645 



Moss, and the Value of Peal Charcoal as a Disinfector and Fertilizer." 

 It may be necessary to mention that by the aid of peat charcoal Mr. 

 Rogers purposes to consolidate and deodorize the solid matter of the 

 London sewers, and whilst by that means benefiting the inhabitants 

 of the metropolis, there would be placed within the reach of the agri- 

 culturist a manure of the most powerful description — pulverized, free 

 from odour, and fit for transit by any conveyance. Tn 1845 he brought 

 the subject under the consideration of the public, and it was then al- 

 leged that charcoal could not give that quantity of carbon to the root 

 of the plant, the leaf and not the root being the portion which ab- 

 sorbed such sustenance. Often, however, since then he had tried the 

 experiment, and the result had invariably been that the root, as well 

 as the leaf, of the plant attracted the carbon, and therefore he was 

 more convinced of the propriety of the system he had promulgated. 

 From the experiments he had made he had found that peat charcoal 

 possessed far superior advantages to wood charcoal : it had had a 

 deodorizing effect which wood charcoal had not ; and if they con- 

 sidered how such an agent could be made to operate upon the sew- 

 age matter of London, no one could be left in doubt as to the public 

 benefit. Wherever it had been used it produced the most extraor- 

 dinary effect. If excretia, in its natural state, was intermixed with 

 charcoal, it at once absorbed and took up all those gases which, if 

 exposed to the amosphere, were lost. It kept that nutriment until 

 such time as the dryness of the earth surrounding a plant intimated 

 its lack of sustenance, and gave forth its revivifying influence when it 

 was wanted. In short, by the admixture of charcoal with excretia 

 all the gases were at once taken up and retained, ridding the public of 

 nuisance and disease, and giving to the land the entire benefit. Peat 

 charcoal was, perhaps, the greatest absorbant known. It would take 

 up and retain about 80 to 90 per cent, of water, and at least from 90 

 to 100 volumes of those noxious gases arising from animal excrement 

 and other putrescent matter. Hence its great value for effecting deo- 

 dorization, and for retaining all the value of the liquid, as well as its 

 volatile products. Equal parts of prepared peat charcoal and ex- 

 cretia would, under almost every circumstance, if properly intermixed, 

 produce a manure of almost incalculable value. The proportion, 

 however, of charcoal might be more or less in some instances, even 

 down to one-third. 



Mr. John Bishop, F.R.S., inquired of Mr. Rogers, whether he was 

 not aware that the peat raised from the bogs of Ireland could be 



