The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1869-08-06
8atttt atlG GarSttt.
THE EARTH CLOSET.

70 sal Interest OF tne SUBJECT, and from eli
he high reputation of its author.-Ed.l:
1e, There are two grave questions whicl
uC enforce attention from every dWeller i
ne the city and should not be neglected b
III those who have the country Tor thGi
NJ homes. These questions relate to tn
as disposition of the liquid and solid vast
III OF the human body. One of them is
81 How shall the waste be efiect,lally pre-
~ vented from being an annoyance ant
AZ source of disease? and the other. How
l. shall it be made means of fertility e
II the soil, and thus an item of nationa
.e wealth? .t -.
Sc Nothing Is better established thar
$ the connection between human eXcre-
q ment and certain fearful epidemits.
y 1t is on all hands admitted that chol-
:, era is most frequently aud certainly
o transmitted to healthy persons by the
: Intestinal excavations of those who
e have been sick with this disease.
j Typhoid fever, form of disease very
prevalent among us, is often traceable,
4 with scarcely less certainty, to prlvy
: vaults, cesspools, and sewers. 1t is
= / stated that Prince Albert of England
probably contracted the disease that
was fatal to him from the foul air that
found its way into his study out of a
for@otton sewer through crack in tho
W; II
Most often it is our drinking water
that brings into us the contamination,
In mutitudes of cases the we'll is but 4
few yards or feet from q cesspool that
receives the kitchen slop on one hand
and prlvy vaalt on the other. The
writer knows we'll which furnished
good water for about five year after it
was eXcavatsd, in what was until then
n = lot H,,N -
came unpleasant in taste, its flavor
plainly suggesting the nature of its
| impurities.
In his researches on the cholera in
| Bavaria, in 1854, Pettenkofer traced its
| spread in several eases, in the most in
dubltable manner, to the use of water
which had been in cOEtact with the
fnces of cholera patients.
The safest mode of escaping the evils
in question hitherto adopted in closely
built towns, consists in removing all
human excreta to q distance by subter-
ranean sewerage. In paved cities the
street hydrants, which with the rains
wash the surface filth into a system of
underdrails, and the water-closets
which connect every house with the
same, would seem to offer every i'm
munity against the accumulating of
fact, very considerable In those cases
where the system is well carried out;
where the water supply is sufficiently
copiOus and the sewerage is promptly
carried off to the sea. There always
remain the objections that poverty can
not and Incidence VIII not "make the
connections" that sewers will leak,
and rivers and harbors are made
noisome with the r0ttenness that is
poured into them.
The waste Involved in the ''civilized''
way of treating the materials under
notice is immense:i Every harvest
brings from the country to the city,
from the West to the East, bulk Of
beef, corn, and hay, whose use to the
city people does not for the most part
consist IN any permanent giving of its
but which, after having
weighted the wheel OF life through hall
a turn and dropped off as waste, admits
Of conversion into food again, If hut
carried back to the fields. L le gar
leners and farmers in our immediate
vicinity are obliged to disburst heavy
sums each year for the phosphates and
nitrogen which their crops demand,
md which their land cannot Adequate
y supply. The guanos and fsh-man--
lres which are brought from distance
manufactured at heavy cost for their
lse, are in reality paid for not by them
'ut by those who purchas tlfeir produce
n TIE city markets. The animal who
tands ut the head OF creation requires
he richest food, and yields to the food
PRODUCER the richest return. 1t requir-
s but little art to convert his eXcre-
nent into increment, and the CONVEX
ion may be made extremely profitable.
The means of satisfying at once all
demands of sanitary science and of ag-
iculture is, however, fortunatel
very-where at hard, and of extrems
implicitly and cheapness IS in its appli--
alton. Dry and fine e1rth is the materi-
This property of earth is no new dis
overy. Its use was prescribed to the
sraelites deuteronomy; 23, u, and
81 and IS turned 20 good account by
he instincts of our domistic carnivo-
ae. The Rev. Henry Moule, an Eng
lsh clergyman. was the first to elabor-
tie, by careful study of the subject.
ian Tor the systematic employ meat of
arth for the purpose.
The arrangements required TO con-
titute an earth closet are not necessa-
lily complex or expensive. It's on!v
eedful that q space be had below the
rlvy seat, the bottom of which should
OF hagglng or cement, and a little
bove the ground level, or at least pro-
,cted from the vet of rain and of tbe
round. This space should communi-
lte with she'd at the rear of the priyv
hold Oh one side a load or two Of
ry hne earth (not sandy or sifted coal
Shes, and leave al equIl room unoc-
lpled on the other For hospital or
ck-room use, either a simple COM
llode or pail, with hod of earth to an
ly, or the self-acting commoles IF
Lr. Moule may be used.
Very important it is that hote1s
'hools, and we may add COLLEGES
lould be provided with this labor and
1alth-savlng arrangement. In laroe
hools IL Is sufficient to put the appl1-
Cion OF earth In charge of an attend
is better. "PpAi at
The tertilizing value of the pronettv
ahaged compost should be abundant
nluheratlon TO parties supplyi,
TN, especially as its carriage IS MOI
tended with the slightest odor, and
qu'res not the cover of darkness to-
lt'gate It's terrors, while its use is less
!, ,,agreeable than that of Peruvian or
uano, ana not worse than the
lployment OF and old compost.
Header, lose no time in proyidino vor-
II, ana melting your neighbor 20
oVide some form of earth closet M
u OF the vault which has hitherto suf
ed: Hea! th and economy both de-
and it. City authorities would do
eIl TO enact that all privies within ~
Inured ieet OF dwellings. or of wells
use, should be converted into earrb
1sets, and to provide for their svsten
ID thorough inspection.