132 
Offensive Manufactures. 
[March, 
to put existing laws in force. The “ Alkali ACt” has, to a 
very considerable extent, checked the free emission of acid 
vapours, and it is probable that further and more compre- 
hensive legislation in the same direction may soon follow. 
As regards the water-courses, the Rivers’ Pollution Ac 5 t is 
gradually working an amendment in their condition, which 
will soon grow apparent if its provisions are not suffered to 
become a dead letter. In addition to all this, any person 
who feels himself aggrieved by the refuse of industrial ope- 
rations sent up into the air, or allowed to drain into the 
rivers, may, if his means permit, apply for redress to the 
High Court of Chancery, and, if he can show that definite 
injury is being done either to his health or to his property, 
an injunction for the abatement of the nuisance will be 
issued. 
Still all these various remedies leave very much of the 
evil untouched. Certain kinds of manufactures have been 
placed under restrictions and inspection, more or less com- 
plete and efficient. Other kinds, not less offensive in their 
results, have not been interfered with. Where the iron trade 
flourishes vegetation is blighted, the air is polluted, and the 
light of day blotted out quite as much as in a region of 
alkali works. The consumption of smoke is not demanded 
from blast-furnaces, and the quantity of the oxides of 
sulphur which they pour into the air is simply enormous. 
Let us take an establishment of this kind which burns 
200 tons of coal daily, by no means the maximum consump- 
tion. If such coal only contains i lb. sulphur per ton, — 
which is far below the average in Lancashire, Staffordshire, 
and Warwickshire, — there is given off daily sulphurous an- 
hydride equivalent to 600 lbs. of oil of vitriol, or, taking a 
year of 300 working days, 180,000 lbs. ! As a matter of 
course all vegetation exposed to acid vapours and acid rain 
is destroyed. Not the less certain is it that every portion of 
buildings capable of being affeCted by acids is corroded. 
Were such damage wrought by chemical works, complaints 
would multiply, and legal proceedings would soon be taken. 
But it seems that the sins of an iron- smelter are more 
leniently dealt with than those of a chemical manufacturer. 
Looking at such faCts, and many others of a like kind 
which might be brought forward, it seems to me very doubt- 
ful whether any measure applied in an indiscriminating 
manner to the whole country can ever meet the just demands 
of all parties concerned. 
We are placed in a dilemma. On the one hand, in a 
narrow island like Britain, with a cold, weeping, and 
