Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Death, Disease, Sanitation, Public Health, Microscopy, Morality

    Subtitled 'The London Clay', it describes, in purple prose, the 'hot war' raging between London's living and the corpses buried in the metropolis's clay. Discusses the associated health and moral problems of burying London's dead. Notes the 'unconscious particles' given off by graveyards that are 'fighting millions strong in the domestic atmosphere of the breathing man'. Points out that the 'miasma' emitted by corpses may not be perceived 'by the aid of the best microscope', their 'worst evil' being their invisibility.