[1] The definition of a Costermonger strictly includes only such
individuals as confine themselves to the sale of the produce of
the Green and Fruit Markets: the term is here restricted to that
signification.
[2] This number includes Men, Women, and Children.
[3] The Watercress trade is carried on in the streets, principally by
old people and children. The chief mart to which the street-sellers of
cresses resort is Farringdon-market, a place which but few or none of
the regular Costermongers attend.
[4] The Chickweed and Groundsell Sellers and the Turf-Cutters’ traffic
has but little expense connected with it, and their trade is therefore
nearly all profit.
[5] “v. t.” signifies “various times,” of theft and of “restoration.”
[6] The Metropolitan Police District comprises a circle, the radius of
which is 15 miles from Charing Cross; the extreme boundary on the N.
includes the parish of Cheshunt and South Mimms; on the S., Epsom; on
the E., Dagenham and Crayford; and on the W., Uxbridge and Staines.
[7] The inner district includes the parish of St. John, Hampstead, on
the N.; Tooting and Streatham on the S.; Ealing and Brentford on the
W.; and Greenwich on the E.
The Registrar General’s District is equal, or nearly so, to the inner
Metropolitan Police District.
[8] The City of London is bounded on the S. by the River, on the E. by
Whitechapel, on the W. by Chancery Lane, and N. by Finsbury.
[9] The area here stated is that of the city without the walls,
and includes White Friars precinct and Holy Trinity, Minories, both
belonging to other districts.
[10] This area is that of the city within the walls, and does not
include White Friars, which belongs to the district.
[11] The area of the districts of St. Saviour and St. Olave is included
in that returned for St. George, Southwark.
[12] The population and number of inhabited houses in these districts
has decreased annually to this extent since 1841.
[13] This relates merely to the repairs to the wooden pavement, but if
a renewal of the blocks be necessary, then the cost approaches that of
a new road; and a renewal is considered necessary about once in three
years.
[14] “Haunsed” is explained by Strype to signify “made too high,” and
the “Redosses” to be “Reredoughs.” A mason informed me that he believed
these Redosses were what were known in some old country-houses as
“Back-Flues,” or flues connecting any fire-grate in the out-offices
with the main chimney. The term “lene” is the Teutonic _Lehn_, and
signifies “let, lease,” or literally _loan_.
[15] The reader will remember that in the historical sketch given
of the progress of public scavengery, the word “Rakers” occurred in
connection with the sworn master scavengers, &c., &c.; the word is now
unknown to the trade, except that it appears on city documents.
[16] The parishes marked thus [16] have their dustmen and dust-carts,
as well as the rubbish carting and the individuals in the dust-yard,
reckoned in the numbers employed by the contractors.
[17] I have computed all the weekly wages at 16_s._, though some of the
men are paid only 14_s._ My object in this is to give the contractors
the benefit of the difference.
[18] The Saxon _Sceorfa_, which is the original of the English Scurf,
means a scab, and scab is the term given to the “cheap men” in the
shoemaking trade. Scab is the root of our word _Shabby_; hence Scurf
and Scab, deprived of their offensive associations, both mean shabby
fellows.
[19] These items wages _must_ include to prevent pauperism, _even with
providence_. But this is only on the supposition that the labourer is
unmarried; if married, however, and having a family, then his wages
should include, moreover, the keep of at least three extra persons,
as well as the education of the children. If not, one of two results
is self-evident--either the wife must toil, to the neglect of her
young ones, and they be allowed to run about and pick their morals and
education, as I have before said, out of the gutter, or else the whole
family must be transferred to the care of the parish.
[20] I have estimated the whole at 15_s._ a week the year through,
gangers, “honourable men,” regular hands and all, so as to allow for
the diminished receipts of the casual hands.
