Investigations on the purification of Boston sewage made at the sanitary research laboratory and sewage experiment station of the Massachusetts institute of technology, with a history of the sewage-disposal problem / By C.E.A. Winslow and Earle B. Phelps.

  • Winslow, C.-E. A. (Charles-Edward Amory), 1877-1957.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Investigations on the purification of Boston sewage made at the sanitary research laboratory and sewage experiment station of the Massachusetts institute of technology, with a history of the sewage-disposal problem / By C.E.A. Winslow and Earle B. Phelps. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    posal proper really date from the epoch-making report of the health of towns comnussion of Great Britain in 1844 which revealed the accumulation of such an astonishing an.ount of decompoTgt matter and filth of all kinds in the cities that it aroused BriLl sanf- ta ans to a strong movement for the amehoration of these conditiorL an led to the development of the filth theory of disease-the theor^ that diseas^e is bred m heaps of decomposing filth. This pythogenic theory of Chadvvick and Murchison we now know to be Jrong in i s essential assumption that infective material is created de novo bv decaying organic matter; yet it was right in laying emphasis on filth as a carrier of disease. The wonderful administrative work of the British samtarians, acting on this partially erroneous theory, effected the greatest samtary progress which has probably ever been kno^vn public and private cleanliness was taught and practiced as never before. The midden system and the pail system rapidly gave way to the water-carriage system. Whereas in 1815 the sewers of London were simply drains to carry off the storm water—the discharge of sew- age into them being forbidden by law—in 1847, only three j^ears after the report of the health of towns commission, it was made obhgatory to discharge all sewage into those drains. In other countries the example set in England was more or less promptly followed. In the United States numerous drainage sys- tems existed, one in Boston, for example, dating from the seventeenth century; but the first comprehensive sewerage project was designed a Frequent reference will be made to the investigations of the royal commissions of Great Britain and in order to avoid confusion the following chronological summary of the work of those commissions which have dealt with sewage disposal and allied subjects is quoted from A. J. Martin: 1843. Royal commission appointed to inquire into the present state of large towns and populous dis- tricts (health of towns commission). 1844. First report of health of towns conimis.sion. 184.'). Second and final report of health of towns commission. 1857. Royal commission appointed to inquire as to the best means of distributing the sewage of towns (sewage of towns commission). 18.58. Preliminary report of sewage of towns commission. 1861. Second report of sewage of towns commission. 1865. Commission appointed to inquire in the best means of preventing the pollution of rivers (rivers pollution commission). Third report of sewage of towns commission. 1868. Second rivers pollution commission appointed. 1870. First and second reports of rivers pollution commission. 1871. Third report of rivers pollution commission. 1872. Fourth and fifth reports of rivers pollution commission. 1874. Sixth and final report of rivers pollution commission. 1882. Commission appointed to inquire into the effects of the discharge of the sewage of the metropolis into the river Thames (metropolitan sewage commission). 1884. First report of metropolitan sewage commission. 1885. Second and final report of metropolitan sewage commission. 1898. Commission appointed to inquire and report what methods of treating and disposing of sewage may properly be adopted (royal sewage commission). 1901-2. Interim report of royal sewage commission. 1902. Second report of royal .sewage commission. 190.3. Third report of royal sewage commission. 1904. Fourth report of royal sewage commission.