690 Hints for saving the London Manure 



on the ridges of hills, or in narrow stripes along the sea coast, these zones 

 become unnecessary, because the surface of the land is supposed to be 

 open on one or on both sides ; but in by far the greater number of cases, 

 which are continually occurring in every country, the principle of con- 

 centric zones or breathing places will be found to present advantages which 

 no other form or disposition of breathing places could produce. In country 

 towns or large villages, where the greater number of the inhabitants cannot 

 be supposed to keep horses or to support steam hackney coaches, or street 

 conveyances o f anykind, the first zone or breathing place ought not to 

 be farther from the centre than a quarter of a mile, and the exterior zones 

 of building should not be of greater width than half a mile, in order that 

 the inhabitants may never have niore than a quarter of a mile to walk. It 

 is much to be regretted, we think, that in the numerous enclosure acts 

 which have been passed during the last fifty years, provision was not made 

 for a public green, playground, or garden, for every village in the parishes 

 in which such enclosures took place. We hope the subject will be kept in 

 view in future enclosure bills ; and we hope, also, that the legislature may 

 not think it unworthy of their attention to take into consideration the 

 subject of breathing places, on some systematic plan, calculated for the 

 benefit of all ranks in all pai'ts of the British metropolis. 



Art. IX. Hints for a Plan for saving the Manure lost in the 

 Common Servers of London^ and for rendering the Thames Water 

 ft for Domestic Purposes. 



There are few gardeners or agriculturists who have not regretted the 

 immense loss of manure which takes place in London : though it is not 

 likely that any one would think of giving up the public sewei's for the 

 sake of saving this manure ; but as the time may possibly come when it 

 may be found worth while to be as careful of the manure of cities in 

 England, as they are of that of Brussels, Paris, and other cities on the 

 Continent, we shall here suggest how every particle of that which now 

 finds its way to the common sewers, and through them to the Thames, 

 may be saved, and made up in a portable form for agricultural or garden- 

 ing purposes in Britain, or exportation to any part of the world. 



Along both margins of the Thames form main sewers of dimensions 

 adequate to contain the contents of all the sewers and rivulets which now 

 empty themselves in the Thames, between Fulham Bridge and Deptford, 

 but which should henceforth fall into these main sewers. Continue these 

 main sewers down the river, gradually raising the bottoms of them, till at 

 Gravesend, or higher or lower, they dehvered their contents on the surface 

 of the ground. Proceed there as at the 2^oiidretfe manufactories in the 

 neighbourhood of Paris. 



Instead of sewers or tunnels underground, an aqueduct might be formed 

 by cast-iron troughs raised on columns along both margins of the river; 

 and into these the contents of the sewers might be raised by lifting wheels, 

 or pumps, worked by steam. These aqueducts must be raised so high 

 as to pass over the tops of carriages at the bridges ; and they must sink 

 underground and rise up again, or be carried round on a level, where they 

 come to docks for masted ships ; or, instead of carrying the aqueducts 

 down the river, they may be carried up, or they may recede from the river 

 in any direction to convenient situations for depositing their contents. By 

 raising the commencement of the aqueduct SO or .30 ft. above the level 

 of the river, the contents nrlght be conveyed several miles up the country. 

 This would certainly be the cheapest mode, but it would be attended with 



