1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



119 



pressure, cause the inliltrations to rise to the first stratum. For 

 the purpose of remedying tliis serious inconvenience, the Hospital 

 Board ordered a new absorbing well to be bored in a better position, 

 which, since the year 1S35, has absorbed 100 cubic yards of liquid, in 

 twenty -four hours. Besides, the infection produced by the other did not 

 extend to a great distance, for all the wells on the left bank of tlie Bievre, 

 and the well of Bicetre itself, wdiich is used for drinking by the popu- 

 lation of the establishment, liave never censed to supply good water. 



Notwithstanding the remarkable success attained at Bicetre ever 

 since 1789, a considerable time elapsed before the boring of artesian 

 wells was employed elsewhere for the dispersion of water, which have 

 no drainage on the surface. - A few years ago an artesian well having 

 been bored on the Post Horse .Scpiare, at St. Denis, it was found that 

 the waters, deprived of easy drainage, caused during frosts great im- 

 pediment to traffic from the ice produced. This jnconv{;nience had 

 almost caused the plan for a new spring on the Place of Guelders to be 

 abandoned, when M. Mulot engaged with the corporation to disperse inlu 

 the inlerior of the earth, ivhiii wanted, t/ie waters brought to the surface 

 after Ihij had been used for such purpous as were nquind. The new- 

 well was carried to the depth of 70 yards, and in the interior were 

 arranged three concentric tubes like tliose of a telescope, with this 

 difference that instea<l of there being any friction, they were separated 

 from each other by a space four inches broad. The water snpi)lied by 

 the deepest stratum is lironght to the svu'face through the inferior of 

 the smallest tube ; the water of a stratum Go yards deep is collected 

 in Ihe same way through the space between the smallest and the 

 middling jiipe ; and the third tube, enclosing all the others, collects 

 and disperses into tlie third (non-ascending) stratum the excess of 

 water supplied by the two others. 



A manufacturer of potatoe starch at Villetaneuse, a small village 

 three miles from St. Denis, by means of an absorbing well, gets rid of 

 the infected water, which had caused such serious complaints as 

 would, very probably, have obliged him to have closed his establish- 

 ment. The bore was carried to a depth of 70 yards, and during the 

 winter of 1S32 and 18'33, the well carried off' 80 or 90 cubic yards of 

 liquid per day. After it had been in operation for five months, the 

 borer carrying a scooji, with a valve at the end, was sent down, but, to 

 the great surprise of the manufacturer and engineer, only brought up 

 sand and wliitish water. This fact, which shows so strikingly the 

 rapidity of the lower currents, is enough completely to remove any 

 fear which might be entertained of tlie inconvenience of dispersing 

 among these currents such a quantity of infected water. 



Relying upon the previous examples the Board of Health recom- 

 mended the administration to leave the contractors of the Bondy lays- 

 tall at perfect liberty, and accordingly every twenty-four hours a 

 liundred cubic yards of liquid, charged with a considerable quantity 

 of solid matter are dispersed into the absorbing wells. 



An absorbing well constructed by M. Mulot for the city of Paris in 1835 

 at the Barriere de Combat, and also described in JSIagasin Pittorsque 

 carries oft' a hundred cubic yards per hour. The contract price was 

 £3.315 (8,-100 fracns.) 



M. Arago attributes the invention of absorbing wells, as well as of 

 the ascending ones to the French. Rene, the famous King of Sicily 

 and Count of Provence, had a number of cesspools dug near Marseilles, 

 in the Plain of Paluns, a large marshy basin, \yhich it seems impossible 

 to drain by superficial canals. These holes throw and continue to 

 throw into the permeable strata, lying at a certain depth, the waters 

 which would render the country unproductive. It is said tliat the 

 water absorbed by the cesspools of Paluns, after a subterranean course 

 form the gushing springs of the Port of Mien, near Cassis. This is 

 the most ancient example of the kind. These cesspools are called in 

 Provensal, embugs. 



The most important results are naturally expected from works of 

 this nature, which it is anticipated will place new resources within the 

 reach of the engineer. They will afford the means of draining marshes, 

 which otherwise could only be cleared by difficult or expensive pro- 

 cesses. The application to sewage is too evident to need inculcation, 

 they will enable us to relieve many small streams, which receive the 

 sewage of large and dense populations, and in every way they give to 

 the engineer abundant promise of being able to contribute in various 

 ways to the improvement of the public health. The extension of the 

 system at Paris is proceeding rapidly, and it is to be hoped that it 

 will be equally introduced in this metropolis, which lies in a similar 

 geological position. The marshy districts of Hackney, Lambeth and 

 Woolwich might be relieved, and instead of Mr. Martin's expensive 

 plan for the improvement ol' the sewage, the Thames might be much 

 more easily relieved by the filth being turned into absorbent wells. It 

 may be believed that the dirty water becomes disinfected much more 

 certainly, and so returned much sooner into circulation, by being dis- 

 persed in the under currents, than in the superficial waters". 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 



FASCICULUS xrv. 



