THE CONCERNS OF A YOUNG SCIENCE. EXPERIMENTAL HYGIENE AND WATER MANAGEMENT BETWEEN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURY|Le ansie di una giovane scienza. L’igiene sperimentale e il governo delle acque tra Otto e Novecento

Interpreting the relationship between medical science and urban sanitation between the nineteenth and twentieth century is still in part tied to the equation between scientific progress versus transformation and improvement of urban sanitary conditions. The interpretation raised many doubts, uncertainties and diverging opinions that characterized the teaching of bacteriology, a central discipline in urban sanitation. Based on research carried out by the Istituto d’igiene sperimentale of the University of Rome on the quality of water at the end of the nineteenth century, the paper will highlight three aspects. These are the cultural points of reference for the Roman bacteriologists, the development of theories and languages influenced by neighbouring disciplines such as chemistry and the interpretative limitations of bacteriology, which was in development. Such limitations would lead to a belated recognition of the relative scale of the phenomenon of the self-purification of water with its negative impact on the relationship between society and environment.