The situation was not healthy because of the marshy surroundings of the city. Ague and dysentery were always present, and were terribly fatal. Not only was the ground around the city marshy, but it was probably filthy as well. The old town ditch was used as a receptacle for all kinds of filth, and the cleansing of it was a great work, which was only occasionally undertaken. When Moorfields was drained, and the other marshy districts improved, one great cause of sickness disappeared. The city itself was certainly as foul as could be. The streets were unpaved, or paved only with rough cobble stones. There were no side walks. The houses projected over the roadway, and were unprovided with rain-water gutters, and during a shower the rain fell from the roofs into the middle of the street. These streets were filthy from constant contributions of slops and ordure from animals and human beings. There were no underground drains, and the soil of the town was soaked with the filth of centuries. This sodden condition of the soil must have affected the wells to a greater or less extent. The streets were filthy without, the houses were filthy within. The rooms of the poor were more like pig-styes than human habitations, unventilated, and strewn with rushes, which were seldom changed; and the wretched inhabitants closely packed in these miserable hovels must have become very prone to suffer from infection of all kinds. Another great cause of unhealthiness was the diet, which amongst the poor was composed largely of salt meat and fish, and with an absence of fresh vegetables, so that many of the inhabitants must have been on the verge of scurvy. The potato was not imported till the end of the sixteenth century, and the eighteenth was well advanced before it became a common article of diet. Much of the improvement in public health of late years is due to this wholesome and easily stored vegetable. In the days of Elizabeth the children of Christ’s Hospital were often ill from scurvy, and it was not till 1767 that the potato was introduced into the dietary of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.