ON THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF SEWAGE. 323 



rectly ; and it appears to be generally admitted that these are serious evils 

 that require to be remedied. 



Besides these views as to the sanitary aspect of the subject, there is stiU 

 more decisive evidence of the conviction that a vast quantity of material is 

 now wasted which might be of great service in agriculture for sustaining and 

 augmenting the fertihty of cultivated land. There is, however, no instance 

 in which decisive conclusions have been arrived at as to the best mode of 

 dealing with town-refuse so as to secure a satisfactory state of public health, 

 and at the same time admit of the agricultural value of that refuse being 

 realized without concurrent disadvantages. It does not appear that any par- 

 ticular improved system of dealing with house-refuse has been generally 

 adopted as a substitute for the old practice of collecting such refuse in pits 

 with periodical removal of the contents ; neither is there any case where an 

 attempted improvement has been long enough practised to furnish satisfactory 

 evidence as to the efficacy of the means adopted, and their influence on public 

 health. In both these respects it may safely be said that foreign towns are, 

 as a rule, far behind some towns in this country. 



The method of removing excretal refuse by pumping it into carts and carry- 

 ing it out of the town to the neighbouring land, has in some instances been 

 continued with satisfaction, while in other instances it has been abandoned 

 after trial. 



The plans of collecting and removing excretal refuse in portable closed 

 reservoirs has been largely adopted in France, Saxony, Switzerland, and other 

 countries ; but in no case is any specific information given as to the extent to 

 which the liquid portion escapes, spontaneously or by drainage, to pollute the 

 adjoining soil and watercourses, or how far the portion of the refuse that 

 remains represents the original value of the excreta for agriculture. In some 

 towns it is evident that only the solid excreta are used as manure ; thus in 

 Zurich there is a system of sewerage which carries off both the rain-water 

 and liqiiid drainage from gutters, houses, and reservoirs for collecting excreta. 

 Probably in most cases, where cesspools or fixed and portable reservoirs are 

 in use, the greater part of the liquid excreta drains away. 



In some towns, as in Berlin for instance, the use of water as a means of 

 transporting the refuse has been proposed, and it is stiU under consideration. 

 Some of the scientific authorities deputed to inquire into the subject have, 

 however, recommended that any general system of sewerage, based on that 

 principle, should not be adopted, because of the increased difficulty it gives 

 rise to in the realization of the value of the excreta as manure, and because 

 of the anticipated prejudicial influences on the air of the district if the 

 sewage were applied to land, and upon the water of rivers if the liquid 

 refuse were mixed with it. 



There does not appear to be, in any country, general or systematic legisla- 

 tion in reference to sanitary matters. Almost everywhere the regulations 

 with that object are in the hands of the police or other local authorities ; and 

 though the provisions relating to removal of refuse, cleaning of streets, &c. 

 are often very minute and stringent, they are seldom or ever of such a 

 nature as to deal effectually with those tendencies to unhealthiness which 

 result from accumulation of excretal and other refuse material, especially in 

 large towns or densely populated districts. 



As to the precise conditions that affect the public health, the connexion 

 between the sanitary state of towns and the drainage, water-supply, mode of 

 disposing of excretal refuse, &c., there appears to be, even more than in this 

 country, an absence of definite knowledge or of demonstrative evidence in 



