The origin of the indoor toilet for the disposal of human wastes goes far back in history. Archaeologists found in the palace of King Minos on Crete an indoor latrine that had a wooden seat and may have worked like a modern flush toilet; they also discovered a water-supply system of terra cotta pipes to provide water for the toilet. Between 2500 and 1500 B.C., cities in the Indus Valley also had indoor toilets that were flushed with water. The wastewater was carried to street drains through brick-lined pits. In 1860, Reverend Henry Moule invented the earth closet, a wooden seat over a bucket and a hopper filled with dry earth, charcoal, or ashes. The user of the toilet pulled a handle to release a layer of earth from the hopper over the wastes in the bucket. The container was emptied periodically. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe...