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The object of notification is not simply a registration, but a repression of disease; and if the repression is brought about, the means whereby the repression is produced is of no consequence. If the fire is put out, it would be curious indeed if the local authorities complained, or asked for the infliction of a penalty upon the person at whose house the fire occurred because they had not been informed of the fact, by the man who had put out the fire, whilst it is certain that when rewards were offered for the discovery of fires, much false information was forthcoming at the fire station. There would be reason in the application if the fire had not been put out and several other premises had also been consumed in the conflagration. It might be reasonable to ask for it, but here again there might be a difficulty if it could not be proved as to the nature of the case, | and in which house the fire first appeared. I am curious to know how many certificates have been sent in, reporting cases which turned out after all to be false alarms instead of true reports. If you look into the evidence given to the 'Hospitals Commission,' it will be seen that it was not always clear that a given case was small-pox, or typhus, or scarlatina, or even infectious disease at all.

In some cases it might be important that the medical attendant should be put into the witnessbox, as against the householder, but if he is made a particeps criminis, his mouth is closed as regards the prosecution; he cannot be called by the local authority, he cannot be made to convict himself; whilst if he has not informed his employer as to the nature of the disease (as it is possible to be alleged by that householder in his defence), he would be guilty of a moral wrong which if proved against him would be of much more serious consequence to him than any money penalty, which penalty if inflicted would be certain to be paid by his employer as part❘ of the price of his silence, and as payment for the prosecution which had been instituted against him. If an employer is determined to break the law, and his medical attendant will acknowledge to having committed a moral wrong for the purpose of assisting in the fraud, the same attendant will not disclose, if the employer agrees to hold him pecuniarily harmless. The evil will be as great in the one case as in the other. Whilst the medical attendant cannot be called for the prosecution, he will be able to appear as a witness for the other side, and if he likes to say so can aver that the prosecution is mistaken as to the identity of the case. To my mind it is far better that the local authority should have the moral support of the medical profession than run the risk of having a non omnia possumus' set up by the passive action of a large section of the medical profession in a given town. Whilst the fear that the medical attendant is bound to directly disclose, could not be used as an argument against the employment of an orthodox medical man. If such a man be employed to treat infectious disease, and if the householder does not disclose it, it will be ten times over more to his interest to prevent the spread of the disease which he is hiding up, and in his own interests as well as for his medical attendant's sake, to use the most persistent endeavour to extinguish the disease and prevent any knowledge of it reaching the ears of the local authority in consequence of

that extension.

A disagreeable medical officer of health, or the fussy and interfering action of an acknowledged rival, the impropriety and the public scandal of one

medical man taking legal proceedings against another, and that other possibly his superior in social position and in professional standing, ought not to be countenanced by medical men at any rate. However satisfactory it might be to some others that such proceedings should be taken, there will always be in every profession some men who will see in the opportunity of throwing dirt at a professional superior that some of it will stick, and all men are not able to see the motive for the malicious action.

Until all medical officers of health consist of either consulting practitioners or men who are not in practice at all, there certainly will be some who will be able to hide for a time the malicious character of their action, and try to injure another man's reputation for the purpose of establishing their own, not seeing that if their own is not capable of being established without the other man is damaged, they are proving their own littleness, and their own incapacity to excel their neighbour in the estimation of the people simply by professional work. I am very much opposed to placing any such power in the hands of professional rivals. The method by which action may be taken is so likely to be moved by motives out of sight; men will so often try to pose as energetic and self-denying officers, and are but too often able to inflict undeserved damage upon a rival practitioner before the real motive is seen, that I for one set my face against the new departure which is being made in this direction; and I aver that we do not want too much of compulsion in our sanitary work. It does not follow that a despotic government will always be benevolent. It is found by experience that as good results have been obtained in districts in which notification is voluntary, as in those places in which it is compulsory; indeed the incidence of infective disease is higher in Huddersfield, in Bolton, in Edinburgh, and in Dundee, than it is in a number of places in which there is no compulsion upon medical men, showing at once that compulsion has not extinguished the diseases which are proposed to be stamped out by it. If those towns could show that the disease had been completely arrested by the power they possess, there would be grounds for argument in favour of the extension of compulsory notification to other places, but whilst the cases continue to be nearly, if not quite as numerous, whilst the mortality continues to be considerable, it is evident that there is much more to be done by the local authority in removal of the causes which promote the spread of infection, than simply by enforcing professional notification; and whilst ready to concede that the householder ought to notify as a part of his duty as a citizen of a civilised country, I think it would be much more likely to bring the whole force of the profession to bear upon the subject if it was insisted upon as a moral duty to the State, that a written notice should be given by the medical man to the householder as a part of his prescription. I would rather that the neglect to perform a moral duty should be dealt with by the medical licensing authorities or by the Medical Council than it should be made a penal matter to be dealt with in a court of summary jurisdiction by those who will not always be able to see the motive for the prosecution or the medical bearing of the case, and the possible differences of opinion which will sometimes arise, and which will be best dealt with by men of high standing in the medical profession. Let us try to get a general Act which shall apply the same law as to infectious

