4 THE TONER LECTURES. 



suited to the best performauce of this duty. In the recommenda- 

 tions that I shall lay before you, I shall for convenience and for 

 simplicity, and for reasons which Avill become obvious as we proceed, 

 assume that . the larger of the present sewers of Washington are 

 valuable only for the removal of storm-Avater from the roofs of 

 houses, and from the surface of the ground, and that the system for 

 carrying away house drainage, manufacturing wastes, etc., must be 

 very thoroughly revised and amended. In the development of the 

 details of a w^orking plan, it would rest with the projector to deter- 

 mine to what degree the present sewers could be made useful for 

 this purpose. I imagine that, the question of cost being set aside, 

 they would be much less generally used than would now be sup- 

 posed ; and that the more the subject is studied, the more important, 

 and in the long run the more economical, it will seem to relegate 

 the question of cost to a very secondary position. 



Work now being done should have in view the establishment of 

 a perfect sanitary condition throughout the whole city, which will 

 remain effectfve for all time. When we consider what Washington 

 is, and is always to be, no question of cost is worth consideration as 

 compared with absolute and permanent healthfulness. Economy 

 being regarded in its larger sense, mere cheapness has no place- 

 To consider, first, the fundamental difficulties of shore and low- 

 level outlets, it seems to me that the example of Holland points 

 the way to their easy and complete solution. Following the ex- 

 ample of that remarkable country, we need try no experiments, 

 and we need invent no new processes. We see there executed, — 

 on a scale which makes the Washington work seem insignificant, 

 and with a complete development of all details, — a well formu- 

 lated system for securing an absolutely good and permanent result. 

 It is not a little remarkable that the Dutch system of artificial 

 drainage, which has been equivalent to filling in the whole low 

 country to a depth of from five to twenty feet ; which has been in 

 operation from immemorial time ; which has reclaimed from the sea 



