JANUARY 4, 1901.] 
be granted to reprint documents of public 
interest and that a library be established, 
where not only national, but also State, mu- 
nicipal and foreign official documents may be 
preserved. j 
A TELEGRAM has been received at the Har- 
vard College Observatory from Professor Kreutz 
at Kiel Observatory, stating that a comet was 
discovered: by Giacobini at Nice, Dec. 20°, 313 
Greenwich mean time in R. A. 22" 32™ 0° and 
Dec. —22° 0’ 0’. Its daily motion in R. A. 
is + 6™ and in Dec. —8’. The discovery has 
been confirmed at the Lick Observatory, the 
comet having been observed by Professor Ait- 
ken on December 24th, 26th and 28th. 
Tum American Medical Association has ap- 
propriated $500 for researches. Applications 
for grants may be made during the present 
month to Dr. H. C. Wood, chairman of the 
Committee on Scientific Research, 1925 Chest- 
nut street, Philadelphia. 
THE Council of the American Chemical So- 
ciety has authorized the establishment of a local 
section with headquarters in Kansas City. 
AT a meeting of the Society of Arts, on De- 
cember 12th, Professor Frank Clowes, chemical 
adviser to the London County Council, read a 
paper on ‘The Treatment of London Sewage.’ 
According to the London Times Professor Clowes 
said the present system of treatment consisted 
in straining or ‘screening’ off the larger solid 
matters and then mixing the sewage with solu- 
tions of lime and sulphate of iron; the chem- 
ical precipitate thus produced was then allowed 
to settle, together with the finer particles in 
the sewage, by sending the sewage slowly 
through parallel channels on its way to the 
river. The screenings or ‘ filth’ were disposed 
of by being dug into the ground; the settled 
matter, or ‘sludge’ was sent in tank-steamers 
to be discharged out at sea; and the fairly clear 
‘effluent’ passed constantly into the river at 
Beckton, Barking or Crossness. Although the 
condition of the river had been improved it had 
to be remembered that the effluent of the sewage 
after it had been freed from visible foul matter, 
still contained in invisible solution a large 
amount of putrescible substance, which might 
SCIENCE. 
39 
under suitable conditions lead to serious foulness 
in thestream. . In 1893 the Main Drainage Com- 
mittee of the London County Council started a 
large scale experiment on the bacteria] purifica- 
tion of sewage. This experimental treatment 
had been considerably extended in its scope and 
the results pointed to a general conclusion that 
the settled sewage might be purified to a far 
greater degree by encouraging the spontaneous 
purifying action of the bacteria which were 
present in the sewage itself. The effluent thus 
produced, without the intervention of chemicals, 
remained free from foul putrefaction, and was 
able to support the life of fish. Professor 
Clowes proceeded to describe the bacterial 
treatment by means of coke beds filled three 
or four times per 24 hours. The maintenance 
of the purifying action was due to the 
presence of bacteria upon the coke surface 
and to the adequate aération of these sur- 
faces by frequently exposing them to the 
oxygen of the air. The chairman expressed 
the opinion that the lecturer had rightly em- 
phasized the extreme importance of the sub- 
ject as a question of sanitation. The late Pro- 
fessor Faraday once called attention to the foul 
condition of the river as evidenced by the fact 
that a piece of card which he threw into the 
water disappeared when it became immersed to 
the extent of only one inch. Professor Poore 
told them that they were altogether on the 
wrong track, that they ought to restore the 
fertilizing materials, now permitted to go to 
waste, to the land, without the intervention of 
water, but for the present, at all events, he was 
crying in a wilderness. The only practicable 
method for the present generation seemed to be 
to minimize the inevitable nuisance as far as 
possible. He wished that Professor Clowes 
had given them some information with regard 
to the cost of the processes he recommended as 
compared with the cheapness of letting it 
alone. He desired to know how much land 
and what sized tanks would be required for the 
bacteriological treatment of the whole of the 
London sewage. He should have been glad if 
the lecturer had told them whether there were 
not other methods of applying the activity of 
bacteria to the purpose in hand. It was de- 
sirable to know whether the admixture of the 
