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23
the upper air—wherever outlet exists, into houses,
foot-paths, and carriage-way.
To you, Gentlemen, as Commissioners of Sewers
for the City of London, these remarks may seem
superfluous; the rather so, as the worst evils of
tidal drainage are not largely exemplified within
your jurisdiction. But it seems to me of extreme
moment at the present time, when very costly improvements
of the metropolitan drainage are about
to undergo parliamentary discussion, that the public
should be well aware how indispensable such improvements
are for the general health of London,
and how important in fact they are to thousands
who at first sight might think themselves little
interested in their completion.
To some individual house-holder, dwelling at a
high level, all concern in the subject may seem to
terminate with the defluxion of his own sewage.
So that his own pipes remain clear, little cares he
for the ultimate outfall of his nuisance! Perhaps,
if he knew better, he would care more. His gift
returns to him with increase. Down in the valley,
whither his refuse runs, converge innumerable
kindred contributions. From city and suburb—
from an area of 100 square miles covered by a
quarter of a million houses, with their unprecedented
throng of metropolitan life, there pours into that
single channel every conceivable excrement, outscouring,
garbage and refuse, from man and beast,
street and slum, shamble and factory, market and