FILTH OF TOWNS. 271 



haled but in a very diluted state, and in small though incessantly 

 repeated doses. But if mild calcareous earth in any form (and 

 fossil shells or marl present much the cheapest) is used to cover 

 and mix with the putrescent matters so collected, they will be pre- 

 vented from discharging offensive effluvia, and preserved to enrich 

 the soil. A malignant and ever acting enemy will be converted to 

 a friend and benefactor. 



The usual dispersion and waste of such putrescent and excre- 

 mentitious matters about a farm-house, though a considerable loss 

 to agriculture, may take place without being very offensive to the 

 senses, or manifestly injurious to health. But the case is widely 

 different in towns. There, unless great care is continually used to 

 remove or destroy filth of every kind, it soon becomes offensive, if 

 not pestilential. During the summer of 1832, when that most 

 horrible scourge of the human race, the Asiatic cholera, was deso- 

 lating some of the towns of the United States, and all were ex- 

 pected to be visited by its fatal ravages, great and unusual exertions 

 were everywhere used to remove and prevent the accumulation of 

 filth, which, if allowed to remain, it was supposed would invite the 

 approach, and aid the effects of the pestilence. The efforts made 

 for that purpose served to show what a vast amount of putrescent 

 matter existed in every town, and which was so rapidly reproduced, 

 that its complete riddance was impossible. Immense quantities of 

 the richest manures, or materials for them, were washed away into 

 the rivers caustic lime was used to destroy them and the chlo- 

 ride of lime to decompose the offensive products of their fermenta- 

 tion, when that process had already occurred. All this amount of 

 labour and expense was directed to the complete destruction of what 

 might have given fertility to many adjacent fields and yet served 

 to cleanse the towns but imperfectly, and for a very short time. 

 Yet the object in view might have been better attained by the pre- 

 vious adoption of the proper means for preserving these putrescent 

 matters, than by destroying them. These means would be to mix 

 or cover all accumulations of such matters with rich marl (which 

 would be the better for the purpose if its shells were in small par- 

 ticles), and in such quantity as the effect would show to be suffi- 

 cient. But much the greater part of the filth of a town is not, and 

 cannot be accumulated ; and from being dispersed is the most diffi- 

 cult to remove, and is probably the most noxious in its usual course 

 of fermentation. This would be guarded against by covering 

 thickly with marl the floor of every cellar and stable, back-yard 

 and stable lot. Every other vacant space should be lightly covered. 

 The same course pursued on the gardens and other cultivated 

 grounds would be sufficiently compensated by their increased pro- 

 ducts that would be obtained. But independent of that considera- 

 tion, the manures there applied would be prevented from escaping 



