A brief narrative of the commencement and progress of the fetid irrigations and foul water pits around the city of Edinburgh : with proofs of their operation in creating nuisance, and in producing disease.

  • Ellis Daniel.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A brief narrative of the commencement and progress of the fetid irrigations and foul water pits around the city of Edinburgh : with proofs of their operation in creating nuisance, and in producing disease. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    twenty horse power each. (Mechanic’s Guide, p. 31.)—It seems, therefore, almost certain, that the interests of com- mercial enterprise might be made to combine its elforts in improving the capabilities of the river for working machinery, with those operations which have been suggested for increa- sing the supply of water for the purposes of police. SECTION IV. EFFECTS OF THE IRRIGATION PROCESS ON THE PRESENT INTERESTS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE CITY. The facts detailed in the preceding pages afford sufficient proof that the methods of collecting, preparing, and using the refuse materials of the Common Sewers in the process of irrigation, create a nuisance most offensive to the senses, and injurious to the health and property of those who dwell in its neighbourhood. Our remarks have been confined al- most solely to the eastern quarter of the city. It was in it that the nuisance first sprang up ; it is there that it has best thriven ; and it is there also that it has proved most in- jurious to property and health. Other districts to the west, the north, and the south have been more or less subjected to these noisome operations ; but of the extent to which they have been carried, we are less accurately informed. It is understood, however, that a plah or map of all the irri- gated districts will, ere long, be prepared, which will ex- hibit the course of the common sewers, and of the drains which deliver their contents into them. The number and size of the foul water pits arid their situations, will, it is ex- pected, be also described, as well as the actual quantity of land now under irrigation. When all this shall be done, the public will, perhaps, feel surprise at the extent to which
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