" I must have liberty 

 Witlial. as largo a charter as the wincis, 

 Tu blo\v on whom I please." 



L It is said that Albert — or as some pretend he- ought to be styled, 

 ' His Majesty ! ' has a great ileal of taste for all the fine arts ; — and so, 

 indeed, had George tlie Fourth, the misfortune was that it was — in 

 architecture, at least, iutolerably bad, as Buckingham Palace most; 

 plainly testifies. But let us hope better things of Albert, — that he 

 will merit the epithet of Kuustlubcnd, und that he will exercise his 

 influence in behalf of that art which most requires it, — to wit, archi- 

 tecture. I trust he will have taste and to spare — for there will be 

 many about him not overstocked with it; yet how people instantly 

 discovered that he has such abundance of it, before he has done any 

 thing to show it, is rather puzzling; except that they have taken it 

 for granted, upon the principle that 



" All solrlieis valour, all di\'ines have grace, 

 And maids of lionour beauty — by their place." 



and of course a Prince Consort must be a phoenix of taste and accom-" 

 plishinents,-^a second admirable Crichton. 



It will be well should his architectural taste induce him to keep his 

 eye upon the new stables at Windsor, and to hint^in whatever quar- 

 ter it may be necessary, that they ought to be something less disgrace- 

 ful in design than the Mews behind Buckingham Palace. To say the 

 truth, royalty appears to have been hitherto singularly unlucky in its 

 choice of architects, in this country; which is all the more provoking 

 because it is not Royalty but John Bull who has had to pay for the 

 blunders and execrable designs of such persons as John Nash and Co. 



II. HovVever great architects may be in their own estimation, it 

 would seem that they are little better than mere cyphers in that of the 

 world, — such perfect nonentities that their names are of no importance. 

 I lately met with a very florid description of tlie Prince of Orange's 

 Palace at Brussels, according to which that building is one of extra- 

 ordinary splendour and taste, yet who the architect was is not men- 

 tioned. Neither is such omission by any means uncommon ; on the 

 contrary, it seems to be selon les regies, and the giving an architect's 

 name to be the exception to the rule. Dr. Granville for instance, not 

 only speaks of the palace of the New University at Ghent, " which for 

 chaste design combined with a rich and imposing style, yields the 

 palm to few modern buildings, and is superior to any erected for the 

 same purpose," but actually gives an elevation of its octastyle Corin- 

 thian jjortico ; and yet does not consider it worth while to inform us 

 who was the architect. Hundreds of other instances of the kind might 

 be produced, even from works professedly on the subject of architec- 

 ture. It may therefore be presumed that, unlike those of any other, 

 the members of this profession are distinguished by a strange excess 

 of modesty ; — or if not, they must be grievously disappointed at find- 

 ing that nobsidy cares to know even of their existence. 



Hi. Architectural descriptions — or what profess to be such, are 

 sometimes exceeding funny. In those accompanying Pugin's Views 

 of Paris, and done by a French teacher named Ventouillac, vre read of 

 the front of a building being " adorned by tvio perpendicular ranges of 

 columns," in addition to which curious information, we are assured 

 that it resembles " Palladio's celebrated portico of the cathedral of 

 Vicenza," the Basilica or Palazzo della Ragione of that city being 

 blunderingly converted into a church. Poor Pugin was grievously an- 

 noyed at those and other instances of stupidity, — and no wonder ; but 

 the publisher was well satisfied that the work was done cheap, and 

 nothing extra charged for such drolleries. It is not always, however, 

 that they manage matters much better elsewhere, for turning over an 

 Italian journal to-day, I met with some account of a book entitled 

 "Quadro Storico dell' Architettura, dal Marchese Malespina di Sanna- 

 zaro," where it is stated that St. Peter's was begun by Michael Angelo, 

 and completed by his pupils and successors, among whom the principal 

 one was Bramante!:— What a truly ingenious and delightful way of 

 writing — or rather mystifying history! I know nothing to be compared 

 to it except the following wicked bit of quiz -. " Hannah More.the daughter 

 the late of Sir Thomas More, who was beheaded in Utopia, was the 

 author of Little's Amatory or Inflaniatory Poems, to the infinite scandal 

 of her worthy brotlier the present Sir Thomas, well-known in the reli- 

 gious world by his work entitled Practical Piety, and by another entitled 

 "Cffilebs in search of a Saint in petticoats," — or this other, "The 

 Lousiad of Caraoens was written by Pindar the celebrated Greek poet, 

 who lived in the reign of George III." 

 IV. There is a Finnish proverb which says, " Charming girls, lovely 



B2 



