704

de Peyrelongue allows all this, but conditions are being DRAINING AND SEWERAGE OF Wireless no suffer as improved. operators longer formerly . from mercurialism, since the old mercury interruptor has been done away with. Anaemia among them, too, will in THE MOST of us in London must have noticed the time be mastered, and as a matter of fact after two years during past few years a number of wooden enclosures in the main of discussion one has now a fan installed in ship ventilating thoroughfares in various districts, evidently connected with the wireless operator’s office. works of excavation. Yet comparatively few, perhaps, are aware that, deep below the surface, there is in progress one of the largest additions to the existing network of sewers yet A MEMORANDUM ON CHOLERA. undertaken since their formation by the Metropolitan Board of Works. The additions, estimated to cost £3,750,000, are a on for the WE have received Memorandum Cholera, shown on Fig. 1, and include new outfall and intercepting guidance of Europeans in the remote out-stations of British sewers, additional provision for storm water, extra pumping Malaya, which has been prepared under the directions of the facilities, and so on. Colonial Office by Mr. John D. Gimlette, Residency Surgeon, In these strenuous days all are apt to take their surround- too much as a matter of course. Drains-unless Kelantan, Straits Settlements. A large number of copies ings they become a nuisance from some defect--being out of sight, are have been sent to for distribution the Govern- by more than many things likely to be out of miud also. Who ment. The memorandum is a four-page sheet of foolscap, and associates the outlay of £11,000,000 with the opening of a is written in clear, simple language which can easily be under- bath wast3 ?‘! Yet the present system has cost this sum to a resident within the of London to stood by any educated person. It begins with a rough sketch enable County satisfac- this moreover, it entails that an of the disease and its mode of spread, with a short and vivid torily perform simple act ; army of 2000 men shall spend their lives immured of the onset and of an working description progress ordinary case, and in darkness, often midst noisome fumes and exposed to risks for brief directions putting the patient in the way of recovery of flood and of fire from petrol gas. About 1000 of these in the absence of medical aid. Instructions follow for the dis- men are employed by the local district councils. The aspect infection and disposal of excreta and contaminated substances, that such work bears in its relation to the public health may and stress is laid on the virulence of stale cholera stools well claim our attention. and discharges. Owing to the deep-rooted Malay prejudice Hydroyraph6cal Features of the London Area. against hospital wards, the treatment and isolation of natives That we may the better realise the elemental difficulties with which have to and of the during an outbreak in a purely Malay district are beset with engineers grapple, engineers London Council in a it will be difficulties ; but where the native is mixed it is County particular degree, population well to refer to the hydrographical features of the district to to field or on possible organise temporary hospitals camps which they have to minister, covering as it does an area of high ground within a mile or two of the main centre and to some 120 square miles. Reflection shows that these features 2upplement these with segregation camps for contacts and are the basis of the whole scheme of drainage, the streams and of either bsen converted into suspected or doubtful cases. The memorandum proceeds to springs bygone days having our main sewers or been for their con- rules for the of the health largely responsible give general safeguarding public struction and position. Whitaker’s Geological Survey of in infected with reference to the water- districts, special England and Wales " includes the results of many borings in supply and the disposal of the dead and the danger of and around London. These indicate that a very different uncooked foods. It points out that judgment is required in condition of things, in times not far remote from the present, giving directions for the burning of dwelling places and in must have existed on each side of the river than is now noticeable. Note The continual of the surface burial because the confidence of (See A.) raising disturbing Malay customs, of the ground in the neighbourhood of the city and the the native is and there is community easily shaken, always nearer suburbs must not be forgotten. Each load of building risk of concealment of deaths and of general panic. Ten material ever brought in by barge or cart or rail has aided to days’ quarantine is recommended, in order to be on the raise the level. At the of the Christian era much of the low- safe side, although this is twice as long as the period beginning land on the south side of the river within the laid down the Venice Convention. The import- lying (now by jurisdiction of the London County Council) from Abbey Wood ance of and calmness on the of care, courage, part to Barnes was under water, and in many places on the north Europeans in time of epidemic, both for their own side also. Certainly at a period not very remote the river sakes and as an example to the natives, is insisted on. spread over Marshes and parts of North , Above all things, prejudice must not be aroused in the native across the Isle of Dogs, some parts of , and the of Rotherbithe and over much of mind. treatment out of the greater part , Organised hospital being Southwark, Walworth, Lambeth, and of , where the the uneducated has to be treated in his own question, Malay Effra River from Dulwich-now an important sewer, with a home in the midst of his family, and "personal interest in branch from Nine Elms-emptied into Effra Creek. The - the patient is almost everything." Personal influence may Thames spread across to Westminster, round Thorney Island as far back as the ornamental bv the Horse be of immense value in checking the disease at the, water Guards’ Parade, where it was a branch of the river beginning of an outbreak. The memorandum concludes joined by Tyburn (see Note B), over Pimlico, and round the backwater of with a of instructions to natives, couched in the copy what was then Chelsea Island, formed at the mouth of the which phrases of the East, have been translated into the Westbourne, now the Ranelagh sewer, and still further back Malay tongue and distributed among the head men of, over Fulham and parts of Hammersmith up to Shepherd’s where it met the now into infected areas. They are from the pen of Mr. Warren. Bush, Stamford Brook, emptying

