Dear list,
It was not my intention to imply that the personal experiences of
archaeologists, or anyone else for that matter, were irrelevant or not
useful. What I was taking issue with, specifically, were repeated
statements that privy odors, being aesthetically offensive, determined
their placement and maintenance. While smelliness is not irrelevant, what
appears to have been most important during the last third of the nineteenth
century was finding a way to minimize the threat of disease, which was
believed, generally, to be caused by the inhalation of the gases emitted
from wastes ("miasmas"), while improving the convenience and discretion of
eliminating wastes from the body, the house, and the yard. In urban areas,
there was also a concern with removing wastes from the city as a whole.
Implied in the research I have done is that many people opted for
convenience, and to some extent discretion, over minimizing smelliness and
the threat of disease. This has led me to believe that smelliness was not
of primary concern, and that many folks didn't buy the claims of experts
that miasmas were a threat, or at least that their privies or toilets were
hazardous. Increased public education campaigns on the part of governments
and private reform movements in the latter part of the century coincided
with changing attitudes toward waste handling, as did the gradual
acceptance of the germ theory of disease causation. Both of these factors
influenced the creation of public health codes, the placement of privies
and toilets, and the nature of plumbing systems. In short, an
understanding of sanitary practice that we are familiar with today came
into being.
While there is much more to say on this topic, and much important
information has been omitted from my discussion, I hope that I have
clarified the intent of my prior posting. I welcome any personal
reminisces, or further comments on the topic. I'm especially interested in
information or insights that would be helpful toward expanding my research
to include sanitary practices in an industrial setting.
Sincerely,
Timothy J. Mancl
Graduate Student
Industrial Heritage and Archaeology
Michigan Technological University
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