Fumifugium

[1][2][3][4] The letter was specifically addressed to King Charles II of England and discussed problems with the capital's air pollution dating back to medieval times.

Not onely for the necessity of common Respiration and functions of the Organs; but likewise for the use of Spirits and Primigene Humors, which doe most neerly approach that Divine particle.

In The Big Smoke: A History of Air Pollution in London Since Medieval Times, Peter Brimblecombe comments that "Fumifugium... is an outstanding work and cannot fail to remind the reader that [Evelyn] was a man with extraordinary powers of perception".

[3] Todd Andrew Borlik, a specialist in Renaissance literature, argues that Fumifugium is "one of the first sustained polemics against air pollution, and not only diagnoses the crisis but also formulates a sophisticated urban planning scheme to combat it".

According to Jenner, Fumifugium is not only "suffused with politicized symbolism" and "closely related to the panegyric literature of the early 1660s", but also part of a growing scientific interest in the study of air, including the work of Robert Boyle and Nathaniel Henshaw.