SANITARY ENGINEERING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19261, 27 August 1924, Page 10

SANITARY ENGINEERING.

■" ''l INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 19. Delegates from many parts of tho world were present at tho International Conference on Sanitary Engineering which, organised by the institution of Sanitary Engineering, has been held at the Royal United Service Institution, London. The conference dealt with a veriety of important questions. and was remarkable for the large number of most excellent papers—numbering actually over 40 —that wore presented for discussion at the various sittings. Appropriately enough, tho first paper was by an official of the Ministry of Health, whose province it was to preside over that section of the department concerned with sanitary engineering. Mr Boulnois observed that it. was almost impossible now to realise the various views that were held by sanitary engineers on tho subject of sewage disposal. Thera were practically two schools of thought.—one that held that all sewage should go back to tho laud, and the other that decomposition should bo arrested bv chemical treatment The former method had. of course, hold its own. where suitable .conditions and land were obtainable, but with regard to the latter an immense number of palliatives were suggested and tried at huge expense with verv little, if any, success. Hundreds of patents were taken out, and experiments made, but it was always found that what was called secondary decomposition set ?n sooner or later in tho effluent which showed that chemical treatment could oniv " scotch " and not kill decomposition. It was curious to reflect how misguided we all were not to realise that all Nature’s. laws were here for our benefit if properly guided and not thwarted. Much might he said on tho improvements that have taken place with regard to public water supplies; suffice it to say that the domestic filter one saw then in almost every house had now disappeared What better proof could one have of the sanitary improvements which have taken place in this direction alone in the last 50 years? DISCUSSION. Mr J. K. Hoekins (U.S, Public Health Service} said that that service corresponded to the * Ministry of Health in (his country, but it. had not the eamc powers; it was engaged in assisting the State Boards of Health which wore independent. The activities of the Public Health Service were of an advisory character, but in cases where there was overlapping of activities between the States, the Public Health Service did exercise jurisdiction. The control of disease that might be transmitted from one State to another was within the functions of the Public Health Service. Dr W. B. Mercer (New Zealand) thanked Mr Gibbon and Mr Boulnois for having shown what had been accomplished in England with regard to sanitary matters, and said that in New Zealand they were trying to copy the methods adopted in this country. Ae a medical officer. of health, he dwelt upon his dependence upon the sanitary engineer, for without the sanitary engineer the medical officer of health would be as a ship without a helm.