ABSTRACT

One of the first requisites of public health and convenience is an adequate and pure water supply. When water drainage became general it was no uncommon thing for the sewers and water mains, both defective, to run near to one another and for water from the sewer to find its way into the water main. Drainage is concerned with three problems: the reclaiming of marshes and fens, the disposal of storm and flood water, the disposal of liquid refuse, both human excreta and the waste of certain industries. Many cities of antiquity had elaborate systems of drainage. In the drainage of the marsh lands, however, the lessons taught by the Romans seem never to have been entirely lost in this island. By the "improved drainage" the water supply of large sections of the community was contaminated on a vaster scale than ever before.