45^ Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



To my mind, the first reform should be the abolition of the con- 

 tract system, and all Municipalities should take upon themselves the 

 entire burden of performing this important work, which so closely 

 affects the public health. If a profit can be made from it, that 

 profit should go to the people ; if a loss is the result, the people 

 should bear the loss and not a private contractor. If a private 

 contractor can make the work pay where the Municipalities fail, 

 surely there must be something wrong with the Municipal machinery 

 requiring adjustment. There is a certain amount of expert know- 

 ledge to be gained from the actual performance of the work, and 

 it appears to me far preferable in the interests of the community 

 that the Municipal authorities should be in full possession of all 

 facts rather than a contractor. Improvements can be far better 

 effected from time to time as occasion may demand under depart- 

 mental working, and in time of epidemics there is no doubt regard- 

 ing who should bear the brunt. 



As regards other needed reforms, I have already mentioned 

 that offensiveness can be caused either through receptacles being 

 allowed to remain too long on premises, or during the process of 

 removals. In what manner, therefore, can improvements be effected 

 in order that annoyances and discomfort are reduced to a minimum ? 



Dr. George Ried states, the great principle to keep in mind is 

 the checking of decomposition. . . . Warmth and moisture are the 

 great agents that encourage putrefaction. . . . Dry fsecal matter, 

 comparatively speaking, does not decompose rapidly, but, when 

 mixed with water, or, what is worse, Urine, the change takes place 

 almost immediately. 



Many and varied efforts have been made to introduce a suitable 

 closet and system of removal which would meet with the above 

 requirement ; Moule's Earth Closet is probably too well known to 

 require description here. Others might be mentioned, but as they do 

 not comply with the principle laid down above, I do not think it 

 necessary to deal with them in this paper. 



It is very striking indeed what an improved state of affairs can 

 be brought about by rigidly excluding all liquid, including Urine, 

 from the solid excrement ; and, from the moment this is done, it is 

 a comparatively simple matter to deal separately with the Faeces, 

 and Urine, the former being treated as a solid, and the latter as 

 a liquid. It is repulsive, expensive, and unsatisfactory in every 

 way, attempting to dispose of a half-solid, half-liquid mass in such 

 matters. 



I feel convinced that not nearly sufficient earnest attention has 

 been given to this subject. I find that in 1857 F. H. Maberley 

 patented a mechanical arrangement for separating the solid from the 

 liquid portions of sewage, but I know nothing further about his 

 contrivance ; probably this was for dealing with a whole town's 

 sewage after having been knocked about through miles of pipes. 

 I also feel that, had the water-carriage system not made the rapid 

 progress, which has been the case during the last sixty years, the 



