All house-refuse of a liquid or semi-liquid character is _wet_ refuse.
It may be called semi-liquid when it has become mingled with any
solid substance, though not so fully as to have lost its property of
fluidity, its natural power to flow along a suitable inclination.
Wet house-refuse consists of the “slops” of a household. It consists,
indeed, of _all_ waste water, whether from the supply of the water
companies, or from the rain-fall collected on the roofs or yards of the
houses; of the “suds” of the washerwomen, and the water used in every
department of scouring, cleansing, or cooking. It consists, moreover,
of the refuse proceeds from the several factories, dye-houses, &c.; of
the blood and other refuse (not devoted to Prussian blue manufacture or
sugar refining) from the butchers’ slaughter-houses and the knackers’
(horse slaughterers’) yards; as well as the refuse fluid from all
chemical processes, quantities of chemically impregnated water, for
example, being pumped, as soon as exhausted, from the tan-pits of
Bermondsey into the drains and sewers. From the great hat-manufactories
(chiefly also in Bermondsey and other parts of the Borough) there is a
constant flow of water mixed with dyes and other substances, to add to
the wet refuse of London.
It is evident, then, that _all_ the water consumed or wasted in the
metropolis must form a portion of the total sum of the wet refuse.
There is, however, the exception of what is used for the watering
of gardens, which is absorbed at once by the soil and its vegetable
products; we must also exclude such portion of water as is applied to
the laying of the road and street dust on dry summer days, and which
forms a part of the street mud or “mac” of the scavager’s cart, rather
than of the sewerage; and we must further deduct the water derived from
the street plugs for the supply of the fire-engines, which is consumed
or absorbed in the extinction of the flames; as well as the water
required for the victualling of ships on the eve of a voyage, when
such supply is not derived immediately from the Thames.
The quantity of water required for the diet, or beverage, or general
use of the population; the quantity consumed by the maltsters,
distillers, brewers, ginger-beer and soda-water makers, and
manufacturing chemists; for the making of tea, coffee, or cocoa; and
for drinking at meals (which is often derived from pumps, and not
from the supplies of the water companies);--the water which is thus
consumed, in a prepared or in a simple state, passes into the wet
refuse of the metropolis in another form.
Now, according to reports submitted to Parliament when an improved
system of water-supply was under consideration, the daily supply of
water to the metropolis is as follows:--
Gallons.
From the Water Companies 44,383,329
„ „ Artesian Wells 8,000,000
„ „ land spring pumps 3,000,000
----------
55,383,329
The yearly rain-fall throughout the area of the metropolis is
172,053,477 tons, or 33,589,972,120 gallons, 2 feet deep of rain
falling on every square inch of London in the course of the year. The
yearly total of the water pumped or falling into the metropolis is as
follows:--
Gallons.
Yearly mechanical supply 19,215,000,000
„ natural ditto 38,539,972,122
--------------
57,754,972,122
The reader will find the details of this subject at p. 203 of the
present volume. I recapitulate the results here to save the trouble of
reference, and briefly to present the question under one head.
Of course the rain which ultimately forms a portion of the gross
wet refuse of London, can be only such as falls on that part of the
metropolitan area which is occupied by buildings or streets. What falls
upon fields, gardens, and all open ground, is absorbed by the soil.
But a large proportion of the rain falling upon the streets, is either
absorbed by the dry dust, or retained in the form of mud; hence that
only which falls on the house-tops and yards can be said to contribute
largely to the gross quantity of wet refuse poured into the sewers. The
streets of London appear to occupy one-tenth of the entire metropolitan
area, and the houses (estimating 300,000 as occupying upon an average
100 square yards each[62]) another tithe of the surface. The remaining
92 square miles out of the 115 now included in the Registrar-General’s
limits (which extend, it should be remembered, to Wandsworth, Lewisham,
Bow, and Hampstead), may be said to be made up of suburban gardens,
fields, parks, &c., where the rain-water would soak into the earth. We
have, then, only two-tenths of the gross rain-fall, or 7,700,000,000
gallons, that could possibly appear in the sewers, and calculating
one-third of this to be absorbed by the mud and dust of the streets, we
come to the conclusion that the total quantity of rain-water entering
the sewers is, in round numbers, 5,000,000,000 gallons per annum.
Reckoning, therefore, 5,000,000,000 gallons to be derived from the
annual rain-fall, it appears that the yearly supply of water, from all
sources, to be accounted for among the wet house-refuse is, in round
numbers, 24,000,000,000 gallons.
