The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-16 00:00:00

Utilisation of the London Sewage.

A public meeting of the ratepayers and inhabi-
tants of St. Marylebone was held in the Court-
house, Marylebone-lane, last night, to consider the
subject of the utilisation of the London sewage—
Dr. Brady, M.P., the chairman of the select com-
mittee on the sewage of towns, presiding.
In consequence of the wet weather the meeting

was not well attended.
The CHAIRMAN said he had devoted considerable
attention to the subject of the utilisation of the
sewage of towns, which was of the greatest impor-
tance to the community at large, but when he
brought it first under the notice of the House of
Commons he had no idea that he had undertaken so
difficult a task. It had over and over again been
called the unsolved question of social progress, but
why, he was at a loss to understand. It had also
been designated the ass's bridge of social mathema-
tics, but nothing was easier than to pass over that
bridge. (A laugh.) A large amount of evidence was
taken before the select committee, and with the ex-
ception of that given by those who were interested
in artificial manure,it all tended to show that sewage,
if properly applied to land, would be a most valu-
able manure as regarded almost every description of
crops. The different agricultural societies through-
out the country had also given testimony to the
same effect, but an enormous influence was exercised
by the artificial manure interest in almost every
market town in England, in order to depreciate the
value of sewage as a manure, and it was therefore
most desirable that the public should be enlightened
on that question. There could be no doubt that by
proper utilisation of sewage the ratepayers would be
largely benefited in a pecuniary sense. He then
alluded to the experiment made by the commission
at Rugby, and said that though he would not go so
far as to call it humbug, it was anything but what
it should have been. The land had never been
prepared for the application of sewage, and the
experiment was therefore fallacious, as it could
have led to no other result bat failure. As
the sewage was their property, as rate-
' payers, they ought to see that it was turned
to profitable account,and with that view they should
first have the whole matter thoroughly discussed,
(Hear, hear.)
Mr. HEALY referred to legatees in which sewage
had enormously increased to productive powers of
land in Lincolnshire, and said he looked upon the
London sewage as a mine of wealth to the rate-
payers. A large manufacturer of artificial manure
had told him that utilisation of sewage " went
against the grain," which amounted to a confession
of its value, and he (Mr. Healy) believed that if the
whale sewage of the metropolis were converted into
manure the cost of main drainage works would be
next to nothing. He concluded by moving the fol-
lowing resolution :—" That this meeting, in view of
the evidence laid before the Select Committee of the
House of Commons on the sewage of towns, and of
the analysis of the metropolitan sewage made by
Messrs. Hoffmann and Wilt, is of opinion that the
metropolitan sewage is a manure valuable for all
crops, and that it can be profitably utiiised. That
its profitable utilisation depends upon its applica-
tion in a liquid form, in moderate dressings, over a •
large area; and that any other mode will be finan-
cially unproductive. And, further, that a plan
based upon the foregoing principles and conditions
is the only one which offers any prospect of a sub-
stantial reduction of local taxation."
The motion s. .
Laving
BURN, been seconded by Mr. BLACK-

Igo
o f thevna:lit:oil:Tr:
Mr. SLAM' said
VMS
from
n value
Practical Ei
experienceu a Equal to 5 ,otohoa,
that
ito
gave
vyear.
he believed that the sewage of
London
enormous amount of
a short
He knew fro
matter,and,in nourishmentt to all vegetable
miraculous on land t me, its effect had been almost
twould h
apdu rimfey Thames,
eta drainage One great advant 0 which it had been applied.
£3,000,000 would be the
thewas £s,ooo,ooothai and out of
lat calculated systemt
then be produced in that" of
g 34
which would
streams which ran into it. n?ble river and the
Within h•
ledge, a man somela own know-
years ago
or eight salmon at a haul in different
to take six
river above Chelsea•bridge, end rent a fries Parts of the d
one opposite Strawberry-hill weighin once caught
he sold to a fishmonger in Jermyo.sgtr6Olb., which
et for £25.
Formerly the fishermen in the villages
ail
banks of the river were very properous, b°utg atO1::
their occupation had almost gone, owing to -i;
"ty of the water, and during
impuzi the winter
their families were obiiged to rely
,hey and
parochial relief. He had recently visited the out-
fall of the main drain at Plumstead Marshes, and
when within a quarter of a mite of the place he
happened to inhale the abominable Effluvia from
an artificial manure manufactory, which made him
BO ill that he was unable to take food for a long
time afterwards.
Dr. BACHHOFFNER said that having deeply
studied the question before the meeting, and made
many experiments in regard to it, he had no doubt
whateNer that the sewage of the metropolis and of
the whole of England was a very valuable commo-
dity, gear, could not en-
tear, hear.) He, however, c
dorse the b 9 applied
principle that it could only
profitably I• the ab
n a liquid form, especially in
sence of ally evidence moved,
to that effect, and
as 411 amendment, that the latter part of the zoo-