[21] The usual argument in favour of machinery, viz., that “by reducing
prices it extends the market, and so, causing a greater demand for
the commodities, induces a greater quantity of employment,” would
also be an argument in favour of over population, since this, by
cheapening labour, must have the same effect as machinery on prices,
and, consequently (according to the above logic), induce a greater
quantity of employment! But granting that machinery really does benefit
the labourer in cases _where the market, and therefore the quantity
of work, is largely extensible_, surely it cannot but be an injury in
those callings where _the quantity of work is fixed_. Such is the fact
with the sawing of wood, the reaping of corn, the threshing of corn,
the sweeping of the streets, &c., and hence the evil of mechanical
labour applied to such trades.
[22] Mr. Sidney Herbert informed me, that when he was connected with
the Ordnance Department the severest punishment they could discover for
idleness was the piling and unpiling of cannon shot; but surely this
was the consummation of official folly! for idleness being simply an
aversion to work, it is almost self-evident that it is _impossible_
to remove this aversion by making labour inordinately irksome and
repulsive. Until we understand the means by which work is made
pleasant, and can discover other modes of employing our paupers and
criminals, all our workhouse and prison discipline is idle tyranny.
[23] This is done at the Model Prison, Pentonville.
[24] The number of men here given as employed by the parishes in the
scavaging of the streets will be found to differ from that of the table
at page 213; but the present table includes all the parish-men employed
throughout London, whereas the other referred to only a portion of the
localities there mentioned.
[25] To the honourable conduct of the above-named contractors to their
men, I am glad to be able to bear witness. All the men speak in the
highest terms of them.
[26] This is Mr. Mills’s second _fundamental_ proposition respecting
capital (see “Principles of Pol. Econ.” p. 82, vol. i.). “What I intend
to assert is,” says that gentleman, “that the portion (of capital)
which is destined to the maintenance of the labourers may--supposing no
increase in anything else--be indefinitely increased, without creating
an impossibility of finding them employment--in other words, if there
are human beings capable of work, and food to feed them, they may
always be employed in producing something.”
[27] Mr. Cochrane is said, in the Reports of the National Philanthropic
Association, to have expended no less than 6000_l._ of his fortune in
the institution of the Street-Orderly system of scavaging.
[28] A street-orderly in St. Martin’s-lane recovered a piece of
broad-cloth from a man who had just stolen it from a warehouse;
others in Drury-lane detected several thefts from provision-shops.
Two orderlies in Holborn saved the lives of the guard and driver of
one of Her Majesty’s mail-carts, the horse having become unmanageable
in consequence of the shafts being broken. In St. Mary’s Church,
Lambeth, a gentleman having fallen down in apoplexy, the orderlies
who were attending Divine service, carried him out into the air, and
promptly procured him medical aid, but unhappily life was extinct. Many
instances have occurred, however, in which they have rendered essential
service to the public and to individuals.
[29] The wages paid are not stated.
[30] At p. 183 the sum of 18,225_l._ is said to be expended in repairs
_annually_; it should have been _weekly_.
[31] At p. 185 the traffic of London Bridge is stated to be 13,000
conveyances per hour, instead of per 12 hours.
[32] The _core_ in this term may be a corruption of the Saxon _Carr_,
a rock, rather than that which would at first suggest itself as its
origin, viz., the Latin _cor_, the heart. _Hard-core_ would therefore
mean hard rock-like rubbish, instead of lumps of rubbish having a hard
nucleus or heart.
[33] The term _rubbish_ is a polite corruption of the original word
_rubbage_, which is still used by uneducated people; _ish_ is an
_adjectival_ termination, as whitish, slavish, brutish, &c., and
is used only in connection with such substantives as are derived
from adjectives, as English, Scottish, &c. Whereas the affix age is
strictly substantival, as sewage, garbage, wharfage, &c., and is found
applied only to adjectives derived from substantives, as _savage_. A
like polite corruption is found in the word _pudding_, which should
be strictly _pudden_; the addition of the g is as gross a mistake
as saying _garding_ for _garden_. There is no such verb as to _pud_
whence could come the substantival participle _pudding_; and the French
word from which we derive our term is _poudin_ without the _g_, like
_jardin_, the root of our _garden_.
[34] This is the Saxon _sceard_, which means a sheard, remnant, or
fragment, and is from the verb _sceran_, signifying both to shear
and to share or divide. The low Dutch _schaard_ is a piece of pot, a
fragment.
