6 9 



gth March, 1887 



W H. Patterson, Esq,, M.R.I.A., President, in the Chair. 



W. H. Hartland, Esq., C.E., read a Paper on 



SEWAGE DISPOSAL AND RIVER POLLUTION : ITS 



PRESENT AND FUTURE ASPECTS, FROM A 



SANITARY AND ECONOMIC POINT 



OF VIEW. 



The Lecturer began by stating that probably no subject con- 

 nected with the public welfare demands a closer or more philo- 

 sophical inquiry than this. One of the first authorities of the 

 day has recently made use of the words, " I am compelled to 

 admit that the subject of sewage generally is in a frightful 

 mess." The dangers to public health are almost infinite in 

 number and character, and the legislative attempts to guard 

 against them promise soon to become not alone a serious 

 burden upon the pocket, but an irksome interference with the 

 freedom of domestic life. Yet the chief dangers from sewage 

 disposal are not, like those from bad food or drink or over- 

 crowding, patent to all, and thus easily avoided. They are 

 underground and out of sight, almost unknown, yet always 

 active and ready to spring up and destroy us, whenever a 

 favouring condition of circumstances may arise. What consti- 

 tutes a satisfactory system of disposal ? His reply would be 

 this — Purify the sewage before putrefaction sets in ; all the rest 

 will follow as a matter of course. Providence, indeed, will do 

 the rest in the shape of " aeration," for pure air no sooner 

 meets with either foul odour, liquid, or matter than a struggle 

 commences — it proceeds to purify them. In the right applica- 

 tion of these principles it may be we shall find a revolution 

 in the present methods of procedure, both of treatment and of 



