232 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN' INSTITUTE. 



CITY SANITATION AND SEWAGE DISPOSAL. 



By L. J. Clark. 



It gives me great pleasui'e to have the opportunity of again 

 bringing before your attention a subject fraught with so much 

 interest to the people of Toronto, as the safe and economic disposal of 

 its sewage. This is a subject that is engaging the attention and 

 taxing to the utmost the ingenuity of all urban municipalities 

 where the health of the community is held in any regard. • 



It is also %vith a good deal of diffidence that I take up a subject 

 we might naturally look for the solution of, at the hands of medical 

 men and civil engineers. Perhaps you will say that it is on the 

 theoiy that " fools rush in where angels fear to tread," but I would 

 ask you to reserve judgment till you hear what I have to say on the 

 subject, and then render your verdict according to the facts sub- 

 mitted. 



City sanitation in its broader sense applies to water supply, house 

 construction, plumbing, street cleaning, meat and milk inspection, 

 etc., as well as sewage disposal, but as those departments are in com- 

 petent hands, I shall on the present occasion confine myself to the 

 latter subject. 



Before entering into the particular scheme I advocate I shall 

 briefly refer to some of the schemes already in the field. 



They may be designated : 1st, as Messrs. McAlpine and Tully's ; 

 2nd, Mr. C. Sproat's ; 3rd, Messrs. Herring and Gray's ; 4th, 

 Porous Carbon System ; and 5th, The Iron deodorizing process. 

 The two latter methods may do very well in small towns and inland 

 cities where there is only a choice between these ways and land fil- 

 tration or sewage farms. But where there is such a cheap and 

 efiectual way of getting rid of the trouble, as obtains in Toronto, they 

 are quite uncalled for. 



