Sewage utilisation / edited by James Forrest.

Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sewage utilisation / edited by James Forrest. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    it may be carried out, still leaves a vast quantity of slop water and surface drainage to be cleansed and defecated at the outfall. Indeed, the Rivers’ Pollution Commissioners, in their First Report, after a careful comparison of thirty-one towns, in fifteen of which the midden system prevailed, while sixteen were water-closet towns, came to the conclusion, upon somewhat false premises, that it mattered little, as regards the degree of pollution in the sewer water, whether a system of interception was practised or not. They say: “ The retention of the solid excrements in middens is not, therefore, attended with any considerable diminution in the strength of the sewage, although the volume even in manufactur- ing towns is somewhat reduced.” 1 This state of things must, to a great extent, be brought about by leaky and pervious cesspools, absence of proper urinals, ill-paved roads, and the filthy habits of the population generally, and might be reduced to a minimum by careful scavengering and strict supervi- sion, both of which duties must be uncompromisingly and carefully performed in all towns and areas where cleanliness is sought after and enforced. The term ‘ interception ’ implies the exclusion from the sewers ox- drains of all faecal matters, and the possibility of interception in- volves the existence of a system of sewers, which may, however, have been laid down for the removal only of surface water and slops. Five-sixths of the population of this country ai-e dependent upon some form or other of middens or cesspools for the reception of their excreta; and only in a few large towns, and in these only within the last few years, have efforts been made to remedy the defects and nuisances which appeared to be inseparable from the midden system. The Author proposes to deal with the subject under four heads :— I. The existing Plans of Sewage Interception— in) By various forms of middens, and by middens of im- proved consti-uction; (b) By boxes, tubs, and pail-closets; (c) By earth, ash, and charcoal-closets. II. The Sanitary Aspect of Sewage Interception. III. The Commercial Aspect of Sewage Interception. IV. General Conclusions respecting Dry-sewage Processes. It is unnecessary to do more than glance at the old-fashioned pattern of midden-closet, with a fixed receptacle. It can only be spoken of, in the language of Mr. Radclifife, as “ the standard of all 1 Vide Rivers’ Pollution Commission (1868). First Report, vol. i. ''1870), p. 30.