From Filth to Fertility, The Dual Legacy of Organic Waste

“ It is prohibited to eat food and drinks that a persons soul is disgusted by, such as drinks and food that have vomit or feces mixed with them, and rotten moisture and things like this. It is assur to eat and drink from dirty vessels that a person's soul is disgusted by them, like bathroom vessels and glass vessels that they let blood into. ”

“ The natural defence against this state of mind was the creation of an enormous number of taboos—such as we find among all races and on every conceivable subject—and these taboos constituted practically a great body of warnings which regulated the lives and thoughts of the community, and ultimately, after they had been weeded out and to some degree simplified, hardened down into very stringent Customs and Laws. ”

“ War can not compare with the campaigns of disease and death waged by this most filthy of all insects. In our recent strife with Spain we lost a few lives in battle, but we lost many more in hospitals due to contagious diseases, in the transmission of which this pest played a most important part.
The fly is dangerous on account of its filthy habits. It breeds in filth, feeds on filth in open closets, slop-barrels, on the streets and in back alleys and then comes into the house and wipes this germ-laden filth on our food or on the hands or even in the mouths of helpless babies. ”

“ Human excrement is greedily visited by flies, both for feeding and for ovipositing. The discharges of typhoid patients, or of chronic "carriers," when passed in the open, in box privies, or camp latrines, or the like, serve to contaminate myriads of the insects which may then spread the germ to human food and drink. Other intestinal diseases may be similarly spread. There is abundant epidæmiological evidence that infantile diarrhœa, dysentery, and cholera may be so spread. ”

“ In localities where heat and marshes abound, water may often be colored by organic acids and other substances which dissolves, and yet not be appreciably unhealthy. Such waters are common in some countries, and present dangerous possibilities, should fermentation and putrefaction at any time set in. Decaying fish and animals, leaves, &c., &c., form the ordinary and accidental organic impurities of water. These are unhealthy not only in themselves, but especially because they offer to the germs of disease or pestilence a harbor and sustenance. ”

“ An adequate supply of water, free from contamination at its sources and in its passage to our houses, contributes not only to the comfort, but greatly also to the health, of any community. The installation of a system of sewerage, for the safe disposal of the extremely dangerous waste matters of houses and stables, will come as soon as public sentiment is enlightened as to the probability of fatal disease resulting from the infection of drinking water, milk, and other uncooked foods from such decaying matters. ”

“ They are forced to sup strong Gravey Soups, Eggs, Biscuits, and even Flesh, if they have but just Strength and Resolution to chew it. It seems absolutely impossible for them to survive all this Trash. Should a Man in perfect Health be compelled to eat stinking Meat, rotten Eggs, stale sour Broth, he is attacked with as violent Symptoms, as if he had taken real Poison, which, in Effect, he has. He is seized with Vomiting, Anguish, a violent Purging, and a Fever, with Raving, and eruptive Spots, which we call the Purple Fever. ”

“ It does seem sometimes that man in his ignorance gets nothing right except to walk forward instead of backward. Even so, most likely he walked on all fours for ages, judging from his progress to date, before he learned to walk on his hind legs. To-day we find him self-poisoned, auto-intoxicated, a gastro-intestinal neurasthenic. His bowels are filled and stretched with ancient feces and gases, and his stomach is burdened with undigested food and tenacious mucus. ”

“ Is there any human being so ignorant that he cannot understand that when food stuffs in the gastro-intestinal canal ferment and putrefy they thereby generate toxic (poisonous) gaseous matter, volatile fatty acids, and putrid feces; that such matter, acids, and feces are rapidly absorbed by the system, and that, if the system does not readily eliminate them by way of the bowels, kidneys, and mucous membrane, they will tend to bring on one or more forms of acute or chronic disease? ”

“ Peruvian guano is obtained from the excreta of South American sea-birds, and fish guano from the waste of fish. Both are remarkable for the quantity of nitrates and phosphates they contain.
Pigeon dung approaches guano in its power as manure. It should be laid up in ridges of good loamy soil in alternate layers to form a compost, which becomes a valuable stimulant for any very choice subjects if cautiously used. The dung of the domestic fowl is very similar in character. ”

“ GUANO (a Spanish word from the Peruvian huanu, dung) , the excrement of birds, found as large deposits on certain islands off the coast of Peru, and on others situated in the Southern ocean and off the west coast of Africa. The large proportions of phosphorus in the form of phosphates and of nitrogen as ammonium oxalate and urate renders it a valuable fertilizer. Bat’s guano, composed of the excrement of bats, is found in certain caves in New Zealand and elsewhere; it is similar in composition to Peruvian guano. (See Manures and Manuring.) ”

“ In Mexico the Spanish travelers often experienced severe famines; and in India, even at the present day (to the disgrace perhaps of our management) nearly every year many thousands die of hunger. It was very different under the ancient Peruvians, because by law "the product of the lands consecrated to the Sun, as well as those set apart for the Incas, was deposited in the Tambos, or public storehouses, as a stated provision for times of scarcity."
The Spaniards found those prehistoric agriculturists utilizing the inexhaustible supply of guano found on all the islands of the Pacific. ”

“ Few crops can be grown at 12,500 feet. Some barley is raised, but the soil is lacking in nitrogen. The principal crop is the bitter white potato, which, after being frozen and dried, becomes the insipid chuño, chief reliance of the poorer families. The Inca system of bringing guano from the islands of the Pacific coast has long since been abandoned. There is no money to pay for modern fertilizers. Consequently, crops are poor. On Titicaca Island I saw native women, who had just harvested their maize, engaged in shucking and drying ears of corn which varied in length from one to three inches. ”

