Mr. Smith on Sewage Water of Totvns. 73 



X. — On Sanitary Reform and the Use of Sewage Water of Towns. By 

 James Smith, Esq., late of Deanston. 



The author began by observing that the causes of disease are to a great 

 extent within our own power, and can be removed or diminished. There 

 was much less sickness when the population was smaller and less crowded 

 together; and it is found that the more populous a town becomes, the 

 greater is the increase of endemic disease. Much of the disease in every 

 country is caused by poverty and the want of domestic comfort, and above 

 all, by irregular habits. The latter cause is to be removed by moral 

 means ; the former, so far as it can be removed, by physical means. The 

 most prominent cause of disease is the accumulation of the various putrify- 

 ing matters generated by the community. He described the pernicious 

 effects arising from defective sewage, and especially the decomposition of 

 animal and vegetable matter in cess- pools. The removal of these sub- 

 stances without allowing any portion of them to escape would be the per- 

 fection of sewerage. This requires an unlimited supply of water available 

 at all times under pressure in every apartment where matter is generated, 

 to provide proper orifices for receiving it into air-tight sewers ; such orifices 

 to be thoroughly water-trapped, to prevent the possibility of the escape 

 from the sewers of any smell or gas whatever into the apartment, which 

 can be effectually done at small expense. The first thing to be done, 

 therefore, in order to the removal of these noxious matters, is to provide 

 an abundant supply of water. Then the question arose, are these decom- 

 posing substances useless, and to be thrown into the nearest river ? or can 

 they be made useful to the community by which they are generated ? He 

 proceeded to answer this question by showing how it could be applied to 

 the purposes of agriculture, so that it could not only be got rid of alto- 

 gether, but rendered, at the same time, a source of profit to the commu- 

 nity. Various methods had been proposed for this purpose ; some pro- 

 posing that the matters of suspension should be allowed to deposit in 

 ponds, to be afterwards dried, and used as a light portable manure ; the 

 watery part being allowed to flow into the rivers as heretofore; not 

 adverting to the fact, that the watery part contains the greatest amount 

 of enriching matter in solution. Others have proposed to precipitate the 

 matter in solution, as far as it can be done, by cream of lime or some such 

 cheap agent, by which there would still be a sacrifice of the ammonia and 

 alkaline constituents. Such treatment implies a considerable extent of 

 space for the necessary apparatus, a considerable quantity of material for 

 precipitation and desiccation, besides a great amount of expensive mani- 

 pulation, whilst it has been ascertained that the application of the mate- 

 rials in their state of suspension and solution, as in the recent sewage 

 water, is much more efficacious in promoting the growth of plants, than 

 when extracted, dried, and otherwise prepared. But if it shall at any 

 time be found that the manufacture of a portion of the manure in the dry 

 state shall be desirable, manufactories can bo established through the 



