THE SEWAGE DISPOSAL PROBLEM 



Bv F. N. KAY MENZIES, M.D., D.P.H. 



The sewage problem has arisen with the growth of civilisation. 

 The enormous increase in our urban population during the last 

 century has resulted in the development of many problems 

 concerned with the public health, such as housing, water supply, 

 milk supply, etc., and prominently among these we may include 

 the question of the disposal of filth. 



Prior to this period (which for all practical purposes we may 

 put at a hundred years ago) every man disposed of filth as 

 best he could. Cesspools were common, and where they were 

 not, faecal matter and domestic refuse were allowed to accumu- 

 late in the neighbourhood of dwellings. To some extent these 

 accumulations were, no doubt, periodically removed and placed 

 on the land ; but it is easy to see that as the population grew 

 and tended to aggregate in towns, the conditions would become 

 very objectionable, more especially in the thickly populated 

 areas of some of our large towns. It is interesting at this 

 point to note that the first efforts at sewage disposal were 

 mechanical — that is to say, the decomposing matter was trans- 

 ported from the vicinity of human dwellings to what was con- 

 sidered a safe distance, and when thus transported it was left 

 to such purification as the elements might afford. Thus manual 

 labour and animal haulage came first, to be followed by 

 " water-carriage," which may be traced back to a remote period 

 of antiquity, when it seems to have attained a high degree of 

 efficiency. At Knosos, in Crete, an elaborate system of drainage 

 with traps and lavatories, etc., has been unearthed. In the 

 cities of Greece, Dr. Caton tells us, the water supply was 

 liberal and the sewer conduits large, while the aqueducts and 

 cloacae of ancient Rome are well known to all of us. It is 

 curious that with the fall of the Roman Empire came the 

 complete decay of all sanitary enlightenment ; the renaissance 

 in this case did not occur until some fifty years ago, and it 

 began in this country. Referring to this period, Winslow and 



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