disease as does now apply to contagious diseases among animals. Let us see the result of the general application of such a law, and if after a time it is found to fail in its effect there will then be a sufficient reason for placing penalties upon a whole profession for not performing that which can only be regarded in the light of a moral duty. To place a power of prosecution, even under such circumstances, in the hands of a fellowpractitioner would be wrong, and I should urge that in such a case a prosecution should only be instituted with the consent and by the action of the Medical Council of Great Britain, so as to get rid of the possibility of professional rivalry, and vindictive or malicious action on the part of a professional brother. I am bound to say that the medical officers of health have not used the power they possess against their professional brethren in the twenty towns which have now a compulsory clause, and it is much to their credit that penal proceedings have not been taken by them, but they have also to show that if it were penal on the householder only, as a citizen of the commonwealth, it would not have been so effectual as they say it has been. I think it would have been equally so, and that the same results would have been obtained in the one case as it is assumed to have been obtained with the dual notification. The fear which does arise among the people, that medical men will be informers against the patient's interest could not have any foundation, and we should not find so many cases reported which have not been recognised by an orthodox practitioner, because they have not been placed under any medical

man's care.

THE SANITARY AND INSANITARY HOUSES AT THE HEALTH EXHIBITION.

By HENRY M. MAVOR.

THE preparation of these houses has been considerably delayed owing to a variety of causes beyond control; but now, fortunately, they are fairly complete, or at least sufficiently advanced to invite a careful inspection, not only from those who have a thorough knowledge of the subject, but also those to whom sanitary matters are more or less of a mystery. It is perhaps as well that the delay has taken place, as the opening of this exhibit should give an impetus to, or further interest in, a study which is fast becoming general; and the sanitary appliances and different kinds of apparatus scattered throughout the other parts of the Exhibition prepare the untechnical mind for the continuity of principle here shown. It will be understood that these houses have been specially erected to place before the public in the simplest manner a contrast between good and bad sanitary arrangements of an ordinary dwellinghouse, and the actual working in every-day use. There has been no attempt to exaggerate the defects of the old system, but merely to bring before the public specimens of common errors to be found in the majority of homes, and from which errors many of the best built and most sumptuously fitted houses are not exempt. To render the comparison more easy, the various arrangements are disclosed to view in such a way that the important points are clearly seen, and legibly printed and numbered labels arrest the attention. As a contrast, the sanitary house has examples of approved forms of construc

tion and principle, in addition to which other points bearing upon health are illustrated, such as electric lighting, ventilation, floor construction, and other matters.

