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'.