180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



inhabitants derive their sole supply of cool drinking-water, 

 in their innocence supposing they are drinking the purest 

 and best, are also poisoned. We give a single instance in 

 illustration. A well in Market Street in the city of Newark, 

 standing in front of the office of one of the daily journals 

 of that city, had been so lauded for its cool and sparkling 

 water, that people were wont to stop and refresh themselves 

 with a drink from its pump : nay, instances were frequent of 

 passers-by in the throng of Broad Street crossing over and 

 going down to this pump, as if to a favorite soda-fount. It 

 might have been a rival, for aught we know, to some such 

 popular establishment in its vicinity. This well, with two 

 others very much used, was designated by the chief engineer 

 of the Water Board, to Professor Wurtz, as among those of 

 the city most resorted to. Samples were taken ; and, on anal- 

 ysis, the one we have selected was found to contain, in the 

 words of the professor, " about five grains to the gallon of 

 an ingredient which cannot be traced to any other source 

 than the infiltration of urine of man or beast, or both." He 

 further recommended the closing of this well to the public 

 use, and it was done. 



These words require no comment : they speak for them- 

 selves. Let us pass now to a rapid consideration of our third 

 division ; namely. Thirds The care of night-soil, its prepara- 

 tion and mode of handling. We have shown, that, on eco- 

 nomic and sanitary principles, it should not pass into the 

 sewage of the city. What goes into a navigable river, the 

 source of the drinking-supply of that city, should be only 

 the product of the water-shed. The care of the other 

 waste should demand the most earnest attention of the avj- 

 tliorities^ and the application of the highest engineering skill ; 

 for this sewage belongs to the land, and not to the sea. 



The modern earth-closet is an admirable contrivance for 

 preserving this manure in private dwellings without annoy- 

 ance to the inmates. The French were the first to set us 

 the example. Formerly the excrements were preserved in 

 the houses in open casks, from which they were collected, 

 and placed in deep pits at Montfaugon, where they were dried 

 by exposure to the air, and evaporation. It then became an 

 object of commerce, which is now well known in this coun- 

 try under the name of iJoudrette. In French Flanders this 



