70 



DB. R. ANaUS SMITH ON AKCIENT AND 



the nuisance spread by every house over the whole town, 

 carefully planted) one piece at every man's window. Our 

 streets are long rows of houses and long rows of cesspools, &c. 

 in alternation ; and \^ must remember that it is no matter 

 how clean a town may be, if we have before our own houses, 

 or behind them, a constant source of impure air as we now 

 have ; it is of no consequence what is around us if we are in 

 a little unwholesome circle of our own. But let water-closets 

 be universal, and this kind of drainage used, we should get 

 rid of cesspools, which are still building in our neighbourhood; 

 we should get rid of the moist part of middens, and of those 

 enormous town middens which are a very curious feature of 

 this city, lighted up at night and receiving stores from every 

 quarter, carted in a manner not so different from the old 

 Edinburgh system, so much ridiculed. Although we have 

 made great efforts, yet it does appear as if the plan now 

 used were one entirely out of accordance with the self-acting 

 machinery of the age. 



Let us consider what happens at present. The sewer water 

 does not receive even a large proportion of the night soil ; if 

 the town were perfectly drained into it, how much more valu- 

 able it would be ! But this small quantity pollutes the water 

 almost as effectually as a great, that is, it pollutes it so much 

 that it becomes unfit for all use whatever. A river is the 

 natural drain of a country, but it is also a natural supply of 

 water ; and whenever the two characters interfere, the distinc- 

 tion seems to call for distinct channels. The amount of matter 

 which will destroy the purity of a gallon of water is very small; 

 1 part of iron with 800,000 parts of water becomes perceptible 

 with sulphide of ammonium. The impurities therefore which 

 the eye does not see, may of course be in much smaller pro- 

 portion, although some do exist in greater quantity still in- 

 visible. We may conclude, therefore, that by one grain of 

 impure matter we may render impure a million grains, or 

 about thirteen gallons of water. I believe that we may injure 



