1873 •] A Solution of the Sewage Problem. 73 



has been commenced this amount has never been 

 reached. 



But let us for a moment suppose that no profit at all 

 resulted from the sale of the manure ; and that the 

 sewage of London, we will say, had to be dealt with at 

 the price of £2 per 100,000 gallons (and on the large 

 scale it could certainly be treated at less than half this 

 cost). We have then the sewage of London, amounting 

 to 100,000,000 gallons per diem, treated (supposing the 

 population to be 3,265,000) at 4s. per head per annum. 

 The annual rateable property in the metropolis amounts, 

 according to the Valuation Act of 1869, to £19,971,000. 

 The cost of dealing with the whole of the London sewage 

 could therefore be defrayed by a rate of 7-8U1S of a penny 

 in the pound. These facts are in themselves a sufficient 

 recommendation of the process. 



That the process should encounter opposition is not only 

 possible but very probable. Its adoption will affect: many 

 vested interests, as well as the interests of rival schemes. But 

 ratepayers, whether they be scientific men or not, would do 

 well to investigate for themselves the claims of the ABC 

 process. And not only the ratepayer, but every man who 

 has a voice in the welfare of the nation and its production 

 of food, or who desires that our towns should be healthy, 

 should judge for himself of the value of the process. It 

 may then be repeated that the claims of the ABC process 

 to public confidence are threefold : — 



Lit deodorises and disinfects sewage, and precipitates 

 the suspended and much of the injurious dissolved 

 matter without giving rise to any nuisance ; it con- 

 verts the deposit into a dry, portable, and inoffensive 

 powder, possessing considerable manurial value. 

 II. It leaves the effluent water in a state of practical 

 purity, fit to be discharged into any river. 

 III. It effects these important sanitary requirements at a 

 cost, which not only relieves the ratepayers of expense, 

 but even yields a profit, owing to the ready sale of 

 the " native guano " at £3 10s. per ton, and its pro- 

 duction at a cost of not more, and probably much 

 less, than £2 a ton. 



vol. in. (n.s.) 



