Excerpt from Annual Report of the Metropolitan Board of Health, 1866

The Hebrew laws directed what animals Should be used for food, how they should be slaughtered, and that, if diseased, they should be rejected and included rules for the conduct of the sexes and for the observance of cleanliness in their persons, homes and camps. Formerly these laws were imperfectly understood, but they are now acknowledged to be of supreme wisdom. Divine in their origin, they were impressed upon the minds of the people in the awful words, thus saith the Lord. They were enjoined by threats of punishment and premature death to the disobedient, and by promises of happiness and long life to the faithful.

Greece and Rome built aqueducts, gymnasia, baths and sewers, some of which still remain, and enacted laws relating to food, which were calculated to produce a hardy race of soldiers.

The world fell back into barbarism, and all sanitary measures were neglected. The plague prevailed annually in Europe, and, as is supposed, carried Off fully one third of the inhabitants.

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