About a mile above the town of Birmingham, there is another mill which I am disposed to think would act rather beneficially than otherwise, in removing the filth from the bed of the brook in its course through the town; for in summer weather when the stream is scanty, by pooling it up and letting the water down with force at intervals, the effect is much increased. Whether the stream of the Rea be so deficient in summer as to require this process, I would not now give a positive opinion, but there are many somewhat analogous cases where the stream in summer is not sufficient and where the pooling up and flushing off at intervals could not but prove of great utility; and if I have now brought the case of Birmingham into considerable detail, it is owing to the circumstance of its exemplifying certain conditions that are common to a great number of towns, and which, in a sanitary point of view, and more especially in regard to the poorer classes of the community, are the most urgent for remedy of any that have fallen under my observation.
In the town of Haddington, a mill-dam crosses the river Tyne in its passage through the place and into the mill-pool; the main sewer is discharged with a diminished and sluggish descent; and on occasion of floods in the river, the water passes up the sewers and occasionally lays the lowest part of the town under water. It would not be difficult to direct the main sewer into the bed of the river below the dam or weir, and by the additional declivity give some current to the water of the sewer, which from the pending up of the river at its present outlet has rendered it almost stagnant, so much so, that in hot weather, and where it is not covered over, the exhalations are very offensive; but was the sewer improved by the alteration mentioned, still the pooling up of the river for the mill keeps the lower part of the town damp, and even subjects it to partial inundations.
One of the medical officers reports, that when “fever has been at any time prevalent in the town, it has been most so in a portion of it called the Nungate,[[50]] lying close by the river, when during the summer and autumn it is occasionally almost stagnant, and where there is a considerable decomposition of vegetable matter.”
Another medical gentleman, speaking of the main sewer, says, “this small burn is a receptacle of the privies and refuse of vegetable matters from the houses near which it passes; and in those parts where it is uncovered, it forms an excellent index of the weather; previous to rain the smell is intolerable.”
The same gentleman proposes as a remedy that another small burn, having a parallel course at a short distance, should be turned into the sewer to aid the sewerage. From my knowledge of the locality, the recommendation, I should say, is judicious, but in this manner, though the supply of water would be increased, the declivity or rather want of declivity of the sewer would remain the same, and could only be improved by removing the mill-dam, or directing the sewer into the bed of the river below it, as already mentioned. Unquestionably from the pending up of the river, the lower part of the town is at present very ill drained, and it is somewhat remarkable that it was the first site in Scotland visited by the Asiatic cholera.
In reference to the two cases cited and to others of a similar nature, it should be remarked, that the vicinities of the nuisances are chiefly inhabited by the poorer classes, and who from want of influence in their own parts are the more necessarily thrown under the protection of state regulations.
The sewers of a city or town may be conveniently divided into four classes:—First, the main drain or sewer, and this, whether natural or artificial, being fixed, becomes the basis of the system, and upon it the second drains or district class will be directed: these again will receive the third class or street drains; and lastly, the house or fourth class drains, will be discharged into the street drains. In small towns, only the third and fourth class drains will be required; in large towns, three classes of drains may be necessary; and in great cities, all the four classes will be required.
PLAN OF SEWERAGE
