123 



first the carbon and hydrogen, and then the nitrogen to 

 combine with oxygen. 



In ground well tilled so as to admit air to considerable 

 depth, with warm sunshine alternating with showers, the 

 nitrifying microbes are most active beneath the surface, 

 manufacturing plant food, and a fine growing season is the 

 result. 



He concluded by giving a scientific and practical talk 

 upon sewage disposal, based upon knowledge of bacteri- 

 ology, and asked : Is it not probable that man will, sooner 

 or later, discard present elaborate engineering schemes of 

 sewerage, and, taking lessons from nature's method, 

 humbly return to a more simple and primitive, but inex- 

 pensive and health insuring practice, and quickly bury all 

 organic, putrescible waste? It had been settled that oxyda- 

 tion or nitrification could not take place in water, neither 

 could earth saturated with water serve to purify sewage. 



The speaker said that he presumed that a majority before 

 him lived in isolated country houses, and they certainly 

 had much to be thankful for, when it was remembered that 

 " God made the country and man made the town." The 

 force and brevity of the adage quoted, never seemed clearer 

 than in this connection of sanitation. Man required a 

 certain proportion of the earth's surface for his support just 

 as certainly as did the trees. 



The location of houses should be on dry elevated places^ 

 with sunlight, fresh air, sinks, slops, soil pipe traps, venti- 

 lation, cess pool, removing excreta, dry earth system, sub- 

 surface irrigation, pure well water i. e. ground water, etc. 



There was a limit to the quantity of pure water a given 

 district would yield, and there also was a limit to the 

 amount of fouling which the water of a district would bear 

 without serious consequences to health or life. 



The speaker said at the Danvers Hospital a large field 

 has been prepared upon which to use the Hospital sewage 

 for agricultural advantages, as well as for restoring as far 

 as possible, the water contaminated, to its original purity. 