[35] Lord Bacon’s Hist. of King Henry VII., Works, vol. v. p. 61.
[36] 25th Henry VIII. cap. 13.
[37] 5 & 6 Edw. VI., cap. 5.
[38] Eden’s Hist. of the Poor, vol. i. p. 118.
[39] Latimer’s Sermons, p. 100.
[40] Pictorial History of England, vol. ii. p. 900.
[41] Reports of the “Commissioner” of the _Times_ Newspaper, in June,
1845.
[42] I have here included those engaged in Trade and Commerce, and
employers as well as the employed among the _producers_.
[43] The amount of the population from 1570 to 1750, as here given, is
copied from Rickman’s tables, as published by the Registrar-General.
[44] The population at the decennial term, as here given, is the
amended calculation of the Registrar-General, as given in the new
census tables.
[45] From returns furnished by the clergy.
[46] The returns here cited are copied from those given by the
Registrar-General in the new census.
[47] Returns obtained through an inquiry instituted by the Irish House
of Lords.
[48] The population from 1754-1788 is estimated from the “hearth money”
returns.
[49] Newenham’s Inquiry into the Population of Ireland.
[50] Estimate from incomplete census.
[51] First complete census.
[52] The _official_ value was established long ago; it represents a
price put upon merchandise or commodities; it is in reality a fixed
value, and serves to indicate the relative extent of imports and
exports in different years. The _declared_ value is simply the market
price.
[53] The official returns as to the number of paupers are most
incomplete and unsatisfactory. In the 10th annual Report of the Poor
Law Commissioners, p. 480 (1844), a table is printed which is said
to give the returns from the earliest period for which authentic
Parliamentary documents have been received, and this sets forth the
number of paupers in England and Wales, for the _entire twelve months_
in the years 1803, 1813, 1814, and 1815; then comes a long interval
of “no returns,” and after 1839 we have the numbers for only _three
months_ in each year, from 1840 up to 1843; in the first annual Report
(1848) these returns for one quarter in each year are continued up to
1848; and then we get the returns for only two days in each year, the
1st of July and the 1st of January, so that to come to any conclusion
amid so much inconsistency is utterly impossible. The numbers above
given would have been continued to the present period, could any
comparison have been instituted. The numbers for the periods (not above
given) are--
1803 1,040,716}
1813 1,426,065} Number of paupers for the
1814 1,402,576} entire twelve months.
1815 1,319,851}
1849 (1st Jan.) 940,851 }
„ (1st July) 846,988 }
1850 (1st Jan.) 889,830 } Number of paupers for two
„ (1st July) 796,318 } separate days in each year.
1851 (1st Jan.) 829,440 }
[54] It might at first appear that, when the work is shifted to the
Continent, there would be a proportionate decrease of the aggregate
quantity at home, but a little reflection will teach us that the
foreigners must take something from us in _exchange_ for their work,
and so increase the quantity of our work in certain respects as much as
they depress it in others.
[55] The Great Exhibition, I am informed, produced a very small effect
on the consumption of porter; and, according to the official returns,
160,000 gallons less spirits were consumed in the first nine months
of the present year, than in the corresponding months of the last:
thus showing that any occupation of mind or body is incompatible
with intemperate habits, for drunkenness is essentially the vice of
idleness, or want of something better to do.
[56] The term _sanc_ in “sanc-work” is the Norman word for blood
(Latin, _sanguis_; French, _sang_), so that “sanc-work” means,
literally, bloody work, this called either from the sanguinary trade of
the soldier, or from the blood-red colour of the cloth.
[57] “Reredos, dossel (_retable_, Fr.; _postergule_, Ital.),” according
to Parker’s Glossary of Architecture, was “the wall or screen at the
back of an altar, seat, &c.; it was usually ornamented with panelling,
&c., especially behind an altar, and sometimes was enriched with
a profusion of niches, buttresses, pinnacles, statues, and other
decorations, which were often painted with brilliant colours.
“The open fire-hearth, frequently used in ancient domestic halls, was
likewise called a reredos.
“In the description of Britain prefixed to Holinshed’s ‘Chronicles,’
we are told that formerly, before chimneys were common in mean houses,
‘each man made his fire against a reredosse in the hall, where he dined
and dressed his meat.’”
The original word would appear to be _dosel_ or _rere-dosel_; for
Kelham, in his “Norman Dictionary,” explains the word _doser_ or
_dosel_ to signify a hanging or canopy of silk, silver, or gold work,
under which kings or great personages sit; also the back of a chair
of state (the word being probably a derivative of the Latin _dorsum_,
the back. _Dos_, in slang, means a _bed_, a “dossing crib” being a
sleeping-place, and has clearly the same origin). A _rere-dos_ or
_rere-dosel_ would thus appear to have been a _screen_ placed _behind_
anything. I am told, that in the old houses in the north of England,
erections at the back of the fire may, to this day, occasionally be
seen, with an aperture behind for the insertion of plates, and such
other things as may require warming.
A correspondent says there is “a ‘reredos,’ or open fire-hearth, now
to be seen in the extensive and beautiful ruins of the Abbey of St.
Agatha, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The ivy now hangs over and
partially conceals this reredos; but its form is tolerably perfect,
and the stones are still coloured by the action of the fire, which
was extinguished, I need hardly say, by the cold water thrown on such
places by Henry VIII.”
[58] It has been notorious for many years, that flowers will not bloom
in any natural luxuriance, and that fruit will not properly ripen,
in the heart of the city. Whilst this is an unquestionable fact, it
is also a fact, that greatly as suburban dwellings have increased,
and truly as London may be said to have “gone into the country,”
the greater quantity of the large, excellent, unfailing, and cheap
supply of the fruits and vegetables in the London “green” markets are
grown within a circle of from ten to twelve miles from St. Paul’s.
In the course of my inquiries (in the series of letters on Labour
and the Poor in the _Morning Chronicle_) into the supply, &c., to
the “green markets” of the metropolis, I was told by an experienced
market-gardener, who had friends and connections in several of the
suburbs, that he fancied, and others in the trade were of the same
opinion, that no gardening could be anything but a failure if attempted
within “where the fogs went.” My informant explained to me that the
fogs, so peculiar to London, did not usually extend beyond three or
four miles from the heart of the city. He was satisfied, he said, that
within half a mile or so of this reach of fog the gardener’s labours
might be crowned with success. He knew nothing of any scientific
reason for his opinion, but as far as a purely London fog extended
(without regard to any mist pervading the whole country as well as
the neighbourhood of the capital), he thought it was the boundary
within which there could be no proper growth of fruit or flowers. That
the London fog has its _limits_ as regards the manifestation of its
greatest density, there can be no doubt. My informant was frequently
asked, when on his way home, by omnibus drivers and others whom he
knew, and met on their way to town a few miles from it: “How’s the fog,
sir? _How far?_”
The extent of the London fog, then, if the information I have cited be
correct, may be considered as indicating that portion of the metropolis
where the population, and consequently the smoke, is the thickest, and
within which agricultural and horticultural labours cannot meet with
success. “The nuisance of a November fog in London,” Mr. Booth stated
to the Smoke Committee, “is most assuredly increased by the smoke
of the town, arising from furnaces and private fires. It is vapour
saturated with particles of carbon which causes all that uneasiness and
pain in the lungs, and the uneasy sensations which we experience in our
heads. I have no doubt of the density of these fogs arising from this
carbonaceous matter.”
The loss from the impossibility of promoting vegetation in the district
most subjected to the fog is nothing, as the whole ground is already
occupied for the thousand purposes of a great commercial city. The
matter is, however, highly curious, as a result of the London smoke.
Concerning the frequency of fogs in the district of the immediate
neighbourhood of the metropolis, it is stated in Weale’s “London,”
that fogs “appear to be owing, 1st, to the presence of the river; and,
2ndly, to the fact that the superior temperature of the town produces
results precisely similar to those we find to occur upon rivers and
lakes. The cold damp currents of the atmosphere, which cannot act
upon the air of the country districts, owing to the equality of their
specific gravity, when they encounter the warmer and lighter strata
over the town, displace the latter, intermixing with it and condensing
the moisture. Fogs thus are often to be observed in London, whilst the
surrounding country is entirely free from them. The peculiar colour
of the London fogs appears to be owing to the fact that, during their
prevalence, the ascent of the coal smoke is impeded, and that it is
thus mixed with the condensed moisture of the atmosphere. As is well
known, they are often so dense as to require the gas to be lighted in
midday, and they cover the town with a most dingy and depressing pall.
They also frequently exhibit the peculiarity of increasing density
after their first formation, which appears to be owing to the descent
of fresh currents of cold air towards the lighter regions of the
atmosphere.
“They do not occur when the wind is in a dry quarter, as for instance
when it is in the east; notwithstanding that there may be very
considerable difference in the temperature of the air and of the water
or the ground. The peculiar odour which attends the London fogs has
not yet been satisfactorily explained; although the uniformity of its
recurrence, and its very marked character, would appear to challenge
elaborate examination.”
[59] The quantity of soot deposited depends greatly on the length,
draught, and irregular surface of the chimney. The kitchen flue yields
by far the most soot for an equal quantity of coals burnt, because it
is of greater length. The quantity above cited is the average yield
from the several chimneys of a house. It will be seen hereafter that
the quantity collected is only 800,000 bushels; a great proportion
of the chimneys of the poor being seldom swept, and some cleansed by
themselves.
[60] Soot of coal is said, by Dr. Ure, in his admirable Dictionary of
Arts and Manufactures, to contain “sulphate and carbonate of ammonia
along with bituminous matter.”
[61] Querying means literally inquiring or asking for work at the
different houses. The “queriers” among the sweeps are a kind of pedlar
operatives.
[62] In East and West London there are rather more than 32 houses to
the acre, which gives an average of 151 square yards to each dwelling,
so that, allowing the streets here to occupy one-third of the area, we
have 100 square yards for the space covered by each house. In Lewisham,
Hampstead, and Wandsworth, there is not one house to the acre. The
average number of houses per acre throughout London is 4.
[63] _Gully_ here is a corruption of the word _Gullet_, or throat; the
Norman is _guelle_ (Lat. _gula_), and the French, _goulet_; from this
the word _gully_ appears to be directly derived. A _gully_-drain is
literally a _gullet_-drain, that is, a drain serving the purposes of a
gullet or channel for liquids, and a gully-hole the mouth, orifice, or
opening to the _gullet_ or gully-drain.
[64] Of the derivation of the word _Sewer_ there have been many
conjectures, but no approximation to the truth. One of the earliest
instances I have met with of any detailed mention of sewers, is in
an address delivered by a “Coroner,” whose name does not appear, to
“a jury of sewers.” This address was delivered somewhere between the
years 1660 and 1670. The coroner having first spoken of the importance
of “Navigation and Drayning” (draining), then came to the question of
sewers.
“Sewars,” he said, “are to be accounted your grand Issuers of Water,
from whence I conceive they carry their name (_Sewars quasi Issuers_).
I shall take his opinion who delivers them to be Currents of Water,
kept in on both sides with banks, and, in some sense, they may be
called a certain kind of a little or small river. But as for the
derivation of the word Sewar, from two of our English words, _Sea_ and
_Were_, or, as others will have it, _Sea_ and _Ward_, give me leave,
now I have mentioned it, to--leave it to your judgments.
“However, this word _Sewar_ is very famous amongst us, both for giving
the title of the Commission of Sewars itself, and for being the
ordinary name of most of your common water-courses, for Drayning, and
therefore, I presume, there are none of you of these juries but both
know--
“1. What Sewars signify, and also, in particular,
“2. What they are; and of a thing so generally known, and of such
general use.”
The Rev. Dr. Lemon, who gave the world a work on “English Etymology,”
from the Greek and Latin, and from the Saxon and Norman, was regarded
as a high authority during the latter part of the last century, when
his quarto first appeared. The following is his account, under the head
“Sewers”--
“Skinn. rejects Minsh’s. deriv. of ‘olim scriptum fuisse _seward_
à sea-ward, quod versus mare factæ sunt: longè verisimilius à Fr.
