256 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [November, 



ills has been drainage and dilution, we but increase, rather than dimin- 

 ish, the danger of infection through excreta. The mixing of excremen- 

 tal matter \vith water is one common factor for all the outbreaks of ty- 

 phoid fever in t' '-: statistics prepared by F. W. Willis for the writer. 

 Typhoid is statea not to have been recognized in this country until the 

 invention of the water-closet. The dangers which result from the putre- 

 faction of a mixture of excretion and water in a sewer and cesspool 

 are so great that the following reasons are given for keeping the excre- 

 mental matters from the sewers : 



I. Excrement is the only ingredient of sewage against which danger- 

 ous infectious properties have been proved again and again. 



3. The old practice of leaving our household slops to run in open 

 gutters could be revived in the countiy, and the gutters might be sub- 

 ject to the wholesome discipline of the broom and the purifying influ- 

 ences of sunlight and drying winds. 



3. The volume of sewage would be diminished at least one-fifth. 

 The manurial value of human excrement thus saved would be enor- 

 mous. The composition of the average sewage is so variable, and is 

 so often nowadays filled with antiseptics, that its value as a fertilizer is 

 often on the minus instead of the plus side. 



It is the writer's firm conviction after a practical experience of nine 

 years that the disposal of the sewage in the way and manner about to 

 be described is so desirable from every point of view, scientific, sani- 

 tary, moral, and economical, that he cannot too strongly impress upon the 

 dweller in the countrv that he should be warned by the towns and re- 

 vert to the cleanly and decent habits of our forefathers, and keep the 

 sanitary offices away from the main structure of the house. We ad- 

 vise all solid matter to be kept out of the house-drains by means of a 

 strainer, and to have them decently buried each day in the living earth. 

 Drains are replaced by gutters, and the household slops are filtered and 

 applied to the top of a different piece of cultivated land every day. 

 Even in the city the accumulation of facal matter is taken to the coun- 

 try and directly applied to the soil. We are told by Acland that the 

 disappearance of the great cities of antiquity was due rather to pesti- 

 lence than to war. In this respect the Chinese should be studied; 

 they were a great nation in the time of Moses, and have seen manv 

 people come and go, and if we do not mend our ways they will see us 

 go out as a nation. In China nothing is wasted,; all organic refuse is 

 ultimately returned to the soil. While we should not follow them in 

 many of their filthy habits, in this we should learn a lesson. A na- 

 tion that fouls its streams and starves its soil is in danger of poisoning 

 and inanition, and a nation which imports a great part of its food and 

 a great part of its manure, and systematically and by act of parliament 

 throws all its organic refuse into the sea, is undoubtedly living upon its 

 capital. Our capital just now is considerable, but we are in a fair way 

 to run through it, and when we have done so who can predict the fu- 

 ture .-^ — T'ransactions of the Sanitary Instittite^ vol. AV, Congress 

 at Brighton., i8go. 



o 



Slides Received. — Our thanks to Mr. George Rust for some fine 

 slides of fossil Diatomacea of Denver. Colorado, just received. 



