OF THE 



FERTILIZERS. 47 



kft/OULTU^ 



&quot; It has been ascertained by Boussingault, that a man in a healthy state passes three 

 pounds of urine daily; and Laebig states, that, in the same state, he voids five ounces and a 

 half of dung. These two quantities give a total annual quantity of 1,220 pounds of liquid, 

 and solid manure voided by every person, on tha average. Now, taking two million as the 

 population of London, the quantities of those manures voided by the inhabitants of the 

 metropolis amount annually to 1,089,285 tons. Chemistry has ascertained that the compo 

 nent parts of the excrements of man are as valuable to vegetation as those of guano ; and, as 

 the different sorts of guano sell from 6 to 10 per ton, we are warranted in estimating 

 the value of night-soil and urine at 8 per ton, which would give the entire value of this 

 manure in London alone every year at 8,714,280, or $43,571,400 in gold. This 

 may seem like exaggeration; but, put it at half the amount, and the subject is serious 

 enough to address itself to every thinking mind. This waste is not the worst of it. We 

 claim that there is a sanitary point of view, higher in importance than all considerations of 

 moneyed value : we mean so far as this waste of sewage into the rivers affects the supply of 

 drinking-water for our cities. &quot;We take two prominent instances within the State of New 

 Jersey; the two largest cities both taking their supply of water from the same source, the 

 Passaic River. This river, furnishing an illimitable supply, takes the drainage of the large 

 manufacturing town of Paterson, and the smaller towns along the river, to the points where 

 the supply is taken up: in addition to these, the sewage of the city of Newark, with a hun 

 dred and twenty -five thousand population, discharged into the Passaic River, is carried up 

 by every flood-tide beyond the city, and to the very conduits where the water is taken for 

 the supply of the two cities, Newark and Jersey City. The operations of the United States 

 Government in removing the reef, and the obstructions to navigation in the river above the 

 city of Newark, have greatly facilitated this flow; and there can now be no question but that 

 the supply of each city is contaminated by this sewage. The joint commission of Newark 

 and Jersey City employed an eminent chemist to analyze the waters of the Passaic as fur 

 nished the two cities. We quote so much of his report treating of sewage pollution of rivers 

 as applies forcibly to our subject, and the sanitary point now involved : That class of scien 

 tists who study microscopic fungi, mycologists (in common with many distinguished scientific 

 physicians), are now settling down to the belief that most epidemic and epizootic diseases are 

 accompanied (as causes, not merely as effects) by certain fungoid growths: in other words, 

 that these diseases are produced by vegetable parasites. When these fungi take root in live 

 animal tissues, they develop into abnormal and monstrous forms, which have not been recog 

 nized until lately; but it is now known that the spores discharged (by millions of millions it 

 may be) with the excreta, when cultivated outside the body, come back again to their normal 

 forms, and the fungi are recognizable. Thus in common dysentery and cholera-morbus, the 

 spores, when replanted, produce a common fungoid parasite of wheat; while, during the fear 

 ful Asiatic cholera, the spores produced a parasite of the East India rice-plant. These facts 

 (if they must be admitted as such, which seems inevitable) are suggestive with regard to 

 sewage Contamination of rivers. One case of cholera brought to Paterson, or any of the 

 towns lying on the upper Passaic, might fill the whole river with the living seeds of the pes 

 tilence. A like propagation would take place from Newark throughout Jersey City and 

 Hoboken, and even throughout Newark itself. I am aware that these are appalling consid 

 erations, and may be rejected by some as contingencies too remote and dreadful to be possi 

 ble. But human experience, alas! will not counterbalance any such puerile view as this. We 

 must stare these horrors sternly in the face, bring all our science to bear, and study preven 

 tion, rather than wait till called upon to endure the evil when it shall have passed beyond 

 our cure. 



It is not only river water that is contaminated by the sewage of the cities, but the 



wells are also poisoned from which many of the inhabitants derive their sole supply of cool 

 5 



