The world through a lens: a history of the Royal Society of London, and the discovery of the red blood cell

At 3 a.m. on September 3, 1666, Samuel Pepys, Secretary of the British Navy and Royal Society member, was awoken by his maid and told about a disturbance outside. Looking east from his bed room window Pepys saw a red– orange light glowing through the darkness. The great fire of London had begun. Pepys went back to bed. Beginning in the bakery of Thomas Farynor, baker to King Charles II, the fire quickly spread through the building, and then the block, aided by a strong autumn wind. From its source the fire progressed rapidly westward among the densely packed houses and government offices made of mostly wood and tar. In his diary Pepys said of the fire, ‘‘it made me weep to see it. The churches, houses, and all on fire and flaming at once; and a horrid noise the flames made, and the cracking of houses at their ruins.’’ [1] Four days later, as the fire began to die, and firefighters were able to halt its progression into the more sparsely populated suburbs, an accurate assessment of the damage was made. By the end of the fourth day 13,200 houses, 87 churches including St. Paul’s Cathedral, one of the oldest and most venerated structures in England, 44 professional guildhalls, The Custom House, and The Royal Exchange had all been reduced to ash and rubble. Although official records account for only a handful of deaths due to the fire, as many as 70,000 of the cities 80,000 people were displaced because of it. But with tragedy may come opportunity. Following the destruction of London, which had grown without organization during its first 1000 years, Charles II was now able to rebuild the city as he saw fit. Through the Rebuilding Acts of 1667 and 1670, Charles enacted new laws to regulate the reconstruction effort. Through these acts he hoped to improve the city’s organization, ‘‘...to the end that great and outrageous fires may be prevented.’’ [2] The Act of 1667 established exact dimensions for the length and height of new houses, to prevent overcrowding, which had significantly contributed to the speed at which the fire had spread. Secondly, the Acts stated that houses could no longer be built from just wood, but must have brick or stone exteriors. Furthermore, all alleys and main streets were widened; sewers were expanded and placed beneath the streets to improve sanitation and living conditions, and all businesses ‘‘judged noisome or perilous in respect of fire’’ [2] were moved away from residential districts. The 1670 Act dealt mostly with the reconstruction of communal buildings, specifically detailing the location and design of parish churches, governmental buildings and the new St. Paul’s Cathedral. Combined, these acts painted a new vision for the future development of London. The man, ‘‘appointed surveyor-general and principle architect for rebuilding the whole city’’ [3] was the engineer, astronomer, and founding member of the Royal Society, Sir Christopher Wren. Wren, who in 1666 had only recently been appointed The Chief Surveyor of the King’s Works, was asked to transform the charred remains of downtown London into a modern, sanitary, and organized European capital. Charles II also put Wren in charge of clearing all debris, planning and overseeing the construction of several prominent governmental buildings, and the reestablishment of 51 parish churches. Two days after the fire, a sleep deprived Wren submitted an entirely original grid design for the streets of London. A short time K. C. Becker (&) Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, 2400 Pratt St, Durham, NC 27705, USA e-mail: Kristiancdbecker@gmail.com 1 With the city’s reconstruction came a redistribution of its parishes, reducing the number from 87 to 51.