Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY. SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1881.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 942, 14 May 1881, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard.

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY. SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1881.

JIM shall sell to no man Justiee or Hight We shall deng to no man Justice or Hight; We shall defer to no man Justice or Hight.

We have before us a pamphlet, edited by Dr. Hugh Bell, entitled, “ The Dry Closet System, after Nature.” Dr. Bell is consulting Surgeon to the Brisbane Hospital, and a member of the Queensland Central Board of Health ; therefore, it may be assumed that he writes with some authority. That he does so with a tolerably comprehensive knowledge of his subject we gather from the following. The dry closet system, it appears, has it essential characteristic in being an improvement on both the earth closet system, and the water closet al'hough not necessarily opposed to either of them—in fact rather the reverse. The main feature in the dry closet system is the initial separation of all liquid from excrement deposit, ami this i< done through the arrangement of certain vessels fashioned for that purpose. By this process fer-

mentation and evaporation are avoided, from which, chiefly arise malaria, fevers, and other abominablenuisances. But we will let Dr. Bell speak for himself :—

“ If the urine be absent, a very “ small quantity of dusty dry material “ is necessary for the desiccation and “ deodorization of the faeces. “If the dust and ashes of the “ household yard be passed through a “ sieve into a receptacle, it will be “ found excellent for desiccation and “ deoderization, tending to make the “ faeculent matter friable and easy to s,< ‘ manipulate without much diminish- “ ing its value as a manure. This, as “ it is dusted into the closet can, seems “ to attract and absorb any strong “ smelling gases diffused in the air “ around. One or two tablespoonsful “ are sufficient for the desiccation and “ deodorization. “ The urine not being in the same “ vessel with the faeces has not to be “ desiccated ; therefore the expense “ attending the enormous amount of “ labor in carting in earth, and again “ in carting it out, mixed with the “ urine as well as with the faeces, is “ avoided. The inconvenience is far “ less, and the great source of the de- “ terioration of the faeces as a fertiliz- “ ing agent, by the mixture of, and “ dilution by earth, is obviated. “ The objection to dusting by the “ hand with a tablespoonful or two of “ dust and ashes is overcome by me- “ chanical arrangements to obviate “ the necessity of using either the “ hand or the eye.

“ The money value of the compost “ should lead to its sale for manure, “ and this would tend to prevent the “ present bad practice of burying it in “ gardens or yards, where it becomes “ an increasing nuisance and a prolific “ source of disease. Why should not “ the whole system, in its proper prac- “ tical form, be taken up by the “ municipal authorities, to be worked “ through them by educated and “ skilled hands ?

“ The removal of all dry-closet stuff “ may be effected with the greatest “ ease and rapidity. Some three years “ ago two cans full, each weighing “ above 60 lbs were placed in the “ hack division of my very light, “ double-seated, four-wheeled Ameri- “ can buggy, covered with an ordinary “ horse-cloth, and driven by myself in “ the hot sun some distance outside “ the town boundary, to the house of “ a friend, who was glad to take all I “ had. The removal was effected “ without the slightest unpleasant “ smell. Does not this suggest “an easy and rapid mode of “ transit for these full faecial-closet “ cans in light spring vehicles, either “ on two or four wheels, covered in “ lightly above, and set low on the “ ground like furniture vans, so as to “ be stepped into easily by a man “ carrying a closet-can in each hand ? “ Thus all conveyance could be done “ noiselessly, expeditiously, inexpen- “ sively, and without any nuisance, at “ any time of the day. These vessels “ should always be in duplicate, so as “ never to require emptying in town, “ to be returned then and there in a “ dirty state. A clean, empty one “ should be at once placed in situ for “ the one taken away. When these “ cans are emptied at the manure depot “ or elsewhere, their insides should “ be dusted with dry dust of some “ kind, and then be allowed to remain “ to air and to dry, when much will “ crack and scale off, and this may “ be assisted by knocking, scraping, “ and brushing. As a rule, all wetting “ or washing of the cans, except, per- “ hans, their outsides, should be care- “ fully avoided.

“To repeat: by keeping the faeces “ free from the urine, very little dry “ stuff is required to fairly desiccate “ and deodorize when the material be- “ comes valuable as a manure and can “be easily removed. By allowing the “ urine to mix with the faeces, a very “ large quantity of earth is required “ to be carted in, as well as out, and “ then the desiccation and deodoriza- “ tion are almost invariably more or “ less imperfectly effected, and the “ vessels contain frequently but offen- “ sive masses difficult and disgusting “ to manipulate, and of no commercial “ value.” We have quoted only so much from a fairly exhaustive manual on the subject, as will suffice to draw attention to the fact that, whatever improvement there may be in the' present “ wet earth closet system, over the ordinary deep cesspool, it but meets the difficulty midway — indeed, we doubt if it does that. for. although the

imposition of periodic removal is enjoined by our Borough by-laws, there

is no house to house visitation to see that sanitary precautions are taken. The consequences are that in a great majority of out-houses the word deodorization is not known, nor is its meaning understood. Boxes of excrement stand, from day to day, piling up diurnal deposits of filth, the exhalations from which mix with the atmosphere, and in their foetid state are breathed by hundreds. It is well known that liquid filth is more difficult of deodorization than solid matter; and, as Dr. Bell points out (although the latter, in its least unpleasant state is not a nice thing to have in one’s buggy) it is less noxious, more easily removed, and worth more as a manure. Again, it must not be overlooked that the removal of night soil, although the work is confined to night time, is a most foul and barbarous proceeding. Anyone in the street at the time the night cart is about, if in the direction of the wind, finds the nuisance waftedfro.m afar. The atmosphere reeks wih the abomination for long distances, and every utensil emptied discovers its whereabouts for days after. As a sanitary measure we really think that the Borough Council should take this matter in hand. Dr. Bell has provided copious diagrams of his proposals, and we shall be happy to allow any one to read the book who desires to improve on the present unsatisfactory system of amalgamation.