NIGHT-SOIL. POUDRETTE. 415 



lated that this refuse, which may be said to be worse than lost, 

 would be sufficient to manure annually more than a million acres 

 of land, if it could be applied. I have in another place referred 

 to an association formed in London, with an enormous capital, 

 for the purpose of applying the liquid portions of it ; but the 

 progress as yet made does not warrant any public report. The 

 passage of this fecal matter into the sewers does not remove all 

 offence ; for in London the odor from the traps or ventilators of 

 the sewers, which are necessarily frequent, is in warm weather 

 disagreeable and odious. Though the habits of the English are 

 eminently cleanly, yet, judging from the sanitary reports, the 

 condition of things in some of the poorer districts of London, 

 and in several of their manufacturing towns, is most objection 

 able and degrading.* Paris, in some respects, then, has the 

 advantage of London, and, indeed, of every city which I have 

 been in, excepting the cities of Holland and Belgium in that 

 all this fecal matter is saved, and certainly with less offence in 

 its removal than could have been supposed possible. 



In general it is removed by what is called the atmospheric 

 process. The cart is placed at the door in the street ; a long 

 leather hose is extended from the vault to the cart ; and, the air 

 being exhausted, the fecal matter, in a semi-fluid state, passes 



* The worst parts of Paris and the worst habits of Paris are, however, entirely 

 distanced by some parts of London, eminently cleanly as it is in many other parts. 

 Hear what the philanthropic Lord Ashley has recently said in his place in 

 parliament: 



&quot;He should read a description of a court which he had witnessed himself. It 

 was in such places that a large mass of the community dwelt. In one of these 

 courts there were three privies to 300 persons ; in another there were two to 200 

 people. This was a statement made by a medical man. In a place where these 

 public privies existed, scenes of the most shocking character were of daily occur 

 rence. It would scarcely be believed, that these public privies often stood 

 opposite the doors of the houses ; modesty and decency were almost altogether 

 impossible.&quot; Times, of June 7, 1848. 



The &quot; cabinets d aisance sans odeur,&quot; which are to be found in many parts of 

 Paris, and which are always kept in the most cleanly condition, but which are 

 often spoken of with sneers by strangers visiting Paris, are to be highly com 

 mended as useful and important public accommodations. An eminent medical 

 gentleman once assured me, &quot; that a very large portion of the worst maladies 

 which he had to deal with, arose out of improper neglect in this matter, growing 

 out of inconvenient arrangements or a false delicacy, which should be got 

 rtd of.&quot; 



