No. XXXVI.c.] APPENDIX. 403 



No. XXXYI.c. 



PROPOSED HEADS OF LEGISLATION FOR THE REGULATION 

 OF SEWAGE-GROUNDS. Paper read before the Society of Arts, 

 Dec. 1, 1875, by ALFRED SMEE. 



THE extension of the water-closet system in our towns during the last 

 quarter of a century has been attended with great convenience to the 

 inhabitants of individual towns, but the consequences have entailed 

 corresponding injury on the general public. The quantity of water 

 required for the water-closet system amounts to about thirty gallons 

 per head a day, which for a town of reasonable magnitude causes a 

 river of sewage to run from the town, which has to be disposed of. 



At first the sewage was carried to the nearest stream in such quantities 

 that every river in England was converted into a huge sewer, and the 

 Thames itself on one occasion was black from the putridity of the sewage 

 matters discharged into its waters. 



The pollution of rivers was of so serious an extent that a Rivers 

 Pollution Commission was instituted, and steps were taken to prevent 

 our rivers from being destroyed and contaminated by the sewage of 

 our towns. 



To remove sewage from the rivers it was determined to apply it to the 

 earth, and at first the most exaggerated notions were entertained by high 

 authorities as to its value as a manurial agent, and theorists indicated that 

 by its use so much vegetation would be grown, and so large an amount of 

 meat produced, that every one in this land who scarcely tasted animal 

 food once a week would have a daily and ample supply. 



Unfortunately, however, such fallacious hopes have been long dis- 

 sipated. Sewage irrigation has been found, as a general rule, to be a 

 troublesome, an expensive, and an unsatisfactory process. Wherever 

 practicable, it is preferable to carry it to the wide ocean, there to be 

 oxidized by the winds and waves ; and only when that is impossible from 

 the distance to be traversed, are sewage-grounds, with the present state of 

 our knowledge, to be adopted. 



There are situations where the water-closet system is employed, in 

 which it is necessary to purify the sewage, and in these cases the question 

 of the conduct of irrigation-grounds has to be considered. 



The theory of returning to the earth, by sewage, that which is taken 

 from the earth by food, commands our respect and attention. But the 

 sewage is diluted with so much water that it cannot be practically returned 

 to the earth in a suitable state for plants. Up to this moment it has not 

 been satisfactorily separated from the fluid so as to be economically 

 applicable in a dry state, and the enormous bulk of the liquid prevents its 

 being economically employed in the fluid state. 



In considering the qualities of sewage, the large quantity of in- 

 organic poisonous matter which is cast into sewers deserves notice. 

 Cyanide of potassium and the refuse of all the photographic establish- 

 ments, various metallic poisons from the electro-chemical works, the fluid 

 residue of various manufactories, disinfecting solutions, &c., are passed 

 into the sewage. 



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