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by the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Sewage Discharge,
with a view to ensure the removal of all odour and the possibility
of "secondary fermentation." The Board, in giving effect to
the views of their scientific advisers, incurred a large expenditure
for works of construction, and in the carrying out of the system
adopted.
SIR HENRY ROSCOE'S REPORTS.
Deferring, however, to the objections made to the system
above described, the Board, in 1887, retained the services of Sir
Henry Roscoe, F.R.S., as consulting chemist and scientific
adviser, to report on the question of the deodorization of the sewage
at the outfalls, and they ultimately consented to the request
of certain Sanitary Authorities—your Yestry among the number—
to make that gentleman's Reports public. The Reports were five
in number. The first, dated 16th May, 1887, dealt with "The
Deodorization of Sewage in the Metropolitan Sewers;" the second
and third, dated August 7th and December 9th, 1887, with
"The Deodorization of Sewage at the Outfalls." The fourth
Report, dated March 3rd, 1888, treated of the deodorization of
sewer emanations by the use of sulphurous acid applied at
numerous stations within the Metropolitan area ; while the fifth
was a further report on "Deodorization of Sewer Emanations, and
on Sewer Ventilation." In my Annual Report for 1887-88, I
summarised the contents of all of these Reports (pages 231-240).
Sir Henry Roscoe, in December, 1888, presented a further
report to the Board, dealing with The Deodorization of Sewage
at the Outfalls, setting out the proceedings taken it 1888;
and in March, 1889, yet another report on The Chemical
Examination of the Foreshores and Mud Deposits of the
River Thames and its Estuary, the outcome of a resolution of
the Board, appproving of a recommendation of Sir Henry Roscoe,
to the effect, "That an examination should be made of the condition
of the Thames deposits, from Barking down the river to the
mouth, including the whole of the estuary." In my Annual Report