Without a public health system in place these elements were left in the street to be breathed in and walked through daily.

In addition there engineering advances that built large high rise slums that were quickly filled to capacity even though they offered no fresh water or waste disposal areas.

The 1870's became the decade for urban public health reform as Congress made the move to reorganize the Marine Hospital Service. It was also at that time the Surgeon General position was created and still exists today.

The Surgeon General was charged with overseeing public health issues and providing advice, guidelines and mandates as to how they would be best handled.

During the 1880's the movement toward public health moved away from the political arena and into the laboratories around the nation.

It was at this time scientists began to learn how to isolate disease producing organisms for communicable diseases....
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