ON THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF SEWAGE. 



55 



treatment, into the river Lee, above the intake of the East-London "Water- 

 works Company, In this case the discharge from the sewers is, according 

 to these figures, 9^ times the quantity of water delivered to the houses of 

 the town. 



Ventilation. — The information afforded by the returns upon this point is 

 very deficient, owing to the fact that very few instances exist in which any 

 thing has been systematically done. 



Disposal of Sewage. — The largest quantity of water discharged per head 

 is that of Hertford, just mentioned, which amounts to 257 gallons. In 

 many other cases a very much larger quantity is discharged from the sewers 

 than can be accounted for by the water-supply, as will be seen from the fol- 

 lowing collected instances : — 



Name of town. 



Watei'-suiDply per person. 



Discharge per person. 



Hertford 



Eurton-on-Trent . 



Blackpool ....■< 



Dover 



Enfield 



Torquay 



Batlcy 



gallons. 

 61| 



with private supply 



in addition. 



50 



33 



30 



20 



gallons. 

 257 

 175 



154 



143 

 89 

 80 

 70 



Of the 189 towns and districts having systems of sewerage, 143 discharge 

 their sewage without any treatment whatever; in 17 instances the sewage 

 is simply filtered before discharge, in 7 instances it is chemically treated, 

 and in 17 cases recourse is had to irrigation, whilst in 5 instances the 

 system of disposal includes more than one of these methods. 



Scaven(fing. — Much interesting information has been given in the returns 

 with regard to the cost of scavenging and the returns obtained from the 

 sale of ashes and excretal and other solid refuse. In only two cases among 

 the returns from English towns is any profit realized, and these are Fare- 

 ham and Stockton-on-Tees. At Stockton-on-Tees, with a population of 

 23,000, the retiu-n gives a profit of £100 a year. At Fareham, where 

 there is a population of 6200, the refuse is sold to a contractor, who agrees 

 to collect both house and street refuse, and to remove the sewage from the 

 privy and closet cesspools when necessary, paying the Board £7 a year 

 only. In Scotland, one instance only is recorded in which a profit is ob- 

 tained, viz. Dundee, where <£630 a year is made. In all other recorded 

 cases the scavenger receives a payment in money as well as the refuse for 

 doing the required duties. The greatest losses are experienced at Liverpool, 

 where the scavenging costs £41,866 a year, or 19-7d. per head, and at 

 Scarborough, where it costs =£2050, or 22-4fZ. per head. At Malvern the 

 cost amounts to 18-Oc?. per head ; at Oldham, 13-ld. ; at Bradford, 19-3d. ; 

 at Rochdale, ll-2d. ; at Bridgenorth, 10-2(Z. ; at Torquay, 10-2d. ; at New- 

 castle 11-5d. ; at Cardiff, ll-3d. • at Llanelly, 15-3f?. ; at Aberdeen, ll-2d. ; 

 and at Edinburgh, ll-7d. per head per annum. 



The schedule is stiU very incomplete. If perfected iu all its details, much 

 valuable information would be collected, which would be found useful to the 

 sewer authorities of towns throughout the kingdom. 



