John Evelyn and Fumifugium:
Air Pollution in the Seventeenth-Century London
2001 Volume 24 Pages 21-35
Details
2001 Volume 24 Pages 21-35
In Restoration England, John Evelyn (1620-1706) published, corresponding to the Royal command (King Charles II), Fumifugium, or the Inconvenience of the Aer and Smoke of London Dissipated (1661), now widely appreciated as the first comprehensive monograph on the air pollution. Through his assiduous commitments towards medicine, chemistry, and horticulture, he identified systematically and appropriately the sources and harmful effects of the pollution problems, in no way inferior to the present level of scientific investigations.
In this paper, the text itself is analysed fully with some comments, while contextualised into the intellectual milieux of the mid-seventeenth century.
