The relation of modern engineering to public health and local government : read at Oxford, before a meeting of municipal and sanitary engineers and surveyors, Feb. 18, 1876 / by Dr. Acland.

  • Acland, Henry W. (Henry Wentworth), 1815-1900.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The relation of modern engineering to public health and local government : read at Oxford, before a meeting of municipal and sanitary engineers and surveyors, Feb. 18, 1876 / by Dr. Acland. 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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    places, and are therefore of general interest. For we must not conceal from ourselves that the com- plete sanitary administration of a densely peopled state is fraught with much difficulty. Look once more at Oxford, as an illustration. It was pointed out twenty years ago that the management of every river basin as a whole is essential for the seve- ral towns on its banks. Though many riparian owners on the Thames have done much, and are spending much, Father Thames still goes his own way. He is still fouled by his neighbours; he still floods them in revenge; he still wastes his waters at his will. Would this have been tolerated in Holland, even two centuries ago ? Are we to have over Dutch Engineers, as once in the days of Vermuyden, to confine him again to his banks ? Will Mr. White's costly works keep the cellars of St. Ebbe's and St. Thomas's dry, or will they still leave the floods to permeate the subsoil of the lower parts of the town ? We may answer to this, that there is every hope that the Duke of Marlborough's Commission will bring to practical effect the work on which it has been now long engaged. The rate about to be levied for the Survey and other expences, will inaugurate a complete system of water regulation in the Thames valley. At all events, English en- gineers are ready, when they return from their Dutch engagements, to undertake our minor work here. These circumstances, connected with the place in which you meet, have only been introduced to illustrate the subject before us :— The Relation