Entering by the basement of the insanitary house a large dust-bin is noticed, being a portion of the area framed in. This, of course, means that it is a fixture, and as such it cannot be readily emptied, much less cleaned. The arrangement as it should be is shown in the area of the sanitary house as a galvanised iron bin, which holds only a small quantity of refuse, thus necessitating its frequent emptying, and, being movable, this is easily done. The condemned 'bell-trap,' communicating directly with the drain in the area, and a similar form of construction to the scullery sink, are here to be seen, and, of course, forbidden. The damp walls point to the want of a 'damp course,' and the uselessness of an improper material, such as tarred felt, which soon decays, is adverted to. The floor joists are here resting on the ground, and, as everybody knows, there can be but one result to this. At the same time the drains are disclosed to view, the stoneware pipes being jointed in clay, and the objections to this material will be pointed out, such as the impossibility of making a water-tight joint, and the liability of being washed out or squeezed out. A very usual error of laying some of the branches at right angles thus causing stoppages, to say nothing of bad jointing, is then noted. The point next emphasised is No. 10, which shows an arrangement which we fear is only too prevalent, that is, a cistern for drinking purposes, supplying also a servants' water-closet, and a tap over the scullery sink. The overflow pipe discharges into the drain, it is placed in an inaccessible position, and it runs the risk of receiving the leakage or overflow from a water-closet immediately over. When these many evils are shown in conjunction, and are known to exist, it will surely induce owners and tenants to put their houses in order. The faulty construction of an inside soil-pipe is given, the joints being only partially filled with putty, the foot of this soil-pipe being connected with the drain by a right-angled junction, and not as it should be by an easy bend an accumulation would naturally occur here with direful results. The drain is continued and cut off to form a 'dead end,' which would allow of a permanent lodgment of filth, or, what would be worse if it became unstopped, the basement would become gradually overrun. It is nothing uncommon to find, even in large houses, a water-closet in the middle of the building, without light or ventilation, and an instance is given here combining faulty apparatus and insufficient flushing arrangement. The following ordinary form of drain is illustrated :-Stoneware pipes 6 inches in diameter, badly jointed in cement at the top, but open at the bottom, laid, as is constantly done, to an insufficient fall, and with no trap between the house and the sewer. A gas stove, without provision for carrying off the vitiated air, points to a trouble not unknown, and reminds one of the charcoal braziers in use on the Continent, the fumes from which occasionally lead even to loss of life. Ascending to the ground-floor we find another water-closet in a bad position with the pan apparatus and the inevitable D-trap, this being the one, as before described, over the cistern in scullery. As there are still many advocates for the use of the lead D-trap, we would advise them to stroll round the Exhibition and see

some of the specimens of the apparatus which have recently been taken from different quarters, and these clogged and corroded examples may at least cause them to hesitate. Not content with this form by itself, the plumbers of old often connected the other services with it, and the lavatory and bath are here shown in communication, and defy contradiction. A notice on the wall brings to mind the former use of arsenic in the colouring matter used in wall-papers, for although it was known that this substance was required, or supposed to be required, to produce a good green, it was presumed that other colours were exempt from it, but it was and is news to many minds that it was used nearly all round. In the insanitary house these arsenical papers are used throughout, the reverse being the case in the other example. The rainwater pipe being connected with the soil-pipe shows again a mistake of which the danger is often underrated, mostly arising from a false sense of economy, and occasionally the argument is adduced that it helps to flush the drain, forgetting that the drain may in a sense flush the pipe-with sewer gas. Any hole or corner is supposed to be good enough for a housemaid's sink, and we are shown one badly placed-no light or ventilation, and connected with a water-closet. The bedroom water jugs and bottles would be filled from a tap deriving a supply from a cistern also in connection with a water-closetnothing unusual in this. Matters are not mended when we see the bath service introduced into the generally faulty system, and the last straw' is arrived at on finding the cistern in the roof impossible to get at, and communicating all round,' supplying anything or everything, if, by doing so, a few feet of piping may be saved.

So much for things as they are. In the sanitary house we find them mostly reversed, but with the addition of many points which the old principles were not able to contain. We are first asked to look at a simple method of ventilation which consists of making the bead on the window-sill two or three inches deeper than usual; then by slightly raising the lower sash air is admitted at the meeting rails only, and passes into the room in an upward direction, avoiding draught. A funnel and tube over the gas brackets form an efficient means of carrying off the products of combustion, taking the vitiated air through the wall to the exterior. A point of great importance, yet easily managed, is to place the cisterns in a space adapted for the purpose, where they can be easily examined, as exemplified here. A separate cistern is used for drinking | purposes, with an overflow passing through the outside wall discharging into the open, so there is no connection with any drain in any way. On the supply-pipes are fixed stopcocks, so that the water may be shut off at any part to enable repairs, &c., to be made without interfering with the remainder. The usual winter trouble of a 'burst pipe' can be avoided by adopting a draining-tap (No. 77), by which the 'main' can be emptied, and much annoyance saved to the householder. The water-closets in this house are well lighted and ventilated, the valve apparatus, such as shown by many makers, being used in one case, and also an improved 'hopper,' with a flushing rim all round the basin. It is needless to recapitulate the many improved forms here in use; suffice it to say that types are to be found by the score throughout the Exhibition, but they have a double value and meaning when

placed in situ; but there is one point which is not always to be seen, viz., the 'inspection chamber' (No. 100), which allows of an easy mode of access for inspecting and cleansing the drains, which are continued through the floor of the chamber, with open-glazed stoneware channels, the drains entering these channels being four in number-viz., surface water, waste water, soil-pipe, and w.c. in basement. The soil-pipe, of course, is carried up the full size above the roof as a ventilating pipe, and a through draught is obtained from the manhole in the front

area.

