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struction. If, for example, we take one of the present iron clipperswhich make such quick voyages-with her sharp bows and fine proportions, I am of opinion that she is neither the safest nor the best description of vessel to contend with a heavy sea in foul weather. In the first place, she is a diver, which cuts into the sea and rises with difficulty from a bath, which covers her decks with water as she pitches from sea to sea. But these are not the only objections to vessels of this form, as repeated immersions of this kind are exceedingly uncomfortable to those on board, and cause the ship to lift some tons of water before her buoyancy is restored to meet the next and every other succeeding wave into which she plunges in a rolling sea. It is not my intention from these observations to depreciate the value of speed either in the Royal or Mercantile navy. On the contrary, I think it is the duty of every ship-builder to approximate as closely as possible to the lines of least resistance, which, in my opinion, ought to be carried to its utmost limits in smooth water, but in smooth water only.

In the construction of vessels of war, it was found expedient to rectify this want of displacement at the bows by projecting the submerged portion of the hull forward in the shape of a ram, not so much, however, for the purpose of attack, as to give buoyancy to the ship, and to enable her to rise more lively upon the sea. These defects of construction were observed in the iron-plated frigates 'Warrior' and 'Black Prince,' the former vessel pitched and rolled heavily in the Bay of Biscay from similar causes, which from the first have been observable in all our high-speed ships. Viewing the subject in this light, it may not be out of place to suggest that all passenger and emigrant ships should be modified in their construction, so as to give increased displacement at the bows and stern, but more particularly at the bows, where they require buoyancy, having to encounter the force of a large body of water rushing over them and scouring the decks from stem to stern. Many of us remember the bluff round bows of vessels of the last century, and how they rolled and pitched in a gale of wind. They were, however, short and compact, and although deficient in speed, they were nevertheless dry and excellent vessels at sea.

For several years I have endeavoured to impress upon the minds of naval architects and others, the necessity of increased strength on the upper decks of sea-going vessels, in order to balance the forces of tension and compression, and the double bottoms on the cellular principle of construction. The ultimate strength of a vessel is the resistance of its weakest part, and this being the case, it is evident that it is of little or no value to have a strong double-bottom if the deck is liable to be torn asunder by the alternate strains of a vessel pitching at sea. That these strains, often repeated, lead to fracture does not admit of doubt, and it has

been proved by experiment, that under these circumstances time is the only element in the endurance of the structure, and this varies according to the intensity with which the strains are produced. I offer these remarks from the conviction that heretofore the decks have been the weakest parts, and that several iron vessels have broken right in two from the constant working of alternate strains at midships along the line of the decks. I have also, by way of illustration, compared an iron ship to a hollow girder, supported at each end and resting on the middle for the exclusive purpose of showing the alternate changes to which she may be subjected if stranded or placed in the dangerous position of rising and falling on rocks in a heavy sea. Exceptions may be taken to these views, but they nevertheless exemplify what is necessary to be observed in the construction of a strong ship, and I may probably be excused the comparison, when the object in view is to effect security in the construction of our iron vessels.

I have been confirmed in my opinions on the forms and strain of vessels, from such facts as I was able to gather from the narrative of the loss of the ship London.' From the accounts and the different statements of the witnesses examined before the Commissioners appointed by the Board of Trade, I was unable to discover any serious defect in the construction of the ship. On the contrary, I have reason to believe that both material and workmanship were perfectly sound, with the exception of the combings of the hatches, which it would appear were imperfectly secured. As respects the design, I have assumed that she inherited the extremely fine lines at the bow and stern already described, and to which I have directed attention, and additional weight is given to this opinion by the manner in which the vessel behaved at sea. Taking all the circumstances into account, as also the statements of the different witnesses, with regard to the rigging and the state of the decks, I arrive at the conclusion that the ship did not founder from any serious defect of construction, excepting only the insecurity of the hatches, but from the hurried manner in which vessels are sent to sea, with their decks crowded with coal, hampers, and a variety of articles always dangerous and always objectionable in long and narrow vessels that are low in the water and liable to ship every succeeding sea. If these matters and the upper rigging had been properly cared for, there would have been no broken jibboom to batter to pieces the combing of the hatchway, and instead of the London being entombed with all on board at the bottom of the Atlantic, she would, by this time, have been well advanced on her voyage to Australia.

III. SEWAGE AND SEWERAGE.

1. First Report from the Select Committee (Dr. Brady's) on the Sewage of Towns, together with the Minutes of Evidence and Appendix. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, April 10, 1862.

2. Second Report from the same Committee. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, July 29, 1862.

3. Report from the Select Committee (Lord Robert Montagu's) on Sewage (Metropolis), together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, and Index. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, July 14, 1864. 4. Third Report and Appendices of the Commission appointed to inquire into the best Mode of Distributing the Sewage of Towns and applying it to beneficial and profitable Uses. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. 1865.

5. The Present State of the Town Sewage Question. By Gilbert W. Child, M.D., of Exeter College, and Physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. Oxford and London: John Henry and James Parker. 1865.

6. General Report of the Commission appointed for Improving the Sanitary Condition of Barracks and Hospitals. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. 1861. 7. A Manual of Practical Hygiene, prepared especially for Use in the Medical Service of the Army. By Edmund A. Parkes, M.D., F.R.S. London: John Churchill & Sons, New Burlington Street. 1864.

