The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-29 00:00:00

STATE OF TifE THAMES.

TO
.THE IDITOA OF TI SUN.

SIB, —Oa Faiday,. June 18, the state of the Thames
was Drought before the Bence of Comanpne, but without
much remtlf. Sydney Smith a.tid there would be no end
of raiiway accidents till a bishop was killed ; and in like
manner there will be nothing done to clear the Thames
till either the Speaker of the H 01146 of CoMmona dies
of tlphus,, or twenty thousand of the ordinary us
f,,11 by the etigii of pe,tilene-,. The Libraifid the Howie
o: Commoi e in Tour,day was worse aim a die. e.ing.
room, and 1 sate men waving elotbv, understood to be
wetted with chloride of lime, in hopes to disinfect.
A man was ,asked why he nev4r waabed his bands ;

and he replied by asking-.what he was to do with the
dirty water ? ITois is something Ike the dilemma of a
portion of the Citia6us. Toey say they InlghL be washed
by the Thame-, but then the Townes is tusde so dirty ;
and therefore they propose that they shall not be washed
At all.

The case admits of compromise, and to all appearance
cure. But, then, there is the expense. Ten millions
are talked of as the price of preserving the metropolis
from pestilence. If the money could have been saved
which gentlemen with arcuiteetural to-tee have expended
bn what would be quite aft well away, it woul s have
gone half-way'; but gentlemen cannot eat their cake
and ,have their cake. But it doter not toilette that there-
fore the metropolis must be left o sicken. A wicked
war the 'less will pay for all ; the unit step which
would be to strike off all the sues who draw
salaries under the title of agerits abroad, as performing
no' end in society but what Irishoree in a lair
are.said to execute by dragging .teeir great-coat 'deer
them that somebody way tread apt) it.
Soinebe4 said it was a wonderful dbspensatioa of
Providence, that w hereve r there was a capital, there weir
always a river. Entirely agreeing that the coincidence
lof capitals and rivers is advantageous, it remains to' be
eeen how the river can be best turned to the use for
w;siqh it is so manieretly alapted, in a metropolis which
has grown and is gro iog eut of all ceete*teLleadoe.
'• And here the first " great fact" is, that'coneideriog
the noineer of eunrcea from which matter it would he
deesiirahls to rem ve Inuit at there are at lest 2,000
tons per diem 'whims ought te be removed. That is to
say, if all this could be put ieto'a seventy-four gunship
dailyandlet gb at the Nore, toe metropolis would be.a
place to live in'. Can human art, therefore, do nOthing
.tow arses produciug the same effect ? I verily believe a
lieeseenAnt,coloriel who was ordered to c:ean his post for
the general's !inspection this day twelvemonth, would
find the way to do it.
Two things are evidently necessary. Paste that the
unhealthy matter should be collected into sewers,
ending in one main trunk to carry it to a competent
distance below the town ; and, secondly, seas• it should
only be discharged into the river at , high wa, er, or from
that to quarter ebb.' Ask any waterman, whether a
drowned man so treated would ever find his way to
London bridge. It aright be an accessory qu.stion,
whether it might not be desiraWe tcr have a reservoir
of water fo- the purpose of occesionaly Washing
out ; which mut-t be supplied by a water-course oon-
nected with the river above the town. All these
would involve curious questions of level ; but there
no reason in despairing without knowing why. A .eeeme
was once on foot for makiut Pali, a seeport; and it wee
to b ) effected by making two mounds of earth, which
must have been like what the world has since been fami-
liar
withwith
the
i n rai I
upperwaye.
part.l:t
a i I
of b
w as y es might pertaps be com-
bined process ;
though there
might be objections to the neiehbourbo el, if it was pro-
posed to make use of them below. •If levels fad, there
are great powers of raising fluids in the present day by
the application of steam. If anybody wilt' carry away
sewage at their own expense fee manure, let them ; but
do not be poisoned for 20 years,tor sarnebody to
carry away the sewage. If anybody can sheen reason-
able damages from any part of the process, compensate
them in reason ; but do not give up the procese. When
Prometheus made a .men, he did not allow him to die
because no part of his body woull be the /wee' of a
sewer.

'The simple truth'is that the metropolis is in the con-
dition ,which a stric ly philosspheal inquiry woul I show
to be the ph.•tomena attendant upon a 'man •who never
washes himself, The dirt accumulates till it falls off; and
there is a certain maximum quantity dependent on the
adhesive powers of the matter c ,ncerned, in which he•
moves and has his being. It is a mere guess ; tee data
not being at hand ; but it is, tot improbable that six•
days' dirt, being to the amount-of 12,000 tons, is always
washing up and down miner the noises . f the intelligent
cit'zins. More than this Suns i!s way into the sea, upon
that:Arne principle that the man who never washes him-
self is hut coated above a certain thickness.
• Y.'urs sineerelv,
T. PERRONE? THOMP3ON.
Eliot-vale, Blackheath, June 23, 1858.

