ABSTRACT
Amidst the clamour for sanitary reform after the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Sanitary State of the Army were published in 1863, it was felt appropriate to take stock of the progress to date as a means of identifying the existing state of medical knowledge and the successes and failures of measures to deal with outbreaks of disease. This sketch by Edward Goodeve surveys the history of public health reform in Bengal prior to the establishment of the Sanitary Commission, and provides a useful insight into the thinking that informed its work.
