ABSTRACT
The recognition that water could be a medium for disease goes back at least to 1854 when Dr. John Snow surmised that a polluted well near Broad Street in London might be the source of cholera. The fluoridation controversy beginning in the 1940s revitalized the age-old concern over water purity. In the first decade of the twentieth century, water treatment made important strides. Chlorination was well established and experimentation with copper sulfate to control algae was underway. Leading sanitarians had been able to convince city leaders that typhoid fever and related diseases were preventable through a combination of filtration and treatment. Disinfection became a complement to filtration and promised to play an even greater role in removing bacteria from the water supply. Ancient civilizations disinfected what they believed to be tainted water through boiling or by using copper vessels.
