The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-04-28
QnleQnteItfQetree
The Earth Closet.
Eron, The TciLune.

| u
W. johnson of Yale Scientific School,
esteeming them OF great value to our
readers, both on account OF the univer.
sal interest of the subject, and from the
high reputation OF its author.
There are two grave questions which
enforce attention from every dWeller in
the city, and should not be neglected by
those who have the country for their
home. These questions relate 10 the
disposition OF the liquid and solid
waste of the human body. One of them
! is, how shall the waste be effectually
prevented from being an annoyance
and source OF disease? and the other,
how shall it be made means of fertil-
ity 10 the soil, and thus an item OF ma
tlonal wealth?
Nothing is better established than the
connection between human excrement
and certain fearful epidemics.
1t is on all hands admitted that
cholera is most frequently and certain
iy transmitted to healthy persons by
the intestinal excavations of those who
have been sick with this disease.
Typhoid fever, a form of disease very
prevalent among us, is often traceable,
with scarcely less certainty, to privy
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
forgotten sewer through crack in the
| wall.
Most often it is our drinking water
that brings into US the conta mination.
In multitudes of cases the we'll is but
few yards or feet from a cesspool
that receives the kitchen Stops on one
hand and privy vault on the other.
The writer knows Il we'll which fur
nished good water for about five years
| after 1t was excavated, in what was
until then a vacant lot. but after this
interval became 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 cases, in the most in
dubitable manner, to the use OF water
which had been in contact with the
foeces of cholera patients.
The safest mode OF escaping the evils
in question hitherto adopted in closely
built towns, consists in removing all
human excreta 10 a distance by subter-
ranean sewerage. In paved cities the
| street hydrants, which with the rains
wash the surface filth into Il syatem of
| underdrains, and the water closets
which connect every house with the
same, would seem. to offer every immu-
nifty against the accumulation of focal
matters. The immunity is, in 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
Oft to the sea. There always remains
the objections that poverty cannot and
| Incidence will not "make the connec.
tions," that sewers will leak. and rivers
and harbOrs are made noisome with the
rottenne5s that is poured into them.
The waste involved in the "civilized"
| way of treating the materials under no.
tice is immense. Every harvest brings
West to the East, vast 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 ele.
ments, but which, after having weighted
the wheel of life through half turn
and dropped off as waste, admits OF
conversion into food again, if but car
ried back to the fields. The gardeners
and farmers in our immediate vicinity
are obliged to disburse heavy sums each
year for the phosphates ana nitrogen
which their crops demand and which
their land cannot adequately supply.
The gIanos and fish manures which are
brought from a distance or manufac.
tured at heavy cost for their use, are in
reality paid for not by them, but by
| those who purchase their produce in
the city markets. The animal who
stands at the head of creation requires
the richest food, and yields to the food
producer the richest return. 1t requires
but little art to convert his excremenI
] into increment, and the conversion may
| be made extremely profitable.
The means of satisfying at once all
demands OF sanitary science and of ag'
riculture is, however, fortunately eve
rvwhere at hand, and OF extreme sim
| plicity and cheapness in its application
| Dru and zine earth is the material.
This property OF earth Is no new dis
| coverY. Its use was prescribed to the
Israelites deuteronomy, p, IL and ID
and is turned to good account by the
instincts of our domestic carnivOrae.-
The Rev. Henry MOule, an English
fcIergyman, was the first to elaborate
by a careful study of the subject, II plan
for the systematic employment OF earth
for this purpose.
The arrangements required to Consti-
tute an earth closet are not necessarily
complex or expensive. 1t Is only need.
full that space be had below the privy
seat, the bottom of which should be OF
tagging or cement, and little above
| the ground level, or at least protected
from the wet of rain and of theEround.
This space should communicate with a
shed at the rear Of the prIvy, to hold on
one side a load or two of dry fine earth
(not sandy or sifted coal ashes, and
leave an equal room unoccupied on the
other. For hospital or sick-room use.
eithera simple commode or pail, with a
nod of earth to apply, or the selt-acting
commodes of Mr.. Moule may be used.
Very important 1t is that hotels,
schools, and, we may add, colleges,
should be provided with this labor and
health-saving arrangement. In large
schools 1t is sufficient to put the appli-
cation of earth in charge of an attend
ant. 10 hotels the self.acting appara-
tus Is better.
The fertilizing value OF the properly
managed compost should be abundant
remuneration to parties supplying
earth, especially as its carriage is not
attended with the slightest odor, and
requires not the cover OF darkness TO
mitigate its terrors, while It's use Is less
disagreeable than that of Peruvian or
fish guano, and not worse than the en-
pldyment Of any old compost.
Reader, lose no time in providing
yourself, and melting your neighbor to
1 provide, some form of earth closet in
lieu OF the vault which has hitherto
sufficed.. Health and economy both
demand ii! City authorities would do
we'll to enact that all privies within a
hundred feet OF dwellings, or of wells
In use, should be converted into earth
closets, and to provide for their sys.
tematic and thorough inspection.
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