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NEWS: Annabel Ferriman BMJ readers choose the "sanitary revolution" as greatest medical advance since 1840 BMJ 2007; 334: 111-a [Full text]

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Sanitary Revolution

John S. Morley   (20 January 2007)

Omnes viae Romam ducunt (All roads lead to Rome)

John Doherty   (23 January 2007)

What would lay persons choose?

Ulrich Heininger, Ulrich Heininger   (24 January 2007)

Sanitary Revolution 20 January 2007
John S. Morley, Honorary Consultant Neuropharmacologist Pain Relief Foundation, Clinical Sciences Centre, Liverpool L9 7AL Send response to journal: Re: Sanitary Revolution	Our editor is to be congratulated on her NEWS item, and her recruitment of reflective articles on the significance of the sanitary revolution since 1840. Tribute is rightly paid to the pioneers of this revolution, but let us not forget the pivotal role of the practitioneers created by the Public Health Acts - the Medical Officers of Health, and the officers variously referred to as Inspectors of Nuisances, Sanitary Inspectors, and now Public Health Inspectors. The devotion, astuteness and prescience of this body of newly created professionals were indeed remarkable. Indeed, many major sanitary advances seem to have arisen from the lively dialogue they engaged in - evident in Letters in the Journals they created, and the interchange of personal letters. I have knowledge of two examples of the latter: in one, 1893 letters between a rural and an urban sanitary inspector resolved general problems in the siting of sewage works; in the other,1941 letters between a medical officer of health and the Ministry of Food resulted in modification of the government's milk pasturisation policy. Competing interests: None declared
Omnes viae Romam ducunt (All roads lead to Rome) 23 January 2007
John Doherty, Medical Director IAEA, Vienna, Austria 1400 Send response to journal: Re: Omnes viae Romam ducunt (All roads lead to Rome)	That sanitation is the greatest medical advance since 1840 will surprise those who have perched on the cool marble of the twenty-four seater forica (communal lavatory) in Ostia Antica.(1) Rome's Cloaca Maxima (600 BC) and Acqua Appia (312 BC) must surely take the laurel. 1. Ferriman A, BMJ readers choose the "sanitary revolution" as greatest medical advance since 1840. BMJ 2007;334:111. Competing interests: None declared
What would lay persons choose? 24 January 2007
Ulrich Heininger, Attending Physician University Children's Hospital, CH-4005 Basel, Ulrich Heininger Send response to journal: Re: What would lay persons choose?	And now it would be interesting to see what the public would choose as the most important medical milestone since 1840. Competing interests: None declared