Civilization breeds a strange fastidiousness. The idea of reclaiming sewage for exploitation is repulsive to the average individual, although he does not turn a hair at the use of the comparative material derived from the animal kingdom for the nourishment of the soil, and the feeding of produce cultivated essentially for the table. The argument often raised against any exploitation of excrement is that it has become associated with many other deleterious substances, which have been thrown or allowed to run down the drain, as the readiest avenue for their disposal. But the very circumstance that such waste has become compounded with other residues, many of which are worth reclamation, should be sufficient to induce us to regard sewage not as an incubus or danger, but as a mine worthy of development to its fullest extent. Fortunately, the objection to the exploitation of sewage for its commercial contents is in process of being over-ruled by the growth of a more enlightened attitude towards the whole issue, although it is to be feared, in accordance with the precept that what the eye does not see the heart does not grieve, the more progressive policy is being sanctioned unconsciously. It is safe to assert that, but for the war, which retarded the hands of progress very pronouncedly, the new movement in regard to the handling of this material would have made a material advance. Even to-day the outlook is not hopeless, inasmuch as the accentuated need to make every use possible of waste products may result in the sewage exploitation problem being attacked with enhanced energy. What can be done with sewage is revealed by the action of one or two towns which have taken their courage into their own hands, notably Bradford and Oldham. In these two instances the modern handling of sewage was assumed before the war, so that the experience gathered during the past six years may prove sufficiently convincing to permit the whole subject to be attacked more in consonance with contemporary thought, which views all wastes in one light--potential raw materials for other industries.