MISCELLANY. 



123 



sugar, which goes to support the young 

 leaves. From this time forward until the 

 moment when the rudiments of the seeds 

 appear, the sugar remains in the root. 

 Hence it would appear that the carbon 

 requisite for the formation of the stems and 

 leaves, which during this period attain a 

 great development, comes mostly, if not en- 

 tirely, from the atmosphere. From the 

 time when the seeds appear, the sugar in 

 the root disappears rapidly, and when the 

 seed is fully ripe there is no more left. 



The Kauri Pine. The kauri pine is one 

 of the chief timber-trees of New Zealand. 

 These trees in some instances have been 

 found fifteen feet in diameter and one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet in height. In some kauri 

 trees the wood is prettily marked or mot- 

 tled, and is in great demand for cabinet- 

 making. The timber is also valuable for 

 ship-building. The kauri does not grow far- 

 ther south than latitude 37 30'. The gum 

 which exudes from this tree is an article of 

 commerce. Over a large area of land which 

 has been exhausted by kauri forests in past 

 ages, and is now barren, the gum which has 

 exuded from the dead trees is found at a 

 depth of from two to three feet. This gum 

 is valuable in the manufacture of varnish. 

 During the years 1870, 1871, and 1872, no 

 less than 14,276 tons of the gum were ex- 

 ported, amounting in value to nearly half 

 a million pounds sterling. The Maoris 

 bring a considerable quantity to market, 

 and the proceeds thus obtained enable them 

 to procure the comforts of dress and living 

 to which they have now become accus- 

 tomed. 



Au Important Sanitary Fact. The fol- 

 lowing interesting statement is made by Dr. 

 Littlejohn, Medical Officer of Health for 

 Edinburgh : " Edinburgh consists of two 

 distinct towns, an old and a new, but with 

 very different populations. The new town 

 is inhabited by the better classes, and is 

 preeminently a water-closet town ; whereas 

 the old town consists for the most part of 

 overcrowded tenements, in which pails are 

 used for the reception of excreta. These 

 pails are brought to the street daily and 

 emptied into carts provided by the authori- 

 ties. Considering the low morality of the 



population, the bad ventilation, the over- 

 crowding, and the retention of the filth in the 

 living-rooms for the greater part of the day, 

 it might naturally have been supposed that 

 typhoid and diphtheria would be endemic 

 in the old town. This is not the case, how- 

 ever, for, despite the surrounding conditions, 

 these diseases may be said to be practically 

 unknown. But in the new and water-closet- 

 ed town the case is quite different : typhoid 

 and diphtheria are never entirely absent, 

 are frequently epidemic, and it has been 

 noticed that the ravages of these diseases 

 have been greatest in the best houses. The 

 lesson which this teaches is, that any system 

 of removal cannot be sanitary unless all the 

 excremental produce of a population is so 

 promptly and so thoroughly removed that 

 the inhabited place, in its air and soil, shall 

 be absolutely without fecal impurities." 



Utilization of Sewage in England. Down 



to the year 1874 the sewage of the English 

 town of Coventry (population 40,000) was 

 cast into the river Sherbourne in an undefe- 

 cated state. It rendered the stream black 

 and disgusting, and a terrible nuisance to 

 the neighborhood, as well as a great source 

 of danger to health, inasmuch as the sewage, 

 at a few miles distance, found its way into 

 the source of the water-supply of the town 

 of Warwick. But, by the erection of sewage- 

 works, all this has since been remedied, and 

 the river Sherbourne has been so purified 

 that fishes have returned to its waters. In 

 selecting a site for the works, advantage 

 was taken of a fall of six feet in the nature 

 of the ground, so as to avoid the costly ex- 

 pedient of pumping the sewage, and to work 

 it throughout by gravitation. A narrow 

 strip of comparatively valueless land along 

 the river-bank, about thirteen acres in ex- 

 tent, was thoroughly drained and embanked 

 against the rising of the river during floods. 

 The sewage is here subjected to four pro- 

 cesses, viz. : 1. Straining by means of 

 mechanical strainers, thus removing the 

 solids, which form a r : .ch manure. 2. Chem- 

 ical treatment by sulphate of alumina and 

 milk of lime, and precipitation. 3. Filter- 

 ing of the effluent water by percolation 

 through a depth of five feet of earth. 4. 

 Drying of the precipitate or sludge in the 

 precipitating tanks. The cost of purifying 



