Elizabethan

dfdsfinventors and police provided vivid horror stories of "miasmas,

plagues and sudden death" in the homes of London.

By the early 18th Century nearly every residence had a cesspit beneath

the floors. In the best of homes the nauseating stench permeated the most

elegant parlor. Indoor odors were often worse than of the garbage- and manure-

filled streets. While noxious fumes were ignored by most people, it was fear

of "night air" laden with coal smoke and sulfurous industrial fogs which

alarmed the City dweller.

Doors and windows of homes and factories were sealed shut at sunset to

protect occupants form entry of the feared "night air." Entire families and

crews of workers died of mysterious "asphyxiation" during the night. Doctors

had no explanation for lingering illnesses and these sudden "miasmas"

occurring in the City. Vivid descriptions of horrible deaths were routinely

reported at Commission hearings and in the London tabloids.

Most fatalities and injuries described were consistent with asphyxiation

by hydrogen sulfide or oxygen deficiency or methane explosions. These

conditions remain common in sewers, septic tanks and confined spaces today.

When cesspits filled to overflow, they were built to drain to the street

by means of a crudely built culvert to a partially open sewer trench in the

center of the street. Cesspit wastes often soaked foundations, walls and

floors of living quarters. The culvert was frequently blocked causing sewage

to spread under buildings and contaminate shallow wells, cisterns and water

ways from which