cinders, an old tin pot, an empty sardine box, potted-lobster tins,
dirty paper, and such like odds and ends, which slowly sank into the
mud, there to await the returning tide. Presently a cart of filth is
discharged upon the bank; it contains a miscellaneous assortment
of rubbish collected from all sorts of sewers, gutters, and corners. As
the sun shone down upon it, gases of all descriptions rose from the
awful heap. Sulphuretted hydrogen was the least offensive. There
lay our drop, in company with a dead dog and a sardine tin. It
watched the flies deposit their eggs on the body of the putrid animal,
and the larv® come to life under the favourable beams of the sun.
Soon the skin and the flesh were swarming with white grubs, crawling
about and devouring the animal, in question, an operation the
further contemplation of which our drop was spared by the new tide.
Gradually the dead dog was covered with water, and then it rose to
the surface, surrounded by bubbles of gas and floating larvte.2
London is now left behind, and Rotherhithe, Greenwich, and Erith
passed. Great ships, majestic ocean steamers, sail up to the docks,
bearing the wondering foreigner to the greatest city in the world.
The scene from Erith to Woolwich and Gravesend was, to our drop,
terrible. To the right and left the enormous filth-ducts of the
metropolis were pouring forth day and night their torrents of liquid
into the Thames. The previous pollutions of the river were as
nothing compared to this vast contamination; Oxford, Leading,
Windsor, nothing in comparison to the pollution of London. The
river was fast becoming an open sewer, and our heaven-born traveller
asked itself whether it was water at all, or only a patch of moist
mud and filth. Even animalculse had been getting scarce, and fish
had long since disappeared. The shore’s mud, the bed of the river
2 Among Frank’s memoranda of work done in the laboratories at
Kensington I find the following :—Analysis of Thames Water where
the “ Princess Alice ” went down. Results of analysis expressed in parts
per 100,000. Sample taken from just below Beckton Gas Works.
Total solid matter, 105'56; qrganic carbon, 6'08; ammonia, 1-0;
nitrogen as nitrates and nitrites, 0 ; total combined nitrogen, 2'016 ;
previous sewage or animal contamination, 0 ; chlorine, 27 20 ; hardness,
temporary, 17'14, permanent, 18-58—total, 35'72. Remarks.—
Foetid odour; very turbid; fearfully polluted; little better than
sewage; the sewage contamination is present, and not previous; no
poisonous metals. Then there is a note for “ Results of Microscopic
Examination,” but without any entries.
filth, all was foul and horrible. Now our drop passed the spot where
the Princess Alice went down. This was the worst place on the
river—one might say the most polluted. The adcumulated filth of
four millions of people had been shot into the stream, that stream
which already carried the refuse of considerable townships, villages,
works, and factories. The scene was pleasant enough, in spite of the
river, and the people on board the ill-fated vessel were most likely
enjoying the bright prospect of the country. There is a peculiarly
horrible feature in this catastrophe, which was not sufficiently dwelt
upon. I t was not alone the water that drowned the victims of the
collision; they were choked by the filth. One mouthful of the
Thames at that spot is enough to poison any one. It killed the strong
swimmer. A little of the water bubbled into his mouth, and then,
sick and fainting from the nauseous matter he has swallowed, he
sank. This was the fate of many victims of the Princess Alice
catastrophe. The newspapers called attention to the horrible fact.
There was an inquiry instituted, which ended, as most of these commissions
do end—in nothing. There is much ado and writing of Blue
Books, much money is spent and orders are given, and when the
report is bound and put on the shelf, the work of her Majesty’s
Government is too often considered at an end. For an example of
this I may say that some seven years ago a Rivers’ Pollution Commission
summed up the Thames in the following w o r d s “We, therefore,
recommend that the Thames be, as early as possible, abandoned
- as a source of water for domestic use, and that the sanction of her
Majesty’s Government be in future withheld from all schemes involving
the expenditure of more capital for the supply of Thames
water to London.” This was written seven years ago, and yet nothing
has been done. The Thames has not been abandoned as a source
of potable water, nor is there any likelihood of its being given up.
Fever and cholera have already more than once been brought to
London by the Thames. Moreover, it is terrible to \ think that in
these days of “ light and leading,” one cannot drink a glass of water
without the fear of being poisoned by sewage. Cannot something be
done meanwhile to help those scientists who are anxious to rescue
the foreign matter now poured into the Thames for the fertilization
of the land 1. The late Government were on the right tack when they
decided to buy up the water companies. The public will consent to
be poisoned by a private company, but when it becomes a Government
question, they will not be so complaisant. The local parliaments of
the chief provincial cities have bought up their water companies;