Utilisation of Excrementitiuiis Matter. 
121 
VI. The Pressure of Costly hnprotements on the Working 
Classes. 
In carrying out tlie drainage system Boards of Healtli and their 
promoters have not sufficiently considered how heavily public 
works for sanitary improvements press upon the working classes, 
by increasing their rent. 
The ordinary allowance for rent out of a man's income is 10 
per cent., but in Dorchester many a working man has to pay 
25 per cent., or 25. 6(7. out of 10^. a week ; and to this a watcr- 
aud drainage-rate may add 3(7., 6(7., or 9(7. a week. And as 
wages do not increase in proportion, the necessity is thus ori- 
ginated or increased of taking in lodgers, generally without 
regard to character, in order to pay the rent. The impure air of 
crowded rooms becomes thus another, or an increased source of 
physical evil ; and the moral evil occasioned by the larger 
crowding of persons into sleeping-rooms, without distinction of 
sex, age, or character, is far greater than that, the remedy of 
which is sought in the drainage system. 
VII. Application of the System and Supply of Earth for large 
Toims. 
On these two points the public has hitherto appeared espe- 
cially sceptical ; nor, considering the novelty of the proposed 
system, is this unbelief to be wondered at. The late Henry- 
Austin stated to me, that until he actually saAv the simplicity 
of the mode of application, and the small quantitv of earth 
necessary for each use of the closet, he could not believe in the 
applicability of earth to this purpose. " But now," he said, " I 
see that you have solved our great question." And so satisfied 
was he of this, that he obtained from me a statement for which 
he wished and endeavoured to obtain insertion in the second 
Report of the Sewage Commission. The truth is, that the ma- 
chinery is more simple, much less expensive, and far less liable to 
injury than that of the water-closet. The supply of earth to the 
house is as easy as that of coals. To the closet it may be supplied 
more easily than Avater is supplied by a forcing-pump ; and to 
the commode it can be conveved just as coal is carried to the 
chamber. After use it can be removed in either case by the 
bucket or box placed under the seat, or from the fixed reservoir, 
with less offence than that of the ordinary slop-bucket — indeed (I 
speak after four years' experience), with as little offence as is 
found in the removal of coal-ashes. So that, while servants, 
like others, will shrink from novelty, and at first imagine dif- 
