Report to the honorable commissioners of sewers of the city of London, on sewage and sewer gases, and on the ventilation of sewers / by Henry Letheby.
- Henry Letheby
- Date:
- 1858
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report to the honorable commissioners of sewers of the city of London, on sewage and sewer gases, and on the ventilation of sewers / by Henry Letheby. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![secretions,as yellow biliary matter, intestinal mucous, and the crystals of uric acid and triple phosphate from urine. As in the last case, the living animal forms are numerous ; and the vegetable growths are Oscillatoria, Conferva, Vegetable spores, and numerous Fungi. The mineral part is composed of the debris of the streets, as particles of granite, flint, and carbonate of lime, with a large quantity of black sulphuret of iron.* When the Sewage has a very unpleasant odour, and is charged with sulphuretted hydrogen, it never exhibits much sign of animal or vegetable life, notwithstanding that it contains an abundance of decaying organic matter. This is the case with the foul contents of the nearly stagnant Sewers.*] But when it is diluted with water, and exposed freely to the air, the bad odour soon disappears, and the higher forms of infusoria are rapidly developed.*]: This is proof of the salu- tary influence of air and water in promoting the less hurtful kinds of decay. I have noticed the same fact on many occasions, when too large a quantity of Sewage has been discharged into a running stream. The insoluble matters settle, and do not obtain a sufficient supply of air or fresh water, to check the putrefactive decomposition, which goes on with great activity: an abundance of foul gas is thus * See Plates L, II., and III. f See Plate III., Fig. 2. | See Plate III., Fig. 1. B 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21064180_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
