The foregoing processes for the removal of excreta from dwellings necessitates the joint employment of sewers and large quantities of water. It may, however, sometimes happen that the adoption of either of these appliances may be not only difficult, but altogether impracticable; as for instance, in localities where a sufficient fall cannot be obtained for the sewers; or where the supply of water is not adequate; or when the severity of the climate at certain times is such, that for months in the year the water is frozen. Under these conditions the excreta must either be allowed to accumulate about houses, or else be removed by methods other than those we have described, at more or less short intervals. Of course their speedy removal is the best and safest; but in cases where they are permitted to accumulate, it is essential they should be mixed with deodorants, and confined in properly constructed receptacles (as far as possible from dwellings), from which category such pre-eminently unsanitary arrangements as cesspools and dead wells must be excluded.
When excreta are got rid of from houses by other means than those of sewers and water, the processes employed are termed,
2. Dry methods. These comprise—
1. Removal of the excreta without admixture.
2. Removal of the excreta after treatment with deodorising and anti-putrescent substances.
1. Removal without admixture. In some cases boxes and tanks receive the ordure and urine, and these are changed more or less frequently.
In Glasgow the excreta from a part of the city containing eighty thousand people is thus collected and removed without admixture,[154] daily.
[154] Except that from the garbage of the houses.
In Edinburgh there are also many closets supplied with movable metal pails, which are likewise removed daily. Many large dwelling-houses in this latter city are entirely without water-closet accommodation; hence the custom of placing pails full of excrement, urine, &c., outside the houses to be taken away by the scavenger. In Rochdale the excrement, &c., is collected in tubs, with tight-fitting lids, which are emptied twice or thrice a week. These tubs are manufactured out of disused paraffin casks. In Leeds, also, the excreta are collected in boxes without being subjected to admixture. In some towns in the north of England the excreta fall into receptacles constructed upon what is termed the ‘Goux’ principle. In this system the pails or receptacles are lined with some absorbent lining, which abstracts the urine;[155] another contrivance is to have the receptacle fitted with a pipe or drain; the object in each case being to render the fæces drier and to delay their decomposition.
[155] The refuse of cloth manufacturers is chiefly used for this purpose.