Sanitary reform : water-closets versus privies, practically considered in reference to Manchester and Salford : being the substance of a paper read before the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, January 29, 1869 / by John Newton.

  • Newton, John.
Date:
[1869]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sanitary reform : water-closets versus privies, practically considered in reference to Manchester and Salford : being the substance of a paper read before the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, January 29, 1869 / by John Newton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    .. AnotTier objection has reference to the condition of the existing sewers, it being urged that, if water-closets were adopted, an improved system of sewerage would be thereby rendered necessary. Of their state generally, at the present time, I am unable to speak with any degree of certainty. From the frequency it is found necessary to open and cleanse them, and judging, from the unscientific manner in which many of the old sewers have been, and the new ones still are, occasionally, constructed, it is highly probable that some reconstruc- tions would be necessary. But the expenditure under this head must not be debitted to the closets. If the existing sewers are not self- cleansing, with w^ater-closets, they are assuredly not so without them, and any sewer which retains solid matters is little better than a cess- pool, and therefore to be condemned. I. W justifiably be advocated on pecuniary grounds. By the privy system, an enormous amount of valuable manure is wasted^ The solids become mixed with ashes, and other refuse, which renders them well nigh\ valueless. The liquid is partially absorbed by the ashes, and partially carried off by the drains. The Manchester Corporation, last year, removed from the city 124,735 tons of night- sbil and ashes, at a cost of £19,852; of this sum, £3,806 was paid for railway carriage into Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and Lincolnshire. The nett amount received for the manure, after deducting railway Qharges, was £3,839 only, or Is. id. per ton upon 69,468 tons sold, the remaining 55,257 tons, being unsaleable rubbish. Taking the population at 3^5,000, it will be seen that the manure sold realised the insignificant sum of 2Jd. per head only, v/hilst the' €|tpenses attending- the ash-pit cleansing averaged lOJd. per head. .f Some decrease In these expenses might reasonably be anticipated if Ti^ater-closets were general, and it is certain, that if the manure were conveyed in the ordinary 20 million gallons of sewage, direct to the land, instead of being, as at present, mixed with rubbish, and then sold to farmers in the surrounding counties, a very considerable increase of r(|^nue ^o^ld result.;: ^, ■ . - - ^ '