. Hammersmith Creek. On the the river Barnes, and their picturesqueness by no means impairs their opposite side, again, covered portions of a nd lower Wandsworth, where the or their practical value. simplicity still open waters of the Wandle, much polluted, empty into the Thames. The higher ground of the places named would show as islands here and there. Spreading over this lagoon THE King has been pleased to grant to Dr. Ernest CottonL in times of flood, the swollen river, checked in its course, Fischer, professor of ophthalmology at the School ofE deposited its load of earthy matter from the upper reaches to Medicine, Cairo, the Royal licence to accept and wear the form the marshes, with their tidal creeks kept open by the many streams that gathered on the The by Insignia of the Third Class of the Imperial Ottoman Order of‘ uplands. city some is believed to have been named by the Celts ’’ the Medjidieh, which decoration has been conferred upon Lyn Din," or Lake Town. (See Note C.) him by the Khedive of with the authorisation of the The three low eminences of Ludgate Hill, Cornhill, and ;Sultan of Turkey. Tower Hill, on which the City proper stands, were surrounded 705 on the north by the great moor, and on the east by the marsh proved both a source of annoyance and disease. The and fen and the estuary of the Lea. This is at Blackwall, saturated ground was contaminated by the cesspo0ls and between the East India and Victoria Docks. The south and middens of the many generations of dwellers within the west were bounded by the Thames and the Fleet river (see limited area, and the conditions were ripe for the distribu- Note D). The Walbrook, now a sewer, drained the moor, tion of any water-borne disease when an epidemic once passing through the centre of the City from north to south, obtained a foothold. The population in 1831 had risen to entering near the Moorgate and running out into Dowgate 1,424,896, and in this year cholera appeared. Dock. Another stream, the Langbourne, yet another sewer, Cholera Epidemics. drained the eastern fen, the due west to its crossing City Dr. Thomson,Thomson in 1852 of the visita-visita- and there, south where is is now St.St. Spencer writing in centre, and there, turningturning south by Mary’s tions of cholera, says that the first visitation in 1831 Woolnoth, spread into two or three streams or sheres and and was then called the the Thames tions traced back through Europe visitation in 1831 Sherebourne,’ entering bydistrict round the mouth of the in 1817. This visita- London Bridge. district round the through EuropeGanges and Asia to the swampy 1832 carried off in London alone no less than 15,000. In all, there are over 20 streams within the area of the tion in County Council. Nearly all are hidden in sewers, but they of he says have to be taken into serious account. From the surrounding Speakmg the second epidemic that nothing had beennourish done and in foster the its germs werein the preparedfoetid and to water or mysteriousthat we flowedfiowed towards the soaked stagnant interval, and hills ththe Thames, along air of the city, unventilated, undrained, with water stagnant air of the unventilated, undrained, with water the clay and gravel, saturating marsh and moorland, orour city, ° supplied or not supplied at all, or tainted withdecom- helped to feed the springs whose names, like those connected not supplied at all, or tainted with the streams, are daily on our tongues. It is this halfposition supplied every or human with decom-and abundance of water that has been, and still is, one of the of kind from excrement upwards, chief difficulties in with our The he adds that such medical the case again. The same able dealing sewerage. other medical the tidal were able embankment of the river, at a cost of £2,150,000, helped were held by the men and the tidal ditches of immensely to overcome this, but it will be noticed, as the toBermondsey appreciate in conditions.epidemic Amongst progress of draining London is followed, that the conveyance the great of 1848-49 187 deaths and ofcholera 1000. had (Seebeen Notemore thanthan usually of storm water added to the sewage is one of the chief occurred in a population In 1847 fatal. In London the deaths from these causes rose from 38 C3.usescauses ofot the enormous The district has been diarrhœa, dysentery, outlay. inin thethe first weekweek j.of to inn188 week inin the middle j-of described as July per formerly- fever and scarlet fever were also . August. Typhus epidemic. of marsh, and rills, the of in London " A land of flood, " During epidemic cholera, 1848-49, the deaths Uf wooded slopes and heath-crowned hills."- - in the six six weeksweeks from Nov. 21st,21st 1848, to Jan. 1st, 1849,1849 rose In addition to the within the limits of the responsibilities from 28 to 46 per 1000. The proportion of these deaths of London there are others. There are certain out- County varied with the elevation and with the area of water-supply, and Wood lying districts, including Hornsey, Tottenham, the Lambeth and Vauxhall Companies area having the larger a of and also a Green, part Willesden, Acton, West Ham, proportion of cases. (See Vital Statistics, W. Farr.) of East Ham, whose natural lines of between part drainage AbortionAbortive Plan.Plans. the hills an easement the Council’s require through County , . , of the river sewers, for which they pay a rental. This on the north side The condition becoming worse-with cesspool into the sewers on the means a provision for an additional 500,000 people. On overflows draining general adoption the south this applies to a part of Beckenham and Penge, of water- closets- in 1834 John Martin, the eminent and a for an embank- while part of Croydon and Norwood are also taken in, making imaginative painter, proposed plan building and the outfalls of the sewers on each side an addition of some 35,000 to the population to be provided ment collecting the river into to in the river for. These cover an area of over 20 square miles, making a of intercepting sewers, discharge London. He also sketches for a total area of upwards of 140 square miles dealt with by the below prepared