Transcriber’s Note: Italics are indicated with _underscores_, bold text with =equals signs=. [Illustration: THE CENTRE OF LONDON IN 1658, REPRODUCED FROM NEWCOURT’S MAP. [_Frontispiece._ ] LONDON (Ancient and Modern) _From the Sanitary and Medical Point of View._ BY G. V. POORE, M.D., F.R.C.P. CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: _London, Paris, New York & Melbourne_. 1889. PREFACE. This little book is an expansion of two addresses delivered in January, 1889. One of these addresses, which deals with the Sanitary Aspects of Ancient and Modern London, was given in the Parkes Museum of the Sanitary Institute, and was written for a mixed audience. The other formed the subject of the annual address to the Students’ Medical Society at University College, London, and was written for an audience which might be expected to have a special interest in the History of Medicine in London. Both have already appeared in print; the first in _Public Health_, the journal of the Society of Medical Officers of Health; and the second in the _Lancet_. For the loan of most of the woodcuts the author is indebted to the Publishers of the _Lancet_, who kindly undertook, when the lecture was appearing in their columns, to illustrate it with five illustrations, which were made especially for the purpose. One illustration has been supplied by the proprietors of _Public Health_, and four have been borrowed from “Cassell’s Old and New London.” CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. LONDON FROM THE SANITARY POINT OF VIEW. PAGE SITUATION 7 WATER SUPPLY 10 MEDIÆVAL LONDON 16 GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS 18 HEALTH OF OLD LONDON 24 THE LONDON “DEATH RATE” 31 IMPROVED CONDITION OF MODERN LONDON 34 WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK? 36 ANNUAL DEATH-RATE PER 100,000 LIVING OF CHILDREN UNDER 5 YEARS OF AGE FROM WHOOPING-COUGH AND MEASLES DURING THE 10 YEARS 1871-80 41 THE LOOSE END OF OUR SANITATION 44 CHAPTER II. LONDON FROM THE MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW. CHAUCER’S DOCTOR 50 EARLIEST LONDON PRACTITIONERS 53 THE SEVERANCE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY 56 THE EARLIEST MEDICAL ACT 59 THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS 60