604 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 642 



to bring their combined sewage through 

 miles of sewers to the bay. One of these 

 projects is unprecedented in the quantity 

 of sewage to be carried. By a curious 

 coincidence, the contemplated point of dis- 

 charge is near the statue of Liberty En- 

 lightening the World. 



To say the least, it is disquieting to con- 

 template the discharge of so much potential 

 danger into the waters which flow by our 

 doors; which so many of us cross and re- 

 cross daily; which is the scene of many of 

 our most imposing national and municipal 

 pageants; where some of us bathe— and 

 many of us get our oysters. 



If the wastes are rendered innocuous, 

 they are destroyed in ways which are not 

 understood. Our knowledge of the fate of 

 the sewage of New York may be said to 

 extend no farther than the outfalls of the 

 sewers. 



It is unwise to count blindly upon the 

 purifying action of sea water and the tides, 

 for to what extent the flow of the ocean in 

 and about the great rivers and harbors 

 which intersect the metropolitan district 

 transports and renders innocuous the five 

 hundred million gallons of dangerous mat- 

 ters which are discharged into them every 

 day, it is impossible to say. 



Perhaps the sewage is flushed out to sea ; 

 perhaps it is consumed by minute animals 

 and plants; perhaps some of it is turned 

 into gas, some into liquids, some oxidized 

 or burnt up by the nitrifying bacteria in 

 the water. Perhaps much of it is stored 

 in pockets and sludge banks until freshets 

 in the Hudson flush it out to sea. We do 

 not know what becomes of it. 



Obviously, the harbor, as a whole, has a 

 large digestive capacity for sewage, but it 

 would be curious, indeed, if that capacity 

 had no limit. There are few persons who 

 have been actively interested in studying 

 this problem who do not consider that 

 eventually some other method of sewage 



disposal than the present one will be neces- 

 sary for a large part of the Metropolitan 

 District. It is only a question of time. 

 How long, nobody knows. 



These two questions, the supply of pure 

 water and the disposal of this water after 

 it has been turned into sewage are sanitary 

 problems of the largest kind. The esti- 

 mated cost of constructing the new water 

 works of New Tork exceeds the estimated 

 cost of building the Panama Canal. If it 

 becomes necessary to collect and purify all 

 of the sewage of the metropolitan district, 

 it may be a costlier task still. 



The highest skill, wisdom and efSciency 

 are none too great to enlist in devising safe 

 and suitable works of such magnitude. 

 The sciences of pathology, chemistry, bi- 

 ology, physics, meteorology and mechanics 

 must contribute generously to the fund of 

 information necessary in order that the 

 plans may be brought to that high point of 

 perfection which engineers characterize 

 as 'necessary and sufficient' in their 

 works. 



And there is another consideration which 

 has, so far, received little thought, but 

 which must be taken into account in deal- 

 ing with the sewage disposal problem. 

 For work to be done at all, it must be done 

 within permissible limits of cost. The 

 charter of New York, which intentionally 

 omits to restrict expenditures for water 

 supply, confines the cost of sewerage and 

 sewage disposal to within the constitutional 

 debt limits of the city. 



In thus giving emphasis to two of the 

 problems which New York is attempting to 

 solve, it is not intended to draw attention 

 from other sanitary engineering problems, 

 some of which are of almost equal promi- 

 nence. 



The double problem of cleaning the 

 streets and disposing of the wastes so col- 

 lected is one of the greatest magnitude. 

 It costs the city over $6,000,000 per year to 



