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that intercepting the sewage will cleanse the river.
1. If all the sewers could be intercepted, the
Thames would still suffer from the comparative feebleness
of the freshet, as regards the flood in hot and dry
weather, which is liable to be increasingly aggravated
by the abstraction of water by the Water-Companies.
2. The flood would still bring up sea-water highly
charged with organic matter and putrefiable ingredients,
which would be deposited on the banks.
3. The enormous floating population, in the pool,
and in the docks, would still cast their excreta into the
river.
4. We should therefore still be liable to putrefactive
fermentations in the river, less intense, probably,
than now, but still very offensive.
5. To urge that a certain portion of the metropolis
lies below high-water mark, and consequently
requires intercepting-sewers, in order to obtain an adequate
fall, is no argument for the general application of
a remedy adapted to special circumstances. Why should
the extensive area north of the Thames be intersected by
deep sewers, because a portion south of the river may
need them.