Letters to the Rt. Hon. Lord John Russell, M.P. on the drainage of the metropolis, state of the Thames, and waste of fertilizing matter : with an appendix, containing statements respecting the impracticability of the plan of the Metropolitan Sewage Company, &c. and a map of the proposed works of the London Sewage Company.

Morewood, J. J.

Date:: 1847

Credit: Letters to the Rt. Hon. Lord John Russell, M.P. on the drainage of the metropolis, state of the Thames, and waste of fertilizing matter : with an appendix, containing statements respecting the impracticability of the plan of the Metropolitan Sewage Company, &c. and a map of the proposed works of the London Sewage Company. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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Government were repeatedly informed of the progress made; and early in February, the Bill of the London Sewage Company was printed and presented to Parliament. The proposed enterprise has therefore now been twelve months before the Government and the country, without any one coming forward to question its practica- bility and the correctness of the estimates. The necessary steps have again been taken for applying to Parlia- ment for powers to construct a Trunk Sewer to remove all the refuse from the South Side, and from the City and Eastern districts on the North Side, commencing at the Fleet Sewer, the Drainage from the latter district being about' 40 millions of tons; but the 12-feet Sewer, with sufficient fall, will be adapted to include eventually all the Drainage from the Strand, Pimlico, and Chelsea. The most careful examination has quite established the fact, that this work can be completed, respectively, for less than £200,000 and £600,000. But assuming even these sums as cost, and the lowest pro- duce, which repeated analyses (by such chemical means as will be re- sorted to) have established, it is found that the dry Manure, like Guano, and containing 10 per cent, more fertilizing properties than Guano selling at £8, -will cost the Company £2 per ton, after the payment of all expences and 10 per cent, profit. In a moist state, adapted for removal by returning barges and vessels, the price would be 4*. per ton,andin itscrude or natural state, it can be put on boardat Id. per ton. The only evidence of removal of Sewer Water from a town, which was brought before the Select Committee was by barge, (269) and probably a very large portion of the London Sewer Water will be used in these two forms; but a Company must always be at the mercy of the seasons and buyers, unless its plans comprehend the conversion into a solid and universally valuable Manure. The arrangements proposed by the London Sewage Company for improving the Drainage of the Metropolis, are as perfect as if this object were the only one contemplated; and in addition, it is but necessary to add, that the proposed Sewer will pass under streets and roads running nearly parallel with the river; and that it will be constructed by boring or tunnelUng, without interfering with any private or public property, excepting the necessary reservoirs, at a considerable distance from Inhabitants. The subterranean Sewer to be constructed, will communicate by shafts with the underside of the existing Sewers, so that all the refuse of the Metropolis may be removed, under ground, without any nauseous exposure, into marshes down the river, where an outfall will be created and constantly preserved, sufficiently low to ensure a continuous and rapid flow for more than double the Sewage now discharged into the Thames, which, both by deposit and exhalation, produces most injurious effects on the surrounding atmosphere. The prevailing conviction that something must be done tcf improve the Sanatory condition of the Metropolis, should induce a proper examination of the enterprise, in order to give it the support it deserves. Beyond this inducement, the increasing necessity to fertilize our soil at a cheap rate ; And the polluted state of the Thames, urge the subject with addi- tional force, and we shall be inexcusable, if a remedy so compre- hensive and so efficient be not adopted, without farther loss of time.

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