By Dr. Allan Marble
A slow start
Although recommendations concerning public health had been introduced in England by Edward Chadwick in 1842, and a Public Health Act passed there in 1848, Nova Scotia was slow to adopt the idea. In 1862, Dr. Charles Tupper, Halifax's City Medical Officer, recommended that sewage be disposed via underground drains, slaughter houses be removed from within city limits, and pure water be piped into every tenement.