Page:On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom.djvu/22

 urgently demands the application of remedial measures; that the discharge of sewage and noxious refuse into them is a source of nuisance and danger to health; that it acts injuriously not only in the locality where it occurs, but also on the populations through which the polluted rivers flow; that it poisons the water which, in many cases, forms the sole supply of the population for all purposes, including drinking; and that it destroys the fish."

In 1864 a Committee of the House of Commons recommended—

"That the important object of completely freeing the entire basins of rivers from pollution, should be rendered possible by general legislative enactment."

And the same Committee reported—

"In favour of the practicability of utilizing sewage by applying the same in the cultivation of the soil."

In this year, and early in 1865, many towns memorialized the Government to carry into effect the Committee's recommendations, among others Nottingham, Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester, Preston, Coventry, Derby, Wolverhampton, Bath, Huddersfield, York, Stockport, Cheltenham, and Oxford. The memorials, &c. (or extracts from them) of Sheffield, Nottingham, of the Rotherham and Kimberworth Board of Health, and of Birmingham and York, are as follow:—

"Memorial of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of Sheffield in Council assembled.

"ShewethShoweth [sic],

"That the practice of discharging sewerage and other foul matters into streams and rivers is productive of great injury to the health of the people, in consequence of the pollution of the water.

"That this sewerage may be converted into a permanent and increasing source of agricultural fertility by being conducted upon the land.

"That although it is a nuisance at common law to discharge any sewerage into rivers, yet the law is inoperative from various causes.