organization of a National Board of Health, a committee from which made a thorough examination of the sanitary conditions of Memphis. What the committee found in the way of filth was almost beyond belief. The city, they found, was honeycombed with cesspools and privy-vaults. Many of the cesspools and privy-vaults were under or in the cellars of houses, where they had been filled with accumulations and abandoned to fester and rot. Filth was everywhere—above ground and beneath the surface, in the house and out of doors. There was only one thing to do—give the city a good cleaning; and that was the only time in history, perhaps, when pressure from the outside forced an almost bankrupt city to observe the laws of decency and sanitation. The various works which had been built up to this time to supply communities with water, had for their sole object the providing of an adequate supply so far as quantity is concerned, but gave little thought to the quality of the water, so long as it was clear and cold. The sewers or drains on the other hand were constructed solely to prevent a nuisance and with no definite knowledge that an unclean environment and polluted water were conducive to ill-health, while pure water and clean surroundings were conducive to the public health. Some events were about to happen, however, which would awaken the public mind to the dangers of dirt, and that would usher in the present epoch of sanitation. [Illustration] [Illustration: ·BATHING·AND·BVRNING· ·HINDV·DEAD·AT·BENARES· "Who dies in the waters of the Ganges obtains Heaven" From Stereograph, copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. (See page iv)] [Illustration: CHAPTER VIII] Synopsis of Chapter. Sanitary Awakening—Realization of the Danger of Unwholesome Water—Cholera in London Traced to the Broad Street Pump—An Historical Stink. Truth is mighty and will prevail, but sometimes it is centuries before its voice can be heard and additional centuries before its language is understood. As early as 350 B. C., Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, pointed out the danger of unsterilized water and advised boiling or filtering a polluted water supply before drinking. He further believed that the consumption of swamp water in the raw state produced enlargement of the spleen. Had his warning been heeded the lives of millions of people who were carried to untimely graves by the scourges of pestilence which swept over Europe, Asia and Great Britain, might have been saved. Some idea of the ravage caused by filth diseases can be gained by reviewing the mortality due to cholera in London during the epidemics of 1832, 1848, 1849, 1853 and 1854.