PARMA AIENTARY COMiIITTPE.

THE STATE OF THE RIVER THAMES.

This Committee met yesterday, to pursue the
inquiry into the state of the river Thames, Mr.
Kendall in the chair. Among-the members present
were Sir Jonn Shelley, L d J. Manners, Mr.
Joseph Locke, Mr. Roupell, Sir J. Y. Buller, Mr.
Akroy d, Mr. Giyiey, Mr. 'rite, Lord Goderich, the
Hon. Jocelyn Percy. Mr. Alderman Cubitt, Lord
Palmerston, Sir B. Hall, d„:c.
AI,. Walker, Engineer to the Thames Navigation
Committee, examined. He said--I do not think
Mr. Gurney's plan would stand as a permanent
work, and if it could be made permanent it would
seriously interfere with the navigation of the river.
I think one channel in the centre of the river
would do the duty assigned by Mr. Goldsworthy
Gurney to two. I consider the r•v r ought to ue
confined to a Darr ii.ver :JLL%;i6LO, aUd deepened to
the scour of the stream. I would bring
the river uniform.first, and then put in wharf walls
where t hey were ryquired. If Mr. Gurney's Van
were ctrried my, it would deprive the channel of
some of. its water ; and if two channels were foimed
they would most certainly silt up.
Sir J. Shelley--D ► you think that any good
results are to be derived from lime being thrown
onto the mudhanks of the Thames?
Mr. Walker—That is a nice question, and I
think it better to leave Mr. Gurney to .give an
answer. If my plan WAS to be adopted, there
would be no necessity for dredging so deep in the
centre of the river as in the 61 le channels pr-posed
by Mr. Gurney. Mr. Gamey's
than for dredging
would not affect the natural fall of the liver. Idu
not propose practically to narrow the stream of the
river, but merely to fill up the recesses. Ido not
think if the north side of the Thames was embanked
that it would affect the wharfage en the south side
of the river. _

Mr. Tite—Having read Mr. Gurney's report,
what is your opinion of his plan ?
Mr. Walker—l think it would be a complete
failure. It would lead to deposits of impure water
in docks. Mr. Gurney proposes to discharge all
the sewage at low water, which I do not think
would be a des'rable plan in t' 'e present state of
the river. It would be de,irable to discharge all
the sewage at high water. .I‘:y opinion is that if
my vlau was adopted it would get rid of a good
deal of the present evil, but it would not lender an
intercepting sewer unnecess:Ary. If these two chan-
nels were forinei, they would improve the I.trearn
of the river, but I do not think they wou!d be me-
fill, or that they would stand. If they could be
made to stand, they wou!d materially interfere with
the navigation of the rive .
Dr. Lewis Thompson, examined by the Chair-
man—l have examined the sate of the river
Thames. I consid,r the cause of the pres,nt wench
of the river arises nom the mud, and when that is
exposed to a temperature of Gri to 75 ferwentatien
sets in, arid as soon as the water begins to flow the
mud is disturbed, and the noxious gases are
liberated.

Lord Palmerston—Supposing the c•ontents of all
the sewers of London were discharged into the
river at mid-channel, so that the water there
should approximate the c indition of the water iu
the sewers, would not that water emit injurious
and offensive gases ?
Dr. Thompson—Most undoubtedly.
Lord Palmerston—Therefore the effluvium world
not be confined ti the mud which was lett dry on
the b.tuks or beach of the river at low water, but
would be emitted from•the mid-channel.

Dr. Thompson—The wat•tr would b© affected,
but not in the same way as from niud'oanks, as the
water does not attract the action of the sun, as the
mud and the water are constantly in motion.
L )rd . Pli'merston—Bat is not the water in the
river subjected to the action of the sun more likely
to (unit gases than the water in the sewers, which
the sun never reaches ?

Dr. Thotnpron—Tho fermentation does wit
begin in the river only at a ternperatureof upwards
of 70 deg. Fahrenheit, and th,t heat is rarely at.
Vaned. The mud is most 4 fiensive where it is most
disturbed, and that is generally at places where
steamboats land ihrir paso•engers.

By Mr. Akroyd—lf it was possible to keep back
the mud froth going into the Thames, you would get
rid of the question.
By Mr. Cayley—lf a tunnel was formed to take
the sewage away, so that it would not come back
to the metropolis, you must go to the sea shore. I
have found the river to be of the temperature of
72, but [ have found the mud ou its banks at a
temperature of 120. There will always, to some
extent, be an offensive odour so long as the Thames
is need as a common sewer.

By the Hon. J. [prey--I have noticed a black
cloud op pain up arid down the river, and I con-