SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 135 



features removed, contains practically all the bacteria 

 found in the crude sewage.* From the public health 

 point of view the clarified effluent apparently may be 

 little if at all better than the original untreated sewage. 

 Under these circumstances I would ask — is it not a very 

 serious matter that such an effluent should be allowed to 

 discharge anywhere in the neighbourhood of shell-fish 

 beds, or where any fishery contaminations! could take 

 place ? I may also remark in passing that however pure 

 such an effluent may look in mixing with the sea, bathers 

 should be warned against its dangers. Another point 

 with which we are not directly concerned at present, 

 a] though it is of great interest to the scientific man, and 

 may be of practical importance to the country, is . whether 

 enormous quantities of valuable fertilising materials 

 which ought to be applied to the land are not now being 

 wasted in the sea. We can leave the bathers to the 

 sanitary authorities, the question of fertilisers is one for 

 the chemist and the agriculturist ; but we are directly 

 concerned with the coast fisheries, and I would urge that 

 the Committee, and all fisheries authorities, should give 

 most careful consideration to the relations between shell- 

 fish beds and any sewage effluents, whether il treated " 

 or not. s 



Early in the year I asked Mr. Johnstone and Dr. J. T. 

 'Jenkins, who was at that time working in my laboratory 

 at Fisheries subjects, to devote a certain amount of time 

 in each week to a careful examination and classification 

 of all our fisheries statistics (accumulated during eight or 

 nine years), with a view to the drawing of any conclusions 



* London County Council Bacterial Treatment of Crude Sewage. Third 

 Report by Dr. Clowes and Dr. Houston, 1900. 



f I am not alluding to the conditions in the Thames, which I do not 

 know personally. It may be that no difficulty arises there. I am speak- 

 ing of the question generally, as such effluents may he likely to increase 

 around our coast, and will require careful attention. 



