Some points in the physiological and medical aspect of sewage irrigation : the second edition of a paper read at the Social Science Congress, at Bristol, Oct. 2, 1869, with notes upon the recent evidence adduced against irrigation in the Houses of Parliament, &c. : to which is also appended, a paper on the influence of sewer gas on the public health / by Alfred Carpenter.
- Carpenter, Alfred, 1825-
- Date:
- 1870
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Some points in the physiological and medical aspect of sewage irrigation : the second edition of a paper read at the Social Science Congress, at Bristol, Oct. 2, 1869, with notes upon the recent evidence adduced against irrigation in the Houses of Parliament, &c. : to which is also appended, a paper on the influence of sewer gas on the public health / by Alfred Carpenter. 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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![At Norwood, moreover, a public footpath passes right through the irrigated fields, which is traversed by hundreds of persons for exercise and recreation, especially on Sundays. The persons so using the footpath have been frequently sui-prised, when they have been told that their walks for pleasure have been taken through the sewage farm of the Croydon Local Board of Health. The path is much more frequented than other footpaths in the neighbourhood, which would not be the case if the fields were the nuisance they are supposed to be. The next point urged against sewage farms is, that from the very force of circumstances, the neighbouring wells must be contaminated, (s) of east or north-east wind prevents the rapid recovery of their patients, and that they anxiously long for a change to the south- west or west; that as soon as that change takes place, the progress of disease often ceases, and a rapid amendment is the result. This improvement may be imputed to the simple change t)f wind from east to west; but it may be fairly argued that this change is not alone sufficient to account for the all but invariable happy result; and if the benefit derived from a change of wind is not counter- baknced by that wind bringing the miasms from the sewage farm, then the miasms which are stated by those who know nothing about them, but what is drawn from inference, to be so very deleterious, cannot be very marked in their effects, or they would outweigh the benefits of a simple change of wind—they are shewn not to do so; the ordinary mortality of the distri ct is also shewn to be lower than in most other places which have not sewage farms close to their borders. I believe, therefore, that there is aufBcieut evidence to prove that these farms are not dele- terious, but the contrary, and that they may be made a means of adding to the health of large populations living in their neigh- bourhood. (*) Statements bearing upon these points were broadly made at the recent inquiries, which were apparently supported by supposed facts : it was asserted that serious results had followed the operations of the Croydon Local Board at Beddington. A local medical man was brought forward to prove that typhoid fever had occurred in the neighbourhood of the farm, and had penetrated to every cottage on the estate [sec plan], the inhabitants being, according to the evidence, of the very poorest class. He said that almost every disease assumed a particidar type attributable d2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22298381_0037.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
