London in the 1600s smelled overwhelmingly of human and animal waste, industrial byproducts, rotting food, and smoke, with the River Thames acting as a foul open sewer, creating pervasive stench from overflowing cesspits, animal carcasses, and waste dumped directly into the water, occasionally punctuated by sweet perfumes from the wealthy trying to mask the miasma.
The smell of human waste and industrial effluent hung over Victorian London. For centuries the River Thames had been used as a dumping ground for the capital's waste and as the population grew, so did the problem.
Even amongst the aristocracy, smelling good was a rarity — King Louis XIV of France, who it is believed only took two baths in his entire life, was described by one Russian ambassador as “stinking like a wild animal.” Some tried to cover this smell with perfume, but since most people couldn't afford it, it became ...
Where did the smell come from? In the 1850s, waste of all types ended up in the River Thames. There was human poo and wee, dead animals, thrown-away food, industrial waste from riverside factories, and the bodies of anyone who drowned. In the streets, manure piled up from the horse-drawn carriages.
People didn't bathe often. Mostly, they just washed their hands and face and combed their hair (and beards). They relied on their underclothes to soak up dirt and smell and changed these as often as they could afford to have them washed. They also used perfumes and sweet waters to cover up bad smells.
According to a historian on this sub (here), Queen Elizabeth in the ~1600s only bathed once a month, and that was the upper limit for most people. The majority of peasants likely bathed only a handful of times a year.
Alternatives to toilet paper in the Middle Ages
In Europe, wealthier people used wool, rags and scraps of cloth to wipe themselves. The common people knew how to make do with leaves, moss, straw, hay or simply with their hands and water.
Nonenal® (also known as 2-Nonenal) is a naturally occurring compound responsible for the distinct odor associated with aging. It typically appears after age 40, becoming more noticeable in both men and women.
A Northern and Southern Outfall Sewer were planned to manage the waste for each side of the river. London was mapped into high-, middle- and low-level areas, with a main sewer servicing each; a series of pumping stations was planned to remove the waste towards the east of the city.
The characteristic human axillary odor is formed by bacterial action on odor precursors that originate from apocrine sweat glands. Caucasians and Africans possess a strong axillary odor ,whereas many Asians have only a faint acidic odor.
Options included rocks, leaves, grass, moss, animal fur, corn cobs, coconut husks, sticks, sand, and sea shells. Water and snow were also used to wash and clean.
One study suggested that old person smell may be the result of 2-nonenal, an unsaturated aldehyde which is associated with human body odor alterations during aging.
Until disposable sanitary pads were created, cloth or reusable pads were widely used to collect menstrual blood. Women often used a variety of home-made menstrual pads which they crafted from various fabrics, or other absorbent materials, to collect menstrual blood.
“Filthy, dirty aristocrats were kind of the norm,” says Katherine Ashenburg, author of The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History. Perceptions of odor soon changed. In the 18th and 19th centuries, bathing became more common, forging a new association between body odor and negative things, like poverty and disease.
A common word used across Britain is “minging” meaning disgusting/smelly/rotten.
Whenever you flush the toilet or empty the sink, the wastewater goes down the drain and into a pipe, which takes it to a larger sewer pipe under the road. The sewer then joins our network of other sewers and takes the wastewater to a sewage treatment works.
The Cloaca Maxima (Latin: Cloāca Maxima [kɫɔˈaːka ˈmaksɪma], lit. 'Greatest Drainage'; also Maxima Cloaca) was originally built to drain the rain water from the city of Rome, and is one of the world's earliest drainage systems. Its name is related to that of Cloacina, a Roman goddess.
That was the year of "The Great Stink" — when the Thames River, hot and filled with sewage, made life miserable for the residents of the city. "It was continuously hot for two to three months with temperatures up into the 90s quite often," Ashton says.
Kids start to have body odor around the time puberty starts and hormones change. Usually, this happens when females are 8–13 years old, and males are 9–14. But it can also be normal to start puberty earlier or later. Bathing every day, especially after a lot of sweating or in hot weather, can help with body odor.
“Old person smell” isn't tied to a specific age, but it can begin as early as 40. That's when the body might start producing more 2-nonenal, a compound linked to aging-related scent changes.
Salty and sweet flavors tend to weaken first. Later, it may be more difficult to taste things that are bitter or sour. Age can also lessen the sense of smell which is strongest when people are between 30 and 60 years old. Some people eventually lose their sense of smell entirely.
In many Amish homes, rags are a common toilet paper alternative. These rags are typically old clothes that have been worn out. After simple processing, they become practical cleaning tools.
The "3 poop rule," or "three-and-three rule," is a guideline for normal bowel habits, suggesting that pooping anywhere from three times a day to three times a week is considered healthy, with individual patterns varying widely. It helps identify issues: fewer than three times a week may signal constipation, while more than three times a day (especially with loose stools) might indicate diarrhea, prompting a doctor visit for persistent problems, notes Symprove UK.