1884.] CIVILIZATION AND ITS WASTES. 281 



ashes are of any value in themselves I do not know, but they 

 certainly remove all odor from the vault itself, so that there 

 is no trouble about the house. 



Prof. Brewer. As a sanitary arrangement, that is com- 

 plete. It is an absorbent. 



Mr. Webb. That is something within the reach of every 

 individual. Make your vaults shallow, put in your coal ashes, 

 and the vault will be kept perfectly sweet ; you would not 

 know where it was. I find that my men would a great deal 

 rather take the material from there than from the manure 

 sheds. 



Mr. . We know that sewers are indispensable in 



cities, but where the outlets from them run into our streams, 

 they are made very impure. I know a stream of water that 

 runs through a large number of farms, where a great many 

 cows are kept, and in warm weather that stream is offensive 

 for miles off. The cows have to drink that water, and I 

 don't suppose it enhances the value of the milk. I don't 

 believe Prof. Brewer can tell us what to do in such cases. 



Mr. Chamberlain. I feel that it would be almost pre- 

 sumption in me at this point to attempt to add a word to the 

 very able, instructive, and entertaining lecture by Mr. Olcott, 

 or to the words of these gentlemen, who have given this 

 matter so much careful and intelligent research, from whom 

 we have heard ; but I will cite one instance to show that men 

 of scientific research, upon whose intelligence we uneducated 

 farmers depend so much, are sometimes at fault in this very 

 matter. I remember that in the early history of Meriden, it 

 was thought necessary and indispensable at one time to 

 appoint a board of health who should look into this matter of 

 house drainage which we have been considering this after- 

 noon. What was the result ? It was this. All over the 

 city, people were required to drain into cess-pools, and in 

 many instances, where the drainage of the house ran upon 

 the surface and was rendered by the air and the soil to a 

 great extent almost utterly harmless, people were compelled 



