INTRO

Pooping is so easy. We do our business, we flush, and we never think of (or smell) it again. Most people can’t even say where the waste goes once it’s flushed down. However, in Victorian London, human waste was all too prominent. The sewage emptied directly into it’s main water source, the Thames River. From the start of the nineteenth century, the river took a turn for the worst. The city sat in the midst of the industrial revolution. Factories dumped their waste. Human feces floated on the surface. As a result, fish died from oxygen deprivation and the London citizens could not wander out of their homes in fear of suffocating from the stench. The state of London’s sewage system appalled all who dared wander near the proximity of the Thames.

Flushing the Toilet- Victorian Style

London had a massive upheaval of the sewage system when the government issued the Public Health act of 1848, banning all chamber pots (Allingham). This forced the population of 3 million people to resort to a different way of disposing excrement. The Victorian-era bathrooms consisted of the newly-invented toilet. Although the name remains consistent with our modern- day bathrooms, they could not be more different. The human feces and urine exited down a pipe connecting the toilet bowl to a large hole in the ground, called a cesspit. This cesspit much resembled a swelled potty chair, except it consisted of brick walls and feces. There were roughly 200,000 of them at the time (Allingham). The stench from the cesspits would diffuse into the air. No one could escape the tear-jerking fumes. Life improved temporarily, however, when the pits had their weekly visit from the night workers.

The Most Retched Job of the Century

Introducing (arguably) the grossest, most foul smelling job of that era- the “nightmen.” These men’s jobs involved wading into a pit of human excrement and shoveling it into a tub, which would then be hauled up and carted off to the Thames or another waste deposit site (Allen). Not only did this job reek, causing the workers to probably be the most unpopular amongst their friends, but it could also kill. At any given time, the noxious fumes could cause instant death from asphyxiation, also known as oxygen deficiency (Allen). If this process was carried out successfully, the waste would then be deposited into the River Thames.

The River's Capacity

At it’s peak, there were 200,000 cesspits emptying into the Thames, in addition to all the other ways humans excreted. Approximately 250 tons of raw sewage- the waste of 3 million people (Illustrated)- were discharged into the river daily (Allen). That 250 tons of untreated bacteria, including any disease any human might have included in their poop. According to a city surveyor of the time, the Thames was a "hot-bed of infection and the nursery of epidemics” (Allen). Diseases like cholera and typhus struck the city, taking thousands of lives (Wohl). Charles Dickens himself declared, “[The Thames] has, by sheer neglect on the part both of the people and the Government, become a foul sewer, a river of pollution, a Stream of Death, festering and reeking with all abominable smells, and threatening three millions of people with pestilence as the penalty of their ignorance and apathy” (Illustrated). The stench did not go unnoticed by anyone who dared enter the proximity of the river. Not one person was left unaffected by the stench and the disease- not even the royal family. The cesspools besides their Thames-side residence were notoriously foul. When the tide rose, it would bring the sewage and deposit sewage among their lawns when it fell (Wohl). The sewage would dry and give off a foul odor. Unfortunately they could not escape disease, either. Several members of their family were struck ill with Typhoid- a likely result of the poor drainage system (Wohl).

What's that smell?!

In 1868 the pollution came to it’s peak. This event is called “The Great Stink.” It was 84 degrees fahrenheit and the stench of the sewage was so powerful that Parliament could not stay put in it’s building for fear of being poisoned. It was so bad that companies started to offer free immigration to the Cape in South Africa. The House of Commons at Westminster could not meet unless curtains soaked in chloride were hung by the windows (Illustrated). The people called the government to action. Their taxes began to be put to use to clean up the river. A plan was fashioned and carried out in which the pollution from the Thames would be carted to alternative water sources- far away from London (Illustrated). The suffering had been abolished.

Clean Water Advancements Victorian Era vs Modern Day

The sewage system has allowed scientists and engineers to make drastic improvements upon it. This was possible through gracious investments from the government. Each year, the American government spends billion of dollars on building and maintaining water treatment plants (Metcalfe). This compares to the feeble amount of money ($0, actually) the British government spent on cleaning up the Thames. That is, until the Great Stink (Allingham). In modern day America, when we flush the toilet, our waste travels down the toilet, through the pipes, and enters a water treatment plant. Water treatment is an extensive process in which sewage is cleansed of its harmful ingredients. From there, the leftover biodegradable material is concentrated into fertilizer for farms (Metcalfe). This may seem unappealing, but the fertilizer isn’t really human waste. It’s full of nutrients, without the harmful bacteria. The water can be treated two types of ways. All water is cleansed. The water that is only cleansed can be deposited into streams, rivers, or oceans. However, it can be further purified for drinking water (Metcalfe). Modern-day waste differs from Victorian waste in many ways. Modern-day waste is first treated and then deposited into water sources. This way, there aren’t any pathogens, ready to catalyze the next cholera epidemic. It is also safe for the marine life living in the water. The fish no longer die from oxygen deficiency. Modern day sewage treatment is much safer (and less pungent) than Victorian era sewage. The advancements in sewage treatment have greatly reduced the spread of diseases and has helped improve the lives of many.

Works Cited

Works Cited

Allen, Michelle. "Good Intentions, Unexpected Consequences: Thames Pollution of and The Great Stink of 1858." The Victorian Web. N.p., 23 Feb. 2009. Web. 13 June 2016.

Allen, Michelle. "London Nightmen." The Victorian Web. Ohio University Press, 24 Feb. 2009. Web. 13 June 2016.

Allingham, Philip V. "Charles Dickens and "the Big Stink"" The Victorian Web. N.p., 16 Apr. 2011. Web. 13 June 2016.

Metcalfe, John. "What Really Happens After You Flush the Toilet." City Lab. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 3 July 2012. Web. 14 June 2016.

"The Purification of the Thames." The Illustrated London News [The Victorian Web] 24 July 1858, 928th ed., sec. 33: 71-72. Print.

Wohl, Anthony S. "Sanitation and Disease in Rich and Poor." Endangered Lives: Public Health in Victorian Britain (1983): 1-2. The Victorian Web. Harvard UP, 11 May 2106. Web. 13 June 2016.