594 Hints for the Improvement 



we have already stated, by a siphon supported at any height 

 that may be required. Let it always be recollected that 

 when a siphon is introduced into a sewer, no very weighty 

 materials will be carried over by it, so that the tank or well in 

 which the longer leg of the siphon is inserted will receive the 

 grosser parts of the sewerage, which may be carted away as often 

 as is found necessary. 



If some plan of sewerage, such as we have above suggested, 

 were adopted at Southampton, the water of the estuary would 

 be kept perfectly clean and wholesome ; but if some such plan 

 be not adopted, even if the mud were taken out, the deposit of 

 the sewers would soon occupy its place and rise above the water, 

 and render the shore, in time, much more unwholesome than it 

 is at present ; and this unwholesomeness must necessarily increase 

 as the town increases in size. 



How the sewerage of Southampton is managed at present 

 we know not ; but that it is in a very bad state we had the 

 evidence of our senses in walking along the streets that we have 

 mentioned, and it is doubtless a great deal worse in the obscure 

 streets and by-places, into none of which did we enter. 

 Wherever a town is to be formed on the banks of a river, a lake, 

 or an inlet or bay of the sea, tliis mode of having an intercept- 

 ing sewer parallel with, and close to, the clear water, will be found 

 an exemplification of the true principles of sewer arrange- 

 ment. In a populous country like England, the large rivers, 

 such as the Thames, ought to have side sewers, which may be 

 open ditches in parts of the country not built on, from the 

 source to the mouth; and the tributary rivers ought also to 

 have their sewers. The clear streams can always be admitted 

 under the sewer, or the sewer may be carried over the river by 

 an upright siphon; the sewerage can always be delivered on 

 the surface for agricultural purposes by divergent ditches ; 

 which, instead of following the slope of the sewer, shall proceed 

 from it in a very gently sloping direction, till the bottom of the 

 ditch is at last on the surface, and the water running over and 

 manuring the fields. 



Direction of Streets. — In a town that has the character of 

 being damp, it is of great importance to lay out the streets in 

 such a manner, more especially in the lower parts, as that the 

 sun may shine on the whole surface of the street, and also on 

 the fronts of the houses on both sides, every day in the year in 

 which it appears. For this reason, as many of these streets as 

 possible should be in the direction of south and north, and as few 

 as possible in the direction of east and west. All the diagonal 

 directions are admissible, and to be preferred in projDortion as 

 they deviate from the east and west line towards the south line. 

 A street in the direction of east and west has the houses on the 



