130 
THE T HARM ACEH TIC AL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August IS, 1873. 
utilization of this our vast food-producing treasure. The 
blundering from beginning to end has been immense. 
Our sanitary reformers, in their laudable desire to pre¬ 
serve our health, abolished our cesspools, poisoned our 
rivers, and deprived us of the only cheap and effective 
means for fertilizing our fields and filling our stomachs. 
“A jury of Chinamen would pronounce us guilty of 
suicidal insanity, for in China their 400 millions of 
people depend mainly on human sewage for the pro¬ 
duction of their, food,—they 'do not, like us, purchase 
birds’ dung from Peru, or import the antiquated dust 
and ashes of foreign men and animals. Every one in 
Britain believes in the sheepfold, but about the man-fold, 
which is superior in its effects and results, there has been 
complete apathy. 
“ The voluntary principle has been tried and failed. 
Parmer So-and-So, near a town, declines to have the nasty 
stuff on his land, and so has obstructed its use. Some 
wholesome despotism, in railway fashion, by Acts of Par¬ 
liament, has authorized Corporations and Boards of Health 
to take land for the purpose of receiving the sewage. 
London is, however, still an exception to this wholesome 
rule. We have expended four millions sterling in sewers 
to convey it into and to poison and obstruct our noble 
Thames, and have, for this worse than useless purpose, 
to pay a rate of threepence in the pound for some thirty 
or forty years, besides the heavy annual working ex¬ 
penses. Ratepayers are naturally indignant that such 
a valuable food-producing material should be wasted. 
The Thames Conservators have taken action by Parlia¬ 
mentary powers to prevent solid matters passing into 
the river. It must, therefore, go on to the land. But 
the extent of land required, who shall pay for it, and when 
it is to be paid for or liquidated, are important and difficult 
questions. Ratepayers very reasonably object to be 
mulcted in the cost of land which must improve greatly 
in value, and will, with the sewers, become a great boon 
to future generations. 
“ It appears to me that the rule which compels Boards 
of Health or Corporations to repay the whole cost of 
sewage in a few years, in addition to the interest and 
annual working expenses, is too stringent; and that, 
looking to the permanency of the works, the period of 
repayment should be considerably extended. The same 
remark holds good as to the purchase of land required 
to receive the sewage. It is the fear of imposing heavy 
rates for an early repayment that causes Corporations or 
Boards of Health to limit their purchase of land to a 
minimum. Why should they not be allowed to mortgage 
the land for long periods, thus easing the present rate¬ 
payers, and transferring a fair portion of the burden to 
posterity, who, by the improved value of the land, will 
be better able to bear it ? Reliable evidence shows un¬ 
mistakably that the rental and value of sewaged land 
increases year by year, and will continue to do so until 
it reaches its maximum of fertility. The sewaged Edin¬ 
burgh meadows, the average annual value of which has 
risen to £27 per acre, prove this; land near Croydon, 
worth in its unsewaged state about 30s. per acre, was let 
when sewaged for £5 per acre, and now (the first seven 
years’ term having expired) it is let, with an addition of 
250 acres, at £9 per acre per annum, thus proportionately 
multiplying the value of the fee simple. 
“ A very large area would be required for the utiliza¬ 
tion and purification of the London sewage. We know 
that London consumes daily the annual available pro¬ 
duce of 20,000 acres, and a similar quantity is required 
weekly for London horses. 
“ The average manurial power of Britain is equal to 
only two sheep or two human beings per acre. At that 
estimate London sewage should fertilize 1,750,000 acres. 
Such an area is, of course, at present out of the question; 
but taking the accepted impression that we should allow 
100 human beings to each acre (or fifty times our gene¬ 
ral manurial power), even at this rate 35,000 acres 
would be required. To purchase this land at £50 per 
acre would cost £1,750,000; to prepare it for the recep¬ 
tion of sewage by drainage, levelling, pumping, etc., 
would bring the probable cost to nearly £2,500,000. 
“ The Metropolitan Board of Works would hardly dare- 
to exact a rate sufficiently large to liquidate this amount 
in a short period. The right of mortgaging during a 
century would remove the difficulty, or probably taking- 
powers to resell the land when improved, reserving the 
powers of sewaging, etc. 
“ At all events, the recent action in Parliament of the- 
Thames Conservancy will compel us to fertilize the land, 
rather than poison and choke our noble river.” 
Silk and Sunflowers in Mauritius. —We gather 
from the last annual report of the Royal Society of Arts- 
and Sciences of Mauritius, that they had received a 
communication from the “Silk Supply Association,” 
asking whether silk could be grown in the island, and 
laying down as a principle, that wherever the mulberry- 
tree will grow, there silk can be produced. The Society 
referred the question to a committee, who report unani¬ 
mously that “ not only can the mulberry be cultivated 
and the silkworm reared in Mauritius, but that an esta¬ 
blishment founded on certain principles (which they in¬ 
dicate) would implant the industry of the silk-grower 
on a firm basis in the island.” The committee feel so 
confident of success, that they offer to undertake the 
management of the establishment; and we notice that a 
specimen of silk grown in Mauritius, and reeled more- 
than twenty years ago, was valued at 30s. a pound in 
the London market last January. 
Another plant, the sunflower (.Helianthus annuus), is to» 
be cultivated, and seeds have been distributed among per¬ 
sons willing to undertake the task. It is popularly be¬ 
lieved that plantations of sunflowers tend to improve 
local climates, by neutralizing the effect of marsh air 
and checking the liability to intermittent fever; and in 
some parts of Holland and the South of France the 
growth of sunflowers has been encouraged as a means of 
sanification. The same motive has led to the experiment 
now making in Mauritius, where some of the planters 
remark that, apart from all other considerations, the 
seeds of the sunflower yield a valuable oil and are much 
relished by poultry. 
A climbing plant, known to botanists as the Telfairia 
(or Joliffia) African a, was formerly abundant in Mauri¬ 
tius, but has, for some as yet unexplained reason, com¬ 
pletely disappeared from the island. The plant being 
useful as well as ornamental, growing to a great height 
and bearing seeds which yield a rich sweet oil, is to be- 
reintroduced; and at the request of the Governor, Sir 
Henry Barkly, a supply of seeds has been forwarded 
from Zanzibar by Dr. Kirk .—At hen mm, July ZQth. 
Clark’s 'Water-Softening Process. —It appears 
that the patent for this process has expired, and that any¬ 
body can use it now that likes to do so. Seeing that the 
London water companies have us entirely at their mercy 
in the matter of water supply, it would be only a gracious 
act if they were to determine henceforth to apply Clark’s 
softening and purifying process to the whole of their 
respective supplies. If the companies decline this spon¬ 
taneous manifestation of regard for their customers, it 
may be worth while for the Home Secretary to remem¬ 
ber this point in his promised legislation upon the re¬ 
commendations of the Royal Commission on Water 
Supply.— Lancet. 
Adulteration of Carbonate of Soda. —The ‘Ant¬ 
werp Journal of Pharmacy’ calls attention to the prac¬ 
tice of adulterating carbonate of soda by mixing with it 
a proportion of sulphate of soda. At first sight the ad¬ 
mixture is not apparent, though the two salts differ 
essentially from each other, both in their crystallization 
and their chemical properties. The fraud is one that 
may easily be detected by a chemist. 
