1870.| 



( 17 ) 



II. ON THE PEINCIPLES AND METHODS OF 

 SEWAGE IEEIGATION. 





rajllilil 



EWAGrE utilization is perhaps one of 

 the most hotly-debated subjects of the 

 day, and frequent references to it have 

 from time to time appeared in the 

 pages of this Journal. These will be 

 found repeatedly in the Chronicles of 

 Science (Agriculture), and in two ar- 

 ticles, entitled respectively " Sewage 

 and Sewerage,"* and " On the appli- 

 cation of Sewage to the Soil,"t wherein 

 the progress made in the development 

 of works for sewage irrigation purposes 

 has been recorded. Our present object 

 is to give a brief account of the best 

 means for carrying out irrigation works 

 for the disposal of town sewage, and 

 of the laying out of lands preparatory 

 to the application of sewage, so far as they can be deduced from the 

 results of past experiments, and from works hitherto constructed 

 and brought into operation in different parts of the United King- 

 dom. We shall, however, preface our remarks on the above-named 

 subjects by a reference to one or two points in connection with 

 them, with the view to show that the present movement in favour 

 of utilizing our town sewage is but the revival of a practice of great 

 antiquity, which, owing to numerous causes, has, for many cen- 

 turies, been abandoned and perhaps forgotten. 



The recognized power of earth to act as a disinfectant may first 

 be traced to the Mosaic lawgiver, but it is not improbable that it 

 was applied to that purpose before the departure of the Israelites 

 from Egypt, and that the injunction for it to be so used whilst they 

 were on their wanderings was but a law for the observance of a 

 then well-known sanitary precaution. The filth of Jerusalem was, 

 it is recorded, at one time burnt in an oven in the valley of Hinnom, 

 which also served for human sacrifices, and was called "tophet" 

 from " toph" a drum, used on such occasions to drown the cries of 

 the victims. At a later period, however, when the Mosaic religion 

 was restored, the Temple purified and rebuilt, and the country began 

 to prosper under the protectorate of powerful neighbouring nations, 

 large sewers and aqueducts were constructed, which still exist, 

 owing to the fact of their being cut in the solid rock upon which 

 the city was built. Eusebius, who was a native of that country, 



* ' Quarterly Journal of Science,' 1866, p. 180. 

 VOL. VII. 



t Ibid., 1867, p. 357 

 C 



