118 
SANITARY REFORM. 
produce of the land consequent on the extended use of cheap 
and rich manure. 
The statistics Mr. Ellerman adduces in support of his argu¬ 
ment must be really startling to those who have not given their 
attention to the subject; backed by such authorities as Liebig, 
Playfair, Johnson, and others, he tells us the excretise of the 
population of London, calculated by its effects on grain as a 
productive manure, is of the annual value of <£12,974,607, and 
that of the entire population of the United Kingdom £ 181,644,531, 
of which scarce an appreciable fraction is made profitable use of. 
Nightsoil is shown by the closest chemical investigation to be de¬ 
cidedly superior to the best guano, and yet, from the defective 
system which prevails in cesspools, privies, and sewers, no cal¬ 
culable quantity is collected, and the trivial amount made use of is 
so adulterated with ashes, necessary to solidify it sufficiently for 
removal, as to render it almost valueless. 
The plan proposed to obviate this annual loss, and secure 
effectual cleansing without pollution to our streams or injury to 
the public health, is the appointment of sanitary inspectors, who 
shall have power to enforce a more general and better-arranged 
system of water-closets in lieu of the present cesspools, each 
closet to be connected with a tunnel communicating with the 
chief receptacle or tank, placed under ground at convenient dis¬ 
tances, and furnished with a cistern containing the deodorizing 
fluid, the employment of which effectually precludes the possi¬ 
bility of effluvia escaping in the house ; and that it may no less 
certainly be prevented in the emptying of the tanks, air-tight night- 
soil-carts, with a pump and hose attached, are to be employed, 
by means of which the tank may be emptied and the contents 
carried away without unpleasantness. An increased application 
of the deodorant coagulates the manure so much that it may be 
readily dried, and in such a state will be easy of transport, and 
thus this most valuable manure will be placed within the reach 
of agriculturists however distant; the proceeds of its sale 
being calculated to do more than cover all expenses connected 
with its collection and preparation. 
The subject may seem somewhat foreign to our usual floricul- 
tural pursuits, but a matter so intimately connected with the 
preservation of health in places where it is most frequently and 
readily assailed, is worthy the consideration of all who have 
