Note 6 — II.—PUBLIC ARRANGEMENTS EXTERNAL TO THE RESIDENCES BY WHICH THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE LABOURING POPULATION IS AFFECTED.

Professor Liebig in his work on the “Chemistry of Agriculture,” refers to various authorities on the practical value of such refuse, who state that “human urine is, if possible, more husbanded by the Chinese than night-soil for manure; every farm or patch of land for cultivation has a tank, where all substances convertible into manure are carefully deposited, the whole made liquid by adding urine in the proportion required, and invariably applied in that state.” This is exactly the process followed in the Netherlands.—See “Outlines of Flemish Husbandry,” p. 22. “The business of collecting urine and night-soil employs an immense number of persons, who deposit tubs in every house in the cities for the reception of the urine of the inmates, which vessels are removed daily with as much care as our farmers remove their honey from the hives. When we consider the immense value of night-soil as a manure, it is quite astounding that so little attention is paid to preserve it. The quantity is immense which is carried down by the drains in London to the river Thames, serving no other purpose than to pollute its waters. A substance which by its putrefaction generates miasmata may, by artificial means, be rendered totally inoffensive, inodorous, and transportable, and yet prejudice prevents these means being resorted to. If,” says the professor, “we admit that the liquid and solid excrements of man amount on an average to 1½ lb. daily (5 4 lb. of urine and ¼ lb. fæces), and that both together contain 3 per cent. of nitrogen; then in one year they will amount to 547 lbs., which contain 16·41 lbs. of nitrogen, a quantity sufficient to yield the nitrogen of 800 lbs. of wheat, rye, oats, or of 900 lbs. of barley.”—(Boussingault) “This is much more than is necessary to add to an acre of land in order to obtain, with the assistance of the nitrogen absorbed from the atmosphere, the richest possible crop every year. Every town and farm might thus supply itself with the manure which, besides containing the most nitrogen, contains also the most phosphates, and if rotation of the crops were adopted, they would be most abundant.”—Edited by Dr. Lyon Playfair.