26 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



such a way as to render the remedy no real prevention of 

 injurious pollution. 



I have referred to these legal matters here since they illustrate 

 one tendency of legislation made by lawyers. The layman who 

 criticises the provisions and mode of operation of Acts of 

 Parliament is usually regarded by the lawyers as an amateur 

 and a meddler. But one can hardly fail to see that the study 

 of the laws and the forms of laws made by man removes the 

 mind from the contemplation of real natural things and con- 

 ditions. Legal subtleties and niceties of procedure ; the 

 inclination to find restrictions and limits to human activities ; 

 and the creation of an altogether artificial environment — these 

 are unfortunately rather typical products of the legal-ad- 

 ministrative mind. " Unpractical " and visionary though he 

 may be described as being, the working scientific investigator 

 is still in contact with the real things of life and their physical 

 environment. 



I turn now to the latter aspect of our subject, that is, the 

 consideration of the means, extent, and effects of the pollution 

 of the sea-fisheries. Now what may most generally be regarded 

 as the sea-fisheries are hardly at all affected by the discharge of 

 sewage into the sea. There are indeed parts of the north-west 

 coast of England where the extensive weathering of slag from 

 ironworks has produced a coastal margin of sea bottom detri- 

 mental to most forms of marine life, but this is very local and 

 unusual. The inshore and deep-sea trawl and line fisheries are 

 quite unaffected, and there can hardly be said to be any clear 

 evidence of the dissemination of disease by means of sewage- 

 infected fishes. There are, indeed, some cases where rather 

 extensive outbreaks of enteric fever have been traced to fish, 

 such as plaice, obtained from fried-fish shops in the East End 

 of London, but in spite of the evidence of an investigation 

 conducted in a very brilliant and accurate manner one can 

 hardly accept the conclusion that the fish were infected in situ 

 by sewage of human origin, and it would appear that some other 

 source of dissemination of the disease must be expected. Neither 

 are crustacean shellfish — crabs, lobsters, prawns or shrimps — 

 likely to become infected by intestinal bacteria of human 

 origin, and we are practically restricted to such molluscan 

 shellfish as oysters, mussels, and cockles for the carriers of 

 infection received from sewage-infected estuarine water. 



