The Hon. W. F. B. Massey Mainwaring spoke as 

 follows : 



It may occur to some present here to-day that I ought 

 to give some reason for appearing before you to read 

 the Paper with which my name is connected. The only 

 excuse I can give for asking your attention for my feeble 

 effort is, that when the Norwich Fisheries Exhibition was 

 in embryo, I suggested that one of its classes should be 

 devoted to exhibits for the best means of rendering our 

 rivers and streams free from the pollution of town sewage. 



A large number of scientific gentlemen, among others 

 him whose name was, and is still, I believe, a household 

 word among every assembly of men interested in our 

 fisheries, I mean the lamented Frank Buckland, have held 

 that one of the causes of the fish epidemic that is rapidly 

 depopulating the finny tribe in our streams, had its origin 

 in the dangerous germs produced by the putrid and excre- 

 mentitious matter allowed to enter in large quantities into 

 our rivers and streams, and I was, therefore, very anxious to 

 prove that if there were any remedies existing, they ought 

 to be more widely known through the medium of a public 

 exhibition. I am well aware that I shall be met by this 

 remark : " You are about to tell us of remedies to be ap- 

 plied ; but first prove that our rivers and streams are in a 

 sickly and unhealthy condition before you propose a pre- 

 scription that may be entirely unnecessary ; and even 

 admitted that the waters are in this insalubrious condition, 

 are they dangerous and antagonistic to fish life as well as 

 human life ? " Both these propositions are, I regret to say, 

 fiercely contested. It might seem nearly ridiculous for me 

 to take up your time by endeavouring to prove the pollu- 

 tion of some of our waterways, if it were not that at this 



