conceive of a summer day with temperature hovering around 90 F ( 32 nose candy ) . Instead of wearing a cotton T - shirt and sip iced deep brown , you ’re dressed in layers upon layer of silk and stiff taffeta that stretch all the way up to your chin as you clutch a cup of hot tea . At least you ’re sitting still in a parlor .
peradventure you ’re less of a lady and clothe in slightly more breathable muslin , but you ’re bustle about around a dank kitchen with tendrils of sweaty hair plaster over to your neck . Oh , and there ’s a terrible , inescapable smell in the air . Welcome to Victorian England !
The swelter summertime of 1858 in London was known as the Great Stink . Industrial opportunitiesdrew drove of the great unwashed into the urban center , and there was scarcely enough housing to accommodate them all . workings - class Londoners quartered themselves in tiny spaces with poor ventilation , which meant that their homes pulsed with the putrid , mingling smells of preparation , human consistency odor and permissive waste .
flush families hadwater water closet , but the city ’s poor population emptied faecal topic into cesspits . Slate ’s Ella Mortonnumbers the city ’s cesspit at 200,000 . worker call night human race labored while the city catch some Z’s , lowering themselves into the pits to shovel out waste . They could scarcely keep up with the task of emptying them . The cesspits bake under the hot sunlight , emitting foul smell .
There ’s more . While some cesspit were situate in open country , others were constructed beneath housing developments . There , the thirsty land beneath the cesspits was pulling wastefulness into the earth , where it dribble dangerously into the metropolis ’s water supplying — the Thames River .
In “ The River Pollution Dilemma in Victorian England,”Dr . Leslie Rosenthal , a professor of economics , explainsthat humble populations can successfully utilize waste for “ manurial benefits . ” waste product can be left untreated in the component and allowed to break up over clock time . But in packed city , the trouble pack up . To dispose of dissipation want great physical commitment ( remember those night gentleman ) , major fiscal resources and monolithic acts of engine room . There has to be a solution well than “ inexpertly aim it into river , ” as Rosenthal says .
The most insidious threat to Londoners ' health was cholera , which could be contracted by drink water from the Thames . However , the more obvious issue was that smell . No one , from the poorest of the poor to the loaded of the wealthy , was exempt from the olfactory sensation . It was so pervasive that Parliament could scarce gather its mental capacity to meet . In an oft - repeat anecdote , Parliament ’s curtains were doused with chloride of limeto mask the smell . ( That did n’t work . )
A unfeignedly terrible odor is n’t just a pain in the neck : It poses actual wellness risks . As human permissive waste decomposes , it develop sewer petrol , a combination of non-poisonous and toxic gases , such as H sulfide . TheNational Institutes of Health identifies problemssuch as inflamed eyes and pharynx , cough , trouble breathing and fluid - filled lung in its summary of risk of infection link up with inhaling sewer gas . foresighted - term pic could cause store loss , lethargy , sensory faculty of vertigo and , yes , even death .
The Great Stink could n’t be ignored , andParliament approve a billfor a sewer organization in just 18 days . Of naturally , it took several years for the system , designed by Joseph Bazalgette , chief engineer of the London Metropolitan Board of Works , to be build , and not just because it was an detailed barren - deflexion system . In photos you’re able to see , it was a veritable work of art .
OK , so there ’s probably no money for a Byzantine - inspired sewer organisation in a to a great extent populated city today , but what ’s the likelihood our government could usher through a bill aimed at solving a public health crisis in 18 days ?
“ It really depends on the nature of the crisis and the administration entity respond to it — whether it ’s a metropolis , county , state or federal administration , ” says John Wedeles , a Washington , D.C.-based data analyst with the Department of Health Care Finance . “ If it ’s a crisis that sham everyone equally , and does n’t conduct any political tinge , then the reaction is likely to be quicker . ”
Plus , as Wedeles points out , " The face of government responses to public wellness crises today is often in the human body of medium . " mean of TV commercial message , tweet or YouTube videos that tell you to fall apart your seat belt or stop smoke , he says .
" With advances in social marketing and digital media , these can often be very advanced and likeable intent — perhaps the 21st century version of a beautiful sewage pump place , " says Wedeles .
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