344 



SEWAGE 



and they should b BO located that in emptying 

 them it should not be necessary to carry tlirir rmi 

 tnte tln.iujjli .-my dwelling-house or building in 

 which persons are em ployed. 



In some towns and districts there seems to have 

 been a great prejudice about admitting the f*cal 

 matters of the population into the sewers, and in 

 such districts various forms of dry conservancy 

 have been adopted. The Middensteod appliance 

 is one in which the frecal matters of the population 

 are mixed more or less imperfectly with ashes and 

 garbage. Formerly these middensteads had the 

 adjoining ashpit uncovered, and still in many 

 places they remain uncovered. A great improve- 

 ment was effected when it was made a necessity 

 that the ashpit should be roofed over to prevent 

 the rain percolating into the vault below. A still 

 greater improvement has been attained by insisting 

 that the floor of the chamber should be located 

 above the level of the surface of the ground ; that 

 the ashes should be properly distributed over the 



Fig. 7. 



faecal matter; and that the space should not be 

 greater than to hold the contents of one week's 

 supply, or about 8 cubic feet in capacity. An 

 illustration of this is shown in fig. 7 ; A represents 

 the plan of a pair of closets of this description, and 

 B a section of the closet. In no case ought a 

 privy to be under the roof of the dwelling-house, 

 and the least distance it should be from an in- 

 habited building is 6 feet. It has been clearly 

 shown that in some large towns in which this 

 niiildenstead system is very largely adopted it 

 leads to a very high death-rate amongst the in- 

 habitants, especially amongst the children, and 

 cannot compare for health or cheapness with the 

 water-carriage system. 



The Pail system has also been largely adopted 

 in -nine towns for receiving the fiecal matter only 

 of the population. The pail is usually placed 

 below the closet seat. Where the pail system is 

 in use the whole of the interior surrounding the 

 pail should be flagged, asphalted, or cemented. 

 The floor nf the chamber should be kept above the 

 P'MIIIK! level, and the contents of the receptacle 

 should not exceed 2 cubic feet, and it shouM ) 

 removed at least once a week. An arrangement 

 by which the sifted dust from the ashes is passed 

 into the pail, so as partially to effect its deodorisa- 

 tion, is also very useful in detached houses. All 

 thexe appliances nf dry conservancy, however, only 

 deal with part of the polluting matter produced by 

 the population ; the rest finds its way to the 

 ewers, and the sewage is found to be none the less 

 offensive because a part of the fii-cal matter has 

 been kept out of the sewers. And the collection 

 and manufacture into manure of all the matters 

 that are collected in towns has only resulted in a 

 dead IOM to tin; authorities of every town that con- 

 tinue* to maintain these systems. 



The Earth-closet system is the invention of the 



Rev. Henry Moule, vicar of Fordington, Dorset. 

 It consists of the application of earth to the 

 deodorisation of fu-cal matters, and is a valuable 

 system in its proper place ; but it cannot compare 

 in efficiency with the water-carriage system in a 

 town in which there are sewers. In detached 

 houses, however, and country places, and in some 

 pnlilic buildings it has proved to be an exceedingly 

 valuable adjunct to other sanitary appliances. The 

 first requirement for the successful working of the 

 earth system is that earth of a loamy character, 

 perfectly dry and finely sifted, should be used. 



Earth-closets are of two varieties, those with 

 fixed receptacles and those with movable rr p 

 tacles. For the interior of the house the latter 

 only should lie used. In earth-closets outside the 

 dwelling tlu> materials may be allowed to accumu- 

 late in a dry vault for three months without any 

 injury or annoyance, provided sufficient suitable 

 dry earth was originally used in tlm <-Uiset. It is 

 found that ficcal matter when mixed with sufficient 

 dry earth is completely disintegrated, and together 

 with paper entirely disappears in the course of a 

 few days, and that no decomposition takes place 

 during the process. In the case of closets with 

 movable receptacles they should be emptied every 

 week. Apparatus for supplying the earth should 

 be fitted and form part of the closet, and should 

 be made self-acting. No slops should be thrown 

 into an earth-closet. 



The quantity of dry earth required in England 

 for use in the earth-closet is about 2i Ib. per head 

 per day, which is about five times the weight of 

 the t.-eeal matter that is collected in those towns in 

 which the pail system is in operation ; so that the 

 volume of earth required is large in proportion to 

 the matter dealt with ; and it is difficult to procure 

 and expensive to carry in the case of a large popula- 

 tion. Of course the earth after removal is from 

 an agricultural point of view more valuable than 

 before use, but, unfortunately, it does not produce 

 a manure of a high class. The earth in an outside 



Fig. 8. 



A, d 



door for emptying tank ; 



C, nhielc 



earth-closet may be used several times over, pro- 

 vided it is dried each time liefore use : and this odds 

 to the value of the manure and reduces the cost 

 of earth. Fig. 8 represents a form of earth-closet 



