156 president's address — section U, 



have passed through the hiiinan system or not, they 

 ultimately become dangerous, and should be removed before 

 decomposition has had time to commence. 



It is now generally admitted that the best means of remov- 

 ng liquid wastes, such as the discharge of kitchen sinks, 

 waterclosets, urinals, baths, and the various foul liquids which 

 flow fi'om industrial establishments, is by water-carriage ; but 

 water-carriage is quite incapable of dealing with garbage and 

 house refuse. It is not the best means of removing ordinary 

 street sweepings or manure; it is, therefore, necessary to 

 supplement the water-carriage system, where it is adopted, 

 by a systematic removal and destruction of garbage and other 

 refuse, such as the oflal of slaughter-houses, condemned food, 

 diseased animals and manure, the accumulations of yard and 

 street gullies, the sweepings of streets, and other offensive 

 matter which is not admitted into sewers. The almost 

 universal system existing in these colonies of filling up old 

 quarries and raising the level of low-lying land by means of 

 such organic refuse is obviously most objectionable, since 

 these places become centres for the spread of disease, and the 

 evolution of noxious and dangerous gases resulting from the 

 decomposition of the refuse, which exercises a most pre- 

 judicial influence on the health and well-being of the 

 inhabitants of the surrounding districts. Where the water- 

 carriage system does not exist, or wherever the nightsoil has 

 to be dealt with by any system other than that of water- 

 carriage, it is necessary to provide for its removal and ulti- 

 mate destruction or conversion into poudrette manure in a 

 safe and unobjectionable manner. 



It being admitted that water-carriage is the most practicable 

 plan of dealing with liquid and semi-liquid household wastes, 

 it remains for me to consider somewhat more closely the 

 details of the system. It should, however, be remembered 

 that while well-designed and well-constructed sewers, with an 

 ample supply of water, may be regarded as perfect from a 

 sanitary point of view, if they are badly arranged and badly 

 constructed they become fearful agents of destruction. 



Mr. Waring, one of the highest authorities on Sanitary 

 Engineering in America, states that the requirements of a 

 good sewer should be as follows: — 



"1. It must be perfectly tight from one end to the other, 

 so that all matters entering it shall be securely 

 carried to its outlet, not a particle of impurity 

 leaking into the soil. 



