xxvn 



and secondly, that whe) eas the existing open drains offer no facilities 

 for sewage purification, if necessary, the proposed sewers do. 



It may be thought by some that it is needless to dwell so long 

 upon the subject of the disposal of house slops — that everyone, or nearly 

 everyone, is agreed that underground drains are the best for carrying 

 off this part of house sewage — that the real difficulty is in con- 

 nection with the removal of the rest of the fecal matter. People who 

 think thus have not paid very much attention to the matter, for 

 the settlement of the question as to the disposal of house slops is 

 virtually the settlement of the whole sewage question. The addition 

 of water-closet sewage to the rest of the sewage of a town makes so 

 little difference to its character and composition as to practically 

 niake no difference to the effect produced by its discharge into a river. 

 In other words, the Derwent would be just as much polluted by the 

 sewage if Hobart houses were fitted with earth closets as if they were 

 fitted with water-closets. For many illustrations of the truth of this I 

 must refer you to my report, as well as for the testimony thereupon 

 of the Rivers Pollution Commissioners at home, and all the leading 

 sanitary authorities. In the last edition of Baldwin Latham's 

 Sanitary Engineering there is a table given of the result of the 

 examination of the sewage of a large number of towns with and without 

 water-closets, from which it appears that on an average the sewage of 

 towns without water-closets contains in every 100,000 parts 121 '51 

 parts of solid matter either in solution or suspension, of which 31 '932 

 parts are organic matter and 11 '54 chlorine; and that of towns with 

 Water-closets contains in the same quantity 116'89 parts of solid 

 matter, of which 35 '934 are organic and 10 66 chlorine. However 

 paradoxical it may appear that the addition of water-closet sewage 

 to the other does not more affect its character, it is none the less a 

 fact. And the fact admits of explanation. In water-closet towns it 

 is more usual to keep street drainage out of sewers, as it is proposed to 

 do in Hobart. This street drainage no doubt accounts for the excess 

 of solid matter and of chlorine that the above quantities show to exist in 

 the sewage of non water-eloset towns as compared with that of water- 

 closet towns. But for polluting power there is, as above stated, 

 practically no difference between them. And thus, in the consideration 

 of the relative advantages of dry closets and water-closets, the question 

 of river pollution may be said to be eliminated. 



As to the relative advantages of dry closets in any town where 

 there is a proper water supply and drainage system — there are none. As 

 to the relative disadvantages, they are many, and are pretty fully set 

 forth in my report. To summarise them it may be remarked that all 

 pail systems deal with only a small part of the ftecal matter of a 

 population; that they are more disagreeable to use than water-closets ; 

 that the operation of emptying and cleansing them is always more 

 or less offensive ; that in times of epidemics they may spread infection 

 or cause panic ; that they are all far more costly than the water system, 

 and that in places where their efficiency is most needed they depend 

 for their efficiency upon the care of the most careless class of people. 



This last disadvantage is usually brought forward as a reason for 

 discountenancing the use of water-closets in the poorer districts of a 

 town, but the remedy has been amply provided in the shape of 

 trough closets and other contrivances. All the other objections 

 raised on sanitary grounds against water-closets and their connection 

 with drains are really objections against bad workmanship and bad 

 arrangement, and not against, properly constructed closets. Closets may 

 be constructed so that it shall be impossible for sewer-gas to escape 

 from them, so that it shall be impracticable to waste water by them 

 or to stop the drain communicating with them. Consequently house 



