Report on the effects of sewage contamination upon the River Thames / by William Odling.
- William Odling
- Date:
- 1858
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report on the effects of sewage contamination upon the River Thames / by William Odling. 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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![Dr. Barnes, in a paper read before the British Association, writes : “ Many of the sewers discharge into the river in a most objectionable manner. Their contents are disengulphed in large floods ; not under the stream water, so as to mingle rapidly, but often high above the level of the river, and spread- ing over the exposed banks. Passengers on the river, smelling the unmixed outpourings of sewers, and exhalations from mud- banks, conclude they have olfactory evidence of the putrid state of the Thames.” Messrs. Hofmann and Witt report to the Government referees as follows : “ We cannot but emphatically insist upon it, that the formation of the mud deposit in the river appears to us by far the most serious evil which results from the discharge of the London sewage into the river. We cannot too strongly urge this point upon public attention.” Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney, in a Report to Sir Benjamin Hall, writes : “ In the Thames and all tidal rivers where there is no room at the sides for slacks and retrogrades to form there is no deposit [of mud.] If the retrogrades be destroyed, the mouths of the sewers trapped, and the sewage gases* burnt, all cause of complaint of the atmosphere about the Houses of Parliament would cease. Then a question would probably arise as to whether any drainage of London beyond the natural outcast power of the river would ever be required.” Dr. Letheby writes me word: “ The real mischief in the river is from the mud banks where insoluble sewage settles and is left by the tide to decompose and blacken.” Messrs. Galton, Simpson, and Blackwell the Government referees write: “ The serious injury which the existing system of drainage has caused to the general health of the inhabitants has been due to the fact of the sewage being ponded back during a portion of every tide.” * If the discharge of sewage into the river were continuous instead of intermittent, it is doubtful whether there would be any objectionable amount of sewage gases to destroy.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22337787_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
