ON THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OP SEWAGE. 315 



the general truth that, in regard to the mode of dealing with excretal refuse, 

 the sanitary point of view is far more important than any other. If, then, 

 the weightiest question to be solved by a municipal body be, how best to 

 preserve the health and life of the population committed to its charge, it is 

 evident that one of the fii'st duties of such a body is that of providing for the 

 disposal of excretal refuse in a suitable manner. The recognition of this 

 sanitary axiom has been so imperatively enforced during the present century 

 by the frequent prevalence of epidemic diseases, such as cholera and fever, 

 that it may perhaps now be regarded as unquestionable, except where igno- 

 rance overcomes intelligence, and where mistaken notions of economy prevail. 



Under this aspect the subject has lately attracted very general attention, 

 not only in this country but also in most civilized countries abroad. It will 

 therefore be desirable to recite briefly the circumstances under which excretal 

 refuse may become a source of injury to health, and to trace the course events 

 have taken in regard to this subject since public attention was first directed 

 to the sanitary condition of towns, and since measures have been adopted 

 with a view to its amelioration. 



Besides the inconvenience and ofiensive character of the system of collecting 

 excretal refuse in pits or vaults near dwellings, the evils consequent on that 

 plan arose chiefly from the impregnation of the surrounding soil with decom- 

 posing material, and sometimes also from the pollution of water used for 

 domestic purposes. The pits or reservoirs were in some cases provided with 

 overflow channels or with drains, by which the liquid contents were discharged 

 into a neighbouring watercourse or into a sewer ; but in many cases that was 

 unnecessary, where the soil was of a sufficiently porous nature to admit of the 

 continuous free escape of liquid from the pits. By this natural drainage, 

 according to the nature of the soil, the liquid portions of the excreta would 

 permeate the soil and gain access to the wells, which were, as a very general 

 custom, placed close to the pits where excreta were collected. Moreover this 

 foul drainage would be augmented in many cases by the access of surface- 

 water to the pits, especially during wet weather. 



These evils were often much aggravated by the absence of any systematic 

 drainage or sewerage of towns sufficient for the removal of subsoil water, 

 which became stagnant and putrefied beneath the dwellings. Even where 

 imderground sewers existed they appear to have been intended only for the 

 removal of surface-water ; the connexion of house-drains with these sewers 

 was prohibited, and it was penal to discharge or throw any excretal or other 

 oflfensive refuse into rivers. 



At that time the water-closets (introduced by Bramah in 1793) were very 

 rarely in use ; they had been adopted only in the better class of houses in 

 towns, and then they were used in conjimction with underground vaults for 

 receiving the material discharged from them. Their subsequent more general 

 adoption, and the concurrent acquisition of a better and more copious water- 

 supply, were no doubt largely conducive to domestic comfort and convenience ; 

 but, in regard to the condition of towns, these changes were attended with 

 a decided aggravation of the evils arising from the use of vaults or pits as 

 receptacles of excreta ; for the drainage or overflow from these pits became 

 continuous on account of the use of water in the closets, and it was no longer 

 dependent on the occasional access of rain. Under these circumstances the 

 pits or vaults became cesspools *, constantly charged with liquid, and in 

 most cases they had no outlet into the sewers. Even so late as 1844 the Health 



* This term appears to be of recent origin, as it is not to be found in old dictionaries. 



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