July 16, 1870.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
49 
to atmospheric oxygen, continue to putrefy for a con¬ 
siderable time. In my laboratory operations I have 
found that they will keep up a persistent decomposition, 
with a constant evolution of offensive gases, for many 
months, the air being excluded from them. I am there¬ 
fore of opinion that the chief point to be aimed at in the 
purification of sewage is the rapid and effectual separa¬ 
tion of its suspended matters, leaving the soluble matter 
to mix freely with proper proportions of running water, 
in which it will be quickly appropriated by’infusorial life, 
or be destroyed by atmospheric oxidation; and this leads 
me to consider the means whereby this may be effected. 
One method of accomplishing it is to keep the solid 
matters out of the sewage, as is practised, with more or 
less success, in Manchester, Salford, and other towns of 
Lancashire. In Salford, according to the report of the 
medical officer of health, Dr. Syson, the most satisfactory 
results have been obtained with a modification of M. 
Goux’s plan, whereby the soil is received at once into 
tubs lined with some refuse absorbent; and the advan¬ 
tages of the plan, according to Dr. Syson, are that the 
manure becomes of great commercial value; that the ex¬ 
crement of the whole town can be readily removed at 
least once a week; and that in case of fever or contagious 
diseases the whole of the excrements can be readily and 
economically disinfected; besides which the plan is simple 
and economical. Earth-closets are not so manageable, 
as they require about 3| times their weight of earth to 
the excreta, and the difficulties of carrying the material 
to and from the closets are not manageable on a large 
scale, although I have seen them in satisfactory opera¬ 
tion in factories, as they may be in military camps, 
where the organization of labour is easy. Instead of 
earth, Mr. Stanford recommends charred seaweed, which 
is not only an excellent deodorizer, but does the work of 
three times its weight of earth. In Edinburgh, in olden 
times, there were no closets in the poorer houses, but 
there were numerous public privies, which still exist. 
These are provided with from eight to forty compart¬ 
ments, beneath which there is placed by the scavengers, 
every mor nin g, a tin can, like the modern milk-can on the 
railways, and the can of the previous day, with its con¬ 
tents, is taken away. The soil is mixed with ashes and 
road-sweepings, and sells for about £7000 a year, which 
is half the entire charge of the scavenging of the older 
part of Edinburgh. Nearly everywhere on the Conti¬ 
nent some such method is adopted for the collection of 
the refuse and excreta, and they are profitably utilized. 
How far an improvement of this condition of things, in¬ 
stead of the present water-closet system, may have met 
the requirements of hygiene and the demands of agri¬ 
culture, is an important question. The Pollution Com¬ 
missioners, however, condemn this plan in toto; and so 
far are their views disturbed by the medium of their 
prejudices, that they cannot perceive any difference in 
the quality of the sewage of a place retaining its solid 
matters, and of another which lets them flow into the 
public sewers. Liverpool, for example, which collects 
and disposes annually of about 139,000 tons of privy soil; 
Manchester, 74,000 tons; Salford, 46,000 tons; Oldham, 
50,000 tons; Preston, 30,000 tons; and Dolton, 22,500 
tons,—furnish in each case as much sewage, and of the 
same composition, as the towns which discharge every¬ 
thing into the sewers. The inconsistency of the thing is 
so striking that it creates most serious doubts of the ac¬ 
curacy of the analyses, and of the reliability of the deter¬ 
minations of organic carbon and organic nitrogen. 
And now let us turn to the pet scheme of the Pollu¬ 
tion Commissioners—the disposal of sewage in all places 
and under all circumstances by irrigation. Fortunately 
for us, the thing has been tried, and is now being done 
in many places, so that we can test it by its practical 
results, and examine it by the light of something more 
than that of abstract speculative chemistry.* 
* The cases where sewage irrigation has been practised 
To begin with its absolutely required conditions. You 
must have a soil that is sufficiently porous to allow the 
sewage to filter through it, and this soil must be well 
drained to carry off the subsoil water. The situation of 
the farm must be convenient as regards the flow of sew¬ 
age to it by gravitation, and the discharge of water from 
it by drainage. It must not be within reach of danger 
from atmospheric miasms, or the pollution of wells by 
the subsoil drainage. It must have a ready market for 
the disposal of its only merchantable produce, green 
Italian rye-grass; and lastly, there must be an area of not 
less than two acres for every 100 people, one of these acres 
being in use while the other is resting to recover itself. 
These conditions cannot always be secured, but even if 
they could, let us see if the objections to the process, on 
sanitary grounds, are not conclusively against it. 
1. In the first place, the land irrigated with sewage is 
always a fetid, swampy morass of the most offensive de¬ 
scription. Nowhere, of all the places which I have 
visited, is there an exception to this condition of things. 
At the Craigintinny meadows, near Edinburgh, which I 
have often seen, the stink from them is hardly endurable; 
—to use the words of Dr. Ligertwood, who was sta¬ 
tioned at the neighbouring barracks, “ the stench is 
sometimes quite sickening.” At Norwood and at Bed- 
dington it is a subject of serious complaint by those who 
reside in the neighbourhood of the farms. I have myself 
experienced it on several occasions, and have been sur¬ 
prised at the statements of Dr. Carpenter, of Croydon, 
whose pet thing it is, that nobody complains of it. Mr. 
Creasy, the surgeon at the Female Orphan Asylum, at Bed- 
dington, tells a different story, for he says it so damages 
the value of the neighbouring property that villas near 
the farm do not let so well as others, nor at so high a rent. 
At Aldershot, which is frequently referred to as a well 
and successfully managed sewage farm, I ascertained, on 
a recent visit with Mr. Hawksley, Mr. Eggar, and Pro¬ 
fessor Ansted, from the occupants of the few cottages 
which skirt the farm, that the stench is frequently un¬ 
bearable and most sickening. At Banbury there is but 
one house upon the estate; it is a public-house called the 
Bowling Green, and the landlady described to us, in very 
graphic terms, the nuisance she was obliged to submit to. 
2. But these miasms are not alone offensive, they are 
also dangerous to the public health; in fact, the early 
proceedings of those who have brought about this con¬ 
dition of things were devoted almost entirely to the proof 
of their morbific action, and it was this apparently clear 
proof which was made the lever of their parliamentary 
movements, and was the main cause of our present diffi¬ 
culties. Now, however, they will tell you that the ema¬ 
nations from acres of land sodden with putrefying sewage 
are neither offensive to the senses nor injurious to the 
health.fi I put it to you, gentlemen, as a simple matter 
of common medical experience, whether you are of such 
an opinion ; for, if so, where is the necessity for all our 
elaborate and expensive machinery for getting rid of 
these matters from our houses, and for preventing the 
escape of such offensive emanations ? Why feel, in fact, 
the least concern for an untrapped drain or an overflow¬ 
ing cesspool P One of the highest medical authorities 
on the subject of fevers, Dr. Murchison, has traced a par¬ 
ticular fever to this particular source, and has devoted a 
large portion of his classical work to the proof of sewer 
gases being the primary cause of what he has termed 
pythogenic or enteric fever. It is true that he has somo 
doubts, like Dr. Christison, of the effects of the diluted 
gases; but time will prove whether these doubts are well 
can scarcely be regarded otherwise then as cases of getting 
rid of sewage; its utilization is still a problem to be worked 
out in all that relates to profit and health. 
fi It is the concentration of noxious gases by confinement 
that is hurtful; but in irrigation sewage need not be putrid, 
moreover it is subject- to the disinfecting influence of the soil 
and atmosphere. 
