Miasma Theory - The Influence of Miasma: Sanitary Engineering Reforms in The West

The Influence of Miasma: Sanitary Engineering Reforms in The West

The theory of miasma disease made sense to the English sanitary reformers of the mid-19th century. Miasma explained why cholera and other diseases were epidemic in places where the water was undrained and very foul-smelling. As sanitary reform’s engineering leader, London’s Edwin Chadwick, put it, “all smell is disease.” The theory led to sanitation improvements, such as preventing the reflux of noxious air from sewers back into houses by separate drainage systems in the sanitation designs, which incidentally led to decreased episodes of cholera, and thus helped to support the theory.

The miasma theory was consistent with the observations that disease was associated with poor sanitation (and hence foul odours) and that sanitary improvements reduced disease; it was not consistent with the observations of microbiology however, that led to the later germ theory of disease. The introduction of medical bacteriology in the 1870s and 1880s provided a challenge to the miasma theory, though consensus was not reached immediately; concerns over sewer gas, which was a major component of the miasma theory developed by Galen and brought to prominence by the Great Stink, led to continuing proponents of the theory, who observed that sewers enclosed the refuse of the human bowel, which medical science had discovered could teem with typhoid, cholera, and other microbes.

Even though later disproven by the influence of bacteria and the discovery of viruses, the miasma theory helped make the connection between poor sanitation and disease. This caused public health reforms and encouraged cleanliness, which led to the legislation of the Parliament, which approved the Public Health Acts of 1848 and 1858 and the Local Government Act of 1858. The latter of these confers the power of instating investigations into the health and sanitary regulations of any town or place, upon the petition of residents or death rates exceeding the norm. Early medical and sanitary engineering reformers included Henry Austin, Joseph Bazalgette, Edwin Chadwick, Frank Forster, Thomas Hawksley, William Haywood, Henry Letheby, Robert Rawlinson, Sir John Simon and Thomas Wicksteed. These and later British regulatory improvements were reported in the United States as early as 1865.

Years later, the influence of these sanitary reforms on Britain was described by Sir Richard Rogers:

Throughout the nineteenth century public health, sanitation and the influence of miasma became the main reasons to cremate. The miasma theory believed that infectious diseases were spread by noxious gases emitted from decaying organic matter, which included decaying corpses. This public health argument for cremation faded along with the miasma theory.