I (Heart) Sewers

A hundred years ago the lifespan of an average European was 37; now it's 66 years Worldwide. That's a friggin miracle!! Is this due to excellent pre-natal healthcare? Can we applaud the AMA? No. The reasons you can expect to live so long are due to the innovations and care of your local Sanitation Department. That's right, the Garbage Man, the Street Sweeper and the Sewage Disposal plant are saving your life!

According to a recent poll conducted by the British Medical Journal (Jan. 19 London), the greatest Medical Advancement in the last 166 years are efforts in Sanitation and Hygiene. That's Virgo, 6th house stuff. Those hypercritical little fussbudgets who never ask for nobody's help and can't leave work until everything's done just perfect -- Who says they can't see the Forest for the Trees! "The general lesson which still holds is that passive protection against health hazards is often the best way to improve population health" -- Prof. John MacKenback of Erasmus University Medical Center.

Well, the Virgo's aren't doing it alone. Our sparkling sewer systems are most responsible for containing largest quantities of disease. Pluto and Scorpio rule Sewers along with Cancer and Moon. Pluto rules both Elimination and Medical Research and Discoveries. Cancer rules plumbing. If you've got Pluto in your 4th house, however, you can rest assured that you will have more than your fair share of backed up toilets in your lifetime.

In the Poll, 11,000 votes were counted worldwide. 15.8% voted on behalf of the Sewers and Water Supply Systems. 2d highest vote was for Antibiotics (Neptune); 3d for Anesthesia (Neptune); 4th for Discovery of Vaccines (Pluto), 5th for discovery of DNA structure (Pluto?, maybe also 4th house?).

I don't understand exactly why the Poll asked for advances in the last 166 years. Why is this the cut off date? I think the Cholera Epidemic was responsible because a guy named John Snow discovered the link between cholera and drinking water in 1854. 166 years brings us back to 1840 though. I'm too lazy to look it up but did notice that many of the outer planets were in the same spot in January, 1840 as they were at the end of Last Year. Jupiter in Scorpio, Uranus and Neptune in Mutual Reception, and North Node in Pisces. Just an interesting coincidence and a bit of Wish that History will repeat itself and brings us a whole new set of miraculous innovations.