382 



NATURE 



{Sept. lo, 1874 



containing upwards of 300 acres, which was purchased 

 at a cost of 130/. an acre. I may mention that all the 

 figures were obligingly communicated to mc, verbally, by 

 the chief officer of the Commissioners. Up to the present 

 the outlay has amounted to upwards of 84,000/. The 

 soil is not naturally the best adapted for sew.-ige-famiing ; 

 it does not, however, offer any insuperable obstacle to 

 success. The sewage is received at the highest point of 

 the farm, from which it flows by gravitation to the lowest, 

 which is several feet below the river that runs by, and 

 into which the sewage passes after it has undergone 

 clarification. 



The sewage is distributed over the farm by a simple 

 system of carriers, and it is used mainly for irrigation. 

 After it goes over one plot it flows to another, and so on- 

 wards. At the lowest part of the farm a permanent plot 

 of osiers has been planted ; the intention being that this 

 plot will serve as a filter-bed for abstracting from the 

 sewage all offending material which is not taken out by 

 irrigation. After percolating through the soil of this 

 osier-bed, the clarified sewage is received in a second, or 

 outlet culvert, which is about two miles long, and in 

 which the fall— one foot per mile— is less than that of the 

 river. 



Under cultivated crops of all kinds at the present time, 

 there are about 100 acres. There is one good plot or 

 field of Italian rye-grass ; one good, and one indifferent plot 

 of mangold wurzel ; and one good plot of beans. A large 

 field of Italian rye-grass has utterly failed, and in its place 

 <Trew a luxuriant crop of weeds, which would have proved an 

 attractive feature in a botanic garden. There are other 

 failures on which it is useless to dwell. 



The land is not farmed in what could be called a skil- 

 ful manner ; indeed, the engineer frankly said that up to 

 the present, farming had been a secondary object with the 

 Commissioners. 



The greater part of the uncropped land has been 

 recently purchased. It is now being prepared for the 

 sewace at a cost which will doubtless exceed 20/. an acre. 

 I cannot help thinking that a [simpler scheme would 

 answer equally well for irrigation. 



It will be understood at once that the inhabitants of 

 Northampton have been rid of the abominable stench 

 which the sewage formerly inflicted on them. But there 

 remain for consideration two points of very great import- 

 ance to the people who live along the river below the 

 sewage farm. In the first place, if the sewage be not 

 deprived of its organic impurities on the farm, it must, 

 on mixing again with the river, cause a fresh nuisance. 

 That the people do think so is evidenced in a newspaper 

 report which lies before me ; and judging from what I 

 saw of the effluent water, I can sympathise with these 

 people. I took a small bottle of this water, which I 

 find contains a large quantity of organic matter. As it 

 went on the osier-bed it was still sewage most un mistake- 

 ably ; and when the pores of this bed — this so-called filter 

 bed— become full of the organic impurities, as they soon 

 must, the complaints will become louder and louder, and 

 justly so. 



I have a second objection to the arrangements here 

 adopted, and it is this : What guarantee is there that the 

 lonlagiuin of any infectious disease which may be in the 

 sewage is destroyed.' That soinf of it would be oxidised 

 or destroyed in flowing over the ground is certain ; but 

 the necessities of the case require that the whole of it 

 should be destroyed. 1 have made expetiments which 

 prove conclusively that the contagium of infectious cattle 

 diseases is not destroyed in flowing over land, nor in 

 passing through such a filter as is here provided ; and 

 as there is no evidence to show that the contagious prin- 

 ciple of human infectious diseases is not equally active, 

 it cannot be said that the Commissioners of Northampton 

 have satisfactorily disposed of the sewage of that town. 

 Thomas Baldwin 



NOTES 



We take the following fi-om the New York A'<z//(i« of Aug. 20: — 

 "The American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 has held its annual meeting at Hartford during the past and pre- 

 sent week. The most important business before the meeting has 

 been the consideration and adoption of a new constitution, de- 

 signed to remedy a long-continued evil growing out of the popular 

 character of the Association. The scientific character of the 

 papers and proceedings has very frequently been such as seriously 

 to compromise the standing of the Association in the scientific 

 world. To remedy this, it has been decided to select from the 

 members those who are engaged in science and form them into a 

 separate clas; of ' Fellows.' All the officers of the Association 

 are now to be chosen from this class, and the power of the 

 several committees to exclude improper or unsuitable communi- 

 cations has been increased. All friends of science will await 

 with interest the working of this improvement. The necessity 

 of some vigorous and effective measures must be obvious to any 

 one who will timply examine the lists of papers presented for 

 reading. Among some hundred authors, the number of really 

 eminent men may be counted on one's fingers, while the large 

 majority are entirely unknown, and present papers which, so far 

 as can be judged from their titles, are of no scientific importance. 

 We greatly doubt whether this evil will be cured by anything 

 short of a radical change in the publishing system of the Asso- 

 ciation. So long as there is a volume of ' Proceedings ' to be 

 published, so long will there be a pressure on the part of the less 

 desirable class of members to have their papers printed, and this 

 pressure can be resisted only by a little more moral courage on the 

 part of the Standing Committee than it has hitherto exhibited. 

 While such papers are admitted, we may_be sure that few of the 

 abler membeis will wish their productions to be seen in such 

 company. It is gratifying to notice that the present meeting ex. 

 hibits a decided improvement in this respect, and that notwith- 

 standing the general unimpor -ance of the communications, the 

 subjects of ether and atoms do not appear among those discussed 

 before the Association." 



Unuer the Principalship of Monsignor Capel, a Catholic 

 College is shortly to be opened in Kensington, in which the 

 Natural Sciences will be taught without restrictions. A museum, 

 a laboratory, and lecture rooms are in readiness ; and in the 

 Educational department more than one appointment has already 

 been made. Mr. St. George Mivart is to lecture on zoology during 

 the winter months, and on botany in the summer. Mr. Barif is 

 to lecture on chemistry. From what we hear, it will not be fur 

 lack of means that this institution will not be successful. 



Amongst those who will probably be candidates for the pro- 

 fessorship of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, now vacant in 

 University College, London, are Mr. E. Ray Lankester, Dr. J. 

 Murie, and Mr. H. Seeley. 



Dr. Alleyne Nicholson has been appointed to the chair 

 of Biology and Physiology about to he established in the Durham 

 University Colleges of Medicine and Physical Science, Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne. 



On the jrd inst. the Bishop of Exeter laid the foundation-stone 

 of a high-class schcol, to be conducted under the provisions 01 

 the Endowed .Schools Act, at Newcaslle-under-Ljne. His lord- 

 ship dwelt chiefly on the advantages of a modern education, 

 embracing chemistry, mineralogy, and mathematics, as compared 

 with the old Latin and Greek system. lie congratulated the 

 borough upon cluing the most important work that not only the 

 district, but the whole of England could be engaged in, by estab- 

 lishing a school in which boys might not only be taught a little 

 Latin and less Greek, but might be taught modern languages and 

 natural science, so as lo fit them for the future occupations of life. 



