THE DKY EARTH SYSTEM. 



It has long been a difficult problem to decide in what 

 way to dispose of human excrement so as to make use of its 

 invaluable ingredients as manure, and, at the same time, 

 to avoid the often siveness which attends its management in 

 China and Japan, and in all countries where it is habitually 

 applied to the soil. 



This problem has at last found a satisfactory solution in 

 the invention of the Rev. Henry Moule, Vicar of Fording- 

 ton, Dorsetshire, England. 



This invention is based on the power of common soil, 

 when dried and sifted, to absorb, not only the moisture of 

 human excrement, but its odor as well. 



This power of absorbing odors is due to both the clay 

 and the decomposed organic matter in the soil. It was 

 first discovered, or at least first satisfactorily explained, by 

 Prof. Way, chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England, whose interesting experiments on the subject are 

 detailed in the Society's Journal. 



It is odd that this easy means of arresting the offensive 

 exhalations of human excrement was not long ago generally 

 adopted. We have a practical illustration of this use of 

 earth in the case of animals of the feline race, whose de- 

 jections are extremely offensive. They turn and carefully 

 cover these with earth. In the adhesion of the world to 

 many of" the tenets of the Mosaic law, it is strange that we 

 have overlooked the sound advice given in the 12th and 



