Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-04-24
SAVING FERTILIzERs IN CITIEs


Worn and impoverished land may be
bought at a low figure near enough to
Nashville to make its improvement
profitable, provided all the elements of
crops now wasted in the city were
saved and utilized, as they should be.
How to inaugurate the needful reform,
fertilize the soil, prevent cholera and
other diseases and cause man to obey
the laws of nature instead of violating
them, is the problem to be solved. In
the first place the inhabitants of towns
must be taught how much they CON
taminate the earth on which they live
In the ordinary way Of doing things.
Professor DR.. Won Max Pettenkofer, Of
the University of Munich, whose pro-
fessorship is Hygiene, has probably
given more time and careful research
to the study of all contaminated water
and grass in the ground, and all or
ganic sources OF sickness, than any
other man In Europe. Hear him:
Remarkable testimony to the permea-
bility of the ground and of the founda-
ton of our houses, has been given by
gas carnations into houses which had
no gas laid ON. | know cases where
persons were poisoned and killed
by gas which had to travel
for twenty feet under the street,
and then through the foundations, cell
lar vaults, and flooring of the ground
floor rooms. In such cases the pene-
tration of gas into the houses is facili-
tated by the current IN the ground air
caused by the house. The house being
warmer inside than the external air
acts like a heated chimney on its sur
roundingH, and chiefly on the ground
on which it stands, and the air therein
which We will call the ground air. The
movement of the gas into the house
may give no warning that the ground
air is In continual intercourse with
our houses, and may become the
introdueer of many kinds of dodgers.
These dodgers may either be found out,
or cause injury at once like gas. or
they may without b~etraying their pres
ence, in any way, become enemies, or
associate themselves with other iujuri-
Gus elements and increase their activi-
ty. The evil resulting therefrom on
tinues till the store of these creatures
of the ground air is consumed. Our
senses may remain unawa Of the
noxious things we take In,
in one shape or another
through air, water and food"
That common soils, loans, sand and
gravel are quite permeable to air and
water are facts too generally known to
be disputed by any one; but that pesti-
lence can pass through the cellular
earth from house to house In cities, is
a new and starting idea to be advanced
by the most scientific minds in Europe.
Prof. Pettenkofer says: Many have
considered these processes and their
effects on the ground air to be a mere
hypothesis. This view lies now
behind us, and facts have
been found proving their reality.
Stimulated by the Investigations of
Huxley and Hackel, further researches
have followed, and shown that. not
only at the greatest depth of the sea,
but also an every porous soil, there are
everywhere those beginnings of organ
ic life, belonging neither to the animal
or vegetable kingdom-mucous forma-
tions, which are called Moneras and
Protistes. When / wrote my part of
the report on the cholera in Bavaria in
1854, l pointed out already that the
air not less than the water in the soil
ought to be drawn into the cir
cles of experimental Investigations"
If agriculture has any useful lessons
to learn,the beginnings of life in the
soil in its natural pregnant state, and
its feebleness and loss of vitality when
badly treated by the farmer, may
properly find a place in every rural
textbook treating of either tillage or
husbandry. Prot. 2. remarks: "Agri-