Gall. _eauier_; sentina; _incile_, supple. aquarum:’--then why did
not the Dr. trace this Fr. Gall. _eauier_? if he had, he would have
found it distorted ab Ὑδωρ, _aqua_; _sewers_ being a species of
_aqueduct_:--Lye, in his Add., gives another deriv., viz. ‘ab Iceland.
_sua_, _colare_; ut existimo; ad quod referre vellem _sewer_; _cloaca_;
per _sordes_ urbis ejiciuntur:’--the very word _sordes_ gives me a hint
that _sewer_ may be derived à ‘Σαιρω, _vel_ Σαροω, _verro_: nempe quia
_sordes_, quæ _everruntur_ è domo, in unum locum _accumulantur_; R.
Σωρος, _cumulus_: Voss.’--_a collection of sweepings, slop, dirt, &c._”
But these are the follies of learning. Had our lexicographers known
that the vulgar were, as Dr. Latham says, “the conservators of the
Saxon language” with us, they would have sought information from the
word “shore,” which the uneducated, and, consequently, unperverted,
invariably use in the place of the more polite “sewer”--the common
_sewer_ is always termed by them “the common _shore_.” Now the word
_shore_, in Saxon, is written _score_ and _scor_ (for _c_ = _h_), and
means not only a bank, the land immediately next to the sea, but a
_score_, a tally--for they are both substantives, made from the verb
_sceran_ (p. _scear_, _scær_, pp. _scoren_, _gescoren_), to _shear_,
cut off, _share_, divide; and hence they meant, in the one case, the
division of the land from the sea; and in the other, a division cut
in a piece of wood, with a view to counting. The substantive _scar_
has the same origin; as well as the verb to _score_, to cut, to gash.
The Scandinavian cognates for the Saxon _scor_ may be cited as proofs
of what is here asserted. They are, Icel., _skor_, a notch; Swed.,
_skâra_, a notch; and Dan., _skaar_ and _skure_, a notch, an incision.
It would seem, therefore, that the word _shore_, in the sense of
_sewer_ (Dan., _skure_; Anglice, _shure_, for _k_ = _h_), originally
meant merely a _score_ or incision made in the ground, a _ditch_ sunk
with the view of carrying off the refuse-water, a watercourse, and
consequently a drain. A sewer is now a covered ditch, or channel for
refuse water.
[65] This outlet is known to the flushermen, &c., as “below the backs
of houses,” from its devious course _under the houses_ without pursuing
any direct line parallel with the open part of the streets.
[66] The following is the analysis of a gallon of sewage, also dried to
evaporation, by Professor Miller:--
Ammonia 3·26
Phosphoric acid 0·44
Potash 1·02
Silica 0·54
Lime 7·54
Magnesia 1·87
Common salt 13·66
Sulphuric acid 7·04
Carbonic acid 4·41
Combustible matter, containing
0·34 nitrogen 5·80
Traces of oxide of iron.
-----
Making in solution 45·58
-----
Matters in suspension, consisting of
combustible matters, sand, lime,
and oxide of iron 44·50
[67] The following note appears in Mr. Fortescue’s statement:--“In
some trial works near the metropolis sewer water was applied to land,
on the condition that the value of half the extra crop should be taken
as payment. The dressings were only single dressings. The officer
making the valuation reported, that there was at the least one sack of
wheat and one load of straw per acre extra from its application on one
breadth of land; in another, full one quarter of wheat more, and one
load of straw extra per acre. The reports of the effects of sewer-water
in increasing the yield of oats as well as of wheat were equally good.
It is stated by Captain Vetch that in South America irrigation is used
with great advantage for wheat.”
[68] The following statement may, according to the work above alluded
to, be presented as an approximate.
[69] Rental of the districts now rated.
[70] Rental of the districts within the active jurisdiction in which
expenses have been incurred, and which are about to be rated.
[71] These officers are paid only during the period of service, and are
chiefly engaged on special works.
The corresponding officers for London are under the City Commissioners.
