The mean of these three results is, in round numbers, 15,000,000 cubic feet, so that the statement would stand thus:—
| The quantity of wet house-refuse annually carried off by sewers (chiefly covered) from the urban moiety of the metropolis is (in cubic feet) | 3,650,000,000 |
| The quantity annually carried off by sewers (principally open) from the suburban moiety of the metropolis | 150,000,000 |
| The total amount of wet house-refuse annually carried off by the sewers of the metropolis | 3,800,000,000 |
| The gross amount of wet house-refuse annually deposited in cesspools throughout the metropolis | 15,000,000 |
| The total amount of sewage and cesspoolage of the metropolis | 3,815,000,000 |
Thus we perceive that the total quantity of wet house-refuse annually removed, corresponds so closely with the gross quantity of wet house-refuse annually produced, that we may briefly conclude the gross sewage of London to be equal to 3,800,000,000 cubic feet, and the gross cesspoolage to be equal to 15,000,000 cubic feet.
The accuracy of the above conclusion may be tested by another process; for, unless the Board of Health’s conjectural mode of getting at facts be adopted, it is absolutely necessary that statistics not only upon this, but indeed any subject, be checked by all the different modes there may be of arriving at the same conclusion. False facts are worse than no facts at all.
The number of nightmen may be summed up as follows:—
| Masters | 521 |
| Labourers | 200,000 |
The number of cesspools emptied during the past year by these men may be estimated at 50,692; and the quantity of soil removed, 253,460 loads, or tons, and this at the rate of 35·9 cubic ft. to the ton gives a total of 6,099,214 cubic ft.
It might, perhaps, be expected, that from the quantity of fæcal refuse proceeding from the inhabitants of the metropolis, a greater quantity would be found in the existent cesspools; but there are many reasons for the contrary.
One prime cause of the dispersion of cesspoolage is, that a considerable quantity of the night-soil does not find its way into the cesspools at all, but is, when the inhabitants have no privies to their dwellings, thrown into streets, and courts, and waste places.