NIGHT-SOIL. POUDRETTE. 417 



iness of the occupation, its early processes are undoubtedly peril 

 ous both to health and life ; and many a poor fellow perishes in 

 the vaults, into which they are sometimes compelled to descend ; 

 but I found an overseer on the spot, who said he had been con 

 stantly employed there for eighteen years, and had never suffered 

 even a day s illness. 



The municipal arrangements in Paris seem to me, in various 

 matters, commendable. For effecting the process spoken of, so 

 important and indispensable to health, comfort, and even life, 

 there are three contractors, men of large capital, who take the 

 Avhole enterprise of cleansing the city in this matter upon them 

 selves. The city is divided into four districts. The contractors 

 are laid under heavy bonds to provide horses, carts, and work 

 men ; never to remit the work excepting one night in seven, 

 Sunday night ; and they are paid so much by the cubic foot, by 

 the owner of the house whose vaults they cleanse. They do 

 not begin their work before eleven o clock at night, and they 

 must leave the city before daylight. The men are divided into 

 parties of five ; and each man has his particular office, and is 

 known among them by a distinct name. The corporal, or over 

 seer, constituting one of the five, directs the whole operation, and 

 gives his aid as occasion may require. The man whose duty it 

 is to descend into the vault, always does it at the risk of his life 

 from suffocation. They are liable also to suffer from an inflam 

 mation of the eyes, which makes them blind for several days, in 

 which they frequently weep blood, and which is attended with 

 extreme suffering. The whole number of persons employed in 

 these services, in Paris, exceeds two hundred. They constitute 

 a people by themselves, and the employment goes down from 

 father to son. Their wages are from twenty to twenty-five 

 francs a week, or from four to five dollars, or one pound sterling. 

 A notice is given at the proper office, by the owner of a tene 

 ment, that his vault requires to be emptied, and the service is 

 immediately attended to. 



I have gone thus at large into these homely details for several 

 reasons; first, for their bearing upon agriculture; for, perhaps, 

 no manure is so valuable. We send ship after ship into the 

 Pacific Ocean, to bring home that for which we have a substi 

 tute equal, if not superior, in efficacy, at our own doors. 

 Secondly, because the information how the removal of this mat- 



