172 SEWAGE AND ITS PURIFICATION 



illness following mayoral banquets at Winchester and South- 

 ampton, which illness was traced to Emsworth oysters. 

 Legislation had been widely demanded for the prohibition of 

 the laying down of shell fish in sewage-polluted water or other 

 dangerous localities, and the protection of those laid down in 

 hitherto unpolluted places. The whole subject was therefore 

 dealt with as urgent by the Royal Commission in their Fourth 

 Report, 1904. They concluded that (vol. i., p. xi), " generally 

 speaking, it may be said that the Statute Law does not prohibit 

 the discharge of polluting liquids into tidal waters." From the 

 mass of evidence collected, they gave official confirmation to 

 facts of which others, including myself, had long been aware — 

 that sewage from towns and tidal rivers on the coast is usually 

 discharged in an unpurified condition, that injuries to health 

 and to fisheries may be thereby caused, and that some altera- 

 tion of the law was necessary. In many layings of oysters the 

 sewage can reach them in a very short time after its discharge, 

 and organisms of intestinal origin can be taken up by the shell- 

 fish and remain alive in them for several days, and can produce 

 diseases {ibid., p. xv). 



In the evidence it was urged ^ that every endeavour should be 

 made by local authorities to prevent typhoid bacilli or other 

 pathogenic organisms from gaining access to sewage, by 

 sterilization of the excreta of patients. It was admitted, how- 

 ever, that in the large discharge of typhoid bacilli in the urine 

 during prolonged convalescence there would be almost in- 

 surmountable difficulty. 



We gather, therefore, from the Royal Commission's Report 

 that sterilization of effluents is necessary — 



1. Where shell-fish or vegetables commonly eaten raw are 

 liable to be infected, provided it is necessary for them to lie in 

 such situations. 



2. Where disease organisms are discharged in large numbers, 

 as in the instance mentioned above, and in fever hospitals.- 



3. Where the effluent is discharged into streams from which 

 water is subsequently taken without proper purification. 



In their Third Report the Royal Commissioners had stated, 

 " We are continuing the investigations referred to in our Interim 

 Report (1901), for the purpose of ascertaining whether it is 

 practicable to destroy those micro-organisms which are com- 

 mon to sewage effluents, and which may be dangerous if the 

 ^ Vol. ii., 1904, p. 100. - Interim Report, vol. ii., p. 538. 



