XL VII. 

 THE EAETH-CLOSET SYSTEM. 



I VENTURE to think that Von Pettenkofer's opinion of the earth- 

 closet system may be worthy the attention of the readers of 

 'The Lancet' at the present moment. It may be found to the 

 following effect in the ' Zeitschrift fur Biologic,' 1867, bd. iii. hft. 

 ii. and iii. p. 298 : — 



' As to salubrity, I not only do not look forward to any gain as being likely to arise 

 from disinfection with earth and peat, but, on the other hand, I fear the greatest 

 danger from it, especially as regards cholera. If it is, as it is now pretty generally 

 believed to be, actually the fact that the porosity of the soil and its impregnation 

 with excreta do, at all events at particular seasons, bring about a local disposition for 

 cholera, and that the immunity from cholera which a rocky soil enjoys depends upon 

 the circumstance that such soils cannot be so impregnated, I cannot see my way 

 towards recommending the disinfection of privies with earth and peat.' 



Now, I apprehend that it will be allowed that the same line of 

 reasoning will apply to the localisation and diffusion of typhoid 

 fever. And I would add that certain observations which I made 

 recently in a fever-stricken village, with the aid of the light which 

 Dr. Budd's and Dr. T. K. Chambers's writings had given me, have 

 induced me to think that of the two recognised foci for infection — 

 the bespattered privy and the contaminated well — the former may 

 be the one which is more commonly at work. For though it is said 

 that the larger proportion of women- and children-sufferers points 

 to the water, of which they are said to drink more, being the 

 cause at work, the facts are, not that the women and children 

 drink more water in tea, &c. than the men, but that they get less 

 beer ; whilst many of the men in our semi-savage villages never use 

 a privy at all, or at least not habitually. This last is the true 

 differentiating condition. What applies, however, to the wood- 

 work and contents of a privy applies to the like elements in the 



