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4 - Innovations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2019

James L. A. Webb, Jr
Affiliation:
Colby College, Maine
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Summary

The fourth chapter, “Innovations,” discusses the environmental challenges in a rapidly urbanizing London, the capital of the largest empire of the modern period. It explores the early innovations in dealing with excreta disposal, including the creation of an underground sewer system and efforts to use the highly dilute sewer effluvia as fertilizer. The direct health benefits of modern sewerage alone were modest. Many smaller and less wealthy cities and towns opted for other methods of human waste disposal, including the tub-and-pail system. Much infectious intestinal disease was the result of pathogen-laden flies alighting on food and the contamination of the urban milk supply. The major reductions in mortality and morbidity from intestinal pathogens came about as a result of the filtration and chemical treatment of drinking water with chlorine or ozonation.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Guts of the Matter
A Global History of Human Waste and Infectious Intestinal Disease
, pp. 65 - 84
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • Innovations
  • James L. A. Webb, Jr, Colby College, Maine
  • Book: The Guts of the Matter
  • Online publication: 18 November 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108642323.005
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  • Innovations
  • James L. A. Webb, Jr, Colby College, Maine
  • Book: The Guts of the Matter
  • Online publication: 18 November 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108642323.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Innovations
  • James L. A. Webb, Jr, Colby College, Maine
  • Book: The Guts of the Matter
  • Online publication: 18 November 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108642323.005
Available formats
×