THE THAMES RAN FOUL: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London sought in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that scorched the metropolis. An even more unpleasant force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial effluents had transformed London's lifeblood into a stench. The stench was all-consuming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and infused

On a blustery afternoon in that fateful year, disaster struck Boston. A massive reservoir filled with sticky, sweet molasses burst sending a torrent of the thick liquid crashing through the streets. The force was catastrophic, crushing buildings and entombing people in a gooey mass. Scores of people were fatally injured, and many more sustained i