394 APPENDIX. [No. XXXVI.B. 



No. XXXVI.B. 



SEWAGE, SEWAGE PRODUCE, AND DISEASE. Paper read 

 before the Health Section of the Social Science Congress, held at 

 Norwich, October 3rd, 1873, by ALFRED SMEE. 



ONE of the most serious problems of the day connected with medical 

 social science is the question of the effect of sewage-grounds, as now 

 conducted, on the public health. 



The present system is to collect sewage by drains arising from each 

 house in a town. These are joined together, first, according to streets, 

 then according to districts, till the whole forms one vast and continuous 

 stream, which flows by night and by day, differing somewhat in amount 

 according to the hour of the day, till it reaches its outfall. 



From this point the great stream is again subdivided over a territory 

 of varying extent, when the sewage is supposed to be disinfected by the 

 land, and the quasi-purified water is again collected into a channel, which 

 has its outpourings in one of the rivers of the district. 



During the whole course, sewage is a dangerous nuisance, tends to 

 many deaths, and more cases of illness, which by skill and prudence, acting 

 with due regard to the rules of social science, may be averted. 



In the first part of its course, the sewage is in a state of fermentation, 

 decomposing and disintegrating the solid matters to such an extent that 

 pieces of paper, which all photographers know may be kept in water for 

 days and weeks, are torn to shreds, and at the outfall nothing but dis- 

 coloured water with slimy particles are to be seen. 



During this fermenting process, the so-called sewer gases are exhaled, 

 faint and sickening in odour, and unmistakably, according to the experi- 

 ence of all medical men, the cause of typhoid fever and other diseases. 



A preventable cause of these maladies is to be found in the successful 

 dissipation of the sewage gases. If pent up in the sewers, as they are 

 reported to be at the West-end of London, they find their way into the 

 houses and poison the inhabitants. The whole doctrine and practice of 

 ventilation ought to be regarded in this part of the subject to dissipate or 

 alter the poison. I have known cases of typhoid fever at the top of a hill, 

 from the drain forming a flue, acting as certainly as the tall chimney used 

 by the manufacturer, to carry the sewer poison directly into the rooms of 

 the dwelling-house. 



In the city of London ventilating openings are placed in the centre of 

 the streets, and it is rather grotesque to see openings on either side of a 

 narrow lane trapped, while in the centre, about two feet distant, a venti- 

 lating shaft is left open. Upon the whole, this ludicrous plan is better 

 than that adopted at the West-end of London, where these openings are 

 either wanting or much less frequent. The distribution of sewage gases 

 still requires study and experiment to render them innocuous to the public. 

 I should myself recommend the trial of small shafts from the sewers to the 

 tops of the houses from the house drains. The engineer to the city of 

 London has, however, presented a most important exhaustive report upon 

 this subject, demonstrating all the dangers and difficulties, but candidly 

 confessing that he is unable to settle the questions which have arisen. 



