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66
and nasal passages and the smell of chlorine is not unpleasant in such dilution. The
attendants at the baths are supplied with simple test sets by which they can see that
the chlorine in the water is kept within the desired limits.
The arrangement of the surroundings of the baths is mostly not of modern type.
The dressing accommodation should not allow clothed persons, more especially those
wearing shoes, to walk on the decks or gangways around the baths, bathers should
have to pass by lavatory accommodation including shower baths, and through a long
footbath of chlorinated water to reach the bath. A passage with continuous
showers and a trough floor would be the best means of access. It must, however, be
remembered that, except on certain days, no charge is made for the use of those baths.
The numbers using them are so great as to be controllable only with difficulty and
the only other means of obtaining free swimming is by illicit bathing in the Thames
or Lea, neither of which rivers is, in the metropolitan district, fit for bathing.
Outfalls.
Daily analyses of sewage and effluent showed that the dry weather had no great
effect on the concentration of sewage received at the outfalls.
The dry matter in individual cargoes of sludge sent to sea from the northern
outfall varied from 3 per cent. to 14 per cent., the average being 9.2 per cent., rather
better than last year. At the southern outfall the average dry matter was 7.4 per
cent. with variations from 2 per cent. to 13 per cent. In both cases the dry matter
in the greater number of cargoes did not diverge greatly from the average.
River
Thames.
The phenomenally dry summer which was not followed by winter rains led to a
very much decreased fresh water flow of the Thames, and it became necessary to
resort to chemical treatment of effluent at both outfalls.
The tidal waters both above and for some distance below the county of London
were found in the course of systematic chemical examination to be in a less satisfactory
condition than usual.
Experiments at Crossness on the anaerobic digestion of sludge, and at Barking
on biological treatment of sewage have been continued, and are yielding results
which are likely to lead to marked improvements in treatment.
Vehicular
tunnels.

* Limit for carbon-monoxide: 20 parts per 100,000.
† Limit for fog shade: 6 (i.e., 1.92 milligrammes black suspended matter per cubic metre of air).