Tovm Sewage. 233 



used, both agriculturally and chemically, for arriving at a trustworthy 

 result. Again, Mr. Crockford, farming in Sussex, had pointed out to 

 him an inaccuracy of Baron Liebig's, inasmuch as in his recent esti- 

 mate he had taken credit for the full ammonia power of urea in the 

 sewage, while in the case of guano ho had not allowed the ui-ea any 

 agricultural value whatever. That was clearly an inconsistency, and 

 one which struck a damaging blow at the conclusions of the Baron. 

 Another correspondent had told him that during the past year he had 

 applied in a garden 300 gallons of diluted blood every week, and that 

 he had seen no effect whatever, except when he had first mixed the 

 blood with a dung-heap and left it to ferment. That seemed to show 

 that sewage-manure should be applied in the state in which it would 

 already contain food for plants, and not left to decompose in the soil. 

 All the evidence on this subject showed that sewage shotdd be applied 

 to sandy land, and applied in such large quantities that plants would 

 be able to take whatever they required ; and he thought the result of 

 the application of blood-manure which he mentioned suj^ported that 

 view. 



Dr. Ckisp thought that we were very much in the dark on this sub- 

 ject, not having sufficient statistics for oiu- guidance. He believed 

 that the investigation was yet in its infancy, and that hereafter all the 

 sewage, by proper combinations, would be made available for agricul- 

 tm'al purposes. He thought that it w^as a matter of common sense, 

 for all animals, without exception, derived their nourishment directly 

 or indirectly from the vegetable kingdom, and it was intended that 

 their excreta, as well as their bodies in various forms of matter, should 

 return to the earth. The first speaker said that sewage could not be 

 applied to arable land, and yet he told them that sandy land would 

 bear any amount of it, which appeared to him an inconsistency. 

 There was in England a vast quantity of sandy land ; he knew vast 

 districts where, as was sometimes said, " the seed of one field was blown 

 into another," and he apprehended that on such land sewage would be 

 very beneficial. As a medical man, he wished to say a word or two upon 

 the bearing of the sewage question on piiblic health. He did not go the 

 same length as his friend Dr. Cobbold, who supposed that the germs of 

 entozoa would be disseminated to a fearful degree, and who apprehended 

 dire results if human excreta were spread over the land ; he ventru'ed 

 to say that one worm prevailed to a great extent ; he alluded to the 

 oxyuris vermicularis. That worm directly it left the human body 

 emitted its eggs by tens of thousands, and it might not be long before 

 those eggs found their way into the animal system. It might be 

 impossible to tell precisely what effect the distribution of sewage 

 would have on the public health, but the question was certainly one 

 of vast importance to the community at large, and he hoped that it 

 would not be overlooked. The eggs of this worm (the oxyuris) differed 

 materially from those of the worm in the lungs and windpipe of sheep 

 {strongylus filaria), for in the latter the young worms generally escaped 

 from the egg at the time of extrusion, or soon after, but in the worm 

 in question (the human entozoon) the eggs were immature, and it was 

 a long time before they attained the vermiform state. 