“ When the ordure is completely dried and decomposed, it has not only lost its odor, but it has become, like all decomposed organic matter, an excellent disinfectant, and the fifth or sixth time that the same earth is passed through the closet it is fully as effective in destroying odors as it was when used for the first time, and of course each use adds to its value as manure, until it becomes as strong as Peruvian guano, which is now worth seventy-five dollars per ton. In fact, it may be made so rich that one hundred pounds will be a good dressing for an acre of land. ”

“ It is therefore the presence of these organisms which forces him to dry his hay, to smoke his hams, to corn his beef, to keep his fruits and vegetables cool and prevent skin bruises, to ice his dairy, to protect his timber from rain, to use stone instead of wooden foundations for buildings, etc. In general, when the farmer desires to get rid of any organic refuse, he depends upon bacteria, for they are his sole agents (aside from fire) for the final destruction of organic matter. When he wishes to convert waste organic refuse into fertilizing material, he uses the bacteria of his compost heap. ”

“ As a result of this chemical decomposition, the complex bodies are broken into simpler and simpler compounds, and the final result is a very thorough destruction of the animal body or the material excreted by animal life, and its reduction into forms simple enough for plants to use again as foods. Thus the bacteria come in as a necessary link to connect the animal body, or the excretion from the animal body, with the soil again, and therefore with that part of the circle in which the material can once more serve as plant food. ”

“ While it is impossible to over-estimate the debt which [139] agriculture owes to chemistry, we have, nevertheless, learnt from the bacteriologist that there are biological problems underlying the question of fertility, and that a mere chemical estimation of the constituents of organic manure is insufficient, by itself, to fix its manurial value. It is by the agency of bacteria that organic matter is changed into nitrates and other soluble salts, which are absorbed by the roots of plants and serve to nourish them. ”

“ By far the most important of the living agencies concerned with the direct production of disease are those small vegetable organisms known as bacteria. Not all bacteria, by any means, produce disease; in fact, it is not too much to say that the majority of bacteria are benefactors to the human race. Their chief agency is not to cause disease, but to prevent it, and they do this because they are able to transform the waste products of animal life, which would normally be dangerous to health, into harmless mineral residue. ”

“ Recall my assertion that what is most important about organic matter is not how much is present, but how much is lost each year through decomposition. For only by decomposing does organic matter release the nutrients it contains so plants can uptake them; only by being consumed does humus support the microecology that so markedly contributes phytamins to plant nutrition, aggressively breaks down rock particles and releases the plant nutrients they contain; only by being eaten does soil organic matter support bacteria and earthworms that improve productivity and create better tilth. ”

“ Most significant, Howard contended that his method not only conserved the nitrogen in cattle manure and crop waste, not only conserved the organic matter the land produced, but also raised the processes of the entire operation to an ecological climax of maximized health and production. ”

“ But the busy and greedy fly drinks up all the soft part of these things.
So we see that what we call the dirty flies help to clean away much dirt. It is true too, that flies carry poison on their feet and trunks from place to place. ”

“ One of the most effectual methods of dispersing these troublesome insects from plantations and gardens, we believe, is that mentioned in the Encyclopædia Britannica; on the authority of which we shall communicate it to our readers: "A small quantity of human feces, when placed into their hills, will not only destroy great numbers, but expel the rest from their habitations." ”

“ Agriculturists must not rely on guano; its price at the present time, as compared with an earlier period, is already doubled, and no sensible man would entertain the idea of making the production of an entire country dependent on the supply of foreign manure." Liebig further shows that not only does guano exert a powerful influence upon the soil, by restoring the elements of which it has been spoliated, but that all its good qualities are possessed by human excrements, in addition to others which it is deficient in. ”

“ The field is to such men simply a cow that gives them milk, but which they would feed with its own flesh taken from its ribs; and the folly of such a proceeding would strike them only when the light shines through the hollow skeleton of their victim." "In the flesh and the produce of the field, we have for centuries supplied to the large towns the constituent elements of guano, and have never brought this guano back again, and we now send vessels to Chili, Peru, and Africa for this substance. ”

“ It is singular that the same guano (human) which is said to be so valuable in China, should prove a failure in Europe, and especially in England, showing how much still remains to be discovered in practical agriculture. If human guano really be of such value in China as has been reported, might it not be worth while to import into Britain a few Chinese agricultural labourers and gardeners thoroughly acquainted with the agriculture of their country, and from whom might be learned the art of preparing the manure? Capitalists have engaged in many less promising speculations than this. ”

“ On account of its valuable services in clearing the streets of decaying and putrid matter, the bird is held in high esteem by the natives, who take every precaution to protect it from harm. This prevented an open attack, and poison was the only alternative. ”

“ U.G. casually remarked that before the "Calamity" he was rather surprised to read about the fact that an "enlightened" man's feces did not have the usual decomposed smell. He took this information rather skeptically. But after the "Calamity" he found that whenever he would be in the toilet the feces smelt like mango or raspberry or strawberries. He wondered why. The doctors who examined him for his gullet complaint told him that his stomach lining had lost its sensitivity completely, the acids no longer secreted in his stomach, the food was not acted upon but went straight to the intestines. ”

“ These facts are developed in the majority of cases, and but one inference can be made food waste rotting in human intestines forms soil analogous to that of filth decomposing in outer air, with the result that the destroying agents of nature, bacilli, are at once introduced fully equipped as scavengers.
The germ evolves and propagates, not to create disease, but to remove its cause ; not on account of the ill-health of the body, but for the sole reason that ignorant and improper handling of the resources of nature furnishes conditions that stimulate and conserve germ life. ”