HI 440 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Night Soil, Jane Addams, Waterborne Diseases
The Organic City
All engineering is social engineering, too. All efforts to change the natural world is an effort to
change or guide society in a different direction. It has consequences for society as well as nature.
Pigs
● Feral pigs would destroy gardens, attack people, and attack pets
● Would collect garbage as a service for people in urban cities
● There were movements to outlaw pigs in the cities and due to those efforts, pig riots
began in New York City
○ The cholera epidemic, a water-borne disease, ended pigs in cities because people
of the 1800’s believed it was caused by the filth pigs brought
Horse
● What the car, train and bus was to people of the 19th century
● In San Francisco, there was a horse for every ten people
○ Horse cars/wagons were the way people got around
○ They were essential to how the city functioned
● Caused the high demand for hay to supply the horses enough food a day
○ ¼ of American farms were used to feed horses
● Supplied tons of manure due to the amount of food and water they consumed on a daily
basis
○ It could be used as a fertilizer in gardens around the city
● The amount of manure caused respiratory issues in cities due to particles going into the
air some described as a “brown cloud”
● Horses were most used with the introduction of the railroad because more people needed
to go to the station
○ But their use declind with electrified street cars and the automobile
Night Soil
● Human waste
● Ended up in waterways or was used as fertilizer just as horse waste was
● There was a cleaning process for garbage, night soil, etc
Public Health/Municipal Housekeeping
● Doctors, engineers, etc identified cities as unhealthy and immoral
● Wanted to change the city and clean it up
● Rise of germ theory in the end of 1800’s said disease was spread by germs and unsanitary
conditions; it did not matter the cultural, physical or social characteristics one had
● The first movement was to provide clean running water for city people
○ Solved the problem of night soil and manure through sewers
○ But created the problem of dumping waste into waters
● Garbage was next to dispose of properly
○ Saw cleaning the city as a form of a moral obligation that aimed to colonize the
behavior of city dwellers
● Jane Addams trained women on how to keep a clean house, nurse, care for children, etc
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
All efforts to change the natural world is an effort to change or guide society in a different direction. It has consequences for society as well as nature. Feral pigs would destroy gardens, attack people, and attack pets. Would collect garbage as a service for people in urban cities. There were movements to outlaw pigs in the cities and due to those efforts, pig riots began in new york city. The cholera epidemic, a water-borne disease, ended pigs in cities because people of the 1800"s believed it was caused by the filth pigs brought. What the car, train and bus was to people of the 19th century. In san francisco, there was a horse for every ten people. Horse cars/wagons were the way people got around. They were essential to how the city functioned. Caused the high demand for hay to supply the horses enough food a day. Of american farms were used to feed horses.
