The high death rate. An answer to the question "What is to be done?" : being the substance of a paper read before the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, March 19th, 1869 / by J. Conyers Morrell.

  • Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: The high death rate. An answer to the question "What is to be done?" : being the substance of a paper read before the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, March 19th, 1869 / by J. Conyers Morrell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    one or anything. We shall find ourselves then only partially relieved of the source from which danger arises—for our ashpits are still charged with the contents they previously held, minus only the human excrement; contents, including cinders, ashes, domestic vegetable refuse, house-slops, &c., an accumulation which, when gathered miscellaneously together, I contend is capable of producing almost, if not quite, as serious results as when excrementitious products form a portion of the mass. The water-closet advocates could therefore only claim to have very partially removed the soiu’ces of evil. Now a little reflection will serve to convince us that nature has thrown into our laps all things that we require ; our almost wilful ignorance prevents our using these things aright. For, when we dissect these accumulated matters, we And that the very substances which in combination form such a source of evil, when separated become so many sources of good. The fire refuse^ commonly known and spoken of as ashes, is composed of two-thirds of unconsumed fuel or carbon, and one-third of fine dust or ash, which is equal in deodorising power to dried earth, inasmuch as it is really the earthy portion of the mine. Of these two very distinct and in character very opposite sub¬ stances the former, viz., the cartoon or cinders, from a calculation based upon the lowest average consumption of fuel by the cot¬ tage occupier, representing a value of twopence per week—8s. 6d. per year—per five persons, or to the (200,000) cottage popula¬ tion of Manchester the annual sum of £17,000 ; the latter, viz., the fine dust or earth, representing an almost inappreciable value, not only if applied as a deodoriser of the human excre¬ ment, but also as a manure on its own merits, as will hereafter be shewn. As to the vegetable refuse, it is obvious to those who are providentially inclined that this ought to be collected and used as pig-food, and so made to represent its real value. Having, for the sake of argument, assumed the %cater system