This ditty about the deteriorating atmosphere in London appeared in Household Words, 25 May 1850 – the magazine edited by Charles Dickens. It’s not by him, but it does match his fury at the failure of the authorities to clean up the fatal conditions in London. Note that it was written after the closure of the central London graveyards to new burials, but “miasmatic” nastiness had not abated by 1850.

Spring-Time in the Court
“I used to throw my casement wide
To breathe the morning’s breath;
But now I keep the window close,
The air smells so like death!…
Why are we housed like filthy swine?
Swine! They have better care,
For we are pent up with the plague,
Shut out from light and air.”