100 Mk. W. M'F.velaxe on Sewet-age. 



place or places where their valuahle properties would be retained to the 

 community. In order to cany out this scheme, the following new 

 works would he necessary : — 1. Excrement supply sewers of glazed 

 earthenwai'e, connecting the water closets with the ordm-e tanks; 2. 

 Cast iron intercepting ordure tanks ; 3. Excrement discharge sewers of 

 glazed earthenware. Having described these contrivances in detail, Mr. 

 M'Farlane next explained the operation of an ordure waggon, such as is 

 e;iiployed in the United States and in Paris, for conveying the contents 

 of the ordure tanks to the manure depot. It is an excellent application 

 of the atmospheric principle to this pm-pose. B\' the system of excre- 

 ment sewers, in a population of 400,000, there would only be about 

 2.000,000 gallons of excrementary sewerage daily, or as much as would 

 iill a sewer from eighteen to twenty-four inches diameter, running at 

 the rate of two miles per hour. No paper, rags, straw, nor other insol- 

 uble matter being mixed up with it, there would be no greater difficulty 

 nor expense attending its transport and disj^osal than the same quantity 

 of water ; whilst I eing so concentrated, its value to the agriculturist 

 would be inci'eased. The sohd matters recovered from the ordure tanks 

 might be converted into a concentrated dry portable manure of much 

 value. By thus keeping the excrementary matters by themselves, and 

 separating the liquid from the solid parts, we put them into the best 

 state for converting them to their most profitable use. In a population 

 of 400,000, with the present sewerage system, there are about 22,000,000 

 gallons of sewerage daily, or in bulk as much as would fill a stream six 

 feet wide by three feet deep, running at the rate of two miles per horn*. 

 The great expense attending the transit of such an enormous volume of 

 water, has hitherto prevented the sewage in a liquid state from being 

 disposed of to agricultmists, although an almost universal opinion seems 

 to prevail, that this is the best and most profitable mode of using it. 

 When freed, however, from such an enormous quantity of water, much 

 of the difficult}' which has hitherto prevented it from being profitably 

 turned to account will be removed. Mr. MTai-lane then described his 

 plans lor the removal of dry garbage, ashes, &c., from dwelling-houses, 

 by means of ash-bins, ash-pits, and ash-shafts. 



April 22, 1857. — Mb. Betce, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The President read the following papers, viz. : — " On new Instru- 

 ments for Indicating and Measm-ing Electrostatic Forces ;" (with 

 Experiments). '■ On the Comparison of Quantities in Electrostatic and 

 Electrodynamic Effiscts." " On the Eapidity of Electric Action through 

 the Atlantic Telegraph Cable." 



