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
Catalogue details

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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    and if that well is supplied by surface drainage, mucli mischief might happen. This is not, however, a necessary result: it is the duty of those laying out the ground to mark the position of every well, to sl.udy the character and the source of its supply, and so lay out the carriers upon the field, that it shall not be possible for the dreaded con- tamination to ai'ise. A copy of this report was sent by the Board of Guardians to the Croydon Local Board, and on its receipt the allegations therein contained were at once reported upon by the Board's engineer. His statement, submitted to the Board on June 21st, at once shewed the worthlessness of that contained in Mr. Creasy's evidence before the Parhamentaiy Conmiittee, as well as ex- posed the contradictions contained in the report of the medical gentleman to the Board of Guardians. Mr. Creasy did not think that bad water of doubtful aspect and smell, drawn from wells in close proximity to full cesspools, would be local causes for fever, but refers the cases to a culvert 85 yards away, through which he supposes effluent waters from the sewage farm occasionally passed —this he calls sewage water. It was shown by the engineer to the Local Board, that no sewage water had ever passed through that culvert; and the effluent water passed only for a few days in the whole of the year. The nature and character of this effluent water is described by the Commissioners on Water Supply, when it had entered the Wandle, as contrasting favour- ably with the Thames above Reading, which clearly shows its true nature. The engineer's report also pointed out two or three very significant facts, bearing upon the matter. He pre- sented a statement which had been prepared from the results of a home to house visitation, extended to the whole of 65 houses, being all that were in close proximity to the outfall, and all the hou-ses to which Mr. Creasy's evidence referred. From this account it was seen that two circumstances detennined the ill- nesses which had occurred, and which, notwithstanding the insanitary state of the drainage and water supply, had not been of a serious character, for no death had been registered from fever or dysentery. The first fact was, that those persons who drank water frorn surface wells away from the neighbourhood of cesspools, and which wells were fed by the real effluent stream from the farm, as well as those who drank from a stream which was fed by the effluent water, did not suffer from disease of any kind [vide plan] ; whilst those few who had typhoid fever, either drank the bad