APPENDIX.
Allusion has been made in the course of the argument to the results of experiments on
the biological treatment of Sewage in India, but it was not the object of the writer to dis
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cuss these experiments in detail. Those who desire information on the subject may con
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sult the Annual Report of the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, for
1898 (Section X, pages 272—280) for a general review of the subject, and for brief details
of the Simla experiments; also the pamphlet by Mr. Silk, M.I.C.E., "A Sewage disposal
experiment in Calcutta," (Bengal Secretariat Press, 1900); and thirdly, the "Address to
the Municipality of Poona," 1899, by Mr. Pottinger, M.I.C.E., M.S.I., followed by his
"Second Address," 1900. The conditions under which these experiments were carried
out varied in important details, but if they are considered together, they afford an insight
into the practical problems that present themselves to the Indian Sanitarian,—problems
which, as broadly set forth in the first of the references here quoted, are based on condi
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tions which offer a strong contrast to those generally met with in Europe. It would
be palpably absurd to assert that we have reached the finality which crowns the
work complete, but one and the most important step has been achieved, viz.,
the positive demonstration that our Indian problem is capable of solution along the
lines that alone afford hope of complete success. The contribution made to the subject
by workers in India has a special value as demonstrating the extraordinary power of
the biological forces we command, when submitted to the most trying conditions, and it
may well be that in applying the principles and methods first worked out in America
and England, we shall repay the debt by affording indications for the solution of the prob
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lems of sewage-disposal in rural areas in the West. Meanwhile the striking results ob
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tained provide a mandate for immediate consideration and action within the limits of our
own responsibility. A high authority (Prof. Ramsay in his report on the Tata scheme
for a Research Institute) has recently uttered a word of warning against" embarking
on any untried scheme" of sewage disposal, but this was by way of insisting on the neces
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sity of trials. Another high authority (Prof. Fraser, President of the recent Plague
Commission, in an address to the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh) asserts the
necessity of sweeping sanitary reform, and first among the measures he enumerates is "a
system for the effective disposal of sewage." The present unsatisfactory condition of
our cantonments in this respect calls loudly for reform, and the facilities they afford as a
field for the new departure enhance the prospect of success.
It would be premature to endeavour to estimate "success" in concrete terms; the
material reduction of the sick and death-rates from "filth'' diseases would represent an
enormous saving in the Army estimates, and at the same time, greatly increase the effective
strength. But there are other inestimable advantages, economic and social, to be antici
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pated. The proper disposal of the enormous capital we command to the production of
food-stuffs and the consequent raising of live-stock, is surely the first of the technical in
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dustries to which attention should be turned. The results of such a policy have already
been demonstrated in the grass-farm operations at Allahabad, while indications of the
extraordinary developments to which the practical application of the processes here advo
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cated are open, are afforded by the cropping experiments carried out at Poona.