160 DK. R. ANGUS SMITH ON 



ject of this paper before you, in order that I might draw the 

 conclusion that, in the two methods mentioned of leading away 

 the refuse in barrels and manufacturing it into poudrette, and 

 of leading it away in carts and selling it without manufacture, 

 no profit is to be expected, but the town or the country must 

 pay a constant price for cleaning; whereas, by leading the 

 refuse away by means of water, a price is obtained more than 

 sufficient to clean the town. Water seems, then, the only 

 successful conveyancer, according to practice, unless, of course, 

 the new Manchester experiment of conveying it by railway 

 should turn out valuable, although by no means likely to do 

 so to any very great extent. Even if it were to turn out 

 profitable, it would still be objectionable .from the fact that 

 the town is by its means not preserved in a sufficient state of 

 purity as before mentioned. If, however, the water-closet 

 system be used, the town is not only kept clean but the con- 

 veyance is made in the manner that has hitherto turned out 

 most profitable, as at Edinburgh, and which has been found 

 needful, so as to make the other or overland system complete 

 as at Paris ; whilst the disgusting manufacture carried on at 

 that place, and occupying so much land, is dispensed with, 

 and the still more disgusting system of clearing adopted here 

 is also done away with, a plan by no means producing such 

 bad results as on the continent, not from any merits of its 

 own, but because there is here scope for extension, and our 

 houses are not confined to the limits of city walls. As the 

 irrigation method at Edinburgh has at present the most 

 decided success, or in other words the conveyance by water 

 been found cheapest even when partially tried, it seems only 

 natural to conclude that the conveyance should be by water 

 the whole way, as would be the case if the English water- 

 closet system were carried out to its full extent* The chief 

 evil connected with that system is the hitherto great loss of 

 the products; and the chief difficulty with regard to irrigation 

 is the obtaining suitable ground in the neighbourhood. The 



