1800s Public Health Flashcards
Describe the living conditions in the early 1800s
Now laws on waste disposal, sewers or clean water so disease spread easily in these squalid conditions.
Low quality slum housing.
Houses were built as close together as possible as more people crowded into factory towns to work.
The conditions were so bad that many people’s health may have even become worse than ever before.
During the late 1700s and the first half of the C19th, conditions in British towns became worse than ever.
What was believed to cause illness for most of the 1800s
Miasmas and God
Therefore many people did not try and improve public health and conditions as they did not believe there was a correlation.
This was until the germ theory was discovered and many people started to try and improve it.
What was the laissez-faire attitude?
- Many thought the government shouldn’t interfere in cleaning up towns of the country - called the laissez-faire attitude.
- They believed the government should allow each local area to control its own affairs.
- This meant that local ratepayers made all the decisions. Local ratepayers didn’t want the government to force them to pay for improvements to their towns.
What did Edwin Chadwick do try and improve public health?
Was asked by the government to report living conditions
He concluded that ill health was caused by poor living conditions
He gave his idea to the government to save money by cutting taxes so that they could spend the money on helping the poor, by building sewers and cleaning streets, which would increase life expectancy
What did Edwin Chadwick include in his “Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population” about what industrial towns should do?
- Organise drainage and refuse collection.
- Provide a pure water supply.
- Appoint a Medical Officer of Health.
What happened after Edwin Chadwick’s report?
-For over 30 years an argument went on about the need for town councils or the government to take action. Towns such as Liverpool and Manchester did start to build sewage and water - supply systems.
What were the limitations of Edwin Chadwick’s proposal
Rich taxpayers objected to help pay for facilities that they would not use.
The Government were still not fully interested in helping improve public health and believed it was someones own responsibiltiy, and even the people believed they should not interfere
What was the impact of William Farr
Registed births, deaths and marriages to prove the link between high death rates and living conditions
This put pressure on the government
What factors improved public health in the 1800s
S & T The germ theory provided a link between germs and illness so encouraged cleanliness and increased the standard of public health
IG Farr, Chadwick and Snow put pressure on the government to improve public health
Government, they had the money to improve public health and introduced the Public Health Act
What was the Public Health Act
Local Councils had powers to improve their own water supplies and sewers
The government improved public health so that they could get votes from the public
Councils appointed a medical officer of health
What were the limitations of the Public Health Act
It was not compulsory and just gave suggested improvements to local councils.
After the threat of cholera reduced it became abolished
What did John Snow do?
Proved the link between Cholera and one pump on Board Street
Removed the handle on the pump saving many lives as there were no more deaths and it later came to light that a cesspool near to the pump had a cracked lining which allowed the contents to contaminate the drinking water.
Put pressure on water companies to clean up their water supply and the government to improve public health
What were the limitations to John Snow
Many refused to believe the link because they could not understand why. They still believed in miasmas and spontaneous generation
What was the impact of the first Public Health Act of 1848?
- Although it wasn’t compulsory, the government set up a Board of Health to encourage, but not to force, local authorities to improve conditions.
- Gave local authorities money to make improvements to their areas of they wanted to and had the support of local ratepayers.
- Only a few local authorities took any new measures.
- By 1872 only 50 Medical Officers had been appointed.
- The Board of Health was abandoned in 1854.
What and when was the Great Stink?
- For years human waste went from latrines in London into the River Thames.
- In 1858 the hot weather caused a ‘great stink’. The putrid smell was right under Parliament’s nose.
- Parliament considered moving and had to coat their curtains with a deodorant to get rid of the small.
