Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Public Health, Disease, Sanitation, Medical Treatment, Government

    Describes a conversation between the major English towns about their diseases. Leeds, for example, claims that he's 'with an epidemic troubled' and fears his 'hospitals must soon be doubled', while London complains of the neglect of its sewers, cesspools and sinks, and that it has all the ailments of the other towns and cities 'put together'. London despairs of 'physic' and wants 'a very sweeping reformation, / Not only of my streets, but Corporation'. One illustration shows an allegorical figure of death—a black skeleton wielding a scythe—amongst urban waste which includes 'Parr's Pills'.