418 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



ter is performed in such a city as Paris, may be of use in other 

 cities, where it is generally left to private enterprise, with very 

 imperfect apparatus and preparations ; and is often slovenly and 

 offensively performed. I confess that, in the third place, I have 

 been moved by some moral reasons, because I would lose no favor 

 able opportunity of calling the attention of the richer and more 

 favored classes in society to the condition of their more humble 

 brethren in many departments of human industry, upon the 

 results of whose labor they live ; and who peril their lives, and 

 pass their days and nights in the most humble, the most severe, 

 and often the most odious and disgusting services, to secure the 

 health and comfort of those elevated above them ; and receive, in 

 the form of compensation for labors so perilous and offensive, 

 that which serves only as a bare subsistence. It is said that the 

 wives and children of the men who perform the most dangerous 

 part of these services, when their husbands and fathers leave 

 home at night, show the same anxiety for their safe return, as if 

 they were leaving upon some perilous voyage by sea. 



Various methods have been tried for the purpose of disinfect 

 ing this substance ; but, either from their inefficacy or the diffi 

 culty and expense of procuring them, are seldom used. Quick 

 lime thrown into the vaults is said to destroy the best parts 

 of the manure ; but, by many persons, however, it is greatly 

 approved. Charcoal-dust, burnt tan, peat-ashes, the mud from 

 the bottom of rivers or ditches burnt or dried in ovens, have all 

 been used, as it is reported, with success j and may be recom 

 mended, not only as disinfectants, but as useful additions. 



The Parisian arrangements are far from being perfect. In 

 London, at present, every thing of this sort is lost. In Paris, only 

 the solid portion of the excrementitious matter is saved for 

 manure, whereas there is no doubt that the urine is of far greater 

 comparative value than the solid portions. Various attempts 

 have been made to save this in such a form that it might be 

 easily transported ; and in London, manures are sold under the 

 name of urates, which are only urine combined with plaster or 

 gypsurn ; but the quantity of urine taken up in such cases is so 

 small, compared with the weight or bulk of the article, that in 

 this respect it is considered of little efficacy or value. Chem 

 istry would perform an immense service for agriculture, if it 

 could discover a means of combining this substance in some 



