Annual Report of the Consnlthu/ Chemist. 283- 



Composition of a sample of Bordeaux Phosphate. 



Moisture .. 3 '28 



Water of com Viination 1"24 



^Phosphoric acid 33 "72 



Lime 44-23 



Oxide of iron 2-66 



Alumina 6*42 



fCarbonic acid 3*26 



Magnesia, fluorine, and loss 1*74 



Insoluble siliceous matter 3*45 



100-00 



* Equal to tribasic phosphate of lime . . . . 73-61 

 t Equal to carbonate of lime 7-40 



In the list of analyses of refuse manures are comprehended a 

 number of those prepared by various precipitating agents from 

 town sewage. None of these sewage manures, analysed in 1873,. 

 were of sufficient value to repay the cost of their manufacture, or 

 to call for any special remark. 



With regard to the communication of Consul Inglis, of 

 Leghorn, respecting the mode of treatment of night-soil and its 

 application to the land in Italy,* I have to report to the Chemical 

 Committee that the said communication confirms the general 

 experience of the Flemish farmers and of Continental agri- 

 culturists, who are in the habit of utilising human excreta for 

 agricultural purposes, and that it does not refer to any details of 

 special interest or importance to English agriculturists. 



In connection with the utilisation of night-soil, I may mention 

 that I have recently paid a visit to Paris for the purpose of 

 becoming acquainted with the manner in which the contents 

 of the Parisian cesspools are disposed of. The larger proportion 

 of the contents of the cesspools of Paris is carted in air-tight 

 barrels to La Villette, in the outskirts of the city, and received 

 in large reservoirs, where the solid and liquid portion of the 

 excreta are allowed to separate. The liquid portion is then 

 pumped to the sewage works at Bondy, a distance of about eleven 

 miles from Paris, and the solid portion is taken in barrels by 

 canal to the same works. 



The solid portion of the night-soil of Paris is then dried 

 with peat charcoal and sulphate of lime, and, with the addition 

 of phosphate of lime and salt of ammonia, manufactured into 

 portable manure. 



The liquid portion, or the putrid urine, has hitherto been 

 wasted to a great extent, and been allowed to flow into the Seine. 

 Arrangements are, however, in progress to purify the liquid 



* Communicated by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 



