Weekly Chillicothe crisis., 1885-07-09
The Country Prlyy Again.

An article credited to the Mem Yorh
Ncdicn JOrHdi has been rr.publiShed
in various medical magazines, in which
the writer is searching out the sources
of ASiatic cholera. One remarkable
custom OF the llindoOs il referred TO
which quite shocks our scnSibilitics.
1t is a matter Of religions obligation
with them to always dcfccalc upon the
open ground! AS the population Of
Hindostan is nearly 800, 6OO,OOO, at
least lOO,OOO, 900 pounds Of fecal mat
ter is deposited on the open ground
every day. Now, those who learn this
fact for the first time will doubtless
oNclalm in no uncertain terms in re.
gard TO habit which seems uncleanly
as well as injurious to health. But,
after all, is this practice any more in
furious or really any more uncleanly
than depositing the fiuces in vaults
day after day, week after week and
often year after year, as is often the
practice in rural districts. For instance,
friend Of ours who was in the coun.
try the past summer demonstrated
with the folks for not having the privy-
vault cleared out, and they seemed
quite surprised that any fault should
be found with 1t, for they said it had
been thoroughly cleaned only two
years ago! Think for moment of
plllng up these eXcrcmcntiti0us mat
ters forever one year without removal;
think of the dccayiDg mass undergo.
ing all sorts of impure metamorphoScs
and emitting the most foul and nOxious
gases
After so considering, is il not rather
a surprise that the human family keeps
so well than that so many fall sickp
unqucstionably the best plan for dis
posing of such material is that adopted
Dy the authorities of Paris, where IL is
caught in tubs from the various water
closets of the household and the tubs
are removed during the night. Their
contents are disnfectcd, mixed with
other compost matter, and supplied in
largo quantities to the peasants for
agricultural purposes. Here are real
sanitary regulations united with econ
omy. In New York and other Ameri-
can cities all such material is carried
of INTO the sea or other water ways,
while many of the farm lands living
contiguous to the large towns are
really suffering for this very material
with which TO enrich tho soil. If
farmers would resort to some porta-
bic tubs instead of vaults, the tubs
could be removed daily or weekly to
some remote portion of the family do
main and there mixed with other COM
post material for manuring the soil.
In thickly-settled villages and small
ncighborhoods where the homes occu-
py an acre or less, there can be moth
ing better than the oarth-closet, We
know OF at least one small farmer who
occupies ten acres and who has on his
place 4 privy which is no more obnox-
ious than any room in his house; and
who furthermore greatly values the
earth taken from his carth-closet as a
fertilizer. Farmers might, perhaps,
be induced TO send their wagons for
such material in thickly-settled small
places where the acres are not broad
enough to receive and properly utilize
it, The further civilization advances
in tho way of sanitary reform tho
more plainly are we shown wherein
we have been habitually reckless, and
in nothing, perhaps, at the same time,
are we more Indifferent and careless
than in the disposition we make of
excrementitious matters. DR.. Foote's
Health Monthly.