Insanitary City: Henry Littlejohn and the Condition of Edinburgh

Sir Henry Littlejohn was Police Surgeon and Medical Officer of Health for Edinburgh. He researched, wrote and published the seminal Report on the Sanitary Condition of Edinburgh in 1865. Dr. Littlejohn’s report was a landmark in urban management and public health administration. The Lancet described it as ‘monumental’. The Report had significance far beyond the boundaries of Edinburgh and his meticulous research produced penetrating insights into the links between poverty, employment and public health in Victorian cities. Insanitary City reproduces the full Report and sets it in this wider context. For over half a century, Littlejohn’s career as Police Surgeon, Crown witness in murder cases, and medical advisor to the Scottish Poor Law authorities, gave him an unrivalled overview of the problems confronting Victorian society. In 1895 he was knighted ‘for services to sanitary science’.