suspended main drainage system. lighthouse on the Goodwins. This, unlike his sewerage was for he believed the sands were , . scheme, impracticable, Historical Account of the Drainage of London. but 18 ft. thick, not 80 ft. to the chalk, as they are now known The subject of drainage has exercised the mind of the to be. (See Note F.) Martin’s plans formed the subject of a British legislature from the time of Henry III., and many Royal Commission, but without result. Meanwhile the evil have been the enactments passed respecting it, including the increased with the population. At this time public and well-known Bill of Sewers in the twenty-third year of private pumps were numerous, ground water being abundant, Henry VIII. in 1531. Especial attention was frequently cool, and probably sparkling with ammonia, while some of given to the necessities of the metropolis. These Bills, how- the large water companies drew their supplies from the ever, related to surface or land drainage only, for sewers as immediate neighbourhood between Waterloo Bridge and conduits for water-borne excreta or otherwise polluted liquid Battersea. are of comparatively recent date. Though a great number of Prior to the creation of the Metropolitan Commissioners of sewers existed in the eighteenth century, they were but more Sewers- in 1848 London was administered by no less than or less enclosed channels of the water-courses taking the eight separate Commissions. The limes, commenting in natural drainage of the land, and prior to 1815 it was a penal 1855 upon the state of affairs that had existed, says offence to use them for any other purpose. (See Note D.) that "within the metropolitan limits the local administra- The older civilisation seems to have furnished examples of tion was carried on by no fewer than 300 different bodies, which the later ones have been slow to take advantage. deriving powers from about 250 local Acts independent Layard’s researches in Nineveh, made early in last century, of general Acts. Such a multiplicity of often ill-informed disclosed a complete system of sewers and house drains bodies only added to the existing confusion and trouble, which were in use there in the year 1200 B.C. each one doing what seemed good in its own district At the beginning of the nineteenth century the population independently of any difficulties it created for its neighbour. " of London is given as 958,863, occupying some 136,000 It is deplorable to contemplate the technical ignorance houses, all drained into cesspools, which had superseded displayed in the early period of divided responsibility in that mediaeval abomination, the lay-stalls, or heaps of regard to the size, shape, and varying levels of the sewers dung and garbage dumped in corners to be removed intended to connect at the district boundaries. Large sewers when convenient. The death-rate was 41 per 1000. discharged into small ones, square ones into round ones, and About the year 1810 water-closets of a primitive hopper egg-shaped sewers, which had the smaller end down, were pattern first came into use. These were connected with connected with others reversed, with the small end up, the a cesspool by a square brick drain, and as it became neces- whole result being chaotic. sary to provide an outlet for the additional amount of water John Martin’s proposal was partially adopted at the the overflow was carried into the nearest sewer or water- creation of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1856. course in defiance of the existing law, which by 1815 had Prior to that his scheme, though neglected at the time, become a dead letter. On the more general adoption of took hold, for in 1854 a Mr. Thomas Wickford, an engineer, water-closets it was found convenient to dispense altogether further elaborated Martin’s plan, carrying the northern out- with the intervening cesspool, and to carry the house drain fall sewer to Barking Creek and the southern one to the- directly into the nearest sewer or water-course. This action Marshes, with provision for chemically de- was stimulated by the great increase of buildings and odorising the sewage before discharging it into the Thames. cesspools that took place about 1830, these latter having but, like the original suggestion, nothing came of it. 706

The fundamental idea was revived on many occasions late Sir , their engineer, were well-nigh by engineers appointed to report on the subject, but without wrecked, like those of their predecessors, through want of immediate results. sufficient Parliamentary powers to give them independent Abolition of Cesspools. action. After long debate over details, with further reports Under pressure of public opinion during the cholera from experts appointed by the Government, additional - epidemic of 1848-49 Parliament combined in one body the powers were obtained following a change of Ministry, which several authorities then existing, under the style of the enabled the much-delayed sewerage scheme to be taken in Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, passing the Act on hand in the late autumn of 1858, though the work was not Sept. 4th, 1848. Their jurisdiction extended over a radius of completed until 1874. Provision was made by Sir Joseph for a of 12 miles from St. Paul’s, but their powers were restricted. Bazalgette population 3,450,000, accumulating of The members of this commission were nominated by the 108,000,000 gallons sewage every 24 hours. Added to - Government. Under the control of this Board all cesspools this, allowance was made for a rainfall of ¼ inch over the were abolished, the official number being given as 200,000, more populated area and 1/10 inch over the remaining suburban the south side with an estimated capacity of 5,250,000 cubic feet, incredible portion, being very sparsely Even this amounted as it now seems with cholera present and water being drawn populated. very limited provision to by the companies between Kew and Waterloo Bridge. The 286,000,000 gallons, making a grand possible total of excess over had to whole of this vast mass of filth was shot, or rather pumped, 394,000,000 gallons. Any this depend the storm overflows for its .into the Thames. It was now made compulsory for each upon provided removal directly house to drain into a sewer, for which purpose a great into the river within the metropolitan area. It is evident, if a was then found to be how advance was made by the introduction of pipes