[72] In one of their Reports the Board of Health has spoken of the
yearly cleansing of the cesspools; but a cesspool, I am assured, is
rarely emptied by manual labour, unless it be full, for as the process
is generally regarded as a nuisance, it is resorted to as seldom as
possible. It may, perhaps, be different with the cesspool-emptying by
the hydraulic process, which is _not_ a nuisance.
[73] It was ascertained that 3 gallons (half a cubic foot) of water
would carry off 1 lb. of the more solid excrementitious matter through
a 6-inch pipe, with an inclination of 1 in 10.
[74] Mr. Rammell supplies the following note on the use of “Poudrette.”
“In connexion with this subject,” he says, “a few observations upon the
application of poudrette in agricultural process may not be without
interest.
“With regard to the fertilizing properties of this preparation, M.
Maxime Paulet, in his work entitled ‘Théorie et Pratique des Engrais,’
gives a table of the fertilizing qualities of various descriptions
of manure, the value of each being determined by the quantity of
nitrogen it contains. Taking for a standard good farm-yard dung, which
contains on an average 4 per 1000 of nitrogen, and assuming that 10,000
kilogrammes (about 22,000 lbs. English) of this manure (containing 40
kilogrammes of nitrogen) are necessary to manure one hectare (2-1/2
acres nearly) of land, the quantities of poudrette and of some other
animal manures required to produce a similar effect would be as
follows:--
Kilogr.
“Good farm-yard dung, the quantity usually
spread upon one hectare of land 10,000
Equivalent quantities of human urine, not
having undergone fermentation 5,600
Equivalent quantities of poudrette of Montfaucon 2,550
Equivalent quantities of mixed human excrements
(this quantity I have calculated from data given
in the same work) 1,333
Equivalent quantities of liquid blood of
the abattoirs 1,333
Equivalent quantities of bones 650
Equivalent quantities of average of guano
(two specimens are given) 512
Equivalent quantities of urine of the public
urinals in fermentation, and incompletely dried 233
“M. Paulet estimates the loss of the ammoniacal products contained in
the fæcal matters when they are withdrawn from the cesspools, by the
time they have been ultimately reduced into poudrette, at from 80 to 90
per cent.
“I have not been able to meet with an analysis of the matters found
in the fixed and movable cesspools of Paris, but in the ‘Cours
d’Agriculture,’ of M. le Comte de Gasparin, I find an analysis by MM.
Payen and Boussingault of some matter taken from the cesspools of
Lille, and in the state in which it is ordinarily used in the suburbs
of that city as manure. This matter was found to contain on the average
0·205 per cent of nitrogen, and thus by the rule observed in drawing up
the above table, 19,512 kilogrammes of it would be necessary to produce
the same effect upon one hectare of land as the other manures there
mentioned. The wide difference between this quantity and that (1333
kilogrammes) stated for the mixed human excrements in their undiluted
state, would lead to the conclusion that a very large proportion of
water was present in the matter sent from Lille, unless we are to
attribute a portion of the difference to the accidental circumstance
of the bad quality of this matter. It appears that this is very
variable, according to the style of living of the persons producing
it. ‘Upon this subject,’ M. Paulet says, ‘the case of an agriculturist
in the neighbourhood of Paris is cited, who bought the contents of the
cesspools of one of the fashionable restaurants of the Palais Royal.
Making a profitable speculation of it, he purchased the matter of the
cesspools of several barracks. This bargain, however, resulted in a
loss, for the produce from this last matter came very short of that
given by the first.’
“Poudrette weighs 70 kilogrammes the hectolitre (154 lbs. per 22
gallons), and the quantity usually spread upon one hectare of land
(2-1/2 acres nearly) is 1750 kilogrammes, being at the rate of about
1540 lbs. per acre English measure. It is cast upon the land by the
hand, in the manner that corn is sown.
“Poudrette packed in sacks very soon destroys them. This is always the
case, whether it is whole or has been newly prepared.
