Page:On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom.djvu/32

 that as a water supply the Thames, polluted with the sewage of the inhabitants of the river Basin, is open in kind, if not in degree, to the same objections as well-water infiltrated by liquid from an adjoining cesspool; well-water which is so tainted beyond all doubt is liable to become poisonous. Considering the enormous magnitude of the interests at stake in this question of the Metropolitan water supply (the healths of many hundreds of thousands of persons), it seems impossible to come to any other conclusion than that the only safe course is to keep sewage out of the river. Each town needs to be protected from the abuses of towns above it, and to be prevented from committing abuse towards towns below.

"The question of sewage pollution of a river is an indivisible one for the whole River Basin. Attempts to keep the main stream pure will be vain so long as tributaries are allowed to remain foul."

On the subject of disposing of town sewage, the Commissioners state that they fully concur with the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the best mode of distributing the sewage of towns, and applying it to beneficial and profitable uses, who, in their final report delivered in March, 1865, gave it as their unanimous opinion, after an investigation extending over eight years, that "the right way to dispose of town sewage is to apply it continuously to land, and that it is only by such application that the pollution of rivers can be avoided;" and they add, that such application of town sewage to land, wherever that system is in operation, as at Croydon, Northwood, Worthing, Carlisle, and Edinburgh, &c., was unattended tended by any injury to the public health.

And after various recommendations which the Commissioners humbly submit to Her Majesty respecting the government and conservancy of the river, they recommend—

"That after the lapse of a period to be allowed for the alteration of existing arrangements, it be made unlawful for any sewage, unless the same has been passed over land, so as to become purified, or for any injurious