24 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



All of these defects have been traced in the Reports of the 

 Sewage Commission. First of all it was appointed in 1898 

 and has thus sat throughout one complete reign and parts of 

 two others. When all charitable allowances are made for the 

 complexity of the matters with which the Commission dealt, 

 this lengthy deliberation can hardly be excused. Among the 

 Commissioners were some scientific men and associated experts 

 of high attainments, yet one can hardly fail to be disappointed 

 by their contributions to the results of the inquiry. The 

 Commission did indeed institute a series of scientific investiga- 

 tions the results of which are included among its publications, 

 yet it cannot be said of this work that it has done more than 

 state a series of problems of economic and scientific interest, 

 and suggest the possible lines along which these problems may 

 successfully be attacked. Above all it cannot be said that the 

 Commission stimulated scientific investigations to the extent 

 that the magnitude of the interests concerned requires in- 

 vestigation. Finally, the only apparent result of its Reports 

 appears to have been the institution of machinery dealing with 

 the problems in question in an unsatisfactory manner, in so far 

 as the very necessary foundation of thorough scientific research 

 has not been attempted, nor is at all likely to be attempted. 



It is from this point of view, the tendency to set up ad- 

 ministrative machinery which is likely to have no adequate 

 scientific counterpart, that I propose to consider the Sewage 

 Commission's Report. 



First of all let us notice the legal and natural conditions and 

 problems that have to be considered, in so far as the pollution 

 of the sea and the fishing grounds is concerned. We have to 

 reckon with a population, inhabiting the sea coast and the 

 immediate neighbourhoods of the great estuaries and rivers, 

 that has been rapidly increasing and is likely still to increase. 

 The result is that an increasingly large volume of domestic 

 sewage and manufacturing effluent is yearly entering tidal 

 waters. The difficulties in dealing with this discharge of 

 sewage are twofold : (1) defective administrative machinery, and 

 (2) defective methods of rendering the effluents harmless. We 

 may, rather briefly, first consider the administrative machinery. 

 The pollution of truly fresh-water rivers and lakes can (theoretic- 

 ally at least) be prevented by the applications of the provisions 

 of the Rivers Pollution Prevention Acts, but these do not apply 



