History of Sanitation

HISTORY OF SANITATION 105 results—three of the best of all the guarantees against fal- lacy—were combined to make the inductions sure. For the first time in the history of man, the sewage of nearly three millions of people had been brought to seethe and ferment under a burning sun, in one vast open cloaca lying in their midst. The result we all know. Stench so foul we may well believe had never before ascended to pollute this lower air. Never before at least had a stink risen to the height of an historic event. Even ancient fable failed to furnish figures adequate to convey a conception of its thrice-Augean foulness. For many weeks the atmosphere of Parliamentary committee rooms was only rendered barely tolerable by the suspension before every window of blinds saturated with chloride of lime, and by the lavish use of this and other disinfectants. More than once, in spite of similar precautions, the law courts were suddenly broken up by an insupportable invasion of the noxious vapor. The river steamers lost their accustomed traffic, and travelers pressed for time often made circuit of many miles rather than cross one of the city bridges. For months together the topic almost monopolized the public prints. Day after day, week after week, the 7 imcs teemed with letters filled with complaint, prophetic of calamity or suggesting remedies. Here and there a more than commonly passionate appeal showed how intensely the evil was felt by those who were condemned to dwell on the Stygian banks. At home and abroad the state of the chief river was felt to be a national reproach. “ India is in Revolt, and the Thames Stinks,” were the two great facts coupled together by a distinguished foreign writer to mark the climax of a national humiliation. But more sig- nificant still of the magnitude of the nuisance was the fact that five million pounds in money were cheerfully voted by a heavily-taxed community to provide the means for its abatement. With the popular views as to the connection between epidemic disease and putrescent gases, this state of things naturally gave rise to the worst forebodings. Members of Parliament and noble lords, dabblers in