this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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True, but "tossing your excrement out the window" has always been a no-no.
Solids go to the night-soil man for fertilizer. Liquids go in the barrel on the corner for tanning or laundry. There were some rudimentary sewer systems; they were just sorely underengineered.
Another big dung-related problem that urban areas had was all the horse manure. The amount of horse manure that had to be collected and moved and sequestered every day was enormous, and the streets were muddy in no small part from urine.
Sometimes frowned upon, but extremely common practice anyway. Without robust and accessible sewer systems, it's just what happens in urban environments.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/12/did-people-in-the-middle-ages-throw-excrement-out-windows.html
Most certainly not in the 1800s.
Woodcut from 1489.
There are regions without sewerage who still do that shit (ha) today. As late as the 1940s it was noted that some lower-class Londoners were in the habit of defecating in the corners of rooms.
I don't think a single woodcut depicting it can really be generalized for a wider or comnon practises.