— 311 — 



in no proof that such results occur from the cotnhus- 

 tion of either animal or vegetable substances. The 

 gaseous and volatile products of combustion are totally 

 different from those of putrefaction, and, if anything, 

 less danger might be apprehended from the slow or im- 

 perfect combustion by which charcoal is obtained, than 

 from the rapid combustion by which these substances 

 are reduced to ashes ; for in the former case thfre is a 

 larger production of pyroligueous or acetic acid, to- 

 gether with the tarry matters containing creosote, both 

 of which have the power of preserving animal substan- 

 ces from subsequent putrefaction, and one of them, ace- 

 tic acid, is stated whether truly or not is a question, to 

 be a powerful desinfectant. The only real inconvenience 

 that can arise from this process is smoke; this, as I have 

 already said, must be endured in any case ; but if ap- 

 propriate sites be chosen for the performance of the 

 process, the smoke will, during the greater part of the 

 year, be blown to sea and thus be injurious or offensive 

 to no living person. 



I apprehend that in the preceding pages, T have 

 brought forward ample evidence that charcoal, espe- 

 cially when in a divided state as poAvder, is fully ca- 

 pable of desiiifecting, as well as deodorising putrescent 

 matters, and that the only feasible plan for ridding 

 ourselves of the noxious effluvia now constantly arising 

 from heaped up refuse and of diminishing the enormous 

 death, rale of the town is, in addition to a more perfect 

 system of scavengering, the conversion of the refuse 

 collected by the scavengers, into charcoal, and the em- 

 ployment of the charcoal, so obtained, as a desinfectant. 



J 



