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' violent showersthem to justify their p...
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" THE WAR IN ASIA." Tiik article in our ...
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Lord Mou>tc.auret's Claim.—This claim, w...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Mr. F. O. Ward On The Recent Pollution O...
we ** eampfcttv append < ro ^ . ^ * £ . "gj erttors . Urs ^ Mr . Hawes assumed that the ^ state ~« = 5 r « " # s 11 a Mhnlm < Iast one « t Westminster pier , the . other ^ SSSSA «* - h « n r ? roduced before the commissioners , showed that the river was no longer the " pale-brown stinking fluid , " which hid a card at an inch depth , but that a card might now be seen through a mass of the water rather measuring by feet than inches . Secondly , Mr . Hawes supposed the abolition of cesspools to have caused the discoloration of the Thames ; but if so , how was
it that , not a single cesspool having been restored , and the daily discharge still going on , the Thames had , nevertheless , recovered from the hideous condition noted by Dr . Faraday to the state of relative purity in which they now saw ita water before them ? If the London cesspools were , as many persons believed , isolated receptacles , cut off from all communication with the sewers , there would be some plausibility in Mr . Hawes ' s view ; but , in point of fact , the great bulk of the London cesspools had overflow-drains , through which their surplus continually oozed into the sewers , so that the
daily discharge from a cesspool-house was not less in quantity , though in quality infinitely worse and more rotten , than that from a pipe-drained house . Of Mr . Hawes' third error , viz ., his supposition that such intercepting tunnels as he ( Mr . Hawes ) and his friends contemplated would hinder the periodical pollution of the river , he ( Mr . Ward ) would presently speak . But first it was necessary to point out the difference of the result that would ensue from the discharge into the river of each day ' s
excrement as produced , and from the simultaneous discharge of the excrement of several weeks or months . The weight of the daily excrement of IiOndon , deducting the water , and taking ^ fhe dry matter at the average of 2 oz . and a small fraction ( 2-01 oz . ) per head per diem , for men , women , and children , would amount to not quite 127 tons , of which 29 tons would be mineral matter ; leaving 98 tons of organic or putrescible matter . Again the quantity of water coming daily over Teddington weir in dry
weather was about 600 , 000 , 000 gallons , or 2 , 678 , 000 tons of water ; to which the addition of one day's putrescible excrement , ninety-eight tons , would only be in . the proportion of about two and a half grains to the gallon ; an impregnation which , however objectionable in other respects , would scarcely discolour the water , and could ¦ not therefore produce the loathsome opacity and foetor noticed by Dr . Faraday . But when this excrement , instead of escaping day by day as fast as produced , according \ o the doctrine of Circulation versus Stagnation , which he ^ and his friends had propounded , was allowed to accumulate for months and even years , as unfortunately happened in London , the result was of a very different kind , and really awful to contemplate . On the most
moderate estimate , there were twelve months' excreta constantly retained in the subsoil of London , partly in cesspools , partly in big brick house-drains which collect . deposit , partly in the large old flat-bottomed sewers made to take off rain water , and totally unfitted for the conveyance of soil . Now this mass of accumulated excrement thus continually retained in subterranean London actually equalled one day ' s evacuation of the whole population of Europe and Asia , numbering together 800 , 000 , 000 . The figure was a startling one , and the fact still more so ; but a simple calculation would prove it true , for on multiplying the number of the population of London by 365 , they would find the quotient exceed 800 , 000 , 000 . And now he would ask them to consider the effect
of a sudden rain-storm falling on London , and pouring along through these overcharged subterranean receptacles . Suppose it only swept to the river nine or ten days' accumulation of filth , to what did they imagine that would be equivalent ? It would be equivalent to the simultaneous * discharge into the London Thames of the mass of excrement produced in one day by the entire population of Great Britain , numbering 21 , 000 , 000 . And now , passing from theory to fact , what weather had there been during the last ten months ? And how Would the attempt to take away mixed sewage and rainfall have succeeded , had the tunnels proposed for this- purpose by Messrs . Bazalgette and HaywooA' b « em already' built and at work ? There Jbad feeen » they were aware , several months of
drought , interrupted at intervals by violent showers ofi'raitt . The last'storiw that occurred wa * on ; Jwly Uth ,-wken l » 42 inch of rain fell in lesathan three hoars—being , at the rate of O-47 inch per > howcwhilst the discharging . . power of the tunnels proposed , colossal as they were , was only adequate to take off 00104 inch of rain per hour ; being less tkan one forty-fifth part of the filth-laden torrent requiring to be intercepted . Therefore , even if-the great intercepting tunnels had been made , the whole of the black torrent on the 11 th , excepting a mere fraction , a forty-fifth part , would have rushed mto the Thames , carrying with it , just as happens on like occasions nowfilth equivalent to the ordinary ___
