Umweltgeschichte SaarJul 12, 2024
[EN] 1810: The environmental historians among you will probably already know. The Napoleonic decree of 15 October 1810 was one of the very first pieces of legislation to regulate the construction of establishments that spread "an unhealthy or offensive odour". The establishments were divided into three categories depending on the degree of pollution and different government agencies were responsible for authorising them. The project had to be publicised in advance and local residents were able to comment on it and raise objections. A major point of criticism among historians: It was impossible to close down businesses once they had been authorised! But should the law be assessed as negatively as some researchers have done?
A thread on the Napoleonic Decree of 15 October 1810: Part 1 - What's the stink? [1/7]
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[2/7] The decree only speaks of odours. The importance of the olfactory sense had its origins in the miasma theory of Hippocrates of Kos, which was received well into the 19th century. The hygienists of the Enlightenment also assumed that the slow decomposition of organic substances released foul odours/miasmas that led to disease. There was hardly any experience of modern industrial plants around 1800, medical science was not yet professionalised and there were no chemical detection methods or the idea of clinical studies to determine thresholds. Such plants could therefore only be tested for harmfulness on the basis of subjective perception, primarily through the olfactory sense.
Jul 12, 2024 at 5:26pmWeb