ii4 
THOMPSON YATES LABORATORIES REPORT 
Yet the legal enactments regarding sewage disposal are hardly so definite as in 
this country. There is no special Act relating to Rivers Pollution, and local by-laws 
cannot exceed the common law. Moreover, there is an unfortunate decision of the 
Supreme Court of June 2nd, 1886, which says that a pollution not exceeding what is 
customary (' gemeinueblich ') must be permitted, even if it damage the utility of the 
water. Consequently there is no standard, and each case is judged upon its merits. 
There are, however, indications of impending changes and improvement.* A 
committee of experts has been formed, with official recognition, for the complete 
(biological, chemical, &c.) investigation of rivers, and there is a possibility of legislative 
regulations being introduced in the near future. 
It has been possible to lay down certain rules without statutory authority. 
Thus, in all cases where the sewage is treated by chemical means, the effluent is required 
to be free from B. coli. But this condition has not been applied to other methods 
of treatment, and no regulations have been laid down for sewage farms. Consequently 
the sewage fungus Leptomitus occurs in the effluents from the Berlin sewage farm, 
and it grew so luxuriantly that a bathing place in the River Panke, which received the 
effluent, became unusable. Yet the owner could obtain no redress, although he tried 
to do so, in face of the decision of 1886. 
On the other hand certain trades, and more particularly the sugar refineries, 
have been compelled to purify their waste ; and this has been done without any 
obvious detriment to the trade. A friendly co-operation between manufacturers and 
the Government exists, and advice and direction are given in each individual case by 
a committee composed of a commissary and an expert of the State and of the 
Directorate of the Union of German Sugar Industry. In spite of all these 
experiments it is, of course, recognised that, where possible, the proper method of 
sewage disposal is on a farm, and that only when this is unattainable, should other 
methods be adopted. 
Although it would appear that, both in technique and in results, the 
investigations undertaken in Germany fall behind those of this country, it is 
the harmonious association, to which allusion has been several times made, between the 
Administration and the municipality or the trade, the readiness of the Government to 
give advice instead of only criticism, which forms the most pleasant and striking 
feature of the present experimental stage of sewage disposal in Germany. To quote 
the wordsf of Dr. Schmidtmann, the principal medical officer of the Cultus 
Ministerium : — 
' This appropriate union of State and private objects and interests, the 
definite co-operation of science, technique and practice, promises most successful results, 
* Op. cit. 1900, Suppl., p. 308. f Op. cit. 1900, Suppl., p. 319. 
