180 ' Air and Water Poisoning 



Art. LIV. — Air and Water Poisoning in Melbourne, 

 By Sydney Gibbons, F.C.S., etc. 



[Eead 22nd November, 1869.] 



some important subjects con- 

 nected with the public health 

 as it is affected by sewage and 

 water supply, and by their 

 effect on the atmosphere, I have 

 made some observations and 

 experiments, which I propose to 

 lay before the Society in the 

 present paper. The subjects 

 are so intimately connected, 

 that, divide them how we will, 

 the divisions will have much in common, and it will not be 

 easy to avoid a little iteration. Perhaps it will be best to 

 adopt the two headings already noted, viz. : Sewage and 

 water supply, as main lines, and to digress from the one to 

 the other as occasion may require. 



PART I. 



CITY SEWAGE. 



During the last year (1 868), when the city health officer (to 

 whose activity we are already so much indebted) was 

 exerting himself to reduce in some degree the evils to which 

 we are exposed by our system, or rather no-system of 

 disposing of sewage, he found that in many places excre- 

 mentitious matters were systematically discharged into the 

 street channels. Powers exist by which the offenders can 

 be punished, and the practice stopped when detected ; but 

 the contrivances employed frequently baffled the inspector, 

 and no wonder ; for the work was generally done at night, 

 there was seldom any external indication, and even if 

 observed in the day-time, a certain conclusion could 

 not always be arrived at. The plan, which is called " flush- 

 ing," consists in turning a waterpipe into the cesspit, 

 which is then connected with the common drain. It is 

 obvious that by using a large amount of water the materials 

 are so masked that they cannot be recognized, and it was 

 often necessary to break up drains and to enter houses in 

 order to detect the arrangement. A few places had long 

 been suspected, but at the time of these experiments it was 



