different applicant but the aldermen over-ruled again, this time preferring Leigh to the proposed candidate. Kargon believes that Leigh's abilities and reputation as a scientist, in particular, were thought to be superior and carried the day but Harry L. Platt says that the aldermen were intent on minimising the cost of local government and that Leigh's appointment on a part-time basis was preferred because, as an existing employee, it would entail no additional salary. He says that a series of increasingly disastrous floods of the rivers Irk, Irwell and Medlock from the 1840s had resulted in large part from the council's unwillingness to charge the public purse in the cause of environmental improvements and that, after the floods of 1866, their hand was forced in large part because of the increased concern of death from cholera. Fear of epidemic and reaction to emergencies were, according to the historian Anthony Wohl, the cause of rebalancing an official mindset that was general based on "corruption, lethargy, innate conservatism ... and parsimony." Medical Officer for Health Platt describes Leigh as being "compliant" but not uncritical of the city that employed him. Although Manchester was considered to be a leader in efforts relating to smoke abatement, often acting in advance of national legislative measures, Leigh's reports as Medical Officer for Health were unremitting in their criticism of air quality. He drew attention to and demanded vigorous action against smoke and other emissions, which he noted caused not only respiratory disease but also, for example, limited the impact of sunlight and thus exacerbated rickets and depression. Despite a zealous personal desire for eradication and the emergence between 1870-1888 of a range of pressure groups in Manchester that sought abatement of emissions, the official belief throughout the century was that the nuisance was in fact being reduced. Leigh's 1883 report supported this in noting a visible reduction in smoke density resulting from greater regulation and the deployment of more inspectors, although quantitative measurements were rare and the belief of success was thus mostly subjective. Bowler and Brimblecombe say that, despite the history of progressive efforts by the civic authorities on this issue, abatement measures could not keep up with the rapid development of the town, whose industrial expansion had continued apace and whose population had grown from 70,000 to 243,000 between 1801-1841 alone. There was little scientific monitoring of smoke levels. Leigh also supported the promotion