UTILIZATION OF SEWAGE. 31 



told by Prof. J. H. Long, that " tlic dirty cnrront may be 

 seen floating from the outlet toAvards the crib, and that his 

 analjses indicate that the water of the city is polluted by 

 the sewage." 



Drinking our own sewage is not quite as revolting as 

 being obliged to drink a neighbor's. By the now somewhat 

 famous Pegan Brook, Boston takes her water mixed with 

 the sewage of Natick from one quarter, and the discharge 

 from the women's prison and tJie subsoil water from a large 

 cemetery on the other side of the lake. 



Hartford, Providence and Worcester, each has its sewage 

 question to dispose of. 



Among the pernicious effects of the present method em- 

 ployed for disposal of sewage, is the destruction of fish in 

 the Blackstone below Worcester. The disappearance of cod 

 from the wharves of Boston and the abandoned oyster beds 

 of the upper harbor, and even the clams Avhich formerly 

 were taken in s^reat numbers from Clam Island, have lonof 

 since put on immortality as a result of too filthy environ- 

 ments. The fish have all been destroyed in that part of 

 Lake Cochituate which receives Pegan Brook. Examples 

 of this nature might be recorded almost without number. 



ANCIENT METHODS OF GATHERING SEWAGE. 



The pool of Siloam is said to have received the washings 

 of the temple, and the liquid was used for the purpose of 

 irrioatiuir the kin^z's garden. Under the ashes of Vesuvius 

 are found water-closets connected with sewers at Pompeii. 

 In the reign of George the Third, house detritus was 

 excluded from the sewers under penalty of a fine, and 

 among the mound builders of America, remains of systems 

 of drainage have been discovered. 



The number of systems by which sewage is gathered in 

 modern times, are comparatively few. Most of the large 

 cities in Europe and America have what is known as the 

 single system, by which sink drainage after traversing a 

 cesspool, the contents of water-closets, and tlie surface 

 water, empty into a common sewer. The double system, as 

 employed at Memphis and a few European cities, separates 

 the rain water from the detritus of the houses. Philadel- 



