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The Doctors of the 14th century were as prone to talk "shop" as some of their modern counterparts.
Next Chaucer informs us —
"For he was grounded in astronomye",
Astrology was then an essential element in medical knowledge and the stars were consulted in
diagnosis and treatment. He used mystical modes of treatment such as amulets and charms,.The
doctrine of signatures i.e. giving those plants having some slight resemblance to parts of the
human body or to some prominent sign of disease for the relief of the organs or disease which
they resembled was in use. The treating of images in order to affect the original of the image was
in practice among witches and probably used by the profession —
"He knew the cause of every malady,
Were it of cold or hete or moyst or drye"
here is an allusion to the Hippocratic humoural pathology developed by Galen
In his allusions to gold Chaucer indicates that the priest-physician was fully as fond of his
fees as are any of his successors.
It is axiomatic that a Medical Officer of Health make mention of pollution of the Thames in
relation of medicine and health. This subject could occupy a series of lectures so that I will
merely touch upon some salient points. It would appear that from time immemoriam the Thames
was the recognised depository for all forms of waste and filth. We know that in the year 1297
every inhabitant of the City of London was made responsible for maintaining the cleanliness of
the frontage of his own dwelling and the throwing of refuse and dirt into the lanes and streets
was prohibited with grave penalty as early as 1309. It was then considered that the thing to do
was to deposit it in the Thames or elsewhere outside the Town — so the problem of river pollution
was present from the earliest times. In 1345 special cognizance was taken of this. The water of
Dowgate Dock was so contaminated and unserviceable that carters were employed as scavengers
to cleanse it of dung and dirt and an endeavour was made to keep it cleansed on penalty of imprisonment.
We read that Edward III informed the Mayor & Sheriffs how he observed "dung and other
filth accumulated in divers places in the City upon the bank of the River as well as fumes and
abominable stenches arising and he commented that the corruption therefrom if tolerated constituted
a great peril as well to the person dwelling in the City as to nobles and others passing along
the river. An Order was made which required "for the saving the body of the river and preserving
the quays, for loding and unloding, as also for avoiding the filthiness that is increasing in the
river and upon the banks of the Thames to the great abomination and damage of the people that no
refuse or other filthy rubbish was to be thrown into the Rivers Thames and Flete or into the
ditches around the City Walls — all was to be carted outside the City. Again the King complains
in 1372 to the Mayor, Sheriffs and Aldermen that "rushes, dung, refuse and other filth and harmful
things" are thrown into the Thames obstructing the River that great ships are not able to come up
to the City; The King's writ enjoins amendment and prevention of this intolerable state of affairs
"so behaving yourselves in this behalf that we shall have no reason for severely taking you to
task in respect thereof; and this, as we do trust in you and as you would avoid our heavy indignation
and the punishment which as regards ourselves you may incur, you are in no wise to omit".
Throughout the earlier half of the last century sewage disposal was based upon a statute of Henry
Vlll's time amended under William and Mary. Commissioners of Sewers were constituted with the
duty of providing and maintaining sewers and drains in their districts. But the increased population
since the 16th and 17th century rendered any provisions made totally inadequate. There
were five Commissioners in the mid century and their work was completely inefficient to deal
with the sewerage of their respective districts. It was still a fact that the Thames was always
there and it was an easy way of disposing of sewage which was a practice so often followed that
the sewers discharged directly into the river without any previous treatment whatever. They were
usually discharged at low tide because at high tide the outlets were closed and the sewage
dammed back. With the receding tide the sewage flowed out and was deposited along the banks of
the river rendering them foul and offensive, to be carried up the river again with the incoming tide
and so on ad infinitum, so that the River in the City became indistinguishable from sewage itself.
In addition many sewers and drains were defective and improperly laid and in such disrepair that
they leaked into the subsoil creating what were virtually extended cesspools. There was no survey
in order to interrelate the sewers of each of the five districts, so that between one district and
another adequate inclines were not provided to ensure the gravitation of the sewer from one district
of the whole area to another for lack of a general plan, and sewage will not flow up-hill. They
were thoroughly incompetent bodies. Instead of constructing new systems to deal with the evergrowing
population's needs, mill streams, ditches, streams were converted into and used as open
sewers all ending up in the River Thames the greatest sewer of all. So we can well imagine that
state of the River Sydney Smith described in a letter to Countess Grey dated 19th November
1834, "He who drinks a tumbler of London water has literally in his stomach more animated beings
than there are men, women and children on the face of the globe".
Michael Faraday took an active interest in the state of pollution of the Thames. His career
was closely associated with the River Thames. He was born in London just south of it; he grew
up and worked for more than 50 years in London just north of it. He carried out some of his most
significant experiments at Woolwich a few miles downstrean and he spent his last years at Hampton