Actually, it’s easy to understand why the flush toilet caused so much excitement. At the time, life in London and other cities was both stinky and dangerous.
Until the flush toilet was invented, London had no system in place for the disposal of human feces—or poop. People dumped it wherever they could.
They’d toss it into the street, as well as into rivers and ditches. Can you imagine the terrible odor that must have filled the air?
But the smell wasn’t the only problem. Human waste carries germs that can make you seriously sick. Even a small amount of feces can spread deadly diseases like cholera and typhoid.
In the old days, no one knew that feces could spread diseases—so they continued to toss their waste into ditches. These ditches overflowed when it rained, and the overflow got into wells used for drinking water. A single glass of this dirty water could kill a person in days.