On the use and abuse of refuse organic matter by different modes of sewerage / by Thomas Hawksley.

  • Hawksley, Thomas, 1807-1893.
Date:
[1857?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the use and abuse of refuse organic matter by different modes of sewerage / by Thomas Hawksley. 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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    removed, and in a few days the compost was a dry mass that was conveniently filled into bags and sent into the country. The -writer has thus attempted to draw attention to the powers, for good or evil, of the enormous accumulation of organic matter around us, and to show that there are means simple, effective, and inexpensive, of conveniently avoiding the evil effects, and of obtaining the good naturally belonging to it. It is sincerely believed the public might have been spared the great expense of the magnificent system, of high, middle, and low level sewers; for however perfect as con- duits of water, they never can so remove the solid sewage as to save the town from the ill effects of entrusting solid organic matter to miles of underground tube shaits. “We must still have as much, if not more, of sewer malaria. We must still have the same risks of saturated soil and poisoned water. We still continue to waste the food of plants, because though companies may be formed to employ the sewage as it escapes after its long journey through the sewers, it is collected at a time and stage when its best and most useful qualities have been washed out and evaporated. The proper time and stage to collect it is close to its source, and before its ammoniacal and phosphatic elements have been lost. Much it is to be regretted, that even in this great and free country, where our statesmen as a body are so patriotic, independent, and enlightened; that often the right and best measure fails to be carried, in consequence of a majority being bound by some great opposing interest or monopoly. Witness the recent fruitless efforts of the Eastern Counties people to obtain cheaper coal, by connecting their railway with the North, and their bill, thrown out almost unheard, against the convictions of every independent man. The only consolation for the sufferers is that knowledge and improvement will go on in spite of the petty impediments of prejudice and selfishness— “ magna est veritas et prsevalebit.” A I •A#*'