The Rivers Pollution Commission of Great Britain arrived at the conclusion “that there is no river in the United Kingdom long enough to effect the destruction of sewage by oxidation.” And a direct contradiction of the statement by the eminent physician, Dr. Letheby, medical officer to corporation of London, “that if sewage matter be mixed with twenty times its bulk of ordinary river water, and flow a dozen miles, there is not a particle of that sewage to be discovered by chemical means.”

The experiments of this commission show “that scarcely two-thirds of the sewage was destroyed in a flow of 168 miles, at the rate of one mile per hour, or after the lapse of a week.”

Investigations of the Rivers Pollution Commission on Sewage Pollution are as follows:

REDUCTION BY OXIDATION IN RUNNING WATER.

NAME OF RIVER.LENGTH OF FLOW IN MILES.TEMPERATURE
CENTIGRADE.		PERCENTAGE OF REDUCTION OF
ORGANIC ELEMENT.
IN ORG. CARBON.IN ORG. NITROGEN.
Irwell116to 84.50
“1112011.8
“111729.60
Mersey134to 4.820.817.9
Darwin136.8to 10013.2.

REDUCTION OF SEWAGE BY AERATION.

One volume of filtered London sewage mixed with nine volumes of water, the mixture contained .267 organic carbon and .081 organic nitrogen. After agitation and freely exposed to the air and light every day, and being syphoned, in a slender stream, from one vessel to another, the result, after 96 hours, was .250 organic carbon, and .058 organic nitrogen; and, after 196 hours’ test, was .2 organic carbon, and .054 organic nitrogen. Temperature, 20° centigrade.

The above results would correspond to a flow of 96 miles, at rate of one mile per hour, with a reduction in per cent of 6.4 organic carbon, and 28.4 organic nitrogen; or a flow of 192 miles, at rate of one mile per hour, with a reduction in per cent of 25.1 organic carbon, and 33.3 organic nitrogen.

Test of a mixture of fresh sewage with Thames water, and enclosed in stopped bottles, and opened to air at following intervals, with results opposite the respective periods: