SEWAGE AND SEWAGE lUVEltfi. I6l 



large supplies of water now coming into our towns has given 

 us a capacity for extending the water-closet into every house, 

 and I believe that it is the true one, in spite of the obstacles 

 placed in its way in our own town. It has fortunately taken 

 hold of England in a manner such as to prevent all power of 

 receding. Removal by water seems to have begun in every 

 large town, ancient and modern, but never at any time 

 brought to perfection, because peace and prosperity and a 

 knowledge of the arts have so seldom endured long in any one 

 place. The tendency of improvement has always manifested 

 itself in the direction of removal by water and by underground 

 sewers. The usual way has been to remove the opening of 

 the sewer to the lower part of the town, but in course of time 

 this portion of the neighbourhood becomes surrounded with 

 inhabitants, and great inconveniences arise ; it is then drained 

 into a river or brook, if there be one, and again that becomes 

 a closely inhabited district, whilst the nuisance of the drainage 

 is sufficient from a large town to render impure the largest 

 rivers. This state of affairs is generally of very gradual rise 

 from the beginning; no one can be blamed, no one could have 

 foreseen the evil; as to the end no one need claim much credit 

 for seeing that something must be done ; the evil rises up in 

 a hideous form .before us all ; our capital city appears to be 

 built on a cesspool, instead of a magnificent river, and Man- 

 chester becomes a proverb, by giving its rivers and canals 

 such blackness as not only to render them disagreeable, but 

 to cast a shade of gloom on all who come into the town. 



Various Methods of Treatment. 

 The methods of treating the fluid matter of the sewers 

 are few. The practice of allowing it to go into the river 

 has long been objected to. The method of applying it to 

 land, and so taking hold of it before entering the river, 

 although long in gradually increasing practice, was first 

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