[Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Staffordshire County Council.
- Staffordshire (England). County Council
- Date:
- 1893
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Staffordshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![] 2 entirely dependent upon surface-wells for its water-supply. Following the example of certain large towns, the Corporation determined to adopt the pail system and the objectionable privies were systematically abolished in favour of pail closets, which, with a few unimportant exceptions, are now in general use through¬ out the town. The recent introduction of a public watei'-supply into the town brought to a head the question of sewage disposal, and the Cor¬ poration, realizing their responsibility under the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act, determined to take steps to put an end to the pollution which is now going on. That the question of sewage disposal in Stafford is a difficult one all who are familiar with the locality will readily understand. The slight gradients available, and the fact that a large portion of the town lies so little above the level of the stream which is the natural outlet for the drainage of the district, renders disposal by gravitation impossible and necessitates a pumping scheme. Again, owing to the difficulty of acquiring a sufficiently large area of suitable land, the Corpor¬ ation have had to consider the advisability of adopting some method of artificial filtration. Under these circumstances, apart from the principle being right in itself, the determination to establish a completely separate system of sewers, the existing sewers being retained for surface-water only, is a wise one. The next difficulty which had to be met was the abolition of the pail closets and the introduction of a water-carriage system of excretal removal. Obviously this step was indicated, not only from a sanitary point of view, but on the ground of economy, for, it would be a ruinous policy to maintain the expensive pail system in addition to the necessarily costly works for disposing of the ordinary sewage. This change might be accomplished by one of three methods, —namely, by introducing (a) ordinary water-closets flushed with clean water from a cistern in each closet; (b) trough-closets, available for groups of cottages and flushed, automatically, with clean water from a cistern common to a series; and (c) slop- closets automatically flushed by the waste water from the houses. After due consideration the last was the system decided upon, for the following reasons :— 1. —That on sanitary grounds slop-closets appear to be satisfactory appliances, as they have been favourably reported upon by Dr. Parsons, one of the Medical Inspectors of the Local Government Board. Also in those districts where the system has been partially adopted it is generally admitted that it has proved a success. 2. —That the trouble arising from frozen pipes and cisterns in the case of ordinary water-closets placed in out-buildings practic¬ ally need not be considered in the case of slop-closets.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30131698_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
