There were many such latrines in the prison, so we will confine our remarks to one only. The building in use for this purpose was about seventy feet in length and twenty feet wide, and the tiled roof was supported upon brick pillars raised twelve feet from the ground. In its construction care was taken, above all things, to ensure a solid floor "impervious" to "moisture." This was made by first laying down six inches of well-prepared concrete, consisting of pounded granite, brick-dust, and gravel cemented together by hydraulic mortar, then overlaid with pure cement, and after this coated with an inch thick of asphalt. Around the whole building was an open drain, about two feet inside of the pillars, and built like the floor, and carefully graded to the outfall. The walls, pillars, and drains were coated with coal tar, and here and there daily renewed to ensure deodorization. Close to the drain, and at eighteen inches apart, were placed troughs of hard wood two feet in length, one foot nine inches wide, and nine inches deep, with stout handles at either end. These troughs were smeared over with pitch. Between every second trough was placed a box containing about a bushel of powdered red earth, perfectly dry, and in each box was a ladle made of half a cocoanut shell attached to a handle. Two convicts of the sixth, or feeble class, were placed in charge of this latrine, whose duty it was to see that the red earth was sprinkled by those using the troughs. When the troughs were full they were emptied into a conservancy cart with a hermetically closed screw top, and when this was full it was conveyed by bullocks to plantations in the country. We think we are quite warranted in saying that this was the first jail, if not the first establishment anywhere, in which this dry earth system of conservancy was used. For centuries, no doubt, in India the well-known habit of the cat had been followed by many of the native castes, but it was not until vast numbers of these convicts from India were aggregated in association that the application of the system to their dwellings was initiated, and we think that the clever invention of the "earth closet" for certain localities may have suggested itself to its inventor when a resident at Singapore. It may be as well to give here the testimony of Dr. Mouat, the Inspector-General of Jails, Bengal, on the efficiency of the conservancy of this old jail, and in no spirit of self-satisfaction we quote his own words "verbatim," which are as follows:-- "Singapore, _1st June, 1865_.--I have sincere pleasure in recording the unmixed satisfaction which I have experienced from a careful examination of the jail, and system of prison management in use at Singapore.