402 APPENDIX. [No. XXXVI.B. 



acre to permit sewage to be used on their land. The mode in which the 

 subject is handled by committees of both Houses of Parliament, where 

 so-called skilled witnesses have made the most ignorant and exaggerated 

 statements of the money value of sewage and the perfection of irrigation, 

 has interfered seriously with the scientific solution of the question. Not- 

 withstanding all these difficulties, medical social science has only steadily 

 to point out the ill effects of sewage irrigation, when we may confidently 

 predict that ultimately the sewage irrigators will be compelled to respect 

 the health of the general community as well as that of their own town, 

 that the public may be protected against a vitiated atmosphere, poisoned 

 water, water-logged soil, sewage-tainted vegetables, putrescible milk, and 

 diseased meat. 



It is curious with regard to all sewage questions, that the facts are 

 cross-stated. "Whilst independent and disinterested observers see the great 

 evils attendant upon the system as now practised, others, who are in- 

 terested either in the promotion of sewage irrigation or continuing it, 

 speak of the results in the most superlative manner The dis- 

 sentients are fully entitled to ask that all sewage produce should be labelled 

 as such. If the produce is as good as the sewage irrigators declare, such 

 a course must enhance its price ; but if it is as indifferent as impartial 

 observers state, then those who do not like it will not have it thrust upon 

 them by stealth. 



The problem of the day is, how to deal with sewage in our inland 

 towns, as vast sums of money have been already spent. The treatment of 

 the subject requires great prudence and moderation, for it is clear, where 

 millions of gallons of water have to be dealt with, that the fluid must 

 ultimately go by some river or channel to the sea, or be distributed over so 

 large a surface that it can be absorbed by the earth, a case which can but 

 rarely happen. If a due supply of water for ordinary cleanliness be em- 

 ployed, the resultant discharge of water from large towns must always be 

 enormous. I submit that the only safe plan, under the circumstances, is 

 to confess our ignorance, and to set to work experimentally to decide the 

 question at issue. First, let us try to keep the sewage proper within a 

 more reasonable compass and separate from the enormous bulk of water 

 with which it is mixed. Secondly, let us endeavour to destroy the poison- 

 ous character of the sewage, and get it into a state adapted for vegetation. 

 Thirdly, let us endeavour to cleanse the water by precipitation, and then 

 by filtration through so large an area of land that a pestilential marsh is 

 not created. 



When all these things are effected, and the public health secured, it 

 will be time to consider the economical bearing of the problem ; but life 

 and health ought to be considered before any question of wealth and gain. 

 It is folly to trust the management of sewage to town councils, con- 

 stituted as they usually are, especially whilst we are ignorant of the best 

 plan to be pursued. The only practical method is for the country to place 

 the sewage from one or two of our large towns under trained persons, 

 accustomed to original investigation and to the interrogation of nature, to 

 work out experimentally the matter, that the country may know upon 

 what principles, under varying circumstances, the distribution of sewage 

 may be rendered innocuous, when, from the circumstances of the case, it 

 cannot be carried to the wide ocean, which, with our present knowledge, is 

 the safest plan that can be followed. 



