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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    Wherever it is proposed to establish a sewage farm, they try to prevent the plan from being adopted by most unfair means. When we consider the matter, it seems, however, that sewage irrigation has to bear up against onslaughts, in a manner similar to that which every other truth haa had to submit to. This opposition may therefore be fairly looked upon with some favour by those who believe in-igation to be right, because it is certain to lead to a correction of all those possible evils which may arise from imperfect knowledge, imperfect application, and want of experience. In those parts of the country in which land can be easily obtained for the purposes of sewage irrigation, there is but little chance of success for any other plan, if the promoters of other plans depend upon statements in theii* favour only. It therefore follows that the ai-guments against each competing scheme must be stated, and here it is that the opponents of sewage irrigation have the widest field; they let their imagi- nation have full play, and depict all manner of evils as likely to arise. They assert the most extraordinary tales regarding the results of sewage application in those places at which it has been tried, and urge upon those having the power, the positive duty of staying the suicidal action of the promoters of iiTigation. Publications are thrown broadcast over the town—the local press teems with the statements made by some unknown A.B.C., shew- ing the frightful state to which certain towns have been reduced in consequence of the adoption of sewage farming—other publica- tions have contained the ideas and operations of theorists who have not been over an acre of sewage ground more than once or twice in their lives, and then they have gone over the ground prepared to see and to smell most undoubted evidences of mis- chief, and of course, like other dupes, have seen and smelt them. They have also taken the post hoc as the ergo propter hoc, and accused the sewage farm of having caused nearly every case of illness and death which has occurred in the neighbourhood since its establishment; they have also extracted single lines