The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-03-10

ton.
Utilized Sewage.
The advent of Spring warns us to- give
early heed to the cry for clean city. Whether
cleanliness be next to godliness' or not, no
question of municipal reform should come
home with greater power to the public con-
science than that which so vitality affects every
citizen. Unfortunately and fatally for thou
sands the science of municipal purgation is
almost unknown and the art, if it ever ex-
isted, is one of the lost arts The various
questions which interest the public health
have. however, been investigated seriatim by
earnest and sagacious men, and if their con-
illusions had been acted upon systematically
our great centres of population would have
been spared many ON epidemic. To the honor
of modern science it may be said great pro-
vision against street and sewage poison has
been devised and successfully applied, so
that "Out of this nettle danger. we pluck
this flower. safety" 1850 Ht..g
We allude, Of course to the chemical treat
ment Of sewage and its utilization for agricul-
tural purposes. Nothing is better demon
strated by all metropolitan experience than
the impossibility of preserving the public
health so long as countless streams Of filth
ore allowed to ooze into the adjoining rivers
or the bay. whose waters either exhale their
pestilence or are imbibed by neighboring cities.
Geologic experiments show convincingly that
in the neighborhood Of London the lowest
permeable strata and the deep-seated artesian
springs are polluted by the foul and pene-
trating deposits from the surface. Only last
December the power Of rivers to transport
their corrupt and offensive matter was start
lingly illustrated, when on the coast of To-
bago apparently from the flooded delta of
the Orinoco) saltless and fetid tide was pre-
cipitated, IS is not unfrequently the case in
the food seasons of that river.
It is evident, therefore, that the protection
of humanity consists only in arresting and
combining the pollution and passing it through
some alembic, in which its chemical constitu-
ton is changed and rendered innocuous. The
practical and extensive experiments in the
treatment and utilization of sewage, garbage,
offal and all kinds of focal matter satisfy the
most sceptical that this is possible, and the
residuum, rightly employed, is an invaluable
| fertilizer to the soil The researches of such
eminent microscopists and naturalists as Pas
te,ir and Thomson reveal the fact that the de-
caying vegetable and animal matter lying in
our streets and cutters is the prey OF invisible
little scavengers and that when these micro
scopic fungi are at their dainty meals putre-
faction is rapid, and often sulphuretted n.y.
drogen and other gases make it doubly Often
sive The British Association reports on this
subject take the ground that when the sewage
has been properly filtered and strained,
so that the dissolved and suspended sub
stances are left behind the liquid that
escapes may be allowed to enter the rivers
without producing any deleterious effects such
as accompany the original sewage itself
These able and authoritative reports have fur
Their shown that light, porous gravelly and
even sandy soils, when treated with the resid
ual sewage, furnish crops of unwonted rich
ness, and that meadows watered with tn,
liquid yield POLITICALLY. The sewage farm
at Tunbridge Wells, Croydon, Cheltenham
Bloxwich and other English towns have sine
1870, clearly settled the value and utility o
such irrigation and fertilizing. The appre
hension at first entertained in England TIM
sewage-grown grass would expose cattle fe
upon it to parasitic life has long been dispelle
, by the dissection of animals fattened upon il
( In fact, it is distinctly observable that, so ia
, from multiplying insect forms in th
, sewage-irigated land, the new process
. destroys them; while, in addition
this strong recommendation, we hay
the almost unanimous reports of EN-
. nent London engineers that 'the process
, of defeating the sewage of London by mear
r of lime can be effected with advantage an
1 perfect safety, and the discharge Of the clef
/ sewage water into the Thames will not be
0 source of danger or discomfort to the public.
It The disposition of the masses of hitherto us
a less and deadly flth-poisons from our gre
l. cities is already made a source of reven'
# which would help to balance the heavy Q
n penditure for street-cleaning. The estimat
d for the value of sewage from city of one hu
d dred thousand inhabitants vary from one hu
0, dred thousand dollars TO one hundred and d,
D thousand dollars, and in that or higher p'
ID portion for larger populations.
l. To bring tho case nearer home ID Chicai