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THE VETERINARIAN, MARCH 1, 1863. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat.—C icero. 
THE UTILISATION OE SEWAGE. 
In the economy of nature there is no waste. All the 
material elements formed at the Creation still exist: there 
are no more and no less. They must have consequently 
undergone many changes and assumed many forms. It 
will, moreover, he observed that these transformations only 
take place in accordance with fixed and determined laws. 
The elements having performed their office in one form, by 
certain molecular changes induced among them, known by 
the name of putrefaction or decomposition, the integrity of 
the mass becomes destroyed, and other forms result. 
Who shall say what metamorphoses take place in the 
substances consumed by a duck or a pig, wallowing in the 
mire, and from which is formed such savoury flesh ? Or, to 
change the illustration; the Hose, the queen of flowers, may 
be designated a most accomplished chemist, for she changes 
corruption into beauty, and offensiveness into sweetness; 
since she converts that which is repulsive, both to sight and 
smell, into that which is agreeable to both; putrescent 
matter being her food. 
The relationship existing between the organic kingdoms 
of nature is so patent as to need no comment. Each is 
made subservient to the other, and that which is deleterious 
and destructive to the one becomes conducive to the health 
and building up of the other : thus it is Nature that shows her 
love of an eternal cycle, and an equilibrium is maintained. 
Of late years the attention of the public has been 
directed to the appropriation of excreta. In our fancied 
wisdom we have been too stubborn to learn from older 
nations, and hence we have justly suffered loss. AVe might 
have taken a lesson even from the Chinese, who from time 
immemorial have collected and used all their excretions and 
other ejecta by us allow^ed to run to w’aste. Necessity, the 
mother of invention, is, however, at last making us more 
sensible, and awakening us to a proper use of what has been 
