Picture Manhattan over several centuries. Odoriferous streets strewn with garbage, and excrement, and carcasses. Feeding masses of free-roaming pigs. Winters

Picture Manhattan over several centuries. Odoriferous streets strewn with garbage, and excrement, and carcasses. Feeding masses of free-roaming pigs. Winters were colder then, so waste accumulated over the winter, frozen solid. Now imagine the weeks, after the spring thaw, until the pigs caught up with their sanitation backlog. Even for people of the time, it was thought remarkable.