The Beautiful Cough

''London's inhabitants breathe nothing but an impure and thick mist accompanied with a fuliginous and filthy vapor, so that catharrs, phthisicks, coughs, and consumption are more in this city than the whole earth besides."

Diarist John Evelyn of the 17th century knew not what the 20th would bring. London last week looked as if it had slithered to the bottom of the Thames. Smothered by smog as fetid and impenetrable as river sludge, traffic stopped, airports closed, and more than 100 ships swung helplessly at anchor. For four days and nights, the dark, satanic peasouper dumped grit and grime over 22 counties, cocooned 125,000 miles of icy roads, and caused 20,000 automobile breakdowns. The worst fog that London has known since the "Black Death" that took 4,000 lives in 1952's December, it left 136 known dead (the final toll was expected to be much higher) and more than 1,000 gasping patients in hospital beds.

First warning was the telltale eye-stinging vapor that old Londoners know so well. Out went the Red Alert to 200 hospitals, which went on a disaster standby in readiness for elderly patients, who are most susceptible to smog-induced pneumonia and bronchitis (or the "English disease," as it has long been known on the Continent). Ambulances searching for victims clanged their bells frantically, but could not extricate themselves from the vast rush-hour traffic jams. Not until the third day did London Transport authorities surrender to "very adverse weather conditions"; then, at last, they ordered their 5,000 buses into garages for the duration.

Londoners swathed their faces in "smog masks" of gauze, scarves or handkerchiefs. For a time, in fact, they looked somewhat like bandits fleeing the bobbies. Some were doing precisely that. Smash-and-grab robbers used the occasion to carry off thousands of pounds worth of loot from London's jewelers and banks. Scotland Yard's crack Flying Squad, reduced to a crawl, was virtually powerless to stop them.

It was a heyday for scientists studying England's fogs, a unique compound of sulphur dioxide, chemical wastes, coal smoke, gasoline and diesel fumes. (The sulphur level alone last week reached 14 times the normal concentration.) The Ministry of Aviation had been waiting for just this chance to test its new blind-flying system for bad weather landings, rushed a plane in to touch down successfully at London Airport. For Washington's Dr. Richard Prindle, a U.S. Government air-pollution specialist, it was the opportunity of a decade. Rushing across the Atlantic, he was diverted to Frankfurt, arrived twelve hours late in London to start his tests. Happily he still had plenty of time to take samples. Sniffing the air, Prindle marveled: "There are not many smogs like this one! It sets off a beautiful cough!"

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