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for many years without the inhabitants of those houses suffering from their evil effects. I admit the first part of the proposition, but I have never found proof of the latter; and I beg leave to doubt it as opposed to evidence, science, and common sense. I admit that these abominations are by no means peculiar to this country, that, in England, Scotland, the Continental Cities and in New York, there are privies and cesspools to the full as bad or even worse than those in existence here; but the evil of them is fully recognised, and if they are evils and dangers in temperate climates, what must they be in the warm, moist, tropical atmosphere of Lower Bengal. There is perhaps no subject on which the middle class residents of our native towns are more averse to any change than in the regulation and improvement of their privy accommodation, and herein they lack not only one of the most important, comforts and decencies of life, but many of them do not even know that they lack it.

With bodies that are susceptible to the poisonous influences of putrefying filth, with their health more or less constantly subject to these influences, undeterred by the warning given by the loss of relatives who have fallen victims to malarious or filth diseases, they live on, indifferent to, if not ignorant of, the dangers and discomforts that surround them. They are busy in accumulating the means for more luxury, while they remain blind to improvements that, costing but little, would prolong their lives, secure exemption from disease, and make their homes much more fit abodes for an intelligent and prosperous people. I feel sure that in no other direction could compulsory measures be applied with greater justice and pro

priety than in compelling the removal of human excreta from amongst the dwellings of the people, and if then we recognise the general principle, we must further recognise the principle that such removal must be effected, irrespective of cost, and that that cost, whatever it be,. must be borne by the community. We have, therefore, to consider how such removal is to be effected in as efficient, while in as economical, a manner as possible, and in so doing we may at once put out of the question, as beyond the scope of most small mofussil towns and villages. the system of water-carriage.

That system involves an enormous expenditure, and requires the existence of three main features,-viz., a complete system of underground sewers, a sufficient and efficient watersupply, and a convenient and unobjectionable outfall for the contents of the sewers. Where all these conditions do not exist, and they form a Sanitary Trinity, neither of which can work without the other, the hand-system, or removal in substance, must be adopted, and it is with the hand-system in its various forms that I purpose to deal.

The following are the most usual methods of removal by hand in use either in England or this country :The dry-earth, or Moule's system,

The bucket, or Hallalcore system.

The pail-system, of which there are several varieties,viz., 1st, pails or tubs in which a certain amount of a deodorant or disinfectant is used, as in Rochdale, Nottingham, Leeds, &c.; 2nd, pails used without any preparation, as in Glasgow, Berlin, Leipsic; 3rd, pails into which coal ashes are sifted over the excrement (Manchester, &c.); 4th, pails into which ashes and general house

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refuse are thrown, as in Edinburgh; and 5th, pails lined with an absorbent material (Système Goux), as in Halifax, Salford, and some continental cities.

Of all these systems the one which has, rightly or wrongly, had the greatest number of advocates, is the dryearth, or Moule's system, and it is perhaps none the less creditable to its reverend adaptor, in that, though certainly in regard to its essential principle not his own invention, he may claim the credit of practically proving the sanitary wisdom of the great Hebrew lawgiver, who laid down this law to the children of Israel.

"And thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad; and thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon, and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee." It is hardly necessary to say that the first principle of this system is that dry-earth is the natural deodorizer of excremental matter. A given quantity of dry earth destroying all ill-odour, and entirely preventing the escape of noxious vapours. It is claimed for this process that the addition of from one and-a-half to two and-a-half pounds of dry earth to each stool is sufficient to render it inoffensive; that a certain disintegration of the fæcal matters, and combination between the earth and the organic matter contained in the excrement takes place; and that, after a short time, everything offensive disappears. That this system possesses all the advantages which its advocates claim for it there can be no doubt, and for jails, hospitals, military barracks, or similar institutions, where the number of persons is comparatively limited, labor abundant, and scientific supervision always avail

able, it is in every way admirable and desirable; but for a large town I have no hesitation in saying, and in this I am supported by good authorities, that it is simply impracticable.

For every pound weight of excreta to be carried out of the town, three to four times the amount of earth must be carried in, to be carried out again.

Then we have to consider the difficulties of procuring, drying, storing, and distributing the earth. We have the well-considered testimony of the River Pollution Commissioners, that "they have no hesitation in pronouncing the dry-earth system, however suitable for institutions, villages, and camps, where personal or official regulation can be enforced, entirely unfitted to the circumstances of large towns." It will be obvious also to every one who thinks over the subject, that the system, depending as it does, on the dryness of the earth to be used, could never be introduced with success in any town subject to from four to five months' constant and heavy periodical rains. We may, therefore, dismiss this system as impracticable for general municipal purposes, in spite of the constant, though somewhat inconsequential, advocacy of its admirers. The author was the first to introduce (in 1874) on this side of India what is called the Bombay Hallalcore system in a somewhat improved form, and this was subsequently followed by its adoption by the Calcutta Municipality and other Corporations. The system may shortly be explained as the employment by the municipal or local authority of a regularly organized corps of scavengers or nightmen, and the division of the houses in the town into blocks or circles. The houses are allotted to the nightmen, in the ratio of about thirty

houses per man; these visit each house daily (in the early morning), and remove the contents of the privypans in a closed wooden or zinc bucket (in Bombay at the time of my visit open baskets were in use !) to central depôts, where the filth is either collected in airtight iron-carts to be removed beyond the town, or is discharged directly into basins connected with the sewerage, where such exists. The system, when well worked and properly superintended, is one of the best hitherto tried in this country; its primary feature being the regular daily removal of the filth.

The Sanitary Commissioner for Bengal, after inspecting its working in the suburbs of Calcutta, recently reported upon it in the following terms: "On the whole the system is an admirable one, when well looked after, and worthy of imitation in other municipalities." But although the working has been very successful, and has effected undoubted improvement in the sanitary condition of those towns where it has been introduced, it has many and serious drawbacks and failings, nearly all of which might be obviated by the adoption of one of the pail-systems before alluded to. The chief objections to it are, that it is an expensive system requiring a very large staff.

It is from its great extent and the number of men employed difficult to supervise and control; no efficient check can be employed over the nightmen without the entertainment of an enormous inspecting staff, and, therefore, neglect to remove the filth is a common occurrence.*

*This difficulty may be obviated by giving the work to a contractor, an arrangement recently adopted by the Calcutta Suburban Municipality.