Utilisation of ExCreimntitiouslMatter. 
119 
deaths was o2\ in 1000, Now what improvements in such 
cases is the earth-system capable of introducing ? In the first 
place, you may by means of it have a privy close to the house, 
and a closet upstairs, from neither of which shall proceed any 
offensive smell or any noxious gas. A projection from the back 
of the cottage 8 feet long and 6 feet wide would be amply suf- 
ficient for this purpose. The nearer 3 or 4 feet downstairs, 
would be occupied by the privy, in which, by the side of the 
seat, would be a receptacle for dry earth. The soil and earth 
would fall into the further 5 or 4 feet, which would form the 
covered and closed shed for mixing and drying. Upstairs the 
arrangement would be much the same, the deposit being made 
to fall clear of every wall. Tliiough this closet the removal of 
noxious and offensive matters in time of sickness, and of slop* 
buckets, would be immediate and easy ; and if the shed below 
be kept well supplied with earth, all effluvium would be almost 
immediately checked. As to the trouble which this will cause, 
a very little experience will convince the cottager that it is less, 
instead of greater than the women generally go through at pre- 
sent ; whilst the value of the manure will afford an inducement 
to exertion. 
V. The present condition of our Taibns. 
Finally we have to consider the position of our large towns, 
where a national evil is growing up which demands immediate 
and serious attention. Without enlarging on the revolting- 
details set forth in recent Parliamentary Reports respecting 
the accumulation of filth connected with the " middens " of 
Manchester, let us consider, in the case of Birmingham, the 
great outlay and the perplexities AVhich have arisen from partial 
and unsuccessful attempts to carry out the water-closet system^ 
according to the evidence furnished to the Select Committee on 
the Sewage of Towns, by Mr. Till, the Borough Surveyor, and 
Mr. Standbridge, the Town Clerk.* 
In that town, of 250,000 inhabitants, it appears that about 
26,000/. have been ahead}" expended in the mere purchase of 
land, and the construction of two high-level sewers and two tanks ; 
that this fraction of the work involves an annual expenditure of 
1500/. ; and that it is in contemplation to raise, under an Act of 
Parliament, 100,000/. for carrying out this system, which has 
involved the town in " endless troubles and litigations." 
On the one hand the authorities are threatened with an action 
* First Report, pages 65, &c., and 78, &c. 
