On the drainage of Glasgow : with special reference to the disinfection of sewage, the ventilation of sewers, and the trapping of house drains / by John Honeyman.

  • Honeyman, John, 1831-1914.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the drainage of Glasgow : with special reference to the disinfection of sewage, the ventilation of sewers, and the trapping of house drains / by John Honeyman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    system were indeed essentially defective, as the advocates for this course rather unreasonably assume. But most certainly not, if sewers can be made perfectly efficient for freeing us from sewage, both solid and gaseous, without the slightest mcon- . venience, whilst the other method would perform the same duty in a very inferior way with a world of inconvenience and discomfort, and, after all, fail to relieve us of sewers of some sort I must not here stop to particularise objections to such a scheme as that proposed by my friend Mr. Salmon, as I fear that, with my utmost efforts to condense, the length of this paper will sufficiently tax your patience ; but as my main object is to show that the sewer system, far from being necessarily defective, is perfectly sufficient for the requirements of the case, if only properly worked, these objections will naturally be referred to in my subsequent remarks ; and, at all events, may be disposed of by implication, for if I succeed in proving the practicability of rendering the sewers efficient, it will be hardly necessary to allude to the defects of other schemes, as in that case the only tolerable pretext for intro- ducing any other method will be removed; for no one, I think, will deny that water-closets, if properly constructed, and free from evil influences from the sewers, are superior in conveni- ence and cleanliness to any description of mongrel apparatus which would be tolerable only with assiduous and unceasing attention. We may, I believe, proceed on the assumption that, in any case, sewers of some sort are indispensable. This is, indeed, admitted on all hands ; and if so, you will, I am sure, easily see that if these sewers are perfectly suited for the purpose for which they are required, it is not of the slightest consequence, in a sanitary point of view, whether the excrementitious mat- ters are added to the other sewage or not. It would certainly be of considerable importance were the present condition of the sewers irremediable, but nothing of the sort can be asserted. There is no reason whatever why we should continue to put up with the obvious defects of the present system; nay, on the contrary, it is absolutely necessary that a change should be