The document describes a letter to The Times from 1855 during a period known as the Great Stink in London. The letter details how the Thames River had become so polluted near bridges that dense clouds of sewage were visible floating on the surface of the water. The entire river smelled strongly of raw sewage, similar to the smell coming from drains in the streets at the time. The letter states that the Thames had essentially become a sewer during this pollution event.

1. Cartoons for the Great Stink

3. Faraday’s letter to The Times, July 1855
• "Near the bridges the feculence rolled up in
clouds so dense that they were visible at the
surface, even in water of this kind. ... The
smell was very bad, and common to the whole
of the water; it was the same as that which
now comes up from the gully-holes in the
streets; the whole river was for the time a real
sewer."