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means of the pressure gauge, to determine, with something
like scientific precision, at what particular points
in the parish sewers the tension is greatest, with the
view of providing more ventilators for its relief.
This announcement will probably occasion disappointment
in the minds of those who would do away
with all such openings: but seeing that sewers must
be ventilated for the safety of those who work in them,
for the efficient operation of the sewers as channels for
carrying away sewage, and for the stability of the
sewers themselves, which, charged with pent-up gases,
might otherwise explode; and seeing that, with our
present knowledge, all other modes of ventilation are
inapplicable or impracticable ; the provision of ventilators
in the middle of the roadways, where these are
of sufficient width to admit them, is absolutely
necessary. Accidental openings are insufficient. Were
the ventilators done away with, and no other openings
provided, it is certain that the house drains would act
as ventilating shafts to the sewers to a greater extent
than they now do, and that with every heavy fall of
rain, and during certain trade operations, the traps in
the houses would be forced.
If the parishioDers would more freely use the water
at their command, and in this way keep their own
house drains clean; if certain sewers were flushed whenever
the necessity arose, or even before the necessity
arose; if more ventilators were introduced, so as to
bring the air in the sewers into constant contact with
the external air; the sewers would soon cease to annoy
the atmosphere, smells from this source would be