There are some minds whose course of reasoning seems to lead them to the conclusion that the evils attending the introduction of modern systems of sewerage are greater than those of the old methods of dealing with town sewage and refuse, but the facts are against them to such an extent that it would be difficult to point to a responsible medical officer in the kingdom who would be courageous enough to advocate a return to the old regime of cesspools, privy ashpits, open ditches, and flat bottomed culverts.  The introduction of earth closets as one of the safeguards against sewer gas has made no headway for large populations, and is beset with practical difficulties.

In the Midland and Lancashire towns the system known as the pail or tub system has been much more largely introduced as a substitute for the water closet, and it has, from a landlord’s point of view, many attractions.  In the first place, the first cost, as compared with that of a water closet, is very small, and the landlord is relieved for ever afterward I believe, in most towns, of all future costs and maintenance; whereas, in the case of water closets, there is undoubtedly great difficulty in cottage property in keeping them in good working order, especially during the frosts of winter.  There are, however, many objections to the pail system, which it is not proposed to touch upon in this address, beyond this, that it appears to be a costly appendage to the water carriage system, without the expected corresponding advantage of relieving the municipal authorities of any of the difficulties of river pollution, inasmuch as the remaining liquid refuse of the town has still to be dealt with by the modern systems of precipitation or irrigation, at practically the same cost as would have been the case if the water carriage system had been adopted in its entirety.

The rivers pollution act gave an impetus to works for the treatment of sewage, although much had been done prior to that, and Leicester was one of those towns which led the way so early as 1854 in precipitating the solids of the sewage before allowing it to enter the river.  The innumerable methods which have since then been tried, and after large expenditures of money have proved to be failures, show the difficulties of the question.

On the whole, however, sewage farms, or a combination of the chemical system with irrigation or intermittent filtration, have been the most successful, so that the first evil to which the cleansing of towns by the increased pollution of rivers gave rise may now be said to be capable of satisfactory solution, notwithstanding that the old battle of the systems of precipitation versus application of sewage to land still wages whenever opportunity occurs.