comes in sight of the spires and towers of Oxford, that city of classic
renown, where they have still to learn the first principles of sanitary
science. For here the noble river, that anon came splashing through
flowery meads and pleasant pastures, is weighted with filth indescribable.
By the time the city of domes and towers is passed the
river contains 2450 parts of sewage contamination per 100,000 parts,
and the colour is greenish-yellow. Our globule flows on, increasing
in size and clogged with foreign matter.
Past Beading, Henley, Maidenhead, Staines, each place contributing
to the pollution of the stream, our drop is used with its
companions for bathing, for the washing of sheep and cattle. The river
hears on its surface the putrid carcases of cats, dogs, and rats. It
receives the foul discharges of hundreds of dye works, fibre works,
paper-mills, and the sewage of numbers of considerable towns and
villages. The entire flood is changed. It is here of a dark brown
colour, and it flows along sluggishly. This once pure stream now conveys
the germs of disease and death. By this time our drop has
become the abode of myriads of animals. There are some with
wheels, whirling about, twisting, turning, and rushing; some with
long swords stabbing and thrusting. Others there are like balls,
now contracting, now expanding; some with red eyes flaming and
glaring, some with black, some with striped bodies, and some with
no bodies at all, and each one filled with the desire of eating as many
of its fellows up in as short a space of time as possible. There are
hundreds crowded together in this one drop of water, which has to
carry on not only all the dissolved and suspended filth collected above,
but also these countless inhabitants. Presently our drop passes
Windsor, catching a glimpse of the towers and turrets of the castle,
and receiving the discharges from the sewers of the royal palace.
The river is now wider and muddier. Steam launches dash along,
tearing up the surface and boiling it into considerable waves. The
fish have degenerated. They are now coarse and insipid. Pike have
almost disappeared, and the water is tenanted by sluggish roach,
coarse gudgeon, and flavourless perch, species which delight in polluted
waters and feed on the filth. Angling has degenerated with the fish..
The smart fisherman in knickerbockers, mackintosh, knapsack, and
rod, is now unknown. He is replaced by the “ professional angler.”
He is a middle-aged man, sitting by the river watching two or three
rods lying near him, and holding another in his hand. Hear him are'
a coloured handkerchief containing half a loaf of bread, a jar of bran,
sundry onions, a knife, and a short pipe. From time to time barges
interrupt his pleasures, and he and the drivers exchange a series of
compliments, the fisherman calling the bargee’s attention to the fact
that he will knock his (the driver’s) sanguinary eyes out, the bargee
retorting by informing piscator that he will throw his blank carcase
into the blank river. Here the argument generally ends, the driver
contenting himself with shouting back polite remarks to the angler
as long as I he is in sight. The barges by no means improve the condition
of the river, as’the people on board cast all their refuse into the
stream, thus contributing to the pollution of our sad and weary globule.
“ Where is the sewage to go, if not in the river 1 ” is a question
which will be asked by many readers. The answer is that sewage water
may be made drinkable. Croydon and Norwood are supplied with
sewage water passed through a few feet of screened sand. As an
example of the efficiency of this process it may be stated that a
specimen of London sewage, before filtration through 15 feet of
sand, contained organic carbon 4-386, organic nitrogen 2-484, and
ammonia 5-557; after filtration these figures were reduced to organic
carbon 0-734, organic nitrogen 0T08, and ammonia 0"012 per 100,000
parts of the water. It will be seen from this that the organic carbon
and nitrogen, which include the germs of disease and other living
organisms found in sewage, have been greatly reduced. If the stratum
of sand had been thicker, the condition of the water would have
been even better, and much of the organic and harmful impurities •
would have been converted into inorganic and innoxious matters.
Chalk is a still better filtering medium. A specimen of the same
sewage as above had its three important impurities still further reduced
by filtration through fifteen feet of chalk. The figures were : organic
carbon 0-582, organic nitrogen 0'092, ammonia 0-016.
Not only does this method of purification apply to sewage, but also
to the refuse liquids from industrial processes, which could be thus
materially improved before ejection into the river. I t is true that,
in the case of some towns on the Thames, processes for the purification
of sewage are in use, but the standards of purity are too wide
and are not enforced with sufficient vigour. . We left our drop passing
Windsor; it was in a sad plight, and progressing slowly. Now
clouds gather. Kain-falls splash into the stream. The Thames rises
gradually with the downpour. All day and all night it rains one
unceasing torrent of drops. Miniature waterfalls run in from the
meadows, bringing down all kinds of refuse—manure, soil, bits of
straw, paper, and other debris. Soon the river overflows its banks;
but still it rains without cessation. The stream becomes muckier