SEWAGE EARTH-CLOSET. In addition to the arrangements noticed under SEWAGE, and under SEWAGE, Licrnur's System of, for getting rid of excreta, there is partially in use an earth-closet, in which the powerful deodorizing and other properties of dry earth are taken advantage of to deprive refuse of offense or harm, and to retain it in a fit con dition for agricultural use. There are numerous forms of this kind of closet. Perhaps the simplest kind is that which consists of nothing more than a seat and a pan, the latter, being lined round with earth by the help of a movable central mold or core. More convenient forms consist of a pail or a square-shaped pan on wheels under the seat, and an earth-box rising above it at the back. The box may be made to hold as much earth as serves for twenty or thirty sittings. By one of several devices in use, a valve is opened at the bottom of the earth-box, which allows the proper quantity of earth to descend through a spout and cover the deposit. The mechanism of one kind is such that the seat descends with the person, thereby bringing a charge of earth to the bottom t of the spout, and when lie rises it is dropped upon the faeces.
The earth-closet system is, of course, scarcely practicable in large towns, as it would be very difficult to plan an economical arrangement by which the large quantities of earth required could lie milled to and fro. But it is in use in many villages, and in
some large isolated buildings. such as jails and hospitals. It has been much adopted in India, where, owing to the warmth of the climate, the renderhig of fecal matter innox ious from the first must give it a peculiar advantage. It also appears to have been tried on a considerable scale in America; and a competent authority there reports that "experience has taught that its power for usefulness is restricted by the difficulties involved in procuring, preparing, and removing the dry earth required in its use, and to some extent by those which attend, mechanically and chemically, the applicatidu of the earth to the dejecta. The inherent defects of the earth-closet reside in the seeming impossibility of obtaining just such perfection of mechanism as will completely do the required work automatically. It is not applicable to our large towns on account of the large quantity of earth requirqd," as one hundred pounds of earth per week would he required for a household of 4Tx persons. Sewerage in the great towns is advancing more generally than the earth-closet system.