This form of sewage purification is found to require a minimum amount of manipulation or labor as compared with some of the other forms.
The plea for sewage disposal is that it enhances life by preventing disease. The United States Conservation Commission reported that eighty-five per cent. of typhoid and malaria are preventable.
The sewage disposal problem is by no means an easy one, for every case being a law unto itself is sure to present a greater or less number of physical conditions that may not be found in any other case. Sewages differ in their composition as people differ. Some sewages are easily controlled and gotten rid of, while other sewages are stubborn to almost refusing to be subdued. The sanitary engineer in arriving at determination is obliged to previously dig deep and acquaint himself with existing conditions before he can safely conclude upon designs or measures or means that will bring successful results. The sanitary engineer’s practice is therefore much like that of a physician who considers symptoms before offering a diagnosis or prescribing a remedy.
Contrivances that have worked successfully in England have often proven to be failures in the United States. The character and composition of sewage abroad differs widely from the composition of our greatly diluted sewage here. Latitude, quantity of contained manufacturing wastes, character of water supply and numerous other components all combine to make the art of sewage disposal a problem. For instance, when the water supply is what is commonly termed “hard” undue collection of scum or mat is almost sure to form in biological tanks, and this is only one of the innumerable vexatious enigmas that confront the engineer or biologist. Pioneer practitioners have frequently undertaken the solution of sewage disposal questions when not qualified for such duty, largely in answer to the urgent request of an impecunious public with the usual disappointing results. But the value and possibilities of health Conservation have now been brought to that degree of successful accomplishment where the demand for specialists in the advancement of this modern art has become enhanced, and the advisability of employing specialists when the nature of the work is of such vital importance as is sewage disposal needs no argument.
Mr. Winslow has told us that a badly constructed or badly operated system is worse than none at all, for it creates a sense of false security and it also breeds a sense of distrust.
The first city to go about the establishment of sewage disposal in a thoroughly exhaustive way was Columbus, Ohio. Its example was shortly followed by the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia. Very elaborate and exhaustive experiments are now being made by the city of Chicago at an experimental plant costing $60,000, which experiments have already covered a period of over two years, so that when a report shall be forthcoming the character of disposal best suited to that city will be a known factor and such steps as will be taken will be along lines of certainty.
The whole civilized world is or should be deeply indebted to the far-reaching experiments that have been conducted since the year 1887 at Lawrence, Mass., by the Massachusetts State Board of Health. The annual reports of the findings have become classic both at home and abroad. Nor would we forget to mention particularly the fifth report of the English Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal, which, after making exhaustive observation covering a period of four years of the operation of twenty-seven sewage disposal plants in actual daily operation, gave information, the value of which to the sanitary expert and indirectly to the civilized world at large, may not be determined.
At this stage of sanitary advancement our common people should not be further excused for the density of their ignorance regarding the value of preventive medicine as exemplified in clean premises and person and the adopting of respectable sanitary conveniences.
Want of knowledge along lines of modern sanitary advancement is to a very large extent due to the inertness of legislatures in enacting laws to meet the modern sanitary needs. The passing and enforcing of such laws would surely force our ignorance on this subject out of us and place us on a higher hygienic plane, such as has been established by the excellent enactments in a few of our States.
Standing out pre-eminently in this respect are the laws relating to the public health in Massachusetts, with New York following as a close second. One of the most important laws which is the foundation of others in Massachusetts is a provision for the acquirement of land by cities and towns for the purification of sewage. All through the Massachusetts code are to be found an abundance of preventive measures, as well as curative—abatement of nuisances, of offensive trades; establishing water supply and sewage disposal. Then follows a long list of subjects spell as lying-in hospitals, dangerous diseases, spitting, drinking cups, protection of infants, vaccination, quarantine, public school inspection, diseases of domestic animals, hydrophobia, cemeteries, cremating of dead bodies, burials, bakeries, supervision of plumbing, pollution of streams, food and drugs, milk, registry of births, marriages and deaths—not one of which but has its peculiar relation to the producing of sewage, and indirectly with sewage disposal.