Still, it is evident that in the progress of civilisation there must be accumulations of all kinds of refuse, which savages utterly disregard. Then we come to the question of the Drain combined with the Sewer, and are enabled to see how the hand of man, if properly directed, only follows the course of Nature.
So we undermine our towns with a complex system of drains which are understood by only a very few people. For example, just as a tree is only half visible, the roots being about equivalent to the branches, London is only half visible, the subterranean architecture being little, if at all, inferior to that of the surface.
Here, again, we are met by Nature. Very few of us can appreciate the extensive subterranean works which underlie us, even where the hand of man has never been placed. Putting aside a multitude of tiny creatures, there are, in our own country, the earth-worms which pierce the ground in all directions, at the same time draining and manuring it. They penetrate it with their little burrows, thus admitting the air, which the earth needs as much as we do, and allowing moisture to take its right place. Then there are the moles, that are perpetually travelling after the earth-worms, and making drainage galleries of wonderful extent. Then there are the numerous other burrowers, such as rabbits, mice, and rats, which are common everywhere, besides the less plentiful foxes, badgers, and various burrowing birds, all of which assist more or less in the drainage of the earth.
Even bees and wasps of different kinds assist in this work, the hardest soil yielding to their small, though powerful, jaws and feet, and so being made, if only temporarily, able to carry off the superabundant moisture.
One of the most ingenious modes of Drainage was that which was invented by Watts, and was avowedly based on Nature. He had engaged himself to carry a drain tube through, or rather over, an extremely irregular bed of a river, where the pipes must accommodate themselves to existing conditions. The modern system of pipes not having been brought into existence, Watts had to adapt himself to circumstances, and did so by making his pipe on the model of a Lobster’s tail, as shown in the illustration.
We have already seen how the same object has been utilised in warfare as a pattern for armour, but it does seem rather strange that it should be employed in the tranquil arts of peace.
Another method of removing superfluous water is by the Turbine Pump, by which the water, instead of being cast up in successive jets, was flung out in a continuous torrent. Some of my readers may remember the sensation which was created at the first Exhibition of 1852 by the then extraordinary powers of the Turbine Pump.
Yet this is, after all, nothing but an imperfect copy of the now celebrated being to which human beings have been supposed to owe their origin, namely, the Ascidian, popularly known by the name of the Sea-squirt, and with very good reasons.