ABSTRACT
Ernest Hart was an eminent eye surgeon, long-time editor of the British Medical Journal, chair of the National Health Society, and, in the extract that follows, is speaking principally in his capacity as a founder of the Smoke Abatement Institution. Hart served as a Poor Law inspector in the 1860s and became a firm advocate of social reform. As detailed in the extract, Hart worked with Octavia Hill of the Kyrle Society in forming the Smoke Abatement Committee. There are so many sides upon which the question of smoke abatement may be considered, and there is so much to be said both from an historic point of view and from the point of view of present action, that it is impossible that the author should treat all parts of the theme in the short half hour to which these lectures are in mercy to their audiences usually confined.
