SEWERAGE 795 nection with the Colosseum. So completely was the city underlaid by these passages, that it was designated by Pliny as urbs pentilis, a city supported upon arches. The avaskara mandira (filth temple) of the ancient Hindoos was beyond doubt connected with channels and receptacles for its accumulations. The great canal system of Egypt, executed under Kameses I. and his successors, served exten- sive sewerage purposes ; and probably also the magnificent canals of Assyria and Babylon, fed by the Tigris and Euphrates. The ancient Chaldean tomb mounds possess great interest on account of their system of drainage. Long shafts of baked clay extend from the surface of the mound to its base, composed of a succes- sion of rings 2 ft. in diameter and about 1-J- ft. wide, joined together by thin layers of bitu- men. (See Rawlinson's " Five Ancient Mon- archies," vol. i., p. 89.) The recent discoveries of Dr. Pierotti among the ruins of Jerusalem have shown that the ancient city contained a complex and perfect system of aqueducts, drains, and reservoirs. The preservation of many of the aqueducts is owing to the fact that they were excavated in the solid rock, and have not been affected by the demolition of the structures above. It appears that the pool of Siloam received the washings of the temple, and the liquid was used for the pur- pose of irrigating the king's gardens. The discoveries clearly show that the inhabitants of Jerusalem were fully aware of the necessity of speedily removing all decomposable refuse matter. The system of sewerage of Paris has during the last half century been made among the finest in the world. Previous to the 14th century, Paris being walled only on the south, the drainage of the faubourgs St. Germain and St. Marceau was poured into the Bievre ; but when this district was surrounded by ditches about 1356, in the reign of King John, the sew- ers of the quarter St. Germain-des-Pres were turned into these ditches, and they have since taken the same course, being carried by the vaulted sewer which starts from near the ecole de medecine, and empties into the Seine below the palais des arts. On the opposite bank an open sewer was covered over in the reign of Charles VI. by Hugues Aubriot, and hence he is said to have commenced the system of cov- ered sewers in Paris. The open sewer of St. Catharine was very offensive to the inhabitants of the palais des tournelles, and as a conse- quence Francis I. bought the site of the Tuile- ries. As late as 1663, in the reign of Louis XII., there were only 1,207 toises of covered sewers in Paris, and 4,120 toises of open sew- ers or ditches. The sewer formed by the an- cient rivulet of Menilmontant, then and now called the grand egout de ceinture, was not walled and covered till 1740. In 1805 Napo- leon authorized necessary repairs and the ex- tension of the covered sewers of Paris. In 1806 there were about 23,000 metres of cov- ered sewers, but in 1862 they amounted to about 226,000; at present (1875) the total length of covered sewers is about 400,000 me- tres, or nearly 250 m. To organize the great system of sewerage, Paris was divided into five basins, of which three are on the right and two on the left bank of the Seine. Six prin- cipal galleries cut the city at right angles, and receive 15 secondary galleries, and these in turn numerous minor galleries. Besides these galleries, the old grand sewer, the egout de ceinture, serves as a collector, into which the others empty. This grand sewer now starts from the rue des Coutres-Saint-Gervais, fol- lows the rues Vielle-du-Temple and Filles-du- Calvaire, crosses the boulevards, follows the rue des Fosses-du-Temple, traverses the lower end of the boulevard Prince Eugene, continues its course through the rues du Ch&teau-d'Eau, des Petites-Ecuries, Richer, de Provence, and de Saint Nicolas-d'Antin, and falls into the general collector at Asnieres, under the boule- vard Malesherbes. Formerly it emptied into the Seine at Chaillot. The principal galleries on the left bank are : 1, that along the line of quays ; 2, that which follows the boulevard Saint-Michel ; and 3, the vast subterranean canal which receives the Bievre. These sewers also fall into the general collector at Asnieres, under the place de la Concorde, crossing the Seine by means of a reversed iron siphon over a yard in diameter and 217 yards long, en- tering the river about 6 ft. below low-water mark. In many of the galleries there are rail- ways, on which cars are run in cleaning the sewers, and also for carrying visitors. The water and gas mains are also carried in the galleries covering the principal sewers. In England sewer commissioners were appointed in the reign of Henry VI., but their powers were restricted to surface drainage and sea walls, the subject of municipal sewerage being left principally to local commissions, and in some of the cities to corporations empowered by special acts of parliament. The drainage of London was provided for by legislative enactments commencing in 1225, and the whole subject was thoroughly revised by Sir Thomas More in the celebrated " bill of sewers," passed in 1531. The use of the sewers of London, even up to the present century, was limited to the removal of the waters that ran in the gut- ters of the streets, including those thrown out from the houses ; and in the reign of George III. an act was passed prohibiting the dis- charge of other matters into them under penalty of a fine. Every house was provided with a cesspool, and this was occasionally discharged by the night carts which conveyed away the offensive matters. Upon the gravelly soil to which the city was then limited this answered very Well; but its extension over the more impervious clay beds, and the introduction of abundant supplies of water into every house, followed by the invention of water closets, led to a new use of the sewers, and to various re- sults not at all contemplated in their originaJ
