1886: Popular Paris bakery uses ‘extract of water-closet’

In 1886, a German doctor named Gustav Jaeger described a Paris bakery popular for its fine breads and pastries – but also notorious for its odious smells:

“The neighbours of an establishment famous for its excellent bread, pastry and similar products of luxury [has] complained again and again of the disgusting smells that prevailed there, which penetrate into their dwellings.”

When cholera broke out in the area, city officials inspected buildings and water supplies. To their alarm, they found the bakery was drawing its water not from wells but from a pond connected to local sewers. This is not surprising, writes Jaeger, as:

“Chemists have no difficulty in demonstrating that water impregnated with ‘extract of water-closet’ has the peculiar property of causing dough to rise particularly fine, thereby imparting to bread the nice appearance and pleasant flavour which is the principal quality of luxurious bread.”

The bakery was force to cease using the pond, which apparently caused “a perceptible deterioration of the quality of the bread”.

Source: Letter from Dr Gustav Jaeger; cited in General Homeopathic Journal, vol 113, 1886. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.