, discharge from a whole nation . He did not mean to say that the daily outflow from the sewers was not an evil , nor that it did not contribute to the pollution of ,, the river ; but ho thought that a daily discharge , daily carried away , was far less dangererous than such sudden eruptions of filth as he had just described . To test the correctness of this view , he had made inquiry as to the effect produced on the Fleet by the late violent storm ; and he found that the Fleet had poured down a most black and noisome tide , so swollen as to overflow its banks at New Farringdon-street , and so foetid that the ' clerk of the works engaged on a large sewer in progress there had been obliged to scatter chloride of to its
lime along the "banks of the Fleet mitigate sickening emanations . And as the Thames had since recovered , and returned to its ordinary condition , so also had the Fleet , as a sample of the Fleet water taken by him ( Mr . Ward ) yesterday , and which he now produced , would show . It would be observed that the sample did * not present the unusual blackness and foetor described as having previously existed ; and he might add that when he visited the Fleet at the spot last Friday , in company with Dr . Varrentrapp , of the Legislative Council of Frankfort , and his brother , Professor Varrentrapp , they could none of them perceive any sensible odour from the stream , which a few days before had infected the
air all around . Hence it was clear that the causes in operation were not , as some writers supposed , of a casual nature , operating exclusively on the Thames ( such as canal-cleansing , gas-liquor discharge , f & c ) , but that the temporary pollution was due to circumstances affecting at once the Thames and the Fleet . He thought this confirmed his view , and pointed conclusively to- accumulations of filth , taking place mainly in consequence of drought , and subsequentlydischarged intotheriver , partly . no doubt , in daily driblets , but partly alao in sudden bursts , as the main cause of such pollution as that which Professor Faraday had observed . And , therefore , accumulated deposit being the source of evil , whether in foul cesspools , foul housedrains , or foul sewers , our rid of such in all
endeavour should be to get deposit its loathsome forms ; to persist in developing the self-scouring Tubular system , which it was the honour of this commission to nave irrevocably established ; and , above all , to extirpate as rapidly as possible those hideous sepulchres of rottenness called cesspools , which some -writers assumed to be abolished , but which still existed under four-fifths of the London houses—under the mansions of the rich as well as the hovels of the poor , and which Mr . Hawes invited us to retain . Every house drained by a self-scouring pipe , instead of a cesspool with an overflow drain-ofdeposit , would contribute only one days' discharge , and that fresh , instead of many day's discharge , and that putrid , to the storm waters flowing down the sewers to the river . Like abatement
of evil would ensue in the case of every tubular sewer substituted for the great brick vaults now accumulating deposit under the streets . And thus , while they wore preparing and executing their great intercepting works , immediate mitigation of their sanitary sufferings might be obtained ; the houses and streets thus improved being at onco rendered more healthy , and tho river itself being no longer exposed , in so great a degree as heretofore , to sudden pollution by storms . Entirely to obviate such pollution , they must adopt , ho believed , tho principle of separating the sewage proper from tho rainfall ; and declare , with him , " The whole of tho rainfall due to the river , the whole of tho sewage duo to the soil . " That , he was convinced , was the only truo
and complete solution of the sewage problem ; tha only way by which human excrement could be effectually excluded from our rivers , and made economically available for our fields . He was in a minority now on this point , as ho had been , years ago , on tho pipe question ; but as the pipe battle was now fought and won , he hoped that , in duo course of time , tho sewage problem would In like manner be brought to a right issue . The inhabitants of London would not , he was convinced , be content to spend three or four millions of money -on an intercepting system , which would , after all , leave them subject , every year , to such sudden oruptions of filth as took plaoo the other day into tho river , wasting , largo massea of valuable manure * and at the ' same time poisoning ' the water and tho . air . But , meanwhile , they had abundant experience before
Circulation versus Stagnationy © ftttbula ™ e «» s cesspool drainage * and ofr small-pipes «« w » big bnck iew « v * whiab . lv © had advocated wtwa . he . acat joined the commission , and which they had hitherto steadily pursued . Every application of that policy was marked by diminished mortality , reduction of cleansing costs and other burdensome charges ; improvement in the value of house property , and amost extraordinary saving of rates . They would not he was convinced , by their vote on this occAsion , adopt even fora time tho obsolete system of Stagnancy , but would continue to support , as heretofore , tho new and fruitful principle of Circulation . Mr . Hawes having briefly replied , the original motion was lost , and the amendment was carried by a majority of 7 to 4 ; tho chairman , we believe . voting in tho minority . .
