Engineering in relation to hygiene.

  • International Congress of Hygiene and Demography
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Engineering in relation to hygiene. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Sewage Disposal with Reference to River Polktion and Water Supply. BY Professor Henry Robinson, M. Inst. C.E., F.G.S., F.R.M.S. Too great stress cannot be laid on the necessity for cffectnallv and promptly removing the excremental and other refuse from tlm midst of tlie communities producing them. In an International Congress it may be desirable, however, to say that great care is required not to apply indiscriminately the systems which have been found suitable to this country or to western habits. It is very doubtful whether to centres of population in eastern countries, the water-closet system is aiiplicable; in many cases it is quite unsuitable. The traditions, climate, habits, or religious prejudices of oriental races render impossible the application of .systems Avhich have been successfully adopted in the west. The wide diversities of race in the centres of populations under British rule call for special care in provitling appropriate remedies for the terribly insanitary state in which vast numbers of our fellow subjects now live, and in avoiding the mistake of apply ing remedies which may prove to be worse than the evils they are intended to remove. It is of the utmost importance that the sewerage of towns in the future should be carried out in the light of the experience that has been gained in the past, and that the sewers shoidd lie designed to remove, and not retain, the foul matters that are delivered into them. It is considered to be impossible to accomplish this if the sewers are made of a size to carry off the bulk of the rainfall, lluring long periods of dry weather, the sewers retain much of the solid matter, which depo.sits, decomposes, and evolves unhealthy and tilthy smells. Tliis was recently experienced in many parts of the metropolis after the late winter drought. The exi.stence of such a state of things in hot climates would be disa.strous to health. Relief sewers to meet the conditions that occur during heavy rainfall it is thought should be more relied upon than is now the case, so as to enable the sizes of the .sewers to be made sufficient for sewage proper, and to avoid their being sewers of deposit, which they too often are. Sewers ought to be self-cleansiiig, and the sewage which is removed by them ought to be brought to the point of discharge in a fresher state than is possible where the sewers are calculatetl to convey the bulk of the rainfall with the sewage. They then inevitably become sewers of deposit in dry weather, and give off ilangerous gases. The first heavy rains flush the sewers, and carry the highly decomposed matter to the outfalls, increasing the difficulties of dealing with it; and if it is discharged into rivers, a destructive effect on fish life is produced. The discharge of sewage or manufacturing refuse into streams to avoid the expense of previously treating it must be protested against. The rivers must no longer be regarded as the natural vehicle for removing it. What was at first an evil of comparativelv small extent
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