The Earth in Relation to the Preservation and Destruction of
Contagia. By G. V. Poore, M.D. (Longmans and Co. 5s. net.)— Dr. Poore pursues with admirable energy his crusade against the popular system of sanitation so-called. He champions earth against water as the vehicle by which human excreta are to be dealt with. Water scatters them and gives them an absolutely unlimited scope for harm, and takes away all chance of their utilisation; earth strictly limits their range and makes them profitable, not harmful. The sewage-farm is a costly failure ; the garden nizmired with faeces neutralised by earth is a notable success. Dr. Poore is not a theorist only. He gives us the statistics of a garden (which at the time of writing had been under cultivation for fourteen years). It is something under an acre and a half, and produced (fourteen years ago) 2/1 19s. Cid. in gross value, or 256 per acre (.825 is considered a good gross return for ordinary fruit-land). It is to be noted that he had to migrate to get out of the reach of a local authority. Now, unhappily, the local authorities are all-pervading, often mis- chievous, and sometimes, in the persons of their officials, at least suspected of favouritism.
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