This book is a development of class-room and lecture notes prepared by the author for use in his classes at the University of Illinois. He has found such notes necessary, since among the many books dealing with sewerage and sewage treatment he has found none suitable as a text-book designed to cover the entire subject. The need for a single book of the character described has been expressed by engineers in practice, and by students and teachers for use in the class-room. This book has been prepared to meet both these needs. It is hoped that the searching questions propounded by students in using the original notes, and the suggestions and criticisms of engineers and teachers who have read the manuscript, have resulted in a text which can be readily understood.

The ground covered includes an exposition of the principles and methods for the designing, construction and maintenance of sewerage works, and also of the treatment of sewage. In covering so wide a field the author has deemed it necessary to include some chapters which might equally well appear in works on other branches of engineering, such as the chapter on Pumps and Pumping Stations. Special stress has been laid on the fundamentals of the subject rather than the details of practice, although illustrations have been drawn freely from practical work. The quotation of expert opinions which may be in controversy, or the citation of examples of different methods of accomplishing the same thing, has been avoided when possible in order to simplify explanations and to avoid confusing the beginner.

The work is to some extent a compilation of notes and quotations which have been collected by the author during years of study and teaching the subject. Credit has been given wherever due, and at the same time references have pointed out the original sources whenever possible. These references, which have been supplemented by brief bibliographies at the end of certain chapters, will be useful to the student and engineer interested in further study. Occasionally the original reference has been lost or the phraseology of a quotation has been so altered by class-room use, as to make it impossible to trace the original source, so that in some few instances full credit may be lacking.

The author is indebted to many of his friends for their criticisms and suggestions in the preparation of the manuscript; but he desires particularly to acknowledge the assistance of Professor A. N. Talbot, Professor of Municipal and Sanitary Engineering at the University of Illinois, and of Professor M. L. Enger, Professor of Mechanics and Hydraulics at the University of Illinois, in the entire work; also that of Mr. T. D. Pitts, Principal Assistant Engineer of the Baltimore Sewerage Commission during the construction of the Baltimore sewers, for his suggestions on the first half of the book; and to Mr. Paul Hansen, consulting engineer, of Chicago, and to Mr. Langdon Pearse, Sanitary Engineer of the Sanitary District of Chicago, for their help on the section covering the treatment of sewage; and to Professor Edward Bartow, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Iowa, for his review of the chapter on Activated Sludge; in general his thanks are due to all others who have furnished suggestions, illustrations, or quotations, acknowledgments of which have been included in the text.