320 Extracts from the Journals. [Oct., 



1. The whole history of decaying animal substances tends to 

 prove the abundance of septic (azotic, nitric) ingredients they 

 afford. The urine and excrements of neat cattle and sheep, the 

 soakings of dunghills, the earth of horse stable and cow houses, 

 the soil of graves, and generally speaking, animal relics, and 

 putrefying carcasses of all kinds, afford every one of them septic 

 (nitric) acid. This acid is composed of septon (azote) and oxy- 

 gene. Water aids the formation of this acid, by promoting in- 

 testine motion among the decaying materials, and by its own 

 decomposition furnishing any quantity of the principle of acidity 

 which may be wanted. And, when formed, water acts as a ve- 

 hicle to convey and apply it to the various substances it meets 

 with. 



Accordingly, this product of animal decomposition being 

 yielded plentifully by the materials collected in yards and along 

 streets, filters through the earth in cities, and taints the waters 

 of their wells, most of which, especially in large and long set- 

 tled spots, are found, by experiment, to contain it, either sepa- 

 rate or combined with fixed vegetable alkali, in the form of a 

 septite of ■potash (nitre). It must be hence apparent, that the 

 water of such wells ought not to be employed for the domestic 

 use of washing, cooking or drinking; but that, in well regula- 

 ted societies, aqueducts should be constructed for bringing water to 

 towns from springs or sources considerably distant. This branch 

 of public economy, which was so diligently attended to by the 

 ancient Romans, is considered, by American municipalities, as of 

 small importance. They had rather offer a yearly sacrifice of 

 hundreds of citizens to the demon of pestilence, than make the 

 most easy and obvious of all public provision for withering away 

 such pollution. I have often thought the fixed labor of a great 

 deity of antiquity very applicable to the considerable towns in 

 the United States, which n;iay be considered as so many Augean 

 stables, requiring the waters of a river to be poured through in 

 order to cleanse them. 



In like manner, stagnant lakes are vitiated (Bergman Analys. 

 Jlqitar. § 4.) by animal and vegetable products; while ponds, 

 marshes and puddles, are still more highly impregnated with si- 

 miliar extractive and septic matter. The fertilizing effect of 

 such waters on plants, as far septic principle is concerned, may 

 be easily observed, in meadows moistened by these fluids, where 

 grass and other plants possess great luxuriance. The unhealthy 

 operation of such exhalations on animals is observable, when, 

 after the evaporation of these waters, too great a proportion of 

 septic vapor rises for the neighboring plants to decomjiose. Our 

 und itched morasses, and undrained swamps, reeking occasionally 

 with pestilential flames, would reniind me, if I had a disposition 



