanon, Vir- 
ginia. 
Alfred George Long, M.D., C.P.H. 
Laboratory of Hygiene, State Board of Health, Indiana. 
Ralph Waldo Mendelson, M.D., C.P.H. 
Medical Officer of Health, Bangkok, Siam. 
Uriah Nathaniel Murray, A.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
William Henry Pickett, M.D., C.P.H. 
U. S. P. H. S., Great Falls, Montana. 
Carl Thatcher Pomeroy, A.B., C.P.H. 
Health Officer, Montclair, New Jersey. 
Francis Allen Richardson, A.B., S.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
Teaching in Mills College, California. 
Clarence Linwood Scamman, A.B., M.D., C.P.H. 
Deputy Health Commissioner, State Board of Health, R. I. 
Ruth Alida Thomas, A.B., C.P.H. 
Paul Ewald Tomanek, M.D., C.P.H. 
Epidemiologist, League of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. 
Henry Charles Turner, M.D., C.P.H. 
James Wallace, A.M., B.D., M.D., C.M., C.P.H. 
With the Rockefeller Foundation, establishing County Health Units. 
3. Former Special Students of the Harvard- 
Technology School of Public Health. 
Abele, Charles Arthur, Ch.E., 
S.B. 
Adams, Helen C., R.N. 
Akerley, Arthur William Kenah, 
M.D., C.M. 
Allen, J. Berton, M.D. 
Anderson, Anna M. 
Atwood, Catherine, A.B. 
Baker, Amy B., A.B. 
Bartlett, Leslie Raymond. 
Batt, Louise M., A.B. 
Bennett, Arthur King, M.D. 
Bonnier, Joseph Wilfred, B.M., 
M.D., D.P.H. 
Bradley, John Ruskin, M.D. 
Bradley, Rosamund. 
Bristol, Gertrude R., A.B. 
Burlingame, Frances M., A.B. 
Capen, Ruth G., A.B. 
Chisholm, Alva N. 
192 WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 
Coolidge, Isabel. 
Coolidge, Julia S. 
Daniels, Marian, A.B. 
Davis, Anna J., S.B. 
Dean, Miriam I., A.B. 
Dellenbaugh, Anne Goddard, 
A.B. 
Dewire, Marjorie. 
Eichorn, Gretchen. 
Fernaid, Ethel, A.B. 
Foley, Frederic Joseph, A.B. 
Fuller, Rhea Ruth, A.B. 
Furber, Jane M., A.B. 
Greenman, Raymond Henshaw. 
Gwinn, Van Henry, M.D. 
Hagerty, Joseph James, M.D. 
Hale, Amy E. 
Hale, Annie P. 
Harkness, Robert Rae, Ph.B. 
Hart, Clarence Dunbar, S.B. 
Hatch, Ruth E., A.B. 
Hawley, Ethel R. 
Holloway, Howard Steele, M.D. 
Horan, Charles F. 
Horel, Ruth Frances, A.B., A.M. 
Horwood, Murray Philip, S.B., 
S.M. 
Hunt, Frank S., S.B. 
Hurwitz, Simon, M.D. 
Jardein, Janette G., A.B. 
Jordan, C. Louise. 
Kennedy, Harris, A.B., M.D. 
Knight, Herbert Wilcox, M.D. 
Knobel, Edward, M.D.V. 
Kuo, Yang Mo. 
Landry, James Maguire Anthony, 
A.B., A.M. 
Lauder, Mildred, A.B. 
Lewis, Janet K., A.B. 
Little, Harold Greenleaf, S.B. 
Lord, Helen. 
Mackler, Max Joseph, Pharm.D., 
Ph.C. 
Morris, Harry Rembert, A.B., 
M.D. 
Nelson, John Brockway, S.B. 
Nichols, Hope. 
Ohrt, Frederick, C.E. 
Packard, Charles Earl, A.B. 
Payson, Hazel, S.B. 
Pickels, Esther E., A.B. 
Pierce, Louise V. 
Powers, John H. 
Pratt, William Porter, M.D. 
Proctor, Harriet T., A.B. 
Ratcliffe, Alice Ruth. 
Robinson, Mrs. Alexander C. 
Saville, Charles, S.B. 
Simon, Isaac Barney, S.B. 
Sindler, Bessie, A.B. 
Smith, Edwin Wallace, M.D. 
Smith, Ruth M., S.B. 
Stevens, Caroline, A.B. 
Stickney, Mrs. S. C. 
Stuart, Edward, S.B. 
Sun, S. K. 
Swaine, Edith. 
Swan, Horace C., M.D. 
Taylor, Marion F., A.B. 
Taylor, Martha, A.B. 
Tayntor, Lewis Olds, Ph.C. 
Thorpe, Priscilla A. 
Townsend, Myron, S.B. 
Vieira, F. B., M.D. 
Wallace, Mary A., R.N. 
Weinstein, Jeannette Dorothy, 
S.B. 
Whaley, Mrs. W. B. 
Whitney, Elsie E., A.B. 
Willey, A. G., A.B. 
Wood, Margery (see Robinson). 
Wylde, Russell Arthur, A.B. 
193