94 
DR. A. T. BRETT-FISH FATALITY 
springs at Otterspool, above the Bushey Mill bridge, which is 
narrow, dead weeds may in the summer be seen, decaying for a long 
time, and by the meadows above the bathing-place the river is full 
of weeds. 
Messrs. Sedgwick’s brewery has for long drained into a ditch 
which runs into the river. The beer barrels are washed out by 
steam, and although the grosser matters are removed by filtration, 
poisonous substances might pass through the filter into the river and 
destroy fish. This might have occurred last July when the river 
was low and the water stagnant here, but as the washings will in 
future go into the sewers, it cannot occur again. 
At the fellmongers’ yard the skins are placed in pits with lime 
and are then washed in the river, and sometimes the water below 
here is quite white, I suppose with lime. The business has been 
established more than a century, and in my opinion the process 
carried on does not cause the destruction of fish in any quantity. 
The flour-mill does not I think put any injurious substance into 
the water; it simply takes every drop of water from the old river 
and diverts it for water-power. This for six days in the week 
makes about a mile of the river a stagnant ditch in which dead 
creatures, animal and vegetable, float and decay to the annoyance 
and injury to health of those who pass by or live near the river. 
It is a wonder to me that fish can live at all in this stagnant water, 
and in my opinion the want of sufficient water to make a flowing 
stream is one cause of the unusual fatality amongst the fish. 
I do not believe that anything is allowed to go into the river from 
the Gas Works. The ammoniacal liquor is a source of profit, and a 
concrete wall has been built to prevent any refuse from washing into 
the river. The river suffers from stagnation here, but the fish are 
usually found dead much above or much below. 
I do not think that the iron-foundry injures the river. A nuisance 
which once existed here has been removed. 
At the Steam Laundry soap-suds go into the river, but the refuse 
from the dyeing-works is collected in a tank and then thrown on to 
coals and burnt in the furnace. I cannot trace fish-fatality to it. 
On the last occasion the poisoned fish were found in the tumbling- 
bay, which is above it. 
Lastly I must refer to the Sewage Barm. The effluent water 
which has drained through the earth is not injurious to fish, for, at 
the outlet of the purified sewage, fish are seen in greater numbers 
than in any other part of the water, and in experiments which Mr. 
Lovejoy has made for me he found that fish could live, first in 
diluted and then in undiluted effluent water. 
The following is Professor Attfield’s report on the samples of 
water submitted to him by Mr. BlathwaytI have analysed the 
three samples of water taken from the Colne by Mr. Blathwayt. 
Neither sample contained any trace of either of the poisons which 
form the twelve or fourteen classes of the ordinary poisons. 
The sample labelled ‘Water in which fish seemed to be poisoned’ 
was simply dirty water with a slight smell of tar. The sample 
