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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 106, 8 May 1867, Page 2

It will be in the recollection of our readers that it was mentioned incidentally at the sewerage meeting on Eriday night, that earth-closets had been introduced in Wellington, in furtherance of the sanitary measures which have lately been adopted in that city by the Town Board. The Independent, in a recent issue, has the following remarks with reference to the use of charcoal as a deodorising agent : — "While the introduction of sanitary measures was under the consideration of the Board, an offer was made to them to supply "charcoal dust" at a certain price to be used for the purpose above mentioned. That charcoal is, in the words of a distinguished chemist, "by far the cheapest and best disinfectant," few will deny, nor will any one hesitate to acknowledge the wonderful power it has of absorbing, and, by oxidation, destroying noxious effluvia, of all kinds, and hence consequently arises its immense value as a purifier of air and water, not only arresting putrefaction but even restoring what has already become putrid. The "uninitiated in these matters would do well to peruse carefully an article in JEnqnire Within on " Charcoal us a Disinfec-

tant," where, among other inferences from the established facts stated, Dr. Stenhouse says : — " If our soldiers and sailors, therefore, when placed in unhealthy situations, were furnished with charcoal respirators, and if the floors of the tents and the lower decks of the ships were covered by a thin layer of freshly burnt wood charcoal, I think we could have little in future to apprehend from the ravages of the cholera, yellow fever, and similar diseases, by which our forces have of late been decimated." That so valuable a preservative of health should be largely, and in numerous ways, used by all who know its intrinsic value, is but a necessary result ; and we find that, among other methods of application, are its use in hospitals, where in a powdered state it is set about in pans, purifying the atmosphere even of the dissecting room; its power of purifying water in filtration ; its great importance in cookery in sweetening tainted meat, freshening vegetables, &c. ; its value as a respirator, arresting as it does all poisonous gases which would otherwise exercise their deleterious properties upon the lungs, and so injure the system. These and many others may be called the common every- day applications of the great disinfecting and deodorizing principle of charcoal. As regards its use in the manner under consideration, it remains to add, that latterly common earth has been found by experience of peculiar efficacy when used for a similar purpose. As every one will readily see, it is an agent which has this great and important advantage — that nature has placed it at hand to every one. Now " charcoal dust " is composed of carbonized earth, to the extent of two-thirds ; and the remaining one-third of wood-char-coal; consequently it has the merit of combining the advantages of the two deodorizers under consideration. "While earth may be said to imprison noxious exhalations, charcoal does more, by destroying them ; consequently the inference is obvious : if earth is a good deodorizer in its natural state, much greater must its powers be when to a great extent carbonized and mixed with a proportion of wood charcoal.