2 
imbues the air ; the water, I admit, absorbs far 
more of the noxious carbonic acid than its 'own 
bulk, but its deposits a finely comminuted mud, 
which when the tide is out, “doth fill the air” 
with fumes repulsive to tender olfactories. 
I fear my essay will dwindle into a compilation 
now, for I must confess to being compelled to 
take for granted many scientific facts that form 
the basis of it. To show what sort of air may be 
expected from our mud banks, I adduce the tes- 
timony of Dr. Angus Smith, “ who has devised 
means of learning the relative amount of decay- 
ing animal and vegetable matter existing in the 
air under different circumstances, and found, as 
compared with the purest air he examined thatof 
Lake Lucerne — that at the forest near Chamou- 
nix, the amount of organic matter was double, 
evidently owing to the decay of the leaves ; in 
North Lancashire, the same. In the fields near 
large towns, a3 London and Manchester, there is 
between nine and ten times as large a quantity as 
at Lucerne. In the purest parts of 
London there is double as much as in 
the adjacent country ; although this is imme- 
diately reduced by the purifying influence of a 
thunderstorm. Over the putrid Thames, in the 
warm weather, there is double the amount of 
that in the purer parts of London, and four times 
as much as in the Highgate fields. Manchester 
is nearly as bad. In close dwelling-houses the 
air is still worse ; and in open pig sties it is so 
charged with putrifying effluvia, or what may be 
truly termed animal stink, that there is absolutely 
eighty times the amount that is found in the pure 
air of Lake Lucerne.” 
I adduce, for further evidence, the testimony of 
another authority, although anonymous, who 
relates his adventures in search of the odoriferous 
in a somewhat joyous strain, evidently well pleased 
with his discoveries. But before I quote this 
authority I would mention that besides the vis- 
cid mud of the river, we have numerous water- 
holes, so called ; but I question whether they 
contain much water, and if it is not chiefly some- 
thing else mixed with a little water ; and these 
mud water-holes as loudly proclaim their where- 
abouts ; and have we not soil pits and cul-de-sac 
drains, in every little nook that looks snug and 
retired, reeking with pestiferous breath which our 
anonymous friend loves to analyse* These are 
his words : — 
“ I like to visit cesspools and sewers* and to 
examine drains and foul ditches. People marvel 
at my pursuit, but there is a grim satisfaction in 
it that I would not lose. There is a grim fascina- 
tion in that which is terrible or mysterious, and 
to humanity, typhus and cholera are like the 
enigma of the Sphinx, to be solved on the penalty 
of death. Whenever the microscope shows me the 
paramecium and annellidoe , I know that I am on 
the track of the enemy — wherever my lead paint 
is blackened I know that his most dangerous ally 
is at hand. This is a gas — the same as that 
evolved from rotten eggs — deadly in itself, 
pestilential when combined with organic poisons. 
It is active in the malaria in India and Ceylon, 
and in the Campagna of Rome ; it forms the sub- 
tile emanations which follow the course of rivers, 
and it enters into the exhalations from stagnant 
pools and certain marshes. Reeking from cess- 
pools it blanches the cheek and taints the blood 
of squalid poverty, and may sometimes be found 
lurking in the houses of the rich. Near to the 
churchyards it is often a messenger from the dead 
to the living, and bears its summons faithfully. 
Sulphurated hydrogen is its name. Its origin 
in the water is generally a salt containing sulphur, 
this salt being decomposed by putrefactive action. 
Chlorine instantly destroys the gas, muriatic acid 
being formed and sulphur disengaged.’ * 
In passing, I may mention the value of this ex- 
crementitious matter, and that Alderman Mechi 
has just issued a work on the nasty stuff in which 
he clearly proves what unfading crops of vegetables 
grasses, and cereals, can be obtained by its use. 
He states that it can be rendered perfectly inodo- 
rous before being spread, and that in China it is 
mixed with fine loam and retailed in cakes, much 
like oil-cake I presume. I would state here, in 
further proof of the value of this matter as a ma- 
nure, that I was acquainted with Mr. Shoebridge, 
in Tasmania, who does the whole of the work 
performed by “ nightmen,” in the city of Hobart 
IJown, and uses the proceeds on his own farm. 
He told me that he always planted the English 
potatoe, and never faded to have a large crop : 
and when other farmers were grumbling at the 
failure of crops he was reaping a large profit from 
his night-sod fed potatoes. I make these remarks 
here, knowing that in Brisbane night-soil is taken 
away and buried, or left to evaporate its ammo - 
niacal gases on some green hill. I may throw in 
the following results of experiments made with a 
view to the perfect deodorisation of sewage by 
Drs. Hoffmann and Erankland, for the Metro- 
politan Board of Works, London. The three 
most perfect agents were perchloride of iron, 
chloride of lime, and lime. The proportions 
were, to 7500 gallons of sewage, half-gallon of 
the perchloride, 3 lbs. of choride to the same 
quantity of sewage and one bushel of lime. In 
two days the sewage, deodorised by lime became 
tainted, in three days that by the chloride ; and 
after nine days that by the perchloride remained 
unaltered. The perchloride at the time the expe- 
riments were made, cost exactly half that of the 
lime, the chloride costing two-thirds that of the 
lime. 
I should not dwell so long on this part of the 
subject, but that I said at the outset it is the 
foundation of all ventilation as the following ex- 
tract will show, always supposing the statements 
. to be correct, as I cannot vouch for them by ex- 
perience : — 
