The Great Stink of Paris and the Nineteenth-Century Struggle Against Filth and Germs

By David S. Barnes

Book Overview

Late in the summer of 1880, a wave of odors enveloped large portions of Paris. As the stench lingered, outraged residents feared that the foul air would breed an epidemic. Fifteen years later--when the City of Light was in the grips of another Great Stink--the public conversation about health and disease had changed dramatically. Parisians held their noses and protested, but this time few feared that the odors would spread disease.

Historian David S. Barnes examines the birth of a new microbe-centered science of public health during the 1880s and 1890s, when the germ theory of disease burst into public consciousness. Tracing a series of developments in French science, medicine, politics, and culture, Barnes reveals how the science and practice of public health changed during the heyday of the Bacteriological Revolution.

Despite its many innovations, however, the new science of germs did not entirely sweep away the older "sanitarian" view of public health. The longstanding conviction that disease could be traced to filthy people, places, and substances remained strong, even as it was translated into the language of bacteriology. Ultimately, the attitudes of physicians and the French public were shaped by political struggles between republicans and the clergy, by aggressive efforts to educate and "civilize" the peasantry, and by long-term shifts in the public's ability to tolerate the odor of bodily substances.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801883490
• ISBN13: 9780801883491
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A fascinating look into something that we take for granted

This book would be an interesting read by anyone interested in history, Paris, public health, disease, medicine, waste disposal, hygiene, sanitation, etc. It tells how things went from bad to worse, in 1880 when there was a garbage and sewage crisis in Paris.

Highly recommended and informative reading

In late summer of 1880 odors began drenching Paris from its sewers, and residents feared an epidemic would follow. Fifteen years later another Great Stink occurred - this time with little fear of resulting disease. Historian Barnes considers the evolving science of public health in Paris between the 1880s and 1890s, blending history, culture, science and medicine with a review of how public health policies changed during the era. A work of impeccable scholarship, The Great Stink of Paris and The 19th Century Struggle Against Filth and Germs is highly recommended and informative reading for students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the history of modern medicine, as well as 19th century French history.

Scent in the City

During a recent trip to China in 2001, I passed fields fertilized with human waste, and saw toilets which were made by laying wooden planks across a small stream of water. In other words, the problems of human stink and poor sanitation are not only of historical interest, circa Paris 1880. In this book, the author gives a ripe account of the public outcry when the Odor of Paris turned from an almost-amusing bother to a public health emergency. He traces the change in belief about the health dangers of stink, weaving sociology and the history of science together, and gluing it firmly with an authoritative and believable re-telling of the ups and downs of local French government as it tried to serve the public, incorporate the recent discoveries of Pasteur, and educate the public in the basics of sanitation. Intended for scholars rather than the masses, this book contains a well-researched, thoughtful and complete record, which is surprisingly warm and lively, of this period in human olfactory history.