274 PETER SPENCE 



Several papers which he read before that 

 society are published; they have principally 

 a scientific, rather than a literary, interest. 



A favourite theme of his was embodied in 

 a paper read before the society and published 

 in pamphlet form in the year 1857; it is 

 entitled ''Coal, Smoke and Sewage scien- 

 tifically and practically considered, with 

 suggestions for the sanitary improvement of 

 the drainage of towns, and the beneficial 

 application of sewage." He divided the 

 contaminations of the atmosphere proceeding 

 from drains and chimneys into evils visible 

 and invisible, and the latter he regarded as 

 much more pernicious than the former. The 

 removal of solid filth from drains and cess- 

 pools, and of black smoke and soot from 

 chimneys was, he considered, a most imperfect, 

 crude, and unscientific method of dealing with 

 the evils. 



He writes: "The invisible evil is completely 

 ignored, the smoke nuisance is held as the 

 evil of our atmospheric condition. 'Burn 

 your smoke,' is the united cry of the Sanitary 

 Association, the public, and the law." He 

 calls the attempt simply to do away with 

 black smoke "the sanitary smoke-consuming 

 mania." 



