3S8 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [November ll, 1871. 
overland journey which it has to make, is more like the 
Chinese native tea in flavour. Foreign new tea—that 
is, tea prepared and still in China—is a very different 
article from the tea when placed in the teapots of 
English villagers, after being conveyed in an iron ship 
through the tropics, in large quantities of some ninety 
or more pounds weight. Tea is described in the Chinese 
pharmacology as cooling, peptic, exhilarating, rousing, 
both laxative and astringent, diuretic, emmenagogue, 
and in large concentrated doses as an emetic. It is used 
as a wash for sore eyes, ulcers, and wounds of all kinds. 
It is understood by Chinese physicians that the excessive 
use of tea renders people thin, anaemic, and weak- 
sighted. 
Tea is taken by Chinese scholars and labourers to 
stave off the cravings of hunger until a convenient 
season arrives. Much of the so-called tea taken by the 
common people in China is nothing hut very warm 
water. Hot water is often taken by them in large quan¬ 
tities when threatened with colds, fevers, and other 
acute or chronic diseases, apart from considerations of 
economy. They regard it as antidotal, corrective, sol¬ 
vent, demulcent, diluent, lenitive, stimulant, deobstruent, 
diaphoretic, diuretic, and lithon trip tic in its effects. 
Such a dose is much more sensible than the inevitable 
“ sixpenn’orth of the best French brandy” which the 
English rustic gulps down in the emergency of pain or 
some other symptom. Experience has taught the Chi¬ 
nese that weak tea is much better than cold and impure 
chinking-water. They are exceedingly particular as to 
the water used in tea-making. They prefer the com¬ 
paratively soft water of their large muddy rivers, so 
often swollen by rain and the melting of snow. They 
object to tea made from lake water, as they consider it 
unwholesome and having a tendency to render the mind 
dull and slow. 
{To be continued.') 
THE CARBON CLOSET SYSTEM. * 
By Edward C. C. Stanford, F.C.S. 
This method of excretal removal is a modification of 
the Earth Closet System, in which some form of carbon 
is substituted for earth. The main objections to the ap¬ 
plication of the earth closet to large towns are,—the 
large amount of earth required, and the difficulty in ob¬ 
taining the necessary supply. 
By the use of charcoal the amount of deodorizer re¬ 
quired is reduced to less than a fourth as compared with 
earth, and by carbonizing the manure removed, a con¬ 
stant supply is secured. 
It is urged that the sewage difficulty may be enor¬ 
mously lessened, if not completely done away with, by 
treating the excreta of towns as we treat the ashes, re¬ 
moving each separately, and keeping all out of the pub¬ 
lic sewers. The quantity per head to be removed per 
annum may be fairly estimated at eight cwt., of which 
about seven cwt. represents urine alone. The amount 
of carbon required to perfectly absorb the whole of this 
quantity is less than eight cwt., so that in an ordinary 
household of ten persons, the total annual quantity 
required cannot exceed four tons, and the whole removal 
will probably, owing to the drying action of the charcoal, 
be about five to six tons. 
The same household would use about twenty tons of 
coals, and probably send away four tons of ashes ; much 
of this coal would have to be carried into the bedrooms. 
The charcoal method is so perfectly inoffensive that 
commodes may be placed, if desired, in every bedroom, 
without the least fear of odour or of danger to health. 
* Abstract of a Paper read before the Mechanical Section 
of the British Association. Edinburgh, 1871. 
In this respect no water-closet can compete with it. 
The carbon closets are also arranged to be quite auto¬ 
matic, and require no attendance from within. The 
charcoal is introduced through an aperture in the roof 
into a reservoir’ at the top of the house; a closet on 
each floor draws on this source of supply, and the whole 
of the product is discharged in a dry deodorized state 
into a cemented vault in the basement story of the 
house. 
The chamber urine is emptied into a small earthenware 
urinal on each floor, and from this a lead pipe conducts 
it direct to the vault, where it is absorbed by the char¬ 
coal from the closets. 
The reservoir need only be replenished, and the vault 
emptied, once a year. The manure removed can scarcely 
be distinguished from cinders by an ordinary observer, 
and it is equally inoffensive. 
The value of the material removed is about Is. per 
cwt., or 8s. per head per annum. The household has 
the charcoal and the material removed without cost. A 
Company called “ The Nitro-Carbon Manure Company 
(Limited) ” has been formed in Glasgow (Office, 154, West 
Regent Street), to collect and treat the manure, and sup¬ 
ply the charcoal. The manure is removed to the works 
and carbonized in revolving retorts driven by a steam- 
engine ; the whole of the material is then converted into 
charcoal: and gas liquor, tar, and gas are distilled off 
and collected in suitable condensers. The charcoal in¬ 
creases at each reburning by the amount yielded by the 
excreta itself, a portion is returned to go on charging 
the closets, and the balance is available as manure. The 
charcoal produced is an animal charcoal resembling that 
made from bones, and contains all the phosphate and 
potash and soda salts of the excreta. The gas liquor 
furnishes ammonia derived from the animal portion of 
the food, and acetic acid derived from the vegetable por¬ 
tion. The tar and gas are used for heating purposes at 
the works. A new closet has been specially patented 
for the use of charcoal by Messrs. Pollock and Pollock, 
of Leeds, and may be obtained of the Carbon Closet 
Company, 46, Ilaymount Street, Leeds. This closet, 
which is figured in the Engineer of August 5th, 1871, 
and which may be seen at 154, West Regent Street, is 
expressly constructed for the use of powdered charcoal; 
it delivers a minimum but accurately measured quan¬ 
tity, and places it exactly where it is required. When 
these come more into use, the amount of charcoal used 
will be much less than that alluded to in this notice, the 
quantity will, it is expected, be nearly one-half the 
amount stated. 
For large public works the carbon closet is invalu¬ 
able ; it is the only method of removal which the clum¬ 
siest of workmen cannot make offensive. The straw and 
waste with which the pipes of all workmen’s water- 
closets are so constantly stopped do no harm here, and 
are all converted into charcoal on rebuming. The 
principal shipbuilders on the Clyde are so impressed 
with these advantages, that they are pulling down large 
and expensive erections for water-closets to substitute 
carbon closets. Urinals on this system are constructed 
simply of vertical slabs six feet high and two feet wide, 
set in the form of a w on a large stone flag over a tank 
of charcoal; an occasional wash with a mop dipped in 
dilute hydrochloric acid, will make the slabs instantly 
and perfectly clean. The acid is cheap, and it cannot in¬ 
jure either the urinal or the charcoal. The process will 
be found fully described in the following papers by the- 
same author:— 
“ A Chemist’s Yiew of the Sewage Question.”— Che¬ 
mical Neics, 1869. 
“A Chemical Method of Treating the Excreta of 
Towns .”—Chemical News , 1869. 
“The Sewage Question .”—Chemical News, 1871. 
