358 On the Application of Sewage to the Soil. [July, 



they contain, we should still be obliged to import at an enormous 

 cost similar materials from foreign lands, which are becoming 

 rapidly exhausted by the constant drain upon them. Certain 

 principles are now well established with respect to this great 

 question, and these may be enumerated as follows : — 



First, in regard to its sanitary aspect. The present system of 

 disposing of the refuse of our large towns by removing it in a dry 

 (or we should rather say, moist) and solid condition is unhealthy 

 and difficult, and with an increasing population it will become more 

 so from year to year. 



Great care will be necessary in effecting the change from the 

 " dry " to the " wet " system, for it has been shown beyond a doubt, 

 that the larger the amount of faecal matter discharged into the 

 sewers, the greater will be the difficulty in preventing the escape of 

 noxious gases ; and it was recently shown by an opponent of the 

 new system, that an imperfect construction of the water-closet or of 

 its connection with the sewers, might even lead to the pollution 

 of the drinking-water supplied to families through the suction or 

 passage of gases from one set of pipes to the other. 



To obviate these difficulties two conditions are necessary ; care- 

 fully constructed appliances for receiving, carrying away, and 

 storing (when not required for immediate use) the sewage to be 

 utilized, and a large and constant water-supply. It would be 

 wasting our own time and that of our readers, to discuss the 

 various minor objections which have been raised against the new 

 system, either by persons interested in some patent, or by those 

 who have hobbies of their own to ride. The flat has gone forth, 

 that the old system of defecation shall cease; it is troublesome, 

 noisome, degrading (very degrading to those labourers who are 

 employed upon it), and barbarous ; and it kills its hundreds 

 annually in our large towns. 



Just as we have plainly stated the sanitary difficulties as well as 

 the advantages of the new system, so we will now, with equal 

 frankness, detail its commercial and economic benefits and refer 

 likewise to its difficulties. The immediate and undeniable advan- 

 tages which have already arisen, and will continue to result from 

 the application of sewage to the soil are, the recovery of waste 

 lands and an increase in the area of pasture land, and with it a 

 larger supply of meat, butter, and cheese. To these advantages we 

 see at present no limit even in Great Britain. It is merely a 

 question of steam-power and iron-piping — and there is not a sandy 

 common, foreshore, or plain, which may not be converted into a 

 smiling meadow, yielding repeated crops of succulent grasses for the 

 nourishment of innumerable herds of cattle. 



Of this fact there are proofs enough in the operations which 

 have already been carried on for a century on the Craigentinny 