' Violent Showersthem To Justify Their P...
' them to justify their persistence iri that policy of . . * i . ¦ _ TflB Ii * ADB % _ pra , ara ; SiaOTmnr > « 7 z 2 ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦ - ' — - — ^ ==================== 5 ^^ - ¦ ¦ :-:. -..:- : ¦ ¦ ¦ - ————] - —— ^ xi . __ . ** z ,, ~ 4- \ frr 4 \\ niv TiArtriitencG in * that policy of
" The War In Asia." Tiik Article In Our ...
" THE WAR IN ASIA . " Tiik article in our last number on this subject contained an important clerical error . The strength of the Russians before Kars was stated at- " a hundred thousand , " instead of " forty thousand . " We have no desire to surpass the Invalide Jiussc in arithmetical hyperbole . It is our practice , in such cases , rather to understate than to cxccM tbe fact .
Lord Mou>Tc.Auret's Claim.—This Claim, W...
Lord Mou > tc . auret's Claim . —This claim , which was for the right of voting for the representative peers of Ireland , was allowed by tho House of Lords on Tuesday . St . Pact ' s , JCsionrsBRrDGE . —An action has been Kealc ami
brought in the Consistory Court by Messrs . Westerton for permission to remove certain alleged Papal appurtenances . Tho caso is not yet concluded , the arguments on both sides being very elaborate . Four days have already been partly taken up with tho diacussion . The Degree ok Affection Neckssaby to LovBns . In a Breach of Promise of Marriage Case recently tried at Exeter , a witness said he had seen the pair walking together , and that " they were as affectionate a * two lovers need be . " He added that the fair one was " as nice a blooming young girl as any in Ottery , and there were plenty of them there . " A postman , who delivered the love letters , paid he could write a . s well as deliver epistles ; but he preferred writing in prose for gentlemen , but that ho thought verse was bettor for common people . A verdict was returned for the fickle Ix > thario .
State of the Thames . —Sir John M > Neill , civil engineer , attended before the Lord Mayor on Tuesday , to make some statements with , respect to tho bed of tho Thames . He thought that a good deal of ini . schief arises from tho filling up of the river above bridge , which , by diminishing the " scour , " prevents the . proper flushing of the channel ; and ho strongly objected to tho embankments now being formed by Government at Hattersea , by which several acres "will be inclosed , and a vast body of tidal water will l > e displaced . The City Solicitor stated that the Corporation had formed a plan foT deepening tho bed of the river , but that a dispute with Government as to their right to interfere with the bed had put a stop to tho execution of the project . Tho suit between tho Crown and the Corporation has been pending for ten years , and there is still no prospect of its being settled .
The CoMMrrTKK ox the Adulteuattom of 1 'ood has sat again , and received further testimony from analytical chemists with respect to the poisonous matters introduced into food , drinks , and drugs ; but it is satisfactory to learn that the exposures in tho Ixtncft haro to some extent mitigated tho evil . Mr . Dundas Thomson mentioned that ho hod once soon a box of tea containing half its weight in iron filings . But this was a Chinese fraud . He also said it had often been asserted that sausages are mado of horses tongues , and that lie himself had reason to believe that tho tongues of all the horses killed by tho knackers are used for food ! When it is considered that many of these horses arc diseased , wo may well say , " Beware of sausages !" The Straiian Affaik . —The further examination of
Messrs . Strahan , I ' , and Bates wan again postponed on Wednesday for a week , in conformity with tho agreement to that effect when they -were last brought up . — On Thursday , tho affairs of tho bankrupts were again investigated in tho Court of Bankruptcy , and an adjournment to tho Oth of October was agreed to . Tlio Amount of debts now proved is nearly 800 , 0007 . James Chbvamicr » k Colquhoun . —This gentleman , tho author of a remarkable work on the London police , published some half a century ago , and it is alleged the remote originator of our present system of police , has recently died . Ho was a London magistrate for several year /) , " and vrae nfterwarda made the representative of tho Ilanseatlc- Republic in this country . In subsequent years he filled other offices in Gorman states .
Frx > or > iw mm Pijbkt Sewkb , — -A torrent of wntor on Wednesday iburet into the new works In the Fleet setver , and very nearly carried ( may tho workmen , yflio , however , ultimately escaped .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 28, 1855, page 722, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_28071855/page/14/
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