18 On the Principles and MetJwds [Jan.. 



and died about the year 340, mentions Tinioerates. the surveyor of 



Syria, by whom the city was throughout provided with water. The 

 water used for flooding the court of the Temple, to wash away the 

 offal and blood of the sacrifices, drained into a pit, now called ;; The 

 Fountain of the Virgin ; " from whence, after mingling with the town 

 sewage, it was conducted to a second one, now called the Pool of 

 Siloam — but which, it is thought, is not the one formerly known by 

 that name — and thence to the king's garden, for purposes of irriga- 

 tion. These pits served, no doubt, as settling- tanks to collect the 

 sohd matter ; and thus, in their general arrangement, we can per- 

 haps trace the earliest recorded attempts at utilizing sewage, and 

 one which, so far as our information goes, does not appear to have 

 differed materially from the most approved practice of the present 

 day. 



The difficulty in getting rid of night-soil and refuse in large 

 towns by any other method has necessitated the adoption of 

 sewers and water-carriage for that purpose, and with our present 

 knowledge on the subject it does not appear probable that sewers 

 will ever be superseded. "It matters not/' remarked Mr. Bailey 

 Denton in a recent letter to ' The Times ? * newspaper. " whether the 

 earth-closet system of exoretal sewerage gains ground in places 

 where advantageous circumstances suggest its adoption. seweis 

 must exist in every place where habitations are congregated toge- 

 ther, whether it be a city or a village, for the discharge of liquid 

 refuse from the chamber, the bath, and the kitchen, independently 

 of the excrements of the closet, which form in reality but a small 

 proportion of the entire refuse of the dwelling." The introduction 

 of sewers in places has, as might naturally be expected, led to their 

 being used also as drains, and the result appears to have been satis- 

 factory, although the reports by the Medical Officer of the Privy 

 Council tend to show " that where a system of separating the sew- 

 age of dwellings from the water of the soil on which they stand has 

 been adopted, and the sewerage and drainage can be discharged by 

 different channels, the maximum of success may be achieved." On 

 the other hand, Mr. Denton states that '•'wherever sewerage and 

 drainage — which have different sanitary effects, and ought to be 

 distinct operations — have not been carried out together, intention- 

 ally or accidentally, the operations have failed, more or less, in the 

 purposes for which they were designed.' 5 



The mixture of water with sewage is looked upon by some 

 agriculturists as a great drawback to its application. Apart, how- 

 ever, from water-carriage being the cheapest, as well as the most 

 convenient form of removing the sewage of towns, it is of value in 

 distributing it, and enables the operation of spreading sohd manure 

 over the face of the earth, which must otherwise take place, to be 



* : Times.' October 28. 1S69. 