DEEP

DRAINAGE AND SEWAGE
PURIFICATION IN THE BLACK
COUNTRY.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
[First Article.]

THE question of deep drainage and sewage purification has now for some years been occupying the more or less serious attention of the various local authorities in the large and populous section of the Midlands, known as the Black Country. Scientific opinion has long recognised the fact that the supply of pure water, efficient drainage, and improved knowledge and habits of sanitation effect a salutary reform in the moral and social life of the inhabitants of populous centres, and public opinion has within the last few years come to recognise the importance of such conditions and to urge their fulfilment. Birmingham was about the first in this part of the country to take active measures in this direction. But though they have done a great deal, especially in regard to the interception and purification of sewage matter, they have yet a great deal to do before the town can be considered in a thoroughly satisfactory condition. Wolverhampton and Walsall have likewise accomplished much in the same direction, and at the present time most of the urban sanitary districts within the catchment basin of the Upper Tame are either engaged in carrying out schemes of sewerage, or in the preparation of such schemes. Deep drainage is even now a thing almost unknown in the practical experience of the district, and the difficulties in the way of its accomplishment are so many and so great, that one is not much surprised to find the question shirked as much and as long as possible.

The passing of the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act in 1876 largely assisted in bringing matters to a crisis. By sect. 30 of the Birmingham Waterworks Act of 1866, provision was made as to the use of the Tame as a source of water supply by the Birmingham Waterworks Co., also limiting the quantity of water to be taken therefrom, with, however, power of free use of the water in case of emergency, such as long continued frost, drought, or other unavoidable accident, or in the event of the water being certified by the Board of Trade to have become pure and fit for domestic purposes. When the Birmingham Corporation took over the water supply of the town the powers given in the Act were transferred to them, by virtue of the Corporation Water Act of 1875. is thus easy to see how important a matter it is to Birmingham that the River Tame should be kept free from sewage contamination, and the great assistance the enforcement of the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act would be to them in this direction.

It

How difficult an object the purification of the River Tame is to accomplish under present conditions may be gathered from the fact that a great part of the sewage of some twenty parishes, with more than 300,000 population, passes into it. From Walsall alone, for instance, above a million and a half gallons of unpurified sewage were emptied daily into the Tame previous to carrying out of sewerage works there. The volume of the river at the point of entry of this quantity of filth is comparatively small, quite inadequate to render it innoxious, and before it became inoffensive it would be carried through the parishes of Great Barr, Perry Barr, Hamstead, West Bromwich, Handsworth, Aston, and the district under the control of the Birmingham United Drainage Board. As we have said, the passing of the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act brought matters to a crisis. That Act provides that every person (including Corporate bodies) who knowingly permits to flow into any stream any solid or liquid sewage matter, shall be deemed to have committed an offence, rendering him or them liable to a penalty of 50%. per day. It will readily be seen that such a stringent provision came as a boon and a blessing to the authorities charged with the water supply required for the 400,000 inhabitants of the Midland metropolis, and they lost very little time in giving the offending authorities along the banks of the Tame notice that they must cease to pollute the stream or its tributaries with sewage, or they, as proprietors of the water rights, would have recourse to legal measures for the enforcement thereof. This notice was sent out after the twelve months' grace allowed for carrying out the requirements of the Act had expired, to the whole of the districts the natural drainage of which washes into the Tame or its tributaries. Some of the local authorities also received other and minor notices of a similar character from persons having, or claiming to have, a right to use the stream for various purposes. But the powerful and wealthy Birmingham Corporation was the body to be dreaded, and the local authorities were speedily on the qui vive as to what was to be done. There were two courses open to the delinquents, either to withdraw the sewage from the stream altogether, or else to avail themselves of the 3rd section of the Act, which provides that, 'where any sewage matter falls, flows, or is carried into any stream along a channel used, constructed, or in progress of construction, at the date of the passing of the Act, for the purpose of conveying such sewage matter, the person causing or knowingly permitting the sewage matter so to fall, or flow, or to be carried, shall not be deemed to have committed an offence against the Act if he shows to the satisfaction of the Court having cognisance of the case that he is using the best practicable and available means to render harmless the sewage matter so falling, or flowing, or being carried into the stream.' Fortunately for the authorities, in addition to the twelve months' grace allowed from the passing of the Act to enable public bodies who were permitting sewage to pollute a stream to adopt the necessary measures for complying with its requirements, an extension of the period of freedom from prosecution could be gained on appeal to the Local Government Board, if sufficient cause was shown or disposition manifest on the part of the applicants to carry the law into effect at the earliest possible period. The Walsall Corporation was one of the first bodies in this dis

