118 
Utilisation of Excrermititious Matter. 
IV. Application of the System to Cottages and PuhUc Institutions. 
If these principles and plans be correct, their adoption may 
be quite experimental at its commencement : progressive in pro- 
portion to success, involving, therefore, no great risk ; and, if 
successful, a source of wealth and comfort to the community. 
This is the only plan which can, with any degree of economy and 
comfort, be adopted bi/ all classes in detached houses and villages. 
Such spots are, therefore, its most obvious sphere of action. 
Public institutions, such as unions, gaols, the dormitories of 
public schools, and the wards of hospitals — all afford facilities 
for its application, and for a thorough testing of its sanatory and 
economical results. 
The economy of the system will not depend solely, or even 
chiefly, on the money-value of the manure manufactured, but in 
a great degree on dispensing with the large outlay which the 
water-system involves. 1 will instance the National schools in 
a borough town, which is under the water-s3stem. There are 
300 boys and girls attending those schools. It has cost 70/. to 
connect them with the sewers : it would not have cost 20/. to 
provide them with self-acting earth-closets. In a county gaol it 
costs 50/. a-year to keep in order the water-closets by which the 
manure of 150 prisoners is wasted. Apply the earth-system 
- — the repairs of which would not be 51. a-year — and thus nearly 
200/. a-year will be saved to the countrv. In confirmation of 
this opinion, the intelligent master of the Kingswood Reformatory, 
who was sent to me by the Committee to inquire into the svstem, 
expressed his conviction that he should be able to make from 
100 boys 200/., a-year, and at the same time prevent abominations 
in the way of offensiveness, that can scarcely be told. 
If this earth-system, then, be thus conducive to health, comfort, 
cleanliness, and wealth, let us consider its application to par- 
ticular cases. In general, in the detached, or village cottage*, the 
only means for the removal of filth is a privy with a deep vault, 
cither so near to the house as to be noxious and offensive, or so 
far from it as to be inconvenient, and so placed as to be generallv 
indecent. The sink-water and slop-bucket are emptied cither 
into a hollow near the door, where perhaps there is a small 
manufacture of manure, or uito the neighbouring brook or ditch. 
There is no provision made for night, nor for upstair accommo- 
dation ; and the evils arising from this none can estimate but 
those who have visited largely amongst the labouring classes in 
time of sickness. Such arc the sanitary arrangements — if they 
can Ijear that name — in one small parish in Dorset, in which, 
during the eight years ending December, 1861, the average of 