in place of such provision inadequate, much brick drains. It was owing to the efforts of this commission greater must be our present requirements, with the population to obtain information relative to the position and levels of increased by more than one-third, and with the greater part existing sewers that we owe the large-scale Ordnance Survey. of the open land now covered by buildings. of This commission was replaced the following year by a still Tne leading feature this great undertaking, which up more energetic body, who aspired to entirely reorganise the to 1888 had cost &6,824,877, was the interception of the main drainage system, but failed to agree as to the plan to sewage in its passage to the river, and its conveyance to a be adopted. Other commissions were created in quick suc- point well below London, here to be collected in reservoirs . -cession, composed of men of undoubted capacity and ability sufficiently large to prevent the necessity of discharging it, for the duties, but without any practical result. In all, excepting at ebb tide, when it was turned into the river in between the years 1847 and 1855 no less than six commissions its crude state. Embanking the river was also contemplated, were appointed, who had before them no less than 116 plans, though it was not till 1862 that the Board were entrusted including in 1854 one costly scheme for draining London on with this work. Both the immense outfall reservoirs were the separate system, introduced by the General Board of completed and in use in 1864, by which date about Health. This was a self-appointed and apparently well- one-third of the sewage had been diverted from direct informed watch committee of citizens, but either from failing communication with the river, the result being quickly per- in the to agree amongst themselves cr with the Government, or from ceptible improved condition of the river within the lack of Parliamentary powers to carry out their plans, they metropolitan area, though the death-rate, which between dissolved before they had done more than make proposals 1857 and 1860 had fallen to 23-7, rose between 1861 and . and criticisms. 1870 to 24 4, the cholera epidemic of 1866 intervening. This Paul State of the River in 1855. outbreak in the East of London was considered by Dr. Netten to have arisen from the of in 1855 the had risen to Radcliffe consumption water taken Meanwhile, population 1,889,307 In 1865 His the late then . on the north side and on the south side to a Majesty, King, 696,761, making from theof Lea. the total of 2,586,068, while the houses had increased to 329,467. Wales, formally opened pumping Prince low-level sewer on the north side and the The death-rate, notwithstanding the cholera had station. epidemics, EmbankmentThe were until ten fallen in 1851-60 to from 24-8 in the decade. not, however, fully completed 23 7, previous later-1874. An article published in THE LANCET in July, 1855, when years matters had reached a climax, may well be quoted as tiocount of the Sewerage System. the condition of the Thames at this time. It describing The system as a whole at that time could be divided into four sections. First, the local sewers, collecting the sewage. The waters of the Thames are swollen with the feculence of the The waters These were administered hvby the various district boards, myriads of living beings that dwell upon the banks, and with the waste district of every manufacture that is too foul for utilisation. Wheresoever we being under the supervision of the Board of Works to ensure . go, whatsoever we eat or drink within the circle of London we find uniformity. The second section comprises the main sewers tainted with the Thames...... No one having eyes, nose, or taste, can from the to the Ofof them look upon the Thames and not be convinced that its waters are year by falling from the higher ground to the river,river, many year and day by day getting fouler and more pestilential...... The the converted water-courses ; into these the local sewers are abominations, the corruptions we pour into the Thames are not, as connected. The third section consists of the intercepting - some carried into the sea. The loath- falsely say, away sea rejects the sewers, three on each side of the river, with certain some tribute, and heaves it back again with every How. Here, in the heart of the doomed city, it accumulates and destroys. branches.branches, TheseThese greatreat sewers radiate from from Old Ford and Mills on the on the This description is not the least exaggerated. The con- Abbey (see 1) Deptford south, Fig.like a fan westwardnorth and into three main ditions were aggravated by the retention and consequent spreading of the in the of its dis- branches. On each side one branch, the low-level inter- deposition sewage neighbourhood river middle-level as owing to the low level of the outfalls cepting the charge. necessarily sewer,sewers rests are on the thebank, while it could only escape shortly before low tide, being dammed intercepting half-way up rising ground, the sewers rise to their back at other times in the sewers. Whatever sewage high-level gradually atintercepting on the north and at Sydenham on escaped, before the flow checked it, was carried back up highest points Hampstead the south ; in this last case it is called the Effra branch stream, and only returned again to be mixed with a still only sewer, the course of an old stream. The main fouler volume. Thus the process was occupying repeated. Large falls a accumulated constantly in the river and the trunks eastward, being the outfalls. In measure they deposits all run the course this fermenting, off such as are seldom or parallel to sewers ; gave gases river, andat in their tointercept them. Thethe never met with under present conditions. of right angles During periods several mainand sewers, mid-level running sewers fall The heavy rainfall the sewers filled, especially if such storms high-level by gravitation. contents of the lower-level sewers have to be raised by occurred during high tide. At times they were unable to withstand the and burst, flooding the pressure neighbouring side from the sewers.first into The reservoirs outfall at Barking and district, or in low-lying places vomited back their contents pumpingdischarged into the outfall sewers on either through the house and street gullies, with the same results. Crossness respectively, and these of containing ’This question of flooding hai been a difficulty up to the were capable time, and is for the six hours Sow which had to be discharged at each ebb-tide, - present largely responsible additionalfar as sections of the old main sewers were utilised sewers in course of construction. Therepossible yet remain to consider the storm relief sewers As for this purpose. At certain points a new main sewer is . Sewerage Baheme Carried Out. brought side by side with an old one, and the two are On the formation of the Metropolitan Board of Works in formed into one large sewer or chamber for a short distance, 1855 (see Note F), the plans of reform as designed by the when they again separate, the new one going to the outfall 707 708

