ON THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF SEWAGE. 329 



not yet been any opportunity for examining in detail the circumstances of any 

 particular locality, it would be premature at present to venture on any con- 

 clusions as to the numerous questions arising in reference to the treatment and 

 utilization of sewage, or even to trust implicitly to the figures (Src. given. Even on 

 the assumption that the information furnished to the Committee does fairly re- 

 present the whole of the circumstances to be considered, that information pre- 

 sents so much variation and even discrepancy in several important details, that 

 it seems indispensable there should be, in many instances, a miniite investiga- 

 tion upon the spot, which the Committee has not yet had the power to make. 



Although the Committee regards the present Keport as dealing only par- 

 tially with the subject of sewage, and as being in fact only a preliminary step 

 towards the work required to be done, it is considered that there are two 

 points (viz. the cost of various methods of dealing with excretal refuse, and 

 their influence on the sanitary condition of towns) which must be referred to 

 here, so far as the data obtained -^dll permit. 



The removal of the contents of pits and cesspools by cartage appears to be 

 in some few instances conducted with some profit ; more frequently, how- 

 ever, the cost is at least equal to the return obtained, and very often it is a 

 source of loss. In regard to this point there is a marked difference between the 

 results obtained in this country and those obtained on the Continent, where 

 the removal of the contents of the pits is frequently profitable, either to indivi- 

 duals or to towns. The treatment of liquid sewage does not appear to have 

 been advantageous in any instance, except in lessening the nuisance that would 

 otherwise be caused by the discharge of sewage into rivers, and in most in- 

 stances it has been a source of loss to the towns where it is practised. 



The cost of the application of sewage for irrigatirg land appears to be 

 dependent on a number of local coiiditions, and consequently to V9ry consider- 

 ably. It would seem, from the data obtained, that in many instances the outlay 

 requisite for this purpose woidd exceed what a farmer coidd be expected to 

 incur, and that, in sucli cases at least, it would be proper to regard this outlay 

 as coming under two distinct heads, viz. that which a town may reasonably be 

 expected to bear for the mere object of getting rid of its refuse, and that which 

 landowners or farmers may be able to incur for the improvement of their land. 

 It is probable that, when viewed in this light, the application of liquid sewage 

 to land would become a source of revenue to towns only under specially 

 favourable circumstances ; and tliat, in opposition to the opinions wliich have 

 been somewhat hastily formed in certain cases, it wiU more frequently entail 

 some amount of expenditure on the towns themselves. At the same time the 

 benefit to land, and the improvement in the condition of rivers to be realized 

 by the mode of dealing with liquid sewage, can scarcely be matter of doubt or 

 uncertainty any longer. 



In regard to the sanitary aspect of the subject, it may be regarded as 

 beyond question that the practice of allowing excretal refuse to accumulate 

 and remain neglected for a long time near dweUings, in pits, middens, cess- 

 pools, or otherwise, is almost invariably accompanied by prejudicial efiects on 

 the sanitary condition of the places where it is adopted, either by the im- 

 pregnation of the soil with decaying material, by the pollution of water, or 

 by noxious exhalations. 



But even in some places where the water-supply has been improved, where a 

 system of sewerage has been adopted, and other measures have been taken 

 with the object of getting rid of excretal refuse, the fact that the rate of 

 mortality has not been sensibly, if at aU diminished, appears to point to some 

 circumstance, as yet insufficiently guarded against, which still exercises a pre- 



1869. z 



