This volume traces the evolution of the concept of Public Health and reveals the importance of political will and public spending in this field of civil engineering. Design, construction, operation and maintenance of water-supply and main drainage works are discussed. The period covered extends from Roman engineering through to the early 20th century, with examples from Europe, America and Japan.

Contents: Introduction; Urban Water-Supply: Attitudes to Roman engineering and the question of the inverted siphon, Norman A. F. Smith; Our debt to Roman engineering: the water supply of Lincoln to the present day, M. J. T. Lewis; Sir Hugh Myddelton and the New River, G. C. Berry; George Sorocold of Derby: a pioneer of water supply, F. Williamson; The old water-supply of Seville, George Higgin; Portsmouth’s water supply, 1800-1860, Mary Hallett; The impounding reservoirs of the Newcastle and Gateshead Water Company,1845-1905, R. W. Rennison; The old Croton Aqueduct, George H. Rappole; Bringing water to the Crescent City: Benjamin Latrobe and the New Orleans waterworks system, Gary A. Donaldson; Urban sanitation in preindustrial Japan, Susan B. Hanley; Sanitary Reform: The development of Victorian infrastructures: the example of Portsmouth, Robert A. Otter; Edwin Chadwick and the engineers, 1842-1854: systems and antisystems in the pipe-and-brick sewers war, Christopher Hamlin; The separate vs. combined sewer problem: a case study in urban technology and design choice, Joel A. Tarr; Sir Joseph William Bazalgette (1819-1891): engineer to the Metropolitan Board of Works, Denis Smith; Eugène Belgrand (1810-1878): civil engineer, geologist, and pioneer hydrologist, George Atkinson; Index.