Sewage Treatment, Purification, and Utilisation. By J. W. Slater. (Whittaker
and Co.)—The importance of the sewage question may be gauged by the number of patents issued ; the hopelessness of a solution seems indicated by the absurdity of many of them. The most absurd of all ideas, that of purification by freezing, seems to be hardly yet exploded ; surely it is time that it received its coup de grtice. The difficulty, of course, is to drive these erroneous ideas from the human brain, to which they cling with a wonderful persistency. The confusion on the subject only becomes worse when we try and balance the extraordinary statements and contradictory opinions delivered by eminent chemists, who have constantly to be pulled up for the most lamentable blunders. Mr. Slater's work is mainly analytical, and does little beyond giving a very careful and fair discussion of the merits and demerits of various sewage systems. It is quite evident from what Mr. Slater says, and he no doubt means to say, that every town must have its own plan of sewage purification. The writer, in addition to a calm and dispassionate view of the situation, gives two chapters on " Legislation " and " Sewage Patents."
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