UTILIZATION OF SEWAGE. 53 



have got a proper place upon which to use it. Furthermore, 

 what will it cost? 



In most of the continental cities of Europe, and in other 

 places where epuration of sewage has been attempted, it 

 has been solely because the strong hand of the law has been 

 laid upon those communities, and it has been said to the 

 authorities, " Gentlemen, you nmst purify your sewage for 

 the preservation of the public health ;" and they have done 

 these things, and tried various plans in order to prevent a 

 nuisance. We are coming to that condition of things now 

 in many parts of our land, and our cities and large towns 

 must dispose of this material, for the purpose either of abat- 

 ing or preventing a nuisance. But I warn them against any 

 bright anticipations of being able to realize any profit out of 

 it as a fertilizer. Its treatment must, however, be under- 

 taken. In our small towns it can be utilized, as Dr. Barnes 

 has said. But the sum and substance of human experience 

 has shown, that only by putting this material on the soil 

 in limited quantities, where the well-known action of the 

 soil may operate upon it under favorable circumstances, 

 can its useftil fertilizing elements be extracted. Only in 

 that way can the nitrogenous elements be taken from it, 

 which pollute our streams and shores, and produce those 

 favoring conditions which promote disease, and become a 

 public nuisance ; and thus we can understand that it may, to 

 a certain extent, be made profitable. But how? In what 

 direction? At what cost? In the first place, we should 

 understand that the sewage of Europe is different in quality 

 from the sewage of this country. That is a point upon 

 which all intelligent examination agrees ; that the sewage 

 of Boston and New York, for instance, is entirely different 

 in quality and condition from the sewage of most European 

 cities. The sewage of the ancient world never contained 

 the foecal matter that flows through the sewers of Boston to- 

 day. The cloaca of Rome was simply a conduit built for the 

 purpose of draining the Pontine marshes. The stream that 

 flowed from it was not the river of gold which writers have 

 pictured as bearing the wealth of Rome to the sea. Soap 

 was an unknown thing in Rome, except as a costly ointment. 

 They used, for lavatory purposes, simply fullers' earth. 