“A serious accident occurred in 1818, on board a vessel named the
_Arthur_, which sailed from Rouen with a cargo of poudrette for
Guadaloupe. During the voyage a disease broke out on board which
carried off half the crew, and left the remainder in a deplorable state
of health when they reached their destination. It attacked also the men
who landed the cargo; they all suffered in a greater or less degree.
The poudrette was proved to have been shipped during a wet season, and
to have been exposed before and during shipment, in a manner to allow
it to absorb a considerable quantity of moisture. The accident appears
to have been due to the subsequent fermentation of the mass in the
hold--increased to an intense degree by the moisture it had acquired,
and by the heat of a tropical climate.
“M. Parent du Châtelet, to whom the matter was referred, recommended
that to guard against similar accidents in future, the poudrette
intended for exportation, in order to deprive it entirely of humidity,
should be mixed with an absorbent powder, such as quicklime, and that
it should be packed in casks to protect it from moisture during the
voyage.”
[75] “It is in the upper basins,” adds the Reports, “that the first
separation of the liquids and solids takes place, the latter falling
to the bottom, and the former gradually flowing off through a sluice
into the lower basins. This first separation, however, is by no means
complete, a considerable deposit taking place in the lower basins. The
mass in the upper basins, after three or four years, then appears like
a thick mud, half liquid, half solid; it is of depth varying from 12
to 15 feet. In order entirely to get rid of the liquids, deep channels
are then cut across the mass, by which they are drained off, when the
deposit soon becomes sufficiently stiff to permit of its being dug out
and spread upon the drying-ground, where, to assist the desiccation, it
is turned over two or three times a-day by means of a harrow drawn by a
horse.
“The time necessary for the requisite desiccation varies a good deal,
according to the season of the year, the temperature, and the dry or
moist state of the atmosphere. Ere yet it is entirely deprived of
humidity, the matter is collected into heaps, varying in size usually
from 8 to 10 yards high, and from 60 to 80 yards long, by 25 or 30
yards wide. These heaps or mounds generally remain a twelvemonth
untouched, sometimes even for two or three years; but as fast as the
material is required, they are worked from one of the sides by means
of pickaxes, shovels, and rakes; the pieces separated are then easily
broken and reduced to powder, foreign substances being carefully
excluded. This operation, which is the last the matter undergoes,
is performed by women. The poudrette then appears like a mould of a
grey-black colour, light, greasy to the touch, finely grained, and
giving out a particular faint and nauseous odour.
“The finer particles of matter carried by the liquids into the lower
basins, and there more gradually deposited in combination with a
precipitate from the urine, yield a variety of poudrette, preferred, by
the farmers, for its superior fertilizing properties. In this case the
drying process is conducted more slowly and with more difficulty than
in the other, but more completely.
“In general the poudrette is dried with great difficulty; it appears to
have an extreme affinity for water; few substances give out moisture
more slowly, or absorb it more greedily from the air.
“A good deal of heat is generated in the heaps of desiccated matter.
This is always sensible to the touch, and sometimes results in
spontaneous combustion.
“The intensity of this heat is not in proportion to the elevation of
temperature of the atmosphere. It is promoted by moisture. The only
means of extinguishing the fire when it is once developed is to turn
over the mass from top to bottom, in order to expose it to the air.
Water thrown upon it, unless in very large quantities, would only
increase its activity.”
[76] 4-1/4 heaped bushels each, English measure.
[77] I did not hear any of the London nightmen or sewermen complain of
inflammation in the eyes, and no such effect was visible; nor that they
suffered from temporary blindness, or were, indeed, thrown out of work
from any such cause; they merely remarked that they were first dazzled,
or “_dazed_,” with the soil. But the labour of the Parisian is far
more continuous and regular than the London nightman, owing in a great
degree to the system of _movable cesspools_ in Paris.
[78] It must be recollected, to account for the greater quantity of
matter between the cesspools of Paris and London, that the French
fixed cesspool, from the greater average of inmates to each house,
must necessarily contain about three times and a half as much as that
of a London cesspool. If the dwellers in a Parisian house, instead of
averaging twenty-four, averaged between seven and eight, as in London,
the cesspool contents in Paris would, at the above rate, be between
four and five tons (as it is in London) for the average of each house.