216 



♦ KNOWLEDGE * 



[Makch 13, 1885. 



piils are provided with bandies, and can be readily carried 

 out of the house from time to time, aa required, by the 

 dustmen. Tiieir prices are S3 low as to place thtm \vithin 

 t'le reach of all. 



Dr. Nicholls's "PatentCarbon Closets," Fig. 10, act essen- 

 tially in the Stne way as his dust-bins, and are in reality per- 

 fectly sanitary, because the re-agent is made to act so tho- 

 roughly up'-n the soil, and is physically of such a nature (a 

 line powder) as to get at every part of the closet contents. 

 The only difficulty lies in the fact that the liquid w.-.ste 

 keeps the contents in a more or less sloppy condition, and 

 that, although perfectly innocuous, they ha%'e to be reduced 

 to a suitable consistency with earth for removal. In some 

 forms of lis closet, however, even this oljeu-tion is over- 

 come ; provision is made for diyitig the manure within, 

 by means of artificial heat, immediately prior to its 

 removal. By this proces-^, the Value of the manure is 

 immeasurablv increased, as it can be carted away in the 

 form of a leady-mi^de dry guano of the fine>t quality. 



Tie first attempt made to overcome the nviisance from 

 liquid waste -was that of the Goux Company, in the de- 

 velopment of the " pail-system." The '- Goux-tub " consists 

 of a tapering pail, widest at the top, 18 in. high, and 20 in. 

 at its greatest liiameter. The bottom of this tub is filhd 

 for a few inches with some light absorbent material, such 

 as old straw from stables, shavings of wood or sawdust, 

 spent tan or hops, flix-dressing.«, shoddy, or indeed, any- 

 thing handy of the nature of the above. Upon this sub- 

 stratum, a mould of the same shape as the tub, but Gin. 

 less in internal diameter is placed, and the absorbent 

 material mixed with a little powdered charcoal, soot, 

 gypsum, or ofbtr deodorant, is stuffed into the space between 

 the tub and the mould. Thus a lining of absorbing and de- 

 odorising powers is produced, and the tub is ready for use. It 

 should beremo ved punctually once a week, thoroughly cleans* d, 

 ai.d recharged iu the same way. In aot;'al pracd< e the 

 Kjiparatas does not realise the great expectations which one 

 would be led to form of its value at first sight ; it does not 

 act as an efficient absorbent, and when neglected, as such 

 things are most liable to be, its use as a sanitary appliance 

 is open to grave objections. This is one of the principal 

 difficulties to be contended against in the working of the 

 "pail," or even the "dry" system; thej- are both of them 

 healthy and safe if carried out with caie, and would be 

 infinitely superior to the " hydraulic " system if tliey could 

 but be applied with equal convenience, and with the same 

 degree of facility. The "pail" system is to be condemned 

 because of the excess of actual manual labour to which it 

 gives rise, and because it is apt to become insanitary 

 through neglect. Hitherto, the " dry " system has been 

 found to be objectionable, for similar, though less 

 marked reasons, but we hope to sh:)W in our sub- 

 sequent remarks how all those objections have been 

 recently removed, and how, in the face of i eglect, and 

 even abuse, the system can be profitably and universally 

 employed. The "hydraulic" sjstem is wasteful aud in- 

 sanitaiy; but it is wasteful in such a way as ti enrich 

 certain detachments of the commuuity, and it is insanitiry 

 in such a way as only to prove baneful beneath a vtil of 

 expensive arrangements ; add to this its extreme con- 

 venience for the disposal of waste products from our imme- 

 diate presence, and the habit which the present generation 

 have acquired ihrou-h its extensive use, together with the 

 total ignorance of the majority of those who employ it 

 regaruing sanitary matters, and it will follow, as a matter 

 of course, that until S(>me other system is brought forward, 

 equally convenient and more sanitary, and unless the 

 masses of the people are ed"iCated to recogni-e it as such, 

 the hydraulic syaxni w-ll continue unabated. 



METEORIC STONES. 



By Jas. R. Gregory. 



AMONG the great variety of natural-history objects 

 offered for sale at the well-known auction-rooms of 

 Messrs. Stevens, in King-street, Covent Garden, two or 

 three Fridays ago, was a somewhat remarkable collection of 

 objects from the outer world of space — viz , meteoric stones. 

 Some eighty or more fragments of as many distinct falls of 

 these extraordinary and rare celestial bodies, collected 

 during the last forty years by the late Mr. William Terry, 

 of Fulham, were ofl'ered for sale. Of late years, con 

 siderable interest has been taken in this subject, 

 and much has been done with a view of showing the 

 nature and origin of such objects ; and, notwithstanding 

 the researches in this country by Professor Maskelyne, 

 as well as by Professor Daubree, of Paris, Professor 

 Tschtrmak, of Vienna, Professor Shepard, and the late 

 Dr. Lawrence Smith, of the United States, and many 

 others, little has been done to satisfactorily explain their 

 origin. All we know is that they do fall from the heavens 

 to our earth, and have been seen to f.ill on many occasions 

 by very many trustworthy observers, but where they come 

 from and how they are formed in nature is still a mystery. 

 Tbey are known to fall, accompanied by terrific explosions,- 

 in the daytime as well as at night, in fine weather as well 

 as in stormy weather, and at all hours. Records of two 

 to three hundred d.flerent falls during the last hundi-ed 

 years have been carefully kept, and these falls have been 

 spread over the whole world. Previous to this are 

 recorded a large number of falls in various parts of 

 the universe at a very early period ; but owing 

 in most cases to imperfect data and observation, 

 some allowance must be made in details, which are in some 

 instances very meagre. Many are recorded in various 

 parts of the United States, many in France, two recent 

 well authenticated instances in England — in April, 1876, 

 near Wellington, Shropshire, and the other in March, 

 1881, at Middlesbrough, Yorkshire — besides others in 

 diflferent parts of the world. A very large shower of these 

 stones — several thousands — fell in Poland, in January, 

 1S6S. Still more recently another large shower at Mocs, 

 in Transylvania, in February, 1882; and in February, 1883, 

 a monster single stone fell with a thundering noise near 

 Brescia, Italy. This stone weighed from 400 lb. to 500 lb. 

 Examples of all these falls are now in the British Museum 

 (South Kensington Natural History Museum). 



These aerolitic bodies may be divided into two distinct 

 varieties — the so-called " stony " group, and the iron, or 

 metallic group. Much has been done by chemists who 

 have analysed them, and it is found that the stony varieties 

 consist of some twenty of the elementary substances such 

 as are known to form the earth's crust. Not one new 

 element has yet been found in these occasional visitors. 

 The iron group seems to consist almost exclusively of 

 metallic iron, associated with from 5 to 20 per cent, of 

 nickel, generally with a small percentage of phosphorus 

 and sulphur mixed with iron. The stony meteorites also 

 usually contain nickeliferous iron, disseminated throughout 

 the mass, which appears as metallic spots when polished. 

 Recently, Dr. William Huggins, by the aid of the spectro- 

 scope, infers that there may be some affinity between 

 comets and these bodies, their spectra being somewhat 

 identical. Numerous workers and observers on the Continent, 

 as well as in the United States and in our own country, 

 are constantly recording new facts, and the magnificent 

 collection in the British Museum, numbering over 350 

 distinct falls, tends to show the amount of zeal and energy 

 of Professor !Ma;-kelynp, as well as of the present keeper. 