at Crossness or Barking, and the old one delivering into the thought that, with the growth of the population, the question Thames as before. The chamber thus formed is divided of carrying the outfalls to a point lower down the river would longitudinally by a dwarf wall or weir (see Fig. 2). The have to be entertained, but in no case could crude sewage be storm water, pouring through the new main sewer, cleared discharged into the river. (See Note H.) Such portions of it to a large extent of the normal sewage flowing to the this work as were considered of urgent necessity were outfall, but the rising water soon overflowed the dividing commenced in 1891, consisting of a new relief sewer in weir and escaped through the old relief sewer directly to the Isle of Dogs, with additional pumping power at Abbey the river, these old sewers discharging storm water Mills. on either side within the metropolitan area. This prac- Nothing more was done until 1899, when the Council tice, which still maintains, was considered by the Royal instructed Sir Alexander Binnie to make a further investiga- Commission on Metropolitan Sewage Discharge (1884) tion. He reported that large additional works were urgently the weakest point in the system. The storm over- required at a probable cost of £3,000,000. This work was flows are incapable of dealing with exceptional rainfall put in hand in 1901; much of it is now in use, and during the time of high tide. The new intercepting the rest, with considerable additional work, is rapidly sewers and provision for storm water now being built nearing completion. These works were :-North side: will doubtless remedy this evil. Ill fares it with any two outfall sewers, Old Ford to Barking; a new middle- poor flusher caught by one of these sudden spates if far level sewer, Paddington to Old Ford ; low-level sewer, from a manhole. Warned by the roar of the approaching Hammersmith to Abbey Mills ; extension of original middle- flood he must wade through the rising water to where a life- level sewer to Scrubbs-lane, Willesden (Wood-lane on map) ;y rail is fixed across the entrance of some branch sewer. Here, and additional pumping machinery at Abbey Mills. Soutla should his Davy lamp happen to get extinguished, he clings side : low-level outfall sewer, Deptford to Crossness ; high- for dear life in total darkness until the storm abates. (For level sewer, Catford (Rushey Green on the map) to details of the sewerage system see Note G and Fig. 1.) Crossness, and low-level sewer, Battersea to Deptford. Difficulties arose with the old sewers used as storm reliefs. In 1903 the serious flooding of many low-lying districts These only being able to discharge into the river at low tide owing to exceptional rainfall, which during the year flooded the surrounding district when a storm occurred at amounted to 35 inches, again brought this question any other time. The inadequate provision made for the prominently forward, and though the relief works com- removal of this water was emphasised by the great increase menced in 1879, which were to cost some £708,000, had of building causing the rainfall to find its way more rapidly only just been completed, while others were in progress, in into the sewers than before. The Board therefore in 1879 1904 Mr. Maurice Fitzmaurice, C.M.G., who was then chief embarked upon additional relief works costing £708,000, and engineer, advised the Council to undertake further relief these were completed from time to time as floodings of works at an estimated cost of 737,000. Some have been property showed their need. completed and others are still progressing. Construction of Precipitation Works. The new low.level sewer from Hammersmith to Abbey and the new middle-level sewer from Kilburn to Old soon after the of the in 1864 Mills, Following opening system will relieve the old sewers oi the normal from were made those the river and Ford, output complaints by navigating by the suburbs in the West and North-west. others of the condition of the reaches in the rapidly growing neighbourhood In addition to this will means of weir of and below the which led to a Govern- they intercept by outfall, protracted at the much of the ment This was held in 1869 the late Sir chambers, placed points along route, inquiry. inquiry by storm water flowing towards the riverside stations. Robert Rawlinson, but the were considered not pumping charges The three sewers are now increased still continued to be made, and at last original intercepting proven. Complaints to five on the north side-that is, a new sewer has been the as of the Port of City Corporation sanitary authority and to, the and middle- London the Home Secretary, resulting in the placed between, parallel high-level approached level sewers, and another between the middle-level and low- of a Commission in 1882. This Commission appointment Royal level sewers. The main and the storm-relief seweis cross in 1884 the of the reported against existing practice turning these at and at certain of a weir crude into the river at Barking and Crossness, with the right angles, points junction sewage is to distribute the flow in case of rainfall. result that channels were built over a area placed heavy precipitation large There are also, at several of of the at the in which the was thrown down the (Fig. 2.) points junction outfalls, sludge by new with the chambers constructed in which addition of 1 grain of proto-sulphate of iron and of 4 grains system old, huge penstocks are fixed to divert the flow from one sewer of lime per gallon of crude sewage. The construction of into another for purposes of repair or otherwise as necessity these works at Barking alone in 1887 cost

FiG. 2.

Weir chamber in storm relief sewers.

FIG. 3.

