Modern methods of sewage disposal : for towns, public institutions, and isolated houses / by Geo. E. Waring, Jr.

  • Waring, George E., Jr. (George Edwin), 1833-1898.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Modern methods of sewage disposal : for towns, public institutions, and isolated houses / by Geo. E. Waring, Jr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    best be reduced to practice. It was only after this clear definition and demonstration of the processes involved, and of the methods of their application, that we were in a position to work with real knowledge. Then only could empiricism be made to give place to well-established theory. Could we now set aside the influence of long years of practical work, the atmosphere would be greatly cleared; but practical work has a very persistent influ- ence, and the art of purifying sewage will long feel the effect of experience with methods which would not have been devised in the light of what is now known. When the first attempts were made to get rid of the impurities of sewage by artificial means, great impor- tance was universally attached to their manurial value, and promise was held forth of great profit to result from their development in a useful form. The obstacle of extreme dilution was not appreciated, and it was long before the discovery was made that, as with the gold said to exist in sea-water, the attempt to separate these matters by artificial methods would cost more than they were worth. The belief also prevailed that the chief source of offensiveness of sewage lay in the solid faecal matter that it contained, and this belief still finds much popu- lar acceptance. One of the most prominent sanitary exhibits at the World's Fair in Chicago, a Russian invention, has the separation of this matter for its chief end, and the description accompanying it urges such separation as the sine qua non and the chief need of