DEODORIZATION OF MANURES. 447 



purpose must be cheap, and must not only have 

 the power of preventing decomposition in the 

 organic matter to v^^hich it is added, but must also 

 be free from any noxious effects upon the land or 

 vegetables to which this matter may be applied 

 as manure. 



Being engaged in the manufacture of chlorine 

 on a large scale, it occurred to me that the 

 chlorine of manganese, which results from that 

 manufacture, might have all those qualifications. 

 The refuse of the chlorine process is principally 

 chloride of manganese, with a variable quantity 

 of per chloride of iron, and is at present consi- 

 dered an useless product, one house throwing 

 away thirty-six tons per day of this solution, of a 

 specific gravity varying from 1.280 to 1.300. 



Having made a number of experiments during 

 the summer, I am satisfied that this solution has, 

 in a high degree, the property of preventing 

 decomposition in organic matter. Several cess- 

 pools, and other places which gave out the most 

 putrid odour, having been almost instantaneously 

 sweetened by its application, an effect heightened 

 by a small quantity of free chlorine, which this 

 liquor always contains. 