trict to recognise the gravity of the position, and to take active measures to comply with the terms of the notice served upon it by the Birmingham Corporation. But most of the authorities were very lax. They dreaded to face the difficulties to be encountered in carrying out an efficient scheme of sewerage. They also dreaded the large expenditure that would be required, and the effect it would have upon the rates-and ratepayers. Notice after notice has been sent out from Birmingham, with dire threats of penal consequences, and it was only upon the actual commencement of legal proceedings, or the fixing of a date when such proceedings would be instituted, that some of the Local Boards really and earnestly bestirred themselves in the matter. In some parts of the district an attempt was made to compromise the difficulty by passing the sewage through filter-beds or over sewage farms in a crude fashion. But the Birmingham Corporation, as the parties most aggrieved, declined to accept this temporising with the matter as a final or satisfactory settlement, and pressed for some real and effectual remedy. In the end the authorities have found themselves compelled to go in for more or less elaborate and costly schemes, and also to apply for the protection of an order from the Local Government Board to relieve them from the fear of prosecution while endeavouring to carry those schemes into effect.

Another important factor in the consideration of sewerage schemes in the mining part of the district is the important body known as the South Staffordshire Mines' Drainage Commissioners. The wave of prosperity in the iron trade of the district, which set in during the years 1872-3, caused the mining resources of the district to be subjected to somewhat careful examination, with the result of proving that there was still within it a vast quantity of ungotten minerals which might be reached and utilised if water in the mines could be successfully dealt with and got rid of. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1873, which has been supplemented by others passed in 1878 and 1882, by which power was given to form a Commission under the abovementioned title, and to levy rates on the minerals raised for enabling them to carry out a comprehensive plan for dealing, first with the drainage on the surface, and then with the draining of water-logged mines. This was a gigantic task, beset with many and almost insurmountable difficulties. The district is not to any appreciable extent watered by springs from the surrounding hills; but in addition to the rain water there was the constantly-recurring difficulty to be dealt with of the water from the numerous canals which intersect the district, finding its way into the mines through defective works and leakages. This water, a very serious quantity, finds its way into the workings, and has all to be pumped up to the surface-in addition to the accumulation from this and other sources-and conveyed away in the watercourses, which it was the first duty of the commissioners to provide. The position of this Board may really be said to be that of an authority provided by Act of Parliament to take over, maintain, repair, widen, and deepen all existing watercourses within the area of their operations, with power to make others where required, and to compel all parties raising or disposing of water by any means to take due care that it was conveyed into one of those courses, which would carry it to the confines of their area. While they are not an

authority to put in force the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act, they regard themselves as conservators of streams, with power to enforce riparian rights, and also to call upon mine-owners to maintain the watercourses at their proper levels, and to take due precaution against the water escaping therefrom into the mines. For nearly ten years the Mines Drainage Commission has been at work, with the result that after an expenditure of some 300,000l., although the water is gradually sinking, the drainage of the mines is still very far from complete. As the chairman of the Board said but a short time since: 'It was only within the last few months that they had been able to say that the general drainage or surface works were in a sufficiently finished condition to enable them to trace accurately and definitely where pollution was turned in upon the works, or to point out the exact injury which the road detritus was doing in the way of filling up the commissioners' watercourses.' These watercourses have cost the commissioners a quarter of a million sterling, and as they are the only means by which the storm water can be kept out of the mines, and by which the water pumped therefrom can be conveyed away, their pollution becomes a grave and serious question which is affected in no small degree by the action of the several local authorities in the carrying out of their respective sewerage schemes. The commissioners can scarcely be blamed therefore for looking to the interests of their own undertaking, and seeking to prevent any interference with or encroachment upon what has cost them so much time, labour, and money to achieve. With this end in view, as also, no doubt, with an idea of furthering them in their work, the commissioners have recently formulated a scheme for combined drainage operations, by which the local authorities would unite with the commissioners in perfecting the surface drainage of the district, and carrying out in conjunction therewith one general sewerage scheme. It was claimed for such a project that the saving to the district, compared with the carrying out of a separate scheme by each local authority, would amount to something like a quarter of a million sterling. On the other hand, something very much in the nature of threats were shadowed forth as to possible action on the part of the commissioners to prevent the detritus carried by storm water from entering the streams and watercourses under their control. Several meetings and conferences on the subject have been held, but without eliciting from the commissioners any definite plan upon which a scheme of such magnitude could be effected. There is no doubt if a workable scheme could be prepared, and all the local authorities could be induced to sink their several individualities and consent thereto, a considerable saving would be effected, especially if the commissioners insist upon and have the power to enforce the clearing of storm water from detritus before it enters the streams and watercourses, as this would, perforce, involve the inclusion of storm water in every local sewerage scheme, and thus in many cases largely swell the cost. such scheme has yet been defined, nor is it feasible that the various interests involved would ever be got to harmonise sufficiently to allow a work of such magnitude to be carried to a successful issue. The local authorities are inclined to doubt the power of the commissioners to compel them to deal with the storm water; and at a conference of representatives of the local boards and town councils of the district,

But no

convened about a month since for the consideration of the question, a resolution was unanimously arrived at that in the absence of figures showing how the estimated saving of 250,000l. is arrived at, and of the draft of the Bill setting forth the position, liabilities, and benefits to the local authorities under the commissioners' scheme, the meeting was not prepared to recommend the various local authorities to take any further action in the matter.' And at this stage this phase of the question of the sewerage of | the Black Country remains at the present time. In order to the understanding of the difficulties attendant upon the carrying out of deep drainage and the disposal of sewage in this district, it is also necessary to consider the physical formation of the country. The district popularly known as the Black Country occupies the south-eastern end of the county of Staffordshire, and takes in a small portion of the northern end of the county of Worcestershire. The greater part of it drains naturally by the River Tame into the Trent, and thus into the Humber and the German Ocean. The places affected are Aldridge, a portion of Aston, Bilston, Bloxwich, Brownhills, Coseley, Darlaston, a portion of Dudley, Great Barr, a portion of Handsworth, Oldbury, Pelsall, a portion of Rowley Regis and Sedgley, Tipton, Rushall, Walsall, Wednesbury, a portion of Wednesfield, West Bromwich, Willenhall, and a portion of Wolverhampton. Some of these places belong to the mining district and some to the rural district. The area of the mining district is about 52 square miles, and of the rural district 40 square miles. The district is composed of three main divisions of rocks-the new red sandstone, the permian, and the carboniferous. The bulk of the district lies for the most part upon the carboniferous group of rocks, and a great part is included in the coal measures of these rocks. The annual rainfall of the district varies from twenty-five to thirty inches in that part including Bilston, Coseley, Dudley, Oldbury, Sedgley, Tipton, Wednesfield, and Wolverhampton, to between thirty and forty inches in the other part. The position of so large a portion of the district in relation to the carboniferous rocks has to be borne in mind in practically dealing with the question of sewage disposal, inasmuch as the clay surfaces of the coal measures act so differently to the porous surfaces of the new red sandstone or the permian, being comparatively impervious to percolation, and therefore more advantageously made serviceable for the drainage of surface water. At the same time, the difficulties of dealing with deep drainage and sewage purification are greatly enhanced not only by the honeycombed and rotten nature of much of the ground that would have to be passed through, but also by the expense of acquiring land containing minerals-whether ungotten or in course of working-for the purposes of intercepting and outfall sewers, and for the treatment of the sewage when collected by most of the methods in vogue.

Having now set forth how the question has been brought into prominence, and how it is the local authorities have been compelled to take active measures for effectually dealing with it, as also the many and serious difficulties by which it is beset, we propose in succeeding articles first to say something about what Birmingham itself has done in this direction; and then to point out the nature of the several schemes proposed in various parts of the district, with the probabilities of their successful accomplishment.

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