AGRICULTURE AND DENDROLOGY. 
5 
figures the composition of excreta 1 ’, as given by E. von 
Wolff for Europeans : 
In 1000 parts of the Excreta of Excreta of 
fresh excreta : Japanese. Europeans. 
Water. 
935 
Organic matter . 
51 
Ash . 
... 16 
14 
Nitrogen . 
.. 5.7 
7.0 
Potash . 
2.7 
2.1 
Soda . 
.. 4.6 
3.9 
Lime . 
... 0.2 
0.9 
Magnesia. 
... 0.5 
0.6 
Ferric oxide and alumina , 
... 0.3 
— 
Phosphoric acid. 
£.0 
Sulphuric acid . 
... 0.5 
0.5 
Silica. 
... 0.5 
0.2 
Chlorine . 
.. 6.2 
4.0 
Common salt . 
... 10.2 
6.6 
According to these figures the night-soil from people 
living on ordinary Japanese food is more dilute than the 
excreta resulting from a mixed European diet, as is also 
shown by the composition of the dung of students and sol¬ 
diers (No. 4 of the table on p. 4). From purely vegetable 
nutrition the fasces are generally richer in water than from 
a mixed diet, the quantities daily excreted by an adult 
varying from 53 to 1670 grms. 1 2) according to the larger or 
smaller amount of foods of animal origin (meat, eggs, fish, 
etc.) consumed. Moreover, the high proportion of com¬ 
mon salt taken in by Japanese in the shape of salted vege¬ 
tables, miso and shoyu, increases the volume of the urine 
1) The night-soil collected in the closets in Europe is usually very 
dilute owing to the custom of pouring refuse water from kitchens etc., 
into it. Hence we cannot take its composition as a standard of compari. 
son with our results, but are compelled to resort to the figures given for 
the entirely fresh state of the excreta quantitatively collected for physio¬ 
logical researches. 
2) C. von Voit, Physiologie der Ernährung, 1881, p. 484. 
