Page:On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom.djvu/27

 death to the fish. Also, that "the Fisheries were largely injured by the water used in steeping flax, the manufacture of which was greatly extending in Ireland."

The 3rd and final Report of the Commissioners on the sewage of towns, 1865, says:—

"As the result of our labours extending over eight years we have confidence in submitting to your Lordships the following conclusion:—

That the right way to dispose of town sewage is to apply it continuously to land, and it is only by such application that the pollution of rivers can he avoided. We further beg leave to express that in our judgment the following two principles are established for legislative application:—


 * " ' 1st. That wherever rivers are polluted by a discharge of town sewage into them the towns may reasonably be required to desist from further causing that public nuisance.


 * " ' 2nd. That where town populations are injured or endangered in health by a retention of cesspool matter, the same may reasonably be required to provide a system of sewers for its removal.'

"And should the law be found insufficient to enable towns to take land for sewage application, it would in our opinion be expedient that the Legislature should give them powers for that purpose."

To this Third Report of the Sewage Commissioners is appended a most elaborate report made in 1864 by Dr. Stevenson Macadam, F.R.S.E., &c., &c., on the hideous contamination of the Water of Leith by the sewage of Edinburgh and Leith, in which it is stated that:—

"Into this small stream is discharged the sewage of 70,000 of the inhabitants of Edinburgh, and upwards of 30,000 of the people of Leith, and the result has been that the Water of Leith has become a foul polluted stream, conveying matter of the most disgusting and abominable character, and evolving fetid emanations into the surrounding atmosphere.

"That the inhabitants of the districts bordering on the water complained bitterly of the offensive odours from the water, and which gave rise to nausea and sickness,