General Report on the Sanitary Condition of the town of Kelso : drawn up at the request of the Board of Governers of Police / by Charles Wilson.

Date:: 1848

Credit: General Report on the Sanitary Condition of the town of Kelso : drawn up at the request of the Board of Governers of Police / by Charles Wilson. 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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$j)ort!on to tlie quantity of water wlileli reaches its area, wliether in the form of rain, or of discharges from natural sidings, or from arti- ficial reservoirs and conduits. Two and a half millions of gallons would, it a])pears to me, be a tolerably wide estimate of the maxi- mum quantity of water thus falling at any time within our area of drainage, in the space of twenty four hours. But we ought to be provided for the delivery of a quantity exceeding this by at least a half, or aj)])roaching to four millions of gallons; because we ought not, in ])rudcncc, to be considered as allowing any projtortion for that which is again instantly absorbed by the earth, or is retained temporarily in the cisterns of the inhabitants, or finds its way to the river by other channels, and because in storms the rain must frequently descend in sudden dashes, requiring more than ordinary facilities for its rajnd transmission. Let us concede that the two })resent sewers, proposed to be retained, arc capable of transmitting a fourth part of this quantity, at which they would bo considerably under-rated, and we have still a sujiposed amount of about three mil- lions of gallons for which to provide an exit. But I find that a tube, having an interior measurement of 25 by IG inches, and moving its current at the rate of only two miles an hour, will discharge, at a computation sulKciently accurate for our purpose, a daily amount of nc.arly three and a half millions of gallons. It ajrpears evident, then, that a channel of these dimensions, with due attention to the adjustment of its levels, could scarcely fail to sufiice amjdy for our utmost exigencies ; and I would estimate its efficiency, with respect to its powers of transmi.ssion merely, at twice the extent of that which it is designed to supersede. Were wo to confine our estimate to the ordinary functions of such a conduit, apart from the efFcet of storms and raj)id thaws, it is obvious that a much smaller size would be fully adequate. As to the course of the sewer, it is iwobablc that it will be con- sidered advisable to continue it in nearly its present line eastward : not so much on account of the advantages of the levels, as because it is in this direction that any possible future extension of the town is likely to proceed. A shorter course, certainly, and therefore a less expensi\'e one, might be obtained along Hogg’s lane; but, perhaps, the narrowness of the passage here would render it diffi- cult to descend to the requisite depth for laying the tubes. In whatever line the sewer approaches the town, it ought to reach its outskirts at a point as far below the surface as can be rendered consistent with a proper declivity ; and not within a few inches of the plane of the houses, as under the present ineffective and perni- cious arrangement. Allowing, in this part of its course, a minimum descent of three quarters of an inch for each ten feet of progress, which experience in the sewerage of other towns has proved to he amply sufficient for drains of this magnitude, there can be no diffi- culty in causing it to enter the town at a distance of not less than$