304 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



to enter the river, must eventually be undertaken, if 

 permanent improvement was to be effected. Under 

 the County Council and its able adviser Dr. Clowes, 

 this is now (1906) in a fair way of being accomplished, 

 and the river has within the last few years been much 

 improved, although with a high temperature and limited 

 rainfall its condition still leaves much to be desired. 



During the last quarter of a century the question of 

 sewage pollution had attracted considerable attention 

 owing to the fact that the rivers were foul ; especially in 

 manufacturing districts and in densely populated centres, 

 and a remedy for this state of affairs had to be found. 

 In 1891 I was consulted by Sir John Hibbert, chairman 

 of the Lancashire County Council, with regard to the 

 condition of the rivers in the administrative area of the 

 Mersey and Irwell Watershed, and I supported the 

 authorities in obtaining a special Act of Parliament 

 for dealing with the questions of river pollution on that 

 area. The Act, known as the Mersey and Irwell Joint 

 Committee Act, came into force in 1892 ; I was then 

 appointed the scientific adviser to the Joint Com- 

 mittee. In that capacity I advised that, in order to 

 free the rivers from trade pollution, the Joint Committee 

 should act in co-operation with the manufacturers. And 

 the outcome of this advice resulted in a series of con- 

 ferences being held with the various manufacturers 

 concerned, at which the ways and means of purifying 

 the trade effluents of their particular industry was dis- 

 cussed, and undertakings obtained that efficient means 

 would be adopted for purification. The policy of secur- 

 ing the goodwill of the manufacturers still continues, 

 and has proved to be a wise one ; and the result has 

 been that substantial purification has been obtained 

 without litigation : no less than 306 works out of a 

 total of 444 have erected efficient purification works, 



