8i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tanks, occupying six hectares, or fifteen acres, would Lave to be built 

 up with walls of solid masonry, at an expense of about 1,200,000 francs. 

 A similar sum may be added for the installation of the roads, ways, 

 carts, and other accessories, making a total of about 2,500,000 francs, 

 or $500,000 a mere drop in the budget of the city of Paris, The ex- 

 pense of labor at Essonnes is twenty francs a day ; at thirty times as 

 much, it would be 600 francs, or $120, a day at Paris. Add to this 

 the expense of carrying away the manure, in case no return is derived 

 from sales, and the price of the daily supply of lime, estimated at the 

 highest probable figures, and the whole daily expense of operation at 

 Paris rises to 3,000 francs, or 1600. The year's aggregate of these 

 daily expenses, with the interest on the cost of original establishment 

 (which we now place, to cover all possible additions, at double the 

 amount of the estimate we have just made), gives the total cost of the 

 application of the Essonnes system to the purification of the sewer 

 waters of Paris at 1,345,000 francs, or about 1260,000, a year. The 

 cost of managing the proposed works for the absorption of the sewage 

 in the forest of St. Germain is estimated at 2,120,000 francs, or about 

 $403,000, a year, showing a difference of more than $140,000 a year in 

 favor of the plan of desiccation as pursued at Essonnes. 



The difference in favor of this plan is much greater than appears 

 from these figures, for no account has been taken of the probable 

 economic value of the desiccated mud as manure. By actual analysis 

 this mud has been found to contain from eleven to fifteen grammes of 

 nitrogenous substances, and from twenty to twenty -five grammes of 

 phosphate of lime, per cubic metre. The whole deposit from a year's 

 sewage of Paris would contain nitrogenous matters enough to suffice 

 for the fertilization of 75,000 acres of land. It is certain that a sale 

 would be gradually found for this valuable matter, the proceeds of 

 which, estimated eventually to amount possibly to 1,500,000 francs a 

 year, would in the end more than defray the entire cost of maintaining 

 the system of extraction. 







MR. FRA:Nnv BTJCKLAND. 



By spencer WALPOLE. 



EVENTS, in the present time, follow one another with such rapid- 

 ity, and the favorites of society pass in such constant succession 

 over the stage, that the most startling occurrences are only regarded 

 as nine days' wonders ; and men who have even filled a prominent 

 place are almost forgotten before a monument is erected to their mem- 

 ory. Under such circumstances it may prove an almost hopeless task 

 to recall attention to the character of a man who held only a com- 



