The idea that people used to empty chamber pots out the window, in the street, is quite widespread. Usually, it is said that it was something practiced in the Middle Ages, and the image is often depicted in films evolve that period. Unfortunately, like many other popular ideas about the Middle Ages, it is false.
People in the Middle Ages were disturbed, like us, by the smell of feces. Also, even if you do not understand exactly how diseases were transmitted through them, they knew this. In fact, they believed that diseases spread through feces has to do with their odor.
As a result, the cities had laws on the removal of faeces, emptying latrines and toilets. In medieval London, for example, people were responsible for maintaining and cleaning streets around their homes. If this law was not respected, fines were issued. Therefore, a text from that period tells how a man was severely beaten because he threw the skin of a smoked fish on the street in front of his house. The owner was mad that he had to pay a fine so he retaliated on the trouble maker.
Large houses had latrines attached to the house, or somewhere in the yard, and they were emptied in deep drains.
In smaller homes, people used to defecate in buckets that where emptied daily, usually in the nearest stream.
Source: Slate
