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37
DRAINAGE.
regurgitant gases. Similarly, in proportion as these
alleged de-odorisers might succeed in completely
stifling the characteristic odour of sewage, they
would be liable to diffuse perfumes peculiarly their
own, and to establish, in the vicinity of gully-holes,
the alternation of a new nuisance with the old. To
proportion with accuracy the introduction of these
chlorinous preparations to the amount of refuse
traversing the sewers—an amount varying most considerably
at different hours of the day, seems to me
quite a visionary hope. Failing such accurate proportions,
I am not prepared to say that the result
would be useful; and I accordingly consider the
scheme as not chemically feasible.
Further—as involving an important sanitary principle,
I would say, that the great object which must
be aimed at is not the mere chemical neutralisation
of certain stinks which arise within your jurisdiction,
but the closest possible limitation, and the promptest
possible removal of all those materials which are
decomposed into foetid products. Admirable, no
doubt, is that arrangement by which Nature, stationing
our sense of smell at the inlet of our breath,
cautions us by this vigilant sentinel against the inhalation
of many poisonous airs; but, in respect of
organic decomposition, 1 am in no degree induced
to believe that its odorous products are its only, or
even its principal, agents of injury; nor have I any
reason to suppose that the real detriment to health
which arises from breathing the miasms of sewers or
d