The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-06 00:00:00

PURIFICATION OP THE THAMES.

The Thames flowing through the City of London !
What a gorgeous mind-picture of silvery waters, set in
a frame of superb palaces, must the very thought of it
present to a meditative Brahmin or an imaginative Hin-
doo. The description of a city composed of Aladdin's
palaces, set in Sinbad's valley of diamonds, would pos-
sibly satisfy the Oriental imagination. But it would be
assuredly beyond the bounds of even a Hindoo's credu-
lity to believe that the great river of the great capital of
England is purposely goaded into "running a muck "
through the town—whether we understand the phrase,
like the Hindoo, to signify a blind sacrifice of human
life, or explain it, by the, aid of our dictionaries, to
refer to the flowing of a liquid mass of manure. But
in four years' time the Thames is to be purified, and
the sewage of London to find another channel. One
year has been already wasted by constituted autho-
rities, and possibly the other would be similarly frit-
tered away, but that certain plain and practical
men, endowed with common sense, and not pos-
sessing that enormous determination of words
to the mouth which specially afilicts folks " dressed in a
little brief authority," have lent helping hands to get
through the difficulty. Though in all these private plans
there are innumerable obstacles to be overcome, yet there
is not one of them but excels the pet plan of the Board
of Works, providing, as it does, an outfall within three-
quarters of a mile of Erith Church ; against which a de-
putation of the inhabitants protested most strongly in an
interview list week with Lord Palmerston.
The plan of Dr. Marshall Hall, to carry off the sewage
in large c'oecee on either bank of the river, and when far
away from the town, to remove it for the cultivation of
the soil, would also remedy an evil that seems to have
hitherto been singularly overlooked ; probably from ten-
der consideration for the vested interests of the mud-
larks. The formation of such cloavm, covered over with
twhi
ede Eto
ir
heads
quays (de
smtchachiselling nd
el
iwn
gh y
tahheolau 1?d)
wouldnot our
considerablyconvicts
narrow the stream of the Thames, and so rid us of those
wide beaches of mud and decomposing animal matter
which may be seen at every low tide. This narrowing
the stream would also tend to deepen the river, and the
construction of quays, as at Paris, would, moreover,
materially relieve our over-crowded thoroughfares.
Attention is specially directed, in the plan of Sir W.
Worsley, to the imperative necessity that must arise, in
any case, of providing additional means for flushing the
sewers at frequent intervals. He proposes to take the
water of the river from Battersea to Limehouse Reach
by a shcrt out; and, between these points, to oust Fa-
ther Thames altogether from the bed where he has so
long wallowed ; planting the ground thus acquired with
trees, &c., and carrying the main sewer beneath to
empty itself at Woolwich ; above which station dame
are to be constructed for keeping out the sea-tide.
The most important item in the scheme is the forma-
tien of reseevoirs at Battersea for flashing the sewers
at regu'ar Intervale. This should be made a subject
of careful con,itheation, whatever be the plan adopted,
otherwise frightful evils will most assuredly arise
from the decomposition of more than seven millions of
cublo feet of sewage rotting ,in the drains beneath our
feet during the hot and dry Months, and when the vent
is removed many miles away. We have not space to
enter into all the details of Sir Wru, Worsley's plan, to
which the eeernious annual traffio of that portion of the
appr
rivee he proposes to obliterate, must form a fatal objec-
tion.oprMiaotereaofveen ,amthesicurrent of air produced by a flow-
ing streem of water, If only moderately pure, is of great
offers to earreiist
ithPoTtenee in a sanitary point of view,
The (thief attraction in the plan of Mr. A/Pelona (most
time. Thie is an eh; that tf
eSirl, a Alce.rPmeinto,a
ut
ignr great
given
con-
tractor,iveeject for consideration, .atien we re-
memhee how great the difference usually is between the
estimated cost of our public works (as the Houses of
tPhaerlriaivrneernct)rao: 4 im
and the actual expenditure. Mr. M'Clean
proposes to carry ttlik *age, by covered ways, into
Ger-
man Chou, :eataiastacWrifiaeltelrmT,heanpdlansoofinDtor. tmhearsGhearli
Hall bas the great advantage of disposing of the sewage
elsewhere than in the Thames; and of making it a vast
A large mass of decaying organic
mattersource goof
weealtinegihn,to
the river, at any one point, would
havoc amongst the neoessarily produce, for some miles, a tract of water be-
fouled with condensed pollution, and likely to play sad
ing
up
and
ciowa.27l z4saanndeetipassengers of vessels ply-

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