202 Manchester : its Sanitary and Social State. [April, 



There are two ways in which the atmosphere of a great city may 

 be made impure. One is by the products of the combustion of 

 coal ; the other is by the emanations from decomposing organic 

 matter. In reference to the first of these, the Corporation do not do 

 nearly all in their power; but the smoke nuisance will never be 

 reduced to a minimum until the public at large burn then coal in a 

 less wasteful manner. The other nuisance exists in full force, not 

 only unchecked by the authorities, but to a great extent created by 

 them. If it had been wished to invent a method by which the 

 atmosphere of a town should be as highly as possible charged with 

 the emanations from putrescent human and animal excrement, and 

 other organic refuse, it could not, in its offensive and deleterious 

 character, exceed the mode of dealing with such matters in favour 

 with the Corporation of ^Manchester. 



The various modes of treating the nightsoil of a large town, 

 which, in the discussions of the last few years, have been recognized 

 as consistent with the slightest regard for decency or health, may be 

 reduced to two ; the one is the prompt removal of the excreta, 

 solid and fluid, to the greatest possible distance from the houses, by 

 means of water ; the other, the retention of them for a limited 

 time, in such a manner as to be as inoffensive and innoxious as pos- 

 sible, and then removal by a method equally safe and inoffensive. 

 In other words, there are the vet and the dry systems. 



The method which in ^Manchester has been allowed to become 

 a tinte-honoured institution, is neither of these, but a foul and dis- 

 gusting combination of the two, having the evils of both, and the 

 advantages of neither. It is the middex system. 



A " midden," or " ashpit, " as it is now thought more 

 euphonious to call it, is an oblong pit sunk into the ground to the 

 depth of some five feet, and bounded on three sides by a wall, and 

 on the fourth side by the privy, to which it forms the receptacle ; 

 it is, in fact, strictly a cesspool, excepting that, in addition to the 

 excrementitious matter, and all kinds of domestic refuse, it receives 

 the ashes from the fires. The pits are open to the sky, except the 

 part which is under the seat of the privy, and excepting also the 

 instances in which both privy and ashpit are placed between two 

 contiguous houses, in which case they are under the floor of an 

 upper room. The pits are lined with brickwork, and have usually 

 a flooring of brick or flags. In one of the side-walls is an opening, 

 through which the ashes are introduced, and through which the 

 pit is emptied. There is, with very few exceptions, no provision 

 for causing the ashes to fall upon and cover the excreta. Conse- 

 quently the two matters form separate heaps, which, as the 

 receptacle becomes full, gradually coalesce, but never commingle, 

 except under the spade of the nightsoil-man. The deodorizing 

 and antiseptic properties of dry ashes are thus not availed of. 