The refuse water from the factories need not be calculated separately,
as its supply is included in the water mechanically supplied, and the
loss from evaporation in boiling, &c., would be perfectly insignificant
if deducted from the vast annual supply, but 350,000,000 gallons have
been allowed for this and other losses.
There is still another source of the supply of wet house-refuse
unconnected either with the rain-fall or the mechanical supply of
water--I mean such proportion of the blood or other refuse from the
butchers’ and knackers’ premises as is washed into the sewers.
Official returns show that the yearly quantity of animals sold in
Smithfield is--
Horned cattle 224,000
Sheep 1,550,000
Calves 27,300
Pigs 40,000
---------
1,841,300
The blood flowing from a slaughtered bullock, whether killed according
to the Christian or the Jewish fashion, amounts, on an average, to
20 quarts; from a sheep, to 6 or 7 quarts; from a pig, 5 quarts; and
the same quantity from a calf. The blood from a horse slaughtered in
a knackers’ yard is about the same as that from a bullock. This blood
used to bring far higher prices to the butcher than can be now realized.
In the evidence taken by a Select Committee of the House of Commons
in 1849, concerning Smithfield-market, Mr. Wyld, of the Fox and
Knot-yard, Smithfield, stated that he slaughtered about 180 cattle
weekly. “We have a sort of well made in the slaughterhouse,” he said,
“which receives the blood. I receive about 1l. a week for it; it goes
twice a day to Mr. Ton’s, at Bow Common. We used to receive a good
deal more for it.” Even the market for blood at Mr. Ton’s, is, I am
informed, now done away with. He was a manufacturer of artificial
manure, a preparation of night-soil, blood, &c., baked in what may be
called “cakes,” and exported chiefly to our sugar-growing colonies, for
manure. His manure yard has been suppressed.
I am assured, on the authority of experienced butchers, that at
the present time fully three-fourths of the blood from the animals
slaughtered in London becomes a component part of the wet refuse
I treat of, being washed into the sewers. The more wholesale
slaughterers, now that blood is of little value (9 gallons in
Whitechapel-market, the blood of two beasts--less by a gallon--can be
bought for 3_d._), send this animal refuse down the drains of their
premises in far greater quantities than was formerly their custom.
Now, reckoning only three-fourths of the blood from the cattle
slaughtered in the metropolis, to find its way into the sewers, we
have, according to the numbers above given, the following yearly
supply:--
Gallons.
From horned cattle 840,000
„ sheep 1,743,000
„ pigs 37,500
„ calves 25,590
---------
2,646,090
This is merely the blood from the animals sold in Smithfield-market,
the lambs not being included in the return; while a great many pigs and
calves are slaughtered by the London tradesmen, without their having
been shown in Smithfield.
The ordure from a slaughtered bullock is, on an average, from 1/2 to
3/4 cwt. Many beasts yield one cwt.; and cows “killed full of grass,”
as much as two cwt. Of this excrementitious matter, I am informed,
about a fourth part is washed into the sewers. In sheep, calves, and
pigs, however, there is very little ordure when slaughtered, only 3 or
4 lbs. in each as an average.
Of the number of horses killed there is no official or published
account. One man familiar with the subject calculated it at 100 weekly.
_All_ the blood from the knackers’ yards is, I am told, washed into the
sewers; consequently its yearly amount will be 26,000 gallons.
But even this is not the whole of the wet house-refuse of London.
There are, in addition, the excreta of the inhabitants of the houses.
These are said to average 1/4 lb. daily per head, including men, women,
and children.
It is estimated by Bousingault, and confirmed by Liebig, that each
individual produces 1/4 lb. of solid excrement and 1-1/4 lb. of
liquid excrement per day, making 1-1/2 lb. each, or 150 lbs. per 100
individuals, of semi-liquid refuse from the water-closet. “But,” says
the Surveyor of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers, “there is other
refuse resulting from culinary operations, to be conveyed through the
drains, and the whole may be about 250 lbs. for 100 persons.”
The more fluid part of this refuse, however, is included in the
quantity of water before given, so that there remains only the more
solid excrementitious matter to add to the previous total. This,
then, is 1/4 lb. daily and individually; or from the metropolitan
population of nearly 2,500,000 a daily supply of 600,000 lbs., rather
more than 267 tons; and a yearly aggregate for the whole metropolis of
219,000,000 lbs., or very nearly about 100,000 tons.