3.2.1 Improving Public Health

Question 1

What were towns asked to do as a part of the public health act?

Answer 1

Set up their own local board of health

Question 2

What were towns given the power to do?

Answer 2

To spend money on improving street cleanliness if they wanted to

Question 3

What was the problem with the 1848 Public Health Act?

Answer 3

Councils were given their own autonomy meaning some cleaned the streets and some didn’t

Question 4

In what year and why was The Central Board of Health shut down?

Answer 4

1854 because it was seen as a violation of the Governments laissez-faire approach

Question 5

What does laissez-faire mean?

Answer 5

• French for let people do as they choose
• It describes a system or point of view that opposes regulation or interference by the government in economic affairs beyond the minimum necessary to allow the free enterprise system to operate according to its own laws

Question 6

In which year was London struck with ‘The Great Stink’?

Answer 6

1858

Question 7

What was the ‘Great Stink’?

Answer 7

The River Thames was so full of sewage and the weather was so hot that London smelt very bad

Question 8

How did the Great Stink prompt the improvement of London’s hygiene and sewage systems?

Answer 8

Parliament, which was located right next to the River Thames, noticed the smell which prompted them to improve London’s hygiene and sewage systems

Question 9

Politicians funded which engineer to build a new sewer system for London?

Answer 9

Joseph Bazalgette

Question 10

Over how many miles of sewer system were built to take sewage out of Central London?

Answer 10

1300 miles which took a year and are still in use today

Question 11

In what year were did more working class men win the vote?

Answer 11

1867

Question 12

What did the shift in the voting population help to do?

Answer 12

Improve living conditions across the UK

Question 13

What was different about the 1875 Public Health Act?

Answer 13

It was mandatory to do certain things whereas the previous on was voluntary

Question 14

What did the Second Public Health Act force local authorities to do? (4)

Answer 14

• Provide clean water
• Provide proper sewage systems
• Collect rubbish on the street
• Appoint a medical officer of health

Question 15

Why was the 1867 Reform Act important?

Answer 15

It gave more working class men a vote which meant that politically to stay in power improving living conditions for this group was more important

Question 16

What is the name of the report and year it was released that could have had an affect in increasing awareness ?

Answer 16

The Chadwick Report of 1842

Question 17

What may have shamed the Government into action?

Answer 17

Statistics collected around deaths and death rates showed showed the differences in living conditions

Question 18

What factors forced the Government to interviene in public health? (4)

Answer 18

• Political Change (1867 Reform Act)
• Chance (The Great Stink 1858)
• Scientific development (Pasteur’s Germ Theory 1860)
• Individuals (Pasteur, Dr. Snow, Edwin Chadwick)