TRANSACTIONS OB" SECTION 0. 8G1 



AsHBix IIefuse, Market Garbage, Fish, and other Offal. 



Method 1. I'utrefaction. — In this process the refuse is dumped on vacant 

 ground, often in the neighbourhood of inhabited houses. 



Method 2. Utilisation. — {a) Sorting is carried on only to a very limited 

 extent. Reasons are given why it is not likely to come into 

 general use. (b) Manure manufacture, as at present pursued 

 in some places, is highly objectionable from a sanitary point 

 of view. 



Method 3. Combustion. — It is easy tn burn ashbin refuse, by means of 

 arrangements the most simple or the most complete, from a 

 heaped fire in the open air up 1o an elaborate 'destructor,' 

 involving heavy capital outlay ; but it is by no means easy 

 to burn it without any smoke, smell, or noxious fumes being 

 given off. However, the system of burning is now carried 

 on in many places, and in some very satisfactorily, and this 

 is the process to be recommended. 



Method 4. Sending to Sea. — This arrangement, which is, of course, only 

 practicable for seaboard towns, is not altogether unobjection- 

 able, as a considerable portion of the refuse floats and is 

 sure to be washed ashore. It is also said to interfere 

 seriously with fishing, as the floating articles get into the 

 nets. In addition, it is essential that the refuse should be 

 taken right out to sea, and this is impracticable in stormy 

 weather, when the system breaks down, causing great in- 

 convenience. 



Street Sweepings. 



These contain sufficient horse-droppings to be saleable as manure in most cases, 

 though their value is largely affected by the nature of the road material and the 

 quantity of mineral dust contained. They are generally sold for manure, some- 

 times dumped or tipped, and they maj- be readily burned. 



Excrement. 



The use of the public sewers to convey a mixture of domestic sewage and 

 liquid manufacturers' refuse, diluted with a goodly quantity of town's water, and 

 in many cases with surface water from the streets, is the system now generally in 

 favour with sanitary authorities for 'getting rid of the most dangerous class 

 of refuse. Its ultimate disposal is, in the great majority of cases, not fully 

 provided for, and in many not at all. It is often turned into the nearest 

 water-course, intercepting sewers being provided for carrying it to a point below 

 the town producing it. 



Manufacturers' refuse has no business at all in the public sewers, and the 

 producers should be made to dispose of it themselves. The existing laws are 

 sufficient to compel them to purify the effluent before passing it into any water- 

 course. The sanitary objections to the use of sewers as a means of conveyance are 

 very serious, and some of them maj be indicated by the mention of the terms 

 ' sewer gas,' ' alternately wet and dry surfaces,' ' leakage.' It is also costly as 

 compared with other systems. Filtration through sand and through fibrous 

 material, by pressure and precipitation, by chemical and mechanical processes, are 

 systems more or less imperfectly adopted by municipal authorities for dealing with 

 liquid refuse, and they leave a large residue in the form of sludge which is, in 

 some places, simply deposited on the ground in heaps or sloughs. At_ Ealing 

 sewage sludge is being burnt in the destructor very successfully, and this is the 

 proper method of disposal. The authorities of London now barge it out to sea in 

 what is known as the ' Sludge Fleet,' and the amount of black mud stirred up by 

 the passage of a large vessel to or from the Port of London is said to be less than 

 formerly in consequence. It remains to be seen whether the enormous dredging 



