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ebloralum may be cheaply produced by the action of hydrochloric 

 acid on clay, but it is inferior in disinfcicting i)ower to several other 

 chlorides and sulphates which may be produced very cheaply. Chlora- 

 lum is no way related to the newly-introduced drug chloral hydrate. It 

 very properly derives its name from its chief ingredient — chloride of 

 aluminum — chlor-alum. 



Wastes of cities. — How to remove the constantly accumulatiug- filth of 

 cities, and thus relieve them from a fruitful source of disease, and how 

 to utilize this waste so as to restore to the agricultural interest the 

 fertilizing elements of which it is perpetually robbed, are questions of 

 the first magfiitude, and questions which are earnestly pressing on this 

 age and demanding an early solution. Modern cities have generally 

 followed the examiile of Kome in disposing of their garbage and excretse 

 through a system of subterranean sewers. This system makes no pre- 

 tension toward economising these wastes, and the efforts which have 

 recently been made in this direction, whether by using the sewage for 

 irrigation or by precipitating its solid matter, have practically been but 

 little better than failures. In a sanitary jioint of view, the whole sys- 

 tem of disposing of offal by sewers is sadly defective. The oifensive 

 matter is put out of sight, it is true, but the gases arising from it 

 pervade the whole atmosphere of the sewer, and most of these being 

 lighter than air escape at every man-hole or other opening along the 

 line of the sewer; and if these be secured, still, in the warm, dry months 

 of summer, the bricks, of which the sewers are usually constructed, and 

 the earth above them become easily permeable to gases and allow these 

 to escape readily. 



During the prevalence of contagious diseases in cities, if the excrette 

 of patients be thrown into the sewers, these become a most effectual 

 means of propagating and perpetuating disease. Sewers, as a means of 

 carrying off accumulations of surface-water and the wastes from hydrants 

 are indispensable ; but the health of cities and the interests of agricul- 

 ture alike demand that the perishable wastes of cities be disposed of in 

 some manner less objectionable. This demand, however, has not been 

 successfully met up to the present • time, but if we may judge from the 

 energetic efforts being made in this direction, the prospects of a favora- 

 ble solution of the problem are altogether hopeful. 



This Department is in receipt of a communication from James Alex- 

 ander Manning, of London, England, in which lie gives the general 

 outlines of his method of disposing of the wastes of cities, which he as- 

 sures us is in successful operation at the English capital. If the report 

 of his operations is reliable, (and we have no reason to doubt his state- 

 ments,) the improvement is of incalculable importance, both in its 

 sanitary and agricultural aspects. The system of sewers prevailing in 

 most of our American cities is not well adapted to the introduction of 

 Mr. Manning's method, and would, probably, prove a formidable obstacle 

 to its general adoption. 



We present a description of Mr. Manning's process in his own lan.- 

 guage: 



I -will now, as briefly as possible, explain tbe nature of my process, by yvbicli it Tvill 

 be perceived that no portion of tbe fertilizing elements of night-soil can be lost in the 

 collection or manufacture of the manure, or in any of the operations to which they 

 are subjected, as the escretie are completely deodorized and disinfected in the cess- 

 pits or other receptacles devoted to that service ; are removed in hermetically-closed 

 carts, are discharged into hermetically-closed evaporating chambers and evaporated 

 to dryness, the deleterious gases, the soot and gaseous products of the coal employed 

 in the manufacture, together with the vapors from the liquid portion of the fecal mat- 

 ter, being all drawn oli from the evaporating-chamber by means of a powerful exhaust 

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