TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 409 



the country in such a form that agriculturists shall eagerly 

 compete for the possession of it. We are evidently on the 

 point of arriving at the conclusion that waterclosets and 

 sewer-drainage are too costly and too dangerous to be longer 

 tolerated. 



The cost of such a system in cities like London, Liverpool, 

 and Glasgow, is enormous ; and, after it has been incurred, 

 we are forced to acknowledge that the objects which should be 

 arrived at by a rational system of drainage have not been 

 attained. Medical science teaches that human excreta should 

 not be permitted to accumulate in the vicinity of our houses, 

 or be so disposed of as to pollute the atmosphere or destroy 

 the amenity of our coasts or rivers. What we do is this : We 

 construct cesspools close to our dwellings, and fill them with 

 the most dangerous impurities ; we intersect our streets with 

 sewers, which generate noxious gases ; we saturate our rivers 

 with filth, so that they are Ashless and their waters undrink- 

 able; and now, when air, earth, and water have been rendered 

 pestiferous, we are at our wits' end, and see no escape from 

 our position of growing jeopardy. We cannot cleanse our 

 drains by the more abundant use of water without incurring 

 intolerable expenditure. For instance, the remedy for the 

 olfensiveness of the London sewers is said to be an addi- 

 tional daily supply of 42,000,000 gallons of water, costing 

 £383,250 a year; whereas the existing water companies can 

 only supply 5,000,000 gallons per day. This was the state of 

 things many years ago, and it must be infinitely worse now. 

 The costliness of the water system is thus strikingly put by 

 Captain Liernur : "The average amount of water used per 

 day per individual is 4 cubic feet, or, say, 2501b., while his 

 fsecal products weigh but 21b. ; so that the water-carriage 

 men, in order to move handily lib., add 1251b. to it. Strange 

 engineering this !" 



Besides all this, w^e are now being forced to the conclusion 

 that our expensive and dangerous mode of dealing with sewage 

 is an absurd plan for throwing away matter the preservation of 

 which is essential to 'the productiveness of agriculture. While 

 so treating it as to convert it into a prolific source of disease 

 we have been practising what Liebig calls "robbery culture." 

 And, in order to give back to the soil that which it needs, we 

 are e^nnually expending incredible sums in the purchase of bone, 

 guano, and artificial manures. 



I desire to bring under notice one or two opinions of only a 

 few men of some note who have made exhaustive studies of the 

 whole question. T. Hawksley, C.E., of Great George Street, 

 Westminster, waiting in favour of the Liernur system, 

 but referring more particularly at the time to the general 

 scheme of sewerage as conducted in the United Kingdom, 



