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could be proved that the Thames under its present
regime exerted a baneful effect upon the health of the
inhabitants of London, it followed that the sanitary
necessity for the Sewage.Interception works did not
exist. In the presence of this fundamental difficulty, it
is superfluous, or at least premature, to enter deeply
into the numerous consequential questions arising if
decided in the affirmative. I pass over, therefore, as of
contingent interest only, the very grave doubts that
may be justified as to whether the principle of Sewage.
Interception for discharge into the river at a point
below the metropolis, be really calculated to effect any
important improvement in the river, or to solve the
question: "How shall we dispose of the excreta of the
metropolis?" Two questions take logical precedence
of all Sewage.Interception schemes. Both must be
settled before any Sewage Interception scheme can be
entitled to take rank as a practical question. These are :
1st.—The question of the deleterious influence of the
Thames under the existing order of things. 2nd.—How
far any ill consequences arising from the present mode
of discharging the sewage into the river, may be obviated
by works adapted to the improvement of the bed and
and banks of the river. That the bed and banks of
the Thames urgently need improvement on other
grounds than that of increasing the self.purifying
capacity of its waters, is admitted on all hands. It
is therefore a matter of the plainest expediency and