Remarks on the drainage of London, and the pollution of the Thames : respectfully addressed to the commissioners to be appointed to carry out these works.

  • Este, M. L. (Michael Lambton), 1779-1864.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the drainage of London, and the pollution of the Thames : respectfully addressed to the commissioners to be appointed to carry out these works. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    5/6 (page 5)
    P.S.—In illustration of all these remarks, on the 22>rd. of July, the Times asserts in a concluding, valuable sentence, “ Our difficulties in these matters “ of drainage and utilizing, arise from our perversion of nature’s best gifts ///” That we hai^e hitherto been acting, not in accordance with nature, but in direct antagonism with her operations and suggestions, can be shown abun- dantly hereafter. Let the errors of our ways be corrected. After twelve years of sophisms and circumlocutions, it is now known that deodorizing can be more easily effected and less expensively than was anticipated; that the best of manures can be more easily obtained, the deodorizing should be effected at each particular depot. The Times of the 23rd July suggests also that ships sent to the Antipodes for guano, might take in cargoes of superior ma- nure, from depots near Barking Creek or elsewhere in the river, at low cost and save all the time, trouble, expense, and risks of sending and buying in another hemisphere. Surely large leviathan floating depots might be formed and filled from the lower land-drains in convenient out of the way places on the river or near Barking—off’ Canvey Island &c., &c., at no frightful trouble or expense as was done last summer, off Purfleet with the gunpowder. Several large vessels were stationed with “ Gunpowder Bloating Depots,” largely written on their sides. Such depots for drainage might be filled at low water. The supernatant fluid deodorized on board could be let off, removed into the river at high water, and during the outflowing tide, without any appreciable disadvantage, whilst the heavier material might be manufactured into most valuable manure. Such would be for sale and exportation, the best of all, for the improvement of les landes now contemplated in Prance ; much would be required of it now and hereafter, for that good purpose. With a sufficiency even that great end may be attained, notwithstanding fabulously gloomy imaginations. The deodorizing process, according to the experienced, should be effected at little expense at the several depots. At each depot the drainage, on enter- ing would separate, the denser portion would subside, the supernatant fluid, by much the largest, would become clearer and less offensive by separation. Chloride of lime, a powerful deodorizer and purifier, is a cheap article; a very small quantity of it would clear, and disinfect the whole supernatant fluid of a depot so as to allow of its return to the Thames, while the residium would form the basis of most valuable manure. Chloride of lime of the best quality could be obtained wholesale—say at Apothecaries’ Hall—at a very moderate rate. A few pounds sterling annually, would pay for cleansing the several depots around London ; it could there be prepared expressly for the purpose, very readily, and very reasonably, by agreement as to quantity, and as to cost.