Fumifugium

Abstract

IN justice to Evelyn it ought, I think, to be made known that Mr. Shaw Lefevre was entirely wrong in stating at the opening ceremony of the Smoke Abatement Exhibition that “Evelyn proposed as a remedy for the smoke of which he complained, that the use of coal should be prohibited in the City and neighbourhood of London.” “Fumifugium” (which was printed in 1661, and not in 1644) is of course extremely rare, and even the editor of the reprint which was issued in 1772, and is now rare, calls the original “this very scarce tract,” so that the way in which the blunder in question has been repeated, is perhaps not to be wondered at.