The Disposal of Sewage by Small Towns and Villages. 87 
is derived from shallow springs. Where the water-supply is 
deep, unless sewage escapes directly into the well, its perco- 
lation through 50, or even 20 feet of earth, must deprive 
the sewage of all its dangerous impurities long before it reaches 
the water-bearing stratum. Upon sewage-farms, where large 
quantities of crude sewage have been poured for years, the 
o or 4 feet of surface-soil still retains its power of filtering the 
sewage, so that the water escapes clear and pure from the under- 
drains. But where there is a shallow water-bearing stratum 
ready to burst out on every hillside, and these land-springs 
form the water-supply of the village, the danger of sewage 
contamination is serious and frequent. 
Where no fear of polluting the water-supply exists, attempts 
to sewer rural villages can hardly be justified. Not only is the 
expense great for a small and unequal sanitary gain, but it is 
seldom that the houses in a parish are so clustered together 
that all can be connected with the sewers. The means of 
flushing the drains are not always handy ; and, unless sewers 
are properly flushed and ventilated, they become foul and offen- 
sive, and sometimes are blocked. For cottages, the dry-earth 
closet seems the most rational way of dealing with faecal matter, 
and the house-slops can be easily emptied into a hole in the 
garden, from which under-drains might enrich the subsoil, as 
recommended by the late Mr. James Howard. But earth closets 
must be under constant supervision, and all slops must be 
rigorously excluded, or the closets soon become extremely filthy. 
Where the cottages in a village mainly belong to one proprietor, 
it answers well to have a man employed to remove once or twice 
a week the contents of the closet, and supply fresh earth ; and if 
the Sanitary Authority favour the dry-earth system, there is no 
reason why they shovdd not contract, or employ an officer for 
its superintendence and scavenging, in the same way that they 
now pay for flushing and inspecting the sewers within their 
district. 
In treating of the disposal of the sewage of small towns and 
large villages, it is not necessary to refer in any detail to the 
construction or plan of the sewers themselves, but, rather, to 
the means employed to purify the sewage. Most of the attempts 
at village filtration are of the most primitive character. A 
grating to catch the flocculent refuse, and one or two tanks filled 
with stones, gravel, or sand — called by courtesy filter-beds — afford 
little means of clarification, much less purification. But they 
may be of essential service in removing the most unsightly rubbish 
and the grosser solids, which so often disfigure and discolour 
the stream which eventually receives the sewage. Filter-beds 