By

8. The Sanitary Management and Utilization of Sewage. William Menzies, Deputy Surveyor of Windsor Forest and Parks. London: Longman & Co. 1865.

9. National Health and Wealth. By the Rev. H. Moule. 1861. (Pamphlet.)

10. Memoir on the Cholera at Oxford in the Year 1854, with Considerations suggested by the Epidemic. By Henry Wentworth Acland, M.D., F.R.S., &c. London: John Churchill, New Burlington Street; and J. H. & J. Parker, 377, Strand. Oxford: J. H. & J. Parker. 1856.

11. Seventh Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, with Appendix. 1864.

THE problems of Sanitarian Science seem sufficiently complex; but the most pressing and primary of them will run in the simple formula: How are we to dispose of our Sewage without either spoiling our rivers, or robbing our fields, or poisoning ourselves?

This particular question may seem uninteresting or even repulsive, but the events of the last few years, and more especially of the very last, have given it a claim on the immediate and close attention of every man who has at heart his own well-being and that of his fellows. It seems also at present far removed from a speedy and definite settlement; but men of science and men of practice rarely work together without compassing their common object; and the conspiracy of modern chemists and engineers with modern agriculturists and sanitarians will assuredly form no exception to the rule.

In this article we purpose, first, to delineate in the merest outline and from the practical as well as from the scientific point of view, the question, as it should be presented to a person, who, living in one of our many needlessly unhealthy towns, has his attention necessarily focussed by what he daily feels and sees and reads upon the subjects more or less systematically treated in the long list of works hereto prefixed. And in the second place, we shall point out the special merits and particular claims of each of those works, hoping thereby to place our readers fairly on a level with the present somewhat extensive literature of this department of hygienics.

We take it of course for granted that all who read these lines are convinced of the immediate bearing which the purification of our houses, streets, and streams has upon both the moral and the economical interests of the nation. Market Drayton, indeed, a town belonging exactly to neither of the two counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire, but an equal discredit to both, did last autumn get up a riot in the interests of filth, and rejected the Local Self-government Act, emulating therein, and not unsuccessfully, the conduct of those men of the "most brute and beastly shire" of Henry VIII.'s realm, who sang of old in defiance of a similar movement for their own improvement,

"Let us be men,

And we'll enjoy our Holland fen."

There is, however, no reason to think that many other towns can be found to follow the example; Market Drayton is, so far as we know, a unique instance of such a condition of things in the nineteenth century; and its exhibition of folly and brutishness is probably to be referred to some temporary excellence in the organization of the class which has a direct interest of its own in keeping the low lodging and public-houses, as well as other centres of moral and physical debasement, undisturbed and uninspected. Pure air, indeed, and pure water reduce greatly the need and the desire for stimulants, and the temptation thence accruing to the poor man to betake himself to the gin-palace, so that the gentry we allude to were, in a scientific point of view, wiser in their generation than probably they were aware of. The words, "Thou shalt eat but not

be satisfied," precede the words from the Prophet Micah, quoted by Dr. Hunter in his now famous Report,* " And thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee." But as Mr. Simon, to whose good office we owe the Report just alluded to, promises another shortly, which shall show us what such towns as Worksop and Salisbury have really gained by cleansing and keeping themselves clean, we will say no more now and here of the value, urgency, and importance of Sanitarian Reform, but proceed to the details of Sewers and Sewerage.

We may do well to begin by passing in review the different methods which have been proposed and adopted for dealing with sewage whilst within the precincts of our towns, and indeed, of our very houses. All modern and most ancient plans for dealing with sewage refuse aim or aimed more or less directly at its destruction or removal. The Jews used the agency of firet in the valley of Hinnom, for the purification of their city; and while in the Wilderness they used earth‡ outside their camp as their disinfecting agent. The Chinese and the Japanese have a system for removal of sewage in substance, either without the admixture of other matter, or as compost, but without mixing any special deodorant with it. Agrippa did for the Romans, in the time of Augustus, what Mr. Bazalgette has done for the Londoners in the time of Queen Victoria, and the rush and volume of his main drains has been commemorated by Pliny, and earned the title of " torrens cloaca" from Juvenal.

Side by side with these and other systems for the removal of excreta there has existed from time to time a system for its nonremoval, and to it we will now devote a few lines. It might have been hoped that this system was definitely numbered with the things of the past, but we are informed that even in these days it has its adherents, much as Paganism, which it resembles in the matter of foulness, retained and regained occasionally a few votaries long after the acceptance by the civilized world of a purer form of faith.

Mr. Rawlinson declares that though some of the rivers in Lancashire are indescribably foul-so foul, in fact, that birds can walk over them in places-they are less injurious to health than are the cesspools with which the towns in that county are so richly honeycombed.§ A delicate nostril, we are told, can detect the peculiar odour of these abominations in many a well-furnished house in continental cities, in spite of the fumes, whether of tobacco or other

*Seventh Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, 1864.' Appendix, p. 256. Micah vi. 14.

+ Bazalgette on the Main Drainage of London. 'Proceedings, Institution Civil Engineers,' vol. xxiv., 1864-5, p. 3.

Deuteronomy xxiii. 12, 13.

Evidence before Lord Robert Montagu's Committee on Sewage (Metropolis),' p. 147 (3,997), p. 186 (4,219,, p. 177 (4,058 ̧.

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