1870.] ( 241 ) 



CHRONICLES OF SCIENCE, 



Inducing tin |1roccebin0S of Jwnttfl iiorictks at |§omc nub ^koao 

 una |lofe of Jleant Sdntfifir ^iterate. 



1. AGEICULTUKE. 



The sewage question has had its full share of attention during the 

 past quarter. Before the Institution of Surveyors, the Society of 

 Arts, and the London Farmers' Club, town sewage has been discussed 

 as a possible source of profit to agriculturists and to ratepayers : 

 and in the Keport of the Eivers Pollution Commission, just pre- 

 sented to Parliament, it is discussed as a nuisance to be abated. 

 In this report the agricultural remedy for the nuisance, being the 

 only one by which it may be made a source of profit, is held out as 

 trustworthy and efficient — but other remedies are also pointed out. 

 Filtration — not the mere action of a sieve upon suspended matters, 

 but filtration of the kind which venous blood undergoes when passing 

 through the lungs — is a satisfactory remedy. If sewage be passed 

 in an internlittent way downwards through a sufficiently capacious 

 filter, displacing at each access the air with which the filter becomes 

 filled in the intervals, it undergoes a thorough oxidation, and comes 

 out with all its organic matter oxidized and rendered harmless. In 

 this way, however, not only is a nuisance abated, but a valuable 

 property is destroyed. All the agricultural analogies point to the 

 fertilizing character of town sewage. Man ought to be as useful a 

 species of farm stock as sheep. Everybody knows the fertilizing effect 

 of the sheepfold. The 20 millions of sheep in England are the very 

 safeguard of the permanent fertility of all our light soils. The 

 20 millions of " man" — for the two animals are singularly alike in 

 number and weight — ought to be at least as valuable to the farmer. 

 At present, man as farm stock is almost good for nothing. No doubt, 

 the lesson which we are learning of his agricultural value at Edin- 

 burgh, Aldershot, Barking, Banbury, Warwick, Rugby, Bedford, 

 Croydon, Norwood, Worthing, and elsewhere, will ultimately con- 

 vince both town and country of the waste that is being now incurred. 

 Perhaps the enthusiasm of those who believe in it, as well as the vis 

 inertias of the incredulous, has had something to do with the dila- 

 toriness of public opinion on the subject. It has been supposed 

 that sewage will overrule the influence of climate, soil, and even the 

 specific character of plant and animal. This however is a mistake. 

 The proper conclusion is, that for most ordinary English agricultural 

 crops of succulent growth, sewage, applied with discretion, is of 

 unequalled fertilizing power ; but for crops to which our climate is 



