The treatment and utilisation of sewage / by W.H. Corfield.

  • William Henry Corfield
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatment and utilisation of sewage / by W.H. Corfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    place of the only sitting room and the end of the pantry. In Leicester, in 1849, the number of uncovered soil-pits receiving the soil, dust, and ashes, amounts to 2900, and the aggregate surface of the said soil-pits exposed amounts to Ij acres. {M. 0. P. C, 1866.) Open cess- At Pcnzancc and other places the open cesspools Sous were often flooded by showers, so as to overflow into towns. ^]jg gutters of the courts; while at Warwick the practice used to be to dig a pit in the sandstone rock beneath the courtyard of the house, and throw all refuse into it; thence the liquid parts sank into the surroundino- soil. It seems that there were in this o town 1516 cesspools, exposing an open surface of 37,000 square feet of faecal matter to sun, wind, and rain. At Eugby the open cesspools, which were from 5 to 10 feet long, from 3 to 8 feet broad, and from 4 to 5 feet deep, were lined with brick below the surface : into them all the refuse was thrown,, the privy being placed at one end; where much ashes were thrown in they were rendered less ofi'ensive ; but where little ashes could be got, as in the tenements of the poor, the stench was intolerable and loudly complained of. While at Pill, near Bristol, Dr. Buchanan reported in 1866 that either the privy seats jutted over the edge of the river, or that there was an open privy pit, great ponds of seething filth lying behind the privy. As an extreme example of want of removal of refuse matters we may refer to a case described in the Second Pteport of the Health of Towns Commissioners (1845): In consequence of the confined space the privy and ash heajDs were accumulated in the cellars.