SMOKE AND SOOT. 297 



but the same end might surely be attained in a civilised 

 community by other means without involving the present 

 drawbacks of wasted time, smarting eyes, injured bronchial 

 tubes, and defaced buildings. And what a wonderful 

 difference it would make to the spirits of Londoners in 

 general, to say nothing of the unfortunate artists, if the 

 air were clear, the sun allowed to shine upon them when- 

 ever he would, and they themselves freed from the necessity 

 of waging an incessant and more or less hopeless warfare 

 with " blacks ! " Nature consumes her own smoke, why 

 should not we ? Certainly the man who contrives to banish 

 it from our towns and cities will deserve all the fortune he 

 may be able to make out of it. 



Soot, we may remark, is looked down upon by " dust ; " 

 nevertheless, in addition to what we pay to be delivered 

 from it, soot is worth about 6d. a bushel, or a bushel of 

 soot is reckoned equal in value to a quartern loaf. Its 

 chief value as a manure arises from the sulphate of 

 ammonia it contains, but the notion that the soot obtained 

 from kitchen chimneys is superior to any other, owing to 

 the fatty matters mixed with it, does not seem to have any- 

 thing to warrant it. Grass which is manured with soot 

 assumes a brighter green, and is much relished by cattle. 

 At one time it was exported to the West India sugar planta- 

 tions \ and besides being applied to the soil, it is used for 

 the manufacture of the brown colour called bistre, and for 

 the colouring matter of paper-hangings. Wood-soot is said 

 to be useful in hysteria and whooping-cough. 



If we cannot at present collect and make use of the 

 refuse which pollutes the air, we are at all events less 



