ON THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF SEWAGE. 53 



Considerable difficulty has been experienced in classifying the tabulated 

 towns, owing to the fact that sanitary arrangements have not, except in 

 a few instances, reached the point where complete systems may be said 

 to exist. This will be apparent on an analysis of the following details of 

 returns. 



Water. — In the supply of water, the greatest irregularity prevails. There 

 are few towns in which the whole of the inhabitants derive their supply 

 from public sources, these being largely supplemented by water from wells 

 and roofs. The quantity of water, too, supplied for public or general uses 

 and for special trades and purposes, varies very considerably, while the waste 

 is much greater in some towns than in others. In the 200 scheduled towns 

 there are 90 whoUy dependent on a public or general supply, 22 on private 

 sources only, and 88 partly on private sources, in addition to a public 

 supply. The returns show that there are in the 200 scheduled towns and 

 districts 7 towns with a public daily supply of water amounting to or ex- 

 ceeding 50 gallons per head, 6 between 40 and 50, 18 between 30 and 40, 

 46 between 20 and 30, 38 between 10 and 20, and 4 under 10 gallons. 

 The remainder, consisting of 81 towns, have made no return as to the 

 quantities supplied. 



Beceptaeles of Exxretal Matter, — With respect to this subject, there is 

 quite as much diversity of treatment and want of precise knowledge as with 

 respect to water-supply. In the 200 scheduled towns there are 44 in which 

 water-closets are general, 75 in which water-closets exist in considerable' 

 number, though privies are still much used, and 70 where privies very 

 greatly exceed water-closets in number. Only 446 earth-closets are re- 

 turned as existing in the whole of the 200 scheduled towns. 



Removal of Refuse. — It appears that only in 11 cases is there a total ab- 

 sence of sewers to discharge liquid refuse. In those 11 cases the slops 

 of the houses, the refuse of slaughter-houses &c., and the overflow from 

 cesspools find their way into surface-streams, or are absorbed by the subsoil. 

 At Paisley slops are thrown on the ashes to be removed by the public 

 scavenger, and at Frome they appear, by the returns, to be purchased largely 

 by cloth manufacturers. In these two instances only does there appear 

 to be any profitable use made of the slops before they are finally discharged. 

 AU the remainder appear to have sewers for the removal of liquid refuse into 

 which the excreta! matter of 44 water-closeted towns is whoUy discharged, 

 while from 119 towns in which privies exist the excretal matter is partly 

 discharged by the same means and partly by scavenging. In 3 cases the 

 excretal matter is wholly removed by public scavenging, in 8 by private 

 scavenging, and in 1 by both ; and in 2 cases it is partly thrown into the 

 surface-drains or ditches. In 25 toAvns the returns do not give any in- 

 formation as to the removal of excretal matter. The ashes are nearly 

 universally removed by the public scavenger, though in a few towns the 

 work is left to private action. 



Storm and Surface-waters. — In the case of 149 towns out of the 200 

 these waters are admitted into the sewers ; in nine instances, where new sys- 

 tems of sewerage have been adopted, the old sewers are entirely devoted to 

 the discharge of surface-waters ; in one instance special sewers are appro- 

 priated to the same purpose, while in 11 other instances the old surface- 

 channels are used. In 25 cases more than one of the above systems are 

 practised, and in the remaining 5 instances no return has been made. It 

 will be seen, by a close examination of the tabular statement, that in 

 , many instances the sewers have to receive an immense body of water in 



