Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: cloaca

  • An ode to the cloaca

    Jayant RadhakrishnanDarien, Illinois, United StatesAnant Radhakrishnan Amarillo, Texas, United States The term cloaca was first used around 600 BC by the Romans who named their main drainage channel the “Cloaca Maxima” or the Greatest Sewer. It drained the local marshes and all water and effluent from Rome into the Tiber River. They continued expanding it so…