Sewage Water for Irrigation 257 



with sewage some germs of typhoid-, cholera or other vile disease 

 which are propagated in human excrement ; " and in view of 

 what is now known regarding the nature of such diseases, it 

 is not strange that such fears should arise in the minds of 

 sanitarians. 



But in view of the fact that milk has been produced from 

 such feed for nearly a century immediately within the city of 

 Edinburgh, the sewaged grass traversing the streets daily during 

 the whole season in sufficient quantity for several thousand cows, 

 and the milk so produced wholly consumed by its people with- 

 out protest, must be taken as the safest possible evidence 

 that there is practically little danger in this direction ; and 

 when it is remembered that the large city of Milan, Italy, has 

 been supplied with milk produced from such grass fed the year 

 round for more than two centuries, the evidence against the 

 fear expressed is more than doubly strong, coming, as it does, 

 from a warm southern climate and covering so long a period. 



The question, however, is still discussed, and in order that 

 there may be no tendency to throw public vigilance off its guard 

 in so grave a matter, we quote from the Edinburgh Evening 

 Dispatch of July 5, 1895, parts of a discussion which was being 

 had at the time of my visit, as follows: 



"Last week we called attention to the peculiar tactics 

 adopted by some medical gentlemen, sanitarians and others, who 

 are attempting to float a new dairy company. * * * One of 

 the strategic movements of these 'philanthropic' speculators was 

 to try and create a prejudice against the milk produced in the 

 Edinburgh dairies, on the ground that the cows were largely 

 fed on sewage grass during the summer. In regard to this, we 

 pointed out that the royal commission which investigated the 

 whole subject of sewage farming some years ago, reported that 

 they had failed to discover a single case where injury to health 

 had resulted from the use of milk drawn from cows fed on 

 sewage grass. Since our article on the subject appeared last 

 week, our attention has been called to some further evidence 

 which fully confirms the conclusions at which the royal com- 

 missioners had arrived. In his evidence given before the Rivers 



