The sewage question : comprising a series of reports being investigations into the condition of the principal sewage farms and sewage works of the kingdom / from Dr. Letheby's "Notes and chemical analyses".

  • Henry Letheby
Date:
1872
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sewage question : comprising a series of reports being investigations into the condition of the principal sewage farms and sewage works of the kingdom / from Dr. Letheby's "Notes and chemical analyses". Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    over twenty grains per gallon, and the amounts of sus- pended matters also considerable. In a sanitary point of view, therefore, the process was highly unsatisfactory, for not only wasv the sodden sewage ground evolving a most offensive odour, which the inhabitants said was sometimes most sickening, but the effluent water was stiU a strong sewage, polluting the ditches and watercourse to such a degree as to render them a most serious and dangerous nuisance. Considering how highly the Eoyal Pollution Commis- sioners had spoken of this Aldershot Farm, and of the success of the process,* we were not prepared for the shocking condition of things which we witnessed. We have no means of ascertaining the commercial facts of the case, but if any sewage farm can ever be made to pay it must be in such a case as this, where both the land and sewage are given to the tenant for a peppercorn rent. We are strongly inclined to think, however, that the commercial results are not as profitable as they are made to appear, for the farm is evidently neglected, and the produce is of the rankest description. * In. this case the extreme natural poverty of the soil does not seem to have been a hindrance to the efficiency of the process of cleansing by irrigation. The farm, well managed, is covered with a capital jjlant of vigorous growth, to be fed by the filthy water, which accordingly is greatly purified by the process. * * * The Aldershot Farm appears the more satisfactory as an example of the scivage nuisance abated, at the same time that its filthy contents are converted into valuable pro- duce, from the circumstance that a previous attempt to deal with it by subsidence and filtration tacitly had been a complete failure. First Report of the Commissioners ajypoinied in 1S6S to inquire into the best means of preventinr/ the pollution of rivers.—p. 78.
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