On sewage and sewage rivers / by Robert Angus Smith.

  • Smith, Robert Angus, 1817-1884.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On sewage and sewage rivers / by Robert Angus Smith. 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.

    10/26 (page 160)
    ject of this paper before you, in order that I might draw the conclusion that, in the two methods mentioned of leading away the refuse in barrels and manufacturing it into poudrette, and of leading it away in carts and selling it without manufacture, no profit is to be expected, but the town or the country must pay a constant price for cleaning; whereas, by leading the refuse away by means of water, a price is obtained more than sufficient to clean the town. Water seems, then, the only successful conveyancer, according to practice, unless, of course, the new Manchester experiment of conveying it by railway should turn out valuable, although by no means likely to do so to any very great extent. Even if it were to turn out profitable, it would still be objectionable from the fact that the town is by its means not preserved in a sufficient state of purity as before mentioned. If, however, the water-closet system be used, the town is not only kept clean but the con- veyance is made in the manner that has hitherto turned out most profitable, as at Edinburgh, and which has been found needful, so as to make the other or overland system complete as at Paris ; whilst the disgusting manufacture carried on at that place, and occupying so much land, is dispensed with, and the still more disgusting system of clearing adopted here is also done away with, a plan by no means producing such bad results as on the continent, not from any merits of its own, but because there is here scope for extension, and our houses are not confined to the limits of city walls. As the irrigation method at Edinburgh has at present the most decided success, or in other words the conveyance by water ^ been found cheapest even when partially tried, it seems only i natural to conclude that the conveyance should be by water ^ the whole way, as would be the case if the English water- ] closet system were carried out to its full extent. The chief i evil connected with that system is the hitherto great loss of J the products; and the chief difficulty with regard to irrigation o is the obtaining suitable ground in the neighbourhood. The ^