How the Toilet Changed History

Perdew, Laura. How the Toilet Changed History. Part of the Essential Library of Inventions series. 2016. 112p. ISBN 978-1-62403-787-0. Available at 644.6 PER on the library shelves.

This review, unlike every other review I’ve ever written, starts with a personal anecdote. I have had many a conversations with students over the years about the relative merits of different historical periods, particularly with references to the “good ol’ days.” Invariably, the arguments degenerate until two magic words come out: Indoor plumbing. I’m a fan of indoor plumbing, and can’t imagine living without it in my house. You can't convince me that any historical period before indoor plumbing was better.

So when this book came along, I thought I would give it a go. I was convinced I knew just about every piece of information that this book contained. Was I wrong! Though the ancient Romans knew all about sanitation (at least, what was visible to them) and had built large aqueducts and sewer systems to handle waste, this knowledge was lost during the fall of the Roman Empire and the subsequent periods referred to the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages. Bodily functions were frowned upon by early Christians, and this distaste percolated to today, when we rarely talk about pee and poop (snickering middle schoolers, this one’s for you).

Castles and other structures featured chutes where waste could be dumped, but most had cesspools in the basement or just threw their waste out the window. Many communicable diseases were transmitted this way and contributed to the outbreaks of several plagues. The invention of the flush toilet eventually led to the creation of sewer systems to move the waste around, but politics got in the way of sanitation. In London, the summer of 1858 was particularly hot and dry, and the Thames river, where eventually all of the city’s waste ended, all but dried up. The stench was unbearable. As the river runs by Parliament, elected officials had no choice but to deal with this situation. The modern sewer was born.

Today we are experiencing a partial collapse of our infrastructure. Sewers are aged and need replacing. Treatment plants have reached their useful life. There is little political will, however, to spend tax dollars fixing a problem that is all but invisible at the moment. Perhaps another Great Stink like the one that afflicted London will convince politicians that our water and waste infrastructure deserves to be maintained and cared for, otherwise we will all need to dig up holes and dust off our old New England outhouses. I prefer my indoor plumbing.