Robert Angus Smith, F. R. S. and ‘sanitary science’

Abstract

Abstract IN the library of the old Chemistry Department in Manchester University stood the busts of three ‘great chemists’, Lavoisier, Dalton, and Angus Smith. History has dealt less kindly with Smith than with the other two, but he does not deserve to be totally forgotten. As the first Alkali Inspector under the Act of 1863 (and for several years the only one) his effect on the face of industrial Britain should not be under-estimated. We are reserving this aspect of his work, however, for a broader treatment of the history of industrial pollution. In this paper we shall consider his life, and his contributions to what he called ‘sanitary science’; an ill-defined field of study, comprising aspects of those disciplines now called ‘public health’ and ‘environmental studies’. The present popularity enjoyed by these branches of applied science has tended to obscure the fact that they were pursued with a comparable vigour and urgency a century ago.

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