150 
Use of Town Sewage as Manure. 
Analysis of the Soluble Matter ix different specimens of 
Strekt-Drainage Water. 
Grains in an Imperial Gallon. 
Great Traffic. 
Little Traffic. 
_ 
Macadam, 
Granite, 
Macadam, 
No. 10. 
Nu. 
G. 
No. 12. 
No. 7. 
Water of combination and some 
77-56 
U / 
22-72 
13-73 
soluble organic Matter. 
0-51 
2 
81 
15-84 
12 
23 
None. 
None. 
Sii I 'n nil i*inA/'in 
36-49 
38 
23 
46-48 
34-08 
6-65 
13 
38 
25.90 
16-10 
None. 
23 
51 
Trace. 
3-50 
Oxide of Iron and Alumina, witli 
2-58 
1 
25 
a little Phosphate of Lime. 
Chloride of Potassium 
None. 
10 
99 
None. 
2-79 
, , Sodium .... 
53-84 
44 
88 
18-44 
19-70 
82-76 
18 
27 
8-75 
5-23 
1-58 
276-23 
194 
62 
123-87 
95-13 
It will be seen that the solul)le rricatters of these samples of 
water consist of salts of potash, maijnesia, liine, and soda. The 
sulphuric acid (in the state of sulphates of lime, potash, (Sec.) 
owes its origin most probably to the lar^^e quantities of sulphur 
daily thrown into the air from the coal burnt in the metropolis. 
This sulphur, in whatever form it mif^ht orij^inally exist in the 
air, would rapidly be oxidated and brought down by rain in the 
street. The large quantities of potash in these waters — amount- 
ing, in one instance, to 80 grains in the gallon — are due to the 
disintegration of the granite by the united action of mechanical 
friction and the sulphureous and carbonic acid of the London 
air. In country towns, where the number of inhabitants and 
the amount of traffic in the streets is, in relation to the area oc- 
cupied, immensely smaller than in London, it may be a question 
whetlier the admission of the rainfall and the land-drainage 
waters into the sewers is advisable or not. But so far as Lon- 
don is concerned, and considering only the composition of the 
liquid which reaches the sewers in the time of rain from the 
streets, it seems pretty certain that it would be as valuable in a 
manuring point of view as the ordinary contents of the sewers. 
There would seem no reason, therefore, to exclude such waters 
on the ground of the dilution and deterioration of the sewage to 
which they might be supposed to lead. 
I have considered the sewage of a town in reference almost 
exclusively to the liquid and solid excrements of the population 
distributed through a given quantity of water. I know per- 
