142  DISINFECTION  OF  NITROGENOUS  MANURE. 
When  acetate  of  soda  is  mixed  with  sulphate  or  nitrate  of 
copper,  acetate  of  copper  soon  crystallizes  out — Okem.  Gaz. 
Oct.  15,  1855,  from  Comptes,  Mendus,  August  13,  1855. 
DISINFECTION  AND  PRESERVATION  OF  NITROGENOUS 
MANURE. 
[Read  before  the  National  Institute,  December  3,  1855,  by  Dr.  D.  Breed, 
U.  S.  Patent  Office.] 
Intelligent  persons  are  aware  that  the  poisonous  effluvia  ema- 
ting  from  gutters,  sewers,  and  yard  vaults  would  soon  generate 
a  terrible  pestilence  in  any  city  or  town  but  for  the  constant  dif- 
fusion of  the  poison.  But  it  may  not  be  so  generally  known 
that  some  of  these  hot-beds  of  disease  can  be  easily  rendered  com- 
paratively harmless  and  inoffensive.  Our  affected  refinement 
shrinks  from  the  mention  of  a  disgusting  evil,  which  from  habit 
we  have  come  to  regard  as  necessary.  Is  it  not,  however,  a  false 
delicacy  which  makes  us  content  to  inhale  with  every  breath 
such  pestilential  exhalation?,  and  yet  forbids  a  discussion  of  their 
properties,  origin,  or  effects,  even  with  a  view  of  reform  ?  Shall 
we  not  be  more  truly  refined  when  one  single  square  of  some 
American  city  is  purified  from  the  stench  of  night-soil,  made 
ten-fold  more  intolerable  by  the  ignorance  of  the  scavengers 
who  infest  every  neighborhood,  administering  slow  poison  to  us 
in  our  sleep,  not  unfrequently  falling  victims  themselves  ? 
Many  years  ago  the  atmosphere  of  Paris  had  become  so  pol- 
luted as  to  excite  the  most  alarming  apprehensions  as  to  public 
health.  Attention  was  directed  to  the  privies  as  the  chief  nui- 
sance, and  various  reformatory  plans  have  been  tried,  until  the 
united  skill  of  chemists  and  of  practical  men  has  made  Paris  in 
this  respect  a  model  worthy  of  imitation.  At  present  complete 
deodorization  and  disinfection  are  accomplished,  so  that  neither 
scavengers  nor  others  need  suffer  annoyance.  Many  other  Eu- 
ropean cities  have  reformed  in  this  respect,  and  America  has  no 
longer  an  excuse  for  neglecting  this  much-needed  sanitary  re- 
form. 
In  privy  vaults  there  is  a  process  of  putrefaction  constantly 
g;oing  forward,  and  a  consequent  incessant  escape  of  poisonous 
^ases  into  the  atmosphere.    Moreover,  the  fluid  portions  of  the 
