Researches 
on the Composition, Treatment, and Application 
of Night-soil as a Manure. 
By 
Dr. O. Kellner and Y. Mori. 
( Communicated by the Former.) 
Night-soil is a mixture of human fæces and urine, 
of which tire former consist for the most part of rem¬ 
nants of food, which are either indigestible or escape diges¬ 
tion, and are ejected in company with a slight proportion 
of digestive secretions from the body, mucilaginous sub¬ 
stances, a few epithelial cells from the intestines, and 
numerous minute fungi, the sporules of which enter the 
alimentary canal along with the food, germinate in the 
intestines and cause putrefaction before the fæces leave the 
body. The urine, on the other hand, contains, besides a 
variety of soluble salts, only organic compounds, which are 
either produced by the decomposition of substances resorbed 
and assimilated from the food, or which result, in the case 
of complete or partial hunger, from the consumption of 
ingredients of the body. It is a secretion separated from 
the blood in the kidneys by a process similar to filtration or 
diffusion, whence it is not much infected with germs of 
fungi, and is not in a putrid condition when it leaves a 
healthy organism. 
Adults are generally quite in equilibrium with what 
they eat, e. g., the elements taken in as food and by 
respiration are again entirely given out in the ex- 
