Interim Report on Veterinary Investigations. 203 
the whole of the urine, the intrinsic value of the fertilizing mat- 
ters which can be practically recovered in Moule's earth-closets 
is probably not more than one-third of their value, or amounts to 
only 3s. for each person per annum. In order to recover these 
three shillings' worth of manuring matters a large quantity of 
earth has to be used in Moule's closet. Even assuming that the 
earth can be conveniently used in the closets three or four times 
in succession, it is not surprising that the earth-closet manure 
produced in the West Riding prison, Wakefield, such a small 
value as the preceding analyses have shown. 
Mr. Moule states that three cart-loads of dry earth in one 
experiment served fifteen persons for half a year, being used 
five times over in that time. At that rate one ton would last 
2^ persons for a year. Assuming that the total excreta of a man 
can be absorbed by the earth without loss, and that they possess 
an average value of 9s. per annum, each ton of earth used five times 
in the closet will be worth 22s. 6rf. ; but as, practically, about 
two-thirds of the fertilizing matters will be wasted in the urine, 
which cannot be recovered and absorbed by earth, the value 
of a ton of earth-closet manure used five times will only be 
about 7s. &d. 
If the whole of the liquid, as well as the solid, excretal matters 
were to be absorbed, probably not less than 9 to 10 lbs. of dry 
soil per head per day would be required, or about 1^ ton per 
head per annum. In the country the soil, it is true, may be used 
repeatedly in the closets ; but in large towns the process of drying 
and sifting, and of storing for repeated use, present obstacles far 
too formidable to render it likely thai the dry or earth-closet 
plan will ever come into general use, even supposing the earth- 
closet manure were twice or three times as valuable as the results 
of my analyses show it to be. 
Laboratory, 11, Salisbury-square, Fleet-street, E.G., 
February 1872. 
VII. — Interim Report on Veterinary Investigations. By Professor 
James Beart Simonds, Veterinary Inspector of the Society. 
I. Feeding Experiment with Hardon's Patent Feeding 
Cake. 
This experiment, which may be designated No. I, was under- 
taken in consequence of the Marquis of Exeter having lost a young 
bull, 10 months old, and also a valuable short-horn cow, under 
circumstances which led to the impression that the cake supplied 
to them was probably the immediate cause of death. Both the 
