Note 52 — Chapter IX · ON POISONS, MIASMS AND CONTAGIONS.

The various plans for the deodorization of cesspools, water-closets, dead-wells, sewers, &c., were first introduced into England from France and Belgium. Under French management Paris is sweet, and proverbially clean and pleasant; London, under the management of parties without individual responsibility, notoriously filthy and full of bad odours. Under certain circumstances, and especially when limited to small quantities of the matter to be deodorized, they are successful enough in destroying the unpleasant odour, but in the experiments made a few years ago on the comparative merits of various kinds of deodorants, it was obvious that no real dependence could be placed on them, unless the cesspool was at the same time flushed or cleansed out with a very strong flow of pure water poured in along with the deodorant. In how far the various deodorants recommended are at the same time disinfectants, has never yet been shown.

The excreta deodorized have hitherto proved of but small commercial value, farmers very generally declining their use. It is singular that the same guano (human) which is said to be so valuable in China, should prove a failure in Europe, and especially in England, showing how much still remains to be discovered in practical agriculture. If human guano really be of such value in China as has been reported, might it not be worth while to import into Britain a few Chinese agricultural labourers and gardeners thoroughly acquainted with the agriculture of their country, and from whom might be learned the art of preparing the manure? Capitalists have engaged in many less promising speculations than this.

From whatever source the Chinese derived their knowledge of the domestic and fine arts they now possess (for it is impossible to imagine that they invented them), one thing is certain—that they were recording eclipses, printing books, building temples, raising crops equal to the support of a vast population, whilst the great nations of Western Europe were wandering about in their native woods, clothed in the skins of animals, ignorant even of agriculture, and barbarous to the last degree. Nor was the knowledge and taste of the Chinese confined, in the matter of agriculture and horticulture, to the merely useful, as is obvious by a passage in Humboldt’s “Kosmos,” wherein the illustrious savant proves that the ancient Chinese, in respect of taste in horticulture, and in the composition of park scenery, excelled all the world.