ON THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION 01*' SEWAGE. 439 



much refuse matter was kept out of the sewers, the sewage during the greater 

 part of the day was, as shown by chemical analysis, only a little weaker 

 than that of a water-closetcd town usually is, while during the forenoon it 

 was invariably " very thick, black, and greasy," and " smelt very bad ;" and 

 the Subcommittee appointed to consider the matter reported, " that although 

 the sewage from a town managed on the Bury system is weaker, and there- 

 fore less valuable, and proportionately more difficult to deal with than the 

 sewage from a water-closeted town, yet that its purification is just as im- 

 peratively necessary." The Subcommittee considered that "the figures 

 obtained in Bury, of the ash-pit system as carried out there, prove that 

 financially it is, so far as Bury is concerned, a total and complete failure, as 

 the gross return is only a little over one halfpenny per head of the popula- 

 tion annually." 



lu many towns, especially abroad, portable or fixed reservoirs (fosses) for 

 the collection of excretal matters, unmixed with other substances, are iu 

 general use. Sometimes they are drained into sewers, and sometimes so 

 constructed as to collect both liquid and solid refuse, contrivances to 

 separate the solid from the liquid excreta being sometimes employed. These 

 reservoirs are " frequently ventilated by means of shafts rising above the 

 house-tops." The fixed reservoirs are emptied periodically, their contents 

 either being " simply dipped out," or " removed cither by pumping into 

 closed tank-carts with lift-pumps, or by means of a vacuum jDreviously pro- 

 duced in the tank-cart." The portable reservoirs are removed bodily with 

 their contents, and replaced by empty ones. At some towns a profit is realized, 

 while at others a loss is entailed ; but the communications received from 

 foreign countries afforded " abundant evidence that, wherever the subject has 

 been considered, there is a strong though vague sense of the injury to 

 health resulting from the accumulation of excretal materials iu pits &c. 

 within populous districts, by the impregnation of the soil, by the pollution of 

 rivers and well-water with drainage from such accumulations, or from the 

 discharge of excretal materials into watercourses directly or indirectly." 

 (Report I. pp. 321 & 322.) 



JDi'iJ Earth Syxtem. 



In the 200 scheduled towns before referred to, only 446 earth-closets were 

 reported to exist. The Committee inquired into the results of this system 

 at several places, but only obtained a return from Lancaster, " the only 

 place where an attempt has been made to carry out the system on a largo 

 scale," where it appeared that the system was not thoroughly carried out, 

 some of the essential conditions to its success being entirely neglected. Thus, 

 instead of the dried earth being used in detail, " a quantity of soil is thrown 

 once a day on the matters collected ; and the result is that the product is 

 removed in a very offensive condition." "When it is stated that about 2| lbs. 

 of soil were used per head per day, and that the manure was afterwards 

 mixed with other town refuse, it is uot surprising that it only fetched 5.?. a 

 ton, and that its analysis showed " that it did not contain more nitrogen 

 than good garden-mould," and that, on being applied to grass laud at the 

 rate of about six tons per acre, " the produce of hay was by no means large." 



Dr. Gilbert conducted, on behalf of the Committee, some experiments with 

 Moule's earth system. The result showed that earth which had been used even. 

 three times iu the closet could only be considered to be a rich garden-mould ; 

 and the Committee remarked " that such a manure, even if diajiosed of free 

 of charge, would bear carriage to a very short distance on)y." 



