The author, Selina Gaye (1840-1914) was educated by her clergyman father in London, She studied classics and modern languages, contributed to several English periodicals, and subsequently authored several books on the natural world.
She writes in her preface: “The object of this volume is to give, in popular form, an account of some of the many ways in which refuse is made and disposed of, first and chiefly by Nature, and secondly by Man."
From a review of the book: "If this book were written today, it would be called "The Story of the World's Rubbish".That may not sound a promising subject for a book, but we are taken on a journey all over the world (and beyond) to explain the many varieties of dust and refuse - animal, vegetable and mineral - how it is made both by man and by nature, what happens to it, and why we need it. We find that recycling is nothing new: man has been doing it for centuries, and nature has been doing it for billions of years."
https://librivox.org/the-worlds-lumber-room-by-selina-gaye/
List of references given in preface
