848 TRANSACTIONS OP THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



charcoal in deodorizing and at the same time rapidly decompos- 

 ing animal substances. 



Dr. J. Stenhouse, of England, furnished the following state- 

 ments to the Journal of the Society of Arts : 



"A well known chemical manufacturer placed the bodies of 

 two dogs in a wooden box, on a layer of charcoal powder a few 

 inches in depth, and covered them over with the same material, 

 and left the box open in his laboratory, no ejBfluvia was ever per- 

 ceptible, and on examination, at the end of six months, scarcely 

 anything of the bodies remained, except the bones ; — experiments 

 were subsequently made, with a full grown cat, and with two 

 rats, the bodies became in a highly putrid state, without the 

 slightest perceptible odor in the roem, — it thus appears that 

 charcoal is a perfect deodorizer, and favors a rapid decomposi- 

 tion, where it comes in immediate contact with dead bodies. 

 Putrid and unhealthy exhalations, can thus be disarmed of their 

 pestilential influences, without expensive arrangements. Our 

 pig pens, stables, cattle yards and poultry houses, by careful 

 attention, cannot only be purified, but made to yield at the least 

 expense, a manure containing all the ingredients required, by 

 the farmer, for the production of the finest crops as well as to 

 prevent that shameful condition so often talked of, a worn out 

 farm. 



Pulverized charcoal can be cheaply obtained, and experiments 

 can be made by every farmer, and every vegetable and animal 

 putrefaction can thus not only be rendered innoxious, but all its 

 fertilizing material preserved for distribution at any time upon 

 our gardens and farms. 



Charcoal having the capacity of rapidly absorbing the atmos- 

 pheric air, and retaining manurial gases and vapors by its pecu- 

 liar porosity, we must come to the conclusion that it furnishes, 

 from its cells, the proper nourishments to the spongioles of roots 

 in oxygen, nitrogen and carbonic acid gases, while the material 

 itself remains unchanged for many years — when it, it is said, de- 

 clines into a common earthy substance, of no great value for 

 agricultural purposes. 



R. G. Pardee. — ^Muck is a good substitute for charcoal, and 

 should be much more extensively used by farmers as an absorbent. 



Mr. Carpenter thought plaster much better than charcoal as an 

 absorbent, and it has a good effect upon the soil. 



