DEATH TURNED TO LIFE.
Oun bad sanatory regulations daily doom to death human beings under influences which might be converted to support the life of the same creatures. The refuse of towns exhales poison which annually kills thousands of Queen Victoria's subjects ; but the same refuse is capable of being converted by science into a fer- tilizing substance which would support the life of far greater numbers. Drainage and manuring are correlative processes.
o Our readers are already aware of the process discovered by M. Ledoyen and reported upon by Government Commissioners. Its disinfecting powers are surprising. Another process has been devised by Mr. Charles Ellerman ; whose pamphlet, now before us/ 4' refers for testimony to occurrences which are easily saner- tamed. The object is to neutralize the noxious gases which are disengaged in the decomposition of feculent matter, without diminishing its fertilizing property. This is effected by adding to the feculent matter achemical substance which unites with the noxious gases and forms a third substance that is not noxious. Such is the effect ascribed to M. Ledoyen's process by the Government Commissioners. Such is the effect claimed for his preparation by Mr. Ellerman ; and he cites some striking facts.- A large undrained barrack at Brussels was disinfected by the use of his material, instanta- neously. An immense horse-slaughterhouse in the Plaine des Vertus near Paris, was condemned to removal as a nuisance : Mr. Ellerman's process was resorted to ; the noxious effluvia were to- tally neutralized, and the slaughterhouse remains. The like re- sults were obtained in the case of a large slaughterhouse at Sau- mur, used as a tnanufactory of artificial manure. And the pro- duct obtained by the process is highly fertilizing. We have seen a luxuriant growth of maize, in the neighbourhood of London, springing from the open soil prepared solely by M. Ledoyen's fluid.
This week we record a shocking case of a man stifled by the pestilent effluvia in the yard of a low lodging-house in Long Acre : he was killed outright; but the health of the whole neigh- bourhood was poisoned. Now let science step in, and that source of death is actually converted into a means of life, by a process both easy and cheap. Dr. Southwood Smith and his brother Commissioners give a caution against the notion that " disinfection " can supersede the necessity of removing all refuse from dwelling-houses. But it is evident that disinfecting processes may materially modify the modes of removal; and in framing sanatory laws, an eye should be had to taking advantage of every improvement in this still imperfect branch of scientific 'inquiry.
"Disinfection; or Remarks on the Health of Towns and the Manufacture of In. odorous Azotised Manure from Animal and Vegetable Matter. By Charles F. Eller- man, Esq., late Hanoverian Consul at Antwerp."
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