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John Evelyn Attacks Air Pollution

1661
Copy of the title page of the 1976 facsimile of Evelyn's Fumifugium

Copy of the title page of the 1976 facsimile of Evelyn's Fumifugium

In 1661 English gardiner, diarist and environmentalist John Evelyn published Fumifugium: or the Inconveniencie of the Aer and Smoak of London Dissipated, together with some remedies humbly proposed, a pioneering attack on air polution caused by the "hellish and dismall cloud of sea-coal" which perpetually enveloped London at the time. Of course, the problem Evelyn wrote about did not dissipate, and the work continued to be reprinted, with at least four editions published in the 20th century, including one in 1961 by the National Society for Clean Air.

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