Penstocks for diverting flow from one sewer to another. 710

’have a right to pollute the pure waters of any river. complained of in the neighbourhood of the few existing Ruskin, in "A Crown of Wild Olives," on noticing this ventilators. Aerating the stream of sewage by blowing into being done at the springs of the Wandle at Carshalton it jets of compressed or oxidated air at intervals during its and Beddington, says : 11 I have never seen anything so passage might be of service. For instance, where the stream. ghastly in its inner tragic meaning...... as the slow was sluggish it might serve the twofold purpose of accelera- stealing of reckless, indolent, animal neglect over the ting the flow and of purifying the sewage at the same time. sweetness of that English scene...... than the insolent It would be a disappointment, however, if the effect produced defiling of those streams by the human herds that drink of was anything like that experienced at times in the neigh- them." Speaking of the inhabitants he adds : "They have bourhood of one of the patent sewage injectors when in neither energy to cart it away nor decency enough to dig it action, but such questions are for the engineer. into the ground, thus shed into the stream to diffuse what The conditions of the sewers are to a large extent those venom of it will float and melt far away in all places where of a long septic tank, in that much of the solid constituents, God meant those waters to bring joy and health." It is through the action of anaerobic bacteria, becomes liquefied certainly a primitive if not a barbarous expedient, though its and more easily dealt with at the outfall, though when there avoidance is hedged about with difficulties. It may be it will be more evil-smelling than when it entered the sewer. taken as an axiom, however, that no outrage against any Mr. W. J. Dibden carried out some experiments at Barking scheme of Nature is for long committed without a penalty. with a view to improving the condition of the sewage by the How far sewage pollution affects the wholesomeness of injection of air with somewhat favourable results. Though fish drawn from a source subjected to such influence the cost incurred did not warrant its application on a large- there has been, until quite recently, no definite record, scale, yet it might prove worthy of a trial in the sewers saving in the case of oysters, mussels, and cockles, but it is before putrefaction had commenced. Oxidation would arrest well known that many people are unable to eat certain kinds this process, but it is possible that the solid portions might of fish without considerable gastric disturbance. Some be precipitated, in which case the flow, owing to the slight kinds of fish are notoriously dirty feeders. Suspicion has fall in the sewers, would not be sufficient to carry the- within the last few years fallen upon certain kinds of sediment to the outfall. Against this possibility the idea of flat-fish-plaice, dabs, and flounders-the young of which the injection of air as an aid to liquefaction of sewage was frequent the shallow waters of the estuaries, where they feed tried as far back as 1865 by Mr. Mechi at a sewage farm upon shell-fish. Last year, owing to the character of an at Tiptree in Essex. The whole of the manure from certain outbreak of typhoid fever at Bethnal Green and other of the stockyards was collected in an open septic tank holding poorer districts of London, the matter was made the subject 80,000 gallons ; this was diluted with a definite proportion of of a more than usually exhaustive inquiry by the medical water, and air was intermittently forced into the tank. Any officers of the London County Council. The whole question kind of offal, including dead animals, was thrown in, and the is fully reported in an official publication by Sir Shirley whole fermenting mass quickly liquefied so that it could be Murphy, medical officer of health of the London County pumped on to the land. The questions arising out of such Council, which includes a report by Dr. W. H. iiamer on processes can only be determined by those having practical certain localised prevalences of typhoid fever in London in experience. 1910. The associaion of a in of small flat- shortage supply Sewage Disposal a Serious Problem. fish at with a in the returns of Billingsgate drop typhoid The principal lesson to be learned from all that has been cases is a significant matter, there being little sale for this set out is one of warning from the condition of London and fish when the exceeds ½d per to the hard price pound. Owing the river in the middle of the last What are the nature of the food of these fish the usual be century. practice may conditions of diluted are omitted of after the catch. These small to-day ? Large quantities sewage gutting shortly still, in times of rainfall, into the stream in are retailed as fried fish in the heavy discharged plaice principally poorer the heart of London. A combined total of and if the is either omitted 283,458,950 gallons districts, cleaning altogether by of treated is on an turned vendors or is the is obvious. chemically liquid sewage average carelessly performed danger into the Thames at and Crossness, with the The are derived from the northern daily Barking suspected supplies chiefly addition of from 7000 to 8000 tons of filth (sludge) which off the German coast, but come from other grounds they may is carried out to sea. Think of it ! The mind fails to similar sources. The outbreaks of fever between daily typhoid form estimate of this volume. London 1908 and 1910 from a just huge polluted unquestionably originated sewage pollu- from its the worst but all round the tion first the and afterwards the fish and is, size, perforce offender, affecting shell-fish, in our in our health the same those who had of them. coast, growing towns, resorts, partaken thing goes on, especially in our large cities situated on For many years ideas were that London prevalent estuaries. For instance, to name a few :- sewage held a considerable manurial value, but such have been long since exploded. Its diluted condition and com- Belfast.-Six-sevenths of its crude sewage is discharged into the character render the made to secure Lough. posite many attempts Birkenhead and Liverpool.-The crude sewage is discharged at all the valuable nucleus abortive owing to excessive cost. The states of the tide in the Mersey. experiments of 1893 made at Barking for the bacteriological Bristol.-The bulk of the untreated sewage is discharged into the treatment of the conducted under the Avon at low tide. sewage, superintend- Ditbliiz -The effluent from the precipitated sewage is turned into ence of Sir A. Binnie both by Mr. W. J. Dibden and after- Dublin’s beautiful bay. wards by Dr. F. Clowes, are too well known to our readers Glasgow.-The effluent of the precipitated sewage is discharged into to need London Council the Clyde at Dalmarnock and Dalmuir. description. (See County Papers, Hull-The crude sewage is pumped into the Humber. 246, E. Stanford, Charing Cross, 2d ). Southampton.-The sewage after partial subsidence is turned into the Tne fourth report of the R)yal Commission on Sewage Dis- River Itchen on the ebb-tide. in 1904 furnishes the result of a posal biological examination In these towns alone in 1901 there was an of the water in the Thames taken from and Crossness aggregate Barking of 2,732,091. such a condition of down towards the river mouth. The number of B. coli population Surely things per cannot go on indefinitely, especially in view of the recent cubic centimetre of water varied from 100 to 1000. An evidence of the effect produced by sewage-fed fish. Other was first noticeable at Purfleet 5 miles below improvement fish than those caught in the North Sea form an article of but not till was reached-15 miles lower Crossness, Mucking diet. Many parts of our coast have been renowned for the down-was this very marked. Here the number varied from flat-fish the and estuarian waters. Such 1 to but 5 miles lower down still the frequenting bays 10, (by Chapman light’ facts as the foregoing demand serious consideration. not far from it was 50 cent. of this amount. Leigh) only per We conclude by expressing our best thanks for the courtesy Sewer Ventilation. shown us in this inquiry by the several officers of the London The difficult question of ventilation in this maze of sewersCounty Council to whom appeal has been made for informa- still leaves something to be desired. An ideal treatmenttion. Free use has been made of the published official would be a gradual and progressive purification from thereports connected with the main drainage of London, moment the refuse enters the sewers, but the conditions especially a very concise digest by the chief engineer, present during its long passage to the outfall are such as to)Mr. Maurice Fitzmaurice, while many well-known works of encourage putrefaction than rather to retard it. This is3the past have been laid under contribution. Mr. Worth, largely owing to the opposition of the public to all attemptsthe district engineer, kindly made arrangements for our repre- made to ventilate the sewers. The absence of such ventila.-sentative to inspect the various works of the main drainage- tion, on an extended scale, is a principal cause of the nuisance: system. We also have to acknowledge the use of the 711 photograph for Fig. 3, lent by one of the contractors, from 17 to 2 feet per mile. It drains an area of 16 square miles. Messrs. Griffiths and Co.,, of London Wall. ThisThe low-le-,e] is sewer,also with a branches.gravitation is about 21 miles, sewer. increasing from 4 feet by 2 ft. 8 in. to a 10 ft. 3 in. barrel. at 1lGTEc,rsun*. Commencing Chiswick, and passing through Walham Green, it receives a branch NOTE A. The continual raising of the level oj the ground.-At from Fulham and gravitates to a pumping station at Pimlico, where it the construction of the Victoria Embankment and the District is raised 18 feet ; it is continued by the side of the river along the Railway (1862-1870) the late Sir Benjamin Baker, the engineer of the Embankment, through Limehouse, receiving branches from Hackney railway, contributed some interesting records which confirm this view. and the Isle of Dogs, ]3ow, and Bromley ; it reaches Abbey Mills where it is raised .At the City end as much as 24 feet of dust and ruins of ancient buildings pumping station, another 36 feet into the northern on from were cut through; this varied in depth, but at Westminster it was outfall its way Old Ford to Barking. It drains an area of 24 18 feet thick. At a depth of 8 to 16 feet below the present surface of square miles. the roadway a layer of peat was found 700 feet long and from 2 to On the south side the outfalls measure some 11 feet to 12 feet over- to Crossness. At 7 feet thick ; also at Victoria Station a similar layer 200 feet long and running from Deptford Deptford the sewage from the 3 feet thick was met with at a depth of from 9 to 24 feet below the low-level sewer is pumped up 18 feet into them. The other intercepting -surface. sewers connect to the outfalls by gravitation with the exception of the from on runs In making the excavations the gravel was generally found fairly dry new sewer Catt,)rd (Rushey Green map), which by to Crossness, where it is lifted into the reservoir for to about the depth of the inverts of the adjoining sewers,’ but below gravitation directly that level large volumes of water existed, treatment before discbarging it into the river. on side of the Thames is dealt as Also in digging for the low-level sewer in the neighbourhood of West The sewage the south with miles in starts in Ham peat was met with 12 to 14 feet thick, containing the remains of an follows :-The low-level sewer, 10i length. ancient forest. This consisted ot the stems of trees from 12 to 18 inches with a 4 ft. by 2 ft. 8 in. sewer; keeping near the river, it passes Wandsworth and Batersea to Vauxhall. It then runs near thick, having their roots in the clay. Below this layer was the old through in New-road fiver gravel. Some leaden coffins were also found in West Ham Marsh, the Oval, Kennington, and turns north-east, NOTE B. The former extent of the Thames at Weòtmirzster c(c.- passing Walworth, near Albany-road, to the Old Kent road, from thence Cross into the station In an official record dated 1678 Sir C. Wren proposed important to New and Deptford, where it passes pumping a ft. is .improvements in regard to " Ye new Sewers and Ye Backwater in by 7 by 7 ft. sewer. On its way it joined bytheBermondsey St. Margaret’s, Westminster"; and it is also well known that Birdcage branch sewer, Similes in length, the total area drained being 15 square Walk in St. James’s Park had to be drained before constructing the miles. The size of this branch sewer is a 5 ft. 6 in. barrel, and termin- .aviary erected there for Charles II.’s pleasure. Stow, quoting atea at the pump’ng station in a 7 ft. by 7 ft. sewer. At a of 18 and Fitzstephen, refers to this backwater; he mentions a bridge near Deptford the sewage is lifted to height feet, discharges into two outfall and 11 feet 6 inches Whitehall over the Long ditch, "so called for that the same insulateth sewers, each about 7 miles long. ’the City of Westminster." The late Rev. W. J. Loftie thought that diameter, with a fall of 2 feet per mile. After taking various branch "there is little doubt that in the days of Edward the Confessor there sewers in Greenwich, Woolwich, Plumstead, &c., these sewers dis- at where the is lifted some feet four was a ford from Westminster to Lambeth." The water spreading over charge Crossness, sewage 20 by beams and and such a large tract of land about this point, it could not have been of two vertical engines pumps into precipitation channels, where it dis- any great depth. The ford would occupy the position of the old Horse- receives chemical treatment. The effluent eventually over a wear into the Thames. ferry; possibly Hungerford indicates a similar crossing. charges It would have been much the same on the Lea. The water of the The southern high-level sewer commences at in a 4 ft. by 2 ft. 8 in. it runs Balham estuary, spreading over parts of Poplar and Canning Town as it did, sewer, along High-road to -road would have made the lower reach by Stratford and Old Ford far more where it increases in size to 4 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft. At this point it is joined to extension at shallow than at present. This dangerous ford was superseded by the by the Putney Clapham sewer, commencing Roehhompton- lane as a 4 ft. 6 in. 3 ft. and in a 9 ft. 6 ft. sewer. construction of the stone three-span bridge receiving the name of "the by sewer, ending by Bow" a short distance below the ford, built by Queen Maud, wife of From Landor-road, at its junction with Clapham road, the combined from the branches mentioned above is carried in a 5 ft. Henry I. It was rebuilt in 1840. There might have been a ford across sewage two sewer and Camberwell on the Ravensbourne at Deptford, but this place gained its name from the barrel through to Deptford Broadway, it in a 10 ft. 6in. 10 ft. 6 in. sewer. Danes, being the deep fiord in which they anchored their ships when on where ends by Near this point it dis- the watch for plunder. charges into the southern outfall sewer already mentioned. The total NOTE C. Occurrence of floods.-In 1236 the Thames overflowed, length of these sewers is 15i miles, and the area drained some 8g square ,making Woolwich Marshes like a sea. Very many people were drowned, miles. In addition to there is a sewer from com- and much damage was done, Westminster Hall being flooded and these, high-level Catford, in a 10 ft. in size to a 11 ft. 6 in. people going into the Hall in boats. The same occurred in 1242, the mencing barrel, increasing which passes along Blackheath, Charlton, Woolwich, Plumstead,barrel, and ,river overflowing Lambeth hithe for a space of six miles,’ drowning thence in embankment to where it direct into many and houses and Crossness, discharges people destroying property. of Well on into the the Marshes left round the precipitation channels without the necessity pumping, and is eighteenth century treated with the other mentioned. Bermondsey, Lambeth, and St. George’s Fields were uninhabited, save along sewage already Other sewers known as the Effra miles in start for the dwellers in a few huts, some built on after the branches, 7i length, squalid piles from the Crown Rill and the and in 4 ft. manner of lake dwellings. Crystal Palace, commencing 2 in. and 3 ft. 2 sewers These branch NOTE D. The Fleet River.-The state of the Fleet River, as described by ft..8 by ft. respect,ively. by Swift in his " City Shower" about the middle of the eighteenth sewers join a 6 ft. barrel sewer in Park-road, West Dulwich, whence century, bears testimony to the little regard paid to enactments and to it flows Dulwich and to and Deptford, and thethrough southern high level sewer near the Broadway, ending in a condition of the streets and at this time .:- the neglected° water-ways joins10 ft. 6 in. 10 ft. 6 in. sewer, connected into the southern , by being "Now from all parts the swelling kennels flow, outfall sewer, and thence to Crossness. To bear their trophies with them as they go ; The total amount of sewage treated at Crossness annually is about .... 49,000,000,000 gallons, of which 281,OOC,z 00 reaches the reservoirs with- And in confluence at out 174,000 gallons of sewage can be raised per minute to a. huge joined Snowhillridge pumping.of 20 feet at this station. Fall from the conduit prone to Holborn Bridge : height pumping from butchers’ stalls, and blood, The foregoing includes some of the recent additions:-There are..11 Sweepings dung, guts, of are Drowned all drenched in pumping stations, five which continuouslv employed in lifting puppies, stinking sprats, mud, one level The Dead down the flood." the sewage from to another. total indicated horse-power cats and turnip tops’ come tumbling of these five stations combined is from 5000 to 6000. are situated ...... ’ They the more polished if less expressive line of Pope in the Dunciad bears as follows (see map): Western pumping station at Pimlico ; Abbey a like testimony. Mills; North Woolwich; Deptford ; Crossness. The Western and The Fleet, also called the River of the Wells, had its rise on the North Woolwich stations can also be used for pumping storm water eastern side of Hampstead, and as a sewer has been diverted from its directly into the river, In addition to the above there are six other original course to drain Camden Town ; then making its way through stations for discharging storm water into the river situated as follows St. Pancras, it was joined firtlier on by a small branch from Clerken- (see map) : Lots-roarl, Chelsea ; King’s Scholar’s Pond, North west of well. Reaching the Holborn Valley it absorbed the waters of the old Vauxhall Bridge ; the Isle of Dogs ; Fale in Brook, Vauxhall ; Heath- 33ourne, having its rise in Middle Row, and then by way of Farringdon- wall, Nine Elms; and Shad Thames. With the exception of the Isle street into th& Thames. of Dogs station, the motive power is gas,’ the total indicated being 4000 The main portion of the river was converted into a sewer in 1732 to 5000 horse-power with the exception of a few sections, including one near the outlet, NOTE H. Treatment of sewage.-The London County Council, with a which last, at the building of Blackf riars- bridge in 1765, was carried view to future necessities, has secured some 500 or 600 acres of land in out into the river in a culvert 18 feet wide and 12 feet high. The the neighbourhood of the outfalls, to enable it to further develop the - river was at one time navigable for some distance. As a sewer it present system of treatment, though such treatment would do little drained a district covering an area of 14 square miles. more than keep pace with the increase of the population and keep NOTE of this district is" matters at their continue - E..Bermo