Breeze provides a valuable historical account of two Royal Commissions in Victorian Britain that sought solutions to river pollution problems attributed to industrial waste and town sewage. He describes and analyzes the legislative outcome, the Rivers Pollution Act of 1876, which remained the basic law until 1951. In an introductory chapter and epilogue, he places developments of the 1860s and 1870s into the broader context of British history. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
