Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/412

LEFT SEVRE 356 SEWAGE bus, and is rich in paintings by Murillo, Campana, the Herreras, and other mas- ters of the school of Seville. The Giralda is a square Moorish steeple, consisting of three towers with galleries and balconies, 350 feet high, the ascent of which is by a spiral inclined plane. On the top is a bronze statue of Faith, 14 feet high, and weighing 2,800 pounds, which yet turns like a weathercock. The Alcazar was the ancient Moorish palace. Some parts of its interior are as fine as the Alhambra. The Lonja, or Exchange, is a square build- ing, each side 100 feet long, in which all the American archives are preserved. The Fabrica de Tabacos, or tobacco factory, in which several thousand persons are employed, was erected in 1757. Other buildings are the Torre del Oro, a 12- sided tower on the river, so called from its having received the cargoes of the American treasure ships; the palace San Telmo, built by Ferdinand Columbus, af- terward owned by the Duke of Montpen- sier; Casa de Ayuntamiento (town house), a fine Renaissance structure ; the Casa de Pilatos, or palace of the Dukes of Alcala ; the Museo, rich in paintings by Murillo, Zurbaran, Torrigiano, Roelas, and the elder Herrera; and the great amphitheater, capable of accommodating, as a Plaza de Toros, 18,000 people. One of the greatest monuments of an- tiquity is the Canos de Carmona, an aqueduct on 410 high arches, which con- veys water from Alcala de Guadaira. It was built by the Romans and repaired by the Moors. Seville has a university, founded 1502, with a library of more than 20,000 volumes; 12 picture galleries (including the Musco), two theaters, sev- eral upper schools and learned societies. The city is visited by large numbers of strangers during the Santa Semana ("holy week"), which commences about the middle of April. Seville has a great export of oranges, and large manufac- tures of tobacco, hardware, porcelain, and silk. Pop. (1918) 164,046. Seville was the Hispalis of the Ro- mans, in whose time it was a place of great commercial importance. Under the Vandals and Visigoths it became the capi- tal of southern Spain. Within its walls were held the Concilia Hispalensia, 590 and 619. In the 8th century, it fell into the hands of the Moors, by whom it was called Ischbilia, and made the capital of a caliphate. It now became the most flourishing city in the peninsula, having a population of 400,000. In 1248 it was taken, after a siege of 18 months, by Fer- dinand III. of Castile, and has ever since remained in the hands of the Christians. SEVRE (savr), the name of two rivers in France. The Sevre Nantaise rises in the department of Deux-Sevres, and flows into the Loire opposite Nantes after a course of 86 miles. The Sevres Niortaise rises 31 miles more to the S. E., in the same department, and flows into the At- lantic 10 miles N. of La Rochelle after a course of 89 miles. The department of Deux-Sevres takes its name from these two rivers. SEVRES, DEUX ("two Sevres"), a de partment in France, bounded by Maine- et-Loire, Vienne, Charente, Charente-In- ferieure, and Vendee; area, 2,337 square miles; pop. about 340,000. A branch of the Cevennes traverses the department from S. E. to N. W. Cereals, leguminous crops, and hops are grown. The vine, though extensively cultivated, yields only an inferior wine. The forests are chiefly of hard wood. The minerals include iron, millstones, pavement, and limestone in abundance. The principal manufactures are linen and cotton goods, serge, flannel, woolen hosiery, and gloves. Capital, Niort. SEWAGE, the matter which passes through the drains, conduits, or sewers leading away from human habitations singly, or from houses collected into vil- lages, towns, and cities. It is made up of excreted matter, solid and liquid, the water necessary to carry such away, and the waste water of domestic operations; but to these are added the liquid waste products of manufacturing operations, and generally much of the surface drain- age water of the area in which the con- veying sewers are situated. There can be no doubt that the pesti- lence and plagues which at frequent in- tervals devastated ancient and mediaeval cities were almost invariably caused, and always intensified, by the entire absence of any system for treating or removing excreta and other decaying organic mat- ter; and even yet, notwithstanding the assiduous regard paid to sanitary science in most well-governed towns, many dis- eases are directly traceable to the noxious influence of decomposing sewage matter. It is not too much to say that the ef- ficient and economical treatment of towns' sewage is the greatest and most urgent social problem of our times. The question presents itself in a two- fold aspect: (1) the necessity for the prompt and complete removal of sewage from the neighborhood of human dwell- ings, and its disposal in a way the least of- fensive and injurious to health; (2) the desirability of saving, for agricultural purposes, the rich and essential ^ fertiliz- ing agents which sewage contains. To the sanitary officer the former is the question of greatest moment, to the agri-