158 



NATURE 



{Dec. 27, 1877 



of solid impurity equal to, if not greater than, that in the 

 fine-weather flow ; thus there can be no doubt that the 

 lower of these two figures is not in excess of the average. 

 Capt. Calver takes the amount at 100 grains per gallon, 

 and multiplying by the daily discharge quoted as 120 

 million gallons, he obtains a result of 279,225 tons per 

 annum. This probably does not exceed one-half the true 

 amount, as the water supply of the metropolis alone 

 reaches the amount assumed for the daily discharge, and 

 the rainfall over the drainage area gives nearly an equal 

 amount, which, for the reason just stated, must be taken 

 into account. We thus appear to have at command 

 upwards of half a million tons of suspended matter dis- 

 charged into the Thames in each year, which is amply 

 sufficient to account for the deposits observed. Thus we 

 read in the report that " Mr. Leach (the engineer of the 

 Thames Conservancy Board) reported in December (187 1) 

 that a deposition of 7 feet 9 inches of mud had formed 

 between the upper end of the southern embankment and 

 the White Hart Draw Dock, Lambeth ; that another 

 bank 100 feet wide and 6 feet thick occupied the river- 

 frontage of St. Thomas's Hospital, &c. By July of last 

 year a material portion of these masses had been cleared 

 away by excessive rainfalls." Are we to be left to the 

 mercy of such an unpleasant remedy as the floods of last 

 autumn to abate a nuisance of such magnitude, threaten- 

 ing, as it does, the existence of such an institution as St. 

 Thomas's Hospital, and showing how soon we may return 

 to the unsanitary state of affairs that existed twenty-five 

 years ago ? We have purposely avoided dealing with an 

 equally important part of Capt. Calver's report, in which 

 he points out the danger of the silting up of the navigable 

 channel of the Thames below London, as he has not 

 shown that the sectional area, though varying from 

 year to year, has at any point permanently diminished, 

 still the destructive elements have been shown to 

 exist, and the forces which now hold them in equi- 

 librium may at any time be thrown out of balance and 

 the evil creep on imperceptibly if once the eyes of the 

 public are closed to its existence. Without going into the 

 question of the value of the sewage estimated by the 

 highest authorities at 1,000,000/. per annum, thus not 

 only wasted but employed as a powerful obnoxious agent, 

 enough has been shown from the report before us to, we 

 hope, show the suicidal folly of discharging sewage whole- 

 sale and unpurified into tidal rivers. Yet even now a 

 scheme is under consideration for the collection of the 

 sewage from a large area in the Thames Valley and for 

 its discharge into the tidal waters of the Thames. We 

 believe that a careful perusal of Capt. Calver's Report 

 will dispel from the minds of the Thames Valley Joint 

 Board all hopes of a satisfactory though expensive solu- 

 tion of their difficult problem being arrived at in this 

 manner. As a remedy for the state of things he has 

 shown to exist Capt. Calver recommends that in pur- 

 suance of the powers they possess the Conservancy 

 Board call upon the Metropolitan Board to dredge away 

 the obstructions they have caused ; this may be indis- 

 pensable at present and may be an unavoidable and con- 

 stantly recurring expense until some profitable scheme is 

 devised for utilising the metropolitan sewage ; in the 

 meanwhile the example of the inhabitants of Abingdon, 

 as shown by the letter of their medical officer of health 



in the Sanitary Record of November 30, shows the 

 inutility of other towns in the valley of the Thames 

 striving to follow the example of London, and further 

 increasing its difficulties. We learn from Dr. Woodforde's 

 letter that the whole of the sewage of the town of 

 Abingdon is purified by filtration through natural soil 

 being frequently absorbed by one acre of land, and that 

 the amount of organic and inorganic impurity contained 

 in the effluent water after passing through the land is far 

 less, in some cases less than one half that contained in 

 the well water used for drinking purposes in the town. 

 As this unprecedented result has been obtained on land 

 of a character which exists in abundance throughout the 

 Valley of the Thames we think that the towns situated 

 therein have not far to look for the solution of their 

 difficulties. 



BOTANY IN GERMANY 



f ahrbiicher/ur wissenschaftliche Botanik. Herausgegeben 

 von Dr. A. Pringsheim. Elfter Band. Erstes und 

 Zweites Heft. (Leipzig : W. Engelmann, 1877.) 



THE second decade of volumes of the Jahrbiicher is 

 now begun, and up to the present shows no sign of 

 any falling off" from the high standard of excellence 

 attained by the former parts It is somewhat remarkable 

 that such a work can be carried on successfully. 

 Profusely illustrated (having about 500 plates in the 

 ten vols.), and containing papers of great merit, it is at 

 once evidence of the marvellous botanical activity of the 

 Germans, and the energy of their publishers. A glance 

 at the list of papers in the ten volumes shows that the 

 Jahrbiicher contain papers that have become classical, 

 and have been contributed by men who have risen to the 

 highest eminence in botanical science. Comparatively 

 few of the papers are contributed by Russians or Italians, 

 hence this one work may be looked,,on as almost wholly 

 the result of German research. The papers contributed 

 are chiefly morphological and physiological, although 

 occasionally one having immediate bearings on taxonomy 

 is introduced. There can be little doubt that the German 

 university system tends greatly to foster original research, 

 not only in botany, but in all other departments. The 

 botanical institutes, with laboratory, garden, and her- 

 barium attached,? the way in which the students are 

 induced not only to learn but to work under the superin- 

 tendence of the professor, the whole system of private 

 teachers and mode of promotion of the professors fosters 

 research, and gives a thoroughness and heartiness to the 

 work. In certain departments of botany, Britain is 

 second to none with her Hooker, Bentham, and Darwin, 

 but when we consider the enormous " microscope " power 

 of Britain, we cannot help thinking that^ much of it goes 

 to waste. There must be hundreds of microscopists 

 residing near our coasts, yet what do we know of the 

 reproduction of our algae ? A glance at the " Botanischer 

 Jahresbericht " shows how few British botanists there are, 

 and also that each contributes comparatively few papers 

 per year. But quality is better than quantity — work 

 slowly and well. The time is no doubt coming when we 

 may look for increased botanical activity, perhaps the 

 union of botanical studies to medicine has had something 

 to do with the comparative